K-OS

0:00Got chaos here in the studio. Tell me about music influences when you were a kid. What were your parents playing? How'd you get into music? My dad's a huge fan of everything from jazz to you know soul to like you know classical music so Really, I would say that my biggest Influency music was going through his record crate in the nice during that time people's records were very artistic They had very Psychedelic if it wasn't psychedelic very beautiful pictures on it and so as a youth I would go just thumb through his records and it was like a whole world to itself And that's how I first started to relate to music through the pictures that came at these these records And what also was interesting is that my dad who you know grew up in Trinidad had all these different cultures in there everything from Boney M Abba, you know Stevie Wonder mochoffman Beethoven Linda Ronstadt. It's like all these all over the board

0:50Yeah, so for me, you know every time people go You know your music's all over the place and you like all kinds of music It's more because my father made it okay for me to do that because you kind of follow what your parents Yeah, definitely especially your morality and your ideas come from what your parents do most of the time subconsciously It's not what they tell you to do It's what they do and they don't really make a big deal about it You sort of just take it in so my dad was a great lover of music and everything that I I Love about music or sensibilities and music came from him So yeah, and his family and his friends used to listen to records back then it's like everyone has a beer You take the record off you clean it with that velvet Yeah, another one on you know I'm not allowed to touch his records You know that the whole record player look like a weird kind of time sensitive thing with this thing ball The fell from the bottom you didn't want to mess it up. It had all these little knobs

1:37It's like I turn it and be like did I screw it up? You know so I think the connoisseurs of music records made you a connoisseur of music because putting on a record itself Was an artistic thing you had to like if you're about your records you put it on there You made sure it was clean you didn't want it to be dirty you put it back in the sleeve now This go to people's house CD cases pizza on top of it You know I mean people just make their own CDs don't write on it. Oh, what's not anymore There's not even CD is not even physical property even iPods It's like you know, it's like you don't really music You can't already you can't feel it and touch it already I think what these artists did when they made albums was make it a real thing for people You know so again that explains a lot of my album artwork of why it's so intricate and pictures and drawings and different ideas because I think a record something you should hold and be able to look through Why you're listening to it and give it to a friend and for them to be like wow

2:24This is you gave this to me this is so amazing as opposed to like some plastic case with a CD That's not written on top of it. You know people can dub all they want I dubbed growing up too But I just think music's been a little bit disrespected and sometimes I just think back to my father And how much they respected music and I think that's also the problem why people started not really you know It's it's kind of the chicken and the egg is it that people start disrespecting music or did the people who put out music start putting on music that You know deserve to be disrespected Hmm interesting so that's my whole influence comes out of respect for music I guess if I want to put it in a nutshell Yeah, I want to go back to that downloading thing and all that kind of stuff in a bit But going back to the back in the day. Did you pick up any instruments? Did your father playing instruments or When did you first pick up a guitar or drums or anything like that? Yeah, my father played a steel pan which is a natural instrument of Trinidad

3:12What's that like I basically turned out was very rich in oil like Calgary and What would happen is when they get rid of these oil? Pan's these big oil bins they throw them on this yard and these kids would get start beating on them. Oh, okay I kind of like a steel drum gun steel drum and then they made basically start cutting these drums and making them into drums and Then the president of the country one year because there were a lot of gangs in Trinidad when my dad was growing up He he created this thing called panorama It's kind of like hip-hop. It was started so that these gangs would stop knifing each other Start competing to see who the best steel pan. Oh, I was and at that time if you so therefore if you're part of a steel pan Crew you're like kind of a bad guy so my grandmother didn't want my dad involved in that but he was so Glorified and he loved it so much You just kid from the suburbs who wanted to be a part of it

3:57He ended up marrying the sister of one of the guys who was ahead of this steel pan Oh, I which is my uncle who made steel pans for a living So and then my other uncle played upright bass and my grandmother played piano and stuff So all my family played music not just by ear and so for me growing up It's like you just pick up a bass and you start playing it or you pick up the piano You don't need to know anything about it It's like everyone's jamming in the living room you pick it up and you play something on it and you play it till you're good at it Or else they tell you just shut up Cool riff and just keep going on. Yeah, so that's my music experience And so I just took that to the next level and kept banging on things and then I bought samplers and things that made it easy to sort of Sample music so for me it was technology kind of caught up to my lack of musical knowledge So I was able to like play little little pieces of the guitar

