Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Andrea Ramolo: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1656

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

In this 1656th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with musician Andrea Ramolo about Scarlett Jane, her solo music, her filmmaking and her giant heart. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1656 of Toronto Mic'd, Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Building Toronto Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Aienes,

sponsored by Fusion Corp Construction Management Inc. and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making her Toronto mic debut, is Andrea Romolo. I wanted to roll that R so bad. Romolo. How are you, Andrea? I'm good, how are you? I realize I'm so eager to get rolling because you were asking questions and I'm like,

don't talk to me, Andrea. We're gonna talk on the recording. You can ask me anything now. But did you want a beer? You know what, I actually don't even drink beer. I'm, you know, gluten sensitive. I drink wine, I drink whiskey, but I would donate beer to like my houseless friends

that live in tent encampments, and I'm sure they'd appreciate that. So I'm going to, for those people, I'm going to, I'm going to send you some beer for the unhoused, and it's gonna be courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. So this is going home with you some beer for the unhoused and it's going to be courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. So this is going home with you, Andrea. Amazing.

They're going to thank you. But now I'm listening to you tell me about this. Is it gluten that you have issues with? Well, no, I eat a lot of bread. I mean, I'm Italian, right? Like you said, I've not heard of Palmas and I'm so excited to try their pasta. Is it a lasagna? It is a lasagna.

Lasagna is my hard work. It's in my freezer right now. Oh gosh, I can't even wait. You will give me a full review. Ramolo, I want a full review. Can I correct the pronunciation? It's actually Ramolo, Ramolo. So Ramolo.

Everyone puts the accent in the wrong spot. Even Italians do. I don't think it's a very typical Italian last name. Speaking of Italians, Palma Pasta is owned by the Petrucci family, named after the matriarch, Palma Petrucci. Today, I went to not Ridley Funeral Home, a different funeral home, to pay my respects.

Palma passed away last week. Oh my goodness. 96 years old. Oh my goodness. 96 years old. Oh my God, what a beautiful life. And she made a beautiful lasagna. So it's her and her husband built Palma pasta. They're in Mississauga and Oakville, so maybe if you don't get out to the West End,

you haven't heard of Palma pasta. I should cover them. I run an Italian blog on the side called The Vintage Italian. I'm gonna go, you know what? I'm gonna promote their lasagna. So I want a full review and I wanna read about it on, what's the side called the Vintage Italian. I'm going to go, I mean, you know what? I'm going to promote their lasagna. So I want a full review and I want to read about it on what's the name of the blog, the Vintage Italian. I will be bookmark.

I'll be subscribing to your RSS feed. I want to, I want to see when this get written about. And I want you to come out like you're now an FOTM friend of Toronto Mike. When I have an event, I'm going to have an event there in like, it's going to be like late November or early December. I'm going to have Mike. When I have an event, I'm gonna have an event there in like, it's gonna be like late November or early December. I'm gonna have a TMLX event. That's a Toronto Mike listener experience at Palmer's Kitchen.

Free event, you get free pasta. I want you to be there. I would love to. That sounds right up my alley. And on June 26th, which is coming up in only a few months, we're gonna be at Great Lakes Brewery. I know you don't drink beer, but you know, we'll get you a pop or something and hang out with us and have some more free

palma pasta at this event. You're invited. Thank you. All these invitations, all these gifts. I didn't even do anything yet. And I mentioned Ridley Funeral Home, a measuring tape for you, Andrea. Okay, good. I thought you were going to, you know, give me a free spot in the casket. I'm not ready for that yet. What? This is beautiful. I was a little conversation today, you know, Kiss makes caskets. Would you buy a casket that was branded with a musician that you liked? I don't think so. I think I would want my casket to be very uniquely me. And what would that be exactly? I feel like it would have turquoise in it. It would be bejeweled with something

or engraved. I like ornate kind of vintage retro type furniture. So I'd love to be put into a casket or a... Why are we talking about my death? I don't even want to think about it. Well, we're talking about death. Okay. And on that note, we're going to get all the death talk out of the way. We're going to learn more about you. I, we're talking about death, okay? And on that note, so we're gonna get all the death talk out of the way. Yeah, right off the top, please. We're gonna learn more about you, I've got you. I got lots of questions, so many comments came in. Somebody's on the live stream, live.torontomike.com,

who saw you today. Saw me today? That's just like a teaser. Oh. So you can start jogging your memory, like who could that be? Somebody saw you today. Was it my cats?

Is it one of my cats? Yes, indeed, it's Felix, The cat is on the live stream. I'm playing this song. Now you are, you're a little younger than me, but you probably, I'm guessing you know this song by Rough Trade. Do you know this song? Can we hit the chorus? I know Rough Trade.

Let's listen. What a voice. The girl can't help it. She really can't help it now. It's like a high schooler. A high school confidential. Oh yes, of course. So that's FOTM Carol Pope. A high schooler.

And her bandmate. And co-founder of Rough Trade passed away yesterday. No, oh my gosh. Kevin Staples. Yeah, so I just wanted to say that this is a great loss and I'll be talking more about this of Rob Proust on the next toast because I know he's another keyboardist who was pretty close to Kevin Staples. But yeah, we lost Kevin Staples.

You know, there's a lot, we just jumped right into the death talk, I have to say. You know what? You gotta do it early. You know what, just to get it out of the way, I lost my dear uncle yesterday. And I feel like he was such a beautiful man, and the last time I visited him,

I remember bringing a guitar, I was on tour in Europe, and he was a Franciscan monk. So I went to, I brought my guitarist, Sarah monk so I went to I brought my guitarist Sarah and we went to the monastery and we played them a private concert and it was like one of the most beautiful memories imagine just like this pristine echo like it was like an echo chamber our harmonies sounded so sick it was amazing and so yeah that memory there's a lot there but your guitar's name is Sara? One of my, my Sada is my Italian guitarists who toured with me through a couple of countries there, yeah.

Okay, okay, okay. Well, I'm so sorry for your loss. Thank you. My sincere condolences. I think that's it for Death Talk. Yeah, we're gonna move into life now. You know what though, the cycle of life, like you live, you die,

it's all part of the beautiful balance in the universe. Do you, and I know I teased that name, a person who saw you, I'm going to get to that in like a moment here, but do you know the name Blair Packham? Of course, I love Blair. Blair's like a dear old friend, I don't even know how many years I've known him, but I feel like when I was just a young, budding songwriter, which was a long time ago now, 20 years, that's probably when I crossed paths for the first time with Blair. And I've worked alongside of him quite a bit.

He brings me on for his song studio workshops where I get to mentor alongside people like Ron Sexsmith and, you know, Andy Stuchanski. Ron Sexsmith. Yes. Andy Stuchanski, of course, these are great names. Drop as many names as you can in this episode. I want to I will.

I know everybody you're hanging with. Yeah. Well, Blair Blair and he's just he just does a great thing. He's a great musician. He's a great friend. You know, we've shared many hearts to hearts to hearts, heart to heart. How many hearts do you have over there? I think I might have two or just one really big one that feels like two sometimes. Is it cows? No. Do cows have multiple hearts? No, I might be confusing. What animal has multiple hearts? I've never even heard of this. I never paid attention

to science class. Maybe cows have multiple stomachs. Can somebody fact check this for me on the live stream? Who's got multiple organs going on there? Well, the reason I brought up Blair Packham is because he's like, gotta have andrea now i'm gonna butcher it but i'm gonna try hard okay give me a moment here ramolo no almost ramolo so let's do the canadian eyes way ramolo ramolo he says you gotta get andrea on the program i'm just gonna call you andrea for now and you're like share madonna you don't say hey you hey you hey you hey you shout out to the Andrea on the program. I'm just going to call you Andrea for now. And you're like share Madonna. You don't say, Hey, you, Hey, you, Hey, you, Hey, you shout out to the, uh, Chuck, the security guard. Okay. So, and you're way too young for that one. Cause I'm too young for that one, but I am going to just start off with the nicest note I got

from Blair about you, where he says you have, and it's funny. We talked about how many hearts do you have? Cause he wrote me and said, ask Andrea about her gigantic heart and how she manages to navigate in a world that is so cruel. Again, I'm not kidding. She has, and I hope this isn't like a large heart syndrome or something. She has a gigantic heart that has seemed to only grow Over the last 10 years that I've known her and I've known her only really vaguely But I like hers very very much and I think she's an excellent person You got a giant heart on you Wow, why does Blair write that tell me what's going on? I don't know. Maybe he sees my giant heart in my work

