Hollywood heroes

>> Everyone talks to Montreal mashup kings Team Canada like they’re the shit

SIGNAL TO NOISE: Team Canada. Photo by Jazmin Million

by SCOTT C

Montreal’s heroic DJ duo Team Canada have been on their tour hustle recently, saving various North American cities from nightclub boredom with mixed mashup mayhem and the ultimate four-turntable party. Back in January, Grandtheft was hit by a truck and thrown into a snowbank after a New Year’s gig in Whistler, leaving him with an injured leg. This week, a fully recovered Grandtheft totaled his car when he and D.R. One lost control in a snowy highway situation that fortunately left both of them unharmed. The Mirror spoke to Team Canada, who launch their new mix, Classic Material Vol. II, this weekend, about the lighter side of things.

Mirror: Are you guys on a mission from God or what?

Grandtheft: If you’ve seen the cover of our last CD, then you know that’s the truth.

D.R. One: I don’t want to say that we’re on a mission from God as much as we’re on a mission from the entity above that controls our daily lives. Neither of us are quite religious. Basically, we both get piss drunk and let God guide our hands (laughs). It’s more like the force.

M: I heard you guys were hobnobbing in Hollywood. Are you guys walking red carpets or what?

DR: Hollywood is super cool and really nice, but it’s like the Plateau times a million (laughs)!

G: Hollywood is chill (laughs), but I don’t know about red carpets. We’re definitely getting a lot of good bookings these days. Some of the dudes down there are really helping us out. What was really cool out there was playing from party to party. We played an all-black party in Oakland, we played an all-mashup party in San Francisco, and then we played LAX.

M: It’s great that you can bump around and get-in-where-you-fit-in type of thing.

G: Well, we love doing it all. All types of different parties, all types of music. We have all kinds of different routines, so we just adjust things to suit the situation and rock the party no matter what.

M: Do you guys have a Team Canada playbook?

DR: When we’re on four decks, there’s hand signals that we use.

M: Nice!

DR: We know each other’s catalogue well enough that we tell each other which direction to go—

G: —but the thing is, it’s all improvised. A lot of DJs that do what we do get criticized for doing the same thing every night, and we don’t do that. Those three parties I mentioned in California were three nights where different songs were played at each party on each night. It’s all about the hand signals when the party gets moving, though.

M: Have you guys had any WTF moments in your travels this year?

G: Every day of this tour has been a WTF moment. Things have been progressing over the last few years, but in the last few months, things have really blown up. We’re booked for the next few months across North America, so looking at the calendar is like, what the fuck!?

DR: We went to this MySpace.com/BPM Magazine party, and every time we’d go out for a cigarette, we’d meet somebody new—editors in chief, A&Rs—and everyone talks to you like you’re the shit, but at a certain point, you realize that everyone there does that.