Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Andrew Witkin Kicks Out the Jams: Toronto Mike'd #527

Episode Date: October 16, 2019

Mike chats with StickerYou Founder and CEO Andrew Witkin about StickerYou's new Queen Street location before he kicks out the jams.

Welcome to episode 527 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, Brian Master from KW Realty, Capadia LLP CPAss and Pumpkins After Dark. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week to kick out the jams is founder and CEO of StickerU, Andrew Witkin. Welcome, Andrew. Hello, hello, hello. Good to be here. Thanks for coming. That was quite the storm this morning. Yeah, it was turbulent. My dog at six in the morning was freaked out and shaking and went right next to my wife under the covers.

Couldn't get out. Your dog? I was freaking out at six in the morning. It felt like the house was just rattling and the big flashes of lightning. Kind of cool though. I don't remember the last time we had a really good thunderstorm, but that was a good one this morning. I remember waking up at 5.30 hearing a little rumbling and then it just got deeper and deeper and darker. And then all of a sudden it just exploded. It's still kind of dark out there. This is not a nice day. I take a ride. I like to bike

like every day. And I was thinking like, maybe I skipped today. Like it's just doesn't look nice. It's almost like I want to go back into bed tonight type of day. Yeah. Well, listen, I got a bed around the corner. If you need to, if you need a nap, just, just tap your, uh, tap the side of your nose and then I'll take the hint here. But when I was growing up, so I'm looking forward to here. But when I was growing up, so I've been looking forward to this chat. When I was growing up, I had photo albums and I had sticker collections. Like this was a very big deal to me and my classmates. It's true.

You're a bit younger than me, I think. I'm just doing some crunching in my head. I don't know. Just looking at the face. Did you collect stickers? Yeah, I definitely collected stickers a friend of mine uh named sandy sorry um nancy waldman was the daughter of uh sandy line and they went to school with us so you remember sandy line stickers when you're little i can't remember that name like it doesn't ring a bell like it had the rainbow stickers

okay yeah i think the most popular ones that you'd find at your local i feel like uh the the girls in class like those more yes yes i had i had a couple skateboard stickers they had those ones right but but everyone but a lot of people had those albums right and just depended on whatever you were into it was just a photo album but i mean we had a place on like bluer west village had a place called marlborough's i want to marlborough's i. And like they had the really good Garfield stickers. Do you remember the single panel Garfield? And this was like, this was go-to because you could always go to Byway and get, like they had ET stickers and stuff, which was cool.

Like I did that too. But those Garfield stickers were like, that was the mid. That was high value. Yeah, that's true. And then some people had the puffy ones. Oh yeah. It just depended. Yeah, it sort of reflected upon you know people's identity it was kind of like their badges

for sure and i'm trying to remember were there scratch and sniff stickers too i remember there were there was grape and then there was poo you never want to get the poo one yeah i kind of remember i'm trying to block that out of my thanks a lot andrew trying to scrub that from my cranium but uh so so much for that now uh when like i i got i gotta know about the origin story because you founded sticker you and listeners of toronto mic are aware of sticker you we talk about sticker you every episode there's a decal behind us looks nice i'm rocking the uh the sticker you shirt which i only bring out for special occasions. Now, when did you realize you wanted to work with stickers? What's the origin story here?

The superhero origin story. Right. A lot of things in life, probably a few ideas collided in my head at the same time. It was 2007. I was doing a lot of uh digital marketing for a company called megablocks and uh it's like they want to be lego but they're not that's right they're like the oversized lego um canada's proud of the company it was in montreal and uh doing a lot of digital marketing i noticed just how much people were spending time online, as well as how much kids wanted to make blocks their own.

So you'd buy a spaceship and then you'd make it into a boat. Right. So people were always customizing, customizing, customizing. And we did some research and realized just how much people valued customized products versus traditional sort of one-dimensional products that were just what they were. And so I just got fascinated with how are we all, can we order our own customized products? And so at the time you could start to do that with, with photo albums, you could just start to digit, you know, upload photos and make a digital album.

So I, I basically got enamored with just researching what products out there could you do and what products couldn't you do? And I, I I it looked like every product had been done basically and then I took a trip to California um for for actually a job interview and when I was on Manhattan Beach I noticed sticker culture like I had not quite remembered it or seen it before and it was on skateboards surfboards mailboxes every store big time in uh yeah the surfer because the surfer skater community kind of overlapped with the the stickers on the board yeah absolutely yeah and so

you have like you know hurley and quicksilver and all the different brands um and then you'd go into like a bar and then just on the door you know they'd have stickers everywhere right so it was decorum it was expression and and i was just like okay well how do these guys ordering these die cut stickers like the ones that were you know shaped, shaped to the image. Right. And that's when I sort of went basically into a whole couple months of research and realized that the problem in the industry was that people were ordering large bulk when they wanted custom stickers. And, you know, yet me and you might have just wanted one or two stickers. Right, right, right, right. So I went to Germany. There was a big, every four years, a show called Drupa, which is the biggest print show in the world. There's over 120,000 people that go. Oh, my God. Yeah, it's like CES for print.

And it was there that I kind of wanted to research whether or not there was any kind of machinery that could produce one-off stickers. And it was there that I realized there were these digital machines. And then I was like, okay, well, now what? How do I build this? So that sort of spawned an idea, a business plan, and then the nugget that hadn't been cracked was

how do you create the technology for this? Now, I also, I mean, going back to 07, I feel like that was when Shepard Fairley had the Obey stickers, the Andre the Giant Obey stickers. I think there was a lot of... His work was becoming very popularized. You had the Obama sticker.

Of course. And that Hope sticker, which was also Shepard. I have a Shepard fairy upstairs because he did this great Neil Young illustration I've got hanging upstairs in the hallway that's right he influenced that whole campaign so obama had a very different unique look to his bumper sticker right um and uh it was it was and then of course that led into 2008 and in 2008 this is where everything uh you know started to go a little bit crazy with the

recession and stuff now you're a you're a Toronto guy. I am born and bred. Okay. So there was never a doubt where you would like headquarter your sticker empire. Was it, was it always going to be here or did you consider, uh, um,

so when I first probably had the idea in 2007, it just sort of percolated a little bit. I was still working for mega blocks. Uh, I then, uh, sort of asked them if I could move back to Toronto because I already had a couple of kids.

And I just figured if I ever was going to explore something entrepreneurial, it was not going to be in Quebec. I didn't speak French very well. I didn't feel like that would have been the place. I needed to do it back close to home where I could get some home cooking. No, that makes, and I'm glad you did. As Toronto Mike, I'm all for HQ being in in the the t-dot here for sure for sure now okay well I gotta I want to share a tweet I got and we're gonna kind of bring us up to speed

of where sticker you is at now but I got a tweet today his name is Chris Williams and it says a big thank you to Laura at sticker you for sending up and he it's the it's the Twitter handle of his team, so I'm going to butcher this, but ECMandywhite. See, I'm going to screw that up because ECM and White. Okay, well, there's a special needs hockey team that Chris Williams works with, and they got a whole bunch of stickers for the players sent to them, and he said it was a very kind gesture. So I just wanted to share that note from Chris Williams

because this story was told, I guess Chris williams is a listener of toronto mic'd and he he wanted to you know support you guys because you support toronto mic'd and then and then i just in passing mentioned to laura and then laura said hey do you have his contact info and i said yeah like here he is and then yeah so it sounds like you guys took care of this special needs uh hockey team which i think is very cool. Yeah. I mean, look, the nice thing about, uh, this like running this company is that, you know, we can make decisions, um, that we feel just feel really good. And, uh, I play hockey. Uh, you know, I, we, we, uh, we, we know also how much just like a few stickers will mean to people. And so, uh, to help them out, help the team out, we know the stickers will work well for them.

Hopefully the team's thrilled. It's just so nice to have your identity kind of represented that way. So we were happy to help. And it's something about seeing your, okay, so here we'll use a real life example. So this is the Toronto Mic logo. Okay, there's a decal on the wall.

