Multifaceted DJ/Producer R-oderick has deep roots in Toronto's electronic music scene as a pillar to the community. It is his techno, EBM, breakbeat and house hybrids, though, that have brought him worldwide acclaim as a much-needed voice and representation of authenticity to the genres locally. His sound runs the spectrum of bleak Detroit futurism to dark, heavy and cinematic compositions.
Your mix is quite different from other Work Redux mixes, which are often soothing or meditative. Yours is more abrasive, more propulsive. Is that typically what you like to listen to when you work?
⎯⎯⎯ It is. When I'm working, that's the type of music that I need to keep me awake. Listening to meditative stuff will just put me to sleep, and then I don't get anything done. So the music in my mix is what gives me the energy to work, especially if I'm listening to stuff that I really, really like. It'll energize me. And I work in a creative field, so it definitely helps.
What do you do?
⎯⎯⎯ I do motion design.
What kind of motion design do you typically do? Is it for advertising or film?
⎯⎯⎯ Right now we're working on a documentary doing little map animations within the film, but we're also going to be responsible for the title sequence as well. We do in-show graphics for features, television shows, that kind of stuff.
That makes sense then why you need upbeat music to work. What were some of the choices that you made when you were selecting music for this particular mix?
⎯⎯⎯ Well, it's funny because this mix would be a subdued set for me. I usually play a lot faster and harder when I play live. You could say I like to play very emotion-inducing music.
What kind of music is that? And what genres do you find that kind of music in?
⎯⎯⎯ The music that I play and listen to brings out an impulsive response from me. I feel a shock when I hear it for the first time. I just collect all those and put them together.
And so it can be any genre where you find these sort of shocking moments?
⎯⎯⎯ It really can be, and has been, in many genres. I mean, like in my mix, I start off with P. M. Dawn, and then I play hip-hop, and then I play new beat, and then some industrial stuff. I really love industrial and new beat and EBM. And I really love techno as well. I like doing all that stuff and playing it slower, because it just gives people more time to take it in and have a vibe.
Where did the love for this kind of music come from?
⎯⎯⎯ When I was really young, the first music that I can recall that I made a decision that I liked on my own was 80s and early 90s hair metal. I had step siblings that put me onto hip-hop, and so I just became a hip-hop head. It was sort of interesting growing up as a Black kid in school. You're kind of forced to say, ‘I like hip-hop and hip-hop only’ kind of thing. I mean, in secret, I did like all this other stuff that I would hear on Fashion Television and on Much Music, but I couldn't really admit it.
Was some music filtered through your step siblings, or were you discovering it on your own?
⎯⎯⎯ It filtered through them. My step brother would tell me about hip-hop, and then my step sister would tell me about R&B. I really love R&B, especially from that era. And I really love hip-hop too, honestly.
What did music give you at that age that you were so drawn to?
⎯⎯⎯ It was a release. I really liked the poetry behind a lot of that stuff. But also, I really responded to a lot of the anger in it. I was a bit of an angry kid, even though that's not apparent now at all.
Where were you getting all your music from?
⎯⎯⎯ TV is where I got a lot of music from and radio as well. I think it was CKLN. Funny enough, a guy I went to school with used to do the radio shows that I used to listen to when I was a kid. And I knew about the punk shows in the church that I used to play basketball behind, but I didn't really hear about a lot of other Black kids going to those shows at the time, even though that's probably not the truth. I just didn't know any of them. I was a real homebody.
Were you into collecting music at this age?
⎯⎯⎯ Oh yeah. I used to bootleg a lot. There was a place near me in South Common Mall that you could rent music from, and so I would rent CDs, copy them to tape and return them like clockwork. It was amazing. Then eventually Napster came about and it was a friend of my uncle's that told me about Napster. That kind of blew the doors wide open. Fortunately and unfortunately.
Yeah, no kidding. And so did you have any ambitions to put together mixes or play for other people or were you just doing this for yourself?
⎯⎯⎯ I did it for myself and then my step brother would ask me to make mixtapes for his friends and for himself. Then I made mixtapes for friends, but it was never anything mixed. I would just take songs that I had found or copied to tapes and just one at a time make what they called pause tapes.
That's just where you play a song, pause, and play another song?
⎯⎯⎯ Yeah, you play a song and then when it ends you pause the tape you're recording and then you put in another song. You rewind it, and play, and then you record again. Or you would record a song on the radio and then when it stopped you'd hit pause and wait for another song that you liked and then hit record again. It's funny describing it.
This is valuable information for the younger generations.
⎯⎯⎯ Yeah, it was basically like scraping the air from music.
Do you still have your early mixes?
⎯⎯⎯ I think I have one or two tapes lying around.
Were you musical in any other ways?
⎯⎯⎯ I started off on piano, and then I was in a drum and bugle corps for a while. I played marimba, timpani, xylophone. What else did I play? I played the baritone. I played trumpet. I played guitar.
Whoa.
⎯⎯⎯ Yeah. I played a few instruments. I never stuck with any of them, but I still maintain the principles behind everything and how songs are structured. When I was younger, I went to the Royal Conservatory. It was like a kids course in piano.
Was music a career path, or was it just something that you really enjoyed?
⎯⎯⎯ It was just something that I really enjoyed. Somehow my mom always knew that I would be involved in music in some way, so she mentally prepared me for a lot of things that I now experience, but I always wanted to be an animator. I was really die hard about it.
