Writer, director, musician and producer Romeo Candido has a story worth listening to. As you can tell from his titles, the man has done some serious work over the years. He’s easily smashed the 10,000 hour rule in a number of fields so it goes without saying that he’s been around the block a few times and has some major insight on being a professional creative.

But you ask, doesn't anyone savvy youtube creator wear so many hats these days? Well, yes and no. Romeo breaks down the distinction. He's also breaking the internet, exposing it to wonderful new, typically fringe artists, as Senior Producer at CBC Arts.

Most importantly, Romeo shares the key to connecting with any audience, at any time, in no matter what your discipline. In his words, it's "the one thing that all artists have ownership of, and the one thing that can make them unique."

We are now in a time when festival crowds’ attention is held by one dude, pumping a fist in the air to what may or may not be an pre-recorded set of songs. Where promoters are more interested in social media numbers than track selection, and where non-male DJs get added to shows for the sake of fulfilling diversity requirements.

Despite all of that, there are still young DJs like Toronto native BAMBII, who is more concerned with crafting and curating sets that challenge and excite the audience, and who pays homage to the origins of the music she plays.

BAMBII believes in the power of the club to unite and provide space for those who may not otherwise have a place in society to come together and commune, so maybe it’s not surprising how seriously she takes her craft.

After disbanding his Techo/House super group Azari & III, Ali spent time moving around some of music epicentres to settle in Mexico City, where he has found a new home, new community and new co-conspirator in Ximena. Together Ali X x Ximena are educating Mexico's future generations of electronic musicians about what real Techno music is and why it should be thus.

It's for reasons like these, along with a host of other more varied examples, that I wanted to invite cartoonist, illustrator and visual artist Michelle LeFade onto Mind to Make. I wanted to find out where Michelle got her style from, how it's evolved, what of herself she puts into that work, and where she's diverging from that path?

On this week's episode of Mind to Make, Jeremy speaks with artist, musician, film-maker and now meditation & mindfulness instructor/counsellor Josh Reichmann (Tangiers, Paper Bag Records, Hand Drawn Dracula) about how our minds play such an important role in the process of art making. We discuss Josh's introduction into mindfulness, meditation, Buddhism and the various forms and meanings attached to those terms, as well as how they manifest themselves in us and others. We discuss addiction, suffering and finding meaning and compassion both for ourselves and others. We talk about how having a moral or ethical framework can and should be as important as what we are trying to say with our work. We speak about how mindfulness can be a first step to beginning a journey along the middle path of creation and discovery.

Buzz’s bio reads as follows… Buzz is an emerging fashion thing who runs a label called ReBaie by Rebée. ReBaie was born in the mall (proverbially and otherwise), and currently converges at the fun n' funky intersection of tween-ness, me-ness and Venus. Buzz is on the bored of some stuff and never salts her driveway before she tastes it.

Though Buzz doesn’t spend as much time in the drag world these days, we discuss her secretive introduction to fashion and drag and the sometimes sticky relationship between familial expectations and the need to pursue art.

We talk about how fashion changes your perceived role in society both internally and externally and what it means to put yourself into your art; both literally and figuratively.

We discuss breaking through societal norms and what it means to develop your brand and how it can evolve over time.

We talk about how the worlds of drag and fashion are permeated by a strong sense of humour and self-deprecation and we talk about how that’s influenced Buzz’s work.

Finally, we discuss Buzz's perspective on being a millennial in the world of art and creation.

On the 2nd episode of Mind To Make, I sit down with the delightful Maylee Todd. We talk about her latest record Acts of Love and the process she went through to make it. We explore ideas around going it alone vs. with a group or team, releasing on labels vs. self-releasing and discuss Maylee's Virtual Womb show and how she's made her audience part of her performances. All that, and lots more fun stuff! 

Her latest video for the single Afanyala can be seen here. 

Co-director Todd Yurichuk says of the video "Afanyala' is about honouring your unique sensibilities... Ultimately there's no one person like another and everyone's unique nature and lived experience gives a wealth of knowledge that can bring different perspectives and creative expressions to humanity."

Maylee incorporated the creative experience of others in the new video, collaborating with projection artist  Lightsweetcrude and wearable art-maker Xue Liang. The video was co-directed by Todd and Fred Yurichuk, and you can take it all in below.

