Monthly newspaper and online publication targeting 18 to 35 year olds. The ultimate guide to the hottest parties, going out and having fun. Music, fashion, film, travel, festivals, technology, comedy, and parties! London, Barcelona, Miami and Ibiza.
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Issue 39 / 2012 HOUSE / TECHNO 33 www.guestlist.net 7 Ahead of their gig this summer at Park Life Weekender Festival in Manchester on 3rd & 4th June, Jonny White, one half of the Canadian duo tells all about their productions and worldwide Social Experiment parties. ART DEPARTMENT Tell us a little about yourselves, and the type of music that you play for people who may not of heard of you before reading this? My name is Jonny White… and i'm an alcoholic. Kenny and I are both from Toronto, Canada. I'm currently living between Toronto and Barcelona, Kenny between Toronto and London. we've both been DJs for quite a long time, Kenny for 20 plus years and i'm approaching 15 behind the decks. I started writing music about 6 years ago, Kenny's been writing for over 10, but was "on vaca- tion" until i asked him to write an album for No.19 music about 4 years ago. As a younger DJ com- ing up in Toronto i can tell you from an outside perspective that Kenny was the most respected underground DJ in Toronto for ages and was actually quite suc- cessful internationally on his own about a decade ago when he was working with Tiga's Turbo label. Although i've been playing music for 15 years, I only just made mu- sic my soul focus within the last 7 years. How did you meet Damian Laza- rus & the Crosstown crew? How instrumental was that connec- tion to the success of the Art Department project? We actually met when I picked him up at the airport some 6 years ago to play a Canada Day event for my crew back in To- ronto. We were doing a really small weekly Thursday night at a venue on College St and picked up the booking after the club he was meant to play had their sound repo'd. Imagine it hadn't gone down that way and we didn't cross paths...Forward to 4 years later, with countless shows, festivals and after-parties to- gether, we're now good friends What's the ethos behind No.19? Do you have a certain type of record that you look for to fit the label? Who are some excit- ing new guys to look out for that might have material coming out soon? I think that I do have a particular vibe I look for and maybe cer- tain types of productions or at- tributes in an artist's' production that I almost subconsciously look for which is what does give the la- ways looked at a label like WARP as a model for what a label should be. I want to look back at my cat- alogue in 20 years and be proud of everything we put out without putting too much emphasis on genres. I've got several projects/albums coming out on No.19 now that i'm so excited to share with people. In addition to the albums, we're of course still releasing dance singles too… Lee Foss, Art De- partment, Teeloo and Ali Love all have releases on the way, along off the year with one at BPM in Playa del Carmen on the beach with about 2,500 people and it's been full steam ahead with these shows ever since. There's the Winter Music Conference in Miami, Chicago, Toronto, NY, San Fran, Manchester, Italy, Swit- zerland and I'm looking forward to our show during Sonar in my hometown with Konrad Black, Deniz Kurtel, Nitin, Russ Yallop, Miguel Puente and the rest of the No.19 family. That's one of our main focuses this year. You can but there is no substitute for having the heart of your label; the artists get together and play for people. You can come up with all kinds of creative and interesting ways to present your product and relay the ideas and the vibe behind the label and Damian's asked us to partner up and do a remix job for Cross- town which more or less lead to Kenny and I writing together for the first time. The success of this project is undoubtedly in part due to launching it on Crosstown. I don't doubt that we could have done similar damage debuting on No.19 but the stars were really aligned for Crosstown that year with Deniz' and Maceo's debut albums all coming out around the same time as ours. bel an overall feel. I could maybe describe it as raw, more organic and fresh. But it's become much more about putting out great music and pushing the talent we sign than about trying to stay in line with an idea or a sound for the label. The idea has really al- ways been to put out great mu- sic, whether it be house, techno, hip hop, alternative.. whatever. I like to think that we're running a real top tier electronic Indie label, rather than a house label. I've al- side from James What & Luca C, Life and Death and a few lead singles off forthcoming artist albums. some vinyl-only releases How have the worldwide Social Experiment parties been re- ceived? The events have been amazing! I've been blown away by all of them. They're all sold out shows and the events are really attract- ing the right people. We started come up with all kinds of creative and interesting ways to present your product and relay the ideas and the vibe behind the label but there is no substitute for hav- ing the heart of your label - the artists - get together and play for people. Nothing can portray what we're all about and the en- ergy and passion that's driving the label the way a live event can. If you could choose any current living musician(s) to work with, who would it be? I think David Byrn would be my #1. Not to say that his music is my favorite or that Talking Heads is my favorite band ever but his ideas, his music and, from what I gather from interviews, his at- titude about making music re- ally fascinates me and I think it would be a really inspiring experi- ence. Thats just off the top of my head though, there are so many brilliant talents out there who I would be honored to work with. I recently met one of my favorite female vocalists, Martina Topley- Bird so i'm beyond excited about the prospect of working with her! What labels are you most ex- cited for this year? This may sound a bit shitty but….. mine! I mean c'mon, if i knew what every other label had in store for us this year I could be excited about them too. But i'm sitting on some of the best music i've heard from some of the most talented people I know. If that doesn't get me off, I'm in the wrong business.. For more information check out www. crosstownrebels.com/artist/art-de partment For tickets to Parklife Weekender go to www.parklife.uk.com