I guess and what I going on. I don't know. Maybe he sees my joy in my heart in my work, I guess, and what I am passionate about. I mean, it's hard to talk about yourself in this way. Ask me a more specific question. Okay, the more specific questions. Do you help the unhoused in our community? I mean, yes. So one of my newer projects or my newer callings, I guess, it's more of a calling. It started off as an idea

for a project. So I've been a, you know, I started off as a dancer, then I went to theater school and I was an actor. Then I became a musician when my mom had her first of three cancers. I learned how to play the guitar and I taught myself how to heal through music. So I put out my first record out of the eight in like, I don't know, 2007 or something around there, hit the road, bought a van, lived in it for three years. Fast forward, you know, all this touring and all these great friendships and communities that I'm a part of in the music industry here and the communities that I helped create as well. And then, you know, I kind of revisited the film thing,

but by accident, I applied for a Canada Arts Council grant, a music grant, to do a record, an ancestral record, going back to my Italian roots. And I got to travel to Southern Italy, just one region south of where both of my parents were born. I'm very, very connected to my heritage and my culture, I always have been. And when my grandmother passed three years ago,

it was like this journey to heal and just to learn more about our folk music and dance and what that's all about. So I made this really wicked record with this kind of like electronic folk ancestral band from down there, these six beautiful guys who are like my brothers now. And I made a documentary of the making of the

record but then it became so much more. Okay so you've introduced the South. Mm-hmm. So I'm gonna play this now. I think we have ancestral memory. Memories of a specific place and time that maybe we didn't actually live or experience but that we can recall. These stories live in our blood, in our bones. I met the band Kalashima in 2019. When I started this journey of uncovering the roots of Southern Italian music and dance, I knew I wanted them to be involved in some way. So we decided to make an album.

The tradition of playing especially this instrument, the frame drums, is a woman tradition. The beauty of Southern Italy is that tradition has evolved and it became known as this dance of the Tarantella. According to this legend, the people who were pinched by the spider had to be cured through music and dance. What the music spider spiked means is something that is endlessly debated,

but many women still believed that it was a music that cured. We sing in our own way, we sing as we have lived in the past. We sing out of passion. Out of passion. Music is able to change our mood into better, into worse. So yes, in this sense I believe that music cannot be a cure, but it is certainly the cure. The cure, look here, music is the cure. Okay, so you've introduced yourself, this is a film. This is a documentary film, a feature film, and it turned out a lot more beautiful than I could have imagined,

and things just fell together. I met local elders that spoke on my, on my dock. I met local dancers, professional dancers that are part of some of the biggest traditional dance companies, other musicians. And yeah, it was this huge journey. I remember getting on the plane at, you know, at the Rome airport, the Fiumicino to come back home after two weeks of just being in the self-living room.

We shot every day and recorded the record simultaneously. It was full on. I didn't sleep or eat or do anything except that for two weeks. I just gushed. I just exploded with emotion because it was the most intense project I've ever carried myself. And yeah, I won the 45th Annual Canadian Ethnic Media Award for Best Documentary. That's a big deal.

Yeah, it is. You know what, I was like, okay. I mean, maybe nobody else applied, it's fine. And it's presently being- I'm pretty sure Stu Stone, my guest on Wednesday, applied for that award. He applied the exact one, yeah. And it's over at Amazon Prime right now in Italy,

like it's being streamed there. But from that, I think what happened is it kind of gave me the confidence to go back to my film and theater background and kind of amalgamate all of these storytelling art forms that I love to express with, because now it's just like, okay, I want to tell stories with music and film and dance and all the things.

Well, this is where I get confused. You're doing so many things so wonderfully, but I think, okay, Andrea is a singer-songwriter. And you know, this story includes Jake Gold and there's a whole bunch of other characters we're gonna introduce and I'm gonna play music. But you're now a film director. So have you made like a pivot here in your professional life?

Yeah, like something's sinking in a lot of my music friends and ex bandmates and all that. Everyone's like rooting for me. So, I mean, you brought up the, the houseless crisis or, or, so we started there and we kind of went backwards and, um, it's like a Tarantino film. It is. I mean, we're just jumping all over the place. Before I kind of wanted to jump into this new endeavor, you know, I directed a few music videos for friends,

my own, you know, won a few music video awards. Can you name check some of the artists for whom you directed a music video? Well, my dear friend, Kristen Sweetland, that was the most recent one. I also co-directed a music video with Kinny Starr, who's featured in one of my tracks called Free, and we co-directed it with, at the time, our little eight-year-old friend who's an Indigenous hoop dancer who has like become my niece. She's now 12, going on 13, and her name is Emily Ann Pidwanakwit, and we won the Canadian Independent Music Video Award that year.

There it is. I love this song. We wrote this song with Hill Corcoitus who... You know who's in the basement Wednesday? No she's not. Really? That's amazing. Yeah. So she co-wrote this one. Because I haven't even promoted that one yet. Wow. There you go. Visiting Wednesday. We just performed this live two weeks ago at my festival.

For the first time ever. What's your festival called? Our Music Festival. Multi-talented son of a gun over here. Okay, let me hear a little of Free. Since you name checked it. Yeah, jumping all over the place. I'm going to be on my toes today. We can't be free, cause we're not all free

We can't be free, cause we're not all free There's violence in silence We need our voices to come together and sing out loud now It's the only way out and the only way to put an end to suffering when our brothers can't walk down the street without being left to bleed out We're not all free We're living free We're not all free Well I'm not just walking around town Dragging ideas with me Yeah I got a bright mind and a few crowns I'll share them with you, see

The power's my power, fall fast around Ancestors louder when we stomp the ground We can't be free, when I'm all free Andre, I was only going to play 30 seconds and fade it down, but I couldn't fade it down. I was digging it. Thank you. What should I know about Kinney Starr? Oh, she's just the best. She's become a sister over the years.

She was in the original 1997 Lilith Fair tour that Sarah McLachlan put on. The 98 Fair had two Hallies in it. I had one of them Friday. We were talking about the 98-level Fair because Holly McNarland was on the bill and Holly Cole, who was sitting right there. Amazing. That's amazing. Shout out to Lilla Fair.

Holly McNarland was my neighbor a few years ago. We lived in the same... Then I'm going to ask you a question. Was one of your neighbors Patrick Pentland from Sloan? Possibly. Because he sat here earlier this... No, last week, I guess it was, and said that Holly McNarlin was his neighbor. Must be, must be.

We all live in kind of like the West End of Toronto, not too far from here, you know. Okay, well, this is where the artists are all hanging out, all the rock stars. You know, Holly, who I chatted with after the Holly Cole, I found her on Facebook, we chatted, has zero interest in talking about her music career. Why? Was she talking about her her coffee shop not talk about anything?

I mean I invited her over to talk about my life and she didn't want to talk about music anymore Like she seemed lovely, but she she's she's advanced beyond that chapter in her life. She's over it I told you I get it been there done that body It's a it's a hard. It's a hard road. It's not an easy road So I want to find out about working with the unhoused people because, and I don't mind this, I actually like the, let's go out at this meandering, tangenty way where I play songs related to words that you drop.

Oh my gosh, this is fun. I'm all good with that, but I'm pausing you because I realize I'm gonna forget to do this. So I teased you by telling you somebody who saw you today is on the live stream, live.torontomike.com. I've been educated that he did not actually see you today, but he has seen you. And I got a tip, like I said,

Blair Packham sent me many wonderful notes about you. And one is about the fact that you teach for the TDSB. Yes, I teach for actually both Toronto school boards. I have been a professional substitute high school teacher for the last 21 years. You know, I got my degree. I knew, because I went to theatre school, like I said, but I knew that I wanted to make art, because I've been making art since I was like three. Like I started dancing on stage when I was three.

So fast forward, did the good Italian girl thing, got my two degrees at university at York. And then I just, you know, it, oh shoot. No, it's okay, it's empty. They're all empty. Thank goodness. It has saved me. Like when I got off the road,

cause I was living in my van, I was living on tour. I was living in my van. Yeah, you lived in your van for three years. Yes, and it was great. I took a note to get back to that. At this age, I don't think I'm gonna sleep in my van anymore, my back hurts, I want a shower, I want a nice comfy bed.

So I'm so glad I did it when I did it. But so now being home is equally as important as hitting the road and playing some really great shows. I just kind of like to pick and choose what those shows are, what my tours, like I like to sort of design what hitting the road looks like, whereas before I would just hit the road and take anything that came my way and just built, you know, I was a road dog, so I needed to learn, I needed to to get my lessons. You're living a cool life. It was a cool, you know what,

I would never. Can I live precariously through you? Yes. I mean, it's not as, it's not as exciting now. Now it's just work, work, work. So speaking of work. So this documentary, my new documentary, I, you know, I'm a big heart like Blair's, you know, claims I am. He's not. By the way, it turns out that the cows have four stomachs, not hearts. So don't I'm not going gonna be teaching anyone in any board

because I'll miseducate you. Yes, please don't become a high school teacher. And don't confuse a stomach with a heart. Oh my goodness. Anyways, I was gonna take a jab at some teachers, but I'm not going to. I'm gonna be a good girl. I'm gonna be a good girl here.

