Q&A with Barem, Playing at Electric Pickle Tonight

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DJ/producer Mauricio Barembuem a.k.a. Barem has been Argentina's number one techno export since alighting on the international scene in the mid 2000s. Having caught the ear of minimal techno magnate Richie Hawtin in 2006, Barem signed to his prestigious Minus label and remains one of its most celebrated artists in the new decade.

Barem went on to join the expatriate EDM community in Berlin where he continues to bang out his signature stark booming techno cuts while also gigging hectically across the globe. Crossfade caught up with the talented young producer for a Q&A on the eve of his pre-WMC performance with PL0T at Electric Pickle, and he sure as shit set us straight about producing more than just your ordinary loopy minimal.

Barem at Electric Pickle. Friday, March 19, 11 p.m.-5 a.m. 2826 N. Miami Ave., Miami.

Read the full Q&A after the jump.    

WMC 2010: Q&A With Cedric Gervais

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?Cedric Gervais, Miami's king of Space, has a lot to live up to at this year's WMC. Last year, his moody, slow-burning jam "Mauri's Dream" scored an "essential tune of the week" nod on Pete Tong's BBC One radio show for almost a month running. With that coronation, the track soon became the big-room, tech-house anthem of conference. And though this affable Frenchman is seemingly unflappable, even he admits to feeling some pressure. "I have so many tracks, and I don't know which one to push!" he says, laughing.

He certainly does have a fresh selection. It's been four years since the release of his debut studio album, The Experiment, and after years of remixing and touring nonstop, he finally has a fresh platter for his hordes of hungry fans. Due out in June on Ultra Records, the sophomore effort is called Miamication, and as the title indicates, it has Gervais' adopted hometown's stamp all over. "I've been in Miami for like 15 years, and I've seen it change so many times. Every time I tour, they're like, 'That's the guy from Miami,' so I wanted to call the record something about that," he says.

In fact, part of the reason behind the several years' gap between the two records, Gervais says, is that his musical style changed along with the city's scene. He even recorded an entire album's worth of material not long after The Experiment, only to scrap it and start over completely. But the final product sees Gervais flexing his production muscles, with an offering that's equal parts club-ready and radio-friendly. The edges of dance and pop music are bleeding together more and more with each passing day, something that's reflected in possibly the biggest crossover guest star on his record, singer Mya. Other collaborators on the disc include powerhouse songwriter Dee Robert, vocalist Rachel Starr, and superstar knob-tweakers Second Sun.

To discuss the album and his WMC plans, Crossfade caught up with Gervais recently by phone. Read the full Q&A, and get all his gig details, after the jump. 

Interview: The Smithsonian is Still Courting Aretha Franklin on the Eve of South Florida Show

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Aretha Franklin called New Times before tonight's gig at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood to discuss her forthcoming album (A Woman Falling Out of Love), to tell us to call her "professor" and a little bit about that hat. Yes, that one.

New Times: Do you ever vacation in Florida?

Franklin: I always come in concert, but I have several days off so I can look around. I was going to go fishing, but it looks like a thunderstorm. The season seems to come a little later now. The weather used to be quite wonderful in February, high 80s or 90s. Now it's 60. Things have changed with the melting of the glaciers.

Keep reading after the jump.

WMC 2010: Q&A with Steve Angello, Playing Ultra Music Festival, Mansion, and More

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Greek-Swedish DJ/producer Steve Angello has become one of the most recognizable names in commercial EDM since the mid 2000s, with big international hits like his jacked-up rendition of the ber-soulful "Show Me Love" by Robin S, a track exemplifying his glitzy disco diva-vocalized big-room house productions. His massive international notoriety is due in no small part to a card-carrying membership in the "Swedish House Mafia" that includes Eric Prydz, Axwell and childhood pal Sebastian Ingrosso (with whom he'll be sharing the main stage at the Ultra Music Festival on March 27.) 

Angello will also be performing at club Mansion (with Axwell and Ingrosso), in addition to his debut Size Records label party at the Eden Roc Hotel and the annual Beatport Pool Party at the Gansevoort, among other appearances. Given his ubiquitous WMC presence this year, we made sure to catch up with the Swedish House Mafioso and talk about his upcoming gigs, his recent success, and the state of commercial house music.

Read the full Q&A after the jump. 

