An Interview with Ghislain Poirier

My latest mini-documentary…….with Ghislain Poirier.  The initial interveiw was made at his friend’s amazing rooftop apartment in DUMBO, Brooklyn and then we headed over to the Sub Swara party at Love in the city.  New York City, in case you weren’t sure….There’s also some footage from the Club Transmediale festival in Berlin, as well as some excerpts from his music video clips.

I’ve been a big fan of Ghis’ full, round and sturdy minimal beats for a long time.  He’s curious and open to new sounds.  He does tropical tracks.  In Montreal.  He’s a really sweet, friendly and open guy, which, I think, is a big reason why he’s made all of these great tracks and collaborations.  He makes the effort to get out and connect with folks from all over the place.  It shows in the music.

In the process of editing, I started gathering all of his laughs and putting them at the end of the sequence, not really knowing what I’d do with them.  ghislain breakcore laugh track?  Sorry, they didn’t make it into the final cut, but just so you know, there were a LOT of them!

With this series of mini-docs, I want to demystify the music production process a bit and bring out the humanity of it.  After all, music is a manifestation of history.  of choices and relationships.  This is common to any art, discipline, individual, group or society.  Through communication, real and imaginary differences and similarities become clearer.  Separatist ghetto exoticism cannot exist in this space.  Tamu juntos e misturados.

You can check the rest of the mini-docs (DJ/rupture, Daniel Haaksman, MC Gringo, Diplo, Eritbu Agegnehu Askenaw, Xuman and Keyti, Fletcher) here on Vimeo (better quality) and here on Youtube.

An Interview with DJ /Rupture

“Last of the famous international sound boys,” Jace Clayton, aka DJ /Rupture, when not singing his own praises (which is quite the exception as opposed to the rule, dontchya know), is a super humble, soft spoken, pleasant and likable chap who does a weekly radio show on WFMU in NYC, heads up Soot Records and co-heads up Dutty Artz, mixes obscure and disparate sonic sources on a three-turntable get up, writes for several different publications including The Fader, Frieze and The National as well as maintaining his very popular blog, Mudd Up!.  A very busy man indeed.

I accompanied him on his trek from Sunset Park, Brooklyn to WFMU just on the other side of the Hudson in NJ.  He had plenty to say about his new album, “Uproot,” on Agriculture Records, life in NYC (where he’s just relocated from Barcelona), shopping for cumbia records, being late…..

Interview with Diplo


My latest mini-documentary endeavour. This time with Diplo. Filmed on a still digital camera at Leandro HBL’s house in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro. Leandro and Wes were screening the almost finished cut of “Favela on Blast” (yes, it DOES exist….I saw a big chunk of it and it’s very cool) for Sany Pitbull and Adriana Pittigliani.

Good Copy Bad Copy


Just found out (thanks to Camilo Rocha for the tip! – check the Techno Brega) about “Good Copy Bad Copy,” a documentary by Danish directors Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen, and Henrik Moltke, dealing with issues of copyright, piracy and sampling culture. Filmed in the USA, Nigeria, Brazil, Sweden and Russia, it has interviews with Lawrence Lessig, GirlTalk, DJ Dangermouse, and others. It’s light but serious, fun and important. It’s a free download and well worth watching.

Interview with Xuman and Keyti

My mini-documentary based on interviews with Xuman, from Pee Froiss, and Keyti from Dakar All Stars and R.A.P.A.D.I.O. It covers hip hop and language in Senegal, sampling, cultural exchange and beyond…. Filmed in Dakar in August, 2007.

Xuman has a new record out called “Gunman.” You can also check his website.

Keyti is currently at work on his solo record. Photo by Sandy Haessner