TURN it up!

#292 TURNing it up with Blitzkrieg

• The Universal Radio Network

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 37:22

We trace Blitzkrieg’s journey from a Punjabi household in Mississauga to UK breakthroughs and two decades of work shaping South Asian Canadian hip hop. We also get real about surviving cancer and a motorcycle crash, then turning that urgency into music, live performance, and a culture-first business. 


• Growing up in Toronto between Punjabi media at home and hip hop outside 
• Discovering representation through Apache Indian and starting to rap early 
• Getting played by Punjabi MC and landing opportunities across the UK scene 
• Choosing education and marketing work to build stability alongside music 
• Being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and letting go of fame chasing 
• Surviving a serious motorcycle crash and refusing to sit on unreleased ideas 
• Thinking about legacy and supporting the next generation of South Asian Canadian artists 
• Building Broken Rickshaw to bring South Asian inspiration into the liquor market 
• Favourite collaborations and the mindset behind experimenting across genres 
• Creating unplugged live Punjabi hip hop with a band plus rock and jazz roots 


Learn more about Blitzkrieg by following him on Instagram @blitzmusic1

Tune in weekly on Mondays & Thursdays to TURN it up with Ravia on 97.9 FM or live-stream at www.theuniversalradio.com

IG: @theuniversalradio

Welcome And Artist Spotlight

SPEAKER_01

Welcome back to the Universal Radio Podcast. This is DJ Rara Ravia. Right now, you'll hear my conversation with the one and only Blitzkrieg. In my opinion, one of the most underrated South Asian Canadian artists. He has a legacy that spans 20 years, and we talk about his story of resilience and what he sees the future of South Asian Canadian music today. Tune in right now. Alright, I want to actually like I am super. I know you have been in the Punjabi industry, South Asian, etc. for a very long time. I want to start off with your very, very beginning. Like I actually genuinely, I want to know what was it like, what was Butz Creek like as a kid?

SPEAKER_03

So

Childhood Influences And Early Rap

SPEAKER_03

basically, born and raised in Toronto, well, Mississauga, which is like the west end of Toronto. And uh yeah, just a typical Punjab household, right? Like my parents are first generation. They came here and uh, you know, they were it was arranged that they were gonna get married in India. My mom came to Vancouver, my dad came to Toronto, so all my mom's family is actually from Vancouver. I grow up, I grew up going to Vancouver every summer. So I spent a lot of time on the West Coast. Um, and then just being young growing up, just like how everybody, just like you, just like anybody else. Your parents are watching Punjabi films, listen to Punjabi music or Bollywood films, and kind of growing up in Toronto is very multicultural here. So there's a lot of like your friends end up being, you know, West Indian, like you end up having trendy friends, Jamaican friends, Guyanese friends, uh, like every race, creed, and culture that there is out there, you end up having like a very bass circle of friends. But being from the west end of Toronto is heavily South Asian, right? It's heavily Punjabi. So it's just that mix of that juxtaposition of you're outside and your friends are listening to the Wu-Tang clan, but then you come home and your parents are watching like a Mermetal Punjabi movie, and you kind of just like it's all being sunk in the back of your head. And so when it comes down to, and I remember my mom took me so out here back then, uh, the primary spot where a lot of the Asian music or Daisy music was sold was like Daisy grocery stores. And I remember my mom taking me to Daisy grocery store and me looking over the counter and me seeing like a cassette or like a CD of a guy that had like waves in his hair and stuff, and I was like, hey, this guy kind of looks like us, like he doesn't look like Lambert for example, right? Like he looks his hair is cut, he has a lineup, it was Apache Indian. And I was like, Oh, so my mom bought it for me. And like hearing that for the first time, I was like, Oh, like you can actually mix this stuff, like you can do both. So, you know, long story short, I started rapping and I used to misbehave in class a lot. And my teacher would tell me, Okay, if you behave all day, I'll let you go up in front of the class and perform at the end of the day. So every day I would behave all day long, and then me and my friends would go up and we'd do like a little rehearsed rap or a skit or some type of entertainment. And uh going to high school, I started freestyle battling people, moving around Toronto. There wasn't many South Asians or Daisy's in the scene. It was basically me or maybe one other person, which was Roach, right? So you basically randomly see Daisy's, but my basic biggest disadvantage of being the only Daisy there ended up being my only my biggest advantage because what ended up happening was that makes you different, right? And you're bringing a different flavor, and you're bringing you don't sound like everybody else, you don't look like everybody else. So um I did a demo, and that demo got in the hands of Punjabi MC.

