Additional Information
Rosina, a drag show blended with a high level electronic music beatmaking, was born out of our apocalyptic world, and looking for joy and kindness. « Rosina is about releasing our spirits into the universe and connecting to the divine » says the bio profile. The 3 members of Rosina are also seeking natural landscapes, through technology, « honoring the living and non living, human and non-human ancestors, and yet born out of the city. »
This is a collaboration between producer Murr, drag performer and multi-disciplinary artist Franny Galore-Wngz, and producer, vocalist, shit disturber, and poet Rosina. Basic Income is the first album from this collective emerging from marginalized communities.
« ROSINA is a celebration, where part drag and performance art meets dance music hype show. It’s sensuous, fun, ridiculous, tricksterish, punk and addresses important issues their communities face! »
That’s exactly why PAN M 360 wanted to meet those guys before their first MUTEK performance.
PAN M 360 : Rosina, you have a british accent.
Rosina : Yes. We pretend to be British because we figured Montreal doesn’t like Torontonians. So we might change our accent.
PAN M & Rosina : Hahaha !
PAN M 360 : What is your approach together?
Rosina : It’s kind of like performance art and we make fun of everything!
PAN M 360 : Is it a new setup for you?
Rosina : Yes. We performed it in Toronto, in small venues and small festivals. The album came out three years ago but we didn’t tell anybody. So who cares anymore?
PAN M 360 : Yes indeed. So many excellent productions happen all the time now, so it’s quite impossible to identify all of them.
Rosina : Exactly. We’re just we’re just taking our time. We’re launching an album, and then we have a website and a video coming out.
PAN M 360 : Did you guys met in Toronto?
Franny Galore-Wngz : Yeah, we’ve known each other for quite some time now. Rose was my mentor. She was my mentor years ago, when I was doing musical theater. But then during the pandemic is when we actually needed to find a way to cope. So we all kind of started just hanging around each other. And then the project was born.
Rosina : Yeah, we live in a warehouse in Toronto, Unit 2, and so during COVID We were lucky enough to be outside. It’s a great space but it’s disappearing because that whole area is being gentrified. But we’re still there. So, we still manage to have fun and we don’t get any sound complaints. So we’ve been there for a long time.
PAN M 360 : Please explain this setup.
Rosina : So it’s a trio, Murr is an electronic music producer. He started off in hip hop. He runs everything live and then the two of us, it’s a sort of drag performance. I start off in a particular way. We’re very masculine and friendly, we start off like that and, as the show progresses, we switch genres. And then we just talk a lot shit and dance haha!
PAN M 360 : And your music is a blend of many styles. There’s hip hop, there’s house, there’s dub to name a few. What else?
Rosina : There’s a little bit techno. Live, it gets a little bit harder. But then we also use lots of international rhythms like Brazilian.
Franny Galore-Wngz : Yeah there’s like a lot of Latin inspiration in some of the songs you know, but like, it’s a beautiful thing coming from such diverse backgrounds were able to implement those stories and the album, which I feel like people have been experiencing. But yeah, I feel like that’s the big blend of like, it’s just a blend of all of us.
PAN M 360 : Can we be more specific about the production?
Rosina : So the production side was mainly Nick. But then I also arranged and I used Ableton, and I did my vocals. We were very lucky on this record to have access to House of Balloons studio in Toronto, which is handled by Doc McKinney, who did a lot for The Weeknd stuff. So he’s like family to us. And so during the pandemic, we spent three months just writing this with Nick, exchanging tracks, going back and forth. So Nick (Murr) would send me beats, and I would change things. And then I would do vocals, and we just did it very organically. And that’s kind of how we work and then live, Nick just runs the beats and we run around and dance.
Franny Galore-Wngz: It’s a very random show, a really random project too but there’s also a lot of information about life. Because everything in life right now is so random and so chaotic. And we’re trying to take a little bit of that and turn it into joy.
Rosina : And we are quite critical, the album is called Basic Income. So we are critical, I come myself from the activist scene in Toronto, and sometimes I feel we take ourselves too seriously. So we’re trying to also have fun because activism can be too over the head. So we just wanted to do some work with more fun. It is a way for us to survive spiritually.
PAN M 360 : Are you exporting your album and show?
Rosina : Yes, for example, one of our record labels is based in East Havana in Cuba. So we just want to make music to travel to places and meet people that we really want to meet. We’re not so concerned about fame and money, but about travel, relationships, discoveries. And see the natural world before it’s gone because we’re killing it. And do shows in the forest or by the beach. We would be so happy to do this.
PAN M 360 : So art is for you a way to escape.
Rosina : Yes. So we just try to create our own world. We don’t have time to dismantle the one we have, but I can make a new one. And we’re trying to also develop a community of queer and trans and, and more folks of color, brown and black people and other friendships. So we reach all kinds of people but with an emphasis to support marginalized communities. You know I don’t think we’re marginalized, but they keep telling us we are. So we’re trying to create that world and pull up our communities together, so we all can survive.
ROSINA SE PRODUIT À MUTEK MONTRÉAL 2023, CE SAMEDI, 20H, ESPLANADE TRANQUILLE
