Talking with EDM renaissance man Felipe Munoz about his Colombian roots, community building in Brandon, and the ever present vibe - I caught up with Felipe over email this week to discuss his by now semi-regular DJ nights at S.U.D.S., and where he hopes to take this project. Felipe is a DJ and producer under the name TubeScreamer, and a member of a collective called Cerkuz Family that fields both Winnipeg and Brandon releases. I’ve attended the last couple of these ‘EDM nights’ and had quite a wild time dancing to some hard hitting Drum and Bass and Jungle tunes. Seeing BU professor of music, Michael Cain take the stage as SOLA to spin some seriously groovy hip hop tracks is an added bonus for all of us impressionistic music students.
Well I had a blast, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe this is the sort of music that would draw best in a club setting as opposed to in the relatively small space of our student bar. Felipe said that he has “been blessed by SUDS and their wonderful staff”, but that “some (other) venues prefer to maintain their strict music code”. The two major club venues in town, Houstons and Roadhouse indeed have very strict routines. Any brandonite knows how a weekend of clubbing works in our little wheat city. Thursday you go to Houstons for ladies night, maybe get free cover. Friday you head over to Roadhouse (hopefully after attending a SUDS social), and then Saturday it’s back to Houstons. The venues will sometimes hold special events, but these are often on their off days. The routine, and along with it, the resident DJs are mostly set in stone.
What Felipe and his Cerkuz Family are trying to offer is an alternative sort of clubbing experience. This is not a foreign concept to Canada, in Winnipeg you can often find these underground club nights if you look hard enough. Felipe says one of the reasons he moved to Canada from Colombia is that “Canada already had incredible developments on their electronic music Community and industry with festivals. I.E. Shambhala, MEME and connect to name a few” MEME (standing for Manitoba Electronic Music Expo) is a multiday festival held right in the downtown core of Winnipeg, in the past they’ve had major international DJs such as Noah Pred (from Berlin) play. These events are always well attended, and I would argue are an increasingly important part of the Canadian music scene overall!
I asked Felipe how he sees the Brandon scene evolving over time. “The way I see it this scene rests in the hands of a supportive community of friends that support (eachother). This is pure love and so there is always this small but constant support that helps nurturing the scene. With more efforts like this in the future I see a very interesting and diverse electronic music scene in Brandon.” I think this gets to the heart of what is great about alternative musics lifestyles generally. It’s all about community, and nurturing eachother by supporting whatever creative projects your friends may be working on.
Check out TubeScreamer, SOLA, DJ Red and many others this Saturday at 8pm for “Electric Valentine’s 2.0” at SUDS. There will also be clothing, hemp jewelry, and the artwork by Kaytlyn Burke for sale. NO COVER

Listen: http://tubescreamermusic.bandcamp.com/