Who is Jashim?
Jashim: I’m Jashim, I’m a Colombian born multimedia artist raised in Québec and I’m exploring the new sounds of post-Reggaeton and what it means to be latin without borders.
How did you start making music?
Jashim: I started making music because a lot of my friends were producers and I was studying interactive arts. I was making a video and I needed to produce sound for it. But I think I really started writing songs when I was in Mexico and I started listening to La Mafia Del Amor and all the projects that were being done in Spain and Mexico in the neoperreo scene that was pretty new at the time [in 2020]. While I was in Mexico, I started DJing at the same time. I came back here and I started a party called Angelix, then we created Chimbites which is a collective I made with friends. That was kind of reigniting the latinx sounds here in Montreal.
Tell me more about Lil Visions.
What is the project about? What does the name mean?
Jashim: So Lil Visions is mostly a character. He lives in his own universe, which is placed in 2032 after a nuclear war. He's kind of a survivor, but also a pioneer of a new generation of kids. You know, I was homeschooled when I was a child, and my parents, they used to live among indigenous communities in Colombia, so I had a pretty different education than most people in North America. There's a lot of things that we put into the character that come from those teachings. Self power, conscious power, powers in the dreams, strong symbolics, quantum physics. So the messages and the lyrics in the project are about revolution, but also about, like, self-pleasure, love, sex and, you know, drugs.
It's kind of showing off this character that was built by war, by a war that's really ongoing, and him using all of this character that was built into him to counterattack society in some way. The first single ATRAKAR talks about, you know, a hold up, but it's mostly a hold up on the 1%.
The musical universe is pretty much inspired by [the show] Cyberpunk. So there's a lot of electric guitar. There's a lot of heavy bass and drums and synths with Latin influences. The sound universe is created by me, Samat and Funkywhat and the creative direction is made by Jaime Salgado.
What inspired Lil Visions XR? Who’s the community behind the project?
Jashim: Lil Visions XR stands for Lil Visions, extended release and extended reality. Three years ago, Jaime Salgado and I started the concept of the project. We wanted to do an album that would have global drum sounds with influence by the Reggaeton systematics about life, you know, life in Latin America, life as an immigrant. We wanted to construct a visual universe around it.
And then I started writing songs, then I met Samat, and we did one song together called OKOKCOMOVA, and that, for me, was the starting point of creating a team for the project.
Samat & Funky put some Baile Funk heavy bass with some heavy synthesizer. I thought it was really great to have that Latin drum set, but with a really, let's say North American sound. And then we started producing at Samat's house. We started playing a lot around, because he was exploring my culture and I was exploring music production. It was the first time I produced music with other people in the studio. I was used more to taking beats and rapping over them - I'm mostly a rapper. But this is the first project that we're building from scratch, and I'm really happy about it, because there’s no limit in what we're creating, in both the soundscape and in the story of Lil Visions.
And yeah, so it's pretty much me, Jaime, Samat, Funkywhat and we have Jimena from Islas that is helping us release the project. It's also going to be mixed and mastered by James Benjamin at Breakglass Studios.
Tell me more about the inspirations behind the project
Jashim: It was pretty much inspired by Cyberpunk, honestly - the guitar and the vibe. We were watching it. I made the boys watch it while we were producing. It was really about the tensions and the textures - the tensions between electronic and acoustic, analog and digital. Some of it really plays with analog stuff. Everything we’re doing, we’re re-recording through tape. That’s what gives a little grain to it. Then we’re modifying the grain digitally and Funky’s bass was transmitted through analog in digital. That's why the texture is so clear but still, like playful.
I think because I'm Latin American, people here, including producers, always expect me to do Reggaeton or Baile Funk. They don't really know what's happening over there, they only have the pop remains of culture that cross through here. But I'm actually a writer that writes more about, like, romantic stuff. I think the guys really opened the door for me to explore more rock sounds. So I think I'm gonna start exploring a little bit more of that. Because when you go to Latin America, everybody's doing stuff like Rock, Drum and Bass or Electro. And then when you're here, all the Latinos are listening to Reggaeton. I mean Reggaeton, that's where our music starts and everything. But I think this project really explores both worlds.
What are you working on right now? What's the next project after Lil Visions?
Jashim: Right now I'm trying to do holograms for my shows. I've been trying for like, five or six years [laughs]. I'm working on a project with Funkywhat. I'm working on a project with Yamasato and another with Sinjin Hawk. I’m also working on my most exciting one with Jamvvis. Yeah, I'm probably gonna be releasing a little YouTube mix of some rock thing I composed myself.
I'm just trying to release music and learn to perform. I’m mostly trying to learn to do live performances. And I would love to be able to go back to Latin America and perform there, but I need to be ready for that.
amazing can’t wait to hear it 🥰
Jashim: Que Viva Bootlegger, Prrrr!