Like, so I've had this logo since I launched Toronto Mic ined in 2012 my wife designed it actually and uh i it's for some reason when it got printed into a sticker it just seemed like it was real at that point like it just seems like it's bigger it's it's like the big leagues when you see it in print you know what i mean yeah we used to say this uh thing around the office which is that we can help professionalize any organization and business because there's something about like you're saying when you touch a die-cut sticker it just seems like you've gone big leagues it's not digital because it lived as it was digital only for years and then it got printed into a sticker

which i like i literally have one on my bumper sticker on my car's bumper and it and i even i mean mark wiseblood at 12 36 and others were like uh i didn't realize how cool that logo was till they saw the sticker and it just yeah it's like there you go you've arrived you've got a custom sticker now yeah you're real and there's the tangibility of it too you know it's not just digital it's just something that you can actually touch and feel and then when you touch it it just looks larger than life yeah good stay on that mic actually just a friendly reminder that yeah my unidirectional mic so now uh you'd kind of hit on something there you said when you touch it it's real like i want to ask you about an e-commerce business like sticker you because uh how many years you guys been operating as sticker you.com

so we uh we we coded for about a year and a bit and then we went live in february 2010 so it's about nine and a half years now nine and three quarter and now i can like i can bike on queen street okay i can i can walk into a bricks and mortar store so it almost it's almost like you're doing the reverse right you're an e-commerce company that now opened a bricks and mortar. So how did that come to be? Yeah, I mean, when we first launched the company, we sort of looked at retail and said, that's going to be going away a little bit.

And we think e-commerce is where people are going to be purchasing their products from, especially through customization. And then you fast forward nine years, and we look at our marketing, which is pretty extensive. And we realized that almost all of it, 95% of it is digital. And yet, if anything, over the last few years, we've kind of realized that the tangibility of our product is one of the number one benefits of it. Right. And the more people touch it, the more people want to get their own.

And so we decided that what's the best way to showcase that? Well, why not create a store where people could buy hundreds of different stickers? As you said at the very beginning, everyone's got some sticker they like. And that would be kind of an entry point into then eventually buying custom. And so we just thought, hey, let's actually create something more of an experience at retail, an immersion into our brand, into the best in stickers and labels. And it's been, you know, it was a big risk, but we were really happy we did it. And now to be clear, so it's a Queen and Bathurst.

It's 677, but you have the two, right? It's 677 and 679 Queen Street West. Correct. We aim to confuse. So, okay. My understanding is, and I had a chat with Laura about this, is that it's opening in phases, right? So tell us the phase that's is, and I had a chat with Laura about this, is that there's, it's opening in phases, right? So what, tell us the phase that's open and then what are the phases

that are coming? Sure. So we decided to open phase one, which is the world's largest sticker store, has over 500 different stickers, a big sticker bomb wall for Instagrammable moments. And then there's also sort of a prelude to the customization store, which is opening at 679 next door. And that's just to tip people's hat into what they can do with customization with our company. And that customization side will be opening in about two to three weeks. Oh, wow. Yeah, that'll be the... Time for Christmas? Is that the idea?

Yeah. Well, you know, it's actually going to be already a month late, but it's there to kind of allow everyone to, someone comes in and they say, hey, if I do a Toronto Mike sticker, will this work on a car? Will this work on a table? Will this work here? And so we show all the different applications you can put your stickers onto

to know that the chemistry of it is going to work. We do the same thing with labels, patches, badges, temporary tattoos, but we do it in a kind of immersive way. There'll be like a waterfall and the waterfall will show you your stickers working in water right and that's a guess that's a kind of gloss over that but you guys yeah you get your custom stickers but there's a lot of i won't swear but there's a lot of crappy stickers out there okay but you guys produce quality

stickers like i can vouch that i've got the decals and i've got the stick and the temporary tattoo by the way my my i have a couple of little kids who love temporary tattoos and they and my son my five-year-old loves rocking the toronto mic temporary tattoo so and it looks it looks clean and good it's uh it's a quality i think the good thing about being a parent uh is that you realize if you do crappy products how how much you can really piss off the mom. And so you, you know, when we've people even come in the store, a lot of the mothers or women are the first ones to say, is this going to work on something?

And when I, when I take it off and have all that gawk and you say, no, it's been actually a uniquely engineered material. Uh, it stays, it sticks on really well. It's waterproof.

And when you take it off, there's no gawk. And then it's just this, ah, moment for everybody. And we're proud of it before i forget okay when you were coming you came this is your first visit to toronto mike studios and we were going downstairs and then i told you what i tell every guest i said uh when you turn the when you get to the bottom of the stairs and you turn the corner watch your head like i have to tell this to everybody and even

after i say that sentence uh half of my visitors end up smashing their head anyways like it's like they just they just don't really yeah i get it yeah don't worry i know how to watch my head boom it's like oh yeah i mean i literally have been scrubbing blood off the ceiling here that's how dangerous it gets down here now you saw the uh low ceiling where it dips like it dips if you went a little further you'd be fine you're fine over there but But yeah, this is the one part where I am because there's no more room

at the end here. That's right. You looked at it and right away, you had an idea, right? What was your idea? Yeah. So I mean,

just basically, you can put up like a hazard sticker on the wall because the wall is the same as the ceiling. It's all white. And so you put the hazard

sticker up and I think people then naturally like, whoa, I got to stop. Is it like orange or what are we talking yeah we know we did the same thing in our store because we have a very slight bump uh step actually and then we and and it was just so funny how like one in 15 people they just do a slight trip and we're waiting for that one person to trip the wrong way and crack their head and we're like okay this isn't good so

we put a whole hazard uh floor decal and it's solved a lot of the problem i can't tell you like i mean i i have well mark hebzer people know he comes here monday and friday mornings to record hebsey on sports and even though he's been doing that now i'm gonna say for 16 months or something he'll still hit his head once in a while he's a tall guy too yeah he is a tall guy guy. And if he came here one day and saw that sticker you're describing, I think he'd be very happy. Yeah, I think we're going to have to set you up.

We're going to have to do it. Oh, speaking of setting people up, I want to say that a recent guest is a rock group called Century Surfers. And the guitarist for this group is Jamie Goodfriend from CP24. Have you ever watched CP24? I have, yeah.

He's the handsome guy, as if that narrows it down. But he's a very handsome guy. But he has a band with Roddy Comer from Rebel Emergency. And they're called, again, Century Surfers. And we came on. They have a jam that's getting played now getting played now in the gta and uh their stickers their official century surfers stickers are coming courtesy of uh you guys at sticker you so i just want to say thanks for that too that uh they're very excited to like

when you have a band especially this is a big deal to do the stickers yeah bands and stickers go back a long way so it's uh it's a natural so there you go uh that's awesome now the back to the world's what are you calling it the world's largest sticker is that like verified have you gone throughout the world you've hunted i actually have i literally have gone around the world i mean you know no i haven't gone to every corner of the world but um i i have discovered almost no sticker stores in the world and where i did which was in japan um i went to each one of them and the maximum size was 400 square feet and we our stores in total 1700 square feet oh you guys win yes you guys win now did we mention that is there a phase of like a sticker museum did we mention that yeah that's

right we stopped at the customized i got excited side. I think I got excited about no one hitting their head anymore. That's right. So actually in the basement of the merchandise area of the store, which is 677 Queen, we're building the History of Stickers Museum. And back to your earlier point on having an album when you were a kid for stickers, one of the elements, the artifacts of this history of stickers is going to show you an album from 1982. That was about my time.

Okay. Seriously. It might be my album. It might be your album. We found it on eBay. Are there Smurf stickers in there? There are. I had some Smurf stickers in there.