Punjabi MC Break And UK Years

SPEAKER_03

Punjabi MC back then in the early 2000s had an online radio show, and he took my CD and he couldn't believe it was a Punjabi guy rapping because I don't know why, but he was like, I've never heard a Punjabi guy rap like this. And he played it on his online radio show, and his radio show was so famous that everyone in the UK was tuning in, and my phone started blowing up, and my email started blowing up saying, you know, from Universal Music UK to BBC UK, Tiger Stop, Punjabi Hit Squad, Bobby Friction, Nihall, like you name it RDB, like you name it, they were contacting me to work, and I don't have any family or friends in the UK, and eventually I was like, hey, maybe I should go into the UK and see what's going on out there, and I went out there and the rest is history.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I want to ask, how old were you when, or if you you want to say your age or what? Yeah, when the Punjab BMC connection happened, when was that?

SPEAKER_03

I was in high school, so I was just finishing high school at that time, so I was like, when Punjab BMC's Beware of the Boys came out, I was like just finishing high school, so that was back then. So, you know, at that time to be a kid finishing high school and like you're getting like so the conversion rate from British pounds to Canadian back then was 2.3. So anytime I would do a licensing deal or I would get publishing checks or or record like royalties, like it was more than double, right? So if you signed like a for example, I'll just throw random numbers up there. But if I signed a licensing check to Universal for like 3,000 pounds, I was getting like seven, seven and a half. And I'm in high school here. I was like, I'm never getting a job. This is what I'm gonna do for the rest of my life, right? Because five, six, seven grand is like a so you know, and then that was that was really what was happening was I was flying back and forth making British money at a time when the British pilot was extremely strong, and you know, I I was just able to create a living doing that.

SPEAKER_01

That is incredible, and then after that, you said, I'm gonna do this for the rest of your life, and here you are, continuing to do this. Okay, so congrats on believing through with that promise.

SPEAKER_03

Like, that's I mean, kind of, kind of like as you grow and as you get older as an artist, and not only not only just as an artist, but as an individual, your idea of success changes and how you interpret it, and your idea of what a lifelong artist is changes, you know. So, yes, I was doing that full time for the longest time, but eventually it was at that point where I was like, okay, I need to like I was in England for so long that people thought I was British, right? A lot of people I still meet them.

SPEAKER_00

They I thought you were British for a long time.

SPEAKER_03

It's like people are always like, How do you not have a British accent? I'm like, dude, I'm from here. Like, so eventually I was like, I do need to go back home. Like, I've been in England a decade. I need to go back home, I need to start my life. So I did come home, you

Education Marketing And Responsibility

SPEAKER_03

know. And the whole time what I was doing was that was um like 2011. Okay. 2011. So oh around 2011, like the whole time I'm still going to university because in the back of my head, I knew, especially then, now it might be a lot easier. But back then, the concept of being a day C rapper was so foreign, and the concept of stability behind that was so rare. I still continue to go to university, I have to still continue to do my degree, do to do my postgrad. So I always wanted to make sure that I had like a like because the the background that I come from, I don't come from a background of generational wealth. My parents did not, like a lot of Punjabi people who knock on wood, I'm not hating on it, it's good for them. A lot of Punjabi people's parents will give them a paid off house and be like, all I put have this. I don't come from that. My parents depend on me to provide them. Like, I had to get my mom a house. I don't live at my mom's house. I have to not only get myself a house, but provide my mom a stable future. So when you have that type of, you know, the the responsibility on your head, I can't just be like, oh well, let me try to be a rapper till I'm 60. And if it doesn't work out, I'll just go back to mommy and daddy's house. No, the reality is mommy and daddy need a house. So I need to make sure that not only am I making a secure future for myself in music, but I also have my education to come back. You know, like you need a pension, you need a RRSP. You're like, you need you need stuff like that. So secure your dreams, but always make sure that you know you're covering all facets.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. And can I ask what you've studied? And is that relevant?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so what do you think I studied? I want to know what do you think I studied?

SPEAKER_01

Business.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, of course. I'd be daisy person.