4:45Loop it and then make it into a song or play a piano line and loop it so yeah I can play things but I'm not a virtual so by any means do you play anything on the records or is the rest your band doing it? Yeah, I know I play piano guitar nice keyboards Cool exit sound a lot more like it was samples based whereas this stuff like the last record sound a lot more live recorded in the studio true I yeah exit was sampled and even the sound like I got paranoid when I got signed to Capitol in 98 I was just like they wanted me to re-record stuff and I was just like no So part of the reason it sounds sample is because exit came out in 2000 But some of those songs were listed were written in like 97 98. Oh wow so just they were just dated and I think that's where you get a kind of Older sound and things were sitting around on tapes and stuff like that for a couple years I don't know if that changes anything, but Joyful rebellion and

5:31Atlantis was very much about record song right song record right song record warehouse studios You know bigger studios better technology So they sound a bit more pristine But I do try to sabotage myself in some of these songs by like using certain sounds or not or Panning things are doing things weird to give it a sound to make sure it sounds kind of like weathered Okay, you know you mentioned made you re-record a couple songs Haven't only knows remember the first video you used sick video just riding around on a bike and just I think it was just I had in guitar then there was a second version that came out. I was like What's why did that happen was that the glaeton made you know they wanted me to? Release it a single after I'm and I want to do have an only nose and everyone was like no do this song and call me and all these other Some yeah, so they're like so the bargain was okay

6:18You can do have a no you know It's but we need to beat if we're giving it like send it anywhere So I had fun with it I was like okay I get to do the single I want to do and reinterpret it because once again that song was like 98 right by that time Was like 2001 so it's like hmm. What would I do to this now? So it was cool. They didn't make me do it I kind of put myself in that position by sort of not complying with what the next single should be because there are other songs on There's record like call me or I forget what else they wanted to go with or superstar part one or something And I was like no no it's gotta be having only knows huh cool Yeah, so that explains that how did you get involved in the whole hip-hop scene? I know the rapsicles I mean that's how I first hear to you was on the track of Barrington left top of the world right and Rob's crew so messaging a bottle of grub is crew so I was like my grade 11 year for me

7:04Right was that was that how you first got into hip-hop was through the raps goals through the Toronto scene or was it out in Trinidad when you were a kid That's what I first heard hip-hop I started rapping around grade seven and then I start to get into it when Probably when I start to come Downtown to Toronto and come to jams hip-hop jams I started meeting dancers and other rappers get people's numbers and you come to these little talent competitions And then you get on stage of these talent competitions and then it just grew from there and then They're just like freestyle battles for stop battles or like I was in a group called children of soul We were just like there was two singers and two rappers and some dancers like been through so much stuff But eventually it just came down to a video fact and I did a song called musical essence and that got played on Much music and it ended up winning an award that year

7:53That was my first kind and then the rascals saw that and they were like I want that guy to read one was like Yeah, I saw your video and I was like I want to tour with that guy And so they found me somehow and then I went to I went across the country with them in this other band called ghetto concept We went all across Canada that was sort of the beginning of me seeing that I could do music for a living Yeah, yeah, then you hooked up with the roots later on toward with them Mm-hmm You got to see the whole live atmosphere of hip-hop music kind of changing because it wasn't really done before at least I didn't know of it No, no, it's done it besides them for sure Yeah, and now you got it too and still most bands just go with the DJ most hip-hop groups, right? But I don't even call you hip-hop really the whole the new record isn't hip-hop. It's it was not either sold I mean, there's everything well, it's not wrapped. It's not wrapped. I think Hip-hop is something you live it's a culture, right? It's not the music. Yeah, rap is something you do, you know

8:40There's some guy around the corner who comes home from work, you know Chicks his feet up and listens to Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd is just as much rock and roll as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin But he doesn't particularly sing rock and roll because it's an attitude He can relate to it He may pumps it in his car and drives a certain way to it or he goes to the club and drinks a beer a certain way to it It's the attitude, but he by no means is a rock star or rocker Well hip-hop's the same. I think there's an attitude behind it But just because you have your hip-hop it's like Lauren Hill her mis-education record or Andre 3000 is loved below Worn hip-hop records, but the attitude behind it the the chances they took the way they spoke their inflections The confidence with which they talked about what they talked about was hip-hop which dates back to reggae too So I do I'm confident that the attitude and spirit of hip-hop runs through all my arms

