Most Fun Ever…TIME Festival 2010

It was that “time” of the year again;  for Embrace to throw one of the biggest summer dance party’s with a massive lineup, including well known international artists and some of this year’s up and coming local acts to watch for. The third annual TIME Festival sponsored by Red Bull was held last Friday at the Sound Academy and was the start of this week’s “must-go-to shows”. 

I got word shortly before I arrived to the Sound Academy that I was going to interview Diplo, Skream and Benga, and Kingdom so as I was brainstorming some last minute interview questions and I unfortunately missed a lot of local talent that were on the bill too. 

SKREAM & BENGA

I caught up with dubstep heroes Skream and Benga outside the venue to have a little chitchat. The four of us Skream, Benga,  Matt (my cameraman) and myself did the interview infront of the city’s skyline. Matt is  bigger Skream and Benga fan than I am so he started to fire away the questions. Right away the boys got into interview mode and answered every single question with a story almost. I wish I could remember everything that was said but don’t worry, we’ll have the full interview online soon. I squeezed in some of my own questions like recommending me to some new dupstep artists that I might not of heard of. One of their recommendations was James Blake. I told them i’ve heard of him before and absolutely love him! They said that I didn’t need any recommendations if I already knew who he was, and that im apparently up to date with my dubstep game. I thought that it was funny that he would say that because I believe I still don’t know too much about but what I do know is that based off of the success of Skream’s  remix to La Roux’s “In for the Kill” he’s dropping his second full length album “Outside the Box” next week featuring Elly Jackson. I’m really kicking myself for such bad memory of this interview. So much was said and asked, I think my mind was more focusing on how nice Benga’s Gucci backpack was and where could I get my hands on the exact one. I can’t wait for the interview clip to be finally finished. During one point in the interview I asked the boys how to dance to dubstep and they show me what do, it was pretty funny.  
 
 
Quickly after our interview they went on stage and wowed the audience. It seems like the more and more places these boys are going to, the venue, stage, and the crowds keep getting bigger and better. I’ve never seen them live before and I was blown away. They were bouncing off of each other playing massive chunes for the wild crowd. 
 

KINGDOM

Brooklyn boy and Fools Gold’s Kingdom is a very laid back, chill guy. The interview didn’t last too long as it was hard getting him to add on to his answers. For a bit we talked about what he thought of people calling his music “a Brooklyn take on the UK garage sound” and how he’s embraced it. I asked him if he had any upcoming projects  and told me and he  newly releasedan EP “Mind Reader”. I asked him to recommend me some places to check out in NYC like clubs and stuff for music since I’ll be heading over there in a couple of days. He strongly recommended me to check out Santos Party House and briefly talked about his and Dre Skull’s “Club Infinity” nights at Santos Party House.

DIPLO

I interviewed Diplo (Wes as I like to call him) in his washroom. Not the ideal place I had in mind to interview my favourite DJ in the world but we made it interesting and fun. I had a list of questions and topics I wanted to cover with Wes but barely even touched it as I got off topic and talked about what he was wearing instead (a Ben Sherman suit and piano key socks he got from Walmart). 

Peace outtie signs is Wes’ signature pose. 
Mad Decent recently released news that their block parties would reach out to more cities this year. I asked Wes about more information on this. So apparently Mad Decent’s Block Party will be reaching out to New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago over 4 consecutive Saturdays from July 31 – August 21 promises the kids banging music, carnival games, yummy food, super secret guests and all for free. I told Wes that I’ll attending this year’s MDBP in Philly next week. His tip to me was “Wear something sexy, maybe like a bathing suit. It get’s hot in Philly.” So I guess it IS always sunny in Philadelphia. 
I can go on and on about how awesome seeing Diplo in Toronto for the bajillionth time was but I’ll leave you with photos instead. Pictures are worth a thousand words, right? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Super stoked for this Mad Decent’s Block Party. Stay tuned this Saturday on Pink Mafia’s twitter as I’ll be giving you updates live!