Tiga

Emma Warren

We’ve got Tiga, Montreal’s finest export. DJ, producer, ex-club runner, ex-record label owner. A whole catalog of fantastically large electro records. And we’re going to start with something very interesting. Tiga’s brought along the unfinished version of your new album.

Tiga

Yeah I brought some tracks that I’ve never played before.

Emma Warren

So a completely exclusive preview of some album tracks.

Tiga

So you can decide if I drop them or not. Well, actually this one I’ve played a couple times before.

Emma Warren

OK. So I think you just hit play with this one.

Tiga

You want to start with music, OK. Yeah this one’s another cover version, sorry, but they’re just so fun. This one’s going to be on the album and it’s probably going to come out on a 12" soon. I’ve brought a few things to just give different categories of music so if anyone has particular questions about how different styles are made such as remixes or cover versions or original stuff, so this is a cover version. You guys will probably recognize the song if you like Public Enemy. [to CD player] Number four. I’ll just fade out the end because it’s a dance version, it’s pretty long.

Emma Warren

It’s a minor technical hitch. [figuring out how to play the music] Well, in the meantime maybe while we’re trying to get this sorted out, you were just talking about cover versions.

(music: Tiga – “Louder Than a Bomb”)

Tiga

Sorry I have to fade it out, it’s ridiculous. It feels so incredibly out of place listening to music like that in the daylight in a room. I can’t. Anyway, it keeps going on like that for another three minutes or so.

Emma Warren

Well, that sounded like a fantastically rocking version of “Louder Than a Bomb.” You obviously have a bit of a thing for cover versions. How do you approach something like that? Where do you start with it?

Tiga

Well, covers at the beginning were because I couldn’t write well enough on my own and I recommend them as a good place to start for anyone. Like that’s in the old days, like rock bands and stuff, there was no real shame on it. It’s kind of how you cut your teeth, you spend a few years doing covers. I consider that I’m still cutting my teeth, I’m still kind of learning, so covers are a good way. A lot of time to kind of you get to hide a little bit behind someone else’s writing, which is kind of relaxing. This track I did the instrumental really quickly. The beats and the bassline and everything is nothing to do with the actual song. This is kind of tinkering and sometimes you know how it is when you’re working on music, you just get something in your head. I oftentimes think of either movies or lyrics or people or photos or whatever, and then I just was like “OK, I’ll rap on top of it.” That’s it. Then sometimes it works well as a cover. It’s a bit easy, it’s kind of like cheating. But sometimes in dance music it’s good enough.

Emma Warren

Who do you think kind of does covers really really well? Who’s the master of cover visions?

Tiga

Master of cover versions... Do you know “Weird Al” Yankovic? He did some good ones. I think White Stripes do some pretty good ones. Johnny Cash did a couple good ones, who else? Marilyn Manson does the worst ones. It’s like he has some like advisor who tells him like the most obvious songs in the world to do. “Sweet Dreams” was great when he did that. With cover versions, I mean, there’s no point. You should try to avoid songs which either you’re not going to make better, you’re not going to re-contextualize, or songs which are just too defined as they are, you know? You want songs either that went a little bit underneath the radar or songs with this one element that’s decent and the rest is shit, and you kind of throw the rest out.

Emma Warren

Did you think there’s like a whole canon of the dance music that got this early ’90s theme going on today that...

Tiga

Don’t get me started on early ’90s.

Emma Warren

That's ripe for cover visions.

Tiga

Do I think there’s something now that’s ripe for cover? Not now. But three or four years ago, yeah. Now you got to be a bit crazy. It’s dangerous to do covers, even me doing this one. I have one or two new covers on the album and I’m ready to get dissed for it.

Emma Warren

On what basis do you think you’ll be getting dissed?

Tiga

You just got to be really careful. I mean, the golden rule of the covers, if it’s really good then it doesn’t matter. I guess it’s how music is in general. If you do something and it’s really good and it just works, then it doesn’t matter. But like I said before, it’s a little bit like cheating, you know? I think the cover versions are like “get out of jail free” cards, you know? You’re allowed a few of them and then you should be doing your own stuff.

Emma Warren

So what kind of makes the rest of the new record?

Tiga

Well, besides the cover versions? No, I’ve done 30 tracks right now and three or four of them are covers, so the rest of the stuff is... Well, I don’t know if anyone. I have no idea by the way where everyone’s from or how familiar they are with stuff, but my last single, “Pleasure from the Bass,” it’s a lot of that style and as you can tell from what I just played too, it's pretty heavily influenced by a combination of hip house and acid house and Chicago stuff. There’s a lot of that but there’s a lot of real pop too. I haven’t come up with a clever name for it, I’m hoping some journalists will. I guess it’s like "rave pop" kind of thing. There’s a lot of influences from the early '90s and there’s a lot of. I like to think of it as kind of in INXS meets alternative.

Emma Warren

I mean, you ran some kind of pretty big raves in Montreal in the early '90s didn’t you?

Tiga

Yeah. Next question. [laughs] It seems it was a long time ago.

Emma Warren

It was a long time ago, but was that good stomping grounds to create these kind of trashy, pop rave, whatever kind of name you want to give to it.

Tiga

Well, back then I definitely didn’t want anything to do with pop or what I saw as pop or guitars or anything like that. I thought that I was, like, die-hard raver. It was pathetic. I think we actually made T-shirts, like, you know, "fuck guitars" or something horrible like that. We were typical prototypical ravers, you know, really influenced by rave culture in England and Germany too and techno and happy hardcore and ecstasy and big hats and lights. I got some crazy fashion faux pas at my parents’ house. Shoes with lights on them, stuff like that.

For me, rave, I kind of fell in love with it. You don’t really choose who you fall in love with, and for me it was techno culture and rave culture starting in the '90s. What it did show me, and if there was a beginning of any kind of pattern, is usually the easiest way to do anything -- and the best say -- is to do it yourself. I don’t know if there’s any aspiring DJs or anything out there. I guess it’s more difficult now, but then it was just, you know, nobody was going to book me. I was sixteen and I had like a six-foot hat on and I was playing these weird speeded up chipmunk records. It was the same process that went into the record store, the night club or Turbo, the label, or even making music. You know yourself and you know what you like, and you just go do it.