So I couldn't walk outside anymore. This is when it changed for me. My Italian band from the dock, they, you know, we've been doing some of the major Canadian music festivals each summer and this will be the third summer that they come. And last summer when they came, the number of tents that popped up just in the areas that we were driving by to set up for shows and stuff, you know, it grew substantially. And I mean, we, we noticed it living here, but the guys having come just the year before only once to Toronto before they noticed it and they said to me, and the

way that they phrased it really hit home. They said, how do you let your neighbors live like that? Like, how do you allow your community members to live in parks and in tents, especially with how cold it gets here because they have no clue, right? From southern Italy. And when they put it that way, I was just like, it's true. It's our, like these are our, they could be our brothers, they could be our sisters, they could be any one of our family members. And the mentality there culturally is a little bit different. Like you take care of your people you take care of you don't you don't really see anything like this like the houses Christ that the homeless crisis in this city and in Canada in general I'm not sure about the states I never want to go there again but we'll talk about that later we'll talk about anything you want but if I could interject on the, uh, cause the houseless,

the houseless, the, the unhoused epidemic we have and that I recently recorded in late February, I had a gentleman over named Bruce Davis and his job is to communicate with the neighborhood about the proposed shelter at 66 third street. And there are many shelters, uh, they're, they're being, they've been proposed and this particular shelter is supposed to open in 2028. And they're just doing consultations of the community and what you can expect, etc. And as you can imagine, there's some members of the community that feel it should go somewhere else, as you can imagine. So then I had just a conversation with Bruce about like, what is it? What, why is it going there?

Why do we need this? Et cetera, et cetera. So I'm just here to tell people that's episode 1,638, but, uh, you're, you're of course, a hundred percent right that we, uh, lack sufficient shelter space for our unhoused, uh, citizens. Well, I, I'm going to go beyond that because I actually, like, yes, that's true, but it's like the shelter system, now that I've been out on the streets and like basically being on the front lines, working with these people, befriending them, you know, growing quite

close to some of them, I'm privy to a lot of like behind the scenes information and experiences and people have no idea. Like I'm not an expert on it. I'm not claiming to be, but I know a lot more than I did when I started four months ago when I just was like handing out meals at the back of a beautiful woman's car, Maria. She was the first outreach worker that I kind of collaborated with and since then it's been more and I go out on my own and I do, you know, my own things because I thought, okay, how could I contribute to this? And which, you know, is where the documentary came in. I'm like, I'm going to do a grassroots

documentary. I'm going to take my time. I'm going to build these trust trusting relationships. And the shelters, the shelter situation, it's not even that we don't have enough of them. Yes, sure. We, the shelters, they don't, a lot of my houses friends don't want to go to shelters. There's constant violence. There's, they get thieved a lot of my houses friends don't want to go to shelters. There's constant violence. There's, they get thieved of everything they own, which is not a lot to begin with. Okay. Um, there's, you know, I don't, I'm not going to be completely vulgar, but you can imagine the women that go in there. Um, you know, they're, they're up against, like it's brutal. They feel safer in our parks. They feel safer in their own tents.

They feel more autonomous in their tents even though they're freezing their butts off right. So okay they're just I could talk about this. This is a whole other episode because I have so many thoughts and feelings and like I don't have any quick fixes I think that this entire system of ours needs to just regenerate itself in a new way and Actually put the care of our most vulnerable and this is not even like we're not talking left-wing right-wing. I'm not even talking about politics I'm saying your fellow human being is out there lying in their own. Can you swear on the show? Yep lying in their own shit Okay, their walkers been stolen, they're elderly, they're the same age as my mother, your mother, and they can't walk, they can't get food from themselves,

they can't even change their clothes covered in poop, and what are they gonna do? They need our help. Their situation is colored with grief. I'm gonna tell you that many of the interviews I've had so far, the common thread that I have found, it's not, of course I'm not painting

this black and white picture, but every single person that has been interviewed for my documentary has either broken down or come out to me about their childhood abuse, whether that was sexual or physical, and it's always in the story. And so what I'm starting to do is I'm starting to see these grown people that people like spit at or beat up on the streets like we just had a houseless man, Mario Ferreira, die on a park bench two days ago. Yeah,

U of T, yeah. Yep. And you know, the man that killed him was also, uh, uh, in and out of the shelter system, another houseless man. This for me, and I made a comment on a post and everyone, you know, all the right wings are attacking me. It's just like, the saddest part about this for me is yes, a man has died, a, you know,

potentially innocent man has died, unprovoked, but on the flip side, that man that beat him to death, he fell between the cracks. He obviously struggles with mental illness. He is being, he lives a life on the streets. And when you live a life on the streets, you fall in between the cracks. It's like you're less than human.

Why? Like I look at these people and I'm like, I picture my mom, I picture my dad, I picture my ex-boyfriend. You know, I had a childhood boyfriend that's like on the street now. Like I feel that it could happen to any of us. And when you kind of put yourself in other people's shoes,

then you start to say, hey, we can actually help each other because if I'm down and out one day, I want the goodness of humanity to reach out to me and then lend an, you know, a lend a hand. So I'm going to quote Andrew Ward, who in the live street, a live stream says you're a living saint doing this work. Bless you. So he writes, bless her.

I'm saying bless you. I'm with you. I don't know where the where the lack of empathy comes from because that is my son. That's my brother. That's my father. I mean, who hasn't been touched by mental illness, addiction. Exactly. Exactly. And this is another thing. There's so much. There's just this strange judgment that happens with like mental illness and addiction. There's still the stigma against anything to do with mental illness. We do not have a mentally healthy society

in terms of the way we think about mental health and mental illness, but addiction. It's like, you know, you'll hear some of the NIMBYs say, oh, like, oh, I work hard for my money and all of my cars and blah, blah my cars and this is not even the argument. You're not even on the right planet to start the conversation. When these children, these adults were children and they were taught not to trust anybody because maybe their most trusting, supposedly trusting people in their lives,

you know, took them down this wrong path. When you don't have the tools, when you are dealt with, you know, ancestral trauma plus real life childhood trauma and all of that, yes, if you have a strong spirit and you meet a great teacher or a great uncle or a great somebody, yes, you can get through. Sure. I'm not saying that it's impossible. I know that people have done it and kudos to those people. But for the majority of the people, OK, that have dealt with poverty,

racism, sexism, abuse, all of that, it's like, hey, yeah, just just pick yourself up. Go hard, go work hard for your money. It's not that simple. They're broken people. They're you have to look at them like they're tiny children would you treat a child that way if it didn't have the means to survive and and you know Basically get their basic human needs met. No, you wouldn't so you have to start thinking of these adults and Caring for them in the loving way that we hope society cares for its children. And you're a hundred percent.

And I won't use names. I used it in the Bruce Davis episode of Gas Soup Come On, who basically they may live with their sister now or somebody close to them took them in. And if not for having this support of a family member willing to take them in, they would be in our shelter system or living in a tent. And not everyone's as fortunate as we are to have great family members.

A lot of people have broken families or actually their family is probably the catalyst or the problem that made them run to the streets. Who knows, right? And it's like, how do we handle grief? How do we handle trauma? You know what? I understand what self-medication is all about, okay? And I luckily don't have that much

of an addictive personality that I could get myself out of it. During COVID, I probably drank way too many bottles of wine and tried to like bury my pain there. But I have a pretty good handle on that stuff, except I love jelly beans and candy and chips. Like that's my weakness, I think. But what I'm saying is that like, if your pain is so deep and your tools to manage that

pain are not available to you because you never had access to any of them and you didn't learn how, of course you're going to turn to drugs and alcohol. You're not going to turn to God anymore because God has failed you the whole way, right? So right. And just today I was listening to CBC radio and they're talking to a gentleman. The safe injection site is closing and he's talking about how like there's a whole there's a series of things, but it starts with saving the life. And then you know, then it begins this health care treatment for for addicted peoples in our community. But it's saving of things, but it starts with saving the life. And then it begins this healthcare treatment for addicted peoples in our community.

But it's- And saving the life and then having safe housing for them to actually go through their journey of being saved and trying to heal, right? What are you gonna do? Heal in a tent where drugs are everywhere and you're gonna get slashed so that somebody can get- Yeah, or maybe you're reusing a needle or something,

a dirty needle and et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. Okay. Goodness gracious. And we could do a whole episode about this, but Blair warned me that you had a gigantic heart. So I was sufficiently. So, and again, I'm also an angry Italian. So mix that the giant heart with the angry Italian and like the passion Italian. And I think sometimes they get loud and in trouble, but the point is I'm trying to do the little bit I can as a storyteller to I think shine a light on these these people that are actually living out on

the street and not just we could talk about policy we could talk about government and all of that it's not doing anything all we're doing is talking in circles so how about maybe trying to shine a light and access other people's little hearts or medium hearts or whatever hearts they have to open up a little bit more so that we can maybe shift as a community. Like let's start with our own city. That's all that we can do. Okay. And before again, I've never teased anything more in my life, but I'm going to reveal the name of the person on the live stream who has seen you

in your place of work in the TDSB school system as a substitute teacher? Yes. Not a supply teacher, right? Because when I was growing up, we called them supply teachers. We did too. But now we call them substitute teachers.

