Working Artist

Oliver Pauk is a fine arts photographer and mixed media artist whose work has been exhibited in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Oliver and I talk about his inanimate collaborators – the various software he uses and how he finds unexpected results by pushing them past their programming. We talk about following your intuition and trusting your gut, and the various stages of discovery and transformation his work goes through; we talk about finding your tribe; people that you can share with and get feedback from.

Today’s guest, Toronto musician Carmen has been performing and recording for the past 11 years. It hasn’t been easy. Since childhood, Carmen has had to deal with crippling anxiety and phobias. Included among them: Frequent panic attacks that can strike at any time and a terrible fear of travelling. Carmen and I talked about panic attacks on stage, the healing powers of altitude sickness, and how she gets really calm when things go really wrong.

Neil is a Toronto-based music producer, engineer, and soundtrack composer. Above all, Neil is a class-A music obsessive. If we somehow lost all records of music history, he would be an ideal man to hire to help us patch together what happened and how. I caught up with Neil at an interesting time. He had just been laid off from his job at a studio he worked at which helped financed his other projects. He called it a “ jolt to the system” but that was a good thing he said. It was forcing him to open up and look around for what else the world had to offer. He's been willing and wanting to discover what else was out there since he began listening and deconstructing to his brother's 70s hard rock record collection at the age of 5. At the age of 11 he embarked on a lifelong pursuit of new music through the the help of a very unique pen pal relationship. We cover that and more on this episode of Alice: The Creativity Podcast.

One of my favourite indie pop duos in NY, Laura and Greg. I caught up with them on the eve of their new album release “Grey Shark Canyon” and their trip down to SXSW. Laura is also one of the co-owners of the amazing Van Leeuwen ice cream trucks and shops in NY and L.A. Greg also works as a visual artist so we chat about his newest project, how working in other arts and business ventures help both of them in supporting creativity, the importance of saying yes to things when you’re in a band, and navigating gratitude and frustration when you’re pursuing a career in the arts.

Episode 6 of Alice: The Creativity Podcast with guest Jonelle Gunderson (Theatre Actor) & Kevin Black (Musician - Fast Romantics, Basements). We discuss: How to invite an audience into a performance, finding honesty and working with energies in a performance, Shakespeare, interpreting characters and work, the value of being in a relationship with another artist that supports you, listening, learning and working with your body.

Episode 5 of Alice: The Creativity Podcast with guest Feurd, songwriter and multi-instrumentalit of The Elwins. The importance of teachers, the Elwins band book club, the spirit and compromise of fruitful collaboration, good habits to invite the creative spirit in our lives, and moustaches.

Episode 4 of Alice: The Creativity Podcast with actor/producer Glenda MacInnis; music by the Pinecones

Episode 3 of Alice: The Creativity Podcast with guest Julia Hladkowicz, Toronto-based comedian ("Juliacomedy.com", "Viral Kitchen" - Youtube, "Eating With Julia" - blog, "We're Doing It" - podcast)

Interview with Marc Cantone of the City and Horses

Episode 1 of Alice: The Creativity Podcast with guest Jacquie Neville, Toronto-based singer, songwriter and guitarist of the rock band The Balconies