Emma Warren

I mean, you mentioned Chicago house and some other kind of influences from that time. Do you think that music’s really stood the test of time?

Tiga

Chicago stuff? Yeah. Well, I think like anything, any genre in any city gets kind of romanticized as it goes on. You know, we all look at Detroit as like, "Wow." It’s the same thing. I mean, they had a few great years and a lot of great records at a time when the one else was doing it and so that’s what made an impression on people and that’s the legacy, you know? I mean, I was never a big Chicago collector or anything. I like elements of the sound. I mean, definitely more than I ever liked the New York stuff and I was never really that into Detroit stuff either, I think. Well, I can’t say... I was going to say it’s over-rated, but you get shot in places for saying that.

Emma Warren

Do you think that perhaps with the kind of the elements of the '80s that you kind of picked out, you're showcasing a different side of the '80s than perhaps some of the other contemporaries have decided to mine?

Tiga

You mean like with with like hip-hop stuff? Yeah, but I mean I’ve already mined the synthpop thing pretty heavily. I mean, it’s difficult because as soon as you start talking genres and categories and stuff, I wish I kind of fitted neatly into something. I wish I could say that you know I was just really into Public Enemy and N.W.A. and some of that, but that wasn’t true because I was really into Public Enemy at the same time as I was really into Front 242 and really into Depeche Mode. So for me since "Sunglasses and Night" and all the electroclash stuff and Gigolo and the past five years, there was a lot of hype and a lot of tension. I always get asked the '80s questions, and for me what I would say is that, yeah I’m still influenced by the '80s. I’m definitely a child of the '80s, but it’s not a particular sound. It’s not Soft Cell, it’s not one thing, it’s more the spirit of the whole thing. And for me the spirit of the '80s was the eclecticism. It was eclecticism mixed with character-infused music. I’ve been through the '90s and what I started to really dislike and get bored of was just how little character there was in the music. That’s what I borrow from the '80s, the fact that you could do anything.

Emma Warren

As well as eclecticism, something that you seem to do very much of the music is to be really convinced of the benefits of putting a bit of fun back into it all. Is that something you’d agree with?

Tiga

Yeah, definitely. But for me I think everything... I’m a very selfish, really selfish person, and everything I do it pretty much for myself or for a few friends. Everything. I mean, "Sunglasses at Night," "Hot in Herre," "Burning Down." These things all started, I won’t say as jokes, but it’s to amuse myself. I mean DJing, if you’re fortunate enough to be a traveling DJ, it’s incredible when you get to travel. You should be doing it for yourself, and that’s how I am about everything. I do it because this is how I have to spend my time and I’m only going to do things that I actually enjoy and want to do. So as far as the fun element, well yeah, I want to have fun. I have absolutely zero interest in doing music for other people or music that other people want, or music that’s market driven. I just want to have fun for that six hours that I’m in the studio. It’s important for me also, a sense of humor is important. I think just trying to have a laugh and enjoying yourself and making fun of yourself, making fun of other people, I find that very inspiring. Most ideas start as jokes or criticism, whatever.

Emma Warren

I mean, the last single, "Pleasure from the Bass," you were talking about you know going on in the studio and trying to have fun or whatever. But what happened on that record? How exactly do you do it?

Tiga

It took about two hours which is, I guess, average. Well, that one I’m actually proud of. That one I actually like. I rarely say that because I wrote it myself and I don’t know, I think that’s just good for me. If you listen to something you do yourself and if it at no point you’re apologizing for it and you’re never embarrassed about it, then it’s good, you know? It doesn’t matter after that if people actually like it or buy it or not, if you feel that good feeling. Well a lot of the time, if it’s not a cover version, it always for me usually starts a bassline. That one I just came up with the bassline pretty quickly. People have pointed out since then that it’s like the beginning of a Michael Jackson, “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough,” but I didn’t know that at the time

Emma Warren

What is your kind of equipment of choice for basslines?

Tiga

I guess we’re going to get into all the technical stuff after, but I do everything on computer now. There are some exceptions, certain tracks and certain studios and obviously there’s the vocal stuff. But we do everything pretty much on computer. What have I been using? It’s all plugins that I use a lot. The Pro-52 and a Pro-53. And I use the Audity, which is a plugin and that one was the Audity. I’ve yet to come up with a limitation with going all digital. I think with all the good plugin EQs now and compression and everything, there’s not much you can’t do. I’m trying to get a record with a huge sound, club-wise. I won’t put a record out unless I know, DJ-wise, that it will be louder than everyone else. You can’t be trying to pump up the gains.

Emma Warren

How do you achieve that?

Tiga

I work with one of my best friends; this guy Jesper Dahlbäck, Swedish guy. I’d be lying if I said that I don’t count on him for EQing. He’s an absolute wizard. He’s the best I’ve ever seen, as far as for EQ and compression specifically. He usually looks after the mix at the end. But aside from that, I try to keep things simple. I don’t try to add too many elements to the songs. The most important thing for dance music is that once you have a groove, if you have a groove, just a loop, you should be able to listen to it basically forever without getting bored of it. That’s the test. It could just be three things. It could just be a high-hat or rise, snare, drum, kick, with a base sound underneath. It doesn’t need to be complicated at all. That’s a mistake a lot of people do. But you’ve got to leave space for things. It’s voodoo.

Emma Warren

Mike was talking about going down to the House of Blues occasionally to play his records, or road test them in his car. Do you ever take them down to clubs when they’re empty to check them out and see how they sound on a soundsystem before you play them out?