9:29But you can get bored of rapping if you're a rapper all the time because who likes to do one thing all the time It's like David boy like he keeps saying can do a million things, but he's still rock Ward dresses he dressed became aliens and everyone was cool with it But it was still rock but it's a hip-hop guy if you just switch it a bit It's like it's not hip-hop and I think it's because hip-hop sometimes becomes this thing that people want it to remain a certain way Because it's like okay, I'm gonna listen to like I'm gonna listen to like Dan across nor Jones Then I'm gonna put in this really cool hip-hop record. Yeah hip-hop. Yeah, I'm gonna listen to this for an hour a while Before I go up to the club. They don't like see hip-hop as something that they'll listen to all the time So when somebody who is hip-hop switches from doing that it's like oh man You're just this really cool little novelty thing that I had called hip-hop that I could out of you know

10:15Out of my 20 CDs. I got like two or three, but I do know what hip-hop is you know And so when you switch it up they kind of think the first thing they say is well It's not hip-hop anymore, but I don't know maybe it's because you're not really loving the music from the beginning You're kind of just seeing it on the radio or hearing it on the hearing on the radio So you're seeing on the TV you want a piece of it you want to own a black IP record or you might want to own a You know a lower-in-hill record or white-cliff record But do you own a like Eric B and record? Would you go out and buy a public enemy record? Probably not because you know it's like what black thought says from the roots He said so his lyric was like if your ears hurt you shouldn't listen that means that might be poisonous and Poison your brain to see you which is like kind of an aggressive lyric But what he's kind of punk rock in a way it's like loud guitars, right?

11:00If you can't listen to it Then it might mean that you're not really authentic to this music But then you might like a clash song like rock the Kaspar or something doesn't mean they weren't punk rock It just meant that they figured out a way to transform that energy and inform that everyone can listen to and that's the quest I'm on as a hip-hoper. I like the clash of my idols They kind of came from a really sound like they sounded like they were spitting in your face, but they eventually Became platinum. Yeah, I mean, but they were still the same guys, right? Mm-hmm. So that's sort of what I look like not that I want to spit in anyone's face No, I just I just feel that attitude in punk rock is And hip-hop is something that kids gravitate to and people who are angry or having a bad day gravitate to and so nice When you listen to the radio you don't hear any of those energies anymore. It's all about like Escapism, it's only songs that are gonna make you feel oh forget about your troubles as opposed to actually making you know

11:50Okay, there's someone else out there that relates to you know, yeah, like exactly there's not much consciousness anymore I mean you're talking about money you talking about holes and whatnot, but not you right your lyrics are Basically what you were talking about well my parents kind of had money Yeah, so I never need to talk about that And as far as like girls and the way I perceived it was like like I said my mom's like really religious My dad was you know sort of kind of a reverend in the church local church that we went to and in the suburbs I said to Toronto so I'm not like how I am because I can go be that guy and I'm denying it I'm just not that guy. I just I'm Kevin Breton. I grew up in suburbs. I listen to sushi in the Banshees much Listen to the Navy don't hear every day or listen to you know kid Creole in the coconuts as much as I listen to you know They're being right Kim and that it's that weird dynamic

12:37Unique dichotomy that is Canadian that I feel like a lot of Canadians who are in hip-hop are running from like just be that Like who I don't get running from it. I just think that when people go you're so different or chaos is this I don't think it's that I'm different. I just think I'm really a conuc man. Yeah, it's a Canadian kid I'm a kid that's not yeah from Trinidad, but I lived in Trinidad so I have no Insecurities about what it's like to be Trinidad. Yeah, I know what it's like to eat like a hot bowl of soup You know hot day in Trinidad in the corner and smell something and see a dread walk by and a taxi booming reggae music That's part of my culture as a 12 year old kid So I don't need to like become that to feel that I am that I'm more thinking about like what the hell was like Tom York thinking when he when he made that song no a lot no surprises You know that's I'm more into the musical aspect of things not the image of it because I think if you focus too much on

