Last Night a DJ Saved My Life

Over the next while, one Cowgirl will take on Toronto in search of the quintessential party scene.

Courtesy of Meech

Lucky for her, in this multicultural city, there’s more than one! Along the way she will talk with many DJs, party planners and socialites, take one too many pictures and drag all her friends into the wee hours of the night. So, with a full tube of electric-red lipstick in hand and a final destination unknown, she programs her GPS to start off in Parkdale. This will be hard work, folks but after a few vodka tonics, things should get mushier.

First stop is the new, I-don’t-give-a-beep, DJ-owned hotspot, Wrongbar (1279 Queen St. W). With its acute taste in programming and no holds barred party atmosphere, Wrongbar is quickly becoming home to the better-looking, Queen West hipsters. Chatting with Meech, a household name at Wrongbar, who will be spinning this Saturday alongside owner, Nasty Nav and guest DJ, Hijack, from the UK. The plan is to kick off the night with the triumvirate – burger, fries and beer – at The Rhino (1249 Queen St. W) and then mosey on over.

Pony: What are the best moments when you’re spinning?

Meech: The best moments? I think the best moments, for me, is when I turn around a crowd that’s more/less stale and I can get everybody into it again. There are so many aspects that make up a good party – people hook up, people go crazy. If you can make a kid want to do drugs, I know it sounds bad, but you’re doing something right because they want to experience more of the thrill of the evening.

Pony: So when you’re DJ’ing, do you gauge the crowd’s response to help you decide what you’re going to play next?

Meech: Oh of course. 100%. I hope I’m not misquoting here, but the most important thing a DJ has to do is read the crowd, he’s gotta play for the crowd but at the same time he’s gotta educate them; he’s gotta tease them a little. And if the crowd’s feeling a certain type of music, even though it might not be my favorite, I’m gonna go to it. Obviously, I still play stuff that I like. I only have music that I wanna play and I think people have realized that with me.

Pony: Yeah, I feel that. I find too that in Toronto there’s this whole separation between big clubs and really popular music, and it almost seems that it doesn’t even really matter who’s behind the turntables just as long as you play the hits. And then there’s this whole other DJ-centric vibe where people go to these parties just to hear a certain person spin because they like the music the DJ chooses to play, how the DJ plays, etc. How do you see yourself fitting in that?

Courtesy of Zephyr

Meech: Of course there’s totally two scenes. There’s the Richmond club district scene and then there’s the Queen hipster scene. One’s more mainstream, the z103.5 stuff, and then the other is more educated. There’s no right or wrong. I personally don’t want to go to a mainstream club and be expected to play Hip Hop because that’s just not me. That’s probably the hardest thing, to be able to be a Top 40 DJ and go into a club not knowing what crowd you’re gonna get. With me, I think people kind of have an idea of what I’m going to play, but actually, I really have no idea. I play for the crowd and I try to mix it up because the same genre gets boring fast.

Pony: Have you ever fucked up on a gig?

Meech: Oh of course, of course. One night I was DJ’ing, I don’t even know where, and I forgot to plug in my computer to the power! My laptop just died, literally died on the spot and I was like “what just happened?”. It took a good 30 seconds but it felt like half an hour to figure out what was going on. But you know the benefit with that is that the crowd a lot of the times gets woken up when something like that happens and they get more into it afterward.

Pony: That sucks, and you were saying to me that you’re kind of tired of the Toronto scene. If you had to move to a bigger party hub city, where would you go?

Meech: The only reason why I’d consider it boring is just because I’ve done it all; seen it all. I don’t get the butterflies anymore. When you go out and you play at other venues, in other cities, you don’t know what to expect. It’s like a first date. In Toronto, you get a lot of DJs that think being experimental is playing a mash-up of MSTRKRFT and Wonderwall. Which makes no sense; you’re just playing something that’s on a hype machine. That’s not being experimental, that’s not taking risks. Risk is when you’re like, alright, the crowd is feeling deeper let’s play some real cracked out stuff right now and see what happens. I want a different level of music that gets you out of your comfort zone. I think that the worst thing with any business, with anything in life, is when you get comfortable and stop growing as a person.

Pony: So is there any style of songs that you want to experiment with that you haven’t had the opportunity to do yet in Toronto?

Meech: Well the benefit that I’ve had is that I’ve been offered many different types of gigs. You know: Top 40, House, etc. But the sound that I’m dying to play, is like a real sketched out after party. I want to play from 5:00 until 10 a.m., or something crazy like that; see the sun go up. I wanna see people realize that they’ve wasted 12 hours or whatever at a club. I think that’s the difference that I want to experience right now.

Courtesy of dsrnr.ca

Pony: So when it comes to experimentation and getting exposed to new and different sounds, how important do you think music festivals are for DJs in Toronto, and for you, how have they allowed you to grow?

Meech: They vary depending on a lot of things. The Time Festival will bring in international artists like Mehdi, A-Trak, huge guys, and they’ll still make room for the local artists – it forces you to play at the same level as them, which can be terrifying. It’s like being called up from the minors to play in the major league; opening for someone bigger than you. But there’s an art to it, I think a lot of DJs are guilty of not knowing what that feels like. But yeah, festivals are important, more than anything it’s good for exposure. That’s huge.

Pony: You also think though that production is another great way to gain exposure. I understand you’ve produced music. Your tracks include Ecstasy, Beatdown Funk, etc.

Meech: Haha yeah Beatdown Funk, that one’s dedicated to my buddy who got beat down that weekend by a cop. Every track I’ve ever produced is so different from the next I mean, that’s my DJ’ing. It’s very chunky.

Pony: How did you get started in all of this anyway, what’s your story?

Meech: That’s such a weird question for me. Honestly, I don’t even know. Before I was a DJ I used to run a photoblog. I used to go to all these parties and concerts; taking pictures, that was my thing. In that whole mess I met Jesse Keeler, who is one half of MSTRKRFT. I remember the day I met him he was like “I’m going to introduce you to my partner, we’re working on this Disco-House project called MSTRKRFT”. And I was like “Oh alright, whatever, lemme hear what you have”, you know you don’t think much of it at the time. And when he played me a couple of tracks I was like “wow this is really good”. I mean, I never thought I was going to be a DJ. I just kept taking pictures and one of my friends would bring his Serato for me to play. But it’s not until I really got into Electro, I mean Electro is what brought me into that scene. Slowly that scene grew in the Queen West area with The Drake and The Social. It was weird; it was like it came out of nowhere. That’s how it started with me; it came out of nowhere.