Ghislain Poirier: Bass Necessities

Montreal's DIY mash-up don shows no signs of slowing down while redefining the booty bounce on a global scale.

Montreal's Ghislain Poirier is a walking contradiction; while understated and fairly quiet, his booty shaking sounds are upfront and in your face. Using simple production methods and effective mainstream bootlegs, he gets critical praise from even the pickiest music publications. For a guy that's all about bounce, he's rollin' dirty and touring on both sides of the Atlantic. Next year looks only to build upon the success he has had since 2005's "Bounce Le Remix" release and getting noticed across the continent as the opening act on Lady Sovereign's first North American tour. We took time to interview Montreal's freakin' francophone and get a bit more insight in his world of bass, noise, genre mashups and dancefloor rocking. 

EW: You used to be a radio deejay, but then you made transition to being a pretty popular club deejay?

Ghislain: Before I was only doing the radio show, and it was my passion. Doing interviews, promoting other people’s music. Slowly I built up a large music collection and started doing little gigs. I started playing a little lounge bar; it was like an extension of the radio show indirectly. I really liked it and started to play more in clubs, on real sound systems. I’ve been playing clubs for about two years.

EW: What genre of music would you say that you represent? Would you say that you represent hip hop?
Ghislain: I represent bass! I mean, there’s three major parts to it to be simplistic. There’s hip hop, there’s reggae and electronic. So the combination, all of the combinations of these three things, I like them, I like the bass thing. I don’t really play any four on the floor stuff. It’s really bassy music, urban music, from wherever. I don’t care if it’s from the U.K., Brazil, Africa, Quebec, U.S.. As long as it sounds really urban and it’s from one of those genres.


EW: So in terms of being a deejay or an artist in Quebec, do you feel annexed at all from what’s going on in the rest of Canada in terms of urban music?
Ghislain: I mean, Montreal isn’t like a really big place in terms of urban music. We don’t even have a radio station that plays it regularly. Even the really commercial hip hop only gets played on community radio here. So, the urban scene… There is one but there’s no star system involved. It’s not that I feel separated; I feel like I’m in the junction of Canada, the U.S. and Europe. So I feel I’m aware of many things going on. I think if you’re in a place where there’s too much urban stuff going on, like the U.S., people there are really concentrated on what’s going on strictly in the states. Me, because I don’t have that scene in Montreal, I think my ears are more open to what’s coming out from all over the world.


EW: Do you find it’s a tight knit connection, like a family between the urban artists in Montreal, or is it more a matter of everyone doing their own thing?
Ghislain: I’ll say there’s a new family, and this new family or crowd… It’s not that we’re making the same music, but it’s like we have the same goals. Let’s say for example, the rappers Omnikrom, they collaborate on my albums. The next album they are doing is gonna be urban pop and is really far from my next album, but we have just enough similar ideas and goals that we can hang out together. So it’s not all about making all the same music, but having the same goals, to try and do our own thing. We’re not starting a movement in terms of making a Montreal sound, but it’s more a new attitude, a new way to make music.

EW: So in terms of hip hop and reggae, when did you first get introduced to these sounds?
Ghislain: Hip Hop was my first music. I was a teenager, and like everybody, I was listening to Public Enemy, Run DMC… It was really commercial then, really big. But those were big influences on me. After, I discovered a new way to make hip hop through Roots Manuva and Madlib. Those two are my two big influences now.

EW: We’re you an avid deejay collecting vinyl as a teenager?
Ghislain: Not at all, I was just playing basketball. Hip hop is like the daily soundtrack of basketball.

EW: So where has been your favorite place to play in the country then?
Ghislain: Montreal, (laughs). I love playing in other cities a lot, but I feel in Montreal it’s my crowd. I can test new stuff, risk a lot and push them. I’ve played here so many times that people expect and are demanding new stuff. So, it’s here that I can watch people react to new things and experiment. And that’s great, because when I go to other cities, I feel more prepared how to manage the tastes of other people and places with my own.

