Music

D-Sisive launches a realtime behind-the-scenes look at the making of his upcoming album

by Nicole Villeneuve

When we selected Toronto rapper D-Sisive as one of our favourite artists of the year at the end of 2010, we were also looking forward with a keen eye: it’s no secret he’s inspiringly prolific and we knew there’d be new material to look forward to in the new year, potentially even multiple albums (again).

After numerous tie-ups preventing the release of Jonestown II: Jimmy Go Bye Bye by the end of last year, it came out as a free download in February. Yesterday, only three months later and after another Juno nomination and a bunch of touring, D-Sisive announced he was starting work on his next record, Run With The Creeps. And this time, he’s taking everyone into the daily process with him.

“I adore studio footage,” D-Sisive, known also as Derek Christoff, tells AUX. “Listening to Brian Wilson conduct the Pet Sounds sessions was life changing to me. I get why people would feel It’s taking away from the magic of the finished product, kidnapping its mystery, but to me it makes it human.”

Launched yesterday, the Run With The Creeps blog will document every step of creating an album. From the writing process to recording sessions, photos and, as Christoff says on the site, “fights with my label, Urbnet,” his aim is to allow access to all of the unseen details. It’s no surprise he name-drops Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys—Christoff’s music is laden with samples and references and from a vast array of influences, cultural, political, and musical. That includes the mythology of personality.

“I thought of Kurt Cobain as a superhero until I read his journals, which I’m sure he’d never want anyone reading,” he says. “Everything changed after I read the letter about Nirvana discovering their image, and how they planned on using it in all of their videos. It was calculated, but still brilliant. Even more so.”

With D-Sisive being as highly and restlessly creative as he is, it shouldn’t be a problem to keep the site overflowing with material. So far, there’s an entry for each of the two days it’s been live, including an account of a run-in with a fan after a show in Kingston, ON, and how that led to the formation of the idea for the new album. It already proves a great read—personal, funny, a little dark. In other words, quintessential D-Sisive.

“Everyone hears my final product. Not everyone hears the rewrites, the tape recorder demos, the melody demos, the alternate choruses. Nobody hears about the moments when creativity strikes. The exact date I wrote a specific verse. The ‘everything in betweens’. Now they will. I just hope someone can get something out of it.”