Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Andy Creeggan: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1944

Episode Date: August 4, 2026

In this 1944th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Andrew Creeggan about the passing of his father, how he and his brother Jim came to join Barenaked Ladies, why he left the band, The Brothers Creeggan and Andiworks.A version of this podcast without programmatic ads is available to all Toronto Mike'd Patrons at patreon.com/torontomike.Toronto Mike'd, an award-winning podcast, is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca.If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Andrew Kriegan. Happy to be making my Toronto Mike debut. Just took the Go Train in for Roosheel Station. Nice to be back. Welcome to episode 1,944 of Toronto Mic'd. An award-winning podcast proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at great lakes beer.com 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.

Visit palmaPasta.com for more. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. Catch a game at Christy Pits this summer. No ticket required. Fusion Corp's own Nick Aienies. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline. And Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle My Electronics.C.A.

Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto-Mike to debut. It's Andrew Cregan. Andrew, now is the time. First of all, hello. Hello to you, sir.

What a pleasure it is to meet you. Nice to meet you. I was going to say, let's crack a way. and you've got a hop-pop in front of you. That is a non-alcoholic beverage from Great Lakes Brewery. If you want to pop it on the mic, now's the time. Let's do it. Let's do it. Here we go. Cheers to you, Mr. Kregan.

Smells good. People love it. People love it. You let me know what you think. You can review it, honestly. What do you think so far? One sip in. Yeah, after a hot bike ride in, this is hitting the spot. Do you bike a lot? whenever I can. Yep.

Okay. But you did take the go before bike. You didn't consider the full, do the full thing on the bike. I'm not as hardcore as that. It would have been a good two-hour ride or more. Maybe a day ride. I don't know, but don't quite have the time. Now, I want to write off the top, Andrew.

I want to offer my sincere condolences because you're living in the maritime. That's not why I'm offering condolences. My condolences you live in the maritimes now. but you're in town for a very sad reason. Yeah, over the past year and a half, my dad's health has been an issue and up and down over that time. And so I had come in many times to just take the shift from Brother Jim and Brother John. And this is the weekend that he finally decided that it was time. Oh, yeah, I'm so sorry to hear this.

I mean, would you mind maybe a word? or two about your father who, I guess he passed away on Friday? That's right, Friday. Thanks, thanks for the opportunity. Burnett, Bernie, Cregan, and he was a great guy. Right now, just going through all the aspects of his life that stood out. One of the things that stood out was a great dad, you know, was a teacher, high school teacher's whole life.

A guidance counselor, I think changed a lot of lives. and I think it was a great guy and musically was always playing piano and loved choirs. His piano style was particularly interesting in that he played in one key only, F sharp, and for anyone out there who knows what a keyboard looks like,

it's all the black notes. And once you get the trick of it, it's kind of fun to play on it, so that was his style, and he played this sort of stride piano, all his own style, and usually 40s, 50s tunes. were his bomb and really was always fun to listen to him play,

although often he chose difficult moments in our family history when he would play. For example, when we were always late and he would be ready, he would start playing piano. He would get on my mob's nerves. Burn! And he said, I'm just waiting. But anyway. Sounds like a great dad. He was a dude.

Burn Tough Craig Cregan, we used to call him. And you got his, your middle name is your name. after him. Correct. Yeah. Connecting all these dots over here. And I know, I know, obviously, I know of your brother Jim. I wasn't aware of brother John.

Yeah. He's the oldest one known as the ultimate Krigan. The ultimate Kregan. Is he also musically inclined? Through the ears, yes. Okay. Yeah, he's always got something to say about the music that he takes in. But no, he's, I think he was famous for playing bass when he was growing up.

and didn't really touch the bow to the string. He was, you know, moving the hands. It really looked like he was rocking, but he actually wasn't making any sound. Well, your dad passed on this love of music to all three of you. It sounds like. And I didn't know. I actually honestly didn't know you now call the Maritimes home.

Like, how long have you lived in the Maritimes? It's been now 16 years. I married a gal from Moncton, so there we be. Okay, that'll do it. You move there for a gal. Love takes me everywhere. I just had, I just recorded with a woman named Tanika Charles, and she moved, this is how much, she was in love.

She moved to Edmonton for a guy, sorry. She moved for a guy, but that didn't work out. She came back here. But so what's it like? I hope you can be honest with this, and if it's too personal, just tap out and we'll move on. But your father utilized maid? He did, yeah.

