Jeremy Strachan Archives - Kreative Kontrol

I am Robot and Proud is the moniker of Shaw-Han Liem, a gifted musician and computer scientist who calls Toronto home. Liem co-designed and composed the music for the award-winning 2012 Playstation game Sound Shapes, and he continues to work as a video game music composer. Since the beginning of this century, he has been making a colourful kind of pop-oriented electronic music that blends organic and synthetic sounds, as I am Robot and Proud. His eighth album is called Light and Waves, it’s out now via Darla Records, and has prompted I am Robot and Proud to play shows across Japan in October and November. Here, Liem and I discuss a weather report from Toronto, making the new album with a live band, past collaborators and playing solo versus being in a band that can be a pain in the ass, camaraderie, being part of a music community, the Robot band, musical Stockholm Syndrome, touring Japan with the help of a local promoter, how Robot songs are made with the Robot band, Mike Smith, Light and Waves surprises, Robin Buckley, getting into video game music composition and co-creating Playstation’s Sound Shapes, knowing your steez, Jordan Howard, game versus film soundtracks, the gaming universe, how Sound Shapes works, that’s edutainment, Guitar Hero, growing up in Mississauga and playing music with Evan Clarke and Jeremy Strachan, Blue Light Blockade, how forgettable I am, being big in Japan and small in Canada, rock-centric electronicism, venues for weird music, gaming fans and collectors of all stripes, not knowing why things resonate more in Osaka than Peterborough, Yellow Magic Orchestra, what’s next for I am Robot and Proud, the song and meaning behind “Kira Kira Zig Zag,” and that was that.

Related links: darla.com robotandproud.com vishkhanna.com

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Brad McInerney is a founding member of the Kazoo! concert series in Guelph. which is celebrating its eighth anniversary with two shows in town this week. On Thursday June 5, the Salt Lick Kids are reuniting to play the Jimmy Jazz with Sackville’s Kappa Chow, while on Friday June 6, Esther Grey, my Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet tribute band, …FROM a Shadowy Planet, Start Something, and a surprise special guest plays a show at the James Gordon Outreach HQ, located at 32 Essex St. The other day, Brad, his Kazoo! colleague Mike Deane, and I met at Mike’s house in Guelph to discuss things like Kazoo!’s exact eighth anniversary, Ninja High School, Households, the Maynards, Van Gogh’s Ear, 106 Huron St. and house shows, Rockets Red Glare and Jeremy Strachan breaking a bass string in the living room, punk rock squats, Hamilton Ontario, Caledon Village, the Grange St. house/Burnt Oak collective, the hilarious Burnt Oak/No-Fi feud, Ell V Gore, how Kazoo! began, Diamond Rings, transient towns, I start eating dinner, Mike’s history as a show promoter, my amazing job at a car rental company, the Poultry Palace, Montreal was a bust, when Mike met Brad, checking in on my dinner, etiquette, Señor Chipotle, going from playing music to setting up shows, making things better, enriching communities and DIY networks, the influence of Fugazi, selfish community-building, putting Guelph on the map, Rancid, NOFX, and Ramones, Martini, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, being in a band as an 11 year-old, Start Something, random notes and delay knobs, Cake Bomb Bolivia, Elbow Beach Surf Club, stopping the rock, Le Cyc and Polydactyl Hearts Collective, let’s start a band, Jazz, nursery school bands, Aaron Levin from Weird Canada, the general health of Guelph’s live music scene, transients and residents, the best Kazoo! Fest ever took place in 2014, selfless community-building, people who stick around town and do/make stuff, Guelph is too white and old, many things in Guelph don’t interest Mike, the overabundance of stuff to do in Guelph, Macdonell St. at 2 AM and pee floods, someone broke into my car and stole my mints, Guelph feels bigger, strangers at shows are good, Brad calls Mike and I on booking our own bands to play this Kazoo! 8th Anniversary show, Don Pyle is a superb drummer, I forgot that I played Kazoo! shows with Wax Mannequin before, a rundown about these anniversary shows, Olive the dog, excitement, the Start Something song “Hard Times,” and then it’s over. Or is it?…

Related links: kazookazoo.ca ticketbreak.com/event_details/7590 vishkhanna.com

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