SPEAKER_01

I don't know. I don't know. It feels like it could go hand in hand, but what did you do?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, so I studied marketing. So I went to study advertising and marketing, yeah. So I worked in the advertising space, I worked with the marketing space, I did a lot of PR, like at record labels, and and um for example, like a radio station out here is called Flow. Flow is like a very big urban radio station in Toronto. So I was on their street team, I was on the street team for major record labels out here. I was always kind of in the scene somehow, always touching, blending music and and business marketing together.

SPEAKER_01

That's amazing. So you've had you've been able to build a career out of something that was a passion. Something I find it so interesting. I'm trying to remember, like, imagine like a little blitz creeping, like, yeah, I'm gonna be good today because I get to rap after this. Like, that is so that's such a good, good, good story. Like, that is amazing. And like over the years, you've overcome a lot of health and accidents and stuff. Uh like, how is that played into your your passion as an artist? Because I you've come out with so many songs, so many music videos in the last few years. Yeah, has that fueled you differently?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, definitely, man. Like, so

Cancer And Redefining Success

SPEAKER_03

for people that don't know that are listening to this, um, I was diagnosed with cancer when my first album came out. So a lot of people don't know. I got signed in 2007 to Tiger Style. Well, I got signed before that, but my first album came out in 2007 with Tiger Style. And while I was recording that, while I was still in university, um, I got diagnosed with lymphoma Hodgkin's disease. And really being that young and being the youngest person in the chemo ward, looking to the right of you, to the left of you, like I don't smoke, I don't do any drugs. I mean, you know, teach their own people that do whatever, but I never did, like I never smoked or none of that. So, you know, I always thought I was I was kind of ignorant of the fact that I always thought that hey, if you smoke, you get cancer. And so I remember when they told me I had cancer, that's the first thing that came out of my mouth. I was like, but I don't smoke, and they're like, it doesn't work like that, like you don't have to smoke to get cancer, you know. So, you know, just having that, yeah, I was never really like a person that was like obsessed with like monetary things, but especially after I got that, it made me kind of step back. Like, I didn't care to be famous anymore. So if you notice, I'm not like I strategically I was on like this trajectory to be like the most famous Daisy Canadian rapper out there. I was the first one signed, me and Roach were there running around the UK performing at Blasterbury, doing this, Asian music awards, this and that. But then you started realizing people are only talking to you because of who you are or because of your fame or what you may have or what kind of clout you have, or I just didn't care for that anymore. I just I genuinely want to do things because I have passion for them. I do not care. I genuinely am telling you, I do not care for money. It does not matter to me. The day I found out I had cancer, I took off my gold necklace, my gold. I used to carry, I wear gold fronts in my mouth, I had gold bracelets, took all that off. I don't wear any name brand stuff anymore. It doesn't matter to me. I do stuff just because number one, because I like it, and number two, to open the door for fellow South Asians, right? So that's kind of why I do it. So it affected every aspect of my life, every aspect of my life, I live, like my friends always laugh. My friends always say, one of my I always joke around and say, This is the best night of my life. Even if we're just like at Tim Horns having like a timbid and a French vanilla, and they laugh. And I'm like, I'm glad you guys are laughing. I am saying it to make you guys laugh, but at the same time, this is the way you should live your life in a situation where every day should be a blessing. Like, I know what it wakes it feels like to wake up and not even, you know, like that old saying, Oh, well, at least you have your health. Imagine if you don't have your health. Imagine if you have to wake up and the first thing, like you open your eyes, and like within the first second of your eyes being open, you're like, Oh damn, I have a terminal disease, you know. So I know what that feels like, you know. And then I recovered from that. Uh, and then so I've been 20 years in remission, so I'm knocking wood, like you know, but um, and then during the pandemic, so me and Roach ride motorcycles. I was