So I happen to think that's very progressive that we have this option, but I'm curious as his son. Like, what do you think of this, that you can set a date and choose the time of your passing? Yeah, it's not something you really think about a lot growing up or senior dad or, you know, thinking about life. You know, we're all afraid to die, but then to have this option. In general, there's all kinds of, I guess, breaks that they put on it, and all those breaks make sense to me. But in our case, he wanted it.

He expressed it clearly over several moments. And I just know that it was the right thing. And so I'm just grateful that it exists. And the way that it was performed and went down was amazing. and so if someone can articulate it and wants it, I'm all for it. But it's not as cut and dry as that most times, you know. It's a big question. What gives you the right to take your own life?

And what gives the right to the medical profession to aid that? So it's a pretty heavy thinking going into it. But in the case of my dad, I think it checks. all the right boxes and it went down perfectly and I have no doubts whatsoever about the fact that it was the right thing. And how was your father's, like prior to this, what is a procedure? I'm not even sure what the proper terminology is for when you, you know, for made, but were you able to have some sort of a party or something? I'm just trying to understand. I've heard of people, you know, Mendelso and Joe took advantage of Maid and some other people.

people I know of, but nobody in my personal life has yet gone through this. But knowing the moment of your passing, do you have some kind of a gathering, some kind of a farewell? Well, it's up to the person, obviously. Sure, yeah. Right? So in the case of my dad, his wish was to have his three sons there. Our mom has dementia and Alzheimer's.

So he made the choice that we tell her and we have a last visit, et cetera, but she not be there in the moment just because it would have been probably a difficult situation. But that was a tough one to kind of get her head around. But that was his wish, and it was very chilled out, and it was the way he wanted it. But I've heard of other people that, you know, I just read in the news the other day, I wanted to have some death metal to go out to a live band in Montreal. So it's like, you know, everything's on the table, I suppose. How humane, really.

Like, you think about this is how we treat our, we love our pets, right? We love our dogs. And when we find out our dog is a terminal illness and is in pain, we never consider, oh, we'll let the dog live in pain until, you know, the heart gives out or whatever. We do the humane thing. Yeah, it's beautiful. I think it's beautiful.

Again, my sincere condolences to you, to Jim, to John, and you mentioned you came from Scarborough. So this is where you grew up, right, Scarborough? Yes, sir. Okay, so if you don't mind, I guess you can imagine. You've heard some episodes of Toronto Mike, right? Yep. Have you heard any episodes with who's been on?

Stephen Page has been on? Tyler Stewart's been on. You heard any of the Bear Naked Ladies-related episodes? Of course, I listened to Tyler's interview all the way through. That was like two and a half hours or something. You know what? I told you this in email, but it's true. When he visited, because he was a big fan of the podcast and he came over,

and we had that really long. chat about everything. And it was quite, it was quite amazing. Like, you know, he was driving and people in Asian court and Super Dave Osborne, for example, like, it was just amazing. And I actually, honestly, after that, I go,

oh, Tyler's going to be a regular. He's going to drop by once a year. We're going to just, you know, talk about pop culture. It's going to be great. And he's never been back. Well, I'll talk to him today about that. I'm going to see him. Oh, you're going to see him today.

okay, well, maybe he'll have heard this by then. We've got to get recording here. So, okay, I'm dying to know, poor choice of words considering everything we've been talking about. But I am very interested to know how, like, who were you when you joined bare naked ladies? And how did you come to join bare naked ladies in Scarborough, Ontario?

Sure, I can tell the story, absolutely. Yes. So if you listen to the Tyler podcast, you know, when he jumped on, and my story is a little bit before that a little bit after that, right? So I'll start with the Backstreet Basement Boogie Blues band. Yes.

In high school, we used to just, we played bands. And Brother Jim was the bass player. I was the drummer. So we were the rhythm section. And then we had various guitar players throughout the years. But the reason why they changed so much is because for one reason or other, they were always older than us. So they kept graduating on us.

So we had the great gift, actually, to have so many and have so many different styles brought in by these guitar players. So we went from, sorry, I'm burping up the hop-pop. Listen, any burps you hear is because I gave him a hop-pop. Okay, what do you expect the man to do? You can burp on choice. This is not a cue. All right, all right.

Anyway, so you have several guitar players, different styles. We're talking, you know, we started with, you know, blue suede shoes, and then gradually moved into. to other styles, depending on what the guitar player played. So we had a great time with a guy named Paul Harrison who loved Strycats and was like an amazing Strycats player. So Jim and I, you know, we were doing the, you know, the double bass and the percussion thing. Well, I got to tell you right now, I'm sorry for interrupting.

