When We Dip’s brand new MCR [Montreal City Radio] mini-series kicks off this week as we shine the light on our second home and Canada’s cultural capital – Montreal. Over the course of the next eight weeks, we’ll be traversing the city’s underground getting down with those, who keep its independent heart beating. Joining us in volume one are two of Montréal’s budding talents Ponsolo & Ledisko, Datcha regulars and Piknic Electronik veterans. The boys took five to reflect on their journey, the diverse musical ecosystem before them and what exactly makes MTL vibe its own. In addition, the lads have provided an exclusive soundtrack, a snippet from their recent extended set at SAT as the ideal accompaniment.
WWD: Thanks for taking the time to chat lads!
Start us off at the beginning, where did Ponsolo and Ledisko first cross paths?
Ponsolo: we met at an afterparty struck up a conversation and then he booked me at his party. In retrospect it kind of felt like when you were in school and basically asked the other kid to be your best friend – except instead of it being totally random it’s based off music and bromance.
Ledisko: Darien always leaves this part out but he actually came up to me while I was DJ’ing about four years ago and told me I was playing a really good set. Then I went up to him at the after party, made friends, and decided to book him at my residency at Blizzarts. The rest is history. For whatever reason, I had a feeling that we were on the same wavelength and I was right.
WWD: How have your musical tastes developed since then?
Ledisko: I think our musical knowledge has greatly deepened but our tastes have stayed relatively the same as far as dance music goes. For example I used to mix dance music with hip hop in my sets and now I never do that anymore. I think we’ve honed in on our sound a bit, adapted it for bigger rooms and focused on playing straight up house & techno in club or festival settings instead of ‘whatever works’ at an indie dance party. It’s worth noting that we have similar tastes in all genres of music.
Ponsolo: We’ve also started drinking Cognac so we’ve just smoothed out and matured over the years very organically.
WWD: From catching you guys at the likes of Igloofest and SAT, your blend on the decks is quite eclectic. How would you describe it yourself?
Ponsolo: Party-rocking underground house & techno.
Ledisko: Basically that yeah. We both come from the 2008-era electro scene and rocking the party has always been the goal of our sets. We definitely value a good bassline, and we’ll play stuff from very different time periods or sub-genres. We’re not trying to fit into a category or join a movement, we just do what works for us.
WWD: In your eyes, how do you view the current state of electronic music in Montreal?
We feel that it’s pretty fragmented but that allows for micro-scenes to exist, there is a lot of space and and general openness that allows anyone with an idea to step up and do it. This allows new people to come into the scene basically constantly, however at the moment I can’t say there are any dominating currents or series of parties that really interest me. You get the occasional good club booking with an international act, and the recent arrival of clubs like datcha, newspeak and stereobar that have really changed the landscape. But the problem is that people go to parties to be seen, to snapchat, to dress up…. too few actually go for the music or simply to dance. There’s very few DJ’s still holding residencies, so every weekend you get a different bunch of events to choose from. Things are always changing.
WWD: What would you say to those who argue there’s too much petty rivalry among the local djs in the city’s underground?
We both agree that there is none. We’ve never had or even heard of any beef between any DJ’s in the city; everyone’s always been really supportive of each other regardless of what genres you’re into or what scene you’re a part of.
WWD: One thing you’d like to see more of in Montreal?
Ledisko: Weekly DJ Residencies. It brings consistency, you can build a scene around it and really start earning the support and trust of club-goers as a DJ and promoter. Also: bigger, better sound systems both in clubs and afterparties… Montreal needs to start caring about these things. People too often don’t realize how important it is to hear & feel the music well in order to experience it properly.
Ponsolo: I think Francis nailed that one on the head. I think in Montreal things are pretty fragmented so I’d like to see some coming together and pooling of resources. I’d also like to see more of the party-being-so-good-everyone-loses-their-mind. Sweating, definitely more sweating in 2016 please.
WWD: What other projects have you on the go?
Ponsolo: I produce for a couple MCs which has been fun. It’s important to step outside my comfort zone, especially for growth. I’ve also got an EP coming out on Meant records with Vosper very shortly.
Ledisko: I work for Tiga as my ‘day job’, managing his Turbo label and helping out on other projects. I’ll be opening for him at his party in Miami this week and at Stereobar on April 1st.
WWD: You’re two djs very much in the infancy of your careers. Looking at the global state of electronic music does it fill you with optimism or despair?
Optimism. It’s quite obvious to us that the EDM boom has opened the floodgates for mainstream north american audiences to find out about its roots in house & techno – many people are trickling down into the underground scene and it has grown considerably in the past few years. I think there’s more opportunities than ever to get releases, gigs, etc.
WWD: You’ve had a big month playing an extended set at SAT and getting down with Matthew Dear at Newspeak. What’s been the highlight?
The Sat. We play so many opening sets, which is great, but opening sets are like foreplay: You get all riled up but you’re holding yourself back the whole time. At the SAT we got to play a full five hour set and really go all out.
WWD: We hear you’ve been busy in the studio, when are we gonna hear some new music?
In our sets, for now. We make music together whenever we get the chance outside of our work schedules on the weekends we aren’t djing. We’re quickly getting better at it and getting more focused on our own sound – but we don’t see a need to publish it publicly yet. There’s so much music out there, we would rather wait and share it when we have something really unique to say.
WWD: Before we let you go, you’ve treated us to a splendid snippet from your recent SAT set. Can you set the scene? What will one find in there?
Aye twas a belter. There were about 900 people there, mostly early twenties and ready to party, in a big dome with 360° visuals that run all the way to the floor. We warmed up with a series of chugging house grooves and the mix starts when we decided to step it up a notch. The crowd was really digging it, and we built up the hype to the point where we played records we don’t normally get to play: Maceo Plex, Oxia, etc.
Photo Credit: Evren Boisjoli
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soundcloud.com/ponsolo