Yeah. There's a lot of classic. I think there was an E.T. sticker in there, actually. Yeah, E.T. That was a big deal in 82. Yep. It just came out, right? And it just spans the gamut. So we've that we've got the penny black stamp the first adhesive stamp um ever in the world from 19 from 1839 in the united kingdom um and a whole bunch of other

stuff including shepherd fairy uh sticker art um that takes you through the history i just was in vancouver and they had a exhibit, Shepherd Ferry exhibit. This is like in August. Very cool, man. I just like his work. But okay. Will there be, I hate to put you on the spot,

but that's what I do here. Will there be a Toronto Mike sticker in the museum? Oh, that's a great question. You know, what's nice is that not everything has been defined yet in this museum. So you still have an opportunity to prove why this is a definite moment in history. That's the CEO in you coming out. That's not the founder there. On that note though, 10 years,

things are going very well, I hope? Yeah, we're really happy. I mean, I think we're having fun. We've got some really, really good people who are passionate at the company about trying to make this a really globally accessible brand. And that's the nice thing about an internet company is you really, we do ship all around the world. We've, I think shipped to every country. Um, and, uh, you know, we keep inventing some new products, um, new methods, uh, faster ways of shipping, um, just things that keep making

people more and more happy. And, um, we've, we figured out over along the way that, uh, what people order is what really really matters to them and i think it's given us a lot of like you know um commitment to this thing that we're trying to make what matters stick to people and that's not just a catchy phrase it actually matters to what when people get their stickers are excited and that makes us excited now you're going to be kicking out the jam shortly which i'm excited to do and this is not i need to be clear to the listeners this is not one of andrew's jams here but i was thinking what's a good like a good sticker song right hello lionel just a little taste here guess i'm oh that's beautiful it's also emotional you're okay if I cry, right? Yeah, exactly.

My sticker. Love me some Lionel Richie, but there were a few songs that jumped out to me. This is one of them. Dewey. How did this not make your list? That's right. Oh, this is like 1985 This is when I was still enjoying my stickers, I think We've had some fun

Yes, we've had our ups and downs Are we allowed to sing on this? Yeah, you can do anything you want Okay But here we are still around Are we allowed to sing on this? Yeah, you can do anything you want. Okay. But here we are still around We thought about someone else Someone else Be the one to debate

We thought about breaking up Now we know it's much too late Here it comes. Yes, it's true. Yes, it's true. I am happy to be stuck with you. This should be, go license this song and use this in like a marketing campaign. It's full circle. Absolutely.

Huey Lewis, I got to say, was a big Huey Lewis. They had like albums named after sections of the newspaper, right? Like they had news, sports. Plus that video was killer when he puts his head in the ice water. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want a new drug. Yeah, and you got sued for it because that was the Ghostbusters. That was the same melody as who you're going to call Ray Parker Jr.

Really? Yeah. Now when you get home, here's what you do. You listen to Ray Parker Jr.'s Ghostbusters and then you listen to I Want a New Drug. It's the same song. Right.

They're just in Cousins. Yeah. It's the same song. I got to say, for guys my age and maybe your age now, I'm starting to think we're closer than I thought

because you got these kids back in 07, so I'm doing the math in my head here. But of course, just anything to do with Back to the Future. Like Back to the Future was such a like important movie for my generation. Oh, true. And if you had songs in there, like Huey Lewis and the News, because they had a couple of

big songs in there. Gotta go back in time, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. It opened with a Huey Lewis song, right? Anyway. I remember the DeLorean. Of course. No. Gotta go back in time, right? Yeah, that's right. It opened with a Huey Lewis song, right? Anyway, and... I remember the DeLorean. Of course.

No. Another Canadian icon. Is that a Canadian... Yeah, the car was Canadian company. They went bankrupt, but it was the most incredible car. So the DeLorean's Canadian. Michael J. Fox is Canadian. Yes.

Sticker U is Canadian. But... Toronto Mike is Canadian. And I was going to say, Huey Lewis is American, but we had our own version, Doug and the Slugs. That's right. Do you remember Doug and the Slugs? Yes. Okay. I got

to ask you about... Now I'm curious about this. As I've started my own business, TMDS, I even have a nice sticker you decal behind me here. Nice. So 10 years in, things are rocking. Now you've got the cool Queen Street location. I feel like much music needs to be there. But then I realized, oh yeah, much music isn't what much music used to

be. Now I'm living in the 80s again. Erica M's not going to come do a live thing or Steve Anthony. Okay. So you're still involved in the day-to-day. You still go in every day and you're a CEO? Yeah. No, no. This is definitely not something something you manage from afar. I think the good thing about the business is just at the end of the day, there's a passion for stickers. So it's much easier to be part of something if you love it. And I think that's just kind of what gets me excited is just seeing the projects we're working on. the new, we're about to launch an evolution to the website that's completely mobile friendly for, you know, your editor. Like you can make stickers on your phone.

Okay, cool. So stuff like that. I mean, seeing the teamwork on that and what that's going to do for the customers, I get really plugged into it. So no, I don't think you'd ever see me like work from home a lot. I just love being down there. And the only thing I've been able to kind of give myself is work from home a lot. I just love being down there. And, uh, the,

the only thing I, I've been able to kind of give myself is, is the ability to sleep in. That's it. And, uh, that's not too shabby. Now,

uh, I was going to say you hire, you hire a CEO and you go, uh, go work on like a buttons company, you know, exactly. Or they,

or the CEO says, okay, now you go work on this little project right that's right but uh good for you man that's uh exciting to give birth to something that has uh you know such success worldwide and now you've got the queen street location and all these uh happy liberty village uh employees it's a cool location for the uh the office i've been there several times yeah it's a great hood everyone can access it really easily from go train and bus and so and it's low rise.

You know, you're not like, you know, 80 stories high downtown core kind of thing. Yeah, Liberty Village is cool. You're in a cool, cool part of the city. Most definitely here. Yeah, I'm trying to be cool. Now I'm going to give you some gifts, okay? Now it's, yes, you're getting the stickers. Like as if you couldn't get these anyways.

Yeah, look, it's courtesy of sticker use. So you got the stickers. Now that in your hand there, great. That's a pop socket for the back of your smartphone. Oh, nice. My wife and my teenagers

love this thing because they watch YouTube and Netflix and stuff on their phone and it props it up and they go do their thing or whatever. So that's courtesy of Capadia.

I want to let the listeners know that Rupesh Kapadia, the rock star accountant, he's actually coming in here tomorrow so that we can record replies to all your questions that have come in. So if you have a question

for an accountant and you get it to me, mike at torontomike.com or DM it to me on Twitter at torontomike, I'm passing them on to Rupesh and he's recording answers. We've heard answers lately,

but we're going to bang off a bunch tomorrow and I'll play like one each episode. So again, if you have a question for a man who sees an accountancy firm that sees beyond the numbers, you might have some accountant questions, Andrew. You send them to me, I'll get Rupesh to address. I absolutely will. And my dad will be impressed because he was an accountant.

Well, there you go. And you can make sure Rupesh gets the correct answers too. That's right. Thank you, Rupesh. That's popsockets from Rupesh. You said you want a vegetarian lasagna, right? I have a frozen vegetarian lasagna courtesy of Palma Pasta. It's in the freezer upstairs.

So that's an empty box, but you've got yours. I'll get it to you before you drive off. Simply delicious. They really are. empty box but you've got yours i'll get it to you before you drive off simply delicious they really are the uh if you want authentic italian food you pick it up at palma pasta palma pasta.com nice they're on skip the dishes too i like the box cool box absolutely now they have a location called palma's kitchen near mavis and burnham thorpe in Mississauga. And they're going to host the fifth Toronto Mic Listener Experience. So it's called TMLX5.

We're all going to collect there. You're invited, of course. December 7th, it's a Saturday, at noon, we're going to all collect at Palma's Kitchen for a live recording of Toronto Mic'd. And there'll be a lot of free goods, like some free food from Palma. And we're going to have free drink

from Great Lakes Brewery.y oh i like that too the six pack is yours this is thank you oh this is a good combo yeah it goes well it pairs well together really well together these guys and stickers would be a great combo actually great lakes brewery and stickers so yeah i like the packaging they got a lot of like the octopus who's on our wall as well like this guy it's just my favorite ipa and you got all so you got a fresh of, like the octopus who's on our wall as well. Oh, right. This guy is just my favorite IPA. So you got a fresh pack of, a six pack of Great Lakes Brewery there for you. Yeah, Red Leaf Lager. This is beautiful.

