Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Acid Test: Toronto Mike'd #328

Episode Date: April 20, 2018

Mike chats with Acid Test vocalist Lucy Di Santo and guitarist Steve Fall about their sonic rise in 1992, lengthy hiatus and triumphant return to take care of unfinished business.

Fresh West. He signed that for me. I see. That's pretty awesome. He's been here. I love that guy. I think he's classic. One of the best hip hop.

All right. Hey, good time. You didn't know I had my own theme song, did you? No. Welcome to episode 328 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. Did you know that 99.9% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario? GLB, brewed for you, Ontario. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca.

And our newest sponsor, Camp Tournesol, the leading French summer camp provider in Ontario. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me is vocalist Lucy DeSanto and guitarist Steve Fall from Acid Test. We're back. Welcome here. Welcome back to the show. And you guys came straight from the airport, right? Yes, we did. Billy Bishop. And right, and that's, where'd you come from? I came in from Halifax. I saw when you phoned me, I saw I had a Nova Scotia number calling me. I got all, who's calling me from Nova Scotia?

And you were calling me from outside my house. Yeah, even better. In the six. Now, you guys know it's 420 today. Yeah, I heard about that. So look into my eyes. I need you guys know it's 420 today. Yeah, I heard about that. So look into my eyes. I need to see. It's just jet lag.

We're going to look into your eyes. I promise. So you haven't been partaking? No, no, no, no. Is that something you do? No. The two of us, we're uber clean. Lucy and I are straight edge.

We will just put that out there. You just drink. Okay, but are you so straight edge. We will just put that out there. Are you so straight edge that you don't even drink alcohol? I'm pretty much that straight edge, yes, for me. Would you be offended if I were to give you a six-pack of beer right now?

No, not at all. We always use it for something. And you can always pass it on to a neighbor. Absolutely. Yeah, I drink beverage. I do still drink beer and wine, but that's about the limit for me. But you don't partake in the Mary Jane. No, and I have no problem with people who do. It's just not my thing. Well, I'm in the exact same way.

You know, fill your boots, you know, to each his own. I think it should be legal. Absolutely. I personally choose not to inhale anything. There's nothing I want to smoke. That's my thing too. Lungs are for inhaling and exhaling air. That's right.

And I see, Steve, you're wearing a Hockey Night in Canada shirt, like a vintage one, which is very cool. I am a huge hockey nut. I've been playing hockey my whole life. I've been retired from hockey for about three years. Took a concussion in St. Margaret's Bay. But I think now that I'm in the six,

I think I'm going to maybe come back. I know my buddy Vic from Iguana Studios will be all over that. You're going to make a comeback. So we're going to talk today. So this podcast is about like a great comeback by a cool Toronto band, if you will. But you would make a hockey beer league comeback as well. Absolutely.

Well, I've been all over Dave Bedini, you know, a little bit on Facebook. I'm like, you know, Nota Shaped Ringer is coming back. You know, what do you think? That's great. So. So, yeah, Dave Bedini, you know, he started a newspaper, like an actual paper paper in the west end of the city. I did not know that.

Tangible paper. Like a real paper. Yeah. I just want to say he types it on his typewriter, but I don't think he does that. I can see him doing that. So, Lucy, you live out in Nova Scotia too? No, I don't.

I came in all the way from North York, actually. Oh, I'm disappointed. Okay. I'm a Toronto girl. So, did you pick up Steve at the... I did, yeah. ...Billy Bishop. Him and his four guitars, yes.

And amplifier. And, okay, so we're going to, like, do a cool deep dive in a minute, but just to set the table, okay, so when you guys, in the early 90s, when we were hearing Acid Test at your peak, if you will, you guys were Toronto people. Yes, we were. The whole band was based out of here. That's correct, yeah.

And then, and we'll get to this too, but when the Acid Test breaks up, what, Steve just heads east or like? Pretty much. It took a while for him those are his roots so i understand that it's beautiful out there uh having been there a few times it's stunning um we also had another member adam go all the way to the other coast of and that is he's on vancouver island oh well then he's celebrating 420 for sure most likely yeah that's it's a pretty big deal in

toronto if you're at City Hall right now, so I hear. Let me see the clock. Oh, in a couple hours. We're recording right now. It's 226, but you're right. At 420, there will be a very large puff of smoke. I'm expecting to hear horns like that we've won the

World Series. Oh, man. I think we could get second-hand high. That's how it's going how i think i'm expecting that yeah this year but we were uh yeah we were all toronto people and then we kind of like scattered about uh this great nation and um somehow um a couple years ago there were some tracks being uh from the east coast from steve to adam being kind of transferred hey listen to this track on my guitar hey listen this i got this keyboard line and i heard about it and i'm like wait what about me hello and uh so i got in on it and we did it through dropbox

we basically wrote a record through dropbox this is the modern way like this is it must be completely different than how you'd put together an album in the early 90s. It's incredible, actually. It's almost like it was intimidating at first, like how is this possible? But it's possible. We got together then as a unit in Toronto at Iguana Studios. So where is Iguana Studios? In North York, in the hood. That's where all the action is in North York.

And that's actually a story within a story where Vic has a studio. He's been there through the whole lift. I mean, he's been there for 20 years or plus. And his studio is literally right next door where we first recorded our first demo as a band. We had Chesswood Studio with our buddy Dominic Macri. We recorded Mr. Skin there. Yeah. Mr. Skin, which I'm happy to say we're going to play it later in the show. It holds up.

I'm going to tell you right now. It's full of like I call it the time machine element where like it took me right back like and it's still killer track. You know, yeah, it's funny. Like I remember when we were first working with Dom on it. I mean, Dom was pretty much instrumental with that

track with Lucy. You know, you're always kind of skeptical when you're in the moment. How is it going to be? I did have some of those, oh, what's it going to be like in 10 years and 20 years? And now that we're here, I'm kind of chill with the idea of like, okay,

that was part of my chapter. It's cool. For some people listening who are about my age and they're like, I don't know if I remember Acid Test. Like this is, you know, when they hear Mr. Skin, that's what's going to bring them right. Oh, right. That was Acid Test. Well, yeah, that's kind of cool.

You know, it's like it's like nice that we get to write a little bit of a chapter of the part of the Toronto music community. And it's all good. You know, but we hope to write some new memories, hopefully going forward. And that's what's so great about making music. So, yeah. Well, now I'm psyched. Like now I just want to dive in. So let's do this.

Let me first say, so when I got the phone call from you, Steve, that you were outside my door, it sounds like a horror movie. The call came from inside the house. Nova Scotia number. Hello, Mike speaking. I'm outside your door.

Did you have to be so creepy? And I saw Lucy was taking down that banana and I was thinking she didn't have breakfast I did have breakfast every morning I have a banana it's my morning thing I'm big on bananas man

I'm a total banana guy I have to close my Gmail because I'm going to hear that ding all day somebody's going to be here so okay so you were outside my door and then I hear that ding all day. Somebody's going to be here. Let me close that out. So, okay. So, yeah. So, where was I saying that? So, you were outside my door and then I had just come back from a bike ride because you came straight from the airport. You're

a tiny bit early, but that's excellent. But I realized I need to change my shirts. I ran upstairs and changed my shirt before you got to the door because I realized if I'm not wearing a, like, Lost Indie City t-shirt for the photo. And you are. You better be wearing that one. You don't want to piss off the OPP, the Ontario Convention of Police.

No, you do not. You do not want to do that. Let me tell the people what I'm talking about, which is that you guys are friends with the great CFNY DJ, Pete Fowler. Yes, we are. He was a factor in part of the lift with

us deciding to come back. I mean, we reached out to some old friends and that, you know, I have a lot of them, thank God, on social media. And I said, what do you think? He's like, are you kidding? That's like Christmas. Let's do it. So I'm like, okay.

Just wanted to see what it's like in 2000, you know, I think it was at the time 16 or something when we were getting ready to actually press record. And yeah, he's been with us from the needle drop, which is the way it should be. Well, I'm surprised you didn't get a police escort here from the airport. I know, I know. Shut down the gardener. But we will have one on the 28th when he's coming in. It's only fitting he managed to get the night off to come in and spin with us.

And we're so stoked that he's going to be a part of that. No, that's awesome. So, hello to Pete, and thanks for helping make this happen, Pete. And yes, I'm wearing your t-shirt in the photo. And send me more t-shirts. Half of my wardrobe comes from Pete Fowler. It's very important. Well, we have Acetest swag as well. It's coming. I won't take... Are you kidding

me? I love t-shirts. Like, that's my thing. Oh, yeah, I hear you. I still have old tour shirts. I, when I was moving and collecting, I was like, my God, look at this. I have some stuff from way back that I just kind of collected and didn't

bother wearing. And I'm still here. Awesome. Awesome. Here, let me do a few sponsor mentions before we do our deep dive here. So first I want to say, this is great news that Paytm Canada has renewed renewed so it's always exciting for an independent podcaster a guy in his

luxurious basement with low ceilings like this it's always exciting when the sponsor says like this is working for me i want to keep going absolutely it's great it's great and they just today uh it was official they're uh they did six months and they want to keep going. So Paytm, that's great. Now everyone listening needs to support Paytm because they're supporting Toronto Mike. That's right. It takes a village. It takes a village. I'm going to coin that phrase. We should write a book about that. It takes a village.

