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>> >> Delage gets a little vertical mobility with local label Ascend

by KRISTA

A former employee of Steve's Music Store, Francis Delage serviced most every techno/house/drum & bass producer in the city because of his knowledge of keyboards and sequencers. He bailed about two years ago to devote more time to his own music, and makes his live solo debut this Friday at Sona for the release of his "Tunnel" EP, the first 12" from new Montreal super-label Ascend Records.

Mirror: You're signed to one of the best labels in the city. So how did you first hook up with [Ascend label head] Nivoc?

Delage: Well, I've been a longtime friend of Max and Felix [of Nuclear Ramje], so Nivoc has been hearing my stuff for a long time. When he decided to start the label, he told me that he liked my sound and wanted to sign me. For a small label, Ascend is so well-structured and professional. Everything they said they would do up until now, they have. They got the best of everything: the Exchange for mastering, Prime for production and distribution in the U.K. My record is the first release for the label, it's not even out yet and it's already sold 1,000 copies. It's amazing.

M: The Prime deal is really good for you guys. It's like automatic worldwide recognition--unheard of in Montreal.

D: We're really lucky, it's true. With Ascend we're going global. And every artist on the label has an individual sound, so we're not competing within the label.

M: This weekend is kind of like the world debut for you.

D: Yeah. I'm getting pretty nervous about it too. It's my first solo live show and I don't think that I realized until last week how much work I was going to have to do.

M: What's it going to be like?

D: It's an hour long and I'm doing 14 tracks and four songs. Like a DJ set, but live. I'm not bringing a computer, so I have to transfer everything to a sequencer and assign every track to a number, transfer all the sounds and re-sample them. I've already done 16 hours of programming and I'm not done yet. It will be wild, though. Techno, but not too hard. A little bit of funk--like disco-tech.

M: Hey, I think you've just coined another sub-genre. Congratulations! You're a true pioneer.

D: Yeah, you like that? I think it's a good one.

M: You make music for a TV show, too. How's that going?

D: It's called Big Wolf on Campus and it's on the Fox Family channel. It's just a kid's show, but I get to make every kind of track, trance, techno, big-beat, house, rock... I'm learning so much from it.

M: You'll be able to do anything after this.

D: I used to be a really bad musician, now I'm just a musician. One day I hope to be a big producer like Daniel Lanois or something.

M: Can I write that, "Delage says when he grows up he wants to be just like Daniel Lanois?"

D: I don't mean I want to be him, but what he did with like U2 and those bands, that's pretty impressive. I would like to be that good. :

At Buffalo Dream with Appleseed, Tiga, Swayzak and more, at Sona on Friday, June 16, 11pm, $20