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Decks, to the last drop
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Where most DJs stop, Toronto’s iNSiDEaMiND are just getting started. The duo of Professor Fingers (Erik Laar) and DJ Steptone (Cheldon Patterson) coax countless tones, textures and trippy tricks out of not just their vinyl resources but their turntables themselves. Their debut album on Public Transit Recordings, Scatterpopia—which boasts guests like Ghislain Poirier and Laura Barrett—ably showcases the sonic vistas the pair concoct. Mirror: The title of your album sounds like the name of a mythical kingdom, or possibly a strange yet benign neurological condition. Which would you say is closer to the truth? DJ Steptone: We’ll go with A, the mythical kingdom. Actually, Scatterpopia is very real and exists in all our minds. It’s a beautiful place filled with twists, turns and fantastic creatures. The album is based on themes and stories that help describe our time in the land where turntables grow like plant life. M: You’ve been quoted as saying you’re “focused on exploring the turntable in its entirety”—the every-part-of-the-animal principle, I’d guess. DJS: What it boils down to is literally embracing every sound that the turntable makes. I think it starts off with pops, hisses and that crackle when a needle runs against the sticker at the end of a side. The vinyl sounds alive, the grooves have character, they develop a personality and we want to evoke that part of the instrument. It’s like wrinkles on someone’s face—they’re quite beautiful and at the very least tell an incredible story about their life as a human being. Professor Fingers: We also like dropping the needle on the record from different heights, capturing those sounds, using them as rhythmic elements of our song. The possibilities are endless once you realize that instruments of sound lie all around us. Sampling kicks and snares from old rock records is one thing, but we also like inventing our own kicks by tapping a record or running the needle against the side of the platter, sticking closer to the roots of the instrument. Scratching is where it all began, though—we still practise that part of our craft quite seriously. CD LAUNCH WITH MOONSTARR AND |
