I am finally rested and I feel alive! It’s Tuesday morning and I must say that yesterday I was very out of it!! Ok, let’s not mention all the Champagne and the beer I had on Sunday… but just the music, and the day, and the people, was enough to make me very sad it was over and very empty yesterday all day long. I’m glad I got some rest now and I can smile again. Sunday, at Piknic Electronik here in Montreal, I really had the best, best, best ever Montreal gig of my entire life!! P.E. knocks out all the other past gigs in my almost 9 years of career. First, let me start by explaining what’s the P.E. and how it became what it is. A few guys from Montreal created this project last year where every Sunday in the summer time, if it’s nice out, they rent a sound system and put it out in the green environment of the beautiful Ste-Helene Island, where you are surrounded by nature but you can see the whole breathtaking view of Montreal downtown, and people are welcomed to come and spend a day out, sit down and have a nice relaxing picnic while listening to electronic music, provided by different DJ’s every week. These guys started this because the city was lacking of something interesting to do, on a Sunday, outdoors, related to music. It was a perfect way to have a Sunday reunion and to be able to listen to electronic music other than late at night in very dark and smoky environments. So anyway, it all started with an average of a few hundred people every Sunday, and this year it went straight up to a minimum of a thousand, every week. The biggest Sundays with bigger DJ’s playing hit approximately 2000 people. Going to P.E. is fun, it is very affordable because it only costs 5 $ (Canadian Dollars) per person, and it’s the most fun gig of the summer for any DJ, local or international, I can say that straight away! I have been everywhere this summer, I have worked my health off almost, and P.E. has brought me back to life again. So now let’s speak about my lovely day… P.E. is from 1pm till 8pm. Although because it was Labor Weekend and on Monday it was a holiday here, they were going to do another P.E. on Monday so they didn’t have to un-build the whole sound system, which allowed me to play a little longer than 8pm. On that day, I had DJ Yaz opening for me, he played a brilliant warm up set from 1pm until about 4pm. At 4pm, the place was already almost full. I went on the decks and started the most cool set I could ever play, for about 6 and a half hours. I will explain why it was the coolest… There was no pressure! And no pressure is so damn cool for a DJ! Everywhere I play in the world, there is this pressure I get from people knowing I am Misstress Barbara and I play hard and they want it hard and harder and harder. I can never anymore just play what I feel, if it’s more deep or smooth, because people have their expectations from my sound which is quite uniquely hard but always funky. And it’s alright for it to be that way, because I created something that people want to hear. But sometimes, it is fun to be able to do something different. Hence why I created Barbara Brown, and I use it when I need to make it clear to people that they WILL NOT hear any Techno stuff. Well, at P.E. I was announced as both: it was a MISSTRESS BARBARA VS BARBARA BROWN set, which was a premiere. I usually play one or the other. That already gave me the freedom of doing REALLY what I wanted, because with having those two names announced no one could come up to me and say “excuse me can you play harder or excuse me can you play smoother”… Whatever I was playing was justified by the fact that if it was smoother BB was playing, and if it was harder MB was playing. Another fact of not having any pressure was the fact that it was Sunday afternoon, it was hot and sunny and people were drinking water, juice, a bit of beer maybe and perhaps smoking a few spliffs but I highly doubt that hard drugs were part of the day. And, sorry if I need to bring this up but, as everyone knows very well, this part is a reality in this scene, and not having it mixed up with the day, the music, the crowd, makes a very big difference!! So this also allowed me to play just whatever I wanted, and explore more ways that I rarely have the time or the chance to explore, because i usually play only a few hours at peak time of the night when people need to trash themselves and they want it harder and harder. But at P.E. I played a long set and I played all kinds of stuff: from very commercial stuff to underground, but mainly always House. For the first two hours I played very Latin and Vocal and Disco stuff. After about 3 hours I started going into weird House/Electro stuff, Acidy too, and just a little Techy. I got the chance to play all kinds of weird stuff I had bought during my summer, and I could never play. I was so happy when I saw that people were so open to whatever I was giving them. Everyone was so happy and I, once again, do not know the words to describe how good and how magic my whole day was, but I know that whoever was there and is reading this now, will understand it and will feel it. The people were amazing, there were little kids too that were dancing on my music and I was so happy to look at them having so much fun. It was just a beautiful day out and the love that people gave me has filled me up so much that (and this is the explanation of the beginning of this post) it has been very hard to live without it once it was done. By the time I finished on Sunday night I have to admit that I was a bit drunk (a bit?) and so I didn’t really reflect upon what was going to happen, but God did I feel depressed on Monday! I missed it so much, I missed the people, I missed the music and I missed the P.E.!!!!! I wish it would be P.E. every day, I wish it could be just this: me playing and people dancing. I wish no one would have to work, eat, go home, sleep. I wish life could only be this, always and forever. I want to thank everyone who made Sunday such a special day. I know you had fun thanks to the music I was offering to you, but you have to know that I was smiling so much, dancing so much, and playing for you so flawlessly because of the love YOU were giving me. Without it, it wouldn’t have been the same. And, without you, I just suck, big time! I also wish a long life to Piknic Electronik, in the same most genuine way it has started. I wish it to stay like this always and I can promise that if they want and if people want, I will be part of it once a year, on Labor Weekend, to wave good bye at my crazy summers and welcome warmly the fall and the cold winter to come. I send you all of my love back to you and I hope to see you all soon! Barbara xx