Motorcycle Crash And Creative Urgency

SPEAKER_03

riding motorcycles for the longest time, and then during pandemic, you never think something's gonna happen to you. One day I decided to take my motorcycle out. I was on the Gardner Expressway. The Gardner Expressway is in a highway in Toronto, which is suspended above the city. And uh, I was on the suspended bridge, and then somebody cut me off and slammed on their brakes. And the next thing I know, my motorcycle is doing somersaults with me on it. I was doing like a hundred. So imagine being on so, like, if you look at gravity, you're moving a hundred, and then all of a sudden you stop. Your body's not gonna stop doing a hundred, even though your bike does. So I ended up in the hospital. I was in the hospital for like I had to go to a long-term care facility. I didn't even know long-term care facilities existed for young people. So I was in a long-term care facility. I had to learn how to walk again. They uh put uh metal rods, like metal uh screws in my leg. And even then, that was like a very big eye-opener, too, because I was like, I'm not gonna die with a hard drive of ideas. I have hard drive, I have songs with the biggest artists in the world, Rishi Rich, Juggy D, Roach Killer, whoever you name, RDB, Deep John, dude. Like, I have them sitting on my phone. I have 50 music videos sitting on my phone right now, and I'm just I can release them whenever I want. But I was just like, I am not gonna stop. I am not gonna die with a hard drive full of ideas, you know? So yeah. Sorry for the long-winded answers.

SPEAKER_01

I appreciate it because these stories I think are the stories that need to be told because your story isn't linear, it is important, especially when there's so many survivors of severe accidents, of like things like cancer. This is a really important story that I think everyone, you know, like you you have that conversation with people, you meet someone, they know someone that's had cancer, or maybe they've had it themselves, and you just don't know. So you sharing this is is really special. So I I appreciate it.

Legacy Building For The Next Wave

SPEAKER_01

Um, we're talking a little bit about how now, because uh what I've seen from from you over the last 20, 25 years is like I think in one of your interviews you said, like, we crawled, like you, Apache, Indian, World Church.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Crawled so that people like the next generation could walk and run.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And and like from what I'm hearing from you, is a lot of these conversations about legacy building, seeing what your legacy can be. Um, do you have any thoughts on that as an artist and how you see that playing out?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, like I mean, it's just kind of just touching on what you were saying. I think in that same interview, uh what I was saying was I'm glad, you know, when people were asking me, okay, what do you think of the Fat Days, the AR Paisley's, the Sunny Mountains? I'm like, I'm glad because if that wasn't happening and if the scene wasn't growing, we would have done something wrong, you know. So it's a good thing that the scene is growing. That's this good thing there's more South Asian rappers out there. And even if it's not us on Coachella stages, someone's up there, you know. And whether we don't need to, I don't need the recognition. I'm just saying, like, I know at the end of the day, in this house that we're building of urban South Asian culture, I helped put a brick in there, right? And that's that's what it's all about. Just you know, never, right? Like, we're gonna support people. So that's that's what I want to be known as is behind the scenes. I want to be known as the guy that's helping this scene, and it's funny because it's like now, um, like now I want a liquor rent, right? And it's like all over Toronto. But what I find funny about that is because I've been doing music for so long that I'll be in rooms and they'll just think of me as a liquor guy. They have no idea, because I because I don't introduce myself as blitzkrieg, like when I walk into a room, my my name's Tony, right? So I'm always like, hey, nice to meet you, Tony. I'm like, I'm never like yo, what up, blitz? Like, I don't know, I just find that corny, but please throw it. But like, I'm just like, hey, Tony, nice to meet you. I don't even mention music, and they're just they'll be talking, yeah, and they'll have no idea that I do music. And it's just so funny because I'm like, wow, how crazy is it? The like the different, like, you know, like I I don't zindigid, you know what I'm saying? But like the different colors of life, like some days, like last year, for example, like I usually headline Daisy Fest. Me and Roach have been headlining this huge festival called Daisy Fest in the heart of Toronto for the past 20 years. And last year instead of performing, so two years ago, we headlined it. Last year instead of performing, I was selling my alcohol there as a sole provider. And then and I'm seeing people, and I was just looking at, I was just like, man, how crazy is it that I've gone from being on that stage, rocking the stage, to being this guy selling alcohol now, right? It's rap the dang, you know, like it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

That is that is cool. And you're a multifaceted person, and that really just goes to show that. Tell me the story about Broken Riksha and how it began.

