DEADBEAT: THE NEW DUB-TECH MASTER

I discovered electronic music via Industrial when I was around 15 or 16 and from that point got much more serious about music generally, started going to raves every weekend and learning to DJ. Things just got a lot more intense and really inspiring at that point - as did the drugs I guess.

From a musical perspective I've always been inspired by those people who used music as a pathway out of extreme hardship. Think Johnny Cash or Woody Guthrie - and of course there are countless stories of that nature within the history of Reggae. The history of Jamaican music is filled with heroes.

Your new album "Roots & Wire" has just been released. In what way does it differs from your previous albums?

From my perspective the biggest difference is that there was no grand concept dictating the direction of things from the outset. I went through a really difficult period over the course of it's creation and it came about more from a desire to just write myself out of the hole that I was in emotionally. I think when you move to a new city there is this sense after 3 or 4 months that you should have everything totally locked down and sorted out. It never works that way and in my experience that frustration can drag you into a pretty depressing place. In the end the move to Berlin was the best thing I could have done though, it really gave me a renewed sense of creative purpose and I think that comes through in the album as a whole.

Since your debut album in 2001 you've released an album every year! Okay, except for 2006. Is it that easy?

Totally not - it's just happened to be the way I've ended up working over the last few years. There are lot's of people who will release six 12 inches in a year which is the same amount, if not more music than you have on an album. 12 inches just didn't have the same appeal to me or didn't make as much sense at some point as the local market kind of dwindled for them in Montreal as did the places you could go to see people play your stuff out.

What's next? Performing with a live band on stage or creating new music with some fellow collaborators?

I will definitely be working with
Paul St. Hilaire again over the next period. I really enjoy working with other musicians in general. We played our first show together at Watergate during Popkomm and it was great fun for both of us and the feedback was very positive. A live show with musicians would be a huge undertaking. Maybe someday, but the idea scares me a little at this point though as I've seen so many bad examples of this in recent years.

Word is you're an certified music technology junkie. Sounds cool. Tell everything about it :)

I definitely like to keep on top of things on the software front and some areas of the hardware market as well. I've worked for Applied Acoustics Systems (makers of softsynths) for

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