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Denise Benson interview page 2

With Toronto it's not about the artists lack of trying, but more so about people not listening, or a means to listen or what?

There's the whole industry side of things, which is kind of the boring but very factual, important side. Which is, there are only so many people in Toronto, and in Canada, so major record labels will only take so many chances on local artists 'cause there's only so many people to support them as a 'market.' As opposed to the American artist, or the European… people they can just sell, prepackage based on media from other countries. So no, it's not lack of trying or lack of talent in this city. There's an incredible wealth of it. I find the people here are more likely to see out new talent than they were three or five years ago. It's definitely a vibe of wanting to support our own. It's encouraging. I feel that from the phone calls, and emails I get in response to the radio show and the stuff I do. I hope the artists are feeling that too. That's true on the DJ scene too. The promoters are fixated on bringing people from out of town, they focus the parties on the international headliners, but there's also an increasing number of parties that focus on locals, and pull solid crowds. I think Toronto is on the verge of exploding internationally, no exaggeration. There was a recent article on Movement in Straight No Chaser, there are Toronto hip-hop artists who are increasingly respected in Europe and in the States;
There've been big articles on the Toronto rave scene, jungle scene and so on. I've been doing this for fourteen years in this city, and I think now, even compared to two years ago, we're definitely on an upswing. No question.

I have a friend who's making electronic music and talks about wanting to make a million bucks, like people talk about winning the lottery. Meanwhile the Canadian music charts are rocking with Our Lady Peace. I feel if you want to crossover, at least in commercial success, you need a lead singer, or a personality. I wonder if you see a change in people not needing a personality to sell some records…

Well the thing is, with very, very few exceptions, no matter what kind of music you're selling, you need a pop angle if you're aiming to make serious money. It doesn't happen to many people at all, it doesn't matter what kind of music you're making. What's been big the last three - four - five years, has been pop shit. Girl bands, boy bands, blah blah blah. Look at someone like Bif Naked, right? She's been making rock music for a long time, always has something to say and she's got the personality. What song made her big? I don't know the name of it, 'cause I'm not into it, but it was the Boomtang Boys remix, whatever that track was. It made her a Canadian superstar. I just read somewhere the other day that she's had the most singles sold of any Canadian artist in Canada. And that's based on the Boomtang boys track, which is a total Euro trash kind of remix, very easy to digest. If you wanna make a million dollars, no matter what kind of music you're making, you gotta make easy to digest shit, that can hopefully get played on commercial radio. If you wanna make music with integrity and you wanna make a million dollars, good luck to you.

The artists I think of, like Moby and Fat Boy Slim, who have reached a larger audience, at a some point they become supersaturated in the marketplace and it does become tiresome.

That's true of anything that gets played on the radio. That's how commercial radio works. Particularly when you look at someone like Moby. How have they crossed over? It wasn't immediately going into rotation at stations, it was through licensing the music to car commercials. Then people hear it, and they're like "What's that song?" The hype builds and then the songs finally get added to radio. That's the way electronic music has been crossing over. There's all kinds of examples, it's become a real medium to make some money. I can't tell you how many years I've been playing Bill Withers, and then his song "Lovely Day" becomes a huge hit based on a television commercial. I don't remember the product, but now I play that song and people freak out for it. Doesn't make it any less of a good song though, I still love it and him to bits. If something is good, it's good.

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