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I'm Kelly McEvers, and that is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's unusual, unimaginable, and wondrous locations. This episode was produced in partnership with Vacation spot Toronto. And at this time, I'm speaking to the artist and architect Danny Shaddock and the rapper Shad about this unimaginable collaboration of theirs that could be a tribute to the Metropolis of Toronto.
Danny and Shad have identified one another since highschool. They each wound up in Toronto making artwork collectively. And now they've made this factor referred to as “Transferring Monuments.” It's a musical robotic that includes drums, precise bodily items of the town of Toronto, and sounds of the town.
Whether it is arduous to image this, fortunately I've them right here to inform us all about it.
That is an edited transcript of the Atlas Obscura Podcast: a celebration of the world's unusual, unimaginable, and wondrous locations. Discover the present on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all main podcast apps.
Kelly McEvers: Danny and Shad, welcome.
Danny Shaddock: Hello Kelly.
Shad: Hey.
Kelly: Okay, Shad, inform me in regards to the first time you noticed it.
Shad: Properly, okay, I'm gonna return as a result of there's one other robotic that Danny had made that he confirmed me.
Kelly: Obtained it.
Shad: We've identified one another for years, we've been associates for years, so simply being in his residence, I need to say a few years in the past now. And he takes me to a visitor room. I believe it's a visitor room. Danny can right me if I'm improper.
Danny: Yeah, yeah. I believe it was simply final summer time.
Shad: Final summer time. Opens a door upstairs to his visitor room, and you may't even step in it. It's simply all drums and percussion and wires, and it simply appears to be like superb. It was simply gorgeous to observe, after which he fired it up for us, and it sounded so cool. After which I additionally recall seeing this instrument, the one for this challenge, for the primary time, and it was … so yeah, I bear in mind strolling into the studio the place he was constructing that, and it was likewise so cool. It's slightly bit extra compact and streamlined, however nonetheless has the mad scientist vibe.
Kelly: There's additionally a Toronto aspect, proper, to the piece. Like, what was the driving concept of that a part of the piece?
Danny: Yeah, there was a extremely superb guide referred to as The Inside Studio, authored by Andrew Levitt. And on the finish of that guide was a gorgeous little essay on Toronto and form of tracing via the historical past of the town and form of what makes it distinctive within the context of different world cities.
So, , we're comparatively younger, so our celebrated monuments aren't essentially these thousand-year-old statues and church buildings, they're cultural and social occasions, they're our parades and our festivals. And in order that's the place the title of our collaborative piece got here from, “Transferring Monuments,” was referencing a subtitle from that essay, which was titled “Monuments That Transfer.”
Shad: Yeah, I resonated with it instantly. I simply felt just like the essay articulated and elaborated on one thing that I've been making an attempt to call, I had been making an attempt to call for some time about Toronto.
Anytime I'm having conversations with folks about Toronto, I'd at all times been making an attempt to articulate this concept that we get collectively for enjoyable. That's what we do. You recognize, we don't have mountains to hike, we don't have , I'm evaluating it in my thoughts to Vancouver, like by way of this participation with nature that's fantastic in its personal proper, however simply …
No, Toronto, what we do for enjoyable is we get collectively. We love giant crowds, we love music, we love small crowds, we simply love being collectively, and that essay, it simply hit the nail on the pinnacle for me. We have now these monuments that transfer.
Kelly: Yeah, I used to be simply gonna say, like on the core of festivals and events and enjoying music is folks, proper? It's the people who make the town, and that's what you're saying with this piece. So yeah, how one can symbolize that in a bodily piece that performs music and incorporates all these discovered objects. Yeah, Danny, how do you describe it to individuals who can't see it?
Danny: Yeah, to explain the drum tower.
Kelly: Drum tower, that's a great begin.
Danny: It's a 10-foot-tall field truss. And the truss is definitely designed for lighting and stage design. So it's a really acquainted type of structural aspect. And it's simply sitting vertically like a column, after which there's a couple of dozen or so percussion devices.
So truly, all the percussion items within the drum tower robotic have been sourced secondhand from different musicians within the metropolis through Fb Market, Kijiji platforms like that. After which there was one other layer to that the place we had been allowed entry into the general public transit, subway, and streetcar upkeep yards to retrieve some outdated bits of trains and subway trains that had been set to be disposed of or that had been retired from service and incorporate them into this robotic to get slightly little bit of that type of junkyard clangy, actually enjoyable form of percussion sounds.
Kelly: Wow.
Danny: So there's a giant bass drum, flooring tom, a pair snare drums, bongo drums, some cymbals, hi-hats, and so they're all type of branching off of this central backbone. And the decrease portion of it has among the extra discovered objects, like among the metal and steel parts that we salvaged.
After which there's a layer on prime of that that type of I assume offers it that that mad scientist vibe the place it's a bunch of motors that hook up with drumsticks and hooked up to every a kind of is an entire bunch of wires, after which there's a giant mind on the again that receives all of the wires, and that form of circuit hub then connects out to a laptop computer, a pc. After which the entire thing can simply be automated and programmed to play no matter you need it to play.
Kelly: Wow, okay.
Danny: It's actually enjoyable to play with.
Kelly: Yeah, I need to do this. Like proper now. I'm like, let me get it. So then Shad, then you definitely are available. How does it truly work so that you can make a tune with this robotic? Assist me see that.