Tiga

An empty club sounds horrible. I think he said he listens in his car. I do that, too. I have certain criteria. I’m lucky, because I’m DJ-ing three or four times a week, always. There’s no better testing ground. The dancefloor doesn’t lie. That’s it. I’ve worked on records, done records. I have so many records that you do something and you play it. I know instantly as a DJ, as soon as you play something, I’m more a DJ than a producer in my own mind. As soon as you play something, you’re no longer the producer. You’re the DJ. You know instantly if it’s just not good enough, if it just doesn’t cut it. That’s the best luxury. That’s the biggest advantage to being a so-called DJ/producer. You just know right away. If you’re waiting to mix out of it, if you have to adjust it on the board, if you see some guy go to the bathroom or whatever, you know it’s not good enough. You just forget it. The advantage to that too is that, when I put a record out, without sounding arrogant, you know what’s going to work. You just know. You’ve played it at three or four clubs in three different countries and you’ve seen the reaction, you get a cross-section, you know it will work. But my ultimate testing ground is everything. Especially for things like mix CDs is I get really stoned with my little brother. We get in my car and we drive to the park. Drugs don’t lie either. They really don’t lie. Drugs is a better test. [laughter] No, it’s true. There’s an order to the drugs too. Weed is the beginning. That’s a simple test if you’ve got to go somewhere later in the day. And acid really doesn’t lie.

Emma Warren

Which of your records sounds best on acid?

Tiga

I’ve cut down, not on the records, but on the acid. Because it’s hard to get a lot of work done. Which record sounds the best? I have a new one that sounds pretty good. It’s another cover version, shit. And it’s a famous song. I’ve broken all my own rules. It’s "Burning Down the House," Talking Heads one. It gets pretty out there. It gets pretty, like, whoa. Did I say before, leave space?

Emma Warren

Yeah.

Tiga

I was lying. This one’s so packed and full. It sounds really good when you’re high.

Emma Warren

What’s the process? You’re talking though the last single saying you basically put down your bassline, then we took a little diversion through some parks and through some acid. What happens next? What’s the next stage for you, for getting your track finished? If you’re talking about the "Burning Down The House" cover version, what do you do after put down your bassline?

Tiga

"Burning Down The House," I’ll play it actually. It’s pretty complicated. You’re dealing with a perfect song to begin with. So I chop out the parts that I don’t think I can sing well enough. I ditch them. But also it’s the same with "Sunglasses at Night." You have to respect that you’re doing a dance track. You have to be ruthless with what will work. You cut away all the fat, which usually means cutting away the bridges and the middle eights, which the original songwriters don’t always appreciate. You have to do what you have to do. In the case of "Burning Down the House," which I guess I should play quickly, there’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of synths. I thought it would be cool to take a classic ’80s track that everyone knows, that was actually a dance song. I wanted to make it a bit Detroit-y. I wanted to make it a bit druggy, but a different type of druggy. Not like ’80s coke drug-y, more like ’90s. Am I coming across like a drug addict? Jesus, that's not what I meant.

Emma Warren

We can parcel.

Tiga

Jesus. It’s not what I meant. Should I play this one?

Emma Warren

Yeah. Put it on. Before you do that, what was it about the original song that made you think that it would be good to get a Detroit take on it?

Tiga

I don’t know. It’s hard to explain what it is you see in a song. That’s the alchemy of it. I’m trying to think. It’s the same thing. A lot of your DJs said it’s the same thing, it’s the beauty of being creative. The process that happens when you see something and make a connection to something else. When you’re mixing, you pick one record up. What exactly makes you choose the next record? For me, technically speaking, there are a million people that are better than a million other people in all different little areas. The thing that you really have as a musician, or as an artist, is those connections. That’s your fingerprint. That’s what you can do better than anyone else. I don’t know. It’s hard to say what I see. In "Burning Down The House," I read somewhere that good art always starts with a need for something. For me, "Burning Down The House," it was too slow. I had a selfish need. I wanted to play it. And it was too slow. There was a little bit too much going on. I don’t know. I thought maybe I could do something with it.

Emma Warren

In a way, part of the reason for doing it was to customize it so you could play it out?

Tiga

Yes.

Emma Warren

Have you played it out?

Tiga

Yeah.

Emma Warren

What’s the reaction?

Tiga

It’s good. Really good. I think. Yeah, it’s good. I don’t know if it has the immediacy of something like "Pleasure From the Bass" where you hear that riff right away. It’s different. It’s okay. My singing is pretty mediocre, but it’s okay.

Emma Warren

Let’s put it on.

Tiga

It’s one of those songs where it’s all okay. The three quarter mark is where it gets good. This one We'll have to play until the end. I’ll fade it out at the end, don’t worry.

(music: Tiga – “Burning Down the House”)

Emma Warren

I think you certainly got your acid work in there. You were saying that you played this at the end of the night at the Benicassim festival, in front of ten thousand people and a few other places.

Tiga

Didn’t I just say that it was the first time that I played it? It’s just you and ten thousand other people that have heard it. Sorry.

Emma Warren

It’s kind of demi-exclusive? Exclusive-ish?

Tiga

First time in Rome.

Emma Warren

First time in Rome. What I wanted to ask you about was the lost art of the end-of-night song. There seemed to be a point in DJ history where the end-of-night song was a really big thing. You could compile top tens of the best end-of-nighters ever. That seems to have disappeared slightly.

Tiga

When I was growing up, the end-of-night set was the best. That was what you wanted. I tried and always played it, from ’91 to ’99. That was my thing, when I had more energy, when I didn’t complain as much. It’s just the end-of-night thing, but it’s also a problem with DJing in general right now, and a lot of nightclubs. There was a time, and the end-of-night set was a perfect example of this, where the crowd was a lot more patient and they were rewarded with a lot more interesting music. It’s a cyclical thing. The DJ was more confident and more ready to play stranger records, longer records, b-sides, just different, weird stuff. There wasn’t the pressure to make everyone go crazy. Now it’s like all night usually, everyone’s got to go crazy. Every song has to be big. That really hurts DJs, it hurts musicians. There’s a lot more pressure to make stuff the same. That’s a really long answer.

Emma Warren

It’s the kind of Jive Bunny-ization of DJing; that whole feeling of having to do back-to-back, hands-up-in-the-air stuff the whole time. What can you do as a DJ to combat that?