SPEAKER_03

Uh yeah. So

Broken Rickshaw And Representation On Shelves

SPEAKER_03

basically what happened was I actually went to go do during pandemic, I went to go do a podcast. And when I was doing a podcast, um, as a gift, they gave me a bottle of alcohol saying, Thank you for coming. You know, and I was like, Cool. So I went home, everything was shut down, and I was just bored one day. There was nowhere to go, everything's closed. I just started taking the alcohol they gave me and just making different drinks at home with like daisy twists to them. And um, and then like I had my birthday. I'm born in the summer, so I had my birthday. A blow, a couple of my friends came over, whatever like restrictions permitted at the time. And I kind of made them the mixes, and they're like, dude, this is really good. I'm like, really? And people started asking me, What do you call it? And I'm like, I just didn't even have a name for it. And I thought to myself, what's a really old man, like an old gota man drink? A really old gota cocktail is a broken down golf cart. And I thought to myself, what's a daisy version of a broken down golf cart? I'm like, broken rickshaw. And everybody's like, dude, that is such a great name. And I'm like, really? So I started testing it out, and then eventually, you know, I got approached by a distillery in Toronto, so I did everything. So from pandemic to now, I spent a couple of years like um patenting everything, getting the IP intellectual property and then the formula and all that kind of stuff in the distribution nailed down. And then here we are. We launched last year to the public, and here we are right now. We're like in like really popular bars across Toronto. We're in a lot of cool festivals, and uh like this is you know, this is hopefully to be in uh Alberta soon.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, let us feel when you're in Alberta.

SPEAKER_03

That would be trying to come out to Alberta, so you know that's the ultimate plan is to head west eventually. But we want to take things step by step. Like the last thing you want to do is overextend yourself. So the first step is to actually just dominate Toronto. Um, and the merch, like this is our this is our merch right here.

SPEAKER_01

That is sick.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so we had this, and then and the merch actually flies just as much as the liquor.

SPEAKER_01

It's cool. Merch. Good merch can take you a long way. That is wild.

SPEAKER_03

Just like my idea behind this, once again, like I think it comes back to what we did with it. See, exact, like, if you pay attention to it, it's the exact same formula and the ideology behind the music. We were in a space where South Asians they see were not represented. I walked into like so in Toronto, our liquor store is called the LCBL, right? It's owned by the government. So when I walked in there, I would see Happy Dad, I would see White Claw, I would see all of these, and I would say, but there's no South Asian representation here. This market is wide open. So, hey, I'm gonna do not if I'm gonna make music, I'm gonna make music the way I like to make it. If I'm gonna make liquor, I'm gonna make liquor the way I like to make it. There was nothing out there that kind of had South Asian inspiration, but number two, it was made to like cater to the palate of people like us. So this goes perfectly with like goat meat, butter chicken, or like the Indian fusion food. Like a lot of people now they have Tori chicken pizza or they'll have stuff like that. Like this goes perfectly with that, right? And like the design, the merch, everything is stuff that we like, we sell it in places we like to hang out, we make the merch for type of clothes that we would like to wear. So everything is like because it goes back to I don't do things for money. You can't be like, I mean, not to sound arrogant in a sense of like what I'm trying to say is like not that I'm in competition with anybody, but you can't beat somebody that isn't in it for money. I don't care if I don't sell a can. Like, it I'm just doing it to kick the door open.

SPEAKER_01

You're doing it to fill the space you didn't see. Exactly. The fill the space that you're like, hey, this is available for me. There is room on these shelves for a South Asian.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and like there is maybe 10 years from now or five years from now, just like how there's a Sonny Malton fought in Air Paisley, five, ten years from now, maybe there'll be more South Asian alcohols out there. That'd be beautiful.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely, and then even more South Asian artists. Yeah, also talking about like South Asian artists.

Memorable Collaborations And New Music

SPEAKER_01

I know you've collabed with a lot of artists, and like you said, you've released some of these, like you have Sakshindar Shinda, you have Jonita, yeah, and then you have like so many more, like Ragatha Talikan race. Rakakat Rafatalikan sorry, Rakakatalikan. You've had you have so many like fun artists. I want to I want to hear about your favorite collabs or your most memorable collabs. And then on top of that, tell me who your dream collab is if you saw.

