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I chose this song “Jubilee” to share with you guys, anyone hearing future Jimi Jaxon DJ sets will probably be hearing some Bowly. 2nd artist from Montreal represent! Andddd if you’re in Toronto tonight, looks like Bowly’s got a sick show lined up!
INTERVIEW
DD: Hi Bowly. I’ve got a few posts coming up on Montreal based artists, how do you like it up there?
B: Things are looking up at the moment. There are a bunch of nights bringing together amazing and inspiring artists from outside with local talents. My inbox is full of new dubs coming from this city every week. Even more importantly a scene is kind of coming together with people talking to each other and allying instead of doing their thing in their corner. The general quality of events and music has been on a signifant rise in the last while, in my opinion. You’ve got, of course, people like Jacques Greene, then lesser known but extremely interesting producers like, Hissy Fit, HGLDT, Grown Folk, Skinny Bones, The Shah, Markus G (one half of the LOL Boys), Prince Club, Rilly Guilty, simoncalledpeter, Leboeuf & Laviolette, Recife, Jonathan Levingston… etc. And a slew of crews pushing a sound I really dig.
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More generally life is very nice in here. It’s a very relaxed city, very peaceful yet lively and effervescent. The winter can be kind of tough on the system but it’s also the right moment to concentrate and be productive in the studio.
DD: How do you feel your sound has progressed since you first started?
B: It’s hard to tell from my position. Also, I’m not sure what progression really means, or how relelvant it is in this area. Of course I’m better at mixing down, EQing, modeling sounds, I’m learning (after all I only started doing EDM a couple of years ago). What has changed on a more profound level though is the process of writting. I feel that I’m more in control of how I want things to sound nowadays whereas, in the beginning, it was more stumbling on something and carrying on with it. A lot of what I do is still done this way but I feel I’m better at guiding it in the direction I want. I also feel that I’m freeier as far as tempos and general aesthtic is concerned. I’m exploring more. This probably has to do with the general atmosphere of alchemy that seems to be prevailing these days and also to my being more varied in the music I mix as a DJ.
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DD: Better at guiding sound..cool! The tribal rhythms and instrumentation are strong in your productions, have you traveled to places wheres these sounds originated? With the internet, it’s not really necessary, everyone can pick up on it.
B: These sounds were a focus of mine when I started and it became part of my language, so even when I do something different these elements are always somewhat present under one form or the other. I’ve never been to any tropical areas per se, no. I would love to but I never really had the occasion. I would love to go to Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad, Puerto Rico, etc. These influences came basically from my love of Dancehall and from my stay in Chile at the peak of Reggaeton popularity. That had a huge influence on me. The cumbia and other andinian music I heard over there made a big impression on me as well. So it’s a mix of all this I guess and a lot more, my love of African music, Arabic, Indian,… I’m omnivorous really so anything can get stuck in my head and appear somewhere at some point. Like you said, the internet made it a lot easier to get immersed in sounds not usually very present in our culture, and it was indeed an important source to discover these musical traditions/scenes, as well as libraries and record shops.
DD: Do you release your music through labels? What labels have stuck out to you recently?
B: So far I’ve had one 12″ on Berkane Sol released in Agugust last year. I have a remix of one of Poland’s own Intreau’s tune forthcoming on Wickedbass from Ukraine. I’m currently talking with a few labels for possible releases but I don’t want to speak about it before anything is actually confirmed. As far as general label which stuck out to me recently, there so many of them really. I’ve been enjoying the two first releases on Ikonika’s & Optimum’s Hum+Buzz, 502 recordings, Swamp81, Naked Lunch have been releasing some real good tunes so far, Rush Hour, Clone, Delsin (even though it’s not recent) have been keeping on delivering amazing house/techno and everything in between. I’m kind of obssessed with Slow To Speak these days, especially their Core series for forgotten house and techno treasure cuts. I’m back into my Underground Quality 12″‘s as well as their new stuffs. FXHE is on a mission at the moment with Omar S releasing countless amazing tracks. As far as up and coming: Swing & Skip from Montreal has had a great debut 12″ with Hissy Fit release on that Future Garage tip. And I don’t need to spend time telling you how great Night Slugs, Hessle Audio, Lucky Me has been in the last year. I could go like this for hours…
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DD: Awesome, any final words? I’ll be intensely reppin’ your music over here in Seattle!
B: Thanks for the interview. Good luck with the blog!!!!
-jimijaxon
dd 