A lot has been made of that X factor certain people seem to possess. Like the most intriguing things in life, it’s something that you’ll find difficult to pinpoint- suffice to say that it’s often as much about what a person doesn’t do, as what they do, which makes them fascinating. Canadian Tiga arguably fits into this category – someone for whom the hype may actually be more than just hyperbole.
Spending his formative years in Goa India – with parents who had a pretty forward-thinking attitude towards music and life in general – Tiga was inspired by the post-punk experimental disco of London and New York. The 29 year-old has gone on to create painfully cool label Turbo Recordings and is probably most famous for an electro-pop rework of Corey Hart’s 80s hit ‘Sunglasses at Night’ he created with fellow producer Jori Hulkkonen last year. While possibly not their intention, the track was one of a handful of recognisable names associated with a genre aptly dubbed electroclash. He has recently completed the next DJ Kicks mix CD, and chats from his home in Montreal.
It’s a city that seems to share more than a passing resemblance to Melbourne in Australia, and to a lesser degree, Sydney. The cultural hub of Canada, Montreal boasts some of the most exciting electronic music being produced at the moment – particularly if you’re a fan of a sub genre dubbed glitch techno (or ‘glitchno’). Tiga himself produces anything from synth-pop electro to minimal tech house and seems to really enjoy living a little to the left of the fast lane. “A lot of journalists ask me this question actually. Montreal is great. The city has a very relaxed vibe and the cost of living is very competitive which takes the heat off me as an artist in an economic sense. I think a lot of people would seriously consider moving here if the winter weren’t so cold. Australians can probably relate to what it’s like to live in Canada, you’re not the centre of the universe so you don’t feel constantly compelled to be out doing something. Like if I was living in New York, for example, where there is always something going on. Things would probably be easier for me commercially if I lived in Europe or North America but my family and a lot of my friends are here.”
With work that sounds like much of the music produced in Europe at the moment – and collaborations with artists like Scandinavian Jori Hulkkonen – Tiga is quite frequently mistaken for a European artist. “I guess my name doesn’t give much away about my geographic location, but I think from an artist’s standpoint there’s not that much connection between where you are and what you do. Things are becoming increasingly global and borders are blurring anyway. If I had to name one influence [this city has] I’d say that I probably work harder because you get a lot more shit done in a city like this. It’s so cold during the winter that you spend a lot of time indoors.”
Why put together a mix for a label he’s reportedly not too fond of? “I’m a fan of the label and what they do. I’m just not a big fan of the music they release. That said, I think they’re one of the few independent labels who run themselves properly, and I respect that.” Tiga’s montage of quality 80s electro pop, dubby disco, nu wave vocals, digital basslines and synths follows a reasonably similar path to the previous DJ Kicks mix by Playgroup. “There’s definitively a connection between my mix and Trevor’s. I didn’t take a radically different direction, but I think musically his mix is more about the DJ as selector/producer rather that mixer. I love his production work but I have a different philosophy as A DJ, I think a mix CD should be a display of DJ skills, not just track selection. I’ll ask myself the question ‘if this wasn’t mixed, how different would it be?’ If the answer is ‘not much’, I don’t think I’ve succeeded with the mix.”
Does he find it difficult to get to a point where he’s happy with the finished product? “For me personally the process is pretty difficult, I get a bit paranoid about creating the perfect mix. With this CD I wanted to put together old and new electro, techno and house. The hardest thing was setting on something that goes all over the place. I guess it’s a post electro mix with a house/techno aesthetic. I wanted music with personality without it being over the top. I’ve really missed that psychedelic techy feeling.”
In what’s by-now a DJ Kicks tradition, Tiga created an atmospheric house track for the mix entitled ‘Man Hrdina’, the B side of which is surprisingly effective cover of Nelly’s 2002 hit – ‘Hot In Here’. Was it a pisstake? “There was no irony in my use of the track – I genuinely love everything about it. As far as I’m concerned acts like the Neptunes, Nelly and Missy Elliot are the best produced commercial music currently available. As far as the cover version goes, a friend bet that I couldn’t rap as fast as Nelly does, so I went into the studio to prove him wrong. That’s how it started. It’s basically just me alone in the studio. I actually realised that sometimes you have to force yourselves to take these things seriously. Me releasing the song was a case of playing it out in a club one night and people going wild over it. ”
So was he in the studio posturing with those ‘pop-gangsta’ arm movements Nelly uses? “Oh yeah for sure, you have to do that to get into the right mood in the studio,” he laughs facetiously. Why rework other people’s tunes? “Covers aren’t exactly a new phenomenon. People have been doing it for years. I look at it as re-introducing a track that’s on the edge of consciousness. People have been talking about the death of electro over the past year or so but I honestly just think that it six-month period where people were reworking these 80s tracks but for me it was just about having some fun with electronic music. It wasn’t supposed to be about some sort of revival movement. For me the electro pop sound of 2001/2 is already over.”
Tiga’s DJ Kicks mix is out now, distributed locally by the kids at Creative Vibes.