SPEAKER_03

I think the like obviously, like you know, the most memorable situations are always gonna be your best friends, right? So, Roach and me, even though we make So much music together, it's because you know, like you become brothers with someone. We became we literally met in the local Toronto scene before there was YouTube, Spotify, Instagram. Like, we were just literally outside freestyle battling people, and to take if and you see to see someone that you met on that level and to see them in Bollywood or they see you in Bollywood, and it's like, bro, like that journey that we went on going to UK. We literally lived that immigration story that your parents lived. Like, we went to UK not knowing anyone, having like a hundred dollars in our pocket, and we made a future out of it, you know. So that's always gonna be the most precious and most memorable times in my life in terms of someone I collaborate with because Roach is somebody that I literally landed in UK, looked at him, he looked at me, and I'm like, now what? Right? Like, now what do we do? Right. And then to see, and then every win of his, and this is what I love about our relationship is that I want him to win more than I want myself to win. I seen how hard he works because I was sleeping like on a mattress on the floor next to his mattress on the floor. Like I saw that, right? So I wish I like every win he gets makes my dill so happy because I know how hard we worked to get there, right? So that's some of my favorite memories, and obviously, like you know, just things like meeting Apache Indian and recording with him. It's like, yo, man, you inspired me to make music, or going to a Punjab BMC's house. He has an indoor, well, at the time, I don't know if he still does, he had an indoor swimming pool. That was the first time I'd ever seen a swimming pool inside someone's house, you know. I'm going to his house, and I'm like, dude, like you did a song with Jay-Z. Like, this is mind blowing. Or I remember on Rishi Rich's birthday. Rishi Rich is born like around uh Canada Day, start of I think it's the end of June or the start of July, somewhere in that week. And I remember us in Tiger Style got invited uh to like a private house party. Jay Shawn, they were singing Eyes on You and I Just Wanna Dance With You when they were like, and a Meet Chana was there from uh Bendy like Becco. And we're just like we're sitting at a house party with these people, and we're like, dude, we're just kids from Brampton and Mississauga. What is going on here, right? And they're like, how crazy is this, you know?

SPEAKER_01

That's that's crazy. We've had a lot of pinch me moments.

SPEAKER_03

That's yeah, yeah, definitely cool.

SPEAKER_01

And I I I see you continue to have those just with the way that you are approaching this work with such authenticity and you know, approaching your business and your music and your your journey, especially after surviving two very serious health health.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01

Um, so I I want to talk more about actually your newest song.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

It's more about that, and you had a collaboration with uh Sunju from Delhi.

SPEAKER_03

So Sanju, yeah, Sunju, his real name is Sanjay. He's the lead singer of a very successful Canadian band called Dilly to Dublin. And if people don't know about Dili to Dublin, Dilly to Dublin is one of those bands where they're kind of like the they're like the like they're the champions of the live music scene in Canada, and people might not know because in the day and times that we live in, everything's about clout, likes and lick, like likes and shares and all that kind of stuff. But Dilly to Dublin actually performs more than a hundred gigs a year. A hundred gigs a year. There's only 365. So means meaning every three days they're on the road touring. They're probably one of the the like the most booked bands in Canada, but you probably don't know about them because they don't they're not on the charts and whatnot. But you know, Delhi to Dublin's for Vancouver. Once again, because my mom's from Vancouver, I go to Vancouver a lot, and through my adventures there and just my network, I was able to meet Sanjay, who's the lead singer, and we kind of just we hit it off just as friends, and then we said, Hey, let's make some music. We started making some music and came out amazing. And he's one of my favorite people to collaborate with. And uh, so we did three songs for him, which we released with him like three weeks, three years ago, two, three years ago. And we had this song, Sapno Girani. And I was like, What are we gonna do with this? And I met this artist called Saho, which is a uh like a very classically trained Daisy singer from Toronto, and uh he performs like he just performed with A.R. Rahman at a Kowali concert. So he does like that type of stuff, like where A.R. Rahman comes to town, he'll sing back up koali for him and that kind of stuff. So I was like, yo, what would it sound like if we took you know like a koali singer, mashed him up with me and Sanjay, and typically like the song is not even hip hop, it's more like a dance song, right? So I was like, let's just continue to push the envelope and like what's the worst that's gonna happen? People aren't gonna like it, but I we've been getting great feedback on it. So yeah, that's really where it came from.

SPEAKER_01

It's catchy, right? It's gotten that that Bollywood, the rap, and then also the Kavali, like the Siles vocals are very clear, like they ring through the music, and then also just having like your like you're saying, like Delhi to Dublin is a Canadian icon band.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01

And it is it is so cool to see. It's so funny because a few months ago for St. Patrick's Day, I did a like an Irish Canadian South Asian connections like episode. Oh wow, and I like did a deep dive into them and I was like, this is so fun. So seeing all of these connections happen at the same time, I feel like it's like almost uh signifying of like Canadian South Asian talent that we have, and also like legacy. Like that's another thing that I like.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So we got to talk about your new single, your journey in music and your adventures in culture. Anything

Noon Vs Loon And Wedding Choices

SPEAKER_01

else? I wanna I wanna know what is your star sign actually? That's let's ask you the question.

