WEFUNK Interview

WEFUNK Interview

From McGill University's campus in Montreal to listeners as far away as Japan and Australia, the WEFUNK radio show is spreading excellent hip-hop, funk and soul mixes. The connoisseur selections of Professor Groove and DJ Static are conquering a worldwide audience that is growing with no end in sight. Broadcasting locally every Friday night on CKUT college radio, WEFUNK is also available online. Whether you want to let WEFUNK stream on your computer 24 hours a day or want to download hundreds of shows in mp3 format to your iPod, you now know where to find one of the best sources of hip-hop soul funk sounds, from the 60's to today.

Cream met with the men behind the turntables and mics.

Can you introduce yourselves?

PG: Professor Groove, representing the funk side of WEFUNK.

S: DJ Static representing WEFUNK and also my group Nomadic Massive!

Where did you meet?

S: We were randomly paired up to do a training show together at CKUT when we were new at the station in '95.

PG: We did that show for 8 weeks, and by the end of the training we decided to try starting a show of our own. Static was deep into hip-hop, I was deep into funk. So especially with hip-hop in the 90s leaning so much into funk, soul and jazz, it was a great time to start this kind of show. It made a perfect musical mix.

How did you discover hip-hop, funk & soul music?

S: I moved to Vancouver, Canada in 1988. Kids in school passed me some tapes from that time (like Run-DMC, Big Daddy Kane, Boogie Down Production, Public Enemy) and I've been in love ever since. Then I started listening to the dopest show on college radio in Vancouver at the time. It was called the Krispy Bisket Mix Show, with DJ Kilocee and hosted by the Incredible Ease and Mr. Bill. They dropped pure gems! My exposure to funk and soul really only came when I started doing WEFUNK with Groove.

PG: College radio was really important for me too. I grew up in Connecticut, in the US. Other than the occasional hip-hop track that blew up and got played on mainstream radio, hip-hop and funk weren't really accessible—at least for a high school kid in my town. But when I discovered a nearby college station I began hearing hip-hop, funk, soul, jazz, blues, as well as other stuff like punk, electronica-based stuff, and on and on. It really blew my mind to be suddenly exposed to so much new music I wasn't familiar with. What really stuck with me, and immediately got me hooked, was the funk. I was taping off the radio like a maniac, making my own mixtapes from those recordings and giving the tapes to my friends. I couldn't get enough.

Can you tell us more about CKUT radio?

S: I was a student at McGill University, and CKUT was the McGill radio station, so I decided to check it out to see if I could do a show there. CKUT is one of the best college stations in Canada, with a really wide range of shows ranging from jazz to reggae to experimental to radical political news coverage and commentary to shows that cater to cultural communities in Montreal like Koreans and Palestinians. All the programmers who do shows are volunteers. We all do it for the love!

PG: It was our first year at McGill when we started at CKUT. There's some really good, established shows on CKUT, which really gave us direction to grow and try to improve WEFUNK over the years. CKUT's a really great place to be doing radio. There is a strong commitment at the station toward involvement with the community, trying to support underrepresented voices and nonmainstream music.

How was the musical scene in Montreal at this time?

PG: I was going out to see a lots of live bands back then. There's a bunch of funk/R&B/soul groups that were active then and are still holding it down. They'd play a mix of cover songs and originals, mix it up with some hip- hop influenced stuff. A nice mix. Kid Koala came out of that scene—I used to go see him every week with his band Bullfrog (going by the name "Publik Enema" back then). That was just before he started getting attention on the DMC / scratch DJ scene and got hooked up at Ninja Tune. A lot of really good stuff was happening at that time in Montreal, lots of talent bubbling up. It's still like that today, although now that hip-hop is the universal mainstream music there's more space for mainstream stuff than underground stuff right now.

S: At most clubs you have to play a lot of current top 40 hits. But even when I play those clubs I still try to squeeze in something a little different, maybe something older or more left-field. There are some nights like THE GOODS where people are real open and will appreciate whatever you decide to play, but those nights are the exception rather than the rule. On the street level there's a TON of kids getting into hip-hop everyday, getting into rhyming, producing, DJing. Unfortunately most of them just imitate commerical hip-hop they hear on radio, except they're not even that good...

What was your motivation for doing this type of radio show?

S: Laying down the foundation. Hip-hop has a 30 year history. But most people think hip-hop is only the latest club hits from this year. IT ISN'T. Like in any culture, you have to know where you come from in order to know where you're going. So on WEFUNK I try to play a mix of hip-hop from all different eras so younger hip-hop heads get a sense of what came before them. And Groove goes even further back into the funk roots of hip-hop, which a lot of people forgot. Also I remember the time when I first got into hip-hop in the late 80s there was more of a political edge to hip-hop, with groups like Public Enemy, BDP, Brand Nubian, Poor Righteous Teachers...a lot of Nation of Islam and 5 Percent Nation influence. I think it's important to remind people of that history.