Well, no, you actually call them an occasional teacher, so I'm an OT. OT. But what happened to supply? Was that just a bad term from the get-go? Why did we call these people supply teachers? I don't know, it doesn't even make sense. But that's what we call them.

And also, my kid will have a PD day. It's a professional development day. But when I was growing up, it was a PA day. Same. Was there another vote I missed? I wonder what the A stood for back then. Professional. Activity? Oh yes, you're probably right. There we go. Was there another vote? I wonder what the the a stood for back then professional Activity. Oh, yes, you're probably right. There we go. So now it's like, okay We're using the teachers use that data develop their skills no more activities

It's actually just boring that makes sense to and but it's wild We call them supply teachers like that's a terrible name like I should have always been at least I mean you said now it's Okay But substitute teacher is because I'm thinking of Lisa's substitute a fantastic Simpsons episode do you remember when Mrs. Hoover thought she had you don't you don't speak Simpsons no you know what she had Lyme's disease and then they brought in the Sam Etick who uh was Dustin Hoffman actually he played the supply teacher supply teacher I did it again because I grew up it was supply teacher same I'm not judging Substitute, fantastic episode

of The Simpsons, my guest does not speak Simpsons. This conversation's over. I have to say, when I was a kid, kid I watched Facts of Life, Webster, Silver Spoons, Alf, what else was good? Different Strokes. Growing Pains. Growing Pains for sure.

Who was the boss by the way? Who was the boss? It was way? Who was the boss? It was definitely Angela Bauer, right? I think so. Yeah. But those shows were like, we had great shows growing up. And then, then I became a dancer. I went, like I danced four or five nights a week

and never watched TV again. And to this day, I have not owned a TV set probably for 25 years. So you're not watching White Lotus. I am on my, on my, on my shitty computer. How do you define TV? Okay, so you just replaced the screen and you're calling that not only TV.

No, I only replaced the screen in the last two years. I only started watching shows in the last two, I'm not, not in the- Because I would argue, if you're telling people you don't own a TV, it should be inferred you're not up to date with the White Lotus, which literally dropped an episode last night. You know what, I didn't watch the new Thailand one, but of course I watched the one in Sicily because

it's my mother country. That was good. Well, and it had Christopher from The Sopranos in it. It did. And also the young actress that played the prostitute. I actually have been following her career because I got hooked on a Netflix series maybe a year ago, an Italian Netflix series called Luna Park, where she's this young sort of drifter who grows up in the carny. And I love the whole like the whole

setup. And it's just really magical. You know, Andrea, for a woman who just bragged about not owning a TV, you're watching a lot of television. Now I am see it's because I'm old. What's wrong with you? Okay. So I want to shout out, if I don't get to it, I didn't get to it. Okay, Midtown Gord. I don't even know if you know this name, Midtown Gord. Maybe he goes by a different name professionally, but Midtown Gord says hello to you. Hi Gord. Is this Gord from the school that I left early today? Oh, I'm not going to reveal our place of work Gord. That's top secret. I saw, I did see. He has a beard. I know, I know. And he loves his Lee Aaron, for example. He's a big.

I just. So today I said, oh, Gilmore is going to come over. And he said, this makes me very, very happy. Like this, this midtown gourd is ecstatic. But do you know that I opened gourd for Lee Aaron once in Timmons, Ontario? That's a big deal. Lee Aaron, you know, the Aaron's a Karen. Lee Aaron is a fake name. The band's name was Lee Aaron. Sort of like Alice Cooper.

Like the band was named Lee Aaron and she took on the name. Yeah, well her name is Karen. Really? Yeah, she's from, I think she's from Brampton and her name is Karen. Oh, I called her Lee. I called her Lee. Well, you can call her. I'm sure everyone calls her Lee. I don't think she'd probably think it was weird if you called her Karen. Imagine Karen My name is not really Madonna. It is though. I checked I need to know who's changing their name Yeah, but Madonna Chico or changing their identity like we won't Madonna That's a lot of people let them let them stay anonymous But yeah Midtown Gordon not his real name Midtown's not his real name

But okay Madonna quick fun fact that dropped on toast How like hit laden do you have to be? How prolific with hit making do you have to be to release a greatest hits and leave Billboard Hot 100 number one songs off of your greatest hits? Is that what she did? Who's that girl went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and she did not put it on the Immaculate Collection? Oh my gosh, I love that it's called the Immaculate Collection.

Yeah. That's the best. That's the name of the Madonna greatest hits. I want to say 95 or so she drops this thing. I don't know what's going on. I loved Madonna when I was a kid. She had too many hits and she's like, oh, I don't care about that number one hit. I'll leave that off. Leave that out. I mean, maybe there wasn't enough room for it. You make room for

your number one, but she obviously preferred other songs to that number one. Who's that girl? Wow. Which is a better song than a movie. I don't know if you've seen who's that girl. Okay. No, I haven't. I got to get to a song. Cause I want to cover a part of your career that we haven't really touched on yet. Uh, if that's okay with you, but this song has a slow burn off the top. I feel I should talk it up So what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you Or should I just be quiet and listen? Yeah, is that okay? Yeah, sure. Okay. I don't want to get an evil eye over there. So you're okay with older songs I'm like what song are you playing?

I want you to go to recycle my electronics dot CA later today Andrea because if, because if you have old cables, old electronics, don't throw them out. Old televisions. Old televisions, old screens. And trampling on your lyrics. Oh, this is a rated R song. Put your hands upon me, I'll slip off my dress You don't need to know me Put your arms around me, let me your desire Take away my pain, I am liquid fire It's you that lit the flame I'm burning up, burning up, burning up

I'm burning up, burning up, burning up, burning up I haven't heard this song in years. Okay so tattooed on your chest. Okay, so one observation is, there's two voices in that mix here. So let us introduce to the listenership, if they don't already know, Scarlett Jane. Take away my pain. Tell us, who is with you in Scarlett Jane? My partner, my bandmate was Cindy,

and we released two records together. I'm trying to think of the years like 2013-12 maybe till 2016 we were active and we toured a lot we played a lot of shows. Well I have a nice note from Mike from K-Dub who I put on Blue Sky you were dropping by and he wrote me I have been a fan of Andrea's music since seeing her play with her group, Scarlet Jane, one beautiful summer night. I am sure you will ask her whether there might be any more collaboration with Cindy

under the Scarlet Jane name or otherwise. So what would you say to Mike K-Dub who wants to know if there will be more Scarlet Jane at some point? I don't believe so. I think that artists evolve and relationships ebb and flow. And I think that we had a really solid run. And we worked really, really hard together. And we worked really well together.

And we put out some really great music and some cool videos that we usually made ourselves. We were pretty DIY. And then Jake Gold came in and managed us for a bit. Jake Gold, who's also the manager of the Tragically Hip. And so, you know, we got a lot of perks with having him as our manager. And, you know, he was tough and he worked hard for us,

for sure, so he opened a lot of doors. And actually this song was, it didn't make it in the final cut but we saw the preview for David Cronenberg's film that one year when this album came out and he used this song and he was contemplating using it for his new film and he didn't but in that I actually met his daughter Caitlin Cronenberg. Photographer. Well she's also a director now. Also a director. Yes and she's directed a few of my music videos and I actually played one of her art gallery exhibits with my Leonard Cohen record a few years later.

But yes, no, I think that Scarlett Jane, if you love the music, keep listening to it. We love that you are still supportive of it. But I think it's been 10 years since we've been a band. How did you end up working with J. Gold? Like did he see you and say, I like the cut of your jib? Is that an exact quote? How'd you end up with J. Gold?

You know what? He's also an FOTAM been here a couple of times. I don't remember, but I have a vague recollection that he might've reached out to me on Facebook. Remember the good old Facebook times? I don't even think Jake hasn't been on the FaceTime in a while,

but I think that's what it was. Maybe he saw a tour that we put together, and I think that's how we reached out. I mean, it's also like 10, this is more than 10 years ago. This is like 16, 17 years ago. That's a long time ago. So it's hard to remember how things fell into place. You just have to look back and recognize that everything happened the way that it needed to and should have and you are where you're at and you know.

You're in a good place. Yeah, very good place. But creatively, artistically. Very good. I can tell, you're glowing. Yeah, I feel like I'm, I have, it's nice. It's tough to be in a band. I mean, what does Richard?

Even when it's a duo. Oh, for sure. I mean, what does Richard- Even when it's a duo. Oh, for sure. I mean, like two things are inevitable in life. You have to pay your taxes and your band will break up. That's just, I think Richard Flohill, my publicist, my first publicist of all time. He's been over here. Of course he has.

