Not Naming Names

Those days of DJ/producers paying their dues for years in dive bars are over, the internet fast-tracking careers with its global reach. Canada's Lunice Fermin Pierre II may be no child prodigy like Porter Robinson or Madeon, but he's made a name for himself in just a few years. In only 2010 he was a participant in the cred Red Bull Music Academy. The following year the post-glitch hopper hit Australia for the first time, headlining the niche Sydney festival música/TUMBALONG alongside SBTRKT and Ghostpoet. Oz was, Pierre recalls, “really amazing”. “When I was in Sydney, for example, I just noticed there's so many different cultures there, right. Everybody's just getting along with everybody. I just felt like I was at home, you know? I felt really relaxed when I was there.”

Today Canada's urban music is hot, with the likes of Drake and his fold of producers (led by Noah “40” Shebib) and The Weeknd. But the spotlight has been on Toronto. Pierre is based in Montreal, Quebec, the place that gave us Leonard Cohen, Corey Hart and Tiga (Grimes and Kid Koala, both from Vancouver, went to university there).

Pierre, once a competitive B-boy, was playing – and making – bass-heavy electronic hip hop from around 2006. He even raps. “I'm a hip hop head, so I grew up all around the hip hop culture,” he says. But he was never a purist. “Being from Montreal, you're just naturally open to new ideas, new sounds...” Pierre's tastes broadened as he matured, studying film and communications at university. “Ever since I was just a kid I was into breakdancing, graffiti – all that stuff. Later in college I was just more open to different types of sound. By then, I was already listening to jazz and classical and a lot of things. But then that's when I started listening to electronic music and really started getting into techno and everything.” Pierre began producing beats inspired by 9th Wonder. On discovering techno, he “didn't necessarily wanna make that type of music”, but rather co-opt it. “I wanted to bring some kind of rap instrumental to the clubs that people can dance to. I just started working that, trying to develop that sound.” It eventually “clicked” as Pierre realised others – Hudson Mohawke, Rustie and Mike Slott, all based in Scotland – were similarly experimenting with the genres. But can he still breakdance? “Oh, definitely, yeah,” Pierre laughs, admitting that he perhaps can't execute “certain moves” that require continual practice. He's breakdanced during sets.

The local Turbo Crunk party crew member journeyed to London to attend 2010's RBMA, a musical think tank. He especially enjoyed collaborating with others in its studios. “The biggest thing I got from it was working with people – like being physically there with people – because what you don't get when you work over email is constant feedback.” His music could be tweaked on the spot.

Pierre's best known collaboration has been with Glasgow's Hudson Mohawke (aka Ross Birchard). Pierre had met him in 2008. Birchard, the youngest-ever UK DMC finalist at 15, played a Montreal party he booked. In 2010 Pierre put out the Stacker Upper EP on the LuckyMe label, which Birchard co-founded, followed by One Hunned. He won a fan in Diplo, who brought him in to co-remix Deerhunter's Helicopter. Then last year Pierre and HudMo presented a trappy – and very buzzworthy – EP as TNGHT on Warp, the company behind Birchard's Butter album. “What I like about the project is that we both take it as a project,” Pierre stresses. TNGHT don't regard themselves as a super-duo, let alone a “band”, although they have gigged together. “We're very focused on our own solo work. So, basically, the reason why we even came together in the first place was because we both came to a point where we just wanted to refine our sound and make it more simple and less bangin' – just to experiment.” Pierre emailed Birchard the day he heard his remix of Gucci Mane's Party Animal. He proposed they team up for some “very straightforward-thinking rap music”. Indeed, TNGHT is intelligent modern hip hop without the pretence.