Tiga

The most important thing as a DJ is, it’s a luxury, but if you can, just finding the right crowd and the right places to play, that’s the first thing. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter how big a name, small a name. A few months ago, I played a party, 30 hours outside of Budapest or something. I walked in, it was like three thousand angry young men. It was crazy. I was like, "Oh no, what am I going to do?" They were playing, like, 160 BPM. It’s fine if you’re in the right... You have to try to match your sound to the venue. It’s difficult. A lot of promoters don’t necessarily know the music so well. Agents definitely don’t know the music so well. That’s the first thing. Also DJs have to be willing to accept that it’s not necessarily good to play the big events. I don’t really like playing the big parties anymore. I’d much rather play at, all my favorite places in the world are places like Robert Johnson in Frankfurt, or Cookies in Berlin, or Pulp in Paris. Just small places where it’s like playing in bars. You don’t get paid the same money, you don’t get the same exposure, you don’t reach as many people in a way. But for yourself as an artist, it’s amazing. You can play what you want. It’s way more rewarding.

Emma Warren

You mentioned this way of DJing that’s developed, taking confidence away form DJs. Do you think playing the smaller parties helps amp up your confidence?

Tiga

Definitely.

Emma Warren

Amp up your belief in what you’re doing?

Tiga

Definitely. They asked the guy before me, Magic Mike, if you’re influenced and if you listen when other people criticize? I think he said, "No. I’m a really confident guy. I have no problem with music. I’m still influenced by what people say." If you’re a DJ and you clear the floor and you don’t care, or you don’t react, there’s something wrong with you. You’re an entertainer. It’s a fine line. No matter who you are, no matter how confident, you can see people’s reaction to things. If you go to your record label with your album and you see that they’re like, "Oh this is... Interesting," you’re like, "Fuck." No matter who you are. David Bowie gets his feelings hurt. It is a delicate balance. That’s why I’m saying it’s important to put yourself in the position with a receptive audience, in a place where you nurture each other. You do develop confidence that way. Because it’s difficult. Also, as a DJ, you have to have faith in playing the records that you really love, the records you love at home. It’s the same as when you’re making music. You have to have the confidence to do what you, yourself alone, in your most private moments, love. That’s all I do. I’ll play other things that get very romantic and very weird. But everything I’ve ever done, especially the ’80s stuff, and it goes with the image too, and the videos and everything, you have to do the things that you yourself love. If it means acting out what you do alone in front of your mirror, then so be it. That’s what you should do.

Emma Warren

Which of the records are soundtracking your private moments in front of the mirror at the moment?

Tiga

I like that new Destiny’s Child record, which is pretty good. No, I don’t know. I’m an old man. It’s still the old classics. There’s a lot of Depeche Mode. It’s embarrassing. It’s the same old ones. Actually, last night my gig in Rome got cancelled so I did dance in front of the mirror at my hotel. What was it? It was... Oh God. This is so embarrassing, every time I’m in Rome, does anyone know the song "Love Train," by Holly Johnson? Pretty bad song. He was that singer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Anyway, there’s a line, “You’re a work of art, you’re the Trevi Fountain.” So me, like a loser, every time I walk by the Trevi Fountain, I start singing the song and I run back to my hotel and put it on. That was one of them. Just in case there was anyone here who thought I was cool. I listen to "Love is Blindness" by U2. There’s some good music too, I just can’t remember. You never remember the good music, you only remember the bad music.

Emma Warren

You kind of made a bit of a passing reference a moment ago to this made me think about how every Tiga release has this event feel to it. There’s this whole combination of the music, the artwork, and the video, all these other things. How important is it, for you personally, to have this 3D approach to putting records out?

Tiga

It’s very important. Well, it depends. What’s important for me is things reaching their potential. I don’t mean potential like sales potential, I mean potential for yourself. Nobody likes the feeling of if you work really hard on something and you think it almost got there, or... It’s a personal thing, and I believe that every art project, whether it’s a song or a book, whatever, has a potential that if it doesn’t reach that it’s a bit of a disappointment. Sometimes that means selling 500 records on a white label with no name on it. Sometimes it just means playing it for a friend. Other times it means a more developed approach. I think it really depends, for everyone here, what kind of music you’re making. As soon as you enter the vocal realm, as soon as things are a little bit song-oriented and there is a voice to it, especially if it’s your voice, I personally think it serves the music best to develop an identity around that. You’re just going to reach more people. You’re going to reach more people that are going to care more about your music and listen more to your music. The fact of the matter is, I’m sure that there are people who think image shouldn’t matter, or presentation shouldn’t matter. And sometimes it doesn’t matter. But 99% of the time it does matter for the simple reason that we’re human beings and we react that way. Just like a baby reacts to a good looking mother better than an ugly mother. [laughter] Is that true? You know what I mean. I mean, every single person, it doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter if you’re the most die hard minimalist guy who lives in a black box and only listens to techno out of a can with Braille on it, it doesn’t matter what. You still, at some point in your life, you’ve been influenced by music that was character-driven, and it does have a basic impact on everyone. I think, for myself, I figure, why not just embrace it? It’s fun, too. Like you said before about fun, it’s a lot more fun. It’s fun to be in a video. It’s not fun to have your picture taken, but it’s fun to... It’s fun also to develop a character that you can then dump, just the same as a musical style or anything else. For myself, there are too many things I want to do in life to get bogged down in any one of them.

Emma Warren

You’re talking about singing, among other things in there, how do you record your voice? What’s your approach?

Tiga

Oh God. First of all, I’m not a singer, and I don’t really know how to sing. I never learned. The only reason I even started singing was because I couldn’t really do anything else, and it seemed like when all your ideas... When I have an idea, I hum it to myself, and it was the easiest way. I can’t read or write music so it was the easiest way to get an idea across, then it just kind of was like, “Well, why not? I’ll just sing.” How I record the vocals? Again, there’s this big thing between analog and digital. I went through a short phase where I was like, “I’ve got to get the greatest signal path in the world, I don’t have such a great voice. I need every little trick I can do to help.” Then you just reach a point where you’re like, “Who are you kidding?” That’s just for Whitney Houston. That’s for people who... It’s the same as a regular driver is not going to notice the difference between Schumacher’s car of this year, and Schumacher’s car of last year. Just get in your car and drive.

Emma Warren

It’s definitely a kind of, “Just do it” type approach?

