GETTING SCHOOLED

World-famous producers and hand-picked unknowns come together at the Red Bull Music Academy for an advanced course in the fine art of party-rocking
By Nick Aveling
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY with Prins Thomas, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Jake One, Theo Parrish, Sek One, many more. Term 1 Sep 23-Oct 5; Term 2 Oct 14-26. Podcasts of the sessions and more information at www.redbullmusicacademy.com.
DJ PREMIER with DJ Law, Son of SOUL, Johnbronski, DJ Taktiks, more. Manifesto Festival Closing Night Party, presented by Red Bull Music Academy. Sun, Sep 23. Revival, 783 College. Doors 10pm. $20 door, $15 advance from Play De Record, Slinky Music, Shanti Baba, Soundscapes, Ticketbreak.com.
The Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) is coming to Toronto and you're semi-invited.
The music production workshop series, a kind of nomadic Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for producers, DJs, instrumentalists and vocalists, opens the doors of its headquarters at Queen West and Peter on Sunday. If you don't have a golden ticket – only 60 of 2,600 international applicants do – you'll have to settle for the silver lining: lectures will be broadcast live to the public online; and the Saturday sessions at the RBMA Festival Hub at 394 Queen W., meanwhile, are open to all.
“Musicians from different backgrounds – hip-hop, techno, drum 'n' bass, punk, soul, dubstep, indie and post rock – don't usually get a chance to meet with each other,” says Academy co-founder Many Ameri. “If they do, there's never time to talk about what really drives them to make music. [The RBMA] is a place where you leave the industry bullshit outside the door and concentrate on the inspiration behind your music.”
Since starting in Berlin in 1998, the Academy has two-stepped (or slam-danced, depending on whom you ask) its way through cities on every continent. Organizers admit they had no idea what to expect from Toronto. “We were at a point where we thought we'd go somewhere that we found interesting. We looked at Canada, two cities in particular – one was Toronto, the other you can probably guess. I'm aware of the rivalry so I don't want to add any fuel to the fires of hate,” says Ameri. (A hint: it starts with an M, ends with an L, and has an ONTREA in the middle.)
Given the RBMA's emphasis on live performances and musical and cultural eclecticism, Ameri says, Toronto was the obvious choice. “Wherever we go around the world, people are great with superlatives. But Toronto really is the most integrated, most multicultural city I've ever seen. We were also surprised by what a healthy music scene you have, how many good clubs and concert venues there are.”
A typical day at the Academy starts at noon and ends sometime around last call. During daylight hours, guest lecturers who “have been important and coined music styles in the last three or four decades” speak to groups of about 30 participants, themselves musicians from all over the world.
“After that,” he says, “we have eight studios on-site where participants get to work with each other and lecturers. That's where you'll have, I don't know, a Czech drum 'n' bass DJ, a hip-hop DJ from New Zealand and a producer from Japan making music with some booty-bass lecturer. That usually lasts from 6pm until about midnight.” Lecturers and participants then take it from the lab to the clubs, performing alongside local acts throughout the city.
A widespread and prolonged event – it's broken into two two-week sessions separated by a one-week break – the RBMA manages to be conspicuously clandestine. Lecturers aren't formally announced until the day they're slated to speak, and show promotion is largely unattached to the Academy itself. “Since there are all these gigs, word just sort of bleeds into the Academy,” says Ameri. You didn't hear it from us, but the fact that dancehall pioneer King Jammy, Stones Throw soul-jazz diva Georgia Anne Muldrow and Norwegian dance DJ/producer Prins Thomas are all set to perform during the Academy's stay in Toronto might just have some bearing on the lecture lineup.
DJ Premier, who happens to be spinning at Revival on Sept. 23, is this year's (non)marquee lecturer. He hadn't heard about the RBMA before being approached by organizers leading up to the event, but he didn't need much convincing to sign on.
“There's less money involved and everybody's just there to learn from each other and figure out where to go from there, so my main focus is definitely to help with that,” he says. “Anything to help uplift the movement of what we do, I'm always all for it. It's really that simple with me. I won't show them all my secrets, I'm not there for that, but I will show them how to develop an ear for beat production, develop a sound.”
Whether or not the event is a success, says Premier, depends on your definition. “Realistically, this is a really fucked-up business. I'll never sugarcoat how ugly it really is. Only time will tell if [the participants] turn into the next up-and-coming hot producers, so I just want them to look at me as proof that despite all of that, you can still maintain and do what you do naturally.”