EW: Tell me about your release on Chocolate Industries. How did your relationship with them come about?
Ghislain: Well, actually it’s pretty done (laughs). I don’t want to elaborate on that too much. I’m basically looking at the future more than the past and I think I did what I had to do with them. But in 2007 I’m gonna release an album with a bigger label.

EW: I read your starting your own imprint as well?
Ghislain: Yeah, I am. It’s not gonna be my main focus, it’s just to allow me to do side projects faster. In the past I had a few songs that I wanted to release but I didn’t want to wait for the next album and felt they needed to be out now. It’s just to do more twisted stuff. I’ll probably release a more experimental, noisy album on that imprint too. But it’s not gonna be for everyone. People who are gonna buy this album, are gonna be aware of what it is.

EW: Is it gonna be for deejays and vinyl collectors then?
Ghislain: This next album is gonna be for home listening, really abrasive stuff. But I’m also working on the new, real album. That one is gonna be for the dance floor and really heavy.

EW: You have a name for it yet?
Ghislain: Yeah, but I don’t wanna say it. The release is gonna be in October, so in French, we have a saying, a lot of water is gonna go under the bridge before then.

EW: In terms of collaborating, are you gonna be working with the same people you have in the past? Or reaching out to some new people?
Ghislain: I’m working with a new a vocal artist, who has a reggae sound named Face-T, from Quebec. He’s really interesting because he’s a Quebecois kid who grew up in Jamaica. He learned Jamaican/Patois before he learned French. He’s the real deal. He’s really talented and we’re working on two tracks together. Gonna include another track with Omnikrom. we’ve done a lot of tracks together so I’ll include some with them. I’m likely gonna include one with a French rapper named Ambitieux meaning ambitious in French. They haven’t released anything official, but their sound is really close to the grime scene. The album is gonna be about thirty percent vocal and seventy percent instrumental.


EW: I was doing some reading and came across something you said a year or two ago, and it was “My opinion is that commercial R&B and hip hop music is more innovative than indie hip hop right now.” Poirier offers “It's more challenging. Like ‘What? This Missy Elliott track is a pop song?!’ Nobody in the indie hip hop world would have the guts to release that.” Do you still feel the same way?
Ghislain: Totally, (laughs). I mean I think all the inspiration in the indie scene is coming from commercial music right now. I think there was a transfer somewhere. It used to be the commercial scene took from the indie scene for its ideas. But now, I think they’re way further than the indie scene; in terms of pushing the form. It’s incredible.

EW: You seem to have a strong ear for stuff coming out of the UK… How would you compare the hip hop coming out of there with what’s coming out of Canada right now?
Ghislain: I won’t answer that directly. But I feel about two or three years ago there was a big movement in the UK, specifically with grime, that reminded me of eighties New York. It was all about the kids. They’re like 15-20, and at 21, they’re like a veteran. It was really about the kids pushing it, trying to be the best, in a really new way, in a really U.K. way. Now I think in Canada we’re pretty far from that challenge. There’re a couple of people, but there’s not enough to make it like that.

EW: Then in terms on Canadian urban music, what’s your opinion of the quality of what’s coming out?
Ghislian: For me, the artist I like the most and would love to work with is Kardinal Offishal. I feel he’s really up to date, not necessarily with what’s going on in the world in the way, but he’s up to date with his own personality. He has a really recognizable voice. I just like the way he’s developed his thing. He’s not shy to collaborate with big people. He took the opportunity to collaborate with big people all over the world. I like his versatility in terms of combining reggae and rap.

EW: With all the remixes and bootlegs that you do, have you ever gotten any angry letters from record labels yet?
Ghislain: No, nothing yet.

EW: Would you encourage people to do the same then?
Ghislain: I mean I encourage people to do moves, whatever it is. Whatever’s your strongest quality. I wanted to do remixes to show people “Look, these rappers, these voices you recognize can go on these riddims and show people it works. If I don’t include vocals sometimes, people think its weird. But the moment they hear Busta Rhymes, they’re like “Oh, this is club music”. I’m gonna do a second album, Bounce Le Remix 2. I’m gonna do it the same “do it yourself” style. These things are just dj tools.

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