Sitting in the boardroom in the Pique office, Whistler rapper MC Lozen is pondering the potential of setting up a Kickstarter campaign.
Lozen, real name Meaghan Mullaly, has considered it in order to fund future music projects because she is currently sitting on two all written and ready to go that she hasn't got the money to produce.
"I want it to be mixed and mastered and everything. I'd rather sit on a project and then when it is out I'm happy with it, because everything I put out I want to be good. I don't want to rush the process," she says.
That said, she has patiently put a new album together in the last year. The CD's release party for the album, Shake It Up, recorded with the input of Whistler hip-hop duo Animal Nation, will take place at Moe Joe's on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 9:30 p.m.
She can't take Shake It Up on the road yet, because, again, she doesn't have the budget.
You should try Kickstarter, I say.
"I might!" she laughs.
Lozen is able to perform her new music locally, of course, but even here not being able to get her other work fully mixed has its challenges.
A case in point occurred at August's Two Acre Shaker, where Lozen performed with Britain's DJ Surgeon.
"He said, 'People want to hear a mix of this song, can you send me the tune?' I had to tell him that I'd recorded it but it wasn't ready yet," she laughs.
She remains focused, though.
"I don't go out much anymore. This is my job. It's not a 9 to 5. There is no set schedule; it's what I put into it. So when people are going out to the bars and doing that stuff, I'm nerding out at home, working on tunes, drinking tea and keeping it pretty humble, because all my money I funnel back into the music," Lozen says.
She also understands that no one wins by doing their work for nothing, which is one reason why it is slow going. She wants her collaborators to be paid.
"I pay people.... I want to pay people and set that precedent," she says.
"You do a gig and you'll get paid a certain amount and then someone comes in and says they will do it for a beer tab or less money. What happens is then you get told, 'why would I pay you? This other person is less.'
"This sets a precedent for artists not to get paid. Then they expect you to bring in a full band for that price."
Her last effort, Tragedy and Triumph, was darker and more serious in tone than Shake It Up. This reflected personal loss following the accidental death of her friend, longtime Whistler DJ Mike Grefner, in January 2012.
"When I played it live it was hard. It would take me back to that time. It was heavy and I didn't want that anymore," she says.
"So I remixed that set into a live funk and soul set that I do with my buddy (American DJ) Kid Kicko. I noticed when I played it how I felt, it had changed."
But she remains thoughtful about the experience.
"It's how life pans out," she says. "This project (Shake It Up) was meant to be a case of having some fun now. There is serious content this time but I've tried to do it a little lighter."
Now 29, Lozen arrived in the resort in April 2007. ("I was just passing through on my way to Jasper... and I stopped here and it was the World Ski and Snowboard Festival and I wondered what this place was.")
She adds: "I was a dancer before and I was breakdancing professionally in Ottawa, and I had knee surgery. I was doing positive things and I then I couldn't dance anymore.
"I read my tarot cards, I'm a bit of a hippy, asking it questions. And it would say let it go for now, this is not what you are doing. So I wondered how else I could 'let it all out.'"
Picking up a guitar brought her into music, and then she explored what kind of music she liked best and "morphed" into the performer she is now.
Between her albums she also put out "a couple of singles" with European electronic-funk musician Basement Freaks.
"I love it! Happy upbeat stuff... They sought me out as an MC and I work with them. I never even met him (in person at the time). It was interesting how we were just communicating by emails and sending stuff back and forth," Lozen says. "I finally met him a year after. He came over for the Shambala Festival and we met in a club in Vancouver and jammed together. It was cool to do it that way."
