Wondering what to expect when the Backburner collective
(Wordburglar, Jesse Dangerously, The Extremities and London-based group
Toolshed, plus Windom Earle) hit the Seahorse stage on August 8? “The
grown-up version of being in grade five and your teacher leaves the
classroom. That’s right,” says Sean Jordan, AKA SJ the Wordburglar. “No
teachers. Party time.”
Call them rap music superheroes. Call them music nerds, who studied
their lessons and came up with their own formula. Inside The Vault,
their subterraneous high-tech musical bat cave on Quinpool
Road—Backburner is a collective and production company—it is easier
to think of them as superheroes. (Though it’s doubtful many Marvel
heroes had a life-size robot simulator for the video game Steel
Battalion in the lounge of their caves.) Nor is it likely that
Batman argued with Alfred about the distinction between an LP and an
EP. But these boys have made a name for themselves.
Backburner’s superhero feats include recording their idol KRS-One;
being kidnapped by female fans; touring Europe; fusing comedy and
hip-hop, hip-hop and jazz; getting drunk with the creator of G.I.
Joe and actually making a living in the music industry.
Between them they own 10,000 to 15,000 records. More than half have
degrees in audio engineering or make their living in sound. Founding
member Shaun Ryan, AKA Uncle Fester, says the key to success in music
is not depending on album sales but finding work elsewhere to support
your passion. Ryan makes his living as a sound technician at CBC. Ryan
MacKenzie (Dexter Doolittle) is a Halifax go-to sound guy. Andrew
Kilgour (Fresh Kils) is one of Toronto’s busiest recording technicians.
At 34 years old, self-professed old man Dave Richardson does sound
design for local television series. The goal of Backburner was to have
a crew where everything could be done in-house, from recording to
mixing to mastering. After touring The Vault it’s apparent they
succeeded.
Backburner Records began when founding members Ryan and Mackenzie
started DJing in high school, pursuing a love of Halifax hip-hop,
which, at the time, meant using broken antennas to listen to Buck 65’s
radio show The Bassment. In university they met Kilgour, and it
was on Oxford Street, in an apartment universally known as Crappy Pad,
that things started to take off.
It’s been eight years.
“We are all in it for life. Music is the most important thing in my
life, in all of our lives,” says Ryan. “Expect to see tight routines,
every MC with a DJ and Fresh Kils murdering it on the MPC. You are
going to want to dance—we are performing with Windom Earle for a
reason, because we want crowds who are out to have fun. No mean
mugging. Just cute girls dancing to good music.”
Wordburglar “Cream of Wheat”
Jesse Dangerously, “Get Fresh” live in Austin, Tx
Related Stories
Q&A with the Wordburglar
Q&A: Halifax Rap Legend Jesse Dangerously
Word Nerd
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2009.