By Sabrina Carnevale
Winnipeg’s hip-hop community has been a tight-knit one since the 1990s. Even today, local hip-hop acts turn out to play live every other week and usually to a packed house. So when the Lytics, made up of brothers Alex “B-Flat” Sannie, Andrew “A-Nice” Sannie, Anthony “Ashy” Sannie as well as their cousin Mungala “Munga” Londe, came on the scene in 2003, these sweet-faced 20-somethings were the new kids on the block.
“You have so many artists [in Winnipeg] who are able to make music inexpensively and as frequent as they want and, as a result, there are tons of hip hop shows,” says eldest brother B-Flat, 29. “Whether we feel totally a part of it, I don’t know.”
The Lytics make music on their own terms—no one tells them they have to sound a certain way. In that respect, they don’t necessarily feel they fit into just one of Winnipeg’s musical niches.
“We’ve played a lot of shows with punk bands and rock acts, and the reception has been great; whereas it would be cool to be part of the hip- hop scene, I don’t even know if we’re missing anything by not being a part of it, as dope as it is,” says middle brother, MC A-Nice, 21. “I get the impression, sometimes, that we’re a little too much doing our own thing to even be on bills with some of the other dudes.”
Winnipeg has enough musicians to see a new show on a regular basis, due in part to the city’s yearly cold stretch, allowing artists to hone their craft. With all that extra time, many musicians, including the Lytics, have learned how to produce and mix music on their own—and all fairly economically.
“This city sometimes feels like there’s one degree of separation; I may not know somebody who knows how to record me, but I know somebody who knows somebody who can record me,” B-Flat explains. “The next thing you know, you can make something pretty cheap.”
Most recently, the Lytics’ DJ, Gavin “DJ Action Rick” Kalansky, left the band. Now officially a four-piece group, The Lytics plan to “see what happens next, [and take] it day by day”, according to MC A-Nice. They’d like to change up some things with their live shows—whether they plan to replace their DJ, they’re not entirely sure.
“We’re planning to get more involved in the performance end of things,” B-Flat says. “Before, it was the DJ playing beats off the turn tables, but because [it’s always been] sequenced music, now we’re thinking of trying to play more of the music live—if that happens, that would change how much we’d need a DJ, it all varies.”
In the end, they’d like to try and make their live shows more interactive and have further control with the music.
“An advantage bands have is that they are able to feed off crowds because they’re controlling the music as it’s happening—the tempo, how loud it is—so we’re thinking we might start messing with that,” says B-Flat. “When you’re playing with a DJ, he’s playing the set song so he can’t make it any longer, which limits how involved we can get with the crowd.”
Live shows are where the Lytics thrive—they love to connect with the crowd and get people dancing to their music.
“If you come to a show, I’m 99 percent sure you’ll have fun,” B-Flat says.
“We hope you leave sweatier than when you came because you’ll be jumping around and having a good time. And if you come to one show, I’m pretty sure you’ll come to another.”
Between the four members, each are balancing a fairly hectic lifestyle touring with the band, recording new music, attending university classes and working day jobs. MC A-Nice and Ashy both attend the University of Winnipeg, but are currently enrolled in just one class each because their schedules are quite busy.
“Last semester was hard for me,” says youngest brother, MC Ashy, 19. “I go to the University of Winnipeg, plus I work and I like playing sports, so it’s tough trying to find time for every little thing.”
Writing and recording is a collaborative effort for the group as each member takes on different tasks.
“Everybody has their ingredients, it’s literally a 25 percent split between all four of us,” says B-Flat. “A lot of times, you come home, turn on the computer and go through the recent recordings and see that someone has recorded a cool hook, so you start writing to that.”
And because they do a lot of their own recording, the Lytics can easily change up their sound in the production stage.
“For us, if we’re ever unhappy with something, we can just fix it ourselves—you can’t accuse yourself of making yourself sound too poppy, or too flat, you just change it later,” explains B-Flat.
The band recently came off a two-week Western Canadian tour (which included a stop in Whistler during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics) in support of their self-titled debut that was released in September of 2009. They also played a show at Canadian Music Week in Toronto and by summertime, hope to have some new music streaming online.
As far as performing to hometown crowds, they’re still getting used to audience reactions.
”People say that Winnipeg is the hardest place to play a show because everybody in the music community knows somebody that knows you personally. Some people will pay money to watch you not do your best or mess up,” says B-Flat. “Winnipeg’s a great place to get started, though, because nothing will faze you.”