A long time friend and participant of OBEY Convention, Lindsay Dobbin, will be DJing during our closing night show with Julianna Barwick and The Halifax Rumi Ensemble. We got in touch with her to get a sense of what her priorities are when it comes to DJing:
What kind of music/musical idea is exciting you these days?
Looping and drumming are exciting to me right now. With both I am
exploring repetition, making patient alterations so the sounds
gradually inhabit new environments, and parallel universes. I love the
moment when you’ve been listening to and/or playing the same pattern
over and over and you begin to hear it in a new way based on your
awareness shifting from the superficial to something deeper.
I’m also really excited about music in general these days. Like, I’ve
always been, but recently my relationship has been refreshed namely
due to teaching a DJ/music program to youth with disabilities. I find
it really rewarding because I not only get to teach something I’m
passionate about, but I learn so much from the students. I’m reminded
on a daily basis how vital music is, not only as an escape, but as an
authentic tool for self-expression, awareness and engagement with the
world. I’ve had students who site specific instances when music saved
their lives.
Will you be manipulating the music you play at the show in any way?
I will. I am still working out my set, but I do know it will be loop
based, employing the concepts I stated above and combining analogue
and digital technologies to map a sonic transformation.
What should one strive for as a DJ?
Awareness of environment. Deep listening. Fleshing out moments of
transition. Fun. Originality. Creating new sound worlds. Alchemy.
Moving people.
Can you describe a serendipitously soundtracked moment?
My earliest love-at-first-sight moment happened at a fair when I was
five. Otis’ “For Your Precious Love” blared out of the speakers of the
Tilt-A-Whirl ride as it all went down.
Have you ever called into a radio show? Or hosted one? If so, when/why/who?
Both. When I was in grade 9 I called into the local station to request
a Sarah McLachlan song, and dedicated it to the person I liked at the
time.
As for radio hosting, when I was really young I had a boombox and
8-track/record player in my room, and I’d pretend to host radio shows.
My great grandmother and my cat were regular guests. In more recent
history, I’ve (co)hosted shows on CKDU 88.1 FM in Halifax as well as
CJUC 92.5 FM in Whitehorse in the past. Both had a focus on
experimental sounds, field recording, and community engagement,
exploring concepts such as memory and the intangible. Some of the
shows featured audio mapping, fictional guests, a dog that reported
the weather, the death of analogue media, food tasting, and an orb
that chewed bubble gum. I wanted listeners to tune in and feel a bit
confused but curious.
If the show you’re DJing were a novel, where would it be set?
The genre would be magical realism, and the protagonist would be
traversing landscapes in this world, discovering windows into other
dimensions, where time doesn’t exist, space is expansive, and
awareness is unlocked to a sense of wonderment.
