 We are the tribe that they cannot see. We live on an industrial reservation. We are the Halusa Nation. Before I begin, I would just like to acknowledge and honor all the work that we do here currently at LMIT FM is currently being done on unceded Algonquin territory that was never given up and never surrendered. So we're just going to start off really simple here and say basically who you are and where you're from and where you grew up. I'm Toolman, I'm one half of tribe and I grew up on Six Nations. Nice. I'm Bear Witness, the other half of tribe. My family's from Six Nations. I grew up in Toronto. I just wanted to ask what started this whole idea of Indigenous kind of electric music? Like where did it all begin? I mean I guess it started here in Ottawa back with the Electric Power 10 years ago now. You know, we came together with the simple idea of promoting ourselves as Indigenous DJs in the city and promoting a party to the community here. So you know, I went down to the Native Students Association, Friendship Centre, places like that to throw up posters. Out of that party, it was a success from the first night, sold out and there was a real reaction from the community coming that said that this was something that was needed, that people wanted, that we had created this place for Indigenous people to gather in Ottawa and that we had to keep doing it. Yeah, so they pretty much got all hyped up and ready and just wanted to keep going with that kind of thing? Yeah, and after like a year or so of doing that, we started, you know, we wanted to give something back because that party was being so successful. We wanted to give back to the community that was showing us so much support. So that's where the idea of remixing powwow music came out of was wanting to give back. Based upon that, what do you guys want to promote through the style of Indigenous music and around the world kind of thing? It's just basically like representing ourselves. A big thing with Tribe is, you know, representation. So, you know, giving the platform to represent ourselves the way we want to be seen and do the things that we, you know, like we want people to see us do these things. So knowing that you guys are always on tour and whatnot and, you know, you might be exhausted at some points, I bet. What do you do to self-medicate yourself and, you know, have your relaxed time, you know, kind of thing? What do you guys do? I like to set up a, I bring like a portable studio with me and we play video games on the road. You know, we hang out a lot too. Like, you know, we go eat places and we're very, very close and like we also have dancers with us, creation and lunacy, Angel Gladue. It's a, in our tour manager, Buddha, like we all, we all, we're all just like a family. So like we all just, you know, when we need our space, we need our space, but then, you know, we're all, we're all there together. So we're all there. It's like a big, it's a family feeling when we tour around for sure. Do you have any cultural tradition that you do for relaxing, kind of like, you know, kind of go back home, you know, go hunting or anything like that or is it just kind of always on the go? We're very much like I think being a part of Tribe and being surrounded by not just necessarily the music itself but the people that we bring around us, like that get attracted from when we play shows in Brooklyn or even in Norway, you know, it doesn't matter where it is, like we'll find indigenous people there and most times they'll give us medicines too or they'll give us like, they're the, them themselves are medicine themselves to see them. So it's pretty good. It's really dope to be able to have that kind of experience. I don't think any other band has that, what we have, but that's super important to us. Tell me more about what this Northern Touch remix is all about. It's been a kind of a staple, a staple, I guess. Like it's one of those things that, you know, I grew up listening to, we both did. It was a really huge thing. It was a cross-Canada remix featuring like, you know, MCs from BC to Toronto. So it was definitely like one of the biggest music videos that I've ever remember seeing on much music back in a day. It definitely got played a lot. It's been around for a long time too. So it's like, it was an honor, I guess, to be able to recreate that. And we were just like, oh, we're like one of two people to do it. So yeah, it was really, really cool. I also hear you're doing this new concept show that you're presenting all across Ontario. Can you give me a little bit more insight about what that's all about? Yeah, we kind of started this idea now, you know, moving forward with what a tribe called Red does and always, you know, pushing ourselves further to do bigger and more interesting things and, you know, challenge ourselves as artists. We've started this concept called the hallucination band, which is, you know, really just the next incarnation of where we're going with the ideas of a tribe called Red, taking it beyond just being a club and DJ set. In the case of the shows that we're doing across Ontario, right now we're bringing in other players. So we have Respectful Child on violin and Jeremy Dutcher on piano and vocals, as well as Creation, one of our dancers who's also jumping up and playing some beats. So it's really turning into this thing where it was four turntables kind of all playing together or six turntables all playing together or two turntables and MPC has now turned into more of a band concept and trying to create, you know, create something more than just a club vibe. When you're playing it, when you're playing and you're in your zone, I guess you're in your area, what is your favorite kind of, you know, song that you guys like to play? I don't know if there's any particular songs, but I know that on this tour that we're doing, there has been these moments that happened because we're all in sync together, so there'll be Respectful Child, Jeremy Dutcher and us and Creation and even, you know, Miss Chief Rocker there, Lunacy, we're all on stage together all at once, all in sync, all doing something. Those have become like one of my favorite moments and magical moments and because we have control of the music, literally we can extend it, you know, we can shorten it, we can do whatever we want to it, so it ends up being like we get lost and we're just in the crowd just kind of like, like sees everything going on, you know, you see the visuals, you see us all playing together and then there's just some, there's this kind of magical thing that happens, so that's been like my favorite moment so far especially with this tour. Yeah, I guess on this tour, my favorite moment is some of the new songs we're playing, so we're premiering songs that nobody's heard yet, songs that are going to be for the next project, that's for me is the most exciting part. When can we expect that? Or can you give us something you can't tell us? That's okay. Yeah, we're working on it. We're working on it. We're working on a lot of things, you know, we spent this past year touring more than twice the amount we have two years before it while also making an album. So, you know, we've been, we've been keeping pretty busy. Cool. Well, thank you so much, guys. You're listening to 957 Element FM.