When I think of Toronto music, I often think of the mashups of different sounds and cultures. Has a city like Toronto helped shape your sound? Has it made it easier to express yourself creatively?

Toronto's rich multicultural landscape rivals that of New York and London in my opinion. I feel lucky to have experienced the dancehall sounds back when I lived in Scarborough during my formative years. I'd say it had a big impact on my love for the bottom end. I get sad when I think of how much of our rich musical heritage does get pushed out of the city. Thankfully there are a lot of people documenting and archiving things now to make sure that the cultural landscape of our city is remembered and also celebrated, beyond just some mural or plaque at the places where these things used to happen. There is also such a deep history of DJ culture that spans across all genres in this city, though I think we kind of suck at sharing information and resources between the different generations. I'm lucky to be in a position somewhere in the middle of that, where I can freely access/process/apply ideas from both up and down.

Sound system culture has evolved over the years from its roots in Jamaica, expanding to the rest of the world, how has it influenced your work?

The bass and the drum is the foundation. Everything else is built on top of that. What I love about reggae music is that there is so much space, created by fading musical phrases in and out of the mix. I love how it can convey deep sorrow and sadness with such sweet delivery. It can be incredibly gentle yet so powerful with the booming basslines. I find it fascinating how this tiny island outputs so much music that touches the hearts and souls of millions worldwide. I love how it's a practice that comes from the "less is more" and "use what you got" approach. Shamelessly lo-fi yet captures every frame of the emotional spectrum. Needless to say, it's a great motivator for me both sonically and spiritually in my music.

How did the artwork come about?

The artwork illustration is a piece made by my old pal Devon Marinac. He sold me the piece about a decade ago when he was trying to score some cash to go hit the pub. I think he sold it to me for about $60, and it has sat on my wall ever since. Devon's made huge strides with his art since then but I still felt like he was owed more than what now would buy you maybe three pints of Guinness in Toronto. I asked him if I could use it for my cover art, and threw him some scratch to help offset the "Cost Of Chilling Crisis."

The Bengali typeface title "Ekbar" was developed by my friend Raeda Sarwar, who has a special interest in typography for the Bengali script. It's quite rare to see young Bangladeshi's pursuing a career in graphic design, never mind one that is so specific to our typeface. We met through mutual friends in the Bangladeshi events series AGT. I was very fond of her work and her deep interest in pursuing her passion, representing the depth and richness of our culture, and wanted her to be involved in creating a custom type nameplate for the cover.

The art direction was facilitated by none other than my dear friend Karim Mohamed. Karim and I have a many years long history of working on projects spanning art/graphic design and music. He's done countless flyers for me over the years, tour posters, DJ gigs, you name it. It's been nice to watch him and his work grow over the years, and now I see he's blossomed into an extremely talented and sharp designer, DJ, and all around bodmon. Watch out though, his rates are going up after this!

I am so grateful to have had such a talented and stacked selection of individuals who helped bring this project to life on my behalf, and that includes Jon Schouten and Steve Sidoli who facilitated this entire project via Telephone Explosion Records.

Now Playing

Playing Next