The Todd Donald Show

Brittany Pyatt is a stand-up comedian, that unlike allot of my more recent guests, I actually met in-person, at a local bar/music venue. Given that I don’t know allot of people in the stand-up genre, it was nice to just have a one-on-one chat with someone, who is also a big advocate of local music. It helps that we know allot of the same peeps and local bands. This chat ended up being a deeper and darker conversation than I was expecting, but let me tell you, it wasn’t unwelcome! This ‘humanity’ thing, that’s what i’m ALL about.

STUNNING Rap/R&B/Pop artists Jerelle & Sofia aka BEWARE, I heard about through the grapevine, but was instantly enamoured by what their social media presence informed me of, particularly the music and energy of the artist/performers. I had the chance to meet-up with them for coffee in Burlington just to talk about music and the interview prospect, and couldn’t have had a better time. I was anxious to see them again and talk about pretty much anything, but of course there’s a focus here on their art and what they’re planning on doing with it. Kyle Wappler was a gentleman I first discovered as a fan of Ape Audio, they had the so-called “Scene Daddy” on their show already, and I was hoping to use my show as another olive branch of promotion for the upcoming HopeFest 2019, STILL hoping i’ll get him back on for a bigger feature, but he was nice enough to stop by, promote the event, and demonstrate why he is the Scene Daddy! Enjoy!

Public figure Sarah Lexia, the “Aussie in Sarnia”, what an exploration to go through in that alone.. I fucking love Australian shit, so I’m glad I had the chance to have coffee with this legend in her own time, talking about all things being a ‘public figure’ and try to break down what exactly is involved in that, what is behind that… and of course we had a ball talking nonsense and pop-culture. She’s absolutely fabulous! I decided to change things up a bit; so in addition to songs performed live for the podcast by musical guests - and whether those happen or not, I’m doing to keep a quota of music weaving through the show, sort of as a delightful intermission from interviews. We’ll see how long it goes!

Singer/Songwriter and session keyboardist, Kitchener’s Luke Cyrus Hunter returns to my basement after 11 years since his former band Stereola was on. This time, Luke’s sporting a very active online presence and some amazing records. We recently re-connected on the ol’ net and I was very happy just to catch up with the guy. However, it wouldn’t be a complete podcast chat if we didn’t also explore what Luke has on the go musically, with music videos, performing, teaching and all kinds of other action. In addition, Luke came with his keys and performed three awesome live tunes!

Samantha Mirandola is a University of Waterloo improv actor, a stage actor and now a published author. Sporting her new book ‘dream-catalyst’ (available online at Amazon), which she self-published, she came on the show to talk about authoring, the book itself, performing in theatre and all kinds of nonsense, cause y’all know I love throwing nonsense in there. Nonetheless, for us never meeting in person before this, she was delightful company, and we had a phone chat beforehand just to go over things and I was really happy that she had expressed excitement to be ON the show, and now i’m excited to have you all hear it!!

Katie is an experienced water sport coach, a teacher, and most importantly to me, the most wonderful, gorgeous, loving and supportive partner a guy could ask for! Seen in the photo is also our cat, and the official mascot for this podcast - Ludacris. Recently a graduate of Laurier’s Teachers College, Katie will be leaving town shortly to pursue her first job as a teacher, and going to essentially the North Pole. Literally though, the town is called Gjoa Haven, in Nunavut (the Arctic Circle). Whaaat!?

In this little mini thang, I give you some updates about the show, me, the NAME CHANGE! I let you know what's coming out soon on the podcast, and then there's a special message from a couple of weeks ago where Kelly and Steph respond to what I said at the end of the last one. There's allot of information crammed into a few minutes here, and when I say information, it's a mix of information and extra un-necessary wording. ENJOY! -Todd

This Is Pristine (Waterloo Region) is a killer band/duo made up of vocalist Kelly Abbass and guitarist Steph Dilts. They’ve been around as far back as I’ve been on the air, it’s just unfair that I aged and they didn’t, not even a day. They’ve played quite a few gigs, recorded a few tracks, but are on the show to chat about all things music, reminisce and ask for support with their kickstarter, because they more than deserve to be heard on a recording of their original music. There’s some live performances on here to sweeten the deal!

Kelly Abbass (Model, Actor, Musician) is almost the first person I ever interviewed, and one of my first podcast guests ever even! We met on MySpace if you’d believe that was the Instagram of it’s day, then in person at CJIQ in Kitchener on Night Sessions with Renegade X. Kelly was/is a model, actor and musician, and has always been a big supporter of my music, shows, anything I do. It’s rooted in friendship and I can’t thank her enough! With her band’s upcoming new appearance on ths show, I wanted to share this, extracted from her appearance on my old video podcast from 2008. Enjoy!

William Chernoff (Victoria, British Columbia) is an outstanding musician/ composer, both a member and leader of several musical projects, the most current of which includes his own compositions, and in the band Early Spirit. William was not only sport enough to let me use a live performance of his song “Makie Elkino” as the theme music to this podcast!, but he took an interest in listening to it, and genuinely! It was my pleasure to chat with him in B.C. via Skype, about all things William Chernoff, his journeys as a musician, discovering music, recording, developing his skills on bass, and more. Enjoy!