Imagine you take the King George train towards the Vancouver waterfront SkyTrain. You are on your way to work; you have left on time and are ready to take out your book and take the same journey you have taken hundreds of times. You are sitting down, and when the lady announces, “The next station is Nanaimo”, the doors slide open and in walks a gentleman with a black jacket, medium-length black hair, carrying a big box. There are two guys behind him carrying a big speaker and some DJ lights. You are curious, so you watch him as he takes out a soundboard and starts playing music. Right there, in the middle of the SkyTrain.
Slowly, people start recognizing him, and now the whole train is moving up and down as people jump and sing. That gentleman’s name is Felix Cartel, and he took Vancouver by storm because of his authenticity. Not just in his music, but also in the blogs that he posts on his website.
In a recent blog titled “Am I doing enough”, he expresses vulnerability as he deals with the pressures of this content-filled world, where artists have to not only create amazing music, but also promote it again and again. He talks about struggling with knowing when he has done enough. This sentiment is especially true as he came on the scene in 2009, when Vancouver’s music scene wasn’t nearly as big as it is now. When an artist was putting out music, labels handled all the promotion. But today, though labels and marketing agencies can handle that, audiences expect to hear the artist’s story from the artist themselves. Back in the 2000s, there weren’t nearly as many people fighting for the audience’s attention.
He has been one of the province’s biggest electronic dance music DJs. He started playing Vancouver’s DIY music scene, meaning small clubs, underground venues, and is now one of the most well-known DJs in Vancouver. His sound is extremely danceable, and he blends catchy pop hooks with house music.
You can catch him playing at various pop-ups in Vancouver, sometimes free beach concerts, and sometimes hidden venues. He keeps fans excited by giving little easter eggs, like Taylor Swift does. He’ll promote that he’s about to do a pop-up in the coming days, and you must send him a specific word that he’ll post on his stories to get the venue and timings. It all has a suspenseful feel to it.
We love it when an artist makes it big, like Felix. BC’s music scene, from the smaller clubs to Vancouver’s Vogue theatres, thrives on artists like Cartel, who take their city with them wherever they go. They convey the emotion and sound of Vancouver through unforgettable performances. The electronic music scene isn’t too big in Canada, but because of artists like Felix, they are being revived. His music is filled with passion and rhythm, representing Canada’s electronic music culture.