Jackie Willson: How are you feeling about your set?

Shaun Frank: I had a wicked time! It’s always fun to play in my home town, especially when it’s a festival this cool. I think everyone involved did a great job for bringing Bestival to Canada for its first time.

JW:  I’ve read that electronic music is something that found you in Bali, during a tour. Looking past that though, when did you first get into music? 

SF: I mean, I’ve been playing music since I was 5. My parents had me on piano at a really young age, and it’s something that’s always been the main focus of my life. I played in bands for a few years and one of my tours took me to Asia, where I experienced my first full moon party…that’s kinda where I fell in love with dance music and decided I wanted to start producing it.

JW:  You joined Dim Mak last year, how has it been working with them?

SF: The Dim Mak team is awesome, and so supportive. Aoki is such a homie, and has had my back every step of the way.

JW: How has working with Keys N Krates been? Do you know the guys well?

SF: I’ve always been a fan, what they do is really cool and different from what you normally see. When I was young, it was cool to see how bands perform like that, and their fans are crazy. I did one show with those guys a few months ago. I’m a big fan…coming from playing in bands, I obviously really respect their take on dance music, and how they perform everything live.

JW:  You have done quite a few remixes, is your focus shifting to mostly original productions or is it a bit of both?

SF: A little bit of both. I am kind of switching to what I really love, I want to do these songs justice. I don’t love remixing songs that I love, definitely my focus is collaborating. I’ve got a song with Cashmere coming up, very exciting.

JW: What do you think of the collaboration with Cashmere, are you a fan?

SF: Definitely my favourite song that I have ever done. That guy is SO talented. We just really connected, I was in L.A. for like five minutes, I went to his house, I got like 20 minutes, and he said come over, and we chatted about music. I came in, we got this idea, I quickly sang it, it’s actually a track by Billy Jayne.

JW: Did you have the idea before you went in?

SF: Yeah, I had the vocal and the chords, and I went in and he had this cool idea for the drop and I did my thing. It was sick.

JW: When is that coming out?

SF: I have no idea, but it shouldn’t be too long. I hope really soon.

JW: Will you eventually move somewhere like L.A. or NYC, closer to the heavy hitters in the industry? 

SF: I want to spend time in L.A. There’s a lot of producers I want to work with. I do love this city though; the music scene here is one of the best music scenes that I’ve experienced.

JW: Why is that? What do you really like about the music scene in Toronto? 

SF: I don’t know, I’ve done L.A. and I’ve been to Miami and Boston. The music here is great. I don’t know if they are so supportive because I am from Canada or the music is just better. I think it is a very educated crowd. You can veer off and play some more obscure stuff and they respect you for it and actually enjoy it more, which I love because it gives you a chance to be more creative. I think a lot of it has to do with the government support as well.

JW: What would you say a highlight of your career as a producer has been so far? 

SF: The highlight of my career was probably watching a video of Oliver Heldens dropping “Shades of Grey” on the stage at Coachella, and being like “Wow, I made that song,” you know, I recorded that vocal in my studio here in Toronto and now I’m hearing it at Coachella. Watching the crowd sing it back even though it’s not even out yet, that was phenomenal, that was huge. The label called and was like “We’re getting this song out,” and now it’s coming out on June 22^nd.

We can’t wait to touch base with Shaun again and hear what is next for him. Stay tuned fans.

photos by Erik Shaw

The post A few moments with Shaun Frank appeared first on Quip Magazine.

UK’s most awarded festival took over a large area near the Hanlan Point beach on the Toronto Island with five stages and a multitude of play and food areas. The island was transformed into a Bollywood-inspired carnival lacking only a Ferris Wheel but I highly doubt anyone missed it. The amount of decor, attention to detail and overall festivities came has out-staged even the Corona’s Sunset party in 2014, that alone has already made the weekend a memorable one.

The musical line up was broken up into stages by genre similarities with the biggest acts  performing on the Main Stage and the rest thematically divided across the park. The big hit with Toronto was undoubtedly the Big Top tent tucked away at the far end of the grounds.

Shaun Frank was one of the early performers in the Big Top. Though it seemed a little early in the day for fast pace EDM Frank found a way to make the slim crowd dance and even do handstands. Dropping his heavy hitter remixes like Zeds Dead and Twin Shadow “Lost You” and recent originals Frank played an energetic set embellished by his strong showmanship, undoubtedly something he brings from his days in The Envy.

By the time Jamie XX hit the stage small rays of sunshine begun to come through the dark clouds. Jamie Smith, London-based music producer and some would argue the better half of The XX played an hour-and-a-half-long DJ set on vinyl. Situated deep into the Bollywood stage Smith opened up with  “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” which seemed like a great way to get people moving. Continually mixing in some 90s classics like Ol’ Dirty Bastard feat. Kelis “Got Your Money” with other tracks from In Colour  Smith kept on expertly flipping records, there may have even been a remanence of a smile on his face halfway through during “Girl.”

On the other side of the park Robert DeLong was lighting up the Main Stage crowd with “Long Way Down” while Big Top was beginning to fill up to the sounds of Grandtheft. A skilled DJ and turntablist Aaron Waisglass is pretty much a regular at Red Bull Thre3Style. With a wealth of celebrity collaborations behind his belt Grandtheft as always delivered a trap heavy EDM set. The tent was starting to become the warmest place on the island.

A selection of local originals were performing in the Perrier Greenhouse. An area opened only to a portion of attendees the Greenhouse hosted local talent and on Friday we had a chance to see a small crew from The Kount (trumpet and a turntable), who opened for Bonobo a couple weeks ago, and a lively performance by Smalltown DJs. For the day Pete Emes was representing the Smalltown duo. Inspired by old school hip hop beats the duo begun their career on the wavelength similar to Grandtheft and have recently evolved into more dancy area of the genre with tracks like “See Thru” which made Emes a great fit for the chill and well lubricated crowd at the Greenhouse.

After a smooth performance by SBTRKT the crowd begun to divide between the Main stage for Clean Bandit in preparation for Florence and The Machine and Big Top tent for Flosstradamus and Flume.

Flosstradamus delivered a high energy interactive show to a full room, to say it was energetic though would be a large understatement. The tent walls were shaking while J2K and Autobot in matching white outfits with white snow masks and what looked like bulletproof vests were hyping up the crowd with remixes and tracks from Soundclash EP jumping on and off the turntables with a mic.

The highlight of the evening was a highly anticipated Flume set. Born Harley Edward Streten, this Australian DJ has taken the world by storm since the release of his debut self-titled album. This wasn’t Streten’s first visit to Canada so many knew what they were in for first hand. Not many people left after Flosstradamus and even more flooded into the tent for Flume’s hour-long set. He seemed tired, but who wouldn’t with the two years he’s been having. Despite the possible exhaustion Streten delivered a strong live set smoothly transitioning between his solo tracks and some of the more famous remixes like Lorde’s “Tennis Court” and Disclosure’s “You & Me.”

No one was going to leave a Flume set early, not after waiting a year for his return. While the main stage half of the park cleared out after an epic Florence and the Machine set the crowd leaving the Big Top was wondering around looking for an exit. An epic conclusion of that night was a two-plus hour wait for the ferry but we’re working on forgetting that part.

photos by Erik Shaw

The post Bestival Friday: raving in the rain appeared first on Quip Magazine.