I'm very interested, except the very first cassette I ever bought on my own was built for speed by the Stray Cats. There you go. Yeah. Loved it. So going through that, loved that. And got started singing through that as well. And then we also had different singers over the time, but mainly this guy.

named Rob Warren. Shout out to Rob if you're listening. And then, you know, moved into more intense music like when Graceland came out, I was in grade 10. And so we played you know, call me out. We played Diamonds on the Solders were Shoes.

And just, and that was a doorway into, you know, world music, African music. And Lee Smith, Blackwam Basel was a great discovery. And then slowly, moving into, you know, more jazz and progressive jazz, and then eventually weather report, and that's when we discovered Jacob Astorius. And of course, any bass player, once they've

discovered Jacob Astorius, that's sort of the beginning of a long journey and beautiful, wonderful journey. And as a drummer, I accompanied Jim, my brother, through that. So Jacob Astorius is actually one of my musical heroes. And his bass playing, obviously, is a reason, but also his just this fearlessness that he had and this incredible talent and, you know, unfazed, you know,

to do anything just because, you know, like rip out your frets and play fretless just because because he wanted something, you know, or any styles, like his,

his first solo up and just, to this day, is one of my faves. So anyway, take a long time to get to your question. Listen, you're in the right place

for detail, man. Just go. All right. discovering all this music, at the same time, there's another thread of classical music that is growing. Jim is doing double bass, and I'm doing percussion. And in grade 11, my ambition is to become a timpanist, a classical timpanist. And so I'm taking lessons and going that route as well at the same time.

And third stream, learning piano. My mom was a piano teacher, and I already mentioned my dad, who played by by year, so I was able to sort of take things from both of them. And so reading, reading music through piano and percussion and doing drumming and discovering pop music and jazz music and world music through percussion. And at the same time, singing in choirs and all that stuff, too. The Scarborough Schools Youth Choir was an amazing experience as well. And the All Scarborough is Wind Symphony and the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and all those

things. So really rich musical upbringing. And then, so I mentioned these guitar players who kept graduating on us. Well, along came this music camp called the Scarborough School's Music Camp. You may have heard of this before, but this is where I met Ed Robertson. And Ed was a funny, I read his name, I remember saying, oh, there's another percussionist in this band at the Scarborough Music Camp. And I didn't know who it was. And I thought I knew all of the percussionists in Scarborough at the time.

It's like, oh, I wonder who this is. and lo and behold, it was a guy in grade 12 who just was a neat musical guy and didn't really know how to play anything but was so musical he could sort of get by on the drums. So we hit it off, like, I couldn't believe we were just talking about this and that, the other thing, Rush was often a topic of discussion. And we just had a great time, you know,

just blabbing away during rehearsals of the Scarborough Music Camp. At the same time, he was also a guitar person player, of course, and was getting together with a guy named Steve Page, who was always associated with the camp, was the camp driver. And why he was the driver when he was the same age as Ed is because he was gifted and I guess sort of already graduated, but still wanted to be connected to the camp. So he managed to get a job, a very ironic job, because Steve is probably one of the worst drivers I've ever seen. Anyway, that's a side note. So at the same time, me and Ed are having good times in these rehearsals and he's also getting together with Steve and playing some of Stephen's

songs and he knew Steve and they went to the same school and blah blah blah. So eventually I invited Ed to come and play guitar with our band in our high school band. And that's, I introduced him to Jim, of course, right? And that was an amazing experience. So I like to say that Ed learned how to be in a band by playing in the Backstree Boogie Blues band. This is or the Backstreet Band for short, nothing to do with the Backstreet Boys. That was later. What predates that, yeah.

So this is like late 80s anyway. They might owe you something. So, yeah, so I like to say that Ed learned how to be, you know, a guitarist and a band, although he was playing another band, so it's kind of facetious, but we had a great time. He played in the Backstreet Band,

and then eventually him and Steve were doing their thing at the same time. They wanted to boost up their sound. And they were already going by the moniker Bear Naked Ladies, right, when they were a duo. So it's Ed Robertson and Stephen Page. We're bare naked ladies. That's right. And we used to go down to the last temptation.

