Please Explain Toronto To Me

Hi everybody.  This podcast is coming back. In fact, I'm sitting on a backlog of unproduced episodes! Enjoy a preview of the first new episode, recorded last holiday season with visual artist David Stonhouse. It features a spirited rendition of a seasonal favourite. And get ready for more of This Night Will Change Your Life coming very soon in your podcast feed!  Happy holidays!

Taylor Jade is a singer and songwriter based in Saskatoon. She’s been in a whole bunch of musical projects, including the maybe late, definitely great Little Criminals -  and she’s a mainstay of the city’s music scene. Her debut album, Dreamy Is The Night, was self-released last Fall and we had a nice and tangent-filled chat about it.  Find the album here: https://taylorjade.bandcamp.com/

Welcome back for Season 3! We're kicking it off with something a little different this time around.  Last July, for the second year in a row, I headed down to the Big Muddy, an area of Southern Saskatchewan known for ranch land and not much else, to the town of Bengough and the site of the Gateway Festival.  It’s a very small town of just a few hundred people, just a little north of the Montana border, and the border of Treaty 4 Territory. They have a motel, a credit union, a high school, a Co-op, your usual assortment of shops, and even a municipal pool. It’s kind of an oasis in an ocean of horses and hay bales. It’s also the home to this festival – which attracts music fans from all over the province and musical acts from all across the country. This anachronistic gem of a summer attraction shouldn’t work – but it does. I had the good fortune to be able to chat with some of the folks who help make it happen, and some of the artists on the bill. This episode features interviews with members of Library Voices, CJTR host Redbeard, The Garrys, Kay The Aquanaut & Factor Chandelier, The Steves, and Mike Dawson. Thanks to them and all the artists whose music is included – bootlegged or not – including the aforementioned list along with Northcote, Close Talker, The Sadies, Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, and Tom Cochrane.

Denise Valle is a prodigiously talented R&B singer/songwriter based in Saskatoon. For this show's final episode at the Saskatoon Public Library (for now?), we delved into the multi-purpose and echoey space in the Frances Morrison basement - presumably closer to wherever the forbidden books are stored. We chat about singing with your back turned, Valle's Rosthern-based upbringing (home of the Wheatkings) and California-based education, the influence of El Salvadorean rancheras music and American pop around the house, the doors that opened from winning a local singing competition (The Duo) along with Brock Fehr, experiences performing in Mo' Love ("what about the elephants?"), cross-border observations, Valle's parents' journey from El Salvador to Los Angeles, the importance of and liberation in talking about experiences with racism and discrimination out loud, "vulnerability hangovers", building up songs from "skeletons", the artistic relationship with validation, the magic of Daniel Caeser, the wonder of Stevie Wonder, and other topics and tangents.  

Denise Valle on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/denise-valle/tracks

Close Talker are a trio (made up of Will Quiring, Matthew Kopperud, and Christopher Morien) from Saskatoon who trade in tightly arranged indie pop full of start-stop tension and well crafted sounds. After releasing an album and an EP in 2013, they worked with Jace Lasek on their second album Flux and then decamped to Regina in Winter to work with Royal Canoe's Matt Peters on their third full-length release Lens, which came out this past April. 

We gathered in the gallery at the Saskatoon Public Library to talk about middle names, elementary school altercations, hockey card manipulation, their origins in Oh Victoria and as a wedding band, their contentious cover of "Fox on the Run", the evolution of songs from demo to done, the impact of doing music full-time on day-to-day life and relationships, coming up with ideas through jamming, the thin line between prog rock and R&B (it seems), recording in January - in Regina - and the effect of the season on their sound, the rigors of touring, Cracked Pepper Spitz as fuel, @wokeuplikechris, the "meal in Zwolle" and other notable tour meals, grooming and the taboo of a moustache, the process of writing new songs, Matt's weird memory (there are Fargo quotes), and more.  Song -  "Hold Up, Rewind"

