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Aaron Levin

Posted March 1, 2010 from March 2010, Profiles

Profile

PROGRAM

MSC - Mathematics

YEAR

Alumni

Favourite Item of Clothing

Coogi Sweater

FAVOURITE BOOK

Neuromancer (William Gibson)

Favourite Sport

Typing

Interview

Your blog, Weird Canada, is about rare and eclectic music. How did you first get into music?

I’ve been buying tapes and music since I was six years old. It started with Def Leppard and 2 Live Crew as my first two cassettes. For whatever cosmic reasoning, I have been a music enthusiast since.

It started with 2 Live Crew and Def Leppard, but how many albums do you have now?

No idea... More than I can listen to in a lifetime probably. Definitely in the 4000 or 5000 range. I must have 3000 LPs and another 500 to 1000 compact-discs.

If you have more albums than you can listen to in a lifetime, yet you are still buying more, would you consider it an addiction at this point?

I think it started because I continuously want new stimulus. I’m just so curious! If I’m at a thrift store, a record store, garage sale, a radio station, or anywhere I’m around quantities of music, I look at them and then wonder if they are good. I then want to buy and listen to them, which I often do.

Your blog, Weird Canada, labour of love or true business?

The Weird Canada front section is definitely a labour of love. I do it more to capture my enthusiasm and fill in a perceived gap in media attention towards fringe music in Canada. While a lot of this stuff seems obscure, and it is, there are lots of American websites that concentrate on it but nothing from Canada.

So do you one day hope that Weird Canada becomes the Pitchfork Media of Canada?

... I think that would be great but my tastes are probably too erratic for it to become like that. I really hope that it becomes a tool for listeners to discover new music and for artists to make connections.

Aside from your blog, you run a few record labels, produce tools for emerging artists, setting up an online events calendar, play in a band, and a coordinate a music festival?

Yep... WYRD FEST is happening in May at an undisclosed venue. Keep your eyes peeled for the posters!