DJ Champion: Best Of 2007

12/10/08 1:11pm

by Erik Leijon (CHARTattack)

To anyone in La Belle Province, DJ Champion (a.k.a. Maxime Morin) and his G-Strings have been household names since Chill 'Em All debuted in 2004. The rest of Canada may have taken longer to get acclimated to the energetic DJ with a heavy metal heart, but 2007 was certainly the year Champion lived up to his name.

"When I came up with this album, it wasn't supposed to be a big success," recalls Morin, whose decade-plus long career included his work on the soundtrack to Triplets Of Belleville before making the switch to rock star DJ. "When I listen to the album [Chill 'Em All] I still hear myself. You don't get tired of yourself. It's like looking at your face in the mirror every morning. You don't get tired of your face."

Consider Champion to be the musical equivalent of Star Trek's Spock. He has a heavy metal side and a techno side and Chill 'Em All is the raging war inside his head. For Morin, the metal is more of a mindset and his groovy side dominates the universally accessible beats.

Champion is a talented guitarist — it's common folklore that Morin can play the entire guitar section of Van Halen's "Eruption" without error — but his wildly popular live show is all about getting people to capture his positive vibes.

His G-Strings live set-up includes a vocalist, four guitar players and a bassist, with Champion directing traffic. During the almost entirely improvised live shows, he can be seen giving hand signals to his band from behind his console. All the songs are in 4-4 time, but after that nothing is off-limits for the road-tested touring group. Except that it's about the vibe, not the histrionics.

"I don't like show-offs because they don't play music," he says.

The vibe of a Montreal concert from last December was captured for the recently released Live CD/DVD. It was a document of hometown triumph, but Champion and his travelling dance party were also able to tour across Canada three times this year.

Champion's domination outside his home province began with a trip to South By Southwest last March, followed by getting the show-closing spot at this year's Junos, where Morin says his nerves were calmed by being able to hang with good friends Patrick Watson and his band beforehand. Most surprising for him, though, was just how much the Montrealer enjoyed Saskatoon.

"We went [to Saskatoon] three times, and every time we got such a great
welcome. Lots of people cheering and stage-diving — just a fucking great vibe."

He also returned home to play his first arena show — a massive concert at
the Bell Centre last June — which he says was a major point of pride for him and the entire Champion team.

Canada's now on board. Next up, his growing popularity in France and a
showcase performance in England suggests 2008 could be the year Morin and his G-Strings conquer the world.

George Stroumboulopoulos says:
"It's hard for me to form an opinion on DJs early on because I don't have the same frame of reference like I do in hip-hop or rock 'n' roll. But it's fun, and there's always cute chicks that are hanging out around Champion shows."

The following feature is taken from the December 2007 issue of Chart Magazine. To purchase the issue, head on over to the Chart Shop.