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<\/a>Each member of the three-man audio-visual DJ crew from Ottawa belongs to one of Canada\u2019s First Nation communities.<\/p>\n
Ian Campeau (aka DJ NDN), Dan General (DJ Shub) and Bear Witness formed A Tribe Called Red in 2007 and will be playing at the Casbah April 21 as one of 15 stops on their first major tour of the United States.<\/p>\n
Their electronic music has already won the group a Polaris Prize nomination, a Canadian award similar to Britain\u2019s Mercury Prize, and a spot in the Washington Post\u2019s top 20 albums of 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea came from us wanting to put together a party that was geared toward First Nation members around Ottawa, so we posted at all of the Aboriginal centers at the local colleges,\u201d Campeau said. \u201cOur first show was packed with mainly Aboriginal kids who said they had never really felt comfortable going out in the city before that, having grown up in a reserve in Northern Ottawa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campeau said the parties then became a regular event in their hometown, and people went crazy for the music once the band started playing songs that mixed what he called \u201cPow Wow music\u201d into what was popular at the time: electronic dance music or EDM.<\/p>\n
\u201cMixing those two genres worked out really well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Once DJ Shub joined the group they started producing their own sound and put out an album. Their latest album \u201cNation II Nation\u201d will be released May 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very natural progression from wanting to have a party geared toward First Nation kids to recording our own music,\u201d Campeau said. \u201cThe idea came from me and Bear wanting to showcase the fact that we were Aboriginal DJs here in the city, in Ottawa.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group will be playing at the Casbah for the first time, but Campeau is well versed in the local San Diego nightlife having lived here in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an album coming out on May 7 and we wanted to break into the West Coast scene,\u201d Campeau said. \u201cI\u2019m really stoked to be back in San Diego because I used to live in Pacific Beach and know the Casbah well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campeau said the next step for the group is more touring and another album, set to come out in the fall.<\/p>\n