I tapped Ant's Dead his 90th birthday this year. He's a legend. He's the one that gave me that quote. And it's like, it's just, it's, it happens. Like it's intense to's a legend. He's the one that gave me that quote. And it's like, it's just, it happens like it's intense to be a musician. You're traveling, you're not getting sleep, you're busting your ass, you're hustling. And you know, as artists, of course we're not, you know, society doesn't treat its artists the best, does it? Right? We have to really struggle for all the things that we get and people don't see the behind the scenes.

Sometimes you have to live in a car. Oh yeah, I did that. I mean, you know, we've slept in very precarious situations, but you know, it was such an adventure. It has been an adventure. It will continue to be an adventure. I think at this age though, like I'm in my forties and I never tell anyone, but I just did. So here we go. It's just like you get to carve the life that you want that you feel safe and good about, and you get to surround yourself with other artists and people that are speaking either the same language

as you at the time, or maybe a completely opposite language that you really can learn from. And like, so I'm about that at this point. Well, you know, Hall and Oates don't talk to each other anymore. Do you know this? No. And you know, Simon and Garfunkel aren't friendly either. Really?

That's okay. That one's a shock. That one's a shock. I'm full of shocks here. I almost called you Scarlett. It was the turtle next. Do people call you Scarlett the way they call Kieran? Yeah, people used to be like, which one's Scarlett?

Are you Scarlett? Or like, there's no Scarlett. By the way, Midtown Gore, the biggest Lee Aaron fan I've ever known, lets me know in the comments of the live stream that her name is Karen Greening. So that is the name of Lee Aaron, Karen Greening. I'm glad that they went with the Lee Aaron. Well, Lee Aaron was the band.

It's easier to say. Shout out to Alice Cooper, okay. Who's a Vincent? Is he Vincent? Vincent Fernier. Oh my gosh, you know so much. Look at all this knowledge. Any golf? Do golf? No, but my dad is an avid golfer. He loves golfing. Yeah. And Marie Golfs. I'm just throwing it out there. And you know who else golfs? I mentioned Gilmour's coming over because I just booked that today. Gilmour is a big time golfer. Like he's one of those him and Tom Cochran. Did you watch the tragically hip documentary on prime? I did. My ex-boyfriend's in it. Tom Wilson. Yeah, I pull. I'm gonna get Tom. I got a Tom. Yeah. Tom will Tom Wilson. That's a mind blow.

I think. But I did pull a Tom Wilson thing. I'm going to ask you about later. Tom Wilson loves his Palma pasta lasagna. Does he? Oh, he's eating it Oh Joe. Oh yeah yeah he's been over a few times. Oh great. And he like just he comes for the lasagna. I don't think he wants to necessarily talk to me. All right now I've got so many questions, Andrew. How much time do you have? I mean I'm here right? You're stuck. You're my prisoner here. Is there a glass of wine somewhere? No I'm just joking. No I got beer though but you don't drink beer. I have to figure that out. I should have brought some water. Well, I won't take long. I promise I'll keep this to four hours. Is that okay? That's good. That's good. I can help you.

As long as I get my beauty rest. Just joking. Well, you're fine in that department. Okay. I was going to, so the documentary, uh, you eat a little surprising to us Canadian rock fans is to see really how close the hip came to breaking up. Cause you mentioned how difficult it is for a band and band. And we always think, oh, these guys meet in like high school in Kingston and then they're together until Gord passes away. The doc makes it pretty clear during the Bob Rock era, as I'm now calling it, that things were, they were on the verge of a breakup themselves. So just to reiterate your point there that it's a tough for a band to stay together.

Well, think about how many things you have to negotiate, like your emotional lives, how they like, you know, kind of clash with with one another. Then there's like the finances, there's the the routing, the touring, the who's sick, who's taking over, who's picking up the slack. Like there's so the routing the touring the who's sick who's taking over who's picking up the slack Like there's so much that goes into it. It's beyond family beyond relationship. It's like all these levels of of Dependency and responsibility and it's a challenge like I like okay. I love touring solo I will say I do love it, but it gets lonely. That's the flip side of it. But when you're touring solo, you're in your car,

you're on a train, whatever, you can go wherever you want, right? Wherever your heart calls you, there's no negotiating. And I think after years of negotiating, and not only in that band, but before that, I was living in my van, but I was living in my van with, I guess he was my boyfriend at the time. He was my one-man band. And there my van with, I guess he was my boyfriend at the time. He was my one man band.

And you know, there's that too. And who did the driving and who's, you know, staying up for 12 hours, getting us to Canora from Alberta, because we have to make it to the show. Like it's a lot, it's not, it's not your regular day job. Hey, let's clock in at nine and go home at five and complain to the wife, right?

There's a lot that goes into it. And then of course, your fans and the promoters and everything, you wanna make sure that you're, you're spending some time with them, but it gets exhausting after you've driven all day, right? You've flown in, then you've driven, and you're just wiped out because you've given the best you can on stage, then there's also that nightlife part of it. And there I started in the in the end of it I started like

hiding upstairs or in a green room. I was like okay I'm really tired. Have you ever seen the epic Canadian film by Bruce MacDonald, Hardcore Logo? I saw it a million years ago. Actually, Bruce McDonald, I always see he used to come by because I used to work at the orbit room for five years and he used to come by there all the time and live in that area. And I actually just ran into him a month ago at a coffee shop on Queen Street and he always wears his quintessential kind of straw cowboy hat. But you know what, I don't recall a hardcore logo, but I did watch it.

Well, I mean, I've never been a musician, but that's like when I think about Canadian rock bands, you know, in their car touring this vast country of ours, this wonderful sovereign nation of ours. Proudly independent, fiercely independent, if you will. I should put that on CNN. Fiercely independent. You wanna use that? F fiercely independent if you will. I should put that on CNN. Fiercely independent. You wanna use that?

Fiercely independent. Oh, I like this song a lot. This is one of, like this was a huge record for me and moment in my life for sure. You're the stitch in all my seams Down my throat and up my spine Floating in my glass of wine Still keep coming back for more I can't escape you It's your way, not my way You're here, you're everywhere Now this is an audio presentation, but this is a great video too actually. Thank you.

Tell me about this, you said it's a big moment for you, why? This record, this whole time in my life, so this was, well first of all that's a Michael Timmons production from the Cowboy Junkies. I miss him actually so much, he's been on my mind lately, he produced two of my records. I met him through Tom. So I was dating Tom Wilson at the time. We had a great romance for almost two years and, um, you know, I won't go into too many details, but we split up and it was- I need all the details before you and Tom. You know, how about this? I was too, I, I, we, we probably met, we were probably soulmates, but met in the wrong, uh in the wrong lifetime you know what I mean yeah I mean he was 21 years older than me right so there was a quite an age

difference. I would have guessed higher. Yeah well that's nice thank you you're being complimentary to me but yeah there was just an age difference in the light like just a different phase of our life and I get that so much now and I did after you know a year of mourning it or whatever but this record came out of you know that that falling apart and then my band breaking up so here I am like all alone and Tom and I did a lot of music together we co-wrote uh not this song but a few songs on this record on his beautiful scars record um I sang on that record we had already split up before I did this one so I got Andy Mays to sing on my record instead.

He's amazing. He's one of my. Oh, there it is. Well, that's not beautiful scars, though. But it's the only Tom Wilson I have in the studio right now. Yeah, I know those paintings. Well, I used to have a huge one that, oh, this is going to fall in. And Hank hung on my wall. But I hung it on me wall. Yeah, it was. So this was the double record I did.

That was like it was the most healing I've ever felt, I think, through music. I did a kitchen table version of the 10 songs and then I did a full band version with Michael Timmons. My friend Faye Blaze did the solo acoustic version, kind of like that Lucinda Williams kitchen table vibe. Sure. Because I wanted to offer like the raw song, just the voice and my bare tone guitar. And I love these songs. I still play a lot of them in my live sets.

And this was like my therapy. This was my drug. This got me through what I needed to get through. Because it was interesting because I had never kind of stood on my own, my own. And it was such an empowering moment to claim my sound. That's when I got my Dan Electro baritone and I haven't stopped playing it since this record. Actually, I started writing the songs on Tom's Dan Electro baritone

that was growing yellow and hanging on his wall in the living room. And I was like, what is this? I've never played a type of guitar like this before and I fell in love with the low strings right and the tone of it and it just goes really well with the way that I write songs I play with my thumb so it's like somewhere between a bass and a guitar because Tom knows I love this song yeah Live out of the suitcase in the bathroom Washing the restrooms at the shelf Get my meals from the Taco Bell Eating parking lots from a paper sand

Duck out of the window and out of sand No, actually, although that's her. She does your part. She does my part, yeah. What you're about to do. Murray McLaughlin, unrelated. Really? I did not know that. Yeah, Denise Donlin's husband. Oh, she knows everything. I don't know everything. I just know like the 10 things I've told you.