Yeah. So let me tell everybody listening to do these three things. Go to Paytm.ca. That's the first thing. Go to paytm.ca. Second thing is download the app for your smartphone, Paytm Canada. And the third thing is when you pay your first

bill, use the promo code TorontoMike, all one word. Because that gets you $10 in Paytm cash. And Lucy, you can use that $10 towards the next bill you have to pay. It's free money. Thank you for this. Never say no to free money. Awesome. So Paytm Canada, thank you have to pay. It's free money. Thank you for this. I'm excited. Never say no to free money. Awesome.

Awesome. So Paytm Canada, thank you for your support. Everyone is really, and even to be honest, before they signed up the first time, I had to test them out to make sure I could back these guys.

That's a kick, can I say that's a kick-ass app that they got going on at Paytm Canada. I love the name, Paytm. Paytm, Paytm. Paytrono Mike. That's what Paytm stands for. Oh, man.

No, it should be. Love it, love it, love it. Do you want to know what it really is, actually? It is Pay Through Mobile. Nice. That is what Paytm stands for. And I joked off the top, like, what would you do if I gave you a six-pack of beer? I am doing that because the good people at Great Lakes Brewery, they're actually doing it.

Well, I will have to actually sample that while we're on air. It's only fitting. You've got a designated driver right here. I do. Is it right here? I do see it right here. Great Lakes. I'm holding one up right now.

The one I'm holding says Pompous Ass English Ale. Remember, that was for Lucy because that's Lucy's six-pack. That is Lucy's six-pack. So, Lucy, you'll have to pick one up. What does yours say? Oh, that's ironic. She's got the Over Your Dad Bod.

Is that what that's called? Over My Dad Body. Okay. There you go. Great names over there. Oh, fantastic. I love this. Oh, yeah.

We're going to crack open Pompous Ass right now and get that rolling. I encourage it. I only wish I had made the beer colder for you. Although my basement's a little chilly. It's the perfect basement temperature, which is a good one because I remember playing in Manchester, my first tour in the UK

with Acid Test, and it was funny. We were in a sort of a basement vibe at the University of Manchester. We played there funny. We were in a sort of a basement vibe. University of Manchester, we played there. And the beer was served kind of warm. Like room temperature? It was room temperature. Yeah, it was a little bit of an adjustment.

And it was a good adjustment. Wait till Tim and Adam get one of these. Oh, yeah, they'll be all over. Go nuts, enjoy. And I know what the weather's been like lately in North York because it's been a lot like it's been here. But I don't know, like out in Nova Scotia, have you had the same delayed spring? Yeah, you know, we didn't get quite the hail rain thing that you guys had last week. We've had a pretty chill winter.

We've had some warm stuff. We have a lot of rain. What's been different in Nova Scotia is that when it rains, it pounds. It will pound for three or four days. It doesn't stop. We didn't have a lot of rain. What's been different in Nova Scotia is that when it rains, it pounds. It will pound for three or four days. It doesn't stop. We didn't have a lot of snow. We only had maybe four or five snow incidents, which is unheard of for Nova Scotia. So it's a little bit...

We're kind of tapped into the environment down that way. We're a little bit like, what's going on? And you said you're near Halifax? I'm actually in Halifax. Yeah, right in the West End. Yeah. I was only there once, but I did a road trip, and And you said you're near Halifax? I'm actually in Halifax. Yeah, right in the West End. Yeah, yeah. I've been, I was only there once, but I did like a road trip and we stopped in,

well, actually we stayed in Dartmouth. Yes. Right across the river. You pay the loonie. That's right, on the bridge. That's right. That's right. Yeah. I remember, I make sure I have loonies around.

You have to have loonies. You have to go back and forth. But yeah, and I remember that, so in that, so we did a long road trip, but I remember while we stayed there, the, where's Blue Nose 2?

That's in Lunenburg. Lunenburg, yeah, that's out of Lunenburg way, yes. And Peggy's Cove was the other big stop we did. But a beautiful country. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I mean, you know, when

people discover how great it is, you know, they're from the outside, shall we say, in a polite way, we say, this is fantastic. I say, don't tell anybody. Yeah. Well, the secret's out about Halifax, I think.

Yeah. Keep it a secret. And you're from Toronto, so you're a Leafs fan. I can tell by the hat you're wearing. Absolutely. So you and I are kind of, and Lucy, you're a big Leafs fan too. Well, I was raised on it. Watching my dad get angry and throw his slippers at the TV

when they were losing as a kid. You know. And if this is the 80s, there was a lot of losing. I know. I kind of like just stepped back for a while. I got into music, stepped back because I was like, this is just hurtful. And then they kind of like 90s, really,

they started with, it was a big wake up. With Pat Burns. Yeah. And since then, I, it was a big wake up. With Pat Burns. Yeah. And since then, I've been like a big follower. And they got a great team. Like, I'm going to give them props. We talked about briefly, Steve, but we are heading in the right direction, which is all we ask. Like, right.

We're getting better every year. Absolutely. It might not be. I don't think it's going to be this year. We may go out in five games to the Boston Bruins, but I feel like we're building something here and we're building towards something. And whatever, this is what, Austin Matthews' second full season.

Exactly. We have some time on our side. A lot of youth and a lot of growth coming and great coach. Yeah, I think that the Leafs have got a bright future. I think that they've got the right pieces of the puzzle. They just need time to develop and grow, and we as Torontonians have to allow that to happen.

Because we're kind of starved. But I think, yes, and I think, if anything, we're pretty patient because we fill that ACC, and we've sucked. We've always filled it, right? Maple Leaf Gardens was always full, and we sucked. That's right. We just love hockey, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I think that personally, I would think we should just remember to follow what Babcock originally said was, look, guys, we're going to need three to four years here. So last year was season one. This is season two. Next year, we might get to the second round or third round. And, you know, I think we might lift something soon. Oh, I'm excited now. That's awesome.

I can see it. Right now, you just get to lift the six-packs of Green Mix. Yeah, and I'm okay with that for now. This is pretty good. You also get pint glasses, so you can actually lose a cup of water or whatever you Perrier could go in there. I like Coke Zero, too. That's my favorite.

Do you know Steve Anthony from Much Music? Yes. Well, he was just here, I like Coke Zero too. That's like my favorite. Do you know Steve Anthony from Much Music? Yes. Old friends. Old friends. Well, he was just here and his bad habit now, like maybe back when you knew him, he had a different Coke habit. We did have a different habit, yeah.

His current Coke habit is like, he'll just down Coke Zero like it's water. I'm with him. I got it in the car. I was a little upset that he's retired. Like I thought we'd get on there one last time with that guy. I mean, it would have been only fitting to do like a show with him. I got it in the car. I was a little upset that he's retired. Like I thought we'd get on there one last time with that guy. I mean, it would have been only fitting to do like a show with him. We did a couple, many.

We actually signed our record deal with him hosting on Much Music Live. Had Seymour Stein coming in via telephone because there was a snowstorm in New York. And we signed on air with Steve. So we'll never forget that. It was kind of a staged fun event. See how it all comes together? We had to have it. I mean, we had a video that Bruce shot that was banned.

Bruce McDonald. That had Steve interviewed him with. I mean, it was a lot of fun back then. Oh, we're going to talk about Bruce McDonald later. Of course. I got that already, for sure. And yeah, Steve Anthony's a great guy. He is.

He loves Coke Zero. You love Coke Zero. You can pour that Coke Zero into a pint glass. I love this pint glass. You each get one. And it's the six, even. Property in the six.com. Look at that.

Toronto Real Estate done right. That's awesome. Thank you, Great Lakes Brewery. Yes. So the Great Lakes Brewery gave you the beer, but the pint glass is from propertyinthesix.com. I love it. Brian Gerstein. Property in the six.

Thank you. And he recorded a message for you. So listen to Brian. He's got a question for you at the end, and it's a great question. So let's listen in here. Propertyinthe6.com Hi, Lucy and Steve. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage

and proud sponsor of Toronto Mic'd. Winter is over. You know what that means? Spring market time. Give me a call at 416-873-0292 to help you out with any of your real estate needs. Your band's name. Curious to know how you came up with Acid Test, defined as the true test of the value of something. Based on this definition, can this be measured by commercial or artistic success or a combination of both? Since we know you kick ass live, I am leaning more to what you get back from the live audience.

