The highly regarded Toronto house music scene has been lacking one thing: albums. Even though it is one of the most popular music scenes Toronto has to offer, there are very few compilations or music you can buy by house artists. That all changed when Virgin Music took a chance on Paul E. Lopes.

?Virgin is really in touch with what?s going on, on the street level,? Lopes tells andPOP, at a downtown Toronto coffee shop. ?They brought me on because they were hitting the clubs I was spinning at. They grew up with the same kind of sound and realized there are a lot of people out there waiting to get a hold of this music in Canada. It?s just not really well represented on the larger scale. It?s time to bring that on.?

The opportunity arose for Lopes to take his love for music and produce it on a larger scale. He signed a 5-album deal with Virgin, and just released ?Whatnaut: House,? a 16-track compilation.

Lopes compiled all the songs he wanted to include on the album. Included are three original tracks: ?Feelin So Good,? the first single, performed by Ivana Santilli; ?See Thru You,? performed by Sacha; and ?Why Can’t I Stay,? an instrumental track. All three songs are produced by Augusta, a new production project he is working on with longtime friend and fellow DJ, Patrick Paredes. Lopes also oversaw the artwork and packaging for the album.

He first met Santilli when he DJ?d some shows that she performed at while she was still with the group Base is Base. Santilli was also the first singer Lopes approached to sing on the album.

?When it came time to record song together for this album, it just seemed natural to bring her on. We came up an idea to redo a disco song from the 70s. She put new lyrics to the song and we made it a brand new thing.?

Since Lopes was 12 years old, he knew music was in his future. He was first presented with different musical tastes from different cultures in ?The Village.?

??The Village? was one of the first multicultural low-income places in Toronto,? he says. ?It was a great experience because although it was low-income and it had its bad side, there was so much culture there. Going to school, I grew up with so many different people from so many different places. It brings with you a lot of understanding of how the world really works and how to relate to people.?

Music is life for Lopes and he wouldn?t have it any other way.

?Throughout the years, I?ve written for magazines about music, I?ve DJ?d in the clubs, I?ve done internet radio shows, I?ve done college radio shows, and I?ve done things like Electric Circus. It?s encompassing all that music takes you to. In the music industry, you have to wear a lot of hats if you really want to stick it out.?

There are very few cities that take in all different forms of music, says Lopes, but Toronto is definitely one of them.

?If you were to travel the world and visit all the hot spots like Paris or Hong Kong, you get one particular brand of house music where people associate really hard music and drugs, bordering on the rave scene, escapist type house music. Toronto is heavily influenced by the New York scene which is based more in the roots of house music, which is coming from disco, soul, jazz, and Latin.?

As for the four future albums he has left with Virgin, Lopes is taking it slow.

?Everything?s going well with this, and the momentum to do better on the next one is there. I?ll just keep playing music. That?s what it comes down to. We?re working on tracks that we?ll either release independently or keep working on and get ready for the next album.?

One day, Lopes hopes to release an album full of his own produced material.

?The ultimate goal is to establish my music as a solid style that?s still varied but could be represented outside one thing.?






Related Stories: