AROUND THE WORLD
A-Trak's global missives and hotel reviews.
Around The World with A-Trak: Australasia
- story A-Trak
I went to Japan for some gigs about 3 weeks ago. You may recall I did a pretty hefty Asian tour back in May where I hit a lot of countries where I hadn’t played before and as a result didn’t go too heavy in Japan since it’s normally the prime destination for a DJ. So this time around I came back and did my Nippon jaunt. Read More
Around the World with A-Trak: Heaps Decent Edition
- story A-Trak
On one of my days off during the Parklife tour in Australia, I flew to a small town called Wagga Wagga to do some workshops for Heaps Decent. Heaps Decent is an organism that Diplo launched with two of our mutual friends, Levins and Nina Las Vegas. They bring music resources to underprivileged, mostly indigenous kids Down Under and help foster creative environments for them. It’s a wonderful cause and I was very motivated to take part in it. The plan for the day was to go to the Riverina Juvenile Justice Centre with Levins and Nina, meet the kids and work on some songs with them.
Around the World with A-Trak, Part XXIV: 10,000LB Hamburger Tour—The Second Serving
- story A-Trak
- photo Pooya Nabei
Time for the final recap of the 10,000LB Hamburger Tour; the second serving, if you will. For those just catching on, this lasted all throughout July, traveling across North America on a tour bus with Treasure Fingers and Theophilus London. We did an extensive run across enormous Canada. Normally I have a rule: no more than four shows in a row. I’m not sure how but that rule got broken, or bent, and we did a five city blitz. The day before that started, I was in Vancouver and decided to get a massage at my hotel to try and ease the tour wear-and-tear. Then we went to our first Canadian show in Victoria, which involved putting the bus on a ferry. There’s something pretty phenomenal about putting an entire bus on a boat. But hey, Archimedes wasn’t kidding, buoyancy is very real. We also saw some porpoises in the water as we were leaving the docks. How do you recognize a porpoise? By its fin! In Victoria, about an hour or two before my set my neck started stiffening up. It got bad really fast and I had to play my set whilst in pain. Damn massage! On the lighter side, a girl asked me if I was Amish.
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posted on Aug 19, 2009 in AROUND THE WORLD tags 10, 10000 LB Hamburger Tour Pt. 2, A-Trak, Fools Gold, Theophilus London, Treasure Fingers
Around the World, Part XXIII: 10,000LB Hamburger Tour
- story THE FADER
I’m about halfway into the 10,000LB Hamburger Tour so I think it’s time for some stories. We started off in the South, which I think is a bit unusual. Most tours go through the South in the middle, it’s typically the hardest leg of a tour because the distances are so long. It’s tricky finding decent food on those long drives so the name turned into a self-fulfilled prophecy: We ended up really eating hamburgers all the time. I’m gonna get fat! Someone pass me a parsnip or something.
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Around the World with A-Trak, Part XXII: Primavera Sound
- story THE FADER
After two weeks of madness in Asia I few to Barcelona to perform at Primavera Sound, one of my favorite festivals in Europe. This isn’t one of these mudfests where people camp out and play hacky sack to the tune of nu-rock. The programming is very tasteful, comparable to Coachella, and the site is by the water on firm ground.
Around the World with A-Trak, Part XXI: A Taste of Asia Tour – Week 2
- story THE FADER
Halfway into my Taste Of Asia tour I flew to Bangkok. This was my first trip to Thailand and I wish I could have stayed longer than one day. I arrived at my hotel and found a washer and dryer in my room. Heaven! I got a couple loads going and worked on some beats as my socks got cleaner and cleaner. Then I went to explore the city a bit.
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posted on Jun 15, 2009 in AROUND THE WORLD tags A Taste of Asia Tour Week 2, Around the World with A-Trak
Around the World with A-Trak, Part XX: A Taste Of Asia Tour – Week 1
- story THE FADER
This humongous cross-continent tour was a great success as much on a professional, gig level as on a personal fulfillment level. I’m going to break it up by week for the blog because I have lots and lots of stories. Let’s sit around the campfire, so to speak.
Around the World with A-Trak, Part XIX: The Detonate Festival
- story THE FADER
Back on the road for another odyssey, this time for the entire month of May, literally from the 1st to the 31st. I was home for a few days last week, just enough time to touch base with reality and throw out the rotten clementines in my fridge. For some reason when it’s wintertime and I buy one of those wooden cases of clementines I get really psyched for a few days and then I forget about them. Then I might open the fruit drawer a month later and they still look the same so I keep them. Next thing you know I leave on tour, come back and it’s only when there’s a thriving ecosystem growing on them that I remember to toss them out. Can you blame me? Anyway, I promise I kept myself occupied with more than citrus fruit. I never socialize much when I’m in my hometown. I did, however, peep Catchdini DJing at Izza Kizza’s mixtape release party. I also finished a collaborative EP which you may or may not have heard of, dropping this summer. More on that soon. And I tied up a few loose ends for the last couple of songs that we’ve been recording for the much anticipated Kid Sister album. With that, I packed my Tumi and crossed the Atlantic.
Around the World with A-Trak, Part XVIII: Europe to California to New York
- story THE FADER
As I sit back and nurse the knockout that all these criss-crossing flights served me, I’m starting to remember what took place in the two weeks since I last wrote. I was halfway into my European tour, leaving Paris. I headed back to London, only to go to Brighton for a gig at Digital. Everyone in London was psyching me up about that club, its sound system and the fact that it’s right on the beach. “The beach, Jerry!” I think there’s a back door that opens to a pier. Might be a bit dangerous for the late night stumblers. Also, London DJs have this way of doing gigs in neighboring cities and driving back the same night after the gig, rather than getting a hotel. I shared a ride with Riva Starr. On the way down he played me his new klezmer-techno album. If you saw this YouTube on my blog a few weeks ago you’ll conclude that this is an interesting new trend. On the way back I just tried to sleep, but there’s no way around the fact that I got in dangerously late.
Around the World with A-Trak, Part XVII: The “Planet Earth” Tour
- story THE FADER
I’m writing this blog in a cab in London. These rides tend to be long so I’m putting down the Twitterberry for a bit and dusting off the ol’ typewriter. I’m touring Europe for the majority of the month and the days are just flying by. The first show of the tour was last Friday at the famed Fabric nightclub in London for the launch of my new Fabriclive CD. I stopped by their offices in the daytime—barely recognized it with the sun out—and they gave me a box of my CDs… yes! But then they sent me off to do a couple hours of press… no!