And you're taking that home with you. So six pack of beer. You got your lasagna. I've done well. You got your stickers. Now, you mentioned you have two kids? I got two girls, 16 and 14 now how old am i well i have my kids during 18 okay in january and i have a 15 year old like so i have four kids so

i can match you on all these fronts and you're so nice try there right but if i had to you want me to guess do you want to guess yeah i think we should do this game okay it wasn't in the bio was it no i just absolutely not absolutely not this is like the exhibition right there's no cheating here yeah i'm doing this straight up my weight or my age you still got your hair and there's no they're not white do you dye your hair uh no everything's natural okay even the crooked teeth are natural too it's all i can't even see the crooked teeth but you guys let's see here you don't even have like a oh there's this maybe a little salt and pepper in the beard i'm gonna say you are 42 years old oh it's a great complimentary guest but you're way off i'm way off you are 62 years old

and uh i am 48 40 really okay you're older than me and uh yeah you just uh you just look younger than me okay good for you my hair was like going white by like 30. I had white patches and stuff in my hair. You don't have any of this going on. I mean, I've lost some hair through this process. But you know what? The most important thing I try to do is just... The process of aging? Yeah, I still play hockey.

So I think that may help. Just the fear of a puck, it actually kind of keeps you young. Yeah, and just any exercise is good. But good for you. You look great. Cool. Yeah, and so I'm trying to think of where I'm at. Oh, yeah. I wanted to tell you what's next. And you have the two kids. I might try to get you three of these things. But this is fantastic. OK. Pumpkins After Dark. Pumpkins After Dark is 5,000 hand carved pumpkins that illuminate the skies at Country Heritage Park in Milton, Ontario.

that illuminate the skies at Country Heritage Park in Milton, Ontario. It's going on now. It runs through November 3rd. You go to pumpkinsafterdark.com. If you want to save 10% right now, use the promo code PUMPKINMIKE. So go to pumpkinsafterdark.com, use the promo code PUMPKINMIKE. 10% off right now. But I actually have three.

Normally, I give two, Andrew, but I i don't like i know you're going to want to bring the both daughters to this thing so i'm going to get you three tickets i'm going to get you the pdfs uh to see the 5 000 pumpkins there's uh sculptures there's sound i know uh pete fowler uh just tweeted at me this weekend that he had tickets from kicking out the jams from martin streak and he said it was amazing so if you can get yourself the milton you're gonna love this thing i love it and is it what's the point of the after dark you is it better after dark yeah well yeah it's you gotta go you can only go after dark because these uh they illuminate these pumpkins so it's all this visual feast of these lit pumpkins so it

yeah it sucks during the day i don't even think you can book a time during the day so okay uh definitely after dark so pumpkins after dark tickets are coming your way. And then I have just one more thank you to Brian Master. Brian Master is a salesperson with Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage. You can still hear him on the air every day on Jewel. And Brian has a call to action for all of you. Hi, it's Brian Master, sales representative with Keller Williams

to Realty Solutions Brokerage. I like working by referral. I love working with people, finding out what they need and where they want to go. So every month I put out an item of value called the Client Appreciation Program. And this is really great material. It's all about, well, for one thing,

the way the real estate market is, but other things like, well, this month is how to turn your home into a smart home. We've also had things about how to throw a party on a budget, some travel tips. It's really great stuff. And it comes out once a month called the client appreciation program. I'd love to get you on it. It's easy to do. Send me an email to letsgetyouhomeatkw.com. And I'll send that out once a month via snail mail and follow it up with an email that's something related to the item of value. You can't miss. It's great information. It's something you can share with your friends. I'm Brian Master, sales representative with Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage,

thrilled to be on Toronto Mic'd. Thank you, Brian. Now, Andrew. Yes. Are you ready to kick out the jams? Let's do this. Thank you. Oh London moon Help me stumble home Letting me lose myself along the way I've got nothing left. It's kind of wonderful. Cause there's nothing they can take away. The open doors left me wanting more Never thought they'd close them all away

The ordinary life they want for you Is it too much to have to bear? But it's another way to win a useless fight Give it life so alone, don't know when you're faking See the water run right Just another day into a useless night See you then. I was upside down I thought love would always find a way But I know better now Got it figured out

It's a perfect world All the same Perfect world. Broken Bells. Alright, tell us why you love this jam. I think I can hear this song over and over again and I never get tired of it. Every time I hear it, I just

it's so inspiring. And it sounds amazing in the headphones. It does. It sounds better than I've ever heard it right now. You're in for a treat today, I'm telling you. So when, okay, so tell, Broken Palace is an interesting band in that I don't, they're not like widely known, I don't think, right? So just tell us how you- Well, I guess it was more because of The Shins. So it's the same lead singer from The Shins. Like many bands today, these guys are not just sticking

with one band. They're like going off and doing other projects commitment issues is that what this is yeah exactly i think that's part of the song right but uh but yeah when i heard the broken bells i was just like wow this entire album actually is phenomenal um maybe it doesn't get all the credit it should but uh this is the one thing i downloaded that was an album recently. Yeah, that's kind of sad, right? Because we used to be all about the album. Like we'd buy the CDs, right? And it was about the whole collection.

And now it's sort of like a singles world. Yeah, everything's changed so much. And I miss the album because, you know, back to your headphones thing. Like in the 80s, you'd have for headphones only on cue or something like that. And you could just get immersed in an entire album, what the meaning was and the progression. You just don't have that anymore.

You know what else I miss since we're on this topic is I miss the hidden tracks. That's right. So many of my favorite albums had hidden tracks. Yeah, like seven minutes after the album was over.

Nevermind had a hidden track. There were so many. Yeah, exactly. It's the album was over. Like Nevermind had a hidden track. There were so many yeah, exactly. It's just quiet for like five or six minutes and then there's something else there. It was like the initial inspiration for those video games that put those little tokens in that people have to find now. That all started from hidden tracks.

It's like Easter eggs or something. Yeah, exactly. Do you remember Cracker's kerosene hat? Okay, so i was a big cracker guy it had low on it and it had your trash girl oh yeah 90s definitely 90s yes mid 90s i think um so you know on your cds player you see what track you're on one two three four the tracking system on that album was like bananas like a lot of tracks were like just blanks and we go through one today and then like for example euro trash girl i think was like track 69 believe it or not so it was like

then it'd be a track 98 or it was just anyway like the things that we could kind of enjoy that would mean nothing today i had that album i don't remember that though but now i want to go back unless i had a broken version yeah you're a special edition version. But you can't sell an empty track. In iTunes, you can't go buy the blank tracks. But yeah. And I also, just since we're Nostalgia Road and we're going to do this for nine more jams, it's going to be great.

But like, who's it? Offspring. So Offspring, Smash. Did it just go Smash or Smash It Up? No, Smash. It was called Smash. Amazing album that I played a million times and they had all those like time to relax and they had all like the uh in between songs yes and uh yeah uh yeah i dug that too and uh well those guys i think they made those albums

thinking of it that way like you're gonna listen to this for an hour and i'm gonna give you a few little moments of unexpectedness like queens of the stone age you Age, you could hear them tuning in radio stations and stuff. Do you remember this? Yeah, or they play one speaker for the other. Absolutely, absolutely. Cool jam, man. Okay, you ready for another jam? Yeah.

You like long jams yeah this one's like extended mix but this is also like a metaphor for running a startup right okay so feel free like pop a video you can speak over it whenever you feel the desire to give some context to uh yeah i didn't uh do you ever remember like nightly news when tom broke up in the 80s yeah of course he'd be like he'd always come on and be like oh well and the war on drugs today you know and they and then i found this band i guess five six years ago and i'm like what a brilliant name well remember on the wire they said uh this isn't a war on drugs and he's like why and he goes war's end that's right this is just never ending like nam uh but yeah this this song as soon as i heard it i was just it's hard Lucky arrival of a new day But a dream like this gets way too easy

Good song to drive to also. Yeah. Love you Open highway. Sun setting. Totally. So startups, there's a lot of pressure. You're under a lot of pressure when you're starting up a business.

Yeah, it probably even adds to the importance of having good music. It gets you through sometimes, you know? Oh, I know. And it's good because sometimes you listen actually to the lyrics and you're like, oh yeah, these guys understand. I'm not in this alone. And you could take that lyric that resonates with you and make a sticker out of it.

Ah, very good. We have. He's also got such a unique voice. Yeah, he sounds like somebody. Sort of like Dylan, a little. There's definitely a Dylan quality to it. Yeah. Have you seen this guy?