I like that question. That was good. That was good. Lucy, Lucy coined the name. Well, I didn't coin the name. The name was coined in the 60s um i actually in well kind of borrowed the name from the electrokool-aid acid test um book from 60s that whole i was always since i wasn't around for that era i was always kind of like in awe of that whole kind of free liberated uh try anything

experiment etc um and i really lived up to that for a long time and i it was just like i idolized that so an acid test and i thank you very much for uh for explaining that brian for the actual the the terminology what does acid test it's a the test of yeah is this valid is this like does this hold up um and as far as i believe yes okay there's that financial element but for us it was it's always been an artistic thing and getting through to that person right in front of me like live I'm so happy you said that Brian because live for me I think that's the most fulfilling part of playing music because you really get to see how someone's getting affected right in front of you you can feel it in the room you feel it's the energy's there so i would say live live absolutely was there a second choice for name like did you have a oh it can be acid test or this was there uh was there did steve was steve

pushing for another name and uh lucy's like no it's there was there was no name at all and in fact uh that there's a little backstory in this one. I don't know if you remember this, Lou. We had, I just did a little bit of a cameo on Highway 61 and shot some films there. And we started talking to Bruce about doing some music for the film. And I was flying back home to Halifax

back in the day when I used to live in Toronto. And Lucy goes, I came up with the name for the band. I'm giving you an envelope. I don't want you to open this until you're airborne in the plane. I was like, okay, I'll follow along with the surprise. Because it was just, she was so proud of this. And I was like, okay, this means a lot to her.

So I was very curious. And I did exactly what she instructed. I was over the air. I said, okay, let me open this envelope for Lou. I'm kind of bored in the plane. I opened it up and she goes, this is the new name. It's Acid Test. And I was like, I loved it. I was like the air. I said, okay, let me open this one for Lou. I'm kind of bored in the plane. I opened it up and she goes, this is the new name. It's Acid Test. I was like, I loved it.

I was like, wow. There was no explanation. It was just because we'd been so caught up with writing. She encapsulated it very well. That was it. That's a great story. You didn't cheat in the airport. No, I did not.

I held her promise. Yeah, I did. Can I call you Lou? Is this only close friends can call you Lou? You can call me Lou. Is it Lucy for me? No, I did not. No, I held her promise. Yeah, I did. And can I call you Lou? Is this only close friends can call you Lou? You can call me Lou. Or is it Lucy for me? No, Lou's good. Lou's good.

I heard Lou there, and I'm like, I want to do Lou. Yeah, you got to do Lou. You got to say the Lou. I want to do Lou. Yeah. Now, coming from the Maritimes, Steve, do you speak French?

No, I do not. I'm embarrassed to say that. Je parle l'impe. Lucy does. Lou speaks French. I do. See, I do not. I'm embarrassed to say that. Je parle un peu. Lucy does. Lou speaks French. I do. See, I just skipped North York and went thinking, no, Wisconsin speaks French, but you speak French.

Oui. Is this like from French immersion or something? Just, je l'étudie à l'école, basically. Do you understand? L'école is school. Yes, I studied it at school, a great school. You know, we had to take French. But only to grade nine, but you kept going. I kept going me? Lacola School. Yes. I studied it at school, a great school. You know, we had to take French. But only to grade nine,

but you kept going. I kept going right till first year university. I actually really liked it. I used to cut French class. I had the worst French teachers and it made me hate French and I just wish I had like,

here's what I wish. I wish I had been sent to Camp Tournesol. Camp Tournesol, okay? That's what I wish. Seriously, if you want to watch your kid,

if you have a kid between the ages of 4 and 14 and you want to watch their French skills explode over the summer, send them to French Camp. Just do it. The largest French camps in Ontario are at Camp Tournesol. And they've got camps,

I won't run down the whole list, but if you go to campt.ca, you'll see there's overnight camps, there's day camps, there's trips to Quebec, there's programs for French immersion students, there's programs for francophone students, there's programs for kids who have no French and are just starting from scratch. That would be me.

I think that would be Steve and I. We'd be in that one, I think. But when you do make your purchase at campt.ca, use the promo code Mike, M-I-K-E. And then we can all, at the end of our French camp experience with Camp Tournesol, we'll all be speaking French as well as my new friend Lou here. And I'm glad I knew LeCol.

See, Mike, we know in French. I knew LeCol. It comes back. And it really does expand your mind. Actually, learning a new language, any language is awesome. But French, hey, come on. Say another sentence. Let me try one more.

J'aime beaucoup cette maison. I love your house. Oh my god, you're very good. Thank you for speaking in the grade 9 French. I'm not that advanced. I wish you could speak French more in the 6.

Look, if you can lie about your age, you just have to be between 4 and 14. Just say you're 14. I can get you to this camp. I'll try it. All right, where to begin? Where to begin? Okay, I know where I want to begin.

Let's talk about acid test. Let's talk about the formation of acid test. And tell me if I'm wrong, but this is 1990? That when you guys form up? Yeah, that would be about correct. First started jamming. Talk to me about the independent cassette, the very beginnings, and when Trip on This comes out.

Oh, yay. Okay. Yeah, the cassette tape that we designed and colored ourselves and all that stuff. Those were fun times. Yeah, so Steve and I, I started out as the bass player. And Steve was the guitar player. And we basically started writing tunes. And we had this goal.

Eat that microphone. All right. We had this goal of writing tunes, not just to write tunes. We actually put a sign I'll never forget in Kensington Market where we used to jam hit or shite but shit right not shite

you can swear on this oh I can I wasn't sure so we were dedicated needless to say we wrote and wrote and wrote and we auditioned singers we auditioned singers and we even went to the studio and recorded with a couple singers and it wasn't happening and um it was actually at on Cheswood in North York with Dominic Macri uh we laid down

some tracks for Mr. Skin and couldn't find a singer and I had a vocal line because I was just sick and tired of waiting for singers and Dom's like, why don't you just sing it, Lucy? I'm like, oh, okay. And it was like, that became the recording that got played on Much Music that got played. Chronologically though, keep it chronological. So Mr. Skin comes first.

So for example, if I had loaded up here to play Trip on This and Drop and Blown, Mr. Skin comes before all that? Yeah. Can we hear it? Let's listen to a bit of Mr. Skin and drop and blow. Mr. Skin comes before all that. Yeah. Yeah. All right, can we hear it? Let's listen to a bit of Mr. Skin, and then I have more Mr. Skin questions, and then I definitely want to find out

what's going on with Highway 61 and Steve here. So let's play some Mr. Skin. okay so i'm like in my early 40s and all through the 90s i listened to 102.1 that's how i know pete fowler right but like so i was listening to this the other day because i knew you were coming in. I heard this. I would hear this. And you hear prepare to tremble and it's like you're right back. Yeah.

So anyone out there who wasn't sure about the name Acid Test, at this point in the song, you know Acid Test. And Lou, this is you. I know. Do you like listening to yourself? I'm used to it. I like it.

I like it. It was fun making this stuff. And this definitely has the Highway 61 all over it. How is it ever? I'll let you take it. Oh, yeah. I'll fade it down a bit.

And tell me about, okay, so Highway 61 is a film from Bruce McDonald. Of course. It's a groundbreaking, like, important film. This was a very big deal. So tell me how you're involved with this. Well, you know, there's a bit of a back story on that. You know, Bruce started out with another buddy of mine, Sean Bowing, from Technicolor Raincoats back in the day. And Sean was instrumental in a movie called Roadkill, which started out.

And I was in another indie band, and we had recorded a track called White Lines for Roadkill. And that's where I first met Bruce. And you know, after that band kicked me out, I was looking for a gig. I was just on the street. I just started writing with Lucy and they kicked her out of her band. And she's like, a friend of ours, a journalist

friend of ours named David James. He said, you and Lucy need to form a band. You both got kicked out of one. I went, yeah, that's true. So we met at his apartment actually and agreed to start working on a band. He arranged the whole thing. Actually, David James is kind of the reason why us just got together. And so while Lucy and I were writing, another friend of mine named Peter McFadgen said, listen. He said, Bruce is writing this crazy new movie called Highway 61 with Don McKellar and directing and writing and such.

And they have this character about this young kid who, you know, is a dead rock star. Jeffrey Bane. He's a corpse in a movie and you are him. I went, okay. And I go, what do you want? The description Bruce had was like, I need a rat-faced kid. Yeah. So there you go.

And he's like, you're going to do this. I was like, what? I said, I don't act. And he's like, no, no, no. Bruce is cool. You know Bruce. He came to your gig. You got some songs on the roadkill thing. I was like, yeah, Bruce is pretty awesome, but I don't want to do that. He's like, no, no, you're going to do it. I was like, all right. So I go, what do I do?

He said, just go down to the office. You'll get paid. It's cool. I went, okay, great. So went in. I said, hi, I'm Jeffrey. He said, you got the gig. Wow. So he said, do you want to beat your mind being hung upside down on a cross? I said, just go down to the office. You'll get paid. It's cool. I went, okay, great. So went in. I said, hi, I'm Jeffrey. He said, you got the gig. Wow. So he said, do you mind being hung upside down on a cross? I said, no, that sounds pretty awesome. Actually, let me try that.

So we got along really well. And I mean, I had a lot of respect for his film crew. I got to learn what it was like to make an indie movie. And I got to learn a lot about the business through film. And I got to learn about independent lifting the business through film. And I got to learn about independent lifting on a community working on a project. And it was a big family on that crew. I learned a lot about the music business through their company. And Lucy and I started writing songs for that movie. Well, he actually liked one of our tunes, Dance, which is in the movie.