13:27Image then your music becomes informed by your image if you focus on music then you might come up with a new image But if you focus on on image more you sometimes are limited by the image you'd come up with because when you start to do something Different everyone's gonna go but you're not wearing your jeans like that anymore. We don't like your music I try to focus on the music a bit more. Yeah, and I like that very much Yeah, and you're saying Canadian I mean you got people like John K. Sampson from the weaker thanz or downy from the hip like very smart Canadians the way they write songs very Different not your usual mainstream kind of stuff in rock or hip hop in this case, right? Where do your ideas come from? You really look you have a window, you know looking at my window going to bars hanging out over here in conversations

14:12My friends pain my pain Same things that Bob Dylan was dealing with a lot of times not the same things But you hear his songs You don't think that he went through that stuff But he might have been in a bar or had a friend or been on a train and heard a story and he was a great That's what it is about songwriting. You'll always have to go through it Which is why people don't understand about 50 cent who actually we did go through it. Yeah, I'm talking about music So I think sometimes because hip hop is such a foreign element to people They tend to believe the story more and don't see it as a way of expression Whereas Bob Dylan would make a song called you know John is in the basement cooking up the medicine like that's about Same kind of street reality like I'm on the pavement talking about the government You know keep it keep it clean nose and you know don't you know don't talk to you know It's the same street sense of knowledge that Bob Dylan was dropping in a rap form on the street

15:01Like looking cool with some crazy hair. It's the same thing But because it's Bob Dylan you're kind of like oh, maybe he didn't live that or maybe it's mysterious But when you see somebody on TV that you might not know what they lived or not You automatically take it as real and kids take it as real and it becomes a lot more threatening So I think songwriting is all about Expressing yourself and even sounds like the rain on my record now I'm not particularly angry or sad about anything right now But I went through something like that and one of my friends had just broken up with his girlfriend And was talking about it to me every single day and as a good friend. I started to Take that in yeah, I couldn't be happy because I was like oh my friends really hurting so I wrote about it So of course it sounds like it's me, but it's really about his scenarios I think that's another thing that my ideas come from people and Jokes, you know song titles come some jokes

15:50So you for like a month you're throwing around this title and then it becomes the title of a song or something You're talking about you know, so it's just it's just culture man hanging out with musicians on my friends in Toronto We drink a lot we share records and you can't help it You're just Toronto right now Canada is just so many good rock bands and original guys that you can't go down Queen Street without going one way and bumping into someone and then spending two hours that you didn't expect talking about something else That ends up being a song or an idea for a video or something you talking about someone like Sam Roberts Sam It's like you know from death from above he put in the record. Yeah Justin Peraf So so Sine Kevin Drew Emily Haynes, you know Oh no, I know she's on the record no she's on the record, but she's like she's on the record But I say something on a song like I mentioned her something and just okay, you know Just sometimes these people your friends live in your head so you're in the studio thinking would they like this?

16:37Or would they think this is cool? It's just like anything else you just you wonder if these guys who you respect would think that this is cool And then when you switch it it's kind of ends up something sounding like something they might do so therefore you just got inspired You know how did you hook up with Sam or even bucks 65 on this new record? I love how we beat box at the end of the one to you. It's really cool. Yeah, no Sam is Was we got signed at the same time to the same publishing company? There's this girl in the bush who kept on being like you guys need to do a song together So much alike and we were just like as two new guys who kind of thought it was weird this person the record label telling us this And I went to one of his shows and I blew my mind I was like his live show was like who is this guy man? It was like unbelievable and then he comes to Toronto call me we drink he's like we should do a song And I'm like yeah, right he's like yeah, we should do a song and I had this idea I sent it to him

17:25And it's just been like that and then he comes to town, you know What do you know? He's on the street? Yeah, come to the studio, you know so it's it's really casual and you can hear it in the music that is not forced thing and Yeah, we're friends, you know, it's and tech, you know, both feeling kind of weird about records coming out text messages start going Don't worry about it. You know, it's like someone you could relate to, you know What do they keep ending up on your records and on his I think hip-hop has always been a more of a Forum for that. I think rock still is really about When some people start jumping on everyone's record, it's kind of weird unless you broke the social scene I think hip-hop has always been something where it's like, you know, lead us a new school featuring Tribe Called Quest, you know The Fuji's featuring, you know, whoever I think and that's why all these people on my record because that's a true hip-hop That song is called

