This Friday Canadian muso/DJ/producer TIGA will be releasing his first album in seven years called No Fantasy Required, and we thought it the ideal time to check in with the man himself and find out where his love of music began.
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“The first compact disc I ever bought was The Cure “Mixed Up”, it was 1990 and I was 16. I remember it was very expensive. It felt like an investment more than just a purchase. I think I got it at HMV in downtown Montreal. It’s conceivable my mom bought it for me. For sure it clocked in at over $20, which was more than double the price of a cassette. A few things that stay in my memory: it had exceptionally thick “paint” on the CD itself, almost as if it was done by hand, quite a chunky layer. Also, it was MORE than 72min which for many years I thought was the limit. I was wrong, obviously.
Musically, I think it was an exceptionally astute and cool first purchase: the music is still amazing, and most of the remixes were unknown and exclusive at the time… still are pretty unknown.
Quite prescient of me to go for the “dance mixes” and 12inch long versions. I was already a DJ, obsessed with exclusivity, cache and dancefloor dynamics. I had been a Cure fan for years, and it made sense. Typically, I don’t even have a digital version now, I’ll go on Spotify and check…. hold on: oh yeah…. “The Walk” and “A Forest” were always my favorites. Epic. I remember I hated “Hot Hot Hot” because of the guitars and it felt so old fashioned. I also hated the closing song “Never Enough”, again, thinking it was too “real”. I am essentially the exact same person today.”
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Here is one of the album’s tracks ‘Planet E’ which has him teaming up with Hudson Mohawke, followed by ‘Don’t Break My Heart’ from a few months ago.
No Fantasy Required will see its release on March 4th through Counter Records // One Love, and will feature a few other collaborators including Matthew Dear, Jori Hulkkonen, Jake Shears (of the Scissor Sisters) and Paranoid London.
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