That's it. Just the 10. I have no further information. You just repeat the same. Oh, God. I don't know what to expect here. by sleeping bag real tight. Oh God, I don't know what to expect here. I live in a car that doesn't go nowhere.

It's one short step to a shopping cart in a twilight world that has no heart. Great line. A world that has no heart I watch the sun go down from Burndell College I didn't know these broken dreams don't give me time to any people who love me I've always loved I'd see the video on much music or Sarah McLaughlin and Tom Wilson Yeah, he so he got shit face drunk with Murray McLaughlin one night and they wrote this thing Yeah, and there's a Murray version out there if you go to YouTube you can find the Murray McLaughlin version But you know Murray doesn't have these pipes right that Tom has here. So are you still friendly with Tom Wilson? Yes, I actually texted him today. I mean, we don't talk often anymore.

Can you tell Tom you're talking to Toronto Mike and we can find out what he's saying? He came to a event at Palma's Kitchen. Hi, Tom. No, you know what? The last time he actually, we haven't touched base in a while in a conversation over the phone,

but we say hi through people, we'll text. He called me when my grandma died. He checks in, we check in once in a while, but I mean, he has a beautiful, you know, he found a beautiful partner right after me, which is like, I think she's a sunshine in his life. And you know, and I moved on and I, you know, dated my Italian boyfriend and you know, Tom.

Tom right there, I saw it light up. Is that Tom? Let me see. No, I don't think so. I heard you're on Toronto Mike. Imagine? No, actually that's nobody. It's just like... We don't have time for him. The news and the socials and all of the depressing things going on in the world.

Did you see his musical about beautiful scars? No, I wanted to go with my mom, but I couldn't make it. There was like one day we could have gone and I just didn't go. But I heard it was great lots of friends went. Yeah absolutely I mean when Dave Hodge comes to your event you know it's a big deal. Yeah for sure. That's a big fucking deal. Yeah so okay. Yeah I love that you know this is like the whole thing about like his story, his identity, we were going through that like he was he was going through that in our relationship so

you know I was gonna ask you what years were talking about that well I'm like I was like as he calls me in his book the pushy Italian girlfriend who kept on nagging him to tell Janey that that he knew that she was his mom so that's kind of what happened like it was I don't know if it was his 55th 50th birthday I forget how many years ago. It was a big birthday, a monumental one, and we had a barbecue with the family in the backyard, and then he drove her home,

and that's when they had the conversation. And from that moment, I mean, that's heavy duty, right? Like your entire life has stepped up so down. Well, as he says, he thought he was a big, sweaty Irishman, and he finds out he's a big, sweaty Milwaukee man. A big, puffy Irishman, he says. Yeah, a big, puffy Irishman. Yeah, so I mean, I'm proud of him.

I love that he's using his art and his voice to continue to like claim and be strong, like strongly claim his identity. And, you know, we already kind of saw his identity come out through his work and through his paintings and through his voice and all of that. But now it's just, I'm sure that he's more at ease with it,

or I hope that he is anyway. What a life you've, I can't believe you're only in your 40s. You've had such a life. I'm gonna be 45. It's a big year. I'm gonna go to Italy for my birthday. Okay, what part of Italy?

I'm gonna go to the South. I'm gonna go, actually, I'm gonna go to the North as well. You made a film about it. You gotta go to the South. I'm gonna visit family. I'm actually, I was north as well. You have to I think after you made a film about it. You gotta go to the south. Yeah, I'm gonna visit family. I'm actually, I was asked to adjudicate a film festival near my hometown and they're gonna screen my two new shorts, my short films.

So I'm gonna go there, do the red carpet, it's gonna be fun. The Italian band, they might come up to my hometown to play a big feast, like a big festival. And I'm gonna actually go up and visit my ex-boyfriend that came after Tom who lives in Venice now. We're still friends, so go hang out with him and his friends.

Get in a gondola with that guy. Well, it's not that kind of vibe anymore. He's more like my brother now, but yes, we can get in. You can still get in a gondola with him. Yeah, for sure. He's your brother. Now, okay, so you referenced our music festival. Can you tell me what that is?

We kind of let it go really quickly, but. So our music festival, can you tell me what that is? We kind of let it go really quickly, but. So our music festival, I don't know, I guess me and my friends during COVID, we had this great group of check-ins, like Madison Violet was on it, Sarah McDougall, Sarah Slean, Hill was on it, Hill Krakourdis, Amanda Rium, I mean, Della. Do you have a message for Hill?

Hi, Hill. Like you can say it now and I'll cut it out. I want to tell her that I'm so proud of her and she's kicking ass and I love the soccer theme that she it for Hill. Like you can say it now and I'll cut it out. I want to tell her that I'm so proud of her and she's kicking ass and I love the soccer theme that she did for FIFA. And now Mike, I want you to play that theme. Yeah, I heard it. I actually heard it on the radio.

After I booked Hill, I heard it on the radio, believe it or not, and then it all came together in this perfect storm here. She's just so brilliant. And I started watching Hill when she was 19, no, she was underage on stage. When I worked at the orbit room, she would come to the orbit room with Tara Sloan. They were good friends. Tara's a good friend of mine too. We're both, yeah, we're both Virgos. And I remember seeing little baby

Hill killing it, just slaying on her guitar, probably 18 years old, maybe 17, at the Elma Combo, the old Elma Combo when the stage was risen and you just walked in. Pre-wacker. Yeah, exactly. And, uh, gosh, she was so good. She's so talented, but you know, she, she's a mastermind and I love that she's getting the accolade that she deserves. And especially as a woman, um, you know, in, in tech, like as a producer, as an engineer, she's paving the way for so many other young female and non-binary people. It's like incredible what she's doing. so what a trailblazer. Tell her that I'm, I'm, I love her. I mean she still has to invite me over to her house with her dog and Abby

so that we can have some, I don't know, you know. She can cook me something Greek. We always talk about our culture. We're big on our cultures. Well, she's probably going to have a palm of pasta lasagna. So, okay. Okay. Well, maybe she can serve me the parmesan. So you're friendly of Tarselone,

you said, she's been over a couple of times too. And she, I saw her on, like I was watching, I think I was at my mom's house for a swim cause I was going to pool in her. I need to give you all the details. Okay.

Okay. Since we're good friends here and she has, she has just CP24 runs on a continuous loop in that home. Like it's like, I never see CP24 and I come over and it's just going. And they're showing scenes from this Elbows Up at Nathan Phillips Square.

And I saw Tara Sloan was there. Tara and Shakur Saeeda, who I just had a Women's Day event. She was one of my guests. So after, okay, let's segue back to the R Music Festival. This is perfect. Cause the event happened after R Music Festival. So I was, you know, we, this group of friends online, we're just sharing what it's like to be female

and non-binary artists during COVID. We, it was really like a support group of all these fascinating, incredible musicians. And we were there for each other and it ran for like a couple of years online, on Zoom during COVID. And you know, songwriting collaborations came out of that. And here we are kind of still years later, still facing

and trying to address this gender disparity issue that's still exists, let's be honest. I mean, the patriarchy is not dead. And I've been a touring musician for 20 years and you're seeing slight differences, but not enough, right? So I thought I would start a little music festival in Toronto that would, you know, celebrate and showcase female and gender diverse headliners only.

Doesn't mean it's for only female and gender diverse fans. We could have used a lot more male fans in the crowd this year, gentlemen out there. Because I feel like there are voices that are not being heard as much and they deserve an amazing audience to cheer them on and to listen to the work that they're putting out because it's well deserved. How much of this was influenced by Sarah McLaughlin who just came up because it's her voice on Burned Out Car and Lilla Fair that we talked about earlier? Oh for sure. I mean she's the one that paved the way for everybody. She was the first one to do it.

And you know years later with some of the friends and colleagues I had in the music industry in Toronto we ran this thing called Ladies in Waiting. And it would happen every Monday night at Not My Dog, which is now closed down in Queen Weston Parkdale. And we would pack the tiny little joint. It was like, it felt like just this packed little New York house or something. And all of the women would get up and play on each other's songs, bass and drums and harmonies. And it was like an amazing time that we put together two album compilations. We gathered some female artists from across the country and you know we threw a big event at Lula Lounge, a couple of big events and so

that was like the I would say like the the seeds planted and then you know I went on the road and I got busy and and now because I like to be home a little bit more and because I do trust my voice and I, my access to creating community, like I, I know that people, I feel that people trust me and I trust myself more to be able to bring the right people together, the good people together that want to fight the good fight, you know, I, you know, started the festival last year and that last year was a huge success and we filled a Hughes Room, the new Hughes Room at the time. This year-

Shout out to Jane Harbury. Yes, hello Jane, we love you. I do love Jane. And then this year I wanted to expand because it was such a great turnout and this year we held it at the Great Hall, which is a gorgeous venue, but the numbers, the ticket sales were not there

and my heart broke for these artists because they deserved 480 people in the crowd, you know, so I am not gonna give up because It was their moments and they were just magical the people that were there. They just like they couldn't believe that so many people missed an Incredible evening of music and so many people became new fans to a lot of these artists that they had never heard of You know Kenny star played we did our free song live with with Emily and on hoop dancing It was just really fun to do that together for the first time. I had Chris Dirksen play Chris is a Cree

cellist who I think Carnegie Hall she did her debut recently, she plays with all the orchestras and like she's incredible and I've been watching her play in North, like I met her once in northern BC when I was living out in my van and I remember being blown away then so full circle I got to have her back. Lala Noel who's Kyla Charter who sings with Aysen Abbey, Aysen Abbey, Evan's lead you know backup singer there and she actually collaborated and co-wrote his Juno Award-winning record and his new record with him. So she's his main collaborator. So she is a gorgeous solo artist.