18:12Well a posse cut but it's also called a symphony There's a song there's a type of song in hip-hop called a symphony where you get all your friends who are your boys to come and rap 16 bars and If you listen to this is a highlight kind of sounds like Sam comes in like a hip-hop song He comes out of nowhere. Yeah, it's true like a rapper and then he disappears I don't know so I think hip-hop is a good form for that and they all sort of are fans of hip-hop too Whether they say it or not or whether people know it or not. How can you not be man? Something songs just hit you doesn't it doesn't matter what color exactly so I think they're kind of happy to kind of put themselves in that hip-hop scenario To get a little bit of street cred. Yeah, yeah, well not street cred more of like how does this feel man? How does it feel to like be singing over this kind of beat? It's like the first time I picked up, you know, the guitar and felt distortion I was only like 28 or 29. Oh, wow. I started playing the electric guitar later

18:58Mm-hmm, but the first time I really felt it was like wow So I can imagine what it might be like for these guys to like hear themselves over beat the sounds kind of hip-hop or Something with this program as opposed to like singing over live drums for their whole life and then hearing them Or this over this brook breakbeat. It might be kind of cool for them, you know, definitely You worked with CBC radio orchestra, right song doesn't show up in the record. Where can I find it? Where can people find it? Yeah, the label right now is trying to put that out I don't know I think it's I think that experience was better taken in watching it It's not that I don't want to put it out to people But I kind of think if you saw it then you get it. Yeah, if you put it out you won't really get it the same way So I'm struggling with that now Okay, because I think people want that song the people who actually saw the thing go down want to be like where can I get this song? I like the mystery of just you you heard it that one time and then that was it

19:44No, that's kind of cool I think that's why people enjoyed it as opposed to now they can listen to it over and over become something I think mystery and music Us things that walk hand in hand and sometimes you have to know when to just let something be what it was that moment I suppose the recording it and trying to like mass produce it for everyone So definitely the labels like we're trying to do a new little Edition of some limited edition to come out during Christmas and they want that to be one of the songs I'm like I don't know if I want it to be so it's kind of interesting. What about jealous guy? Oh, yeah, that's out there I think that's coming in a Amnesty International CD, but something's going on with that. It's not out yet Alright, is it the same one bedwinds on because I know they're on it too. Oh, it's that one. Okay. Cool. Yeah, good I'll pick that up definitely You mentioned people coming on to your record, you know doing that whole hip-hop thing I was just listening to Jay's new record the other day

20:31And I mean it's produced by different people has got different producers coming Is that something you never do or do you always want to be creating the music yourself? Or would you ever bring people in to do that? Yeah, I can't say I never do it I Think if when I get bored enough I do it because boredom is actually a huge inspiration for why I do what I do I think what I get super bored. That's when I decide to like try something new and I've said I wouldn't do things before only to be bored and try it but Interestingly enough in my my space the other day. I got an email from like gangstar like no way. He was like yeah It's just it simply said collaboration. I was a title and then it said You'll get at me or something and then I was like wow I should do it some was like premier and guru. Yeah, and I was like wow so if if this I'm gonna go south of the border and I get more exposed to guys like premier or you know

21:20What do those be cause of half a million dollars? I'm like yes, like Pete Rock or somebody like that Then I could see myself if it was like the top 10 of my favorite 10 hip-hop producers no doubt for sure Who's number one? I'm probably pretty well Pete Rockin premier I'd say yeah those two guys and then tribe goal quests who they all shared it But in production it was was a dayless all those guys hard to say there's a lot of guys evil D black moon those guys were making great beats back then nice the album is coming out February in the States All right, what's it like for I know up here? I mean popularity is pretty big. What about the States? Yeah, it's just where it should be Yeah, I don't I'm you know and it's a quote David boy You know I'm a sort of afraid of America a little bit and I have been for the last two records There's been many things I could have done to as far as my label moving me down there certain tours

