WePushButtons

The 6th annual Beltek Festival begins August 1st through the 3rd in Belmont, Maine. Maine’s only electronic music festival features music, art, camping, vendors, fire performers, and a fun environment for you to expand your mind. WPB chats with the organizers to get more info on the upcoming festival.

WPB: When and how did Beltek start?

Beltek: Beltek was started 6 years ago now. It started when different people all had the same idea: throwing a big party in a field that featured only electronic music. We wanted a party that went all night and that was free. At first Rick Kidson, the “owner” of BelTek wasn’t so hot on the idea. But after some time, he decided it was the thing to do and began getting his friends involved to create a lineup, get a tent or two, and get the sound equipment.
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Milled Pavement Records heavyweight Brzowski releases the second installment of his “Blooddrive” series today. This time around Brzowski drops 23 tracks featuring guest spots from Agent8, K-the-i???, nomar slevik, Graymatter, Ill Sun, DJ Shortrock, Moshe, Mike Clouds and more! Pick up your copy at www.milledpavement.com. Visit Brzowski on myspace: www.myspace.com/brzowski

Spose has been making a name for himself in the Maine Hip-Hop scene as of late. A regular on the top sold albums list at Bull Moose Music with his debut album, “Preposterously Dank”, WPB catches up with the Wells, Maine MC.

WPB: For those that don’t know who you are, could you give us a little intro?
 
Spose: My name’s Spose. I’m a 22 year old emcee from Wells, a small tourist town in Southern Maine. I’ve been making music since I was in second grade and started rhyming when I was 14. I used to do battles back when that wasn’t the stupidest shit ever. I’ve always wrote songs. And, this past February, fulfilled my decade-long goal of creating an album. I released it on my own label Frothy Four Records and it’s called “Preposterously Dank.” Outside of rapping, I’m a semester (or two or three?) away from graduating with an English degree from Suffolk University in Boston where I’ve been living for the past few years. In the summers, I sweat balls in the kitchen serving lobster rolls to tourists. In my free time I smoke the ganj, write, rehearse with my band, plot, scheme, and get drunk.
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If you think of hip-hop artists from Maine, you must think Moodswing9. A member of the digging crew 1200 Hobos, Live Poets (the first true hip-hop group from Maine), and an original and former member of the indie-label anticon. WPB chats with the Maine legend on past, present and future projects, as well as his new venture into the graphic design world.

WePushButtons.com: Could you tell us what you thought of the Maine hip-hop scene back when you lived here, and what you think of the scene nowadays.

Moodswing9: I was involved with the hip hop scene in Maine from 1987- 1998 (In 1998 I moved with sole and pedestrian out to Oakland). During that time in Maine, there really wasn’t much of a scene. There was only a handful of people creating hip hop music in Portland at the time. In addition, there were little to no places to do shows. I can’t speak much on the scene now because I haven’t lived in Maine for 10 years. However, I’ve been impressed with I’ve seen when I come back to visit and what I hear from my friends that are still there.
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DJ shAde has been a fixture on the Portland hip hop scene for a long time now. He can be found at the Big Easy every Monday hosting/DJing the open mic alongside Boondocks, as well as at random gigs throughout town and beyond with other DJs and artists. He’s DJed MC battles, layed down cuts in the studio, and competed in many DJ battles. He was nice enough to answer a few questions about DJing, the Maine hip hop/electronic music scene, hip hop in general and whatever else I could throw at him.

WPB: Are you from Maine originally? If not, how/why did you end up here?

shAde: I was born in Waterville, Maine and grew up and attended school in Winslow, Maine

WPB: How long have you been DJing and what got you into this in the first place?

shAde: I’ve been in it for (*cue drumroll) almost 16 years honestly. There’s a few pivotal moments for me: 1.) Hearing GrandMaster DST scratching on Herbie Hancock’s song “Rockit” — That was a completely novel, alien and new sound to my ears and it took me quite a while to put two and two together to figure out the mechanics of what was happening to make that sound … You need to bear in mind that we’re talking 1983/84 so I was a little kid back then (try 8 or 9 years old) trying to digest and comprehend this new sound all while living in Bum-f#ck Maine. That was the hook 2.) Seeing LL Cool J and his dj Cut Creator perform on a televised broadcast of American Bandstand in 1984 3.) seeing the video for RUN-DMC’s collabo with Aerosmith, “Walk This Way” JMJ starts the music off with a “zigga-zigga-zigga-zigga” and then 4.) listening to WMHB 90.5 FM on Friday nights for the Rap of Maine show with “dj Timebomb” aka “dj Hell on Wheels” aka Mike Starr around 1985/86.
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