WMC 2010: Q&A with Burns

At 24, Burns has a DJ career most would be envious of. But his meteoric rise has been because of the hard work and dedication he's put into his craft -- and well, a shout out from the likes of Annie Mac, Mylo, and Calvin Harris doesn't hurt either. He'll be releasing the lastest installment in his EP series, Burns 4 "So Many Nights," in March, and a double-disc mix in April, featuring original tracks and remixes of songs by Ladyhawke, Jack Splash feat. Missy Elliot, Passion Pit, The Gossip, Kasabian, White Lies, FrankMusik, and Calvin Harris.

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Burns
Crossfade caught up with the baby-faced DJ over the phone all the way from the UK, fresh off a US DJ tour with Calvin Harris, which brought him to LIV at the Fontainebleau in February.

New Times: You were in Miami not too long ago with Calvin Harris at LIV and before that with Deadmau5 at Mansion. How have your Miami experiences been so far?

Burns: Really good. All the US in general has been really good. The crowd reactions have been great -- more than I expected, really. The American crowd isn't as exposed to the underground stuff that we tend to play over [in the UK] as much we are. So you've a few fresh ears and opening people's eyes to new music.

You've played at LIV and Mansion, which I sort of consider to be the Walt Disney Worlds of Miami's club land. People go there and know what to expect, but there is an underground music scene beyond that. Have you ever gotten a chance to play or visit those venues?

Well when I came out for WMC a couple years ago I played at this place called White Room.
Tags: Burns, LIV, Louis

Five Questions With ... DJ Joshy Josh

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?Joshy Josh is a journeyman DJ in South Florida who skims the fine line between South Beach and downtown. Some people know him as the spectacled dude with long hair and the perpetual three-day college professor beard, but most know him for his DJ sets of fun. Crossfade caught up with him recently for the rundown.

Crossfade: First, to get it going, let us know who you are, where do you come from and what do you do? 

Joshy Josh: I'm Joshy Josh. I was born in Philly and lived in Chicago for a bit and now I'm in Miami for a bit. My musical background is playing in bands, but that didn't work the way I liked and DJing was the course that seemed to make the most sense for me at the time. 

Okay, you've been DJing around town for a while now in hotspots like Purdy and joints in the downtown area; anywhere else? Any residencies? Places you'd like to spin at?

I have done gigs at most of the downtown spots. We have a weekly party called (786) on Wednesday nights at Purdy Lounge. And then I go where I'm needed. I like to keep my options open. I also really enjoy the nights I am at Fox's. I dig that place! 

DJ Supreme La Rock Spins Tonight at Champion Sound at Electric Pickle

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via myspace.com/mrsupreme
?He's done disco, mixed Afro-funk, Brazilian, and classic rock, and spun at huge venues all over Vegas, L.A., and Vancouver. He's even played dance, Top 40 hits, and '80s tunes for the hipster kids at Santos Party House in New York City. But what DJ Supreme La Rock is best known for is his touch with underground hip-hop and funk. He's celebrating Lumin's birthday and bringing a bit of Seattle soul to the weekly Champion Sound party at Electric Pickle tonight. Crossfade caught up with him by phone earlier this week.

Crossfade: You play it all pretty much. Just for the Electric Pickle, are you gonna stick to soul and funk? 

?Supreme La Rock: I always like to say whatever I play is funky. No matter what kind of music it is it's funky, but mainly I'm going to stick to the funky stuff [for this show]. I grew up in Seattle and my parents listened to funk music. As a kid I'd always get into their records. It's just always what I listened to.

What kind of funk artists inspire you? ?

It's a lot of independent things and artists that never really blew up on a major level. There was so much good music but they hardly had enough money to even record and stuff, let alone press the record up. So you find obscure stuff and it's so good and nobody's heard it.

Q&A With John Joseph of the Cro-Mags, Playing Churchill's This Sunday

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courtesy of punkhouse.org
?If you spotted John Joseph on the street and didn't know any better, you'd probably quicken your pace. Though he's now 47 years old, the New York hardcore god is a compact, tattoo-covered package of brawn who could easily kick the ass of a poser half his age. And at one point, as the frontman of the notoriously volatile Cro-Mags, he probably would.

Yes, the Cro-Mags's most famous album, 1986's Age of Quarrel, was a brutal piece of work. A couple of indicative song titles: "Show You No Mercy" and "Street Justice." It charges with punk fury, but in its sonic pummeling, laid the groundwork for the heavy-ing of hardcore. The record can sound downright melodic compared to the thuggish, breakdown-addicted straightedge hardcore acts of later years, but the initial seeping-in of metal was groundbreaking.  

But times have changed. These days, Joseph is just as likely to hold forth on healthy, interconnected and sustainable living as he is on the laws of the street. He was at the forefront of what was dubbed, for better or for worse, the "krishna-core" faction of early New York hardcore. And though he broke with the religion's controversial establishment, ISKCON, he still follows its original principles as set forth by its founder, Swami Prabhupada. 

And in Joseph's view, the latest karmic violators are corporate agricultural titans like Monsanto. For a brain-melting trip that will leave you questioning everything you eat, just get him talking about industrial corn and soybeans. (Or check out his new book, Meat Is For Pussies, due out April 15.)

Q&A with Jeremy Greenspan of the Junior Boys, Playing Electric Pickle on Friday

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In this era of dime-a-dozen indie electro-pop duos, one contemporary act stands apart from the rest for sheer substance, stylistic originality and emotional rapport, and that's Ontario, Canada's Junior Boys. Crooner/co-producer Jeremy Greenspan and partner Matt Didemus first began their collaboration in the early 2000s, the fruit of which were the first couple of Junior Boys EPs and 2003's debut album, Last Exit on KIN Records.

Their second full-length album, So This Is Goodbye was released on Domino Records in 2006, and with various remixes and support from the international EDM community, including tracks featured on Sander Kleinenberg and Ghostly International compilation mixes, the duo began to garner serious acclaim. In 2008 they were invited to mix Get Physical Music's Body Language 6 compilation release, further establishing them in both the indie dance and underground techno scenes.

2009 saw the release of Junior Boys' third and most ambitious studio album to date, Begone Dull Care. This endearing collection of delicately-crafted lyrical electronic pop tracks has found them an even broader audience, what with the track "Dull to Pause" chosen as the Starbucks iTunes "Pick of the Week" in August 2009, among other accolades.

Many of you will recall Junior Boys' last Miami performance for a packed room at Vagabond, where their emotionally-searing rendition of all the crowd favorites left more than a few people enthralled. Jeremy Greenspan is back in Miami on Friday night to play an exclusive DJ set at the Electric Pickle's One Year Anniversary Block Party, and we took up the opportunity to catch up with him for a brief Q&A. Read it after the jump.

Q&A with Marc Romboy, Playing the One Year Anniversary Block Party at Electric Pickle on Friday

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For going on two decades, German DJ/producer Marc Romboy has established himself as one of the preeminent figures of electronic dance music through a rare combination of innovative vision and heartfelt reverence for the classic forms. A childhood fascination with synthesized sounds, via the likes of Kraftwerk, got Romboy hooked on electronic music, and with the advent of house and techno in the '80s he delved head-on into original production work, employing classic early tools like an Akai sampler and Roland TB-303 synthesizer to develop his own sounds.

By the mid '90s Romboy and partner Klaus Derichs were heading Le Petit Prince, one of Germany's foremost techno imprints in its heyday, and championing the sounds of artists like Phuture, Microwave Prince, Emmanuel Top, and Thomas P. Heckmann until the label's demise in 2000. The following decade saw a bout of intensive international touring during which Romboy cemented his reputation as a world-class DJ, and by 2004 he returned to A&R work with the launch of new label Systematic, marked by the release of debut single "Every Day In My Life" produced in collaboration with Booka Shade.

Two artist albums and further collaborative work with American house/techno legends Robert Owens and Blake Baxter, along with more contemporary cutting-edge artists like Gui Boratto, Stephan Bodzin, and Spirit Catcher, have demonstrated Romboy's creative fluidity and broad perspective as a producer, embracing the future while paying homage to the past. Marc Romboy will be headlining an all-star lineup at the One Year Anniversary Block Party at Electric Pickle on Friday, one of only two exclusive North American dates for his "5 Years of Systematic" tour, and we couldn't pass up an opportunity to pick the man's brain on the cusp of his Miami performance.  

Read the full Q&A after the jump.
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