PLAID MAKES A PASS AT A TORONTO-BASED DJ-TURNED-PRODUCER
Story by Grace Carroll
Photo by Ysa Perez
This month I’m crushing on Toronto native, St. Mandrew, whom you can often find DJing along-side best friend and cousin, JFK of MSTRKRFT. Over the past year and a half the two have co-produced and released three tracks, one remix and an edit together. Now, St. Mandrew has upped his crush factor and is set to release his first solo track “Shockwave” through Teenage Riot Records this September. Swoon!
Who were your favourite artists to listen to while growing up?
I loved the early 90s stuff; Wu-Tang, Black Moon, Smif-N-Wessun, Gangstarr, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, KRS-One, Mobb Deep, etc. When I was really young, our house was full of records because my mom was a publicist at RCA. We had a lot of Soul and R&B, Funk, Jazz and Rock records, but the one record I would listen to almost every day was the Rocky IV soundtrack. Please keep in mind that I was, like, five and I also thought it was the greatest movie ever. I used to come home from kindergarten and put on the biggest studio headphones [bigger than my head] and listen to the record from start to finish.
What made you fall in love with the House and Techno scene of the 90s?
When Puff Daddy and Mase were making Hip Hop that sounded and looked [through their videos] super expensive and flashy, it kind of broke my heart. Rap was always low-budget music, not made for the masses. All of a sudden, people who hated Rap before were getting into it and I felt kind of betrayed by the music that I thought was made for a select few. This was, I believe, in 1996 and I was 16. My older brother had been going to raves and clubs for some time and he would always come home with live tape recordings of the parties he went to. He brought home some Jungle tapes that I thought were alright, but some of those House and Techno tapes blew my mind. The music had an amazing and fun, yet aggressive energy that I hadn’t heard before. It wasn’t like the classic House that my older sister had played for me when I was younger – it had balls. It wasn’t too much longer until I was going to raves to hear people like Erick Morillo, DJ Sneak and Green Velvet. Raves were all ages so I could get in. I think in ‘97 I started using my brother’s old driver’s license to go to proper clubs. Going to those parties with thousands of people with the music playing on sound systems that were louder and bigger than anything I had ever heard in my life was the tipping point for me.
Describe your journey as a DJ, from twenty-year old club DJ to present day…
At my first gigs I would play Rap in bars. I didn’t have a CD burner, nor did I have a CD wallet so I was showing up to bars with my CD collection with me. A few years later when I was working in a club as a bar-back, I would show up before anyone else to stock [and set up] the bars [and] as soon as I was done, I would start DJing for the bartenders and club staff […] it was the only way I could practice [and] I never got embarrassed. In 2002 I moved out to South Korea. At first I lived in a small town of two million people called Daejeon. I got a good friend of mine a job out there who had DJ’d and did a radio show back home. He ended up becoming the one who would guide me through all the intricacies of DJing, he taught me a lot and I owe a lot to that guy. The party scene in our new found home was terrible, like, really, really bad. Like, Tom Jones getting played in a club and kids in their twenties were going crazy. Kind of hilarious, but not so much when you’re stuck in that reality. We started throwing rap parties in decent sized clubs, and in all humility, we changed that city. More and more parties started getting thrown and the city had a scene that was growing and getting recognized around the country.
The next year my friend and I moved to Seoul where we played in clubs regularly and at an annual festival. By this time I wasn’t playing Rap anymore, I would play New Wave, Disco, House and some Techno. Bigger clubs with more open-minded people allowed me to play stuff I couldn’t before. Over the next few years I bounced around between Korea, Japan and Toronto, becoming better and more comfortable [as a DJ] just as anyone would at anything they stick to. I made Toronto my permanent residence again in 2007 and decided that rather than [DJing] on the side, I was going to make it my main point of focus. Its different when you’re traveling, [I was] doing all kinds of jobs abroad but to come home to familiar faces and family, and decide that you’re going to take it seriously is something else. I played around at a lot of Toronto clubs but it kind of plateaued without any production. That’s what people want to see: producers. You could be the best DJ in the world, but if you haven’t made anything, no one is going to care. Yeah there are exceptions to this rule, but they are few and far between.