Tiga

Yeah, especially with singing. See, talent is a double-edged sword because... There’s Mozart and there’s Aphex Twin and there’s all these geniuses that we all know. But then there’s a whole lot of people that are talented. It’s not even that rare. In a way it’s like there are a million great session guitarists, and there are a million great vocalists, and there are a million people. For me, it’s just not really that important. What’s really, really, important, like I said before, is just being as much yourself as you can. Because it’s the only chance you have at being original. There’s no such thing as original, but you know what I mean. It’s the only chance you have of making any kind of statement or mark, especially now when everything’s so saturated, when everything’s so easy. My little brother, he gets software cracked on the internet, he makes a track that’s pretty good in like 20 minutes. Anybody can do it. To make stuff that’s good now is not a challenge. The software almost does it for you. But to make something that’s personal, and to make something that shows something of the artist, that’s your ticket. So for me, everything, the writing, the artwork for the album, the videos, the pictures, that’s just all an extension of the same thing. That’s my best chance to make a mark.

Emma Warren

It’s interesting really because basically anyone can make beats now, can’t they?

Tiga

Yeah.

Emma Warren

Anyone can make a tune. There’s a whole generation of people growing up doing exactly that on a daily basis.

Tiga

Yeah, and it’s a tricky situation because all the digital technology... Not just even the digital, just the fact that it’s crazy, like when I was younger I would have died to be in this room. I just can’t believe it. I still can’t believe it because I’m so old-fashioned. But at the same time, I grew up in Canada and we had no DJ magazines, we had nothing. There was no internet. How’s that for insane? I’m not that old, you know what I mean? No, but in the early ’90s... I think a lot of people forget, I’m sure not everyone in this room, but a lot of people... I’ll use my brother again as an example, he’s eight years younger than me, you forget even just pre-internet. There’s one big advantage to everything that’s happened and that’s that there’s a huge network, there’s so much going on. There’s a community and there’s an industry, and there’s an environment that you can join. The huge downside, and this is something that I’m very happy... I’m going to sound like an old man, but I’m very happy that I came along before all this. I think there’s something very important about being forced to work very, very hard for every little scrap. It starts as a DJ having to find records. When you have to really bust your ass to find a record. I remember a DJ would come to town, he’d play some record, you had no idea what it was, you’d tried to scribble it down on a piece of paper, and maybe you’d spend a year trying to find it. Then maybe you’d hear about one copy that someone had and you’d trade it. That process, the actual process, it makes you sharper, it makes you more appreciative, and it adds so much value to the actual music. Now you’ve got these punks, like my brother, who, he drives me crazy. My brother he’ll be like, “Yeah, I have it. I have it. I have it.” About my set. I’ll play, be like, “I got it, I got it, I have it.” He’s got a hard-drive with everything. Everything I have. Everything. I tell him, “Yeah, so what? So you have it all. One day we’re all going to have it all. One day we’re all going to have a little box in my phone with every book, and every...” It doesn’t matter. It only makes it even more important to learn the lessons of the pursuit, and how much the actual pursuit means. Not to mention the fact that’s what you have to live your life doing anyway.

Emma Warren

It’s interesting...

Tiga

I almost started crying. It’s like...

Emma Warren

I suppose it’s something that’s to be seen really, isn’t it? Whether or not that instant access does devalue music to the people that listen to it.

Tiga

It does devalue it. No, no, no, it doesn’t have to be... Look at the world. It devalued stuff. Not everything, obviously. The peaks and the valleys are still the same, but I personally think it’s not for everybody. I’m sure not for a lot of people here, but I think for a lot of people. Look at pop music now. Look at...

Audience member

[inaudible]

Tiga

Yeah, it’s like everything else. There’s so much easy access to everything. Things in life, it’s about supply and demand. The easier it is to get something, the less it’s appreciated. That’s just basic. That’s what I think. If you look at the state of music now and films, not all films, keep in mind there are exceptions to everything, obviously there’s always, and I don’t know everything, I’m kind of over the hill already probably, there’s always a new generation that...

Audience member

How old are you?

Tiga

I’m 31. So over the hill. Just a number. I think it’s really affected things. If you compare the music now to the music that was getting done in the late ’70s, early ’80s, everything about it, what was getting funded? The difference, what we’ve gotten used to now, we’ve gotten used to, now that underground and big budget are mutually exclusive. Like somehow there’s something wrong if something’s funded, like it can’t be both. Then you look at Led Zeppelin records, you look at Lou Reed records, you look at these crazy weird underground things, that everything, they were reaching mass markets, they had loads of marketing. Everyone was on the same team. I’m not trying to fantasize about the past or whatever, but I do think part of the problem is... That’s the negative side. The positive side is it’s changing. This is changing. It is good that everyone can get a lot of music for free. That’s really important. It’s important that the music reaches places that it couldn’t have reached before.

Emma Warren

Absolutely.

Tiga

Sorry.

Emma Warren

When you’re talking about really amazing albums from that period you’re talking about, constructed in that particular way, when people had that ability to do things that were really quite bizarre.

Tiga

Yeah, the rules hadn’t been written yet.

Emma Warren

Absolutely. Bringing it back to your album...

Tiga

Led Zeppelin, me, Lou Reed.

Emma Warren

I did want to ask you a couple of more things about the record because I think a lot of people here are starting to do production. They’re doing 12"s. Sometimes maybe more of them have got a body of work behind them, but if you’re starting to approach an album, how differently do you have to think about things than if you’re just putting out a single or a 12"?

Tiga

Good question, Emma. I’m pretty traditional about the concept of an album. I think the beauty of an album is they don’t all have to be hits. You can have a few big tracks on it, and I think an album should be a little self contained, little story. Kind of a traditional approach where you can have some slow songs, you can have some fast songs, you can have some weird songs, things that don’t really make much sense. My plan for the album is to do some kind of... There’s a lot of love songs and I like the idea of interludes, that’s kind of a hip-hop thing. But I like the idea of little skits, and I think also, I do have rules. I don’t think an album should be more than about 45 minutes long.

Emma Warren

Absolutely. 45 minutes, nine tracks, classic, Aretha Franklin.