PG: Yeah, you said it. Hip-hop, funk, soul... there's so many eras and sounds within each of those genres. So much evolution and important music. We try to represent the full story. No matter what sound you're into, you'll listen to WEFUNK and hear something else that'll make you go, "Daaaaaamn! What was that?!".

What do you think about the hip-hop, funk and soul scene?

S: I'll just speak on the hip-hop scene. Hip-hop is really big right now. And because it's so big it's really split up. Like a family with a lot of members who don't really talk to each other. The main split I see is between the commerical and indie scene. People in both camps aren't always open to what the other is doing, even there's good music coming out of both camps.

PG: On the funk side there's been a lot of creative movement over the last 5 years or so. Hip-hop shined some light on funk in the 90s, and the revival of interest in funk spawned some great groups—the Desco / Soul Fire / Daptone side of things, bands like Breakestra, plus musicians in Europe and all over. Now you've got Quantic and the Poets of Rhythm taking that foundation in new directions, and yop've got Daptone and Truth & Soul exploring the soul and latin sounds. There's less of an interest in precisely emulating the 70s, and more interest in trying new directions while building on the past. It's been a really healthy evolution.

When did you create the website and start broadcasting WEFUNK on the internet?

PG: The website came soon after we started webcasting... spring of 1998 or something like that. Some difficulties came up as we got more popular—the university noticed how much bandwidth we were eating up! We put out a call for help on the website, and people began offering help to host our webcast and show downloads. I spent some time developing a system that lets us combine hosting from a lot of people. That allowed us to expand as more and more people listened. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes programming that keeps our website and streaming going. And we wouldn't be able to do it without the generosity of so many listeners who help out with hosting.

Are you like Internet addicts?

S: Not really. I rarely download songs. I don't even have a computer at home.

PG: For me, the internet is really important for finding out about more music and the history behind it. Plus keeping on top of the tech side of WEFUNK means I'm in front of the computer a lot.

What do you think about the controversy over music on the internet and "illegal" downloads?

S: I don't know...but I do know I like the feel of vinyl in my hands!

PG: It's hard to say. It can be very helpful for some groups in getting visibility and building a fanbase. It's created a new marketplace for older records (eBay, etc). I think it also makes people more picky about what music they will actually buy. Stakes are higher now—if you only have one or two good tracks then people will just download those and forget about buying the album. It's going to be interesting to see how the music business changes over the next 10 years. It's not going to die, but for sure there are big changes ahead.

Do you know how many people worldwide are listening your shows?

PG: I estimate that each show gets heard by 5000-10,000 people. Even with stats from downloads and streaming it's hard to be precise. But one thing's for sure—it's growing fast! The number of people listening has really exploded over the last couple years.

What do you do when you're not working on your radio shows?

PG: I'm doing a neuroscience PhD at McGill (studying music and the brain), and DJing at night.

S: In the daytime I work for a professor at McGill University. Most nights I work as a DJ in clubs.

You played in Amsterdam during the Flatground—are you involved in the BMX scene?

S: No I'm not in the BMX scene, but it seems WEFUNK is big with specific scenes like snowboarders, skaters, bboys/bgirls, and I guess BMXers too. I can't say I know much about the BMX scene, but if they got love for us, it's all good!

PG: Yeah, this was our first time playing at something like this. There were b-boy battles on the last day, so that was a lot more familiar for us. The BMX and breaking scenes both seem really vibrant in Europe, judging from what we saw at the event and the people we met.

How was this week-end in Amsterdam?

S: I had a great time. Met lots of good people. We did our thing and got nothing but love from people. I was surprised to meet a lot of bboys who were up on WEFUNK alright! Big shouts going out to Tyrone, Alex, Michiel, Thijs, Mario, Daniel, Cut-Nice, Renegade and everyone else we chilled with...

Static, can you tell us more about Nomadic Massive?

S: Nomadic Massive is the new supergroup coming outta Montreal!! It definitely reflects Montreal because Nomadic members come from all over the world (Chile, Iraq, France, Hong Kong, Haiti, Algeria, Argentina), just like the people in Montreal. We all had completely different lives but one thing we have in common is we all came up on hip-hop... We all got love for the music and the movement. Our live shows are real hype cuz we got so many elements. We got live drums, guitar and bass, a singer, me on the cut, dancers sometimes, and MCs that spit in English, French, Spanish, Creole and Arabic!

Any Canadian artists you want to tell us about?

S: Too many to name, but I'll try. From Montreal, definitely check out Muzion, Kalmunity Vibe Collective, Bless, Butta Babees. Toronto's got Kardinal, Saukrates, Choclair, the whole Blackjays massive and many more...