And then he actually, this particular tune, Mr. Skin, is actually... Bruce's idea. ...plays Satan in Highway 61. His name is Mr. Skin, and you hear the sample of his voice. Kind of a black comedy. Prepare to tremble. This is Mr. Skin right directly from the movie. And Bruce commissioned us to write a song using Mr. Skin's sample.

So we did it. So we did it. And yeah, and it just kind of went from there. Lucy and I, we were looking for band members at the time. We were just writing, doing a lot of studio work, actually. And we started working with another, Adrian and Janice. They had a little indie film called Talk 16

about girls every day in their life, about young girls going to school. And we did some music for that. We helped Aaron Davis with his soundtrack. And we started doing a lot of soundtracks because we couldn't really play live at the moment. We were looking for a proper band. And so we launched this.

Our first gig was the Toronto International Film Festival. At the Copa. Basically, yeah, the premiere of... So we hired some friends and we played our first show that was how we did it and then we just kept going i want you i want you sounds great in the headphones too i'd like to do this a little bit headphone lift yeah what's next okay great so this is this part of mr skin is this a little bit of a segue we when we made the album we we decided if anybody was treated to actually listening to it from front to back,

we would put some stuff in between. I was always really into Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells, and of course Adam and Mike in the band at the time, they wanted to do a lot of creative stuff as keyboard players, and so they decided to help with just putting in some stuff. Like an interstitial. Yeah, so we all through stuff in. That's kind of a little bit of a treat. Okay.

So Mr. Skin, the single Mr. Skin, and you mentioned, of course, it's in Highway 61. You also have Dance in Highway 61, you mentioned. So there's a couple of your tunes in Highway 61. And this is what I learned. Could this possibly be true? Was that the second most requested song of 1992 on CFNY? I believe it was, yes. In fact, I remember we played our first show.

We played a few times. We used to play the concert hall. We played the concert hall. Our first gig at the concert hall, we were opening for the Sugar Cubes. We were pretty stoked about playing with Sugar Cubes. We were big fans. And we learned in soundcheck that this was Sugar Cubes. We were pretty stoked about playing with Sugar Cubes. We were big fans and we learned in soundcheck that this was Sugar Cubes' last gig

because something had happened internally, which I won't go into, about their band. But you have to go into that. Is it a Bjork thing? Was it a bit of a Supremes thing? Was she Diana Ross in the stereo? Well, something happened

with the keyboard player and somebody else in the band. And, you know, something happened. Connect those dots. Yeah. So she basically, we were eating supper together downstairs in the basement of the concert hall. And I said, what's going on? I heard this rumor.

And she's like, yeah, well, you see what's going on. Like, it's okay. We worked it out. We're all friends. But last show. Last show. You could play last show with your cubes. I'm like, okay. So that was it. That's so surreal i mean um if you were bjork

no bjork's bjork like yeah well yeah amazing and like you know she had a great great great solo career after sugar well this is it and so so i i just brought that up because at that moment when we when when i believe somebody was on stage with us introducing that show, I don't know who it was. It was a DJ from CFNY. He said, this band is number two on CFNY. At the time, Hit from Sugar Cubes was number one and we were number two. Yeah, Hit was like their biggest hit, I remember.

That's right. So they were number one, we were number two. Similar sounding because you have a bit of that hip hop influence in there, if you will, like a DJ thing in there. It was a good mix, right? It was kind of appropriate that we played together that show. And so they were actually number one at that time.

We obviously studied that station with interest because we were being played on it. We were fans of the station, of course. I was a fan since I was 10. Yeah. The David Marsden spirit of radio. Yeah. And back in the day, CKLN and CIUT, I was always into those stations as well. You couldn't really tell a difference, which was kind of neat to have an FM station that was almost as hip as sort of a college station.

And that's how we got stuff done. It was fun. So back then when Mr. Skin is breaking. So 102.1 would play it because I heard it on that station. Now, where else, like was there anywhere else in the city where you could get airplay?

Yeah, there was Energy 108. Energy 108 would play us. AM 640 was cool. Right, it was the beat of Toronto. Yeah, they were great. They were awesome. And the Q were not really there, I don't think.

Well, Q was more of a harder rock. They weren't going to play you guys. All the college stations were on, for sure. And then, of course, outside of the city, we had, I think there was the Bear. I don't know if that was out west or if that was Ottawa. I apologize. That's okay.

But there was stations in Ottawa. There was stations in Kingston. I mean, it was basically most of Ontario at that point. Wherever you had your, I guess, your alt-rock, your CFM Edge 102. Were they had your, like, I guess your alt-rock, your CFM, Edge 102. Were they Edge 102? Yeah, 89X and the Windsor were huge on us. And so I got to give props

to those guys. They were in there early. I remember we actually, our first tour when we signed with Warner was with Snow. We opened for Snow. Informer. Informer. We got to hear that song. I love it. Darren O'Brien, right? Darren is such a talent.

Darren is actually really, was a sweetheart to us. And a fantastic singer. He was amazing to us. And Rumble was on there with us as well. Safe, yeah. It was a fun tour. I had DJ Ron Nelson on this show.

Did you? Really? Yeah, so when you talk to these guys, CKLN? Yeah, The Fantastic Voyage was the name of his show on CKLN. Yeah, yeah. And, I mean, earlier before... Actually, I might keep it.

I think you talked about Maestro at the very beginning before I pressed play. I'm going to keep that. Because, yeah, you know... Big fan. Yeah. Maestro is great. Backbone slide. Yeah.

That's the 12-inch single. Love it. But I bought that, you know, back in 89 or whatever it was. But I got it signed only a couple years ago when Wesley Williams dropped by for an episode of Toronto Mike, so it was great. But yeah, I remember Rumble's Safe, and I thought it was such a...

I don't know, man. I like, because I think DJ Ron Nelson pointed this out, but the rap coming out of Toronto had a big Jamaican, Caribbean influence. It really did. And it really was a cool edge to that. It really was, yeah. And at the time, when you look into the bigger American acts, we were on a label, we were on Sire with Ice-T's Body Count.

And so all that stuff was coming in, you know, like Public Enemy. I can remember Lucy and I, back in the day, we watched P.E. at the concert hall. And they had the simulated Black Panther marchers. Security of the First Worlds. S1Ws, they called them.

It was amazing. No, Lucy, that's my band. I can see. I'm looking at it right here. He's got the t-shirt staring at us. Talk to me. I was there. I mean, the first Fear of a Black Planet. But even before that, I really liked Yo! Bum Rush the show. Oh, yeah.

Absolutely. That's something that was a huge influence on Acid Test because Lucy is from North York. Well, you can hear it there. You can hear almost like there's a definite influence, like a scratching kind of early 90s hip-hop. That was our DJ. Well, Mike was from that area too, pretty much.

Yeah, Thornhill guy. Yeah, so Lucy was very urban and into hip-hop and funk. And funk was a big, for me as a bass player, that's where the fun is. It's in the funk, right? If you're playing bass. You got the funk. Exactly.

Funkadelic Parliament, Right. Big influence. Very cool. And at that same time, like 1990, when you guys are coming together, you'd get big hits out of bands like,

let me get this right, D-Lite, for example. Oh, yeah. Bootsy Collins. Bootsy, yeah. And it was all kind of at that time, it was all kind of

a cool time, actually. It was good. Everything was morphing. I mean, I grew up as a guitar player in the 80s. I grew up listening to... One day I'd be listening to some New Wave, and the next time I'm listening to metal and punk at the same time.

There weren't an alternative. It never existed. We used to call it college rock. I had a friend of mine. He was into The Clash, and he got me into The Clash. So I'd listen to The Clash and Iron Maiden, and then I'd be listening to some old- school funk and it was all together you're right it was like a melt like yeah there's all genre bending and melting pot and even that jam like the big he was a big top 40 hit uh uh delight uh grooves in the heart and bootsy collins but you

also had you had uh never on the left because my right is my good ear i could give uh q-tip q-tip from Tribe Called Christ. I mean, give me a break, right? Like one of the great hip-hop acts, and you got funk, and you got techno, like you said, and there's pop. So much fusion going on at that time, and Fishbone. Fishbone, Truth in Soul was a huge influence on Acid Test. Definitely, yeah.

And I think like a lot of our- Bad Brains. Bad Brains. Lucy and I were big Bad Brains fans. The Come song. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, and friends of ours in New York at the same time that were coming up at the

same time as we were doing Ascets, they're in a band called Quicksand. They were part of the whole New York East Coast hardcore scene, you know, from Gorilla Biscuits and that sort of thing and and and we we uh i remember just out of coincidence when we made our drop album we we had an instrumental and lucy goes i'm gonna call this quicksand and i said my god i said that's like so ironic because i'm following this band in new york called quicksand and uh and we end up later on as an indie act in a band called on we actually had the guitar player from quicksand in our band good friend of ours oh cool cool cool, cool. Okay, so

you do your little cassette thing, which is, you know, kind of like what Barenaked Ladies does, right? A little indie cassette you made and that gets you the album, you make the album Trip On This and that's like 1992. So Mr. Skin is also like coming out in 92, right? So we're

in the same era. So Mr. Skin's first and then Trip On This. Mr. Skin came out on the Highway 61 soundtrack first and Edge 102 basically started playing it. Yeah. I think that soundtrack sold rather well. I think it did pretty good. The cassettes, I mean, back in the

day, you could, like, Sam the Record Man and A&A and stuff across Canada. They would carry your cassettes. It was the Barenaked Ladies and the Real Statics, those two bands, as far as I'm concerned. They broke the ground for a lot of us to help us out. And that's where it started. Any love for my friends at Lowest of the Low?