SPEAKER_03

What do you think my star sign is? Are you good at this kind of stuff or what?

SPEAKER_01

No, I don't know. You said summer. I'm gonna say Leo.

SPEAKER_03

No, I'm a cancer.

SPEAKER_00

Cancer, my mom's a cancer, very emotional. Very emotional. That's good.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, no, so yeah, no, I'm a cancer. Some people say like artistic, but then very like, I don't know. I don't I don't know if I believe in that kind of stuff, but um I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's fun, yeah. I think it's fun. Um okay, and then I'm gonna steal some of your interview questions. Do you say loon or noon?

SPEAKER_03

Yo, you've been watching my stuff, eh? Holy, wow. Oh man, I don't want to get into this problem, man.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, okay. Okay, he's gonna stay very um uh diplomatic here. People get very passionate about it.

SPEAKER_01

It is, it is. So I'm from the part of Punjab that says noon.

SPEAKER_03

Me too.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, okay. Yeah, like look, but it's listening in the other part, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Look at it like this, right? This here's my saying, okay. Okay, so uh Punjabi is a derivative of Hindi, okay? And in Hindi, they call salt numek. Okay, that makes more sense that numek is noon. They don't call it lumik. If it was lamik, it'd be loon.

SPEAKER_01

Okay that's my that's my favorite. Punjabi also the if to make the other cases, it also comes from so many other languages. So there's always room. But I I say noon. Um, when you are at a wedding or a uh any South Asian event, what is your go-to appetizer?

SPEAKER_03

Um yo, so I hate weddings. I just want to tell you that. Anybody that anybody that knows me, any no, no, anybody that knows me. No, I like I like the institution of marriage, and I am a big fan of if you invite me to a wedding, I will be there for the important things. I'll I will be there for the Anun Cottage for sure. I want to see you and your bride or you and your husband do your entrance. I want to see the slideshow. I want to hear your parents' speeches, I want to see I want to see you do your slow dance, but I do not want to sit around with like 30 guys drinking at the bar, you know, and dancing to like it's just not me, man. It always ends up being in a fight. I'm just I try to I come for the important stuff and then I lead, right? Uh but I guess appetizers. Damn, man, that's a good question. I guess like I always go for like the alupiki. I'll go with like because I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Because people are gonna say it's boring. I have I have an allergy to nuts. And what I find is in a lot of Indian restaurants, even including weddings, they mix nuts and cashews into butter chicken and in a lot of karate. And I've had I use my go-to used to be um chicken, but the problem is is like even the the danduri chicken or any of that kind of stuff, like they'll have crushed up nuts on it, and I've had allergic reactions to it. So what I do now is I play it safe. I I go, I get like the alu piki, and I just cover it with some chutney, and I just sit in the corner with all the stuff on top, and it's good.

SPEAKER_01

And then you and then peace out before your songs even play.

SPEAKER_03

Please, I'm gone. I'm gone. You don't know how many times I've been in arguments because of that.

SPEAKER_01

Like it's so funny. Oh, well, you know what? You have your enjoyment, and I think that's great. And I feel like as a person who's in the entertainment business, you've probably seen your fair share of that event, right? Um, I guess on top of that, do you perform at weddings? Is that something you've done?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, performed at weddings. Funny enough, like how you said, like me and Juggy are going, it's a booking pro wedding. So with me and Juggy are going to Cancun tomorrow. So yeah, we'll be literally like two days from now, we'll be performing at a wedding. So I've done it before, and uh yeah, like obviously I continue to do it. But like my favorite things to do in the entire world are like if you were to watch my the way my live music, my live show has progressed is it's more actually live. Like, so

Unplugged Shows Rock Roots And Grants

SPEAKER_03

what I do is I have a my sets are unplugged. I don't like to be one of those guys. If I have to, I'll do it, but I don't like to be one of those guys that's like rapping on top of my actual track. I like what I do is I'll bring like a small three-piece band. Like, I'm a very big fan of like NPR unplugged or like MTV unplugged. So what I do is like I'll bring like a two-piece band of live acoustics, and like it's almost like spoken word. That's spoken word live Punjabi hip-hop is the way spoken word live Punjabi hip-hop is the best way to describe my spoken word live Punjabi hip-hop.