Close Talker on Bandcamp: https://closetalkerband.bandcamp.com

Their website: http://closetalker.ca/

The Williamson Bros. are Dusty Adam and Dylan Jay, two stand-up comics who are brothers and who are also twins. We talk about mistaken identity, parenting and Dad jokes, birth order and being surprise twins, panel discussions and sports interviews, the show Ballers and The Rock's CFL past, the impetus behind their two (and potentially growing) sets of regular live shows - The Comedy Lab and Weird Al Karaoke, the context of working within Saskatoon's comedy scene, Night Club Confidential, Dylan's years in Vancouver, the possibility of getting in a fistfight, something terrible I did in Grade 7, good shows versus bad shows, I digress about Ballers again, we talk about doing open mic sketch comedy (as opposed to stand-up or improv), the crutch of the dirty joke, their Dad's compulsive art purchasing habit, growing up on a farm with the oldest, saddest horse, the coming apocalypse, dirty, Disney, dirty Disney, Twin Or Lose, and more!

Lindsay Knight aka Eekwol, originally from Muskoday First Nation, is a renowned and award-winning hip-hop artist. We talk about the early influence of Rap City on Much Music, Columbia House picks (including Souls of Mischief), Fresh Fest and archiving the scene, being a woman in hip-hop, her crew Innersoulflow and their eventual breakup, using music to channel energy and as an opportunity to be introspective, "going solo", the legacy of "Too Sick" and other socially conscious songs in her catalog, the importance of writing your own experience, The Unsilent Project, dealing with harmful behaviour at shows and online, becoming friends with T-Rhyme*, and a whole lot more.   Song: "Pitiful" (beat by 2oolman) from the album Good Kill

Eekwol on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/eekwol Eekwol on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Eekwol Note: there were some problems with the qulaity of the mics we used to record this episode. Please forgive me, and power through. It's a fun one. 

Kirby Criddle is a singer, songwriter, holistic health care practitioner and co-founder of Freedom Fooders Saskatoon, a group who craft boxes for taking and leaving food and place them throughout the city. We have a conversation about touring, the comfort of home, the process of capturing the music inside of her head, the punk rock Pita Pit, the legacy of Sawyer Brown, her extensive education in holistic health care, the healing power of Reader's Digest, the duty of writing, working with Andy Shauf, the privilege of visibility, the impetus behind Freedom Fooders, and a whole lot more. She wasn't able to sing karaoke on the day, but there's a new track by Kirby Criddle and Factor Chandelier at the end of our chat. Put it in your ears.  I really enjoyed having this conversation and I hope you enjoy listening to it.  Follow Kirby on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kirbycriddle

NOTE: This is the last episode of the show to be recorded at Amigos. All things come to an end. The podcast isn't done yet, but it's changing. Stay tuned for the next chapter. 

The Karpinka Brothers are two brothers with the surname Karpinka (and the given names Shawn and Aaron) who have a well-earned reputation as the nicest guys around, the self-proclaimed "Jedi Council of Ukrainian Funk". They have released 3 albums of close-harmony-laden pop/folk and are getting set to release their newly recorded 4th album later on this year.  TNWCYL catches up with the brothers Karpinka on the eve of their trip to Memphis for the esteemed Folk Alliance. We chat about early musical influences, Shawn's notoriously bad temper, youthful misadventures, early gigs in long-dead venues, the difference between playing music and playing music with your family, their decision to record with Howard Bilerman at the mighty Hotel2Tango studio in Montreal, their tandem songwriting processes, facial skincare and beard maintenance, there's an extended metaphor about cooking noodles in a pot, notable concert-going experiences, and other sundries.  And then, we play the Newlywed game (except with brothers) and I mess it up spectacularly. 

Gan is a prodigiously talented violinist who performs under the moniker respectfulchild. They have also collaborated or played with a who's who of other musicians, including Adolyne, Paper Beat Scissors, Murray Lightburn (The Dears), The Faps, and others. We chat about their particular adventures with gear, early music lessons, the Royal Conservatory (wherein I probably misquote a story about other people), prioritizing performance over recording and the power in making shows unique from each other, the origins of the name respectfulchild, and the limits of genre; we also touch on Gan's work on the Laundry List on CFCR and their social media coping mechanisms, and then they sing a song by Teresa Teng.  Look for Gan's forthcoming respectfulchild album, as well as an unreleased track included on the second Pentagon Black paper compilation.  https://respectfulchild.bandcamp.com/ https://respectfulchild.com/ https://www.facebook.com/LaundryListRadio/