What were your early animation influences?
⎯⎯⎯ The first that I can remember was Sleeping Beauty. I always thought it was people in costumes, and then my uncle told me that it was frames and animation sequences, and I was like, I want to do that.
I mean, it's one of the most beautifully animated films ever.
⎯⎯⎯ Yes. Yes, it is. I mean, a lot of it is motion capture, but even still, it’s just beautiful. Their colour choices, the actual animation and all the animation that came after it. Having gone to animation school, there's so many things that people take into consideration when they animate things, like eyes twitching, and the fact that when people change focus on something, they blink every time they do. Those little things are very interesting to me.
Was it something about human behaviour as well that attracted you? Not only the magic of animation, but also being observant and watching people?
⎯⎯⎯ Yeah, yeah. I always found that so fascinating. Even the way that people walk, you could tell they favour a certain side because there was an old injury or maybe a muscle is tight because they sit all the time or lie down or sleep a certain way. It's very fascinating stuff.
Do you feel that there's a critical connection between music and motion?
⎯⎯⎯ It feels like there's a common bond. That's why I love to listen to music and draw, or try to interpret the sound that I'm hearing. Yeah, there's definitely a link there.
Do you have a visual imagination when you hear music?
⎯⎯⎯ I do. That's why I listen to stuff like what I played in this mix, because it helps me visualize things that I'm told I need to make.
How do you mean?
⎯⎯⎯ It's been like that my whole life. Whenever I hear music, I envision something like a fight scene, or an alien vista, or if I watched something that was really intense, I would imagine music to it.
How do you discover music these days?
⎯⎯⎯ There’s so many ways now. I'll go on Bandcamp and I'll look through stuff that I've already bought and see who else bought them and go see what they bought. Then I'll see an album that I really like that they bought that I found through them and I'll see who bought that and I'll go and see what those people bought. Or I'll go on Discogs and there's this feature where you can type anything in the search and combine a bunch of options and see what you get. I’ll just randomly open stuff and see what I can find. When it comes to the analog and digital worlds, there's a lot of stuff out there digitally, but there's so much more stuff on vinyl that no one's heard. I am a collector at heart. I used to be a comic book collector.
Cool.
⎯⎯⎯ Yeah, pretty hardcore. I haven't bought any comics as of late, but I still have them all. I should see what state they're in now.
And you collect vinyl too I'm assuming?
⎯⎯⎯ Yeah. I don't go to record shops that often, but if I leave Toronto, I always try to hit up at least one record shop to see what I can find.
Do you travel a lot for music?
⎯⎯⎯ That is a new development, even travelling in general. Until 201,8 I had never left North America. That was the first time I went to Europe and went to the Netherlands and went to Berlin, and after that, I started playing in Berlin, and now I try to visit the Netherlands whenever I go to Berlin because I have friends there.
So you found a receptive audience in Berlin that you were kind of missing?
⎯⎯⎯ I think so, yeah. It's very interesting the way they're critical of DJs. It’s a lot more heady. They would ask me certain questions after a set which I would never expect. Like, ‘Wow, you were really listening.’ It's also just the backdrop and the scenery. I've only played at Tresor in Berlin, but Tresor just has this atmosphere that takes you away from yourself. They fill the room with so much fog that I can't see anyone, even if it's a packed room. When I’m behind the booth and the fog dissipates, I’ll see this mass of people for a moment in a strobe light and then everything will disappear again into smoke. It's like fog of war.
Does that inspire you in a certain way?
⎯⎯⎯ Yeah, it does. I really do like playing very warp hole techno. It's very loopy and mind-bending.
What's an example of that?
⎯⎯⎯ I would say it's a style that combines the sounds of industrial techno mixed with whatever Oscar Mulero plays and puts out on his label.
Would you ever score an animation or put music to a motion that you've created?
⎯⎯⎯ I thought about it. I thought of making videos for my own music. So I'm both scoring and animating my own stuff. That's the last part of my evolution. Then I can say I'm evolved. [laughs]
You make your own music?
⎯⎯⎯ I do. some of the music that I make is in my mix actually. There's two tracks in there and there's one that I collaborated on with a guy from the Netherlands named Legowelt. I have one of those tracks in there as well, and that will be coming out later this year.
What label is it on?
⎯⎯⎯ It'll be on his label Nightwind Records.
What is some music that you've listened to recently that you're inspired by or that has motivated you?
⎯⎯⎯ Well actually, last weekend I was at the Junos because I'm in another group called Èbony – a duo of me and Jordan Gardner –
Congrats!
⎯⎯⎯ Thank you. I met this group called Didon as I was walking out of the Junos gala, because I came too early. I was very nervous about the whole thing. I wasn't sure if I was wearing the right clothes or anything, and he was having dinner and he looked at me and he motioned like ‘nice clothes’. I saw him at the Junos later and he's like ‘you just stand with us,’ because I was waiting for people. He just made me feel very welcomed, and when I listened to their music later on it was just so beautiful. It's just really beautiful and inspiring music.
–Work Redux is a collection of mixes made to be listened to while working. We work closely with local and international DJs to assemble thoughtful music that will carry members throughout their day and introduce them to new sounds. –East Room is a shared workspace company providing design-forward office solutions, authentic programming and a diverse community to established companies and enterprising freelancers. We explore art, design, music, and entrepreneurship. Visit our News & Stories page to read more.