Lowest of the Low, absolutely. Shakespeare in my butt. Good friend of ours, Mike, is playing guitar for them. Very excited about that. Oh, cool. That's the first band that played live in my basement was Lowest of the Low. Well, we used to share rehearsal space at Lowest of the Low when all that stuff was morphing. They're actually old friends.

Well, yeah, that isn't funny because Stephen Stanley's been over because he's solo. He's in the Stephen Stanley band, so he's no longer in Lowest of the Low, actually. But Ron Hawkins, of course, is still there. This is strange to me. They were, of course, big in the early 90s. Yeah. All over CFY 102 they just this past weekend

got a big US break and they played CBS this morning oh yeah, with Jeff Rogers helping them out, yeah that's what I was going to ask there must be somebody there who is a big fan of Shakespeare in my butt, because it's an overnight success story. I mean, how can you not be a fan of Ron?

I mean, come on. You're preaching to the choir here. Absolutely. That album was incredible. I mean, he came in. We got the sad story. We're going to get into your tale because there's some parallels. But there was, you know, some bad breaks in terms of like

record labels and stuff that kind of... You need to be a good band and then you need to have a lot of breaks along the way. That's right. Two things have to come together. That's right. Right. That's right.

And I'm playing right now, I'm playing Trip On This. So Trip On This, of course, is from the album Trip On This, which is your first full album in 92. Here's some more Lou here. But the big, okay,

so Drop, Drop is your first, that's the, you mentioned Sire Records, right, from Warner Music Group, okay? So that's your first,

what do you call it, a major label release? I guess proper album with a major label, yeah. Let me fade out a trip on this, which is very good,

but I want to play some. Okay, so let's talk about Drop and Sire Records. I got so many questions here. Where do I begin? So Sire Records, they sign you. You mentioned someone from New York is calling in

and Steve Anthony is there. That's an amazing story right there. We could have just shut it down right there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, Seymour Stein, he was president of Sire who signed the Ramones and Talking Heads,

Blondie, Madonna, Pretenders. I never heard of these indie artists you're speaking of. Yeah. So we were just like, apparently he heard our demo at the New Music Seminar.

Seminar. NMS. And I heard of this New Music Seminar. Yeah, it was like the place to be. Well, you know, there's a lot of planets aligning. We used to play the new music seminar

and then we also used to play the North by Northeast quite a bit. And we used to play new music seminars. We loved going to New York City, of course. And we ended up getting a gig at this place called the Danceteria, which is where Madonna actually got discovered as well. And we cornered an MTV camera crew, Lucy and myself and Mike, and we said, listen, we're

playing the Danceteria. Why don't you guys come down and film us? Because that's what we would do in Toronto, and much music would do that, you know. And so they showed up, and they put two steadies on us, and they put us on This Day in Rock. And so here's this band from Toronto on This Day in Rock on MTV for a week and our manager, we said that guy right there from Seymour Stein

from Sire, that's our label. We love that label. Can you talk to him and give him a cassette? So he jammed a cassette in his pocket, gave him an earful about Highway 61 and of all the work we've been doing and then two days later he was on a plane to see us at the Rivoli. Wow. That's how

it went down. But I mean, I was obviously years of prep before that, but Sire was cool. We just really believed in that label and we still do. We're dear friends with some of those people still. When we made the demo for the new album, the first person I emailed was Seymour

and he out of respect, he let his whole group listen to it in France and in New York. And he's like, great. Call me and email me when it's ready. And we just got so busy as a band doing it ourselves like we did back in the day. And that's where we're at right now. We're totally enjoying doing it from the street. There's a certain freedom. Yeah, we like that.

Absolutely. No, I can relate There's a certain freedom. Yeah. We like that. Absolutely. No, I can relate. That's very cool. Yeah. And we're getting there, but we're still at drop here. So I need,

uh, so we're at drop and so we're playing drop. Drop is from drop. Have I said drop enough there? Yeah. Acid test drop. But then this is funny. I was just watching the video for this and I got a question.

So. Oh, this one. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's a good one. This is Blown. Yep. From Drop. 1993.

Your first release with Sire Records. Yes. And if anyone goes to YouTube and checks out the video for blown which i recommend you do uh it's uh man you guys are all in like a uh is that a desert or a beach what is this uh it's a sand dune in northern ontario like north of newmarket or something yeah it's like the most awesome it looked like arizona or something north of newmarket's like the most awesome. It looked like Arizona or something. North of Newmarket? Yeah. I see dunes like that actually on Lake Huron.

Like if I go to Grand Bend and I camp at Pinery, for example, they have that kind of sand thing. So, and Lucy, you're in a bikini in this video.

Well, technically it's like shorts and a bikini top. It's actually made by my mom. Oh, nice. I know. No, you should make your own clothes.

My wife's into this now, making all of her own clothes. Awesome. This is what you should do. I would design and say, Mom, this is what I'm looking for. Because the fashion industry is terrible. It's all about making crap that you dispose of quickly. It's a terrible industry. It's so funny because we're in the car and Lucy was driving over here

and she's like, look, we're doing breakfast. What is it we're doing? Is it breakfast? Oh, we're doing... What are you going to do? What is it? I don't know. This is Saturday the 28th on CP24.

We're doing a breakfast show. Oh, CP24 breakfast. Yeah. Right. And so she's like, I'm doing breakfast. I need an outfit. What do I do?

Get mom to make you something. There you go. You're doing a weekend. Okay, so Steve was doing a week. That was Steve's show on weekdays. I know. I know. That's cool, though. A lot of people watch CP24. It'll be fun. It won't be as cool as this.

No, not at all. Nothing's as cool as this. No, this is more of my speed. You had to say that because I gave you a pint glass and beer. Well, I can't do that on TV. And $10. So the blown video was great, though. Yeah, and I had just gotten back from Cuba. So that tan is real.

It's not a spray-on tan. It's not anything. And that's not a blue screen, by the way. That's actually the sky. The sky was that freaking blue. So, yeah, like there was a guy from Much at the time, didn't like the video. He's like, no, it's too contrived. I said, it's a video! Of course it's contrived. It's super contrived.

We're totally jumping up and down in a sand dune. But we also, we got the sandboard skaters, the sand skaters. I call them. They wanted all, what did they want for their videos? They wanted like Epic from Faith No More and like fish that were flipping out of water. I don't know. I guess so.

I guess so. Yeah. Although Epic is kind of out of water. I don't know. I guess so. I guess so. Yeah. Although Epic is kind of a guilty pleasure. Yeah, it is. It is. Mike got in. He sold out, but it's all right. Yeah.

Yeah. So Blown, okay, so this is on Drop. Yeah. And should I play more from Drop? No, I will not play more from Drop. I do love this jam, though. This jam should have been a bigger hit. Which one?

This one, Blown. Oh, though. This jam should have been a bigger hit. Which one? This one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I agree. It was the single that Sire chose. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it was an interesting time. We were out touring as an opening act in the States quite a bit.

We did probably close to 1,000 gigs in the United States. We did a lot of touring. We did, I will, I'm proud to say that we did 17 back-to-back, well, not back-to-back, I should say Toronto to Vancouver, 17 Canadian tours at that time as well. We were probably the hardest touring band at the moment as much as the Tragic Hip in those times. And that was verified.

It's like hardcore logo. It was verified by Frank from Crocs and Rolls and Thunder Bay. He said, I've got some news for you. I said, what are you talking about? He said, you guys are the most hearty touring band in Canada right now underneath the hip. Because we were relentless. We had a good crew.

We had a really good crew out of Calgary and we just kept going. That's awesome. So yeah, we did our work. And to Cyrus' credit, they tried um it was a good it was an interesting time we were a canadian band and and a lot of american releases were that were big at the time um uh we we ended up uh yeah we ended up there in 94 actually i think that was one of our final shows with the whole lineup. Yeah, it was. Opening for Nine Inch Nails in Las Vegas.