Tiga

Those things are formulas because they work. They’re tried and tested, and it doesn’t have to be that way but I think it works that way. I think an album should just be – I’m trying to think of great albums that I really like recently. It’s so hard. Does anyone know that guy John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers? I think he’s done some great albums in the past, though I don’t even think they did very well. But just albums where, from the artwork to the title of the album to everything, I just got it, and I was like, “This is cool. This is an album. It’s a little self contained universe and it’s personal too.” It all depends what you look for in music. Some people look for the personal and the romantic and whatever, and I know there are a lot of people who just want... I don’t know. That’s what I mean. I don’t mean that I’m an old man, in age, I just mean I don’t know what the people who buy Linkin Park records. Or maybe they’re not that even bad, or Britney Spears, or Justin, I don’t know what they want.

Emma Warren

You used the word romantic a couple of times in the last couple of sentences. You were saying before that you had a remix you were going to play us, which I think you described as very romantic. What is it?

Tiga

Well, it’s a band, I don’t know if you guys know a band called Soulwax. They’re a Belgian band and they’re also the same guys who do the 2ManyDJs thing. They’re a very good example of I guess everything melting together. DJ culture, house and techno and acid house with rock and everything, and they’re very good friends of mine. They’re helping me produce two tracks on my album. This is their, not the first single, it’s the second single. It’s called "E Talking," and this is a remix. This one I have not played for anyone, except them. They were a little – they told me it sounded like a gay Marc Almond. I was like, hmm. But finally they’ve seen the light and they love it. It’s just because they thought I was going to do something really hard, but I threw out all their vocals, which sometimes the original artists don’t like. That guy’s sleeping. OK, sorry. I understand, I used to do the same thing in school. It’s called "E Talking" and it is very a bit of Soft Cell but it’s very Depeche Mode, but later Depeche Mode, like long house mixes, kind of Francois Kevorkian style. I’m going to play it and I am going to go to the men’s room, because it’s a bit embarrassing. I like this one. Again, this one also kind of, it gets a bit, the last two minutes it does a lot.

(music: Soulwax – “E Talking (Tiga's Disco Drama Remix)”)

Emma Warren

Now that’s a proper dance record.

Tiga

You like that one?

Emma Warren

You’re just saying this is not so much romance, it’s drama going in there.

Tiga

Yeah. I changed my mind. You want to do this for me? Yeah, because I kept using the word romance, but it’s actually something more specific. It’s a drama and theater. I was just saying like when I listen to that song, which I actually kind of like now, again, it’s important. It just, the same thing with the pictures, for me, the more you can, I don’t know how to say it, but music’s like a gift. It should be really, really fun and it should be your own little private escape world. That’s how it is for me. That’s what that is to me. It’s like, you have a chance in a studio or wherever you are when you’re working on it to just make believe. You can pretend to be anyone.

Emma Warren

I think it would be good to talk briefly about remixes in general and kind of your approach to it. You said this is really different to the original. What was the process for you?

Tiga

Remixing, first of all, if anybody, I guess a lot of people here, this is for everybody, right? Just like electronic music producers. Remixing’s very important. As far as being a DJ, remixing is a very important thing to kind of understand and to be proficient at for a DJ, to have a good career, because a lot of times it’s kind of your ticket in. I approach doing remixes differently than obviously original tracks. I don’t like to remix songs that I like.

Emma Warren

Why’s that?

Tiga

Because, I don’t know, what am I going to do, make them worse? If I’m satisfied, if I already like it, what am I going to make it into exactly?

Emma Warren

What is it that draws you into a potential remix, then?

Tiga

Well, there’s some that. [sighs] Cash. No, I’m joking. Some of them. Well, usually it’s a little bit I guess like covers. It’s something where you think you can transform it. This song is a perfect example. I didn’t like what they did with it. It’s a hard rock... To me this is kind of hard and angry and not angry but just like rock. I love the guys, and in this case I really like the song. Just the actual song, how it’s written, I kind of like it. I get a chance to kind of make it as I would have made it, you know, so that’s sometimes the approach. There are other times where you’re trying to change it. You’re trying to make it kind of how you would make it in order to DJ. Other times too, where I did a remix for that Scissor Sisters for "Comfortably Numb." There was a case where I was just, sometimes you just have a specific little idea and a remix comes along at the right time and you apply them together. I was going through a big Neptunes phase just all this kind of beats with the high cowbells and stuff like that. I had this little beat I’d been working on and I just stuck the two together. The two different areas as far as the song itself, I’m usually very faithful to the actual song structure. Usually if I keep vocals at all, I keep all the vocals. I usually, unless there’s a specific problem, like unless there’s like a, like I said before, sometimes there’s a chord change or something that really doesn’t sit right with the dance track or something, those things sometimes I’ll emit. Generally, if I’m respecting the song at all, which I usually do if I take the remix on, like this one, I do stick to the same structure and I do stick to the same words and I try to keep the same sounds. However, I usually ditch all the sounds. I usually ditch all the sounds except for one or two. The only reason I keep those is as an exercise so you just have a place to start. It doesn’t matter if it’s a good place to start, it’s just a place to start. What I would say, I mean, if I was offering advice, what’s tricky a lot of the time is too many options. That’s another problem with working digitally. Magic Mike mentioned it, too. Limitation can be incredibly creatively motivating. That’s why it’s great sometimes just a few colors. If your palette’s limited, it helps you. It’s rigid. Sometimes with a remix, it helps to start with one or two elements just so there’s a little bit of consistency and it’s just a place to begin. That’s what I usually do.

Audience member

[inaudible]

Tiga

Yeah.

Audience member

I mean, I was singing Led Zeppelin songs, but no one knows they were Led Zeppelin. I actually put the chorus first. I take the chorus out, change it around quite a bit. Do you change the start?

Tiga

Well, I guess I’m more interested in flirting with the familiar. Still maintaining. No, because I definitely want people to recognize the original in it, I want them to...

Audience member

So you want the history there still.

Tiga

Yeah, a little bit. Enough of it. Enough of it so that there’s contrast and enough of it so that they, yeah.

Audience member

What about changing the style for example? You like the song, but you have a hip-hop style, so you change it to fit the style. You sometimes change quite a lot of the electronic sounds or whatever, but you still like to keep the lyrics for example, or the structure of the song.