SPEAKER_01

I like that.

SPEAKER_03

Just something so different because it's like if you put me on a show nowadays, everybody's a Punjabi rapper, but if you put me on a show with somebody, they're not gonna sound like me because I'm gonna have an acoustic band.

SPEAKER_01

And I can real soul to that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, real soul to it. Yeah, do you play any instruments yourself? Yeah, 100%. I do. Like I was just gonna show you. I got drumsticks here, I have a guitar. Um my my DJ set isn't here that's downstairs, but yeah, so it's like, yeah, like I started playing guitar, then I went to drums, and then I started DJing. I was actually in a rock band when I was younger, so I used to play in a rock band, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So we you were in a rock band, you were rapping. What kind of music? Like back back then it was like rock.

SPEAKER_03

Back then it was like grunge music, like in the mid-90s. So it's like, but it's like I'm a diehard rock music fan. Like, I love I started like when I was really young, I had like older cousins. I would listen to like Guns N' Roses and Metallica, and then like when Grunge came around, it was like Nirvana and like the whole Seattle scene, like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, like all that kind of stuff. Like I was I was crazy for it, and then um yeah, and then like hip-hop just kind of took over.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome. Do you see yourself ever going back to rock?

SPEAKER_03

I'd like I try to mash it up. That's why I do the live sound, you know. Like I try to, and this like this song is just a perfect example. Like, if you go back to my I had a release with Rafakat Ali Khan two years ago, it's called Stay With You. If you go back and listen to that, that's actually all live music. That's that's that's rock music. So what I did was I drooped rock music, I fused it with jazz and I put gualip and hip hop on top.

SPEAKER_01

You're right, it is. I I actually the the drums in it are super fun because I do remember that. Like there's all live, yeah, it is all live, and you got a grant to do that as a Canadian artist.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I got a I got a big grant from the Canadian government to record a live Punjabi album, and then the whole vision behind it was hey, like once again, I come from a background of rock music and jazz music, and I wanted to somehow fuse all of it. I wanted to see so I have Minge on that album from RDB, I have Roach on that album, I have Rafalka Talikan on that album, I have Chaclair on that album, I have Socrates on that album, and like I just kind of pulled my network and I'm like, hey, let me just see how RDB would sound on top of a rock song, and you know, like let's see how that sounds, and like I with me rapping on it, so let's so awesome.

SPEAKER_01

This

Current Listening Plus Final Thanks

SPEAKER_01

is my last question. Who are like your top, like any any genre of music, who are your top like three or four artists that you're singing, listening to right now?

SPEAKER_03

Oh, right now, now oh okay. Well, who isn't listening to Drake? Like, who isn't listening to Iceman right now? Like, you'd have especially being from Toronto. Um, yeah, you got it. So, right now in my Spotify and constant play, if I had to say, right now, is my favorite songs right now are Make Them Pay by Drake as always. Um, and then I know it's kind of old, but I just love this song Bachke Bachke by Codon Agula. Like, I don't know why. I just love that song. And the entire, I know it's kind of old, but the entire Dil Jeek confidential album. I love the confidence. I I actually ordered the vinyl, it's on its way to my house. But the confidential album is so underrated. Like the songs like weekend, yeah, and like oh man, it's my favorites, it's my favorite song in the world. But then obviously, I've listened to like a lot of like underground hip hop like Griselda and Benny the Butcher and like J. Cole, like such mix it all up. I just mix it all up, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome. Well, and it it shows in your music, in your own music, that you've really studied the work that you're doing, so that's amazing. It's been an amazing conversation with you, Tony. Nice to know your name.

SPEAKER_03

I just want to say uh before we sign off, I just want to say thank you so much. Because you know, people don't realize that you know, just you dedicated time and interest and like it means a lot because if it wasn't for individuals like yourself, like there'd be no scene, you know. I mean, like I can create all the music I want, but if it stays in my bedroom and no one's talking to me about it, my theories behind it, it's gonna fall. Like if a tree falls in the woods, did it really fall? Like, no.

SPEAKER_00

We make sure that that that is heard for sure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Universal Radio Network Podcast. This is DJ Rara Ravia. Give me a follow at DJ Rara Ravia on Instagram and give us a follow at the Universal Radio.