MIXPAK INTERVIEW SERIES: POIRIER

Montreal’s Poirier is one of the latest to join the Mixpak family, releasing his jump-up Soca Road EP to much vuvuzela fanfare last month. Of course, he has a long musical history, having produced with Crookers, dj/rupture, Warrior Queen, MC Zulu and released numerous EPs across numerous genres, from ambient to soca. We asked him about playing 160bpm, producing in different languages and running his label, ALSO records.

Mixpak: How did you get into the music you produce & play?

It’s been a long curve, cos when I started making music I released a few ambient albums – so it’s quite different from where I am right now. It’s all related though so it was just a long and slow progression over about 10 years, so from ambient I went to abstract hip hop and from abstract hip hop I started doing more dancehall riddims and then I started to work with vocalists. Then I discovered soca music. So now I try to do a bit of everything…

So you’re changing genres all the time – but do you think you’ve found your spot now or in 10 years will you be making something different?

I’m always moving, always doing something different. At the moment I’m making super fast music, but I’m also making ambient and abstract hip hop at the same time. So I’m not really about trying to find anything, it’s just about making music. That’s what I’m like as a listener too. It’s not a big deal for me, but it’s quite shocking sometimes for people – they don’t see a progression or they don’t understand where it’s coming from but there’s always traces of where I’m going. I was making Soca Road at the same time that I was making music for a documentary that was very ambient, so I don’t have a problem making two different things at the same time. The easiest way to summarise what I’m doing is to say there’s 3 big genres of music that influence my work in general – that’s electronic, hip hop and reggae – and when they cross they can make all kinds of different music.

Read HERE the whole interview.

http://www.mixpakrecords.com/blog/2012/02/mixpak-interview-series-poirier