Tiga

The way I look at it is if I’m being asked to do a remix of a song, a vocal track, then I kind of look at it like I’m supposed to change the instrumental. I’m changing the backing track, and maybe I’m changing slightly the arrangement and maybe the effects on the voice. I look at it as I’m producing a new version of the same song. As far as remixing instrumental tracks, I usually say no, because I don’t really, to me it’s like giving somebody a track for free. I don’t really see what I’m supposed to do. It depends. The difference between me and I guess someone even like the guy that was before me, or... See, I don’t really have a style. I don’t really consider that I have a specific style that I can easily graft onto someone else’s work. For me it’s more about ideas. I can’t just take an instrumental record and just, oh, I’ll give it my treatment, just change the beats. To me, that’s not enough. I don’t have a sound that’s that defined. To me, my sound comes through either re-singing it or different kind of concepts.

Audience member

Do you play this live, for example? I mean, or is it just for records?

Tiga

Do I perform life?

Audience member

Yeah.

Tiga

Not yet. I’m working up to it.

Emma Warren

One thing that I just wanted to ask you, just kind of heading back to something you were talking about before, are you down with the idea of doing it for yourself just for DJing with?

Tiga

Yeah, definitely. I do.

Emma Warren

I think sometimes it’s almost like as a DJ if you’re doing those extra things, you can be a better DJ to go and see and it’s going to make you a better DJ all around.

Tiga

Yeah. Definitely. I think that’s a great advantage to all the technology now. I don’t really use Final Scratch. I have it, I don’t really like it so much. But yeah, as far as making little edits and little bootlegs, what’s amazing is like with iChat or I guess AIM or whatever the messenger, it’s amazing how in different hotel rooms, every night, me and my friends just trade tracks. Last minute, you’re like, "Oh, I’m on. I’m playing a few hours in Greece. I never got that the Cult bootleg you did, send it to me," and you get it at the last minute, you burn it and that’s good. It’s fun for all those kind of cut up little joke records. Because in the old days it was a bit expensive to do a joke record. You had to cut an acetate. It’s like jokes are fun if they’re for free. Jokes, when they’re a couple hundred dollars, is like...

Emma Warren

The whole kind of bastard pop thing, which was kind of around the edges of whatever you wanted to call it, electroclash, at that same time...

Tiga

Electroclash.

Emma Warren

I said it. I said it. I’m sorry. Did that kind of thing, it kind of went from being something that was really interesting and really innovative to very quickly to turning into a novelty Jive Bunny kind of routine? Do you think there’s any life left in that?

Tiga

I don’t know. I think some things are meant to just be fun little ideas. They’re not meant to be genres. They’re not meant to be overexposed. That’s the problem with the music industry, which has nothing to do with what we were talking about up until now. The problem is they just lose the context a lot of the time. Same with the magazines and everything, some things are just a fun little idea. I mean, the bastard pop stuff is a perfect example, like Richard X or Too Many DJs. I mean, they were doing things for themselves for fun to play at clubs, and that was all it was really meant to be. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it can stand the test of time. It’s just a good idea, you know? It is a bit like a joke. You tell a joke once and it’s funny. If you then had to take that same joke on the road forever all over the world, it wouldn’t be funny anymore.

Emma Warren

Obviously not. Well, maybe we should put some questions out to the floor.

Audience member

Just mention about the fun, fun factor’s very important in music, obviously. I understand that you appreciate that. Your music is like fun.

Tiga

Fun obsessed.

Audience member

I have to mention one thing, your fun tends to dance. You refer to dance as fun. Is it a one way path, does it have to be dance music all the way or something?

Tiga

Do I just look at dance as fun?

Audience member

To be honest, I haven’t got any exposure apart from your dance sounds. Is there anything more to you than that?

Audience member

And are you a good dancer?

Tiga

I used to be, I really used to be. But it’s like, you know how in baseball, you know pitchers, they kind of forget how to bat after a little while? Is there anything more to me? Well, I think, I don’t know.

Audience member

I’d like any sort of comment on the whole dance thing. I mean, for me, it’s not about dancing. Music is what you said, the whole universe of yours. You just express anything. It doesn’t have to be dance.

Tiga

Yeah, it’s a good question. The truth is, as s a music lover and a collector and a listener, I listen to everything. As a musician myself, it is pretty limited to dance stuff.

Audience member

Because of the commercial...

Tiga

No. Because it’s what I know. It’s kind of what I feel comfortable with. I think a lot of the time you make the music that you know. There’s some things that you just know. It’s in your blood. For me, after DJing for like 15 years every week and just collecting those records for so long, I just know it. It’s kind of my safety zone, I guess.

Audience member

Has it crossed your mind maybe one day not far away from now that whole thing won’t sell and you won’t be commercially viable in that sense?

Tiga

I mean...

Audience member

You understand what I’m talking about?

Tiga

Yeah, of course.

Audience member

Being good at what you are is really good, but you cannot stay there forever or maybe you have to change to go along.

Tiga

Yeah, but you can’t think about it either way. I mean, look, every single person in the world comes in and out of what you call viability. Everybody. It has nothing to do with how good you are. David Bowie is incredible and his new album sucks. It’s just a fact. I look at him and I think, how did that happen? But it happened. Everyone has a prime. Prince is the ultimate genius. We all know it, and still, how many of us can really listen to his new stuff? Whether you think about it or not is irrelevant. Yeah, I’m sure there will be a time where I do a record and everyone will be like, "Oh, what a joke," you know? I’m sure there will be a time when nobody wants to hear me talk and I’m sure my plan really is that the time no-one wants to hear me talk, I also don’t want to talk. That’s kind of the plan is because you as an artist also move on and you’re writing books or you’re making movies or you’re doing whatever. I don’t look forward either way. I mean, I definitely appreciate that it’s working now. That’s 100%. I’m really, really happy that it does work now. I’m happy that my idea of a fun, stupid little track works, like right now, because there’ll be a time when it won’t and there was a time when it didn’t. For ten years, I was DJing in Montreal and nobody was interested in what I thought was "fun." Nobody wanted to know. The timing. That’s what pop culture is, that’s what art is in a way.

Audience member

OK, I have actually two questions. First one is are you doing any more material with Jori Hulkkonen.

Tiga

Are you from Finland?