Also, he's got like the longest hair. Like it's 80s rock hair. I am so glad you picked this song from the war on drugs because this is a band i i hear about i read about and i've never like taken the time to actually like check out oh yeah they're good they're good like almost like a like a dylan i want to say almost like a sort of don henley vibe coming out this guy yeah it's like more melodic like Henry, like Don Henley, but he's got that sort of raspier kind of voice, a little bit like Dylan too. Yeah.

Yeah, Dylan. Yeah. That's right. He's a rookie. You're under pressure. You're under pressure. Yeah. Yeah, this guy could have been a traveling Wilbury, right?

Right. Yeah. You just see someone in the band with a little shaker. The whole song, they're just shaking this little thing. How old is this song? I think I first heard it maybe six, seven years ago. I think they've been like a band for a long time and only maybe about eight, seven years ago. I think they've been like a band for a long time and only maybe about eight, nine years ago

did they actually start to make some noise on the media. And because they're an older band. They're not like a young 25-year-old band coming out.

Sellouts. Come on. This is when they lose their core fans. These guys have been doing their time for sure. Is it Modest Mouse?

Who's the band? No, this is a band that was around forever. People loved and then they had hits and then their fan base was like, wait a minute, you can't have popular songs? You need to be poor. Yeah. Well, R.E.M. had a lot of flack for that.

I'm like, wait a minute, you can't make music that my aunt likes. That's right. And people got all jealous because they signed that like the biggest record deal in history when they did it and then that album monster was a monster that's right yeah you know what you mentioned right a minute ago what was the news anchor you mentioned tom brokaw yeah what's the frequency kenneth is about dan rather oh was it really yeah so dan rather said what's the frequency kenneth, or something. There's a story there,

but I was thinking of like the anchors from our youth, you know. And we haven't mentioned the Canadian who died of the lung cancer, Peter Jennings. He was Canadian. You're right, from ABC. Yeah, we've got a bunch of guys that went down there and have done well. For sure.

The great host of Jeopardy. Hopefully he'll be okay, but he's got a good attitude about everything. But Alex Trebek from Sudbury. Is that where he's from? Sudbury? Yep. Oh, God.

You're in for an education, Andrew. Yeah, you're right. My daughter was playing Alicia Cara this morning, and I'm like, oh, yeah, this woman's great. Is she Spanish? Where's she from? She's from Brampton. She's from Brampton. I'm like, oh yeah, this woman's great. Is she Spanish? Like, where's she from? She's like, she's from Brampton. She's from Brampton.

I'm like, oh wow, another Canadian. She's a big deal. Yeah. You got to get her on the show. My daughter just saw her open. I've got to work on that one. She just opened for the guy from Pickering or Ajax. I got him confused.

Shawn Mendes. Oh, she opened for Mendes when he was here the other... Yeah, because my 15-year-old was there and she said, Alessa Carr opened for him, yeah. Well, so funny story, I'm at the Sticker

You store at 11 in the morning on Friday and someone's opening up and I have to just go check out some stuff and this dude walks in, this Aussie, really cool looking

guy, he's got all the bracelets and necklaces. Well, that was Crocodile Dundee. Yeah, like this guy's brother. Anyways, he comes in and he buys $150 worth of stickers. And no one has bought that much stickers. That's a lot of stickers.

Okay, yeah, I can imagine. And it's all random, different stuff. And I'm looking at him. I'm like, wow, like, where are you from? And he's like, oh, you know what? I'm in on the tour with Sean. I'm like, oh's great uh Sean who and he's like Sean Mendes I'm like oh yeah I think my daughters are really into him and stuff and he's like yeah it's playing at Rogers and anyways I'm the touring manager I've been touring with Sean for like the last four or

five years he goes I've been on the road for two years I'm just traveling around the world so uh that that was my intro to Sean Mendes as close as I got. You're late to that party, man. I know. This is what happens when you're running into this company. You just immerse yourself. But you got those teenagers. They should be keeping you in the know. They are. They are. I've gone to Life is Beautiful a couple times and now my daughters are jealous because they want to see all

the bands that I see there. Oh, okay. Yeah. Shawn Mendes is massive. I was thinking has Drake come into the story yet is he you gotta have some

what oh yeah so these okay and this is for the Periscope anyway this is the

the six stickers that you guys produced that lucky some lucky guests receive I look at them I size them up

I say are you worthy of a six sticker and then I give them one. Sick. Yeah. We have an artist, uh,

that has actually, uh, painted Drake. And, uh, that sticker actually sells quite well in the store. Well bet. And you can do that.

Like he doesn't say, Hey, I need my cut. No, I think if you parody or fair use. Yeah, exactly. And this,

this is, it's clear that it's an artist. It's not like real Drake. I was, I always wonder like, because you're kind of a unique thing, having this sticker store in the world's largest sticker store that you would get like of celebrities in town,

they might want to pop by. Yeah. You know, I think some might've. I just, I'm not there all the time. So I don't see, I mean, I was there that one time when Shawn Mendes' manager came in. Right. But I would think we have.

I don't have any cool stories that says, yeah, you know, Brad Pitt came in yesterday and stuff like that. Although he might have. Brad Pitt, man. Yeah, I was thinking of Inglourious Bastards the other day. I love one of my favorite Brad Pitt movies. Great film. Yeah, fantastic film. That bar scene, standoff.

Oh, so many great scenes because the opening scene with the... Oh, true. I think that scene is like... Yeah, that's true. That's heavy. There's a lot of great scenes in that movie. You start sweating by the end of that scene.

Oh, yeah. That's Tarantino for you, though. Holy smokes. Okay, you know what? I like... That song's got great atmosphere to it. Yeah. And you could totally focus on other things while it's going. You know what? I like that. Sounds got great atmosphere to it. Yeah. Like,

and you could totally focus on other things while it's going. Like it's all those jams and that doesn't looping in your head. Right. In a nice way. Now, finally, your third jam is by an artist who has sat in the same seat you're in right now and has been on Toronto might.

No way. Wait, I'm super ready. You are good. Cause here it comes. Ah, another Toronto. There we go. The connection.

Is it the lead singer? Gord Depp, yeah. Oh, wow. Who is also in Flock of Seagulls. He was in both bands. No, no. He is now. So he is not a founder of Flock of Seagulls,

but he's now playing guitar in Flock of Seagulls when they do their current tours. Oh, cool. I don't think they want to be a Toronto band. I think they go by as a Burlington band. Okay. Close to Nino. Interesting.

Yeah. Just like we don't say, you know, Alessa Cara is from Toronto. We say she's from Brampton. Right, right. That's great when they introduce you in LA and they say, hey, we've got someone here from Mississauga. Right, and they're like,

what? Yeah, who's that? Here it comes. Ready? All I can think of is the TTC, the subway. So my wife is in that video. She was an extra.

Shut the front door. Yeah. I love that video. That's like Lawrence Station, right? And I don't know. She somehow got into it. It's like a half a second, but she's there. You can freeze it on YouTube.

You can pause it and see her. Yeah. That's amazing. It's great. That's one of the reasons this is one of my top 10 songs. I'm like, hey, I gotta have something that relates to both me and my wife, because we actually like very different music. This is the

intersection point. Great song. I love this band, Spoons, and that fact, like, I would get a sticker made I was in the romantic traffic video. That would be my sticker. We could do that of the escalator. I was gonna do romantic traffic video. That would be my sticker. We could do that of the escalator.

Okay. I was going to do the, the red rocket is in that the old red subways, right? Like, so I mean, I saw them as a kid, but it's been a long time since I forgot about that.

The red rocket. Yeah. I remember when we were like, whatever, 14, 15 and we were all always staring at, I hope I can say this, we were always staring at how beautiful the bassist was.

Sandy Horne, of course. Is that okay to say that? I had Gordon here. I think they dated for a while. Oh, did they? She had such long hair. You know, she still looks good. Really? I saw them pretty recently, I guess a few years ago,

and she still looks good. Oh, yeah. That's what the attractions to video, when you were at that age, right? You could actually see the whole band. Yep. It's interesting to me that you, uh, were so infatuated with Sandy that you had to marry somebody from the video and you couldn't get Sandy and you ended up with an extra there. Exactly.