GET A WORKSHOP FROM MAYLEE

Maylee will be teaching the fundamentals of Ableton from recording to advanced techniques for creativity, and live performance. Click the link below to access more information...

Learning Ableton With Maylee Todd

Maylee's Bio

Polymath. Free thinker. Psychonaut. Jill-of-all-trades. Renaissance womyn. Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist, vocalist and producer Maylee Todd has been called many things. But the one thing her artistic and musical output has been consistently called is stimulating. 

The source of her prolific artistic tendencies may lie in her bi-cultural lineage which points to a Canadian father who is an Elvis Presley impersonator, and her Filipino mom who for years crafted quirky interactive quilts and dolls. Regardless, Maylee became best known in Canada, the UK (where she receives airplay and praises from BBC Radio 1’s Gilles Peterson) and Asia (where she was a Top 10 charting artist in Tokyo) for her past solo albums, Choose Your Own Adventure (2010) and Escapology (2013), dual works of art that incorporated elements of dance-friendly funk, electronic, soul, disco and experimental sounds, while utilizing both digital and analog recording methods. 

For her third studio album Acts of Love, which she calls “a body of work that is much more about music for me”, Maylee’s playlist of songs can be viewed more as MANTRAS inspired by her psychonautic lyrical approach, and her interest in science fiction, human psychology, and unconventional thinking. Maylee convincingly covers a wide range of timely, topical and universal subject matter on her new 17 track album including gender bias (“From This Moment”), addiction (“One of These Days”), solitude (“Lonely”), coming to a mutual understanding (“Eye To Eye”), unconventional relationships (“Goat Wut U Need”) and virtual reality/psilocibin (“Virtual Life”).

Given that Maylee’s creativity takes direct inspiration from her working in a wide range of artistic disciplines; song-writing, film, performance art, comedy, 3-D projection mapping and design, it should come as no surprise that she added album “producer” to her repertoire, having produced all 17 of the songs on the album. In fact, Acts of Love is characterized by an “in-the-box” studio approach that sees Maylee wholly embracing technology and taking on the role of producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist, recording and playing the bulk of the music in her home studio.

Virtual Womb is a multimedia show that includes 3-D projection mapping, dancing, installation, interactive therapy and music. The audience byob (brings their own blanket), walks through a large vulva installation, lie on the floor and watches projections on the ceiling that coincide with the live musical performance containing harp and electronics. The audience participates in a collection of collective consciousness, where they can participate in writing down their forms of therapy, their Acts Of Love. These Acts Of Love live online for worldwide access. 

Maylee’s music unfurls some multi-disciplinary art appendages and has the capacity to inject humour and a true sense of performance art into her music. Her shows are more than just concerts, they are creative experiences, and her much talked about prowess in this area has led to her sharing stages with Janelle Monae, Little Dragon, Thundercat, Lee Fields, Aloe Blacc, Esthero, Ebony Bones, and The Budos Band, among others. 

Acts of Love is essentially a tale of one woman’s metamorphosis, of constantly mutating and evolving musically, with the ultimate goal being to enlighten listeners on the symbiotic relationship between music, technology, performance art and human nature. It's a conceptual record that focuses on topics such as polyamory, gender bias, addiction, forgiveness, and the illusions/constructs of life.

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]]>Mind To MakeA discussion with artist Maylee Todd about her latest album Acts of Love, her virtual womb show, her process and practiceOn the 2nd episode of Mind To Make, I sit down with the delightful Maylee Todd. We talk about her latest record Acts of Love and the process she went through to make it. We explore ideas around being a solo artist vs. being in a group, releasing on labels vs. self-release and discuss Maylee's Virtual Womb show and how she's included her audience in her performances. Meditation, expectations and how to finding the clarity that comes from ritual and perspective.false00:57:1912Mind To Make EP 2 - Maylee Todd and Her Virtual WombfullMind To Make EP 2 - Maylee Todd and Her Virtual Wombmindtomake@gmail.com (Jeremy Glenn)art,music,dance,theatre,film,illustration,motivation,creation,mind,to,makeArtWritingPhilosophyMusicMon, 09 Apr 2018 10:00:00 +0000https://www.mindtomake.com/episodes/2018/3/6/mtm-ep-1-robert-bolton5a9843b19772ae6cbd7d27f3:5a9eb32053450a4352689793:5a9ef8000852293780ff97dbTwitter: @arowbe

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