Audience member

Yeah, I am.

Tiga

Yes. Yeah, we did. Well, we had a whole album. We did a whole album after "Sunglasses at Night" and we never released it.

Audience member

I actually heard those tracks from Jori.

Tiga

Really?

Audience member

Yeah. I know him personally.

Tiga

Did you like them?

Audience member

Well, there were a couple of good ones there.

Tiga

Yeah, exactly. There was on that was pretty good. It was on my DJ-Kicks CD, this "Dying and Beauty" track. We finished that. Did vocals, and that’s for his album.

Audience member

Yeah, "Blue and White," right?

Tiga

Oh, there was "Blue and White." The hockey song.

Audience member

Yeah, yeah.

Tiga

That was really a joke. For people who don’t know, I did a rap song about the Finnish hockey team losing to the Canadian hockey team. It was ridiculous. Sorry, so we’re doing that track on his new album and he’s doing one track on my album.

Audience member

OK, but anyway, second question is about ice hockey. NHL is now done, but there will be world championships this spring. Who will win?

Tiga

I mean, I’m sorry to say it, but Canada’s pretty unstoppable now.

Audience member

We’ll see, we’ll see.

Tiga

I’m sorry. I love Finland. I’m a supporter, but it’s just not fair right now. We have too many young great players. If there was a hockey season, I wouldn’t be here I don’t think. I’m Canadian, I have to like hockey.

Emma Warren

Do we have another question over here?

Tiga

Do we have any other questions? I love to talk. Oh, no. Soon I’ll have to talk to myself.

Emma Warren

We have a mirror.

Tiga

It’s true.

Audience member

I’m not sure if I caught this earlier, but you said your Talking Heads cover was intended as an end-of-the-night tune. When I heard the tune, I heard at the end and you said that the cool part came at the end, and then I heard all these synths come in. As a DJ, I always get frightened when I hear the track kind of act up at the end, because here I am trying to put the previous tune to sleep and bring in the next one and it’s all like won’t let me put it away.

Tiga

That’s why it’s an end of the night tune. You don’t have to mix. That’s the idea. I mean, if you played it during a set, you’d lose the last minute and a half. You’d lose the synths, you’d lose the little Detroit-y feel to it. I mean, I wasn’t thinking that necessarily when I did it, but at the end of it, it kind of... Sometimes also, if it was really so calculated, then I’d be a genius. You know how it is. You don’t really sit there and plan everything. As the song takes shape, and again it has a lot to do with DJing. When you play it, it’s the best thing. DJing’s really amazing like that. It’s just such a great laboratory because you get to see what happens, see how people react, you say, "Hey, this part’s not long enough, this ride comes in way too late. The vocals are too loud. It’s too short. The end’s too lame. The bass isn’t strong enough." Those things just come to you. I think the biggest problem from what I’ve seen of all my friends, I have so many friends who make music, so many people who spend their lives working on music. If there’s one skill that I could give to people as a gift, it would be knowing how to finish something. It’s just knowing when it’s over. It’s just over. If you know when something’s finished and you know what you want, you can do pretty much anything.

Audience member

What is the key to find out when you know your song’s finishing?

Tiga

Well, with the dance stuff, it’s quite easy because like I said, if it works on the dancefloor, to me it’s pretty much done. That’s the beauty of it. It can’t be better. OK, they can dance faster? He’s not moving his arms enough? Basically, if they’re dancing, that’s a...

Audience member

But in the studio, for example, when you’re mixing, when you’re...

Tiga

If I’m dancing? Yeah, there are some tricks, like if it sticks in your head. Just really basic things. If it sticks in my head, if I can listen to it for more for a hour and I don’t hate it. With dance stuff, it’s really about the groove and if the groove’s good, if you feel yourself, if it’s enough to keep, that you’re still interested in it after a few hours. And generally the songs that I don’t finish within a day or two days, I drop.

Emma Warren

The whole finishing thing is, kind of everyone who makes music understands how hard it is to do that. If you can finish it then you’ve got a chance of kind of developing a style, haven’t you?

Tiga

My advice is completely subjective, but things that draw out, just dump them. It’s like relationships. It’s the same thing. Seriously, if it’s broken, there’s a good chance it’ll break again and oftentimes it’s not worth the effort. And you know, it’s just things, because it’s not so complicated. Again, I’m talking dance music. I’m talking more or less the genre. It’s different if you’re doing ballads and it has real meaning to you, obviously you might want to follow it through for more than a day. But for the dance stuff, it’s usually pretty immediate. I find, in my experience any time I’ve had to go back and change something, any time I’ve really had to keep going, it wasn’t that great. Sorry, last thing, you can’t be too precious about stuff either. Sometimes people, you get, again, like a relationship, you get attached. You’re not really attached to what you’ve done, you’re attached to how much you’ve put into it. And you have to be able to draw that distinction, because a lot of the time, just let things go. I have so much shit that’s never going to see the light of day. It’s not a big deal. Sorry.

Emma Warren

Do you need a microphone?

Audience member

How much do you throw away? How many don’t make it?

Tiga

I said I have a lot of tracks that I throw away. I’m pretty efficient. I’m pretty efficient. I’m not really a perfectionist musically. I’m a perfectionist with the other stuff, with the artwork and the videos. With the music it’s like, again, like he said [gestures at audience member], if your thing is more fun, it’s a bit different. I listen to some kind of progressive trance records, or even progressive techno, it’s a much more serious culture. It’s much more about a bunch of guys sitting around breaking down the snares and being like, “I don’t know, man, you lost it.” You know, and I’ve got a lot of friends like that, but you know what I mean? I think for me, I can get away with, I leave things loose sometimes. Especially with things like vocals. A lot of times with vocals I’m like, it’s good enough. It’s fine. The thing is, generally, it’s ironic that I say this, but the only area of my life where I think I would ever say "good enough" is with music. I don’t say it with other people’s music. But with my own music I just think sometimes it’s so important to finish, to close a book on something. Sometimes it’s more important to get an idea out than to get an idea perfected, because you can drive yourself crazy.

Emma Warren

Hallelujah to that. We have any more questions? Or should we just wind up? Wind up.

Tiga

Thanks.