She just was ethereal and took us to another universe. And I mean, there were so many artists. Irene Torres, a Peruvian jazz artist. I had Sarah McDougall, who is one of my best friends and produced my quarantine dream record. I mean, Torres, I feel like this is a James B connection. Yes, James B. I also know James B. There's like the James B stable.

Yeah, I know. I used to go sailing with James B. Okay. And I was young and cool. You know, I can't imagine what was happening on that boat. We just got silly, listened to some really great music. I fell in love with jazz through James B. You know, I grew up like listening to jazz music because I had to tap dance to it.

Keep going, I'm gonna find my look people. Oh my God, no way. Yeah, no, James is an old friend. Oh, it's right there, let me see. You go shut up. Would you consider James B to be a famous person? I think so. All right, here's a mind blow for you.

You probably know this. Everyone knows this except me and then I need to point it out, but Clayton Tyson. Do you know who Clayton's parents are? Know who? Ian and Sylvia Tyson. No way, really? Isn't that wild?

That is wild. Four strong winds. Look at this design. And Sylvia's still with us, Ian's passed on. But four strong winds might be our anthem. Like mine and yours? Like Canada's. Like Canada's.

Like the entire nation. What would be our anthem? That's what I want to know, Andrea. What would be our anthem? We're going to come up with it by the end. We have to see where the conversation goes, I think. I'm shouting out people who are actually like following along live because there's such lovely comments here and you, we better warn Lee Aaron, okay?

Get the restraining order intact Lee Aaron because Midtown Gord found, well actually maybe you're the one who should be concerned but no, I'm just kidding. Midtown Gord's a sweetheart. We love Midtown Gord but he's found the article from 2016 where Scarlett Jane played on the same bill as Lee Aaron in Timmons.

So he's found the article so he can tell you it is a good as a detective. Yeah. Andrew Ward says watching you react alive is so awesome. So now Andrew knows how I feel. OK, so I got to say hello to Hayref. Hayref is a hockey referee. That's why he's called here. If Burlington Rob, I'm honored that Burlington Rob is here.

No offense, Hayref, but Burlington Rob keyboardist for Spoons. Oh, okay. Do you know Spoons? The Spoons, the Burlington band from the 80s. They had hits like Nova Heart and Romantic Traffic. I actually now need to play Romantic Traffic because you don't know. I have to go find, I have to play this for you.

I need you to, because Rob is listening. I was little in the 80s. Well, I was around, I was listening to music, Casey Kasem's weekly top 40. Yeah. They wouldn't have been heard on Casey Kasem cause that was, uh, America's, uh, top 40 and this was a Canadian hit. So I'm going to find this. Come on, Mike, here it is. Okay. Let me know if it rings a bell at all. And if it doesn't, that's fine.

You'll forgive me. Five years I have on you are very important. Five years for spoons, I think. That's your average. Yes. The synth is amazing. It's a change in the ways. It's not ringing a bell for her.

No. I'm sorry. Nope, she doesn't know it. But it brings me right to the 80s and I like it. That's good. That's good. Because Proust co-wrote this with Gore Depp, who is the front man for Spoons. I thought you said you only knew 10 things.

That's 11. I think there was another. You want to say a name? You'll pick it up quick. Ready? You want to sing with me? You'll pick it up quick. I actually know this chorus. Hey, that's good news. So Rob, Burlington Rob as he wants to be known, that is good news. So hello to J-Ho, Jeremy Hopkins, who is the official Toronto historian of the Toronto Mike podcast. A lot of good people coming out here today. Okay, so I'm going to play one more song from you, but I'm going to shout out a podcast called Building Toronto Skyline, which is hosted by

Nick Ienis from Fusion Corp. And there's a recent episode where Nick talks to somebody from Pinnacle International, which is developing the condo, the residential condo tower at One Young Street, which is going to be the tallest skyscraper in the country in the very sovereign, fiercely independent country of Canada. That's important you take notes on that. Okay, so let's hear some Andrea here before. Wait, I'm curious what you're gonna play. Are you gonna play Golden? Can I tell the story of Golden?

Okay. Why don't you let me play what I'm gonna play? You're fine. You are gonna play Golden. That's Golden. I was always gonna play Golden. I love Golden. We're on the same wavelength.

I do love golden. We're on the same wavelength. I do love it Tell me there's nothing between us Tell me that you never think of me at all Tell me that I'm making things up in my head like I always do Tell me there's nothing between us And the days go by Longing, waiting for you Come feed this fire

Tell me you don't feel it too Make me burn brighter If my love is golden, it's golden for you I'm getting lost in the sight of you I feel the current pulling me in You think our love is forbidden That's why you're keeping it hidden But you know what I know when we know the truth And the days go by Longing, waiting for you And the days go by Come feed this fire Tell me you don't feel it too Make me burn brighter

Cause my love is golden, it's golden for you, golden for you Golden for you, my love is golden for you Golden for you, golden for you Golden for you, my love is golden for you You talented son of a gun. Sounds amazing in these headphones. Thanks. You made that. Yes.

Well, with help with producer and who's helping you with that? Anastasia Petrova produced this. So I was at a song camp at Universal Music and it was this cool song camp to get more women and non-binary artists in the studio and working together. And Sky Wallace was a part of it, a bunch of great people. I love Sky Wallace. Same, also Jem, who's one of my dearest friends now, we met through this and we wrote

our Shimmering Chrome duet together. So out of that song camp came my friendship with Jem, who also is a solo artist but plays keys with me, so we've toured together since, our duet, and then this song which opened the Paris Olympic Games on CBC TV, with like, it was just such a beautiful moment. And I bet you Tim Thompson did the montage. Tim, I love Tim.

So Tim I've known for many years. Tim did the montage and Randall Ajay, who is our poet laureate, our Ontario's poet laureate, as well as Felicia George, three-time Olympian, they did this spoken word, beautiful piece together. I remember this, I'm a big Olympics head. Yeah, and so, and that opened, and Andy Petrillo, who was giving the news,

her and I went to high school together, and we used to do drama skits together, so she messaged me, she's like, I can't believe this is your song, can I show your high school yearbook photo on the opening coverage? I coverage and like I guess and they show like the most hideous photos of us when we were like can I assign you homework can you ask Andy if she'll come on Toronto Mike sure I've never I want

Andy Petrillo on Toronto Mike I see her do the prime there's a hockey game Monday nights on on prime and she's doing that and she's like I said that she's all over the soccer stuff and she was made for that like as a kid you knew that that's what she was gonna do and I think she she even said to me some pulmapasta I'm on you know what I will text her after okay that's your assignment we're off the yeah okay beautiful okay we're gonna get Andy Petrillo here in the basement yeah Tim Thompson just put together a Canada thing that went viral in

his country. So that's how I know that's how I want to close. So before I've been knocking down this beer, I'm so excited to have you here. So I need you to tell me what exactly, where can we see you perform live? What are the active projects? Like what's coming down the pipe? Do that now. I need to know all these. I mean live, you know, I'm making films right now so I'm working on my next short as well as this documentary on the houseless crisis So do we have a name for the houseless crisis? Well, there's a working name It's probably gonna change based on all the findings that I'm discovering as I am chatting with these beautiful people Right now it's called a world so cold. I'm there is a goat fund me because I do I am paying

the interviewees when I speak to them. And, you know, I... Well, tell us where to go to contribute. If, you know, just go to GoFundMe type in a world so cold, if you'd like to help make the project happen and to bring this issue to light and these people's stories to the public in the form of a documentary film. The next time that I'm actually doing a pretty big show, actually the Italian, they haven't announced it,

but it's gonna be this summer in Toronto, maybe in the month of June. The Italian boys are coming back. We're gonna do two festivals, and one of them is in our home our home in my hometown so I would say Can I take a shot at the name of these Italian guys? Yeah. Calasima?

