A Conversation With: Shad

The Canadian music scene has received quite the surge in respect. Sure some may point towards Arcade Fire and their well-deserved praise, but perhaps it’s the continuous variety of talent coming from Canuck-villle, talent like hip-hop troubadour, Shad. Through his playful-meets-poetic dialogue, Shad ushers a brand of rapping that has garnered head nods from the industry and fans alike. Here’s a glimpse inside the intelligence that is—Shad.

Does recognition (awards etc.) mean a lot or are you just happy creating music?

S: Ya I am happy to create music, I don’t want to say recognition is not important, cause it does mean something. It means that people are interested in what you do and you don’t make music for the sake of nothing; you make it to have that conversation with people and when they engage in it and they like it obviously that is meaningful.

S: But awards for music obviously don’t make sense because it’s impossible to judge music that objectively. It’s not like any actual indicator of how good music is, you always have to keep that in mind, take it with a grain of salt.

S: In music we have a lot of awards, its like part of the industry, other people work and don’t get awards.

Ya, but people in music don’t have money (both start laughing)

S: True, you need something (laughing) it’s our consolation; we need a little pat on the back.

How important is it for artists to be educated and/or political? Does it matter?

S: I saw this video about how athletes used to be more political and now they’re not, and I don’t know how I felt about that. I mean I admire a lot of athletes from the 60’s and 70’s like Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Muhammad Ali, who were very aware. But, we live in a world that pushes people so hard, like with entertainers and athletes, so to turn around and expect them to be political to me isn’t really fair because that’s tough. But, I can speak for myself and say I try to, but I don’t know how much I can say other people need to. I do think it would eliminate a lot of problems if we all took the time to learn, learn about the world, you know.

Are you afraid of yourself?

S: Ya to some extent I think we all are afraid of who we are. There’s that quote, it’s usually accredited to Nelson Mandela but I think it’s by a woman, “The thing we are most afraid of is our greatness not our weakness.” I think that’s true too.

What about writing just in general? What do you take away from it?

S: I read this great line:

“Writing is like clearing your throat, it’s catharsis and communication,” which I think is true. I think what people are afraid of and sometimes what I’m afraid is ‘standing that far apart.’ Everyone wants to be an individual, but everyone wants to fit in, both are equally strong forces inside of people.

S: You know, it’s like thinking ok I may stand quite a bit apart if I do this, or say this, or if I act like I want to act or do what I think is right—I think that’s pretty daunting. At the same time you want to do it because it feels authentic and that’s you and that’s the only way you are going to be happy.

Does it matter where you perform or are you loving it no matter what?

S: I like performing—I’ve always been a little bit of a reluctant performer, just in general. Some people like to perform anytime, any place and just love it, I’ll be honest, I like performing for people who want to see me perform, I don’t like imposing my performance on anyone, that’s always been my thing.

S: So yesterday we played at Laurier, where I did my undergrad, and that was fun—a little room rammed with fans, that feels great because those people like what I do so I want to give them back 110 percent.

S: Sometimes I don’t look forward to shows, but I always have fun when I’m playing. Always. It’s like if your friends call you up and to play basketball and you’re not really up for it, once you start playing you’re like this is fun, I mean I’m just playing.

Did You Know:  Shad has nearly completed his masters in Liberal Studies?

Now you do.

Watch this snippet of Shad performing Live at The Indies as part of Canadian Music Week.