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Stopgap measuresDJ, producer and Wax Poetics magazine
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by ERIN MACLEOD This Saturday night, the Goods party gets a visit from New York's Monk One, a DJ with a difference and a deep record bag. The fellow co-founded the revered Wax Poetics magazine and is committed to both playing and making hot tunes. Dancing, digging and drawing connections were the topics when the Mirror spoke to Monk One. Mirror: So what can Montreal expect? Monk One: I'm really looking forward to playing in a place where I can really stretch outgood energetic jazz, futuristic sounds from tropical climates, some of my own never-heard-before creations. Wear something comfortable! M: Your knowledge of music allows you to dig deep. In the interest of the new, are people not reaching back now? MO: Whether they know it or not, they are. Someone might say, I just heard of Kanye and that's where my musical roots are. Whats so great about music is that Kanye is based on what he heard, which was then based on what that person heard and so on. M: Is Wax Poetics a way of connecting those dots, giving people a sense of where it all comes from? MO: That's the concept we had when we started the magazine. We were hip hop heads, yet we felt that hip hop journalism was at a more teenage-fanzine level. We also loved jazz, but the jazz magazines were too stuffy. They didnt seem to have any awareness of hip hop. We thought we could bridge the gap. There are also a lot of people who didn't have the experiences that I had during what one might call the golden era of hip hop. It's a way to preserve this for those who werent there. M: Wax Poetics is like reading a DJ set that brings together what some might see as disparate music, but it all works together. MO: The thing that makes a really wonderful night is when its a community effort. I don't think of it as me running through my set, and you either get it or you dont. It needs to be us, together. With the magazine, the unexpected but great side benefit is that it does help foster that kind of community. WITH SCOTT C AND ANDY WILLIAMS |