I had done music production before and i had made a few songs, but I felt it was time for me to take it a little more seriously and step it up. One of my best friends happens to be my cousin, who also happens to be JFK from MSTRKRFT. So instead of just drinking and listening to music at his place before going out, we decided to be a little more productive and work on some tracks together. [The first time] we did this [was] about a year and a half ago and since then we’ve ended up doing three original tracks, one remix for Hatiras and a Joachim Garraud edit. Since the digital releases of these songs, gigging for me as a DJ has evolved into something totally different than before. Playing in places you’ve never been to before and would probably never go to otherwise is a great feeling. It’s not only the actual DJing aspect of it, but I love traveling and meeting people. Making music, on top of being a lot of fun, in the end is totally necessary in the dance music world because it’s the only way of getting anyone’s attention in far away places. I’ve started doing stuff on my own again, now that some heads have been turned I couldn’t be happier.
What can party-goers expect when they catch a St. Mandrew set?
My sets can be pretty hard and dark, yet fun but sad with a hope for a brighter tomorrow…(laughs) man, that sounds ridiculous. I will still play a House song from the 90s, but then mix in a minimal song, then a huge maximal face melter. I admit I bounce around genre-wise, but my sets make a lot of sense to me.
What are your favourite tracks of the moment?
Shockwave – St Mandrew
Pruno – Harvard Bass
The Bad Atom – Bird Peterson
One (Congorock remix) – Swedish House Mafia
Beyond the Summit – AL-P
How did you master the art of DJing?
I don’t think I have (mastered it). I mean, I’m pretty good, I’m happy with how I play, but there is always room for improvement. A friend of mine once said, “as soon as you’re satisfied, the world starts gaining on you”…not a bad quote.
What are your thoughts on the new generation of iPod DJs?
It just depends on the party. Some parties are supposed to have drunk seventeen-year-old girls playing around with iPods. It probably wouldn’t be a very good party in my books, but it’s fine. There is a time and place for everything. I can’t imagine anyone getting too happy about me holding down a four minute techno mix at a wedding, unless the attendees were awesome. I use CDs, that’s it, simply because I’m comfortable with them. That, and I don’t want the responsibility of bringing a computer with me to every gig. It really comes down to how you’re doing it. Some people get mad at DJs that use software like Traktor because it can automatically lock the beats, but look at Dubfire, that guy is a monster. Yeah its locked automatically, but he’s being really creative with it — playing three clips of three different songs and blending in others until you don’t even know what you’re hearing [but] it just sounds amazing.
Tell me about your first solo track “Shockwave” to be released through Teenage Riot Records…
“Shockwave” was born from sampling an old toy laser gun from the 80s on different settings. That, and proper studio gear, but either way, it was a lot of fun to make. It sounds a lot different than the tracks JFK and I have done together, which is good. Its pretty bouncy and clean sounding, I can’t wait for it to come out. It doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it will be coming out on Teenage Riot Records fairly soon along with two remixes from some pretty talented acts, so stay tuned!
What can we expect from St. Mandrew in the near future?
You can expect more touring, more productions, more toys from the 80s… maybe more dreams fulfilled, and more goals accomplished.
If we were to go on a date, where would you take me?
There’s this restaurant in Toronto called Korea House and although I have never been there, I’ve heard amazing things from an extremely reliable source. If it were closed, then I’d say Tahiti.
Who is your number one crush of the moment?
There was a girl here not too long ago, she was visiting only for a short while. Although during her stay she was really busy with family, I managed to coincidentally bump into her one night while we were both out. We spent some time together that evening before we had to part ways and she left this continent altogether to pursue her dreams overseas. Maybe it was meant to be, maybe it wasn’t. Who knows? I guess that’s why us guys call them “birds,” ‘cause either way, sometimes you just gotta let them fly. It’s her or this girl that works at this burrito shop downtown. Slammin’, to say the least.
