Gut Feeling

The latest Gut Feeling Podcast goes down the '90s straight edge hardcore rabbit hole with Dead Quiet vocalist-guitarist Kevin Keegan, who got his start as the 14-year-old drummer for Kelowna, BC's Decoy.

Throughout the talk, Kevin gets into: building up his drum chops to Metallica's Kill 'Em All; getting pulled into his local hardcore scene as a teenage wunderkind; the Refused show Decoy were supposed to play; road trip chaperones; why he ultimately switched over to guitar; voice acting; dog walking; and more!

You can also find out more about the making of Dead Quiet's most recent album, IV, over here through my feature for RANGE magazine.

Hello again! The latest Gut Feeling Podcast is an interview with Justin Gradin, the Vancouver-raised, and soon-to-be-L.A.-based multi-disciplinary artist whom most recently released his debut graphic novel, Mystic Debris (out now via Fantagraphics).

Throughout the talk, Justin gets into: Mystic Debris' somewhat biographical origins; upcoming audio-visual projects with Grammy winner and onetime roommate Tobias Jesso Jr.; the ways our bodies hang onto trauma; transcendental meditation; learning to play drums behind his surf rock-loving dad; early bands w Gossip's Nathan Howdeshell; starting up underground punk venue the Emergency Room; making music videos for White Lung and Louise Burns; how he lost his job at a Toys 'R' Us; and more!

You can also find out more about Mystic Debris, as well as Justin's favourite drummers of all time, over here through my feature for RANGE magazine.

Hello again! The latest Gut Feeling Podcast is an interview with Mark Palm, the Seattle-based vocalist-guitarist for contemporary power pop titans Supercrush, and a Vancouver-grown hardcore kid at heart.

Did you realize that this Saturday (April 15) marks the twentieth anniversary of the first ever live performance from Vancouver's Go It Alone? Mark sure hadn't, so I gave him a call to drum up some old memories about the early days of the band.

Throughout the talk, Mark gets into: earnest, emotional hardcore lyrics; recording a demo as a duo, but building out the line-up a year later as a quintet; the fatal flaw of naming your group Go It Alone; early shows and the first West Coast tour; East Vancouver's Second Ave punk house; questionable guitar tone; the Vancouver Gold EP; and how the band looked by the end of 2003.

Back in the present, Mark also offers up some details on Supercrush's forthcoming covers album, and the new compilation he's putting together around some of his favourite Seattle-area bands.

Hello, hello! The latest Gut Feeling podcast is an interview with Murray A. Lightburn, a longtime member of orchestral pop group the Dears who is also about to release his third solo album, Once Upon a Time in Montreal.

Murray has described his latest full-length as an "audio version of a biopic," inspired by the life of his father William, a jazz saxophonist who passed away in 2020. It’s a contemplative, massively moving collection of jazz, folk, and r&b-styled moments, all of which being anchored by the golden tone of Murray’s tenor-baritone vocal.

Throughout the talk, Murray gets into: early memories of singing in church; moving from teen cover bands to the Dears; learning to sing "from the belly"; when to forgo falsetto; his father's sax style; how vocal range evolves; his recent instrumental score for filmmaker Chandler Levack's I Like Movies; bread-baking; his mother's radio show; and more!

Once Upon a Time in Montreal is out this Friday (03/31) through Dangerbird Records.

Hello again! The latest Gut Feeling podcast is an interview with Ted Leo, the longtime punk-and-pop Pharmacist who is just about to jump into a series of reunions shows with his '90s-era outfit, Chisel.

Ted gets into the general history of Chisel, from forming the mod-and-punk-inspired band with college friends Chris Norborg (bass) and John Dugan (drums), to the time they technically headlined over Radiohead, to song specifics around their epic-in-scope 1997 LP, Set You Free (which is just about to arrive as an expanded, double-LP reissue through Numero Group).

It's a big gear talk, too, with Ted jumping into the "unhip" solid state Fender head he was using in his hardcore days, through to early Chisel; the affordability of his 8 A.M. All Day-era Tele Deluxe, fit with an unflattering Floyd Rose tremolo system; and unlocking the potential of an elegant major-to-minor chord progression.

