Hi folks,

Welcome to the first installment in my ivibes diary. I’ll be attempting to post here once a month. I won’t bore you with a detailed introduction to myself in this post…If you’re curious about me you can head to http://www.bradcopeland.ca and check out my (albeit slightly out of date) bio there.

I had a very busy winter touring with Sandra Collins in support of her “Perfecto Presents:” double CD. I got to play a lot of wicked gigs and see a lot of cool places that I otherwise wouldn’t have, so for that I am extremely grateful to her and to our rockin’ agent Emma.

May was a nice month for me. On the 15th I headed home to Ottawa for my bi-monthly residency at Surface. These nights are far and away the most fun I have DJing right now. Small little club, nothing too wild. It doesn’t have flashy décor, fancy lighting, or a booming sound system, but what goes on in that room is just amazing. The people in Ottawa have heard me play lots over the last few years and I feel that they trust me a lot, which lets me try lots of new things. They’re also very receptive to new music, so I always do my best to bring fresh sounds to them. One of the other reasons I love these nights because I get to play with my good friend (and one of my favourite DJ’s) Fingers Macphee. Fingers is a rare bird these days in that he always plays what’s appropriate for the room at the time he’s playing. He starts out really slow and deep and just builds and builds by the time I’m ready to go the room is ready to totally go off. He also drinks like a 12 year old girl, but that's a completely different story altogether. The room was quite busy from 1:30 onwards and stayed that way right til close at (unfortunately only) 6am. Standout tracks from the night were: Rene Amesz-“Back into the Funk”, Chris and Kai’s wicked “Gone to Heaven” (which samples The Pixies), Mick Burns’ massive “Forward”, the Dousk mix of Benz and MD’s “Mar Del Plata” and, as always, a veritable cornucopia of Steve Porter tracks.

The following weekend saw Sandra and I heading to Queretaro, Mexico. By and large, my previous Mexican experiences have been characterized by wicked gigs and lots of hectic peripheral activity….this time was no exception. Club Foreplay in Queretaro was quite nice. It had a very interesting layout, (shaped like an amphitheatre) a nice sound system and a cool dj booth with a very extensive 2 mixer, 4 deck, and 4 CD player setup. I played about 2.5 hours to a very receptive crowd full of very up for it people. I’m not 100% sure, but I think the tequila might have had something to do with it. Sandra got on at about 1:00am and at about 3:30am was winding things down for the scheduled 4am closing time when suddenly a throng of people arrived from what appeared to be a prom or something. 300 or so people in tuxedos and formal dresses flooded the dancefloor and, with no delay whatsoever, proceeded to put their backs right into it. They were sweating like it was their business and getting club juice on their dress hems...it was quite a sight. Around 6am or so we tried to get some 2 mixer 4 deck action going on, but unfortunately the way the system was set up it wouldn’t allow it. We did tag for a little while though and that was very cool. Sandra played about as hard as I’ve ever heard her. The last hour before we started tagging she was playing more-or-less full on techno and the dance floor was just eating it up. By the time we got out of that club it was 8am, a full 4 hours after their scheduled closing time! Big records for me that night were U&K-“Doda”, Luke Fair’s remix of Agent 001-“Faakson”, Slacker’s “Scared”(one of my all time favourites and a record that never leaves my bag under any circumstances whatsoever) and Jan Driver’s classic tune “Filter”. I won’t go into too much detail as to the mania that followed the gig, but suffice it to say it culminated in me changing hotels at noon…

June has been mildly relaxing thus far. I was scheduled for an outdoor event outside of Edmonton called “Two Tribes” but there was some confusion between the various promoters involved and it was decided that canceling my performance would be the safest move. I was bummed because it’s been a while since I’ve done an outdoor event and I was looking forward to playing a “rave”. There’s been some interest though from a different promoter in Edmonton for another event later in the summer, so my fingers are crossed that that it will pan out.

Last Saturday, June 19th, marked my return to Djing in Montreal since my departure from Stereo. Sander Kleinenberg and I played Aria, which is one of the largest of Montreal’s many after-hours clubs. The club itself is quite nice, and they’ve recently made some nice changes as far as seating and such go that make it very comfortable to be in. They also have the sickest light show I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I played the first few hours til 5am or so and then Sander played til 11am. It was an educational and inspirational experience, as DJing with him always is. Standouts for me were the new Copa Move record on Superfly, the excellent “Right or Wrong” by Piece Process and the Evolution remix of “G13” by Ritmo, an old Fluid record I’ve been playing a lot lately.

As far as studio stuff goes, I’m currently working on two remixes. One is for Tao recordings and is a mix of a new MV track. It’s a bouncy breakbeat thing and is a bit of a new direction for me. I’m really happy with where it’s heading so far and am hoping to get it finished in time for Canada Day this week. I’m also working on a spec mix of an old favourite record of mine from about 3 or 4 years ago which, if all goes well, might get included on the forthcoming re-release of the track. More info to come on this as things develop. In the non work-in-progress department, I’ve recently completed a collaboration with MV which is as yet untitled. It’s a chuggy track with a trancey riff and an interesting bass line or two. It also features some serious maracas played live by MV himself. Prior to that I was involved in a decidedly “non-commissioned” remix of BT’s track “Remember” with my good friends Greg, Marco, and Dave. Greg and Marco record on various labels as Benz & MD and Dave records as Ebrius. They run a lovely little label called Aurium which I would highly recommend checking out if you haven’t yet. Greg also writes a diary for ivibes, so make sure you look him up and see what he’s up to. BT himself likes our mix and has apparently been playing it in his dj sets, which makes us all happy.

Speaking of cheeky remixes, it appears that some white labels will be getting pressed up of the remix I did of “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega. Lots of support and encouragement came on this one from Hybrid, whos steez I bit pretty hard, with lots of club play and some nice radio spots(BBC and Ministry of Sound) in the UK as well. These should be around very shortly so keep your ears peeled. There has, alas, been no word as to what Suzanne thinks..;)

So that about wraps up the last little while. I’m heading to Greensboro NC tonight and this Thursday coming is Canada Day in Ottawa, which promises to be chock full of excess of all sorts. One of my good friends is throwing a party with Armin, MV, and I DJing. I’m sure many stories and anecdotes will stem from that, and hopefully some of them will be fit for public consumption.

Til next time,

B

Ps-Steve Porter’s “Homegrown” EP should be out now on FDS records. You should go to your local record store as fast as humanly possible and buy this EP. All 4 tracks on it are bombs.