This past year has been a good one for Socalled.

After The Socalled Movie chronicled the eclectic touring and recording lifestyle of the man born Josh Dolgin, this past spring the klezmer-influenced hip-hop producer/MC released Sleepover, a record that, based on the puppets and pyjamas on the cover, one might mistake for an upbeat romp of a disc.

“It’s weird because that song (Sleepover) kind of misrepresents the album,” Dolgin says by phone from his label Dare to Care’s offices in Montreal.

“ Even though I sing a lot and rap a lot, I guess when I make records I just make something that I want to listen to. I feel like Sergio Mendes.

Socalled

“The record’s pretty serious in a strange way. If you listen to the lyrics, they’re talking about emotional life-stuff that isn’t always a big, old, ridiculous joke. On this record I just wanted to make a bunch of super catchy awesome tunes that have nothing to do with each other.”

The tunes, which range from straight-up rap to old world dirges, barely feature Dolgin on vocals.

“Even though I sing a lot and rap a lot, basically every day I’m on stage singing and rapping and shrieking somewhere – I guess when I make records I just make something that I want to listen to,” he says. “I feel like Sergio Mendes. It’s his record but he’s not singing, he might play the piano and do all the arrangements. The producing is really what I like.”

Sleepover includes collaborations with hip-hop queen Roxanne Shanté, calypso king The Mighty Sparrow, trombonist Fred Wesley, Detroit’s DJ Assault and longtime “voice” of the Socalled band, Katie Moore.

“If musicians and artists are open and brave they’ll see the potential in trying something and give it a shot,” Dolgin says. “The sessions are pretty short. Over an extended period of time I’ll collect noises and performances and sounds around the world, wherever people happen to be.

“Some people are real pals and friends and old collaborators. Someone like (producer/pianist) Chilly Gonzales, who’s an old friend, he’s almost like a consultant,” he continues. “I can go and play him stuff and he has ideas about the thinning out of complexity and making things clearer and punchier.”

With a new record and a movie about him, you’d think the world would be buzzing about this genre-bending producer and performer, but some Canadian audiences have yet to catch on to his sound.

“In Europe we have a certain following and we’re at a certain place with France and we play certain clubs there,” he says. “We’re at a certain place in Germany, because we haven’t played there much. It feels really fresh and exciting there.

“Then we come to different parts of Canada that have different vibes. It feels like in Toronto I’m just a total non-entity. I’ve made six or seven records but I’m just completely starting out in Ontario. It’s a strange time.”

Published in Volume 66, Number 6 of The Uniter (October 5, 2011)