Chisel are playing shows in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco this February. Hoping there's more to come!

Hello! We've hit the end of 2022, and per tradition I've invited Spectres / Madness Cartel member Adam Mitchell onto the podcast to get into some of his favourite records of the year — this time including music from The Beths, Long Knife, High Vis, and more.

We also touch on Spectres' upcoming album, which is currently being recorded in Vancouver with producer Jesse Gander (Brutus, Neck of the Woods), and Madness Cartel activity following the semi-recent re-release of their 2020 demo.

That's it for now, but I'll catch you in the new year!

The latest Gut Feeling Podcast is an interview with Hot Hot Heat/Fur Trade's Steve Bays!

Steve gets into the early history of Hot Hot Heat, whom just celebrated the 20th anniversary of their pop-tastic Make Up the Breakdown with a a deluxe, remastered re-release through Sub Pop Records. 

He also dives into the jingling holiday spirit of Fur Trade's recent "Christmas in a Cage" single, which marks the first new music from the project in nearly a decade, and teases an upcoming full-length through Light Organ Records.

Steve also gets into: growing up in Victoria, BC; sneaking off to his first punk show at the age of 12; earlier hardcore and emo projects, including (Instill'), Missiles to Heaven, and Fuck You I'm Stealing Home; the self-recorded solo project that bridges the gap between Hot Hot Heat's insular keyboard hardcore and the rafters-reaching pop of Make Up the Breakdown; side shout-outs to Vue, the Walkmen, and high school classmate Nelly Furtado; and the literal buzz surrounding his current Tugboat Pl. Studio in New Westminster, BC.

The latest Gut Feeling Podcast is an interview with Lyndsay Sung, a longtime music-maker currently playing bass in Vancouver punk trio Kcar. Over the past 25 years, she's also played in The Sob Story, Le Petit Mort, Radio Berlin, Pink Mountaintops, Ice Palace, and more. She's also the owner/baker extraordinaire at Coco Cake Land!

Throughout our talk, Lyndsay gets into: becoming a "gorilla on 'roids" while drumming for her first band; queer vampire films; fantasy-based synth-metal; finding goths across America on lengthy Radio Berlin tours; upcoming cookbooks; and more.

The Gut Feeling Podcast is currently streaming through Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Sounder.

The latest Gut Feeling Podcast is an interview with Kyle De Ville, a British Columbia-born, Portland, Oregon-based guitarist with Enact, whom just released their self-titled debut album through War Records.

Throughout the talk, Kyle gets into: plotting hardcore songs in the shower; Enact fighting against political apathy; what happens when the Youth Crew ages into parenthood; growing up a pre-teen suburban death metal head; lessons learned at a Metallica show; and more.

On the throwback side of things, Kyle and I also played in our first bands together in the mid '90s, so we touch on our failed skate-punk band, Rugburn, and our more emo-styled The Self Esteem Project, whose 1997 demo tape I just posted up on Bandcamp .

Enact's debut album is available through your streaming service of choice, and vinyl copies can be found at their Bandcamp site and over at War Records .

The Gut Feeling Podcast is currently streaming through Apple , Spotify, Google Podcasts , and Sounder .

The latest Gut Feeling Podcast is an interview with Stephen McBean, a prolific, Vancouver Island-born, Los Angeles-based musician currently making music with Black Mountain and Pink Mountaintops. Back in the mid '90s, though, Steve was briefly a vocalist/co-guitarist in Ex Dead Teenager, a Vancouver quartet whose 1997 demo, It's OK to Laugh at People Wearing Gas Masks, flirted with full-bore hardcore, sludge nihilism, tattered-psyche post-punk melancholia, and impressionistic, synth-skit weirdness.

Throughout the talk, Steve gets into: hardcore mêlées at East Vancouver's legendary New York Theatre; writing and recording as a roommates-only project in the basement of the Frances Street punk house; the on-tour implosion of his previous project, Gus; dumpster diving for keyboards; reconnecting with members of Converge and Saviours decades after first meeting them on tour with Ex Dead Teenager; and more.

The Gut Feeling Podcast is currently streaming through Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Sounder.

You can also check out my interview with Steve on his latest Pink Mountaintops record, Peacock Pools, over at Guitar World.