D.J. Lexis … It’s all about the Music
A lot of deejay’s eventually get into producing is that something that you may want to move on to?How did you get into dee jaying?
I didn’t have brothers or sisters and I was always more of a sports kid so the first times I actually saw DJ-ing was in the movie Juice I think… so Gee-Q (Omar Epps), I owe you!!! But in general, I’ve always been the kid walking around with a walkman non-stop. I was raised in a very artistic family, my dad was a professional musician for 20 years, my mom works in movies so I was pretty fortunate to be raised on good music.
What artist should we be checking for this year?
Jay Electronica for sure. Blu also. Jose James has been out since 2007 but he’s someone that more people should know. There’s a bunch of young up and coming guys like Flying Lotus, Hudson Mohawke, Bullion, Onra.
What was the most memorable gig to date?
Probably my favorite one was this monthly night in Montreal called “The Goods”, it was a long set for open minded people in a great place. You can listen to it here
What are some of your classic end of the night songs?
Ken Boothe “Everything I Own”, Otis Redding “Pain in my heart”, Teddy Pendergass “Close the door”, Terence Trent D’Arby “Sign your name”, Biggie “Sky’s the limit”
Who are some your peers that you are feeling?
Well in terms of the selector side of Djing I’d say Gilles Peterson is definitely a model. Other than that for just their general dopeness; Dj Spinna, Kenny Dope, Theo Parrish, Jazzy Jeff, Karizma, J-Rocc and so many more.
How has technology hurt and help the D.J.?
Wow, that’s a long one to answer! To me, first of all technology doesn’t make or break the DJ, its not because you play with Serato that you’re not a real DJ and it’s also not because you play vinyl only that you have any more credibility. The most important thing to me about Dj-ing is musical culture, curiosity and open mind-ness. Then, after that technique, beat matching, scratching and what technology you use its all secondary… its all conditional to the love of music.
What would be the ultimate gig?
I love long DJ sets so that’s absolutely #1. I don’t like playing sets that are like an hour. My strength is my versatility, so it’s not an easy sell and I need some time to show different angles. Other than that, well it’s definitely fun to play outdoors, summer or winter no problem (I’m from Canada after all). The most important for me is to have a crowd that aren’t necessarily heads or experts but are open minded about music in general.
What album out now that has been heavily slept on that we should check out?
K’naan’s new record is definitely worth checking out. Q-Tip’s Renaissance album isn’t necessarily slept on but it should be getting even more praise.
We always talk about the negative state of music. Is anything actually positive about the scene?
The low cost of everything (Dj-ing or Producing) means that almost anyone who has talent but not that much money can get into it. Of course, it means there’s a lot more crap out there… but it does mean that we’re discovering a whole bunch of artists we’d never discover 20 years ago with only a few major labels and a handful of more underground ones. Other than that, I love that right now we’re seeing artists in different genres collaborating together, Santogold is doing things with Jay-Z, Ratatat is remixing Kayne, Kayne is sampling Daft Punk and so on…to mean hip-hop right now is a lot more interesting than the typical boom-bap sampling James Brown breaks. (although I love that stuff don’t get me wrong) To me those are two very different skills and its very rare that someone is equally good at both. I think that my main thing will always be DJ-ing, it fits with my personality more and I’ve been doing it for almost 10 years now. I do want to get a little bit more involved on the production side though, I have a decent studio now and I’m doing sessions with different people. It’s definetly on my to-do list though.
What is the weirdest track you have in your collection?
Well, being French I have a whole bunch of weird French cartoons / spoken word stuff. Other than that, when I’m digging for records I do buy a lot of records just based on the weird artwork. I haven’t had time to listen to most of them but I figure when I’m 70 I’ll listen to all my weirdo german spoken word aerobics instruction records. Oh yeah, and I have a French record which is actually a round table with doctors on VD on wax! (Dj Shadow holla at me…)
How do you decide what songs you want to add to a specific mix?
They decide me. You see I’m kind of like an extension of God out there you know… ok, ok… just kidding on that one! Well, I definetly don’t have a game plan or anything like that. My strength is playing a lot of different things so if I’m playing into a Hip-Hop track and I want to go into something full on Dancefloor Jazz, I’ll try and think of what could be 2-3 tracks that fit well into what I’m playing right this second and where I want to go in 15 minutes. Other than that, it’s kind of a blur.
What does a song have to have to move you?
Again that’s hard to define, if I could tell you the recipe I’d be like Quincy Jones with a whole bunch of gold records on my wall. But generally I like records with a whole bunch of different emotions and moods. I really enjoy having an answer musically for every occasion
What’s next for D.J. Lexis?
Well tonight I think I’m gonna eat some Pesto Pasta with Italian sausage. Besides that I’m trying to focus a little more on Djing out of town this year. A big priority for me is always to have different kinds of gigs. One gig that’s more HipHop & Soul, one that’s more House and other dancefloor jazz stuff, Broken beat, Nu-Funk, Dubstep, House, Deep Tech…
What’s next for musicismysanctuary.com?
I’m already very happy of the past 2 years. I’ve collaborated with a lot of good people and I’m really surprised at how many people are digging the podcast and opening up to new kind of stuff. I do want the site to get bigger and bigger through collaborations (like with Focused Mag!) and let people contribute to the site even more with articles, reviews and so on…
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