"Short Bloom." Sachin Mohindra, Toronto, ON, Canada, 29 October 2016.

"Music when I cook is like homework. I’ll usually put on something that I can’t get my head around, sometimes for weeks, until the music clicks. It’s really helped me get better at listening. I can’t say the same for improvements in my cooking, though. "

Sachin (aka Short Bloom) and I met in 2003 at the University of British Columbia, where we both pursued our undergraduate studies in the classroom by day (and our musical education in the clubs of Vancouver by night). One of my favourite memories of Sachin was the time he entered UBC's first annual "That DJ Competition" at the Pit Pub in the old Student Union Building. He killed it on the decks and brought the house down. We all danced up a storm.

A simultaneous archivist and deep-sea diving detective when it comes to musical knowledge, Sachin is one of those people who not only has a rich historical knowledge but always seems to seek out and share the new. Over the years, he's opened my ears to incredible new sounds. On a whim one night in Montréal several years ago, I joined him to catch Colin Stetson perform at La Sala Rossa and witnessed circular breathing on a saxophone for the first time. My mind was blown.

Thoughtful, often quiet, Sachin is the kind of person you listen to when he has something to say. It was a treat to get a peek inside this musical brain and learn more about what inspires the work he does.

What's your passion/hustle/profession?

Well, I’ve been working at coffee shops for the past four years to make ends meet. After my shifts, I usually go straight home to make music or to listen to records. Right now I’m in the middle of recording an album. And up until they closed down in August, I had a monthly two-hour radio show on TRP called Mental Health.

What kind of music helps you focus at work?

Anything goes at the coffee shop. Latin American-type stuff and old dub music are all staples. It definitely suits the atmosphere of the shop. I always find an excuse to stream mixes of YMO or Hosono records. Spiritual jazz gets played a lot in the mornings. Black Messiah got rinsed at the last place I worked at. Everyone is into pretty different music so I’m happy if someone else picks the music all day. It’s a great way to hear tracks and albums that I’d probably never discover on my own.

When you’re winding down?

Experimental electronic stuff or 70s/80s private press new age stuff. Laurie Spiegel’s The Expanding Universe gets put on a lot. The new age thing is actually really fascinating too. It’s not all crystals and incense (although sometimes it definitely is). Light In The Attic released an amazing retrospective of that stuff a few years ago called I Am The Center. It’s a great history lesson. Sometimes I'll space out to {{Hatnote}], which is a real-time musical representation of information changes in Wikipedia. That probably sounds like the nerdiest thing ever but it's actually very chill! I highly recommend it. If I’m really beat, something like Joni Mitchell, Arthur Russell, Nils Frahm. Or old Bollywood and classical Indian tapes that my parents used to play in the house when I was kid. That music relaxes me like nothing else.

Cooking?

Music when I cook is like homework. I’ll usually put on something that I can’t get my head around, sometimes for weeks, until the music clicks. It’s really helped me get better at listening. I can’t say the same for improvements in my cooking, though.

Kickin’ it with friends?

I live in a very tiny studio apartment, so I’m usually at someone else’s place if I’m hanging out. Whatever they put on is fine by me. I hear a lot of Frank Ocean these days. If I get asked, I usually try and pick something I’ve recently discovered that I think they might like too.

What’s your most memorable musical moment? This could be a live show or festival that really stuck with you, meeting a music icon, etc.

Somehow I spent a day with Four Tet and some friends a few months ago in Hamilton. After some breakfast we watched this guy David Hickey perform with all these ringing crystal bowls. It’s called the Crystal Journey. It was seriously amazing. He had a wall of gongs to represent all the planets in the solar system too. The guy is the real deal. He really just wants people to feel better, more at peace. I think it was hit for everyone. After that, we went for a hike and then drank some tea. It was my brief glimpse into the truly wild life of a celebrity. But it was really great getting to chat with Four Tet. He is very down-to-earth, which is nice to know. His music is easily one of the biggest influences in my life.

Favourite love song?

Heaven Must’ve Sent You by The Elgins. Or Baby by Gal Costa. That’s a beautiful song too.

Slow jam?

I don’t know where to even begin with this so I’ll just say Insatiable by Prince.

Between the sheets track?

Haha oh my. "No Ordinary Love" by Sade. You could use the video as inspiration. Anything off of Massive Attack's Mezzanine. Or some My Bloody Valentine for something a little cozier.

You need to hype up the crowd at a house party real quick. What do you put on next?

Oh boy. I think I’m terrible at this. The last time I tried my luck at that the cops shut down the entire party like two minutes into the song. I think you were there! It was ages ago in Vancouver.

If it was a dark basement then maybe that MCDE Bassline Dub of Grand Central Part 1 by DJ Sprinkles. I'll never get sick of that bass. If it was a daytime thing, probably What You Won’t Do For Love by Michael Boothman or Carl Craig’s edit of "Once In A Lifetime." Or I might play Keep The Fire Burning by Gwen McCrae.

If you were stranded on a desert island with only one album, which would it be?

Radiohead. In Rainbows.

Best format? Cassette tape, CD, iPod, Vinyl, etc.

I love and use them all. Records are gigantic/very tangible and help me actually focus on a piece of music. Sifting through a collection of 500GB of mp3s is not easy for my dumb brain. An added bonus of vinyl is that you can meet a lot of extremely weird and/or cool people when visiting shops and digging for records. Cassettes and used CDs are hella cheap now, which is nice. You could spend like $150 and amass the best rap collection ever on CD. I still love buying independent music that comes out on tapes –- there’s so much quality stuff. But I don’t blame anyone if they don’t feel like dealing with rewinding and crap like that all over again.

What’s the most prized album/mixtape/musical memento you own? Your home is on fire and this is the only thing you can grab before it all burns down. (Sorry, that one’s grim.)

So dark! I have a record by a Japanese singer named Taeko Ohnuki that is hard to find for cheap now. Everyone playing on the record is a genius. It’s the one time I’ve really splurged on a music item. That whole period/scene of Panam Records from Japan is some of my favourite music ever. So that would be the one. Hopefully I could make it out with my wallet too. Everything in there is such a pain in the ass to replace.

Dinner with any artist, dead or alive. They're paying. Whom do you choose?

Hmmm…Nina Simone? Björk? Or Sun Ra! None of these people would actually want to have dinner with me. Especially Sun Ra.

I'm not so sure about that, you'd be pretty swell dinner company.

What's your go-to karaoke track?

It’s definitely Rebel Yell. I’d like to think otherwise, but the stats don’t lie.

Merçi, Sachin!

"Playlist Title" Track Listing

Four Tet. "Morningside."
Radiohead. "House Of Cards." In Rainbows, , .
Quantic Presenta Flowering Inferno. "Cumbia Sobre El Mar." Dog With A Rope, Tru Thoughts, 2010.
Heaven Must’ve Sent You by The Elgins.
Michael Boothman. "What You Won’t Do For Love." Touch
Girl Talk. "Summer Smoke." Feed The Ripper, , .
The xx. "VCR (Four Tet Remix)." VCR (Four Tet Remix), , .
Badbadnotgood. "Confessions Pt. 11 (feat. Colin Stetson). " , , .
James Blake, Bon Iver. "I Need A Forest Fire."
Bonobo. "Stay The Same."
Björk. "Isobel (Family Tree Version)." Post, , .
Massive Attack. "Teardrop." Mezzanine, , // "Exchange." Mezzanine, , .
Four Tet. "Eveningside."

For more Sachin, check out his music on Soundcloud, follow him on Instagram and Twitter, and give a listen to this episode of his radio show Mental Health, on TRP.