Birchard was employed as a producer on Kanye West's GOOD Music comp Cruel Summer, contributing to the single Mercy. Pierre, too, is cutting beats for big-name acts. He recorded Runnin' with Azealia Banks. The Harlem rapper spent time in Montreal after splitting from XL Recordings and before she blew up with 212 (that's Pierre in the video). Ms Banks might be taking ages in delivering her debut LP, Broke With Expensive Taste, yet Pierre praises her ability to work on the fly. “Oh, she's quick, man,” he says, revealing that Runnin' was done in all of 45 minutes. “She's definitely a hard worker – and she gets to the point quick.” Somewhat awkwardly, Pierre is also down with Banks' nemesis Angel Haze, the track Gimme That on his Soundcloud. The femcees are embroiled in a Twitter war, Angel unleashing the diss On The Edge. “I have no word to say in that,” Pierre says, exasperated. “But, if you look at the bigger picture, to me it's like, I'm not even looking at them beefing, I'm more looking at why are these female rappers fighting each other? There's no point. I like female rappers who work together and move on.” He considers any conflict trivial. “That's just like a random little thing, whatever – like, people fight, brothers and sisters fight all the time.” He wonders if the media doesn't spur on beefs. “Whenever there's a female rapper, the media plays them into catfighting with another girl rapper – for no real reason.” The dude is about unity. “I just like to see female rappers get together and do some amazing music, you know what I mean?”

The next logical step for Pierre would be to drop an album – he's said to be prepping one entitled Three Sixty – but, then again, many of his DJ peers hold that the album is dead. “Oh, they say that?,” Pierre responds with astonishment. “That's funny, 'cause it feels like the whole point of an album is sorta coming back – 'cause it used to be various people just put a lot of songs on it and that's about it. But I feel like, more and more, a lot of people of my generation are putting albums together to, I don't know – for some people to tell a story, for some people to create some kind of project or feel or scene... that kinda stuff.” He wants his to be a proper album, not a mere compilation.

Pierre will “definitely” be airing “new material” in Australia. Punters should be surprised by what he has planned, the DJ says, suitably coy on details. “It'll be worth it, though – it'll be really, really worth it!” The Canadian has evolved since 2011, his DJing entertaining as well as experiential.

hose days of DJ/producers paying their dues for years in dive bars are over, the internet fast-tracking careers with its global reach. Canada's Lunice Fermin Pierre II may be no child prodigy like Porter Robinson or Madeon, but he's made a name for himself in just a few years. In only 2010 he was a participant in the cred Red Bull Music Academy. The following year the post-glitch hopper hit Australia for the first time, headlining the niche Sydney festival música/TUMBALONG alongside SBTRKT and Ghostpoet. Oz was, Pierre recalls, “really amazing”. “When I was in Sydney, for example, I just noticed there's so many different cultures there, right. Everybody's just getting along with everybody. I just felt like I was at home, you know? I felt really relaxed when I was there.”

Today Canada's urban music is hot, with the likes of Drake and his fold of producers (led by Noah “40” Shebib) and The Weeknd. But the spotlight has been on Toronto. Pierre is based in Montreal, Quebec, the place that gave us Leonard Cohen, Corey Hart and Tiga (Grimes and Kid Koala, both from Vancouver, went to university there).

Pierre, once a competitive B-boy, was playing – and making – bass-heavy electronic hip hop from around 2006. He even raps. “I'm a hip hop head, so I grew up all around the hip hop culture,” he says. But he was never a purist. “Being from Montreal, you're just naturally open to new ideas, new sounds...” Pierre's tastes broadened as he matured, studying film and communications at university. “Ever since I was just a kid I was into breakdancing, graffiti – all that stuff. Later in college I was just more open to different types of sound. By then, I was already listening to jazz and classical and a lot of things. But then that's when I started listening to electronic music and really started getting into techno and everything.” Pierre began producing beats inspired by 9th Wonder. On discovering techno, he “didn't necessarily wanna make that type of music”, but rather co-opt it. “I wanted to bring some kind of rap instrumental to the clubs that people can dance to. I just started working that, trying to develop that sound.” It eventually “clicked” as Pierre realised others – Hudson Mohawke, Rustie and Mike Slott, all based in Scotland – were similarly experimenting with the genres. But can he still breakdance? “Oh, definitely, yeah,” Pierre laughs, admitting that he perhaps can't execute “certain moves” that require continual practice. He's breakdanced during sets.

