An introduction, please … who are you, where are you, and what pays the bills?

My name is Joseph Shabason, I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and music pays the bills.

Where was the mix recorded, and what is the inspiration behind it?

My home studio.

Note**- I am not a DJ and I don’t know how to do a mix. What I do know how to do is play music I like, put them in an order that makes sense and use Pro Tools…so with that in mind I made my own version of a “Mix” called Spoice Merchants. That’s the name of a text thread that I have with some of my best buds where we all share our favorite music. I like to play songs in their entirety.

This thread really helps me travel outside the confines of lock-down and opens me up to a world of music and community that I usually experience in real life. It’s brought me so much happiness and introduced me to so much good new music this over the past year and especially over the last 1.5 months of Covid. I hope that it can do the same for whoever listens to this mix.

Strictly vinyl? Strictly digital? Couldn’t care less?

Couldn’t care less.

‘Balearic’, seems to be a somewhat overused term these days, but if you had to – and we are asking you to – describe the essence of ‘Balearic’ in one record?

Seeing as how I had to google what the word meant just now I don’t think that I’m particularly qualified to answer this question!

Favourite place you’ve travelled to? And why?

Paneda Geres in the north of Portugal. It borders Spain. It’s a big national park that feels like it is forever stuck in the early 1900s. It’s filled with incredible little villages, amazing waterfalls and really long hikes through mountains and river systems. I spent a magical week there in 2013 just hiking and eating. We stayed in our own cabin in the national park that cost us $50 a night and we bought fresh produce from the town and cooked for ourselves. To this day Portugal is my all time favorite country to visit.

Sunset or Sunrise? And the best place to experience it?

Sunset…probably on a beach. Fuck, is that a boring answer?

Most embarrassing record(s) you’ve bought? Most expensive? And your best bargain bin finds you’ve dug out over the years?

Most Embarrassing: Stealing The Vapids record in junior high school, getting busted by the police and having to tell my parents what happened.

Most Expensive: $40? I don’t know….I think buying really expensive records is dumb.

Best Bargain: Some dude just unloaded a huge collection of rare punk and electronic music at my local thrift so I ended up getting like 40 insane records for $50. It was such a dream haul. Some of the records are worth hundreds of dollars. TBH I barely listen to them these days hahaha… The only records I seem to want to put on are Bill Evans albums or jazz vocalists. Frank Sinatra is always on heavy rotation and so is Betty Carter.

Favourite DJ you’ve heard play out over the years?

Actress at Sled Island Festival in Calgary.

Anything else we should know about you or what you are up to in terms of music releases, dj stuff, what underwear you are wearing etc. ?

Getting ready to release a cover of Gymnopédie no. 1 that I did with my friend Drew. Should be out in a few weeks.

I just finished mixing an album with a new project that I did with my friends Nicholas Krgovich and Chris Harris. TBH I think that record is one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life. I usually hate things I work on after sitting with them for a bit and with this one I just keep listening and getting more excited about it.

I am getting ready to start working on my 4th solo record. It’s gonna be a pretty huge undertaking that’s both daunting and exciting.

And do you have a track listing for the mix provided?

– Seng Ge- Merope, Bert Cools, Indré Jurgleviciute
– Segélj El Uramisten_Invocation- Marta Sebestyen, Leventa Szorenyi
– Autobus- Lorad Group
– Do While- Oval
– Oglon Day- Oren Ambarchi, Mark Fell Will Guthrie, Sam Shalabi
– B- Viola Knein, Kin Sherobbi
– Fly Around The Room- Max D
– Masques- Arethéa
– Shadows From Nowhere- Blue Gas
– Why- Mid Air Theif
– Loveroom Frank Harris, Maria Marquez
– Dissappeared- Swing Low

A huge thanks to Joseph for taking some time out to answer these questions.

Tagged: Community