Looking for "Easy Love"?

       Masters of the remix - if not spelling - MSTRKRFT will flail the Fist of God tonight on the Royal City Avenue
       Canadian electronic duo MSTRKRFT debuts in Bangkok tonight with music like you've never heard before.
       Jesse Keeler and Al-P are the terrible spellers behind the tune unit pronounced "Mastercraft". They met as punks in 1997 and together goosed up studio recordings for Black Cat #13, Femme Fatale and Death from Above.
       Their own first LP, "The Look", came out in 2006, featuring hits like "Easy Love" and "Work on You" and several remixes of tunes from other bands.
       We pried the headphones off Al-P long enough for a chat in advance of tonight's gig on RCA.
       What's in the backpack?
       We're finishing up the tour cycle of our just-released album "Fist of God", playing Australia, Japan, South Korea and of course Thailand.
       We're also preparing for our next album when we get back home to Toronto.
       So it's true - there's music in Canada.
       Canada actually has quite a few internationally successful acts right now, as we're seeing on our Australian tour. Besides us, there's DJ A-Trak from Montreal, who was a DJ for Kanye West.
       The funny thing about Canada, and Toronto specifically, is that you never get big at home first. You have to become successful outside of Canada, and then people at home will notice you.
       What's your favourite remix?
       Recently it's the mix we did for Usher, which was - much to our disappointment - never officially released, because it contained elements of Eric Clapton's "Layla". But I think any music connoisseur would agree that our usage was clever, insightful and tasteful.
       That's more than I can say for most of the sample-based music being released today. It's quite frustrating for us in that we've never dared use any samples, out of respect for the original artists, and out of respect for ourselves and our dying craft.
       How did you get John Legend singing on "Heartbreaker"?
       We'd done a remix for his "Green Light" that he actually liked, and he told us so personally. That rarely happens when we remix an artist, let alone an artist of John's calibre.
       Instead of paying for that mix, we agreed that John would do vocals on our album. He liked the "Heartbreaker" instrumental, and he liked the lyrics that Nick [from Space Cowboy] wrote for it, so we ended up in the studio in New York City with him for two days.