quote: | Markus Schulz Blog on Labour of Love in Toronto
Labour of Love, Toronto (GDJB World Tour Recording) - Sunday September 5th Add a near five hour flight and three hours of time difference, and it was well after 7pm Eastern when I landed in Toronto. Our first call of duty was to head straight to the Koolhaus and do the customary soundcheck & recording setup for a World Tour show.
We went back to the hotel. I was completely beat and wanted to be in the right frame of mind for such an important set later, so I headed off to bed. Tim stayed up and arranged to meet with that crazy Toronto native we love called Arnej. A couple of hours later, they picked me up to the hotel and we all travelled together to the Guvernment complex, and arrived at around 1:30am.
I wasn’t due to go on for an hour so we headed to the back room, where we found such luminaries as Glenn Morrison hanging out, as well as a rare appearance from Mr. Tranceaddict himself, Swamper. We had some fun chatting and catching up, but I was keeping my focus firmly on the next few hours, because not only was it a World Tour recording, but because of the significance of playing this event and venue.
Much like New York, Toronto feels like a home away from home for me. The people there are so gracious and hospitable, and it feels like seeing one big giant family. Just before 2:30am I went up to the Koolhaus and greeted the guys from Above & Beyond, who were finishing off. It felt so good to be back in that booth again. It gives me so much inspiration that it feels like a bolt of electricity running right through you. I knew that the first two tracks were going to set the tone for the night.
The next two hours are exactly what you heard on last week’s Global DJ Broadcast. One of the things I had worked on ahead of the weekend, but deliberately held back until this night, was a special intro / mashup using Perception and Tomcraft & Jerome Isma-Ae’s track, Trouble in the Redlight District. It nearly took the roof off! And up next was my special moment, the one I had been looking forward to the most - playing the Dakota track Koolhaus, in the Koolhaus. It finally happened!
Of course for all of you who listened to the broadcast, the big feature was the revealing of a new track by yours truly, made specifically for this year’s Transmission event in Prague. I have been roadtesting it for a couple of months ago, and you would have heard it debuted on radio in the previous World Tour from Budapest. A lot of the Toronto peeps seemed to have caught wind that this might have been something made by me, and they let their feelings known when they heard it coming through the speakers.
As each track passed in the set, the more and more special this night felt. And it showed that Toronto never ceases to amaze me with all the love I receive. I had to consciously take things down a notch towards the end, out of respect for John Digweed (who was following me afterwards), but still wanted to go out with a big finish. So the original of Perception did the trick for me.
And that was it… a long overdue experience in the Koolhaus, and I loved every minute of it. I felt a great sense of pride and felt like we had achieved something with the recording, and hopefully you guys at home enjoyed it too. I was very tired, so I said my goodbyes and went back to the hotel for some sleep. Had to be sensible… because the next flight was only a few hours away.
But a big thank you as always to the Toronto natives for all your support. I can’t wait to come back to the Guvernment again, and hopefully I’ll get to grace the Koolhaus soon again. |
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