The local Turbo Crunk party crew member journeyed to London to attend 2010's RBMA, a musical think tank. He especially enjoyed collaborating with others in its studios. “The biggest thing I got from it was working with people – like being physically there with people – because what you don't get when you work over email is constant feedback.” His music could be tweaked on the spot.

Pierre's best known collaboration has been with Glasgow's Hudson Mohawke (aka Ross Birchard). Pierre had met him in 2008. Birchard, the youngest-ever UK DMC finalist at 15, played a Montreal party he booked. In 2010 Pierre put out the Stacker Upper EP on the LuckyMe label, which Birchard co-founded, followed by One Hunned. He won a fan in Diplo, who brought him in to co-remix Deerhunter's Helicopter. Then last year Pierre and HudMo presented a trappy – and very buzzworthy – EP as TNGHT on Warp, the company behind Birchard's Butter album. “What I like about the project is that we both take it as a project,” Pierre stresses. TNGHT don't regard themselves as a super-duo, let alone a “band”, although they have gigged together. “We're very focused on our own solo work. So, basically, the reason why we even came together in the first place was because we both came to a point where we just wanted to refine our sound and make it more simple and less bangin' – just to experiment.” Pierre emailed Birchard the day he heard his remix of Gucci Mane's Party Animal. He proposed they team up for some “very straightforward-thinking rap music”. Indeed, TNGHT is intelligent modern hip hop without the pretence.

Birchard was employed as a producer on Kanye West's GOOD Music comp Cruel Summer, contributing to the single Mercy. Pierre, too, is cutting beats for big-name acts. He recorded Runnin' with Azealia Banks. The Harlem rapper spent time in Montreal after splitting from XL Recordings and before she blew up with 212 (that's Pierre in the video). Ms Banks might be taking ages in delivering her debut LP, Broke With Expensive Taste, yet Pierre praises her ability to work on the fly. “Oh, she's quick, man,” he says, revealing that Runnin' was done in all of 45 minutes. “She's definitely a hard worker – and she gets to the point quick.” Somewhat awkwardly, Pierre is also down with Banks' nemesis Angel Haze, the track Gimme That on his Soundcloud. The femcees are embroiled in a Twitter war, Angel unleashing the diss On The Edge. “I have no word to say in that,” Pierre says, exasperated. “But, if you look at the bigger picture, to me it's like, I'm not even looking at them beefing, I'm more looking at why are these female rappers fighting each other? There's no point. I like female rappers who work together and move on.” He considers any conflict trivial. “That's just like a random little thing, whatever – like, people fight, brothers and sisters fight all the time.” He wonders if the media doesn't spur on beefs. “Whenever there's a female rapper, the media plays them into catfighting with another girl rapper – for no real reason.” The dude is about unity. “I just like to see female rappers get together and do some amazing music, you know what I mean?”

The next logical step for Pierre would be to drop an album – he's said to be prepping one entitled Three Sixty – but, then again, many of his DJ peers hold that the album is dead. “Oh, they say that?,” Pierre responds with astonishment. “That's funny, 'cause it feels like the whole point of an album is sorta coming back – 'cause it used to be various people just put a lot of songs on it and that's about it. But I feel like, more and more, a lot of people of my generation are putting albums together to, I don't know – for some people to tell a story, for some people to create some kind of project or feel or scene... that kinda stuff.” He wants his to be a proper album, not a mere compilation.

Pierre will “definitely” be airing “new material” in Australia. Punters should be surprised by what he has planned, the DJ says, suitably coy on details. “It'll be worth it, though – it'll be really, really worth it!” The Canadian has evolved since 2011, his DJing entertaining as well as experiential. “My set is completely different from the last time I played over there. I'm paying more attention to how to play now. I'm more thinking of it as like a showcase.”

Lunice will be playing the following dates:

Friday 22 February - Coniston Lane, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 23 February - Chinese Laundry, Sydney NSW