That was Spiral Tour, yeah. That's a big deal. That's where we ended up. Because, I mean, snow is great. I like snow. Oh, I love snow. And Sugar Cubes were like,

I want to call it, they were great too. Yeah. Are you kidding me? But Nine Inch Nails, that's a whole different level, right? Well, and you know, we had a really good

booking agent in the United States named Jerry Gerard with Artist in Audience. And he said, give me your wish list. I said, well, here's what we like. You know, when you can make it make sense, if you can get it to align. And we did that tour. That was a good, that was, we were on that tour, actually. When we took a break in Vancouver Vancouver we wanted to do the rest of the leg of it, we just couldn't afford to stay on it

we had to leave and Trent was trying his best he offered production, full production for us for free to keep us on the tour we broke up actually right after this tour before I break you up

I wouldn't say break up now, I wanted to talk. I wouldn't say break up. So long. I still got questions. Naked in New York. Oh, yeah. Tell me the Naked in New York story and then I'll play Shake,

which Shake's from Naked in New York. Well, that was, and now I have to say thank you to Sire. There was a movie coming out with Ralph Macchio, of course. And Tony Curtis. And it was like, they were looking, I guess, Sire, thank you very much for this. They pitched their artists and they gravitated to this song. And it's a pretty big feature in the movie.

It's a pretty big scene. And somehow, I think this one could have done well, too. It played more. Yeah. So Martin Scorsese directs Naked in New York. That's right. Yeah. And wait, what's Ralph?

So the Karate Kid? Wait, this is the... Yeah, Ralph Macchio. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we... So the song here is Shake. Yeah, this was in the movie.

I remember we saw it. I think we saw the movie, the screening or something. Yeah, I remember that. Just going to drink it in a bit here. This is the funk influence coming out. You know, remember Pop-Up Video, where they show a video? Oh, I loved it.

So you guys could do the audio version. Absolutely. If this part was influenced by this, anything you want to share. Welcome, Daniel. We're in. Papa video was great, especially like before, like the internet kind of made all that kind of redundant or whatever.

It was fantastic. Yeah, it was fantastic. I love that. Sure. So, Nine Inch Nails, also Grace Jones, you opened for Grace Jones

yeah New York City yeah yeah that was a crazy one I remember we were I seem to recall a lot of this stuff we were at the Ritz

hanging out watching My Bloody Valentine doing a half an hour of noise and we were playing the music seminar hanging out at the Ritz. And so Lucy's all decked out with some clothes. She had design in New York City,

and she's like really into clothes. Your mom didn't make those clothes. She did not make those ones. And so sitting to the left of us was Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. Yeah, yeah. Because they're friends with My Bloody Valentine. And I remember hearing Kim saying to Thurston,

look at that girl's clothes. And I was like, do you hear that? I was wearing purple shorts. Do you hear that? They're checking out your clothes, man. And so I remember saying to Lucy, wouldn't it be great to play the Ritz? It's such a great sounding room. And honestly, a year to the day, we played that show at Grace Jones.

Open for Grace Jones. And it was the closing of Studio 54, which was where they shot Saturday Night Fever. That's what it originally was called. And so our agents said, look, I've got this thing.

Because you guys can go from heavy to funk. Can you do a disco night tonight? I said, what? Sure, what do you want? He said, can you drive down and play for Grace Jones? He said, it's the last night of the Ritz. I go,

what is the date of that show? And I looked back, I went, Jerry, this is like a year ago, I was sitting in the balcony to that date. That's incredible. Yeah, and I was like, I totally want to play there. It was on my bucket list. I was really excited to play that show.

She's an icon. And she was so cool to us. Yeah, she was awesome. Yeah, I show. She's an icon. And she was so cool to us. She was awesome. Yeah, I know. She is an icon. Absolutely. She's no Snow, though. No, she's not.

She was. No, that's right. I say that, but actually, even Snow, when Informer broke, honestly, I tried to do the lickety-boom-boom-boom-damn. I tried. Everyone, I think, tried. Oh, yeah. On tour, he. Everyone, I think, tried. Oh, yeah.

Like, on tour, when he had his whole, he had an American 11-piece band up with him. Oh, my God. With a DJ. And, like, he would improv. It was heavy. It was great. The guy's got soul. Like, he's very Stevie Wonder-based kind of influence. Wasn't he in jail when it broke?

Oh, yeah. Or was that part of the Urban Legends? I don't know. I think it was just part of the whole whatever you want to call that stuff but I mean you know like there's an image

to music which is sold sometimes right but I mean the talent perseveres you know so well he could rhyme

like he had vocal stylings definitely and he had like we heard I would listen to the sound checks like before the performance

and the guy would just go on with the soulful voice. Like the guy can sing and that's not like his sound point. Later again, everybody wants to be like you. You should hear him sing

Stevie Wonder. Yes. Right, right, right. You know, without Snow, do we even get a J-Rock on Trailer Park Boys? No, we don't.

We don't. No, definitely. Shout out to Jonathan Torrance. Absolutely. Very cool. And you also, let's not forget our Canadian friends, 5440. Oh, yes. You opened 5440 as well.

At that huge, huge Kitchener bar. Lulu's. Lulu's, the biggest bar ever. That's your bar, right? Yeah, that's right. Lulu's? No? Sure.

Yeah, we did that with, yeah, those guys were sweet. Bass player. Was it Darren? I can't remember darryl bass player from 54 was uh the hook that one up i think we we talked at uh we're doing a much music event together and he's like you guys should do some dates with us i'd say that would be great i'd love to do that you know we'd play with anyone and that was the cool it's like you want to play for that was our thing you know like like i remember being at the label side of things having to wear the business hat sometimes and like we don't you know like it's kind of trouble it's it's it's hard to market your band i'm like what do you mean are you guys you guys are sire like you guys have everything on your label what are you talking about well okay sorry i didn't even mean to interrupt you there but uh you brought

back to sire so let me do a few sire questions here which is basically so at the time that sire kind of signs you, there's a bunch of Canadian bands that are being signed by this legendary record label, right? Yes, absolutely. And that made us feel great at home. Rheostatix were on it. Rheostatix, Barenaked Ladies.

Barenaked Ladies were on there first, yeah. That was like absolutely. And we just felt like, obviously the history of the label was where we were sitting as a band. But having some of our mates on the scene be there was definitely made us feel right at home. Marion Cadell was on there for a while, I think, as well. So, you know, it felt really good.

Seymour was very intrepid with coming up to Toronto and checking out our scene, which at the time, our scene was an anti-scene. We'd had every scene here. We had Jamaican rap. We had punk. We had whatever you want to call it. You was an anti-scene. We'd had every scene here. We had Jamaican rap. We had punk. We had whatever you want to call it. You know, hip-hop. We had Seattle sort of British-sounding stuff. We had everything, you know.

We mentioned Marion Cadell. The sweater. Great sweater. Of course, she is now a he. Yeah. Marion Cadell now lives life as a man. Yeah. And the sweater was like all over much music.

Yeah. That was heavy. High rotation, I would say. Yeah, it was. I would say. Oh, cool. And we already talked about like the radio love you had from 640 and Energy 108. And of course, CFNY 102.1.

What about like other like ongoing here? Like RRR? It's hard to say come out of our and go into Alt Weekly's. Our Alt Weekly's? Can you do that? Alt Weekly? Our Alt Weekly's? I cannot do that. I know, it's hard to come out of the our and say our Alt Weekly's. But like iWeekly, for example,

or now maybe, was there any support from the Alt Weekly's or even the HMV downtown or whatever, or much music? Chris O'Connor from iMagazine. The iMagazine was huge.

Now as well, I think we were overload on iMagazine for a while. I remember one caption under a photo, Oh God, not another Assetto's photo. And I was like, okay. But they were big, huge support. I miss iWeekly.

I know. It was like the alternative to Now. Right, to Now. Yeah, which was cool. And a lot of good friends at Now Magazine, too. I mean, Lucy and I grew up cultured around Now Magazine. And it was always like a dream to have any kind of promo in around now magazine. And, and, and, you know, that was, it was, it would, it was always like a dream to have any kind of promo in that,

that weekly magazine. It was the trendsetter for our scene at the time. It still is, still is valid to my, you know, a lot of good friends still there. So. Now acid test,

it's all going great at our little story we're telling right now. Like we got some great tunes, you're, you're with grace. Things are going great, but what happens, okay? So in 1994, Acid Test goes on hiatus, I guess. What happened?

The real... By the way, I need the real story here. You need the real story. That's a spin. Well, okay. So the real story is, okay, to tour, it costs a lot of money to tour. And back in the day, we had two choices. We were

told you can get a bus and go out for a month, or you can get a van and go for six months. What do you want to do? And that's a real question because it's like, do you really want to be on tour for six months with these people? And the answer is yes. And so we hired a crew. We bought two vans. Our guitar tech was a mechanic. We had two guitar techs. Our road manager was a legendary sound man from the Headpins back in the day. We had a great light man from Calgary and sound man from Calgary. We picked them up actually on the snow tour and kept going. And we had a double axle U-Haul and a 15 passenger seat van. We ripped out two seats, put a bed in the back. It wasn't glamorous. And so we did a lot of tours in a van and three man crew with a five man group in a van. And you're doing like a thousand gigs all over the United States that way. And sometimes you're

playing clubs like the 930 Club in Washington. Then the next night you're playing a theater with Nine Inch Nails in front of 5,000 people. And then you're playing a small arena somewhere in Timmins. You know, it's crazy. And so that took a toll on the group. And the Warner group was, Sire used to get in a lot of trouble with Warner Brothers.