Calashima. I knew I was gonna say that. And you know what that's not even an Italian word it's a Greek word so you're good you're off the hook but they're coming back and honestly I'm gonna tell you it's the most fun live show I've ever been a part of it's the coolest they're amazing musicians everyone sees the concert, like I'm so blessed and lucky that I get to play with these guys. They're just top-notch. They're an electronic folk. You know the electronic folk? Electronic folk. Ancestral Italian electronic folk. But there's like hip-hop, there's rock, there's like drum and bass, like it's everything. There's, we have a

baritone saxophonist with a live drummer, a DJ, Like it's like full on. I dance. I do our traditional dance. Yeah, we didn't talk a lot about the dance, but there's so many like, there's too many aspects to your creative life life here and here. But you were a dancer like first. I was a dancer since I was three. Yeah. And that's, you know what? That's that was my school into music. Like that's how I fell in love with. But you see what happened. Dancing was your gateway to music. And then music was your gateway to film. Actually, no, that's how I fell in love with music. But you see what happened, dancing was your gateway to music and then music was your gateway to film.

To film. So what's the question? Actually, no, that's not true. No, listen, trust me, I know. You think so? Yeah. I don't know. I don't know, I think they all kind of are,

like they're a blob together. They kind of all were dancing around. How dare they? I think if people wanna just keep up to date with what I'm doing, just, I do love the Gram. I do post a lot on the Gram. I find that that's one social media platform that I can still use. Well, I'm going to take that wonderful photo we took before we started recording, because

normally we do it after, but I knew it would be dark, so we did it before. And I'm going to tag you on Instagram. Better lighting. Thank you. Just tag me at AndreaRamelow. And you can find all the posts in the film off shoots and if there's any screenings coming up, I'm on the festival circuit right now. So hopefully you can catch the short film maybe in our fair city.

Oh, I forgot one thing. Yeah. I've also recently been brought on board by the ICFF Lavasa Inclusive Multicultural Film Festival. They're in their 14th year. They take over the Toronto's Distillery District every summer. It's magical.

I was the main, one of the main hosts last year. So I got to introduce the stars and the films and interview the directors and whatnot. They are actually the festival that premiered my doc two years ago. And I've been really working closely with them and they've been super supportive. They helped get me my distro deal in Europe.

And so I'm now the music programmer coordinator for the stage as well as I get to choose who we wanna fly in celebrity wise and I get to coordinate and ask all the questions and it's gonna be really fun. So this summer from June the 27th to July 20th. You should come, it's opening opening night it's gonna be very oh my god Isabella Rossellini came last year. Can I co-MC with you? You can I'll invite you up to the stage.

I'll make a special permission. No okay I was gonna say this is not one of those Italian things is it? No it used to be an Italian film festival. It is. It's like coffee or something. It is they're their main sponsor. So of course the name is in it right and there it's the coffee that I drink I'm not gonna lie every morning. So you can find me there, I might even do an offshoot of our music festival on the stage. That's the day after TMLX 18 at Palma, not Palma, it's at Great Lakes Brewery here in South Etobicoke, which is June 26 from 6 to 9 p.m. You could come out for that and then all of the FOTAMs will come to the distillery district for the ICFF, Lavaza Inclusivity. Inclusivity. Inclusivity. Inclusivity. That's a tough word.

It's a multicultural film festival. You know, it's a long word. It's late. Just call it the ICFF. I'm getting punchy here. Okay. So two quick hits for me and then I know how I want to end. But I do want to point out you're on a TV show. Or you were? Yes. Well, yes yes a few shows you hesitate one TV show is coming out where I play this. Oh wow What a character I play it's coming out. I think this summer I heard on TLN. Oh, yeah whipped cream whipped cream

You're gonna be the fiery Neapolitan Maria Rita. Oh my gosh, my character is hilarious. It was so fun to play, but I am a piece of work, let's just say. And I mean, I could tap into that pretty easily. I can't imagine you being a boisterous piece of work. Okay, boisterous and fiery. So if people have a television, unlike my guest here today, TLN is a station that will have a show called Whip Cream.

And you'll be in that, which is very cool. And I did want to ask you, because I do want to close to asking you about Canada because we know how proud you are of your Italian ancestry. But here we are talking in Toronto, Ontario and Canada as it's known. But on our way to that, I wondered what it was like to share the stage with Gordon Lightfoot.

It was them. It was exhilarating actually. I was sandwiched in between Ron Sexsmith and Gordon Lightfoot, singing Gordon Lightfoot songs with him, we sang Summerside of Life together, and I actually, in Scarlet Jane, we performed Protocol, which is one of my favorite songs, it's very, it's lesser known of his. And yeah, he's watched us play songs a few times actually,

and it was very memorable. I'm actually friends with his daughter, Meredith. We played a festival, Peterborough Folk Festival together this year. We sat on the same stage, we did a songwriter circle, and I love what she's doing and carrying her father's spirit, but you know, in her own very unique way, making her own really damn good music

but yeah it was amazing what can i say how do you feel about traveling to the us of a these days i don't i will not i say i will not i will not i do not want to cross that border until things get figured out until i yeah i don't even want to talk politics right now. But we don't even have to go into politics. But when you say figured out, does that mean when there is a, uh, when Donald Trump is not president? Well, or anyone like him.

Sure. Yeah. No, I hear you because, uh, yeah. Um, so you're, how about this? When, when human beings start being human beings to one another and start treating each other with love and respect and negotiate based on those terms, that's when I'll cross the border. You're never going back.

I don't know. And you know, we're seeing a lot of that here too. So my parents are actually, they're like, we should just move back to Italy. Like, mom, you've never said that in your life. She was four when she came here. yeah, my dad was a bit older So he has memories of there But um, you know My mom is is more Canadian than anything because she grew up here and she's ready to go back to limosano

We're just gonna hit the hills of Molise where we live with the donkeys again. It's great. Look I saw the godfather, too It's beautiful in the old country. It is beautiful. And honestly, it's yeah. But be careful when you turn the ignition in that car because you don't know what's gonna happen. I'll take the donkey instead. It's fine. Andrea, I gotta say, you hit it out of the park in your Toronto mic debut.

Thank you. Next time I'm gonna record it. Okay? Okay. Imagine. Don't leave. I know we took our photo already, but don't leave without your lasagna. No, I won't.

This is what I came here for. And will you review it on that blog? Can you shout out the blog again? It's the Vintage Italian. It's on Instagram. Follow it. There's not a blog. It's an Instagram.

It's a visual blog with information, history, traditional recipes. Hello, travel tips. It's on Instagram. Yes. It's not really a blog. It's a tips. But it's on Instagram. Yes. It's not really a blog. It's a visual blog. It's just not a blog. I need to explain what a blog is.

You kids today... If you see how long my posts are, they're blocked. Okay. So I will follow that and I look forward to the... In memory of the wonderful Palma Petrucci, the matriarch of the Petrucci family who started with her husband, Marcilio, started Palma pasta back in the mid 80s. In memory of her, Andrea is going to eat her Palma pasta lasagna and review it on Instagram. Unless I give it to the Dufferin Grove encampment.

And then maybe I'll try. Okay, I'll have a piece. Just have a little piece. I wonder how many pieces do you get out of this? A lot. It's a lot. Like 25? Depends how small the slices are. If you cut them up small enough, you can probably get 50 slices out of that.

Oh, wow. Now we're talking. That's how it works. I could feed more people that way. In this cover of Rosie and Grey, which is a lowest of the low song, I met Sky Wallace because she opened up her lowest of the low. And then Ron Hawkins says, you need to talk to this woman. And I said, send her over. Just like Blair said, you need to talk to this Andrea woman with giant hearts.

The two of them. Both hearts are pretty big, as far as I can tell. But in this song, Rob Pruss, who did this cover, he puts romantic traffic in there so you cannot recognize it a second time. So look forward to that. And that brings us to the end of our 1,656th show. Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Follow my wonderful guest who I've been afraid to say her last name for the last hour because I'll butcher it but Andrea Romolo.

Ramolo, Ramolo. Everyone say it with me. Andrea Ramolo. Follow her on Instagram. Thank you. Do it. Keep up to date with what's going on over there. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, RecycleMyElectronics.ca. This is the Friendly Giant theme song. Oh yeah, I remember that. Very good.

Building Toronto Skyline, and Ridley Funeral Home. Alfie Zappacosta has been on the show and this is his pizza nova jingle. He created the jingle? No is his pizza nova jingle. He created the jingle? No way. Oh, what an icon.

Speaking of proud Italians. It's true. And this is romantic traffic that Rob Proust co-wrote with Gordem. Hold on, I'm not done with you yet. I'm going to tell you about all the Easter eggs. Hold on. It's almost Easter. We're getting all these extra tidbits of information.

You've surpassed 20 now, at least. Can you name this tune? So that was a shadowy man on a shadowy planet doing Having an Average Weekend, which is the opening theme for Kids in the Hall. Oh, wow. I've watched Kids in the Hall. That was during my dance era.

He he he he.