My latest international gig took me south of the equator to Sao Paulo, Brazil. It was my first trip to South America. I played 2 shows and taught a DJ class. Here’s a clip from one of my shows, at Lions Nightclub – running through some classics. Click play and let it be the soundtrack to my post below. As with my Japanese recap, I’ll try and cover all the bases, so this may take a minute! Enjoy…

Sao Paulo is a GIGANTIC city (7th biggest in the world) and full of a wide array of people. Many people that I met were Brazilian born and raised, but plenty of people have emigrated to the metropolis. In fact, 1 million Japanese people live there, and it is geographically on the opposite side of the globe from Japan. The city feels a bit more spread out than Tokyo, yet still massive. The skyline is littered with scrapers and the traffic ridiculously slow. And people drive with what feels like controlled reckless abandon. Check out some of these motorcyclists:

Portuguese is the primary language spoken, as in the rest of Brazil, so at times it was difficult to communicate, but I got by with a little help from some (new) friends. Brazilian people are friendly in general and were very welcoming. Made it really easy to see a lot of the city in a short amount of time. We shared many great meals and beverages, ranging from traditional Brazilian churassco & delicious Acai smoothies to sushi & sake to sweet fish & Caipirinhas. One night I also managed to fix myself a vodka-red bull-beer. You gotta read the labels. Mmmmm. Anyway. Here’s me & Zegon, producer from the group NASA (and proprietor of 1 million amazing stories) eating one of the better meals I had on the trip at Brazilian chef wizard Alex Atala‘s “Dalva e Dito” restaurant.

Through my good friend Grahmzilla, I was introduced long distance to Sao Paulo natives
Mixhell, an incredible husband-wife duo who produce music using live drumming, synths and everything in between. Iggor is the former drummer of metal band Sepultura! They invited me over for a nerd out session and some dinner. They had a sick home studio with many gadgets. I have since picked up a Monotron and have discovered many great new songs and movies, including Dub Echoes, which I would recommend to any music fan. Good times! Here’s a clip of their live show:

The 2 gigs I played down there were awesome and a good balance of two sides of what I do. The first was a funk/old school night called “Groovelicious” (video at the top of the page) at a bad ass joint called Lions Nightclub. I played with DJs Tamenpi, David Tabalipa & Dubstrong and we rocked it for 6 hours. Clubs basically go 24 hrs there, or until people leave, which on a Thursday was 5:30am.

The following night was my main event at the Sao Paulo Red Bull Thre3Style eliminations on September 25th at eStudio Emme. I saw Miike Snow there on Wednesday night, venue was live. There were 8 competitors of a wide variety of styles and skill levels, including the first pregnant woman I’ve ever seen in a DJ competition. When it came down to it, DJ Dubstrong was victorious with some crowd-favorite live blends. The top 3 are headed to the Brazilian finals in Rio on October 23rd. I wrapped the night up with one of my favorite video sets to date. It was very new to many of the people down there and the response was incredible, even at 4am. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures yet, but I will update the post as soon as I have some. Here are some from the venue’s blog and below is a shot I took from the judging area.

I was fortunate enough to have the chance to teach some local DJ school students while I was down there as well. Many of them were new to DJing and were learning the basics, but all shared an interest for learning the culture. A high number of DJs use CD players down there, so the turntables were closely hawked and it was the first time many of them had seen Serato, the computer program that I use when I mix. There was a bit of a language barrier, but I tried to speak with my hands as much as I could.

Record hunting in Sao Paulo was a totally different experience. I’ve been collecting records for around 15 years and in Canada and the US, and most of the time when you flip through a crate of records, you recognize 90% of the artists or record sleeves, and 10% are unfamiliar, maybe less. It was kind of the inverse down there, which was really exciting, but unfortunately I didn’t leave myself a lot of time to shop and listen to new music. I grabbed a few unknown new pieces as well as a pair of American recordings: a Brazilian pressing of Dave Matthews “Dune” LP and an original copy of 80′s hip-hop classic
“This Cut’s Got Flavor/Puttin’ On The Hits” 12″ by Latee (DOWNLOAD LINK), a record that has eluded me for all my years. I’ve ripped it here for your enjoyment. Raw drums and awesomely lo-fi vocals. Here’s a picture of the store I copped it in.

I was lucky enough to have 2 DJs help me look for records down there: DJ PG, and man I remember seeing in DMC videos when I started DJing, UK native DJ Pogo. Pogo has been around since the early days of the DMC competition and now runs DMC Brazil. He also released a few great compilations in the late 90s/early 2000s with dope breaks on high quality wax. We shared some good battle stories, music & routines – always good to catch up with battle heads from the VHS days! I was treated to a homemade Brazilian meal & fixed a Caipirinha (<–video), a delicious Brazilian drink before my set at Red Bull Thre3Style. Definitely fueled my evening. Check out Pogo at the 1997 DMC World Championships – sick juggles!

My trip was capped off with a classic late-late night on the town after the DJ competition. Freaks of all sorts wandering the streets, and snacking on the best pork sandwiches ever & beers until the sun came up. It was quite a treat to liberally enjoy a beverage on the sidewalk while the city woke up and I reflected on the visit. It was like no place I had ever encountered and I made some great friends for years to come. The world is a huge place and I am a lucky man to experience so much of it. Thank you Otavio, Flavia, Zegon, Iggor, Laima, Pogo, Alex, Guigo, Dubstrong, PG, Caue, Kenny and everyone else that made my Brazil visit so good. Until next time…

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