So Seymour would say that would happen all the time because he was kind of a renegade. And we just weren't able to keep going financially with Sire. They just kind of said, well, we can't keep funding tours. That's where that asset test question that we were asked and very eloquent from Brian Gerstein. Thank you for that. There's where the financial element does come in because it's like guess what we do need support to keep going right and at some

point in time where the tour touring is hard on a band there's family members back home etc etc so it did take a toll uh living out of you know renting places here there and everywhere we finally kind of buckled after doing nine inch nails Nails um we went to Vancouver Island um we basically settled there and said we're going to write a second record we heard Sire wasn't behind us anymore and we're like we're going to do this anyway and some of us didn't agree I should mention that Warner Canada Kim Cook and those boys said look just come home we'll put out another record Warner Canada and we'll take a break and you know and we just the band with Warner Canada and we'll take a break. And, you know, and we just, the band had said, we just need to take a break.

We need to take a break. So we took a break. And we were, some of us were not even 20 years old at that time. So it was like the first band you've been in, you've been signed and now you're not. And now it's like, whoa. Right. And, you know, let's face it. Like it's fun to make videos and go on tour and make records and stuff.

But yeah, you're, you're living out of a van. You've got PDs, per diems, and you're in a suitcase. A lot of sacrifice, too. But the combo at McDonald's back then was $3.99. It was. And it was fun. But we honestly thought, well, we'll be back. We'll take a break and we'll be back.

And it took a while. No, it took a while. That's one hell of a break. But a lot of times bands go on breaks and that's it but oh yeah you had that's one hell of a break but a lot of times bands go on breaks and that's it forever right okay so all right so that's too bad what happens in 1994 uh i think it for us us normies like us guys you don't know the the industry and never to tour we're surprised to hear like oh you mean it costs you money to tour like i think that whole concept is strange we too. We were

in a van with three-man crew, and it was costing $25,000 for six weeks to tour. That's a $19.92. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of combos at McDonald's, right? That's it, yeah. Now, we're making money at the shows, too, but like, if you're on a bigger tour, that's their crowd, you know, so.

And you're not selling, like, if you have your T-shirts, like, they're there to, they're buying Nine Inch Nails t-shirts. That's right. Oh, yeah. I mean, I've even been to a show. And if you have a show where you sell 100 shirts one night or 200, they're like,

whoa, whoa, you're selling too many shirts. You know, let's put some tape on that fuck in the back of your shirt. That's not good. That was done once, yes. We used to write in our back of our shirt, take the fucking trip. Well, we toured with a band

called the Ocean Blue who were. A band from Pennsylvania. Nice back of our shirt, take the fucking trip. Well, we toured with a band called the Ocean Blue who were... A band from Pennsylvania. Nice guys. Nice guys, but you know, they were pretty proper. Very, you know, yeah, prim and proper

and we had some not so nice words on our t-shirts so they made us tape them up, yeah. Which made us sell more shirts. That's right. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Very quick tangent since we mentioned DJ Ron ron nelson in

t-shirts as dj ron nelson told me he knew so he would host these uh hip-hop concerts in toronto like the first ones at the concert hall first we promote the first hip-hop concerts and the audience was primarily at the beginning he said the audience was primarily black yeah okay but then he said it's the best story i won't do it justice but one day after a show uh at the concert hall i think um somebody came up to him and said hey are you ron nelson he's like yeah i'm ron nelson he goes oh here's your check and he gave him this like check for i don't know what it's like five thousand bucks or something he goes what's this for and he goes that's your cut of the t-shirt sales or whatever something like that right and dj ron nelson tells me that's when he knew the audience had changed from black people to white people.

He said, the black audience didn't buy t-shirts, but the white audience bought the t-shirts. And he says that's when he knew that it had changed. That's crazy. My mom is calling me right now. Take your mom's call. If it's private, I'll edit it out. Hello. Oh, my God.

Hi. Yeah, I'm actually on the radio right now, and so are you. Okay. No, no, no. You can stay with us a little bit, Mom. The flight was fine. All right. Okay, yeah.

All right. Take care. Bye-bye. That's the sweetest thing. Moms are the best. I just want to make sure you got here okay. That's mom. That's my mom from Halifax. Oh, man. That's amazing.

That's amazing. I'm glad you took the call on microphone there. So 1994, the hiatus. Okay, so in 2012, there's some sad news, right? Because Mike, I heard you mention Mike a few times. I'm a Mike, I picked up. Mike Harland, our DJ Supreme.

Yes, he passed in 2012 suddenly, and it was a shocker for all of us. Being here, I was here, I knew his family and attended with all our friends. Told Adam in BC and Steve in Nova Scotia. And I think that was a big catalyst to what brought us together again. Because one thing, Mike was the one, the glue and the force that was always trying to get us back together and pitching us. And he jammed with me and jammed with Steve and kept going through the years.

And it never came to fruition and now it was just like man we felt like this is this is it we've got to do this so at least there's uh I guess out of a tragedy and out of sadness there's this this morsel of positivity that comes over kind of a resurrection if you want to call it like Like a phoenix. That's right. Rising from the ashes. The phoenix. The phoenix concert series. Yeah, sorry. I'm a 4'10 sure boy. It's very sad news to hear about Mike.

That's terrible. But that sort of acts as a catalyst that you guys are going to get back together. And you mentioned this off the top, like the new digital age made this easier because if someone's in BC, someone's in Nova Scotia, someone's all the way in North York, but you have a high-speed internet connection, you can actually do this in, I guess, 2016?

And I was skeptical. I was like, what? How? How is this possible? But it's just like, it's possible. We did it. And it actually made it easier when we came all together. We basically came together to record everything

in one room, and it's like we knew the songs inside out because we had been jamming. It's incredible. I think used properly, digital age. I mean, look at us. Okay, so you kindly gave me a CD. Yes. This is Jess Wright.

Yeah, who Mike on stage, that was his DJ name, DJ Jess Wright. So we kind of dedicated. It's dedicated to Mike. Nice. Yeah. Nice, nice, nice. By the way, I have that very same CBC shirt that Tim is wearing.

Tim Vandvin, drummer extraordinaire. I would. Go ahead, sorry. He's our newest member, by the way. He's our next chapter. Yes. Well, I would have worn that t-shirt, except I had to wear the Pete Fowler shirt. I should

mention that I remember we were tracking with Tim. He's like, okay, so obviously I'm the drummer in the band. I'm like, yeah, I guess so. He's like, what do we like to do? I said, you're just going to have to be what Mike basically, because

Mike was hilarious. And so Tim is a pretty funny man. He can't wait to try this beer. Yeah. He basically helps a lot of the humor in the band, too. He keeps everything light and fun. And he's just an awesome human being. Right. So let's do that.

Then let's say, yeah, Acid Test is now there. It's Tim. It's Tim Vandiven. Vandiven. Very Dutch of him, I believe. Yes, it is. Steve Fall, of course. That's you from Nova Scotia, whose mom just called him, which is very sweet.

Lucy DeSanto, all the way from North York. All the way. I've been there, you know, to North York. Where? Whereabouts? Where did I saw, like, they used to have plays at the theater. What's that North York theater called that used to have productions and they should have done? Maybe still. No, it's still there, I guess.

The production house is probably gone. Near Mel Lassman Square. If you went, I want to say Shepard and Young, but it's north of there. What's that called? There's a big theater where you see Jersey Boys and stuff. Yeah, I know who you're talking about.

Come on, Luce. No one calls you Luce except me. I know Mel Lassman Square. I know what you're talking about. Come on, Luce. I know. Luce, no one calls you Luce except me. I know Mel Lossman Square. I know it's right next to Mel. Well, that's my North York story there. That's downtown North York.

I probably spent more time in Nova Scotia than North York now that I think about it. But there is, I did see some productions at that theater if I could ever remember

what that's called. And of course, Adam Percy, Keys and Programming. And our producer of the record, actually. ever remember what that's called. And of course, Adam Percy of Keys and Programming. And our producer of the record, actually. Very cool. I gotta dive into some of the new stuff. So let's start. Can I play the new

single? Is it Slippin' Away? Yes, it is. Let's play some Slippin' Away. Wait, this is Led Zeppelin. Oh, Tim's gonna love that. John Bonham, that's his biggest inspiration. Tell a tale about yesterday. Paints on your clothes from the city that never sleeps. Look at eating alive. Catch a bus without a frown.

If they say I don't look down, it's all I'm saying. You gotta pay your dues. Because you had unfinished business. You got it. And I'm reading now. You're right. This is a lovely note about Mike in the CD here. I'm just reading it right now as I listen. Yeah, lovely.

I'm going to read a quote from a gentleman who's been on this show three times. A good pal of mine now, Alan Cross. Awesome. Oh, wow. He actually came over recently to kick out the jams where he played his 10 favorite songs of all time and basically told us why he loved these songs. Oh, I wish I listened to that. I wish you had, too. I'm disappointed you haven't. I know.

I'm curious. Once we figure out what that theater's called in North York. Does anyone have anything called Google on their phones? No, I'm busy. I'm busy producing a show over there. I can do it. North York. Let's try to do it.