Six degrees of separation. I'm on to you, man. Pretty clever, actually. Because you could go around and go like, I lived my fantasy. I did marry the girl from the romantic traffic video. Exactly. And everyone's like, whoa! Right? That's amazing, man.

I actually did better. She's good because she might hear this. That's right. Excellent. I love Spoons. Yeah yeah this is a catchy song they do a lot of do-do-do's and things in their songs like if you go to their greatest hits and you'll be like oh yeah they're all sing-alongs in concert too though they're very 80s centric obviously and they kind of bring back the 80s and everybody just sings along like they're a teenager again it's pretty amazing no good songs that have the right doo doo in them.

It's just, it's perfect. You're just like a kid. You just sing and doo doo around. Totally. All right. So that was a throwback to the 80s. Let's get a little heavier.

You do like atmospheric songs. Yeah. You can hear your style in these songs oh yeah yeah that's i like grand performances you know where's the muse there's no muse on your uh saw them live they were good the problem you have to narrow it down to 10. Have you ever seen her live? No. Florence? No. She's really good. She dances up on stage. Like, literally dances. Bare feet. I like their sound, though.

Like a nine person band. To make you stay No lie, no lie No lie Tell me what you want me to say Through the crowd So my daughter dances. Yes. And Florence the Machine is a very popular musician to which they dance to. And it's great because it's the one musician that now connects me to my

daughter because we have such different tastes in music. But because of I like Florence and now she loves Florence. Right. We actually went and saw her when she was here in May at Ontario Place. At the Budweiser stage. Budweiser stage, yes. No, that's amazing when you can share something with your daughter. Yeah, it was really good.

And so she finally broke through and got into it. And I was into it. And I was like, man, we just had a moment. Amazing. Yeah. That's cool. That's cool. I like that dog days are over.

Yeah, she plays that so well. She sort of bangs her head and the hair flows through and everyone's chanting with her. It's powerful. She is good. Florence Welch? Is that her She is good. Florence Welch? Yeah, Florence Welch. Yeah.

And if you, you know, if you study her lyrics, I mean, you realize she's been through a lot of pain. A lot of guys have caused it. But she's an inspiration for a lot of women. And rightfully so. Awesome.

And she's actually very, have you ever seen her interview? She's very quiet, very soft, but when she performs, she brings it. It's just, it's amazing. So how difficult was it for you to get it down to 10? And I ask that because the list I got was longer than 10. I don't know if you had trouble with the math.

I did. I think because Laura had said, yeah, he wants all your jams. And then I already had a list of my top 10. But they're not all jams. One was like a piano song. And I'm like, you know, I'm going to have to kind of throw a couple more in here somehow. Although you make the rules here. Like if you gave me some piano thing, I'd play it as one of your jams. But I took the first 10 songs on the list is what I actually took. Oh, that's fine.

I definitely like all my babies here. So I was like, you know what, wherever it goes, I'm good. I'm good. Also, this is genius because I'm like, wow, this show, I really relate to this whole podcast. And I'm like, oh yeah, of course. It's also all my music.

It's really resonating with you. Yeah, exactly. That's hilarious. It's like, yeah, this music really speaks to me. That happens to me a lot. So it happens to me a lot where I'll choose the music for whatever I'm putting together and then I'll, oh yeah, this is what used to happen to me. That happens to me a lot. So it happens to me a lot where I'll choose the music for whatever I'm putting together.

And then, oh yeah, this is what used to happen to me. I'd make a playlist. Okay. Like it'd be a playlist. I don't know. 30 songs I like. Right. And I'd be playing the playlist and I'd be thinking, I really like these songs.

How do they know? It's like, man, I'm really digging the jams today. And it's like, oh yeah, I curated this playlist myself. It changes everything. Custom made for me like geez inspired choice andrew and that is so we've got a song dedicated to your wife and we have a song dedicated to your daughter so far yeah covering politically correct well there's two daughters i gotta make sure there's one in there for the other daughter but here we go you ready for another jam? Yeah. This is The Other Daughter. Good.

I was worried for a minute. Certain instruments and certain songs, you know what I mean? Like, it's that one little bit that just makes the song so unique. If you're ever going to do a workout or something,

this is a good first song to get you in. What are you suggesting? I should start working out? No, no, just if. Sometimes just getting up and to do it is the hard part. It's time. You know, if you're listening to Top 40 radio and you are looking for something that might resemble the rock and roll we used to listen to,

this is as close as you get now. You're right. You're totally right. So what happened? When did rock fall out of favor? It's a little PG, but it's good. And it's for your daughter, right?

So your daughter likes Imagine Dragons? So, yeah, I remember this is the first song that my daughter brought to me that I already had heard. And I'm like, oh, yeah, actually, I like this song. And then I was like, okay, we actually are finally connecting. It wasn't like she had some like Barney song or something. You know, Barney's the worst.

Of all the kids, because I have the teenage, like yourself, Barney was the only, not the only, but the primary kids show that I could not stomach. Like there was nothing in there for me. No, no. It was so sugarcoated, like fake happiness. It was awful. It really was. I think that's why some people like, you know, like remember those Barneys would dress up and then some kids would go and punch them because they were just like, you're not real.

You're like, you're the antithesis of what life is like. No, give me Arthur every day of the week. Okay. Cause I could sink my teeth into earth. I could, I actually would watch it alone. That's how much I like earth. I used to work at Nelvana and we, I was working on the Franklin show. Oh my God. Yeah. Franklin the turtle, which is a Canadian. Bruce Colburn does a theme song. Yeah. It's Franklin. Yeah. i was part of that we did the merchandising for it and everything oh they became cookie jar right i'm trying to remember no no that's different company that's no i got my wrong never mind that's the caillou nonsense yeah get out of there get out of there got bought by chorus right right right right right uh yeah franklin's great there was a

time period where there were a lot of turtles, though. Like, I don't know. I remember my son was watching, like, at least three different shows with, like, a turtle starring in them. Oh, really? The turtles were big for a while. I remember the turtle from Little Mermaid. And I remember that guy. Like, he was sort of a Jamaican turtle.

Yeah, can you be a Rastafarian turtle? I think you can. Yeah, sort of. Swimming around Jamaica. That's what happens. Yeah, and I remember the... Do you remember the mascot when the Sky Dome opens? Oh, yeah.

Domer. Domer. Right, that was a turtle. Domer and Franklin had a lot in common. I'm not pointing fingers. That's true. I think they're from the same... Maybe the same creator.

The same mom. They have different dads, but the same mom, I think. Yeah. It's like Joker. I don't. Yeah. I got to see that. Have you seen it?

It's phenomenal. I saw it on the weekend. I haven't seen it. I don't want to ruin it. I'm going to see it for sure. It's time. Good jam. We got to play something for the kids.

That's good. Okay. Because they're like, what's this romantic traffic stuff? Right. All right. You ready to kick out another one sure and now we're more into my stuff Honey, now it's all out See what only nakedness could hide Something's got your tongue tied Like you're barely handling the ride

Sentimental storm clouds Gather in a stride, breathe them down They've been there the whole time Following from grip to call To walk, to run, to slow Definitely a certain mood that you like with your jam. There's a pattern.

Definitely. Living life for it Simulating bloodbaths in bed All red, well-wed And unembarrassed to death definitely this is one really good band do you know that much TV on the radio I feel the same way about

TV on the radio although more so I do remember some TV on the radio i feel uh the same way about tv on the radio uh although more so i do remember some tv on the radio but like the war on drugs like even the names remind me of each other like just yeah critically acclaimed bands i should dive into but but at least these guys had songs i'd hear on the radio, right? A little bit, yeah. A little bit. Yeah.

I remember because when I first started Sticker U, that's when the first year an artist came in and was doing art for our website and brought them in and started playing them

and this was, I guess, now 10 years ago and I was just like, wow, this is cool. TV on the radio. Okay. I got to dive in to TV on the radio and the war on drugs.