Shad: Okay, so yeah, I believe you'll be able to think about us in Danny's studio that he needed to construct the drum tower. So it's a giant area. Clearly, you want a giant area to suit this 10-foot tower so we are able to begin cooking.
And one factor I used to be desirous about by way of writing was we performed with some concepts of what if it began easy then began to construct up, proper? So that individuals can actually watch and respect that this factor is enjoying in actual time.
Kelly: Proper, so you'll be able to take the data in piece by piece, so your mind doesn't explode, mainly. Yeah.
Shad: Precisely, precisely. So I used to be desirous about that slightly bit, after which on one other stage, uh, in fact, it's like an ode to Toronto. So I'm desirous about lyrics that actually communicate to Toronto and communicate to particularly this theme of “Transferring Monuments” and other people getting collectively and that form of factor.
Danny: One different facet to the audio is that we layered in a bunch of discipline recordings that had been collected all through the final 12 months within the metropolis.
Kelly: Proper. And are you firing these actual time? Was Shad like, , calling for them, or had been you want, “Hey, you need to hear this proper right here?”
Danny: We did a little bit of that. We had been like, “Oh, the place can we now have slightly bit of individuals sounds?” Or, we threw in slightly shout out to Lansdowne Station, the voice that says the subway stops.
Kelly: Sure.
Danny: You recognize, it's humorous, it resulted in a number of conversations about, , city soundscapes and what actually defines a spot sonically. I imply, what's the distinction between a crowd of individuals speaking and a few vehicles driving by in Toronto versus Vancouver versus anyplace actually? Except for the language being spoken.
It tends to be these little sounds which might be very attribute to, in quite a lot of instances, public transit. You recognize, you hear a sure chime, you hear a sure voice, and , “Oh, that's the New York Metropolis man,” or , “These are the Toronto subway chimes.” Yeah, what different sounds can actually begin to symbolize a spot?
Kelly: Properly, yeah, and like we had been saying, it's about folks, proper? The character of the town is folks and other people transferring via the town, proper? That's the way you get round, is transit. What are among the items that you just took from the prepare yard? You had been speaking about, , precise bodily objects. What are these and what did they sound like?
Danny: There's about six to eight simply chunks of steel. One in all them I may acknowledge was a threshold on the fringe of one of many flooring the place the prepare meets the platform. There's a selected aluminum piece of trim.
One in all them is a kind of hand stanchions, these handrail issues that grasp from the ceiling of the subway prepare. And you may actually acknowledge that one as a result of it's acquired the little deal with bit that form of springs round. And every of them have, , they're not meant to be musical, however they find yourself having little fascinating sorts of tonalities typically.
Shad: A part of the enjoyable of it for me—coming from hip hop, which is that this world the place something is musical. All sounds are music, like something can be utilized. You recognize, that's one of many core insights and contributions of hip-hop actually is we'll pattern something once we acknowledge that there is usually a musical high quality to virtually something.
The transit sounds in a metropolis. We don't essentially consider them as musical, however , absolutely anything if you happen to repeat it, , if there's some tones there and also you repeat these tones, typically there's a melody there, or typically there's a groove there, typically there's a rhythm, there's one thing surprising.
And so a part of the enjoyable for me is simply listening to Danny play with among the discovered sounds, among the floor, the recordings. Then simply listening for oh, that's truly type of a cool rhythm there that got here from—I'm undecided what that was, a busker in a busy subway station. However as soon as he's manipulated it and looped it, man, it truly has a groove.
The announcement of Lansdown Station, if you happen to repeat {that a} couple instances, I don't know. It type of has slightly little bit of a hooky, hypnotic melody to it. And so let's throw that in there, and it additionally speaks to house. And that's additionally very a lot a part of hip-hop, the place you symbolize the place you're from, . In order that's our place. That's our station.
Kelly: We've been speaking a lot about this tune. Now I simply actually need us to take a second and take heed to a few of it. Let's do this now.
Shad: Enjoyable.
Danny: Shad, you're so good.
Kelly: Wow, you guys. Wow, yeah. It's so cool to listen to it now after speaking to you. One factor I needed to—we've been calling it the tower. I questioned, I hadn't requested this earlier than, however like, does the robotic have a reputation?
Danny: We didn't actually, I imply it simply form of took on this drum tower title.
Shad: It might be enjoyable although to provide it only a very human title.
Kelly: Sure.
Danny: Gary?
Shad: It's simply Denise, or …
Kelly: Denise!
Shad: You recognize.
Danny: Denise.
Kelly: I used to be simply imagining you, Shad, going over to Danny's home and being like, “Gonna go hang around with Denise.”
Danny: Simply hanging with Denise.
Kelly: I really like that. That was artist Danny Shaddock and rapper Shad. They're each from Toronto, and they're the folks behind the musical robotic and tune that you're listening to now. If you wish to be taught extra about “Transferring Monuments” and Denise, we even have a brief documentary in regards to the challenge. You'll be able to watch it and take heed to the entire tune on our web site. There's a hyperlink in our episode description.
Pay attention and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all main podcast apps.
This episode was produced by Johanna Mayer. Our podcast is a co-production of Atlas Obscura and Sirius XM podcasts. The individuals who make our present embrace Dylan Thuras, Doug Baldinger, Kameel Stanley, Manolo Morales, Amanda McGowan, Casey Holford, and Luz Fleming. Our theme music is by Sam Tyndall.
