one of the few tiny regrets nibblng almost affectionately at my what-we’ll-call-a-heart this year was that we didn’t give more space to Don Cash back in July’s issue… when his dollar-bin playlist came in, the swagger was almost tangible. considering his latest album, Don Cash II was described by some gemlike egotist as “compounding hip hop basement shudder, the glimmer and sheen of applied science plus an array of vocal modes from spoken word to plasticised croon” thought this was the perfect chance to re-introduce him. and SO…

Plz define the essence (yes, i actually said ‘essence’) of Don Cash. What are you onstage or instudio that you’re not while off-duty, secret identity, etc? “I don’t have an alter ego. For whatever reasons I decided that it would be best to do this under the name Don Cash. Everyone calls me Don. Well, everyone except my mom and I guess I can give her a pass on that…

Most of the time my head is in the clouds, just daydreaming. I like to take long walks in downtown Toronto trying to come up with words that might sound cool together.

Onstage, sometimes I’ve got a microphone and a tambourine and I’m jumping around like a circus fool and sometimes I just hide behind the mic stand in sunglasses trying to stay as still as possible.

I don’t like it when artists try too hard onstage. It makes me uncomfortable most of the time. Really, if the song’s not selling it, you don’t have much left to sell. Plus if you’re trying to be Usher, constantly dancing around and all that, it makes it quite difficult to drink a pint while forgetting your lyrics and that sort of thing.”

Where are you from? How did that shape/inspire/injure you? What?s the best thing about there? Where are you aimed next? “I’m from Brampton, Ontario, the only one in my family that was born in Canada. The rest of the clan is from Jamaica. Brampton is a multicultural suburb of Toronto - the airport is just on the outskirts of town. The best thing about it is that there are lots of Jamaicans who live here, so if you want to feel that vibe it’s never more than a booming car stereo away. Still, I grew up with lots of different people from lots of different cultures, and I think people can hear that in the music I make.

I haven’t given a lot of thought to where I’m going next. Last year I moved to Montreal to record Don Cash II and I was a lot more home sick for Toronto than I imagined I would ever be. I realized that no matter what, you only really have one home town.”

[Clearly I shd have tailored this next question better but it was probably late and I was maybe tired] How did you first meet? What were yr first impressions of each other? The moment you knew you were *destined* to be in a band together? “I don’t have a band. I write and play and produce everything on my records at home on my $300 PC. I work fast so it saves time and money.

Still, I like working with other musicians when I get the chance - I hope one day to blow ten million pounds on some huge fiasco of a rock record just like the Stone Roses, but I suppose that’s everyone’s dream. I mean even the Queen wants to do that someday, right?

What makes you more special and unique than all the other legions of artistes and outfits queuing to be friendly on MySpace? “Well, to paraphrase the great Chevy Chase, I’m Don Cash and they’re not.”

Who are yr main ‘influences’? (Or, who have you come to DESTROY?) Which other new bands would you recommend (if any)? “My main influences are the sun, the moon, the stars and Cat Power.

The new Swizz Beats record is the real thing. I think it’s better than the new Kanye West, but I love his records as well. I just don’t think Swizzy gets enough credit so I’m doing my part.

Most new rock bores me. I like Babyshambles because he’s a brilliant poet and he made out with Kate Moss but I’m kinda getting tired of that one song he does all the time. I like that song that Oasis and the Verve do a little better, but I’m 30 so you can take it how you want it.

Oh yeah, I love anything Jack White puts his hands on.”

What d?you think of the current music scene? How will you fit in (or not)? “I don’t think much of it. So many young(er) people just seem to think that they’ll do whatever to get famous and it’ll all be worth it in the end and I just think that’s such a square attitude. A lot of time it’s not the actual songs, it’s the feeling behind the songs that makes all the difference.
Everyone’s famous now anyway, with MySpace and YouTube, so it’s like stop trying so hard, you know? Slow your roll and read something by DH Lawrence or whatever.

These days, you can come up with something as great as Liquid Swords or Abbey Road or something and get trumped by some 15 year-old who loves to videotape her farts and post them on the internet. In the future, not being famous will be where it’s at.

All the real action happening probably won’t surface for years to come. To be honest I’m shocked that my music has gotten this far in this sort of environment.

Plus, I can’t stand electro.”

What is: a) Yr three-point manifesto, b) Yr immediate plan-of-action? c) Yr long-term goal? “Now that my cover’s blown, I would like to get paid. Right now. My long-term goal is to get married and have a family and go on vacations to places I wouldn’t be caught dead in today, like DisneyWorld.”

What are yr songs mostly, y’know, ‘about’? What?s the song (so far) that says the most about you and why? “My songs are about a lot of things that are probably too complex to get into here. I mean - what is Blake’s poetry about really? It’s just my life in the end. It’s like I made a 3-D puzzle in sound and vision about my life because I could and I thought it would be cool if some Jamaican kid from Toronto did that. Maybe I just wanted to show and prove to some people that our lives were worth something too.

These sorts of pretty boy city games can get you in trouble, but I was heading for trouble anyway so I was like “fuck it, nothing stops the show.”

The song that says the most about me so far is “Put You Up On It” on Don Cash II. If you really listen to it, it says a lot about a lot of things in a way I think comes across exactly the way I am.

You have to understand, at the time of this interview, my records still aren’t distrubuted or released in Canada. This situation probably informs a lot of my attitude and subject matter. It would be great to be like my friends Metric and Kevin Drew and be able to have an audience at home, but it seems like some people don’t want that to happen…

It’s crazy, I’m all up in the NME and i-D and hanging out with James Murphy and Headman and Peaches and my records still aren’t out in Canada. No calls, no “lets hear what you’ve got,” just nothing. I was on the strip and I saw one of the heads of one of the labels here on the street. My friend was like “he got 8/10 in NME, sign him up.” Dude gave me the dirtiest look. I felt like I was back in high school or something.

They say I’m “too cocky.” I’m like, wow. It makes me so angry. Sometimes I feel like Nina Simone. All my clothes have holes…

For a while I had nothing but two crates of dollar bin records and a shopping bag full of old paperbacks. I spent years on welfare moving from one shitty room to the next - still, the whole time I was writing and recording songs, just trying to keep it together. I mean, how humble does one have to be in this world? What is humility?

I think some people are mad at me because you can’t really buy what I’ve got. Even if I wanted to sell it to them, I couldn’t.

Sorry.”

Best gig/tour/rehearsal anecdote goes here:
“Just the whole East Berlin trip I took this spring. People there were so friendly and open and I did the show and it was a great party. It was a glimpse of a future I wanted to see, and I hadn’t had a vision like that in years.

After the show in East Berlin, I was like “this motherfucker is going to work.”

Since then it’s like, so far so good…”

Posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007by kicking_k