FROM CIRQUE TO SOUNDS
Laliberté tries hand at DJing
It was about 20 minutes into my conversation with Cirque du Soleil founder and cultural entrepreneur Guy Laliberté when I threw out la question qui tue.
“Will there be any vinyl at all in the DJ nights at the PY1 pyramid?” I asked.
It wasn’t an innocent question. In my spare time, I’ve been DJing ’80s new-wave parties around town for the past couple of years, and though I’ll occasionally slip in a few digital tracks, the whole point of my DJ gigs is to showcase the beautiful analog sound of vinyl LPs.
So, yeah, it was a vinyl snob asking the question.
“Actually, we’re vinyl-ready because there are some DJs who use vinyl, but not me,” Laliberté said. “I’m digital.
“I come from analog and vinyl. I grew up with vinyl and I know how to spin vinyl. The thing is, my breadth of music is so large because I’m the kind of DJ that creates music and I’m spinning three or four tracks at the same time. My signature is to create live music through existing tracks. I’ve developed my sound and my DJ personality based on those objectives.”
In fact, Laliberté wouldn’t be comfortable with these soirees being called “DJ nights.” The official title is the PY1 Nights and the press release from Lune Rouge Entertainment, the company owned by Laliberté which is behind the PY1 experiment, says “these themed nightlife experiences will be situated in seven unique visual and musical worlds, featuring performances by local artists in a universe of electronic music, lasers, projections, special effects and spectacular lighting.”
In other words, DJs will be playing electro tunes and there will be mind-altering visuals projected on the walls, floor and ceiling of the cement pyramid located on the Clock Tower Pier in the Old Port.
These evenings will take place every Friday and Saturday during the summer. During the day, the pyramid will be the site of the sound-and-light show Through the Echoes, a one-hour trip through the history of the universe.
There are 70 local DJs taking part in the PY1 nights, including Misstress Barbara, Poirier and Ryan Playground. There are seven “unique worlds” to be presented in rotation over the summer, including Eye Wonder with Laliberté, Underworld and Candy World.
Laliberté will be DJing at the pyramid June 1, 7 and 9.
I think it’s kind of cool that Laliberté’s new passion is DJing, even if he doesn’t spin vinyl. Here’s a chap who made a reported $1.5 billion when he sold his majority stake in Cirque du Soleil in 2015. Now he devotes a huge chunk of his time to finding music from all over the world for his DJ mixes and was jetting off to Ibiza last week to DJ the opening-of-season party at Heart Ibiza, the nightclub he co-owns there.
“When I sold the Cirque du Soleil, I had a few different reasons,” Laliberté said. “One of them is (wanting to return to performing) ... I come from the street. I was a performer and after all those years of performing in front of the public, it was a personal challenge. It was a series of challenges. I wanted to challenge myself to be an entertainer again. So I chose DJ-ing and I spent hours and hours learning how to do it and selecting my music.
“I have a double life. I spend 30 to 40 hours a week, I work sometimes till four o’clock in the morning, searching for music. I’m a real maniac when I get involved in something. The desire to perform again in front of the public was visceral.”
The first time he did it professionally was in New York City in December 2017 — a $4,000 gig, and the cheque bounced!
“It was like the good old days — ‘Hey, can you pay me?’” Laliberté said. “People don’t hire me because I’m Guy Laliberté. I deliver the goods and my rates have been growing and growing and the cheques are not bouncing.”
Sarah Bromley, artistic director of PY1 Nights, has collaborated on and off with Laliberté for 20 years and has watched him develop this new DJ sideline.
“His collection of world music is probably comparable to none other, so it gives him the opportunity to have a really wide range of music,” Bromley said. “For me to see someone who is a master in so many areas and to watch him put himself in a vulnerable position to become a student again amongst people who’ve been doing it for a very long time and to learn from them (is impressive). ... I’ve watched him come into his own sound.”
On his SoundCloud page, which features some of his mixes, Laliberté describes his sound as “deep journey house.”
That also sounds kind of cool. Now if only I can convince him to spin some of my vintage vinyl. bkelly@postmedia.com twitter.com/ brendanshowbiz
My signature is to create live music through existing tracks. I’ve developed my sound and my DJ personality based on those objectives.