The Meet The Artist series highlights talented performing arts professionals from diverse backgrounds. We encourage you to read these interviews with an open mind, and to remember that starting a relationship with an artist can be something smaller than a mainstage show such as inviting them to lead a workshop, sit on a panel, or collaborate with another artist.
This month Ksenija Spasic interviewed Bangerz Brass’ Max Forster.
Tell us about Bangerz Brass’ creation and how the band went from busking in Kensington Market to selling out venues?
Bangerz Brass was started in 2016 by drummer and music director Alex Martenstyn and saxophonist Chris Weatherstone. Alex had been working for a few years to cultivate a community of rappers who could work with musicians and build a live, grassroots hip hop scene in Toronto.
At the same time, a lot of mainstay venues were closing down, and those that were still operating were charging extra security fees for any events focusing on Black culture, because of racist stereotypes and a lack of trust in the community. So, Alex and Chris took it to the streets to create a band that could play outside acoustically and bring the music directly to the people.
They started off busking in Kensington Market, playing at rallies and community events to cause a ruckus and break down barriers within Toronto’s music culture. Imagine walking down the street in your favourite neighbourhood and coming across a drummer, 5-10 horns and 4 rappers freestyling over your favourite song. The interaction was next level and the energy was electric!
All this buzz led to two high-profile venue performances, opening for Miles Mosley (LA) and Sidewalk Chalk (Chicago).
The band would learn a whole bunch of hip hop and trap instrumentals, and collectively act as the DJ, improvising the show on the fly and flowing between songs, while the MCs freestyled directly in the audience. No two shows were ever the same. It also created a diverse and equitable culture within the band. We had people from many different musical and cultural backgrounds coming together to build something special.
Alex especially made a real effort to connect with and make space for Black artists and musicians - who were heavily underrepresented in Toronto’s brass band community and music schools.
How does the music happen? What is it like to drop in on one of your practice sessions?
Like I said, improvising has always been at the core of the band. At first, we played exclusively cover cyphers - hip hop & trap songs, classic or modern, some well-known and some more obscure. But instead of copying the verses from the original records, each MC would freestyle, improvising on the fly and trading off with each other for an incredibly high-energy and interactive show.
Over time, the band created a musical language of hand signals and audible calls to interact with the MCs, so that we could improvise as a collective and arrange on the fly.
In our original music, collective improvisation is again at the forefront. Our first album was written by 10-15 musicians in a basement near Spadina and Dundas where we used to rehearse. Individual band members would bring in ideas and together we would work them up into full songs with written verses.
For our 2022 album Coronation, the pandemic prevented us from getting together in the same way. We recorded two or three horns at a time, improvising together and coming up with ideas. Then we gave those recordings to The CHMST, a great Toronto producer, beatmaker and trumpet player, who chopped and sampled them and created the beats. From there, the MCs were free to write whatever they wanted over top.
Lately, we’ve been collaborating with artists to learn and perform their original music. Many of those artists are used to working with beats, and have never had live musicians play their music. It’s amazing to see them light up, feeling the energy that the brass brings to their music and often taking it to a different emotional space.
So, if you’re reading this and you want to work together - let’s talk.
Bangerz Brass is a large group. Could you talk about your collaborative process? Do you always perform as a full band? Feel free to give some shoutouts and tell us what you love about your band members.
We always perform as a full band. The definition of “full” has changed a lot over the years, and we’ve performed with as many as 20 people onstage. These days, the band usually has 2 MCs, 7 horns and 1 drummer, but the open call spirit is still there and the band does fluctuate in size. There are a few members who have been around since the very beginning - Emily Ferrell (trombone), Ian Tulloch (sousaphone) and Matt Somber (MC).
Matt to me is the heart of the band - on top of being the main host and connecting point between the band and the audience, he is a very emotionally mature and open-hearted person. He can talk to anyone about anything, and has put in a lot of time and emotional work to bring the band through various difficult conversations around race and cultural differences.
I also need to mention Ayrah Taerb. He doesn’t perform with us much these days, but he was an original member of the band, and is hands-down the best rapper I have ever worked with. His dedication and skill set the tone and expectations that we still operate on today, and we would not be where we are without his creative vision, determination, and willingness to share himself with the band and the audience.
Ontario Presents aims to connect artists with venues all over Ontario. Where in the province (country, world) has the band performed?
Toronto is our home, but we’ve performed at festivals and venues in Montreal, Kingston, Prince Edward County, Guelph, & Elora. We would love to travel throughout Ontario and build a sustainable touring circuit.
As a large band, it can be challenging to fund travel ourselves, but we have been supported by amazing presenters who believe in what we do and see what we can bring to their communities.
I believe that we have the potential to make a lot of change in Canada. We are a large and visibly diverse family. We are Black, White, Asian, Indian, Jewish. We are men and we are women. We are straight and we are queer. We have musical backgrounds in hip hop, jazz, classical, brass band, and many different world music styles. We bring something that is uniquely Canadian, and that goes beyond the music.
What we are may not be that unusual in Toronto, but I’ve travelled and toured through our great province a lot, and I know that it is unusual in a lot of other communities. I think we have the opportunity to show people what’s possible if we cooperate, listen to each other, and create something together.
You are releasing a mixtape! Please tell us everything you can about it.
Yes we are! This mixtape is the first of a series of DIY collaborations with different Toronto MCs we love. As our focus has shifted from writing our own originals to showcasing artists, I’ve been arranging their music for the group to learn and play, and I’ve been developing my skills as a recording engineer and producer. The mixtape releases into the world Bangerz Brass versions of these songs.
This collection features the music of Swankie the Villain, a Missassauga-based rapper with crispy, modern delivery and an old-school boom bap attitude. We recorded it at Albany Studios in Toronto, with gear provided by myself and our saxophonist Conrad Gluch. I produced the session and mixed the songs. Long-term, the goal is to develop a repeatable and consistent process that pushes the band forward and lets the individual artists reach new audiences.
Our first mixtape will be dropping at the end of this summer, so keep an eye out for it!”
What are your summer plans? What are your big dreams for the coming year(s)?
This summer, many of our members have extensive touring plans with different bands, so we don’t have a lot of shows on the books, but are open to more opportunities!
This fall, we are looking to travel and perform a lot more. 2026 is the big push year for us - we’d like to travel throughout Ontario and build our following outside of Toronto. To that end, we will put a lot of energy into applying for the summer 2026 festival circuit, and are looking to use festival anchor dates to tour much more in 2026. So if you’d like to work with us, please reach out, and let’s make something happen together!