22:09Commercials I turn them down because I was just like I kind of like just having my you know Be like this in my home country. I can go to America my parents live in Florida My brother lives in Atlanta. No one knows me It's like it's kind of cool actually to have that contrast to be in a mall here and have like some girl and her grandmother Chased me like 10 stores down Right as opposed to going to America and just being another person in a mall leading in line and nobody's like come on Because it's weird what privileges do it's like you don't have to wait people want to help you out all the time And you start feeling kind of gross about it because you're thinking I don't know. It's not really normal for You to be it's normal for people to go. Oh, I love what you do respect Autograph but it gets weird when people start treating you like a different person especially when your music came because You're this black kid who was probably poorly treating treated by people sometimes

22:58So you kind of like you start feeling really I start feeling weird because I was kind of always an underdog And now it's a tough now Where you know I'm walking in front of cops call team in this car before the junos is cop like start following me I'm like, I don't know it's like you can't I'm like yeah, he's like oh, can you sign this from sign? And I was like sign this for your son who's complete 180 Yeah, so it's like I suppose like being followed or stopped late at night My mom's car and them being like it's just really your car, you know, so it's like that happened up here You don't hear but that kind of stuff. Oh no, that was just just my mom had a Volvo We should go out and take girls out in it. Oh, so we'd be like having a good time And obviously cops and falls and then look in the car see people in there thinking this kid maybe took their parents Yeah, now I look back on it But but that back then it was like it they pulled me over because they couldn't believe a black guy was driving a Volvo

23:43You know, it's like what my point is that mentality of being an underdog Inform my music a lot. So it feels weird when people start treating you differently So I find going to the UK or Australia or America is cool because you can just sort of blend in from a song Right as you point it's the best place to be right because you're just blending in Yeah, it's like how Chris Rock says he doesn't have a bodyguard because he gets his material from people So yeah, it's pretty cool to know that yeah, that's awesome. My buddy. I was talking to him I was like got any questions for chaos. He's a big fan and I want to get it right because it's it's a pretty deep question Are you worried? There's too much information right now how that affects and affects people's motives and desires like politicians Musicians listeners the whole information age and everything no because Einstein said that Imagination is more important than information and knowledge

24:32I want to keep that in mind and use your imagination doesn't matter how much info how much knowledge is out there None of that's gonna make some of the imagination creative You can know all that you can about the base But if you can't imagine something then you won't be able to play a baseline like Bob Marley's base player or sting or whoever You know what I mean? So to me, it's like I was just thinking about that the other day It's like we suspend our time as kids Wondering if Superman could be a Batman and then all of a sudden it became about her It's you know who what the Middle East is doing against whatever it's like now knowledge is replaced with Information is replaced with imagination when you're a kid you could spend 10 hours with an action figure With a phone and like jump and play with it and imagine you're in a different world Then now it's like you can't even imagine what it's like you can't even not watch the news or gold

25:17But like you see things based on information I think he has a point because information does blunt people's imagination But if you hold on to your child like sense You'll be able to see that information you use it for when you need it and you'll be able to be like okay It's imagine time now. It's like it's time for me to imagine and that's why I do art for a living because I don't want to learn Notes, I don't want to know a minor. I don't want to know it's like In radio had Johnny Green with that guy. He's like the match string director I want to see them play and at a Massey Hall. I think in Toronto He's like playing Johnny Green would jump on the drums and the keyboards in the guitar Oh, yeah Yeah And I think at some point that band Tom York's started to pick up more theory and Johnny Greenwood said something to him Like no, we need you to stay dumb You know and I think it's right there. Yeah, no or he plays the guitar

26:04Yeah, it plays a piano, but I don't think he knows as much as those guys Which gives them a certain kind of common sense and I think that's how I feel about my music is that yes I my imagination is good and I'll get a little bit of information. I'm learning a little bit more Well, these these black keys do this too. Oh cool now. I'm starting to learn, but I don't want too much information So it foils my imagination. That's how they answer the you ever play a show just on the piano. No man I couldn't do it now. Maybe two songs to some what to maybe the rain I played and Maybe possibly like some weird slowed version of stuff. That's on a superstar. Yeah on the first record Maybe that that'd be cool. I ask every band that comes in five questions one answer one word answers I potter CDs iPod Leninger McCutney

26:50Lening and McCutney one of the other I can't do it bro Talk separate. It's like Reese's pieces All right, Parker biggie Biggie Alkola marijuana alcohol one word chaos Spontaneous. Thank you. Cool. Appreciate it man. All right pleasure Cool respect