by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Patti Schmidt hosts CBC Radio's Brave New Waves and used to run the cool Montreal indie label Derivative. Jeff Waye heads Ninja Tune North America and used to run his own Discreet/

Indiscreet imprint. Neither has the time or energy to start up a new lil' label on the side. So of course they did.

In May, Ta-Da Records is dropping Enabler from tragicomic Casio kook the World Provider, but first comes the self-titled debut by Schmidt's own Nanobot Auxiliary Ballet. Bassist/singer Schmidt, aka the WhiteHotFunkBot, is joined by the PushButtonMaster (Kevin Komoda, once of Rational Youth and, with Schmidt, Pest 5000) and the ChillbotSlider (Lew Braden, DJ, sole Dorkestra member and head of the Cocosolidciti label) for some first-rate electro-pop fun.

The Mirror got Waye and Schmidt on the blower for the how, the why and the "what the fuck?!"

Mirror: I've got the secret origin story pretty much locked down here, except for this bit about the middle of the Nevada desert.

Jeff Waye: Patti and I were running around at Burning Man in wrestling outfits, discussing business. We were getting our weirdo on out in the desert. It was started at the summer cottage and cemented in the, uh - what was the temperature there, Patti?

Patti Schmidt: Five-zero Celsius. Have you ever felt that? And you're skin stays on, is all I can say.

JW: The proper heat to cement a really retarded idea - like, let's put some more things in our lives to do!

PS: It was a whole bunch of grown-ups doing similar things. We could start a label - look, they built a pirate ship!

M: I'm guessing from the name and the first two signings that the label's theme is surprises.

PS: That's nice, that you see it that way. We kind of do to, and it's a bit goofy and gleeful.

JW: Right down to the packaging - there's that mystery of the dry-looking recycled sleeve, and then you pull it out and -

PS: Ta-da!

JW: Feel the excitement!

Robots and retards

M: Did you set yourselves a rule where every release has to be substantially different from every other release?

JW: That would assume we have a plan! No, it seemed very natural to start with Patti's Nanobot record. Then the next thing on the agenda was, we both thought, fuck, the World Provider's so awesome.

PS: He's a great songwriter, and people miss it because he looks like he's just retarded.

M: The Nanobot CD is fucking brilliant. I'd call it robot rock, except that my favourite track "P" is more like, uh, ro-baroque. Or robo-coco.

PS: Yeah, Rupert, you just have a good time with that. We like the "bot." We like the suffix better than the prefix.

M: I noticed that. I figured out who the three bots are, but who's Dr. Idiotbot?

PS: Whoever of us is the least competent, which rotates regularly.

M: I wanted to bring up the cover art. I know how an Etch-a-Sketch works, and this is sick! Tell me about this Jennifer Thorogood.

PS: She can do Etch-a-Sketch portraits of people that are almost, like, lithographs. They take her hours to do.

JW: Like, incredible 3D renderings of like, vultures tearing apart a cat or some shit. She has to transport them very carefully -

M: I'd imagine. Shooka, shooka, shooka…

Label launch with the Nanobot Auxiliary Ballet and the World Provider at O Patro Vys on Sunday, April 4, 9pm, $5

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