These are the two things. The only problem with these guys is they don't really tour much at all. They just make great music, but they don't tour. Reminds me a bit of like Wolf Grid, like a little bit of uh I think a lot of the songs actually have a synth aspect to them. Some synth in it. I dig this, man. This is great. Yeah, it's good stuff. I'm. Some synth in it. I dig this, man. This is great. Yeah, it's good stuff. I'm glad I could share it.

That's the whole idea. The whole idea of this is, what is Andrew like? What's he listening to? Right. What can I discover from him curating like his favorite songs?

That's the whole spirit behind kicking out the jam. Well, when I was told that you wanted these 10 songs, or 10 songs, the irony here is I told Laura, I said, oh, I actually already have them. She's like, what do you mean? You want to go through your music and figure it out?

I go, no, I actually have a thing called, if I pass away, these are the songs to play at my funeral. Wow. So I wanted songs that actually sort of just captured different parts of my life and related to different people. Are you comfortable with me DJing your funeral? Yeah, I think you should come now. We know each other.

Can we make like a side arrangement? Hopefully it's not till, you know, I want you to live to 100, but you know. You know, I just thought about it last holiday season. We were away and I was like, wow, if i were to pass away i'm gone right so i have no more words i have no more i can't share anything right right so i wrote i basically wrote my own eulogy and i it was just notes to my wife my kids my friends things that i've always wanted to say if i'm if i'm gone and i don't say them right they're now captured um and then i thought that well same thing about music.

I want music to be part of that funeral or shiver, whatever it is, and I want people to hear what I would want to hear. So I'm like, okay, if I pass away, at least I've passed that on. First of all, good on you for being, showing some initiative here, for planning such a thing.

A lot of people would not want to plan such a thing. But I'm like, you're a realist at least. You are going to die and you know it. A lot of people are sort of in a little bit of a state of denial about the fact that everyone you know, I'm going to break into song, everyone you know one day will die.

Right. And the worst thing is if it is tragic and it's unexpected and you can't plan for it, then there's a lot of things i think you wish you could have told your kids but without thinking you're going to pass away you don't right right oh very cool now uh again hopefully it's a long time from now but you're all set completely agree i'm gonna dj this uh whatever you decided celebration of life shiva

funeral whatever the heck's going on over there just let me know where to be and when. Tell your wife from the romantic traffic video how to get a hold of me. Let's kick out another jam. They might just replay this whole podcast. This was Andrew at his finest. Exactly. Describing the songs he wanted us all his finest. Exactly.

Describing the songs he wanted us all to hear. Right. Listen to how full of life he was. The guy thought he was only 42 years old. That's right. He didn't know he was 83. This is probably the most powerful song on the 10. Like it just,

it kind of stops you. You just have to be, you have to have time for it. On this show, we make the time for it. Yes. No two to five minute sound bites here. We go deep here. And we got different decades. This is, I think, 90s Massive Attack.

It's so funny because their songs are so melodic and fairly soft, but the word Massive Attack, it's just, you think it's going to be some extreme rock band. Scary name. Oh, I love this.

Yeah. Tear drop on the fire Fearless on my grave Perfect for a rainy day, a dark rainy day. They really want you to hear every little instrument's moment reflect. Black flower is blossoming. Perfect for your celebration of life. I think the song's about people's infatuation with materialism. So it's a nice perspective sometimes when you need to kind of unplug from the materialism of life. Of course, we view stickers not as material. We look at them as essential.

They have personality. I only wear free t-shirts, so I'm not materialist. That's right. Teardrop on the fire of a confession Fearless I might pray Most faithful mirror Fearless I might pray Teardrop on the fire Fearless I might pray To drop on the fire For the summer It's an atmosphere song for sure.

In fact, if you take out the song for your wife and the song for your girls, there's definitely a common thread. Yeah. I'm in your mind now. Yeah, exactly. It definitely a common thread. Yeah. I'm in your, I'm in your mind now. It's not a, it's a scary place. You know, if Banksy ever switches to stickers, I know where you should, where you should, who you should call.

Because I'm thinking, every time I think of Massive Attack, I think Banksy, right? Because that's the rumor anyway. I don't know. That's great. You can tell a lot about a person but based on their music for sure well that's why i do it man i learn more i'll have on i don't know who would i have on i'll say maestro fresh west he's over there he'll come on we'll do like 90 minute deep dive it's great but then he comes back to kick out the jams now i learn about his mom and

about his upbringing and i'm learning about you'm learning about his roots. It's like now you know the man by kicking out the jams with him. It's so true. So true. Yeah, you just naturally gravitate to the melodies and then often sometimes when you reach deeper into the melody of the words, it comes on

a bunch of levels that you can relate to. Right. Very appropriate. It's raining today. This is the perfect song. I feel like it's raining down here. I might have to call a roofer or something. The lights just went out.

Also a little bit about materialism Falsely going after the American dream I'm gonna rid myself of a house In the shade of a freeway A song my sister actually really liked And she introduced me to Jackson Browne Gonna pack my lunch in the morning A song my sister actually really liked, and she introduced me to Jackson Browne. body down and when the morning light comes streaming in I'll get up and do it again Amen

say it again Amen I wanna know what became of the changes we waited for love to bring were they only the fitful dreams Of some greater awakening

I've been aware of the time going by They say in the end It's the wink of an eye When the morning light comes streaming in, we'll get up and do it again. Amen. Caught between the longing

for love and the struggle for the legal tender. Amen. The King for Love and the Struggle for the Legal Tender Well the sirens sing and the church bells ring And the junk man pounds his fender Well the veterans dream of the fight Fast asleep at the traffic light And the children solemnly wait For the ice cream vendor

Out into the cool of the evening Strolls the pretender He knows it all is hopes and dreams. Begin and end there. Nice, Andrew. Changing it up a little. I dig it, man. Yeah.

This one, when you listen to lyrics, it's just so real to life. And you always have these choices. Are you going to be true to yourself? Are you just going to follow some other path that people are putting in front of you? It's funny because there's certain elements to songs that even work their way into your culture of your company. So honesty is the number one value at our company. And we know everyone's going to be sometimes pulled in different directions. We just want them to be honest

with the situation and let's just figure stuff out. And if we can, we'll, we'll actually get to good conclusions, even if, you know, they're tough. Right. Uh, but it's like when you hold all this stuff inside and you don't say what you really feel and you go off on some other path, inevitably it breaks. Right. And so, um, I? And so I think this song is a good philosophical guidepost for people. I thought you were playing this for LeBron James. He's certainly learned a lot this last week, I think. Yeah, he learned a billion dollars is a lot of money is what he learned. And sometimes there is a price tag on things.

Yeah, I wonder if he'll come around and sort of say... Can I tell you how disappointed... And I know you shouldn't. I know. Was it Charles Barkley taught me? Was it Charles Barkley? Who said, yeah, I'm not your role model? Was that Charles Barkley?

I don't remember, but he's the kind of guy... I feel like it might have been him. He's the kind of guy that could say that. I know your sports figure shouldn't be your role model. That's fine. Except LeBron, to me, was cut from a different cloth. I really respected he said what he meant and what he felt, and he stood up against, and he did things for underprivileged

and for impoverished, like just a total mensch. Yeah. Yeah. And this is so, what the statement he made about the comments about Hong Kong. And the Houston Rockets owner being like misinformed. It was like all of a sudden.

Think about that comment that's causing the controversy. It was basically, and I know we're on a tangent here, but it was basically a pro-democracy stance. Like think about how that could possibly be controversial

in this day and age. Yeah. I mean, it was, you're right. Cause he traditionally has inspired people because he marched to his own beat. He didn't take the common path of just do things that are about making all the money and stuff,

do things on principle. Yeah. And then all of a sudden principle didn't matter. He was only about protecting the establishment. Very disappointing. I'm disappointed. Yeah. I'm disappointed.

This is where I'm happy where people can, through social media and stuff, speak out about something that otherwise, you know, a great influential person can otherwise have too much sway.

And I think it's good that people can fight back and say, no, this is, no, you went, you're wrong on this one, LeBron. Right. Oh, well.

