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Being a DJ can require serious talent, attention to detail and knowing one’s audience. A good DJ has the ability to maintain a consistent mood for their audience whether they be children, party people or folks on a variety of psychedelics. There are a variety of DJs in the area, some that have earned the title and others who have not. We’ve all seen the “DJ” who brings in a laptop, PA and a table. The “DJ” then proceeds into his Itunes library where he plays songs for the audience for the rest of the evening. This “DJ” even gets paid money to do this. This person is not a DJ and should not be paid and should be laughed at for calling himself a DJ. The Crunchy Bunch have earned their title as DJs.

Reader: When did you guys first start out? What brought you together?
CL: I initially had a dear friend I lived with who owned some mixing equipment and set up a small rig in my bedroom. Monkeying around with my laptop and a turntable, my younger brother and I quickly became immersed in the endless possibilities and ideas of crafting live mixes of a lot of the independent dance/electro/funk music we’ve been really getting into. A close friend of ours with a passion for music, mostly old school and some current hip hop, began assembling his own rig and joined in on some small social gatherings and house parties we started doing. Shortly after playing our first gig outside of a basement with the three of us at Hell’s Burgers in Canal Park, another great friend soon joined us adding his own heavier hitting electro influence to the mix. We played countless house parties and basements, and soon were approached for many other gigs around the area as well as some out of town ones.

Reader: What can people expect during a Crunchtastic set?
CL: Each of us have an extensively eclectic taste with individual genres that often have some overlap in style, giving us separate vibes and styles that we pool together creating the collaborative Crunchy experience. Mr. Ness (Al LeBlanc) often offers a solid four-to-the-floor, hard hitting groove with an emphasis on melody, heavy synths, and crunchy bass tones. Branologic (Dan Branovan) sticks mainly with his dusty collection of old school hip-hop and funk records, often times mixing it up with some newer rhythm focused electronic artists like Major Lazer as well as some local flavors from the Doomtree crew. Hazeltron (Jack Hazelton) specializes in the sticky, crunchy, intelligently intricate rare forms of dupstep while keeping people on their toes by mixing in some rare remixes and funky bass heavy jams. White Privilege (Chris LeBlanc) brings a dance, funk, house, and electro blend experience to the table with some eloquently crafted mashed ups by the likes of Chicago’s Hood Internet. As what we can only describe ourselves as “performance DJ’s”, our motto has become, “No requests. Shut up and dance.”

Reader: You’ve been in a multitude of different bands in the Northland over the years playing instruments. What got you into DJing?
CL: Learning a new instrument. Even in my most “punk” of days, I was still heavily influenced from my two older brothers’ obsession with dance, euro-pop, and house music as well as my experiences in choir, drumline, jazz, and most recently a steel drum band. I’ve always dabbled in the realms of many opposing genres in both what I enjoy listening to and what I perform. You’d probably cry laughing as I do now at some of the vast differences in genres my mixes consisted of that I’ve made for friends and for myself over the years.  Although my older brothers DJed while I was growing up, I just never had much of any interest in it, nor did I see myself becoming one. After developing an obsession with a few producers and DJ’s on the French record label Ed Banger, the idea of it became more appealing at the same time as the equipment became readily available to me.

Reader: I know I can hear some Jamiroquai at a Crunchy Bunch show. What other musicians inspire you?
CL: Some of us produce music ourselves as well as some groovy mash-ups. Beyond that we’re spinning folks like Justice, Daft Punk, Doomtree, Cool Kids, The Bloody Beetroots, Phonat, Diplo, Q-Tip, Erykah Badu, Breakbot, Ratatat, Prince, Crookers, Noisa, Hall & Oates, Chromeo, the list goes on and on. We’re inspired by the music itself as well as the stories behind the songs and musicians like Chromeo. We’re inspired by collaborations across different genres like Cool Kids and The Bloody Beetroots’ song Awesome. Branologic is so inspired from hip-hop culture that he is a part of the Twin Cities Omega chapter of Zulu Nation.  We’re inspired by just about anything that involuntarily moves our bodies to the beat, sticks a great melody in our head, and supports a positive influence within ourselves and our community. We’re also inspired by Slurpees.

Reader: I really like the concept of mashups. I’m a pretty big White Panda fan. Talk about the mashing process.
CL: There’s a few ways you can go about it really. In essence, you’re taking maybe an a’cappella or instrumental section of a song, and mixing it in with another a’cappella or instrumental of another song. It helps when you can find songs that fit together beat wise or key signature. A lot of records of singles will have an a’cappella and instrumental track on them, giving you the capability of doing a live mash up which we do on the occasion. What’s getting big now is the style of taking some indie rock band instrumentals and putting popular rap or pop a’cappella tracks over it. It’s quite the thing now when you think about it too because you’re grabbing the attention of music enthusiasts in two very different worlds. What’s difficult about being a “mash-up” artist is you can’t make money from the songs you produce necessarily. You can sell out giant music halls and keep all that cash, you can make all sorts of merchandise and reap those benefits, but the music is not for sale. It must be free, because it’s somebody else’s in the first place.

Reader: Where can people catch a Crunchy experience?
CL: We unfortunately don’t have a solid weekly or monthly spot to check us out at if you’re looking to hit the dance floor with us accompanying you. However, the second Friday of every month we play the newest art openings at the Prove Gallery on Lake Ave here in Duluth. Other places we do play and have played are Rex Bar, Red Star, Zeitgeist, and Grandma’s (rarely). We’ve had the privilege to play some really unique gigs as well such as hot yoga and spin classes, dog shows, Minnesotans United for All Families events, political events, private birthday and other parties, snowboard jams, and block parties. We’re really down for any occasion that needs a little bump. Checking our Facebook page is probably the easiest way to follow where we’ll be, as well as Duluth’s Transistor and of course the Reader. We put up our music and mixtapes on our Soundcloud page as well.