Not Mel Lass. It's North York Performing Arts. No. Performing Arts Center, maybe. We'll do the Google thing right now.

I saw, like, the Million Dollar Quartet there with Elvis and Johnny Cash. Oh, wow. That would have been a good one. Well, you know,

they were played by other people, but yeah, same spirit there. Slippin' Away is cool, man. Okay, so I'm going to read the... I am going to read this, Alan Cross. And it's okay. You don't... It's okay.

Everybody's already yelling at their podcast device right now to say, how do you not know it's called the whatever? North York Center of the Performing Arts? How does that sound? Toronto Center for the Performing Arts?

Could it be that? Lose use to better microphones. Toronto Center for the Arts? Let's call it that. That's what it is. Okay. Yes. That's what it is. Settled. Alan Cross says, that's what it is okay yes that's what it is settled alan cross says this is a quote from alan cross from the ongoing history of new music acid test dropped out of nowhere in 1992 with one of the freshest sounding canadian indie records of the year it's good to see them back with some new material that harkens back to some classic

90s sounds. And that's what I mean by unfinished business. It feels like you picked up where you left off and it still sounds great. Cool. Thank you. A lot more of our, I don't know, I think there's a little more of a punky attitude this time because it's not to say we don't care

but we care in a way. It's like we're just making the music we like right now. That's right. I think that's the idea. I think we just, yeah. What? I have to ask. So that's a long, was that 25 years almost?

Yeah. Almost 25 years. So you didn't just go home and wait by the phone for like. No, we kept making music, but just not with acid test. Can you maybe, each of you tell me, I don't know if you could do it quickly or not, but what you've been up to the last 25 years? Yep. When driving back from BC 1994 with a breakup and all,

Steve and I, Steve continued to live in Toronto, and we basically formed a band called On. Gord and Dan members. We actually did a tour of Mexico City representing Canada with that band. With Rusty. With Rusty, yeah. Rusty's coming on this show because they're making a new album too. Yeah.

Cool. Good friends of ours. Love Rusty. So On was kind of more of a two guitar, bass, drums and a lot, very Weezer-ish, if you can imagine that, in that post kind of punk 90s vibe that was going on. And yeah,

a little more hard edge. After that, we actually jammed with Rusty's drummer, John. John was in our band for a while as well. In On, yeah. And Tom Capone from Quicksand was in On. Tom Capone also joined us.

We formed after On. That broke up. We formed another band called Interstate. Also Steve and I with Rob Clarkson and Mick Sarastava. And we actually had a video play on Much With That. We got a video fact grant for a single called After All. A little more hard edge. Wait, Much used to play videos?

I know, right? And Adam was in a Connelline Crush for a while. Adam joined a Connelline. And Biff Naked. Biff Naked. Biff Naked, by the way,

is booked to come on next week. No way! You gotta say hi. That's awesome. Yeah, she's like a little, she's moved to Toronto now. Oh, cool.

She's a Vancouver girl, right? Yeah. She just moved to Toronto. Nice to hear. And Southwest Toronto, too, which is not far from where we are. I think she's a M Toronto now. Oh, cool. She's a Vancouver girl, right? Yeah. And she just moved to Toronto. Nice to hear. And southwest Toronto, too, which is not far from where we are. And I think she's a Mimico. No way. Down the street.

Well, tell her we said Big Love. I will. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so interstate. And we kept our hands busy with writing, playing, touring, et cetera. It's not like we stopped. But somehow, I don't know, it was like this unfinished business thing that you talk about.

It was like the voice in the back of my head. And that was Mike for the longest time. So when Mike passes suddenly, so tragically, does any part of you think is it a reminder? Life is finite. It could be now or never. We don't live forever.

And that's why all those things happen in bands and anyone who's listening who's in a band gets what i'm saying when you're on tour these petty things get to you about whatever personality this that and you know the whole circumstance of band life but in the end when something like that happens it's like wow man we have an opportunity here to actually do something with people we love making music with let's just do it like exactly life is finite and i'm digging this this is ordinary ways so if you're listening at home this is uh so we heard slipping away in ordinary ways and i'm gonna play one more off the new album but this is cool cool thank you i want to let it finish organically before I hit the next track here.

This is Heartquake. Yeah. Steve had a lot more to do with writing and also in the vocals and lyrics, I should say. That's another, for me, evolution as an artist. I was like, well, I'm the an artist I was like well I'm the singer I'm coming up with the vocals and this record

I kind of let Adam did a lot with Thick as Thieves and Sugar Bowl and this one riff came from Steve and Tidal and it was

much more of a collaborative effort on this one yeah I'm slipping away I kind of and then of course the music I do for Ordinary Ways. You wrote the lyrics for that.

Nice. And everybody's getting along in the band. And that's a pretty cool thing, yeah. Maybe distance has something to do with that. Maybe. That helps, trust me. That probably helps, yeah. So what's happening on the 28th again?

That the great Pete Fowler is making the trip? Yes, we're playing at Garrison Saturday on the 28th again That the great Pete Fowler is making the trip Yes we're playing the Garrison Saturday April 28th Pete Fowler spinning some tunes We've got our friend Ted Roberts Making his debut with Acid Test He's DJing as well as

Coming in and doing some stuff That Mike used to do back in the day in the band Ted's kind of a behind the scenes Fifth member of the band. And yeah, we're going to go out and just do it. And TTX is opening the show. TTX, yeah. It's going to be fun.

So if people wanted to go to this, do they buy tickets, pay the door? Yeah, they could buy tickets, they could go to the door. I would suggest strongly going to our website and doing advance tickets. AcidTestMusic.com AcidTestMusic.com AcidTestMusic.com That's where the tickets are. You can get

the VIP tickets and get a record. You can get a vinyl or you can get a CD. We've got lots of merch at the show. It's going to be fun. Can I get a cassette tape? Oh! We slipped on that one. I'm just being difficult. We did slip on that. That's going to be the next big thing. You just watch. Because of the hipsters. They did slip on that. That's going to be the next big thing. You just watch.

Because of the hipsters, they like the inconvenience. Exactly. Inconvenience. Because nothing will play it, so of course that has to be in demand. Very cool. And so this album, though, so let's say people are listening, they want to pick up Jess Wright. This is released.

When is this available? How do you buy it? Officially on the 27th. You can pre-order it on our website, which we can ship it to you if you want the organic stuff like the CDs or the vinyl. If you want the digital downloads, the single is out right now

for Slippin' Away on iTunes. You can get the album digitally as well on Spotify and all the usual channels through our website. It would probably be the easiest way to navigate that. And I'll be on the 27th. And it's acidtestmusic.com.

Yes. Somebody had acidtest.com. Is this what I'm to understand? Probably. I'm sure there's a lot of groups and a lot of culture with acid test as a term. And I think it's cool. Oh, for sure. And you know that fun story, kind of fun story, is that the band Tea Party owns teaparty.com.

But there's like great demand for that domain because of the tea party. Right. Of course. Good for them to have that. And I believe they are, they're holding out for the, they want, they don't want,

what is it? That line from the social network. They don't want a million dollars. They want a billion dollars. Good for them. Guys, I got to say, I almost don't want this to end.

Luckily the songs got 52 seconds left. I had a great time. This was amazing. This was great. Any time. Can we play live here sometime? Oh, my God. That would be so much fun.

Of course. In hindsight, I should have made you play live this time. I know, right? No, no. We should have rehearsed. We're doing that this week. We're going to rehearse for our show. We'll give Steve a chance to shake his butt.

Yes, please. You have to come back. What a pleasure it's been. It's been great, Mike. And when you finish your two minutes on CP24 Breakfast, you tell me which was the better experience. Oh, yeah. Well, there's no comparison there. Do you know what? I close every episode with

Lowest of the Low. I really... Gotta do it. In every episode here. And this is one of the songs they played for CBS this morning on the weekend. I still can't get over it. It's almost like they just got their break. They're like, you know,

how old are these guys? They're 50-year-old guys. It's amazing that they just now kind of have a... So proud of them. Well, I hope it'll continue for them. Absolutely. And you guys, I'm glad it's continuing for you and that you're back. And Jess Wright, everybody go to the website, buy this, and the Garrison. Was it the 27th or the 28th?

28th. Saturday the 28th. I hope to see you guys there. I've got a lot of kids, but I'm going to see if I can be there. We need you there. We need you there. If there's a t-shirt in it for me, I wouldn't be there. There's a t-shirt in it for you. I'll tell you right now. And that brings us to the end of our 328th show.

You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Acid Test is at Acid Test Music Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee Game 3 is tonight Go Raps Go

There's our best chance Leafs I'm afraid are not going to make it out of the first round We're still with you Leafs We're a work in progress but we got the Raps Paytm is at Paytm Canada and Camp Camp Turnasol is at Camp Turnasol. See you all next week. Rosie and Gray Yeah the wind is cold But the snow Warns me today And your smile is fine

And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is Rosie and Gray Well you've been under my skin For more than eight years The PDs