Look, I don't know. Just disappointed. I feel like a father here. I'm just, I'm not mad. I'm disappointed. Yeah disappointed I feel like a father here I'm just I'm not mad I'm disappointed yeah I think in a way

he might have just been uninformed maybe being there while this was all going on something also helped give him a different kind of view that shaped this

but I think we need another like remember he did the announcement on ESPN right when he announced he was going to Miami

or whatever we need another special where LeBron James explains himself. Right. I need an explanation here. Yeah. Great selection. So that was your sister turned you on to Jackson Brown. Yes.

Cool. Somewhere in the 80s. All right. Second last jam. You ready? Yes. I don't know you very well, but do you like Radiohead? Yep.

Yeah, they're by far my best, my most favorite band. I saw them at Molson Park in Barrie, believe it or not, and then I had tickets for the one that got canceled when the poor guy was killed. I had tickets for that. Downsview. Right. Yeah.

My brother's a bigger fan, but I do listen to an awful lot of Radiohead, yes. Yeah. It's just one of those bands I've grown up with. I think I first got introduced to them in 1993 when they first came out with Play Creep. Of course. Right. And then you're like, wow, this is different.

And I mean, they just went against the grain on everything. But brilliant music. Dancing for your pleasure You are not to blame for And a sweet extract of love That I speak His name Dedicated to all you All you and me Yes Yes Remember when this album came out?

Yes, indeed. It was like 2008. This was the launch of Sticker You. Yeah, it was. This was when the idea, the planning was all going on. And this is when Radiohead put out an album that you could download for free or pay what you want. Yeah, pay what you want.

It was like the pinnacle of digital music finally reaching this nexus. Like, what's going to happen? Is it all free or do you pay? And they just put something out there that was, I thought, brilliant musically and tried to redefine it. The model.

Yeah, they were disrupting things. Yeah. It's funny you mention Creep because Creep is so not like Radiohead's other stuff. It's all for most of us anyways. It was the first time we heard Radiohead and we're like, what is that?

Yeah. And there was this inner angst. You know what I mean? With the guitar. I know what you mean. You know, it was reserved. Even a perfectly placed F-bomb in that song, too. The F-bomb in that song, to me,

that's when you should swear. It packs a punch. It's not a gratuitous F-bomb. Yeah. Because you're surprised, but they hold it back until it really matters and i can't listen to the radio edit because i need that uh punch of the f-bomb that's right when they bleep it it just ruins the song right yeah it's so true and another thing okay so we remember the 90s and

for a long time it's like okay well the album of the 90s man that's never mind nirvana but as time went on okay computer became the uh like the album of the 90s unbelievable album and then and then for them to do the next album and say we'll never play anything from our past again it was like you ripped my heart out right right how many times have you seen radiohead three times uh i saw them in new york when they came out with the uh the moon album and that's where they that tour they started to say no we're gonna play our old stuff again and so they finished with creep nice that was great you can't go wrong with uh with radiohead no one more to go how has the experience been uh you feeling good it's awesome awesome. I feel like this is the Andrew show.

This is wild. Well, it kind of is the Andrew show. You waltz in here. You get your songs. You get a six pack of beer. You get a lasagna from Palma Pasta. You get tickets to go to Pumpkins after dark. You had a good day, man.

This is good. I'm going to play Smashing Pumpkins when I go to that Pumpkin thing. Oh, yeah. I love Smashing. I went to the Farewell concert in 2000 or 98. Was that 98 or 2000? Anyway, I think it was 2000. They had the final tour.

I hated, they were terrible. Like they didn't play their songs. They kind of rearranged it and messed it up and they wouldn't do an encore and they were kind of dicks. And then I saw them again like two years ago and they were amazing they were yeah i just saw them this last summer at uh okay that's the stage okay i saw them like two years ago at scotia bank arena yes okay and they were really good similar to her and they are they were brilliant you realize how

good billy is on the guitar yeah i know and they played everything and they sounded strong and it's like where was this in 2000 when you would piss me off? Okay. But here, I like how you're closing up some CanCon. Here we go. This was actually one of the last additions to my top 10. The more I hear this song, the more I just feel like these guys are awesome.

I like a band that's a mix of Canadians and Americans, too. It's unusual. The band. So the band is all Canadian except for Levon Helm was from Arkansas. Oh, really? That's right. Robert Robertson was Canadian. You're right.

They all were. Rick Dank right. They all were. Rick Danko and they all were. Garth, Garth. All of them. Huh. Richard, Madeline. Arcade Fire

is the new band. Maybe. Yeah. I guess you're right. It's just probably Will and his brother that are the Americans. Also, I think now're right. It's just probably Will and his brother that are the Americans. Also, I think now, because you mentioned it, Blood, Sweat & Tears,

I think the lead singer was Canadian, and the rest of the band, I think, was American for Blood, Sweat & Tears. Oh, cool. And Ian Thornley was American. I mean, sorry, Ian Thornley was Canadian, but the rest of the band in Big Wreck was American, I think. Oh, okay. I wouldn't have known Ian Thornley, but I remember Big Wreck.

Was he the lead singer? Yes. Okay. Here, you want to take a track? This is a fun game. I like playing this game. That's right. Melissa Oftermar was in Hole for a while.

She's from Montreal, so there's one. Hole. Hole was from the 90s too? Of course. It's Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love. Oh, really? That was her band? Okay.

I never was crazy about how she sort of trash talked certain people sometimes. Oh, yeah. She has that propensity. I thought for a minute, you know, I thought, where's Andrew going? Is he going to say

I wasn't too pleased when she murdered her husband? I was like, Andrew! Gave him all those pills? We don't know. He blows a bullet

in the head. She? No, because Kurt Cobain took his own life by shooting himself in the head. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But there's a conspiracy theory that she orchestrated it. Right. Right. in the head yeah but there's a conspiracy theory that that she orchestrated it right right i remember shows was on certain shows and she'd be like complaining about alanis morissette you know right and it was just like jealousy or something exactly no she's had her uh her yeah her issues but she is actually a really good musician i think

whole is a really strong band yeah i do like them it's true just that video of uh smells like teen spirit was epic yes oh yeah the the janitor and yeah right the gym and the tattoos coming out and stuff yeah the teenagers uh anarch, anarchist cheerleaders. Yeah. That video defined the whole movement of alternative rock. Grunge. Yes. Which I still listen to all the time, grunge music.

Mosh Pit. Right. Oh, yeah. And you had your Thunder Kiss 65 by Rob Rob Zombie and, uh, or White Zombie. Yeah. Rob Zombie. You got to watch some of his movies. Those things are scary.

Yeah, he's good, right? Yeah. Yeah. They freak you out a little bit. Do you, uh, do you know any, I mean, very different than the kind of music you've been playing, but, uh, do you know any music from Danko Jones? I know the name. So, uh, Danko Jones is my next guest on Toronto Mike.

So this is a little, I'm sliding in a little promo here. I like it. Tomorrow, Danko Jones on Toronto Mike. You won't have to wait. You get a little now. You're good at this. You should be my co-host. This is a great album too Suburbs

It comes full circle Because you were talking about your funeral. That's good. You're better at this than I am. 527 episodes to get that good, Andrew. Didn't happen overnight. You got to put in your reps. That's fair.

Dude, I thoroughly enjoyed this. And I really appreciate you coming down here on a rainy Wednesday to play some atmospheric jams, man. I dug that. This was the best change up to my week. I love this. Happily come back.

And I'll see you at the museum when I come to cover the fact that there's a Toronto Mike sticker in the Sticker U Museum. I'll be there. It might be in that 1982 album. That would be a dream come true, man.

Totally. And that, that brings us to the end of our 527th show. Now you can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Andrew, I know Sticker You is at Sticker You. Are you on Twitter as Andrew Witkin?

I think I am. I am the worst. I'm not a big social media guy. I just find my life is... Oh, Twitter's fine. The rest suck, but Twitter's fine. Yeah, I do like Twitter, actually. You just won't see a lot of my posts.

Right. Okay, he's hiding. He's got a burner account, but we can always find him, StickerU at StickerU. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.

Brian Master wants you to email him at letsgetyouhome at kw.com to get on his fine snail mail list. It's really great value. You should do that. Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP and Pumpkins After Dark are at

PumpkinsAfterDark.com See you all tomorrow with Danko Jones. It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or do For me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you Oh, you know that's true because Everything is coming up

Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Wants me today And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and gray