Jason “The Human Kebab” Parsons is DJ and Hype Man for Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker. On stage – when he’s not attached to his turntables – he’s a perpetual motion machine. On the mic he’s constantly urging the crowd to get into it – to really participate. His energy is infectious, which is definitely one of the aspects of the band that resonates with their legion of fans.

USS has been described as “a science experiment put to music” and they are, in a word, experimental. They mix elements of rock, hip hop, grunge, electronica, drum and bass, and more, creating a sound that is altogether their own. They are modern music in a blender.

#TrentVoices caught up with The Human Kebab via Skype for a conversation that ranged from the serious to the silly: from the origins of his unique stage name to jamming with Maestro Fresh Wes to touring the world making music to the impact of his Trent experience. But what we kept returning to was the importance of community – in this case, both the USS and the Trent University ones.

For a full archive of our podcast interviews, please visit our #TrentVoices podcast page.

With two well-received collections of poems and a fearless collection of essays, Canadian investigative journalist, essayist and poet, Michael Lista, was welcomed to Trent University as the 2017 Margaret Laurence fellow.

His talk Outside the Whale: Literature and the Left in the Age of Trump focused primarily on the role the literary left will play in a new political climate of right-winged politics and nationalism.

Mr. Lista has worked as a book columnist for The National Post, and as the poetry editor of The Walrus. He is the author of three books: the poetry volumes Bloom and The Scarborough, and Strike Anywhere, a collection of his writing about literature, television and culture. His essays and investigative stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, Toronto Life, The Walrus, Canadaland, and elsewhere.

From the School of the Study of Canada:

He’s been a book columnist and noted poet and during his visit at Trent University, Michael Lista was ready to defend his craft – and the literary left – particularly at a time when the political elite seems on the verge of stepping into the ring at the slightest comment.

On February 9, 2017, speaking to a crowd at Traill College’s Bagnani Hall, he shared his own experiences in writing both ahead of, and following the U.S. election.

Throughout his address, Mr. Lista painted a picture of struggles facing literary writers who have, by and large, been described as left leaning. Now, he suggests, they are under fire much in the way they held the right to the fire for so long. He says, “It has resulted in a new, drawn-out battle, pitting literary writers against one another. It’s taken the focus, to some extent, off those who would normally be the target of the writers.”

This year, Mr. Lista has been named writer-in-residence, filling a fellowship established in 1988 as a tribute to and in memory of Margaret Laurence, Trent University’s fourth chancellor. It is co-administered by Department of English Literature and Canadian Studies Program and brings promising writers who are in the early stages of their careers to Trent University.

Mr. Lista has worked as a book columnist for the National Post, and as the poetry editor of The Walrus. He is also the author of three books and his essays and investigative stories have appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, Toronto Life, Canadaland, and numerous other publications.

Kate Taylor, an English major at Trent, says she was compelled to take in the address after Mr. Lista spoke to her advanced creative writing class earlier in the day. “It’s very interesting to hear a writer read their own work and describe the process and annotations they give to their own work that you don’t get when you read it on a website,” she says.  

From the first Canadian VJ (and Trent alumnus) Christopher Ward, Is This Live? captures the pure fun and rock ’n’ roll rebellion of the early years of MuchMusic television.
 
Christopher Ward joins us by Skype to talk about his latest book. We talked to Ward last year in a wide ranging interview about his career as an award-winning songwriter, music journalist, and author. You can find that podcast here. But when we heard that he was working on a book about the early days of MuchMusic, we made him promise that he'd come back to talk to us about it.  He graciously agreed.

From Penguin Random House:

On August 31, 1984, the Nation’s Music Station launched, breaking ground as the Wild (Canadian) West of television—live, gloriously unpredictable, seat-of-the-pants TV, delivered fresh daily.

The dream child of TV visionary Moses Znaimer, and John Martin, the maverick creator of The New Music, Much was live and largely improvised, and an entire generation of Canadians grew up watching the VJs and embraced the new music that became the video soundtrack of our lives.

The careers of Canadian legends like Blue Rodeo, Corey Hart, Jane Siberry, Bryan Adams, Platinum Blonde, Glass Tiger, Colin James, the Parachute Club, Honeymoon Suite, Barenaked Ladies, Maestro Fresh Wes and Sloan were launched when Much brought them closer to their fans. Much also gave us international acts (Duran, Duran, Tina Turner, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Madonna, Motorhead, Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers), and covered the second wave of music activism with events like Live Aid and the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! tour. Ranging from Toronto’s iconic studio at 299 Queen Street West, to Vancouver’s MuchWest, MuchMusic’s programming travelled across Canada and connected the Canadian music scenes in an unprecedented way.

With stories of the bands, the music, the videos, the specialty shows, the style and the improvisational approach to daily broadcast life at Much, Is This Live? is told by the people who were there—the colourful cast of on-air VJs, the artists who found their way into our living rooms of the nation as never before, and the people behind the cameras.

As our tour guide to the first decade at MuchMusic Christopher Ward delivers a full-on dose of pop culture nostalgia from the 1980s and ’90s, when the music scene in Canada changed forever.