And I remember to go and see them bar. And I guess it was Kensington Market, right? So they wanted to have a special kind of holiday show. And they invited Jim and I to come and boost their sound. And the idea was not to bring bass and drums, but to have more acoustic instruments. So Jim brought his double bass. And I said, well, I guess I'll bring like Congus or something

because I was interested in learning Kongas at the. the time. So that's the initial sound of Barney-Kadles was these acoustic guitars, lots of singing, double bass and congas. And I was in grade 13 at the time. And then we, you know, we play for six months. Did you call that OAC at the time like we did? You have a couple of years on me, but no one called it grade 13 when I was in. They called it, oh, like it was grade 13. Don't get me wrong. It was the year after grade 12. But for some reason, we never said, grade 13, we called it OAC. Yeah, I think you probably, in my time it was kind of the transition was happening.

Okay. I was born in 74. Okay, so by your time, I think it was officially OAC year, but my time, it was kind of a transition. I think we were the first time or one of the last years that actually the fifth year of high school existed. Right. Which is laughable. My daughter, my wife went to school in Alberta, and she kind of laughs at the fact we did five years of high school.

Like, no one else in this country, apparently, was doing the five years of high school. Yeah, whatever. I always often have to explain that to New Brunswick folks.

It's like, yeah, grade 13, that doesn't mean that I had to spend an extra. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, right, okay. So this is like a Christmas time club show or whatever,

where it's basically you and your brother, Jim, are joining the Bear Naked Ladies, which at the time is a duo, and that makes four. Yeah, that makes four. And so after that show, maybe we did one more, and Stephen Ed offered us to play in the band. And we were, of course, we're like, of course.

I'd, in the meantime, applied for this Canada World Youth Exchange program, which was to be after high school. And I got accepted. There was a while there where I kind of talked to the band as the guys. I was accepted to this thing. It's about a nine-month break where I'd be going off to different places in the world. And they were like, yeah, go for it. And just when you come back, and then you can join it.

And so that's why there was a period there where there were just three of them because I was away on this program, which is a story in of itself. Well, that maybe spent a moment because we're talking 1990 here, right? So, I mean, the yellow tape comes out in 91. So this is just, you know, things are starting to cook, but because we're pre-yellow tape here. But tell me a little bit about this Canada World Youth Exchange program. It sounds amazing. It was a fantastic experience. Basically, it's known as a cultural exchange program.

So it's not a mission and it's not the Peace Corps. It's all about development. And it was started by a guy named Jacques Ebal, who was a good friend of Pierre Trudeau. And the two of them, while traveling, they kind of came up with this idea that more people should experience living in other countries or traveling through other countries

and really seeing the world, right? And so Jacques Baal eventually he founded this program. Good accent, by the way. Ah, merci. My kids go to French immersion, but I have the worst accent you've ever heard. But I could hear them as they got older, as their accent developed. You've got a good accent there, Andrew. Well, I appreciate it.

I've got an ear for the accent. Okay, please. Well, that's one of the big themes of my life. You'll maybe get to know that as we talk, but the whole French element. Anyway, we'll get back to that. But so this exchange, basically you get together with a bunch of Canadians from across the country.

You meet somewhere, usually a small community, with a group of young people from another country that presumably have done something similar. They've chosen people from across, you know, the different areas of their country or the socioeconomic groups

or the ethnic groups, whatever. and you get together and you basically live for three or four or five months in a community somewhere. So in my case, I ended up doing two programs. I'll explain later why, but I ended up in Coinsville, Quebec, just outside of Montreal, and then ended up in Uruguay, South America. And so you basically live and you have weekly, you have chats about what development means, what's going on in this community, you do projects to help the infrastructure

paint, you know, some community centers or whatever. Just sort of talk about what makes the people tick, talk about cultural issues, talk about languages and all these things and just really get to know a culture through the people and

the Canadians actually learn probably more in the Canadian part just because, holy shit, this is what Canada is. This is a part of Canada I had no idea about and this is what makes the people People tick in Coinsvaded Quebec and all those kinds of things. And then you go off to their country and do the same kind of thing. And then come back a new man.

I'll bet. So you're there, what you said, nine months? Is that what I heard? Yep. Okay. So where's the band at when you return to Canada? The band is playing, you know, places like the Rivoli Last Temptation, um, sneaky D's, of course.

while I was away, they started there. I know Tyler talked about it, they did a kind of residency at ultrasound showbar. And so during that time, they really started to build an audience. And of course, Tyler came in at a certain point during that time as well. And when I came back, it was like, oh, I remember taking my Canada World Youth buddies. We were just coming back from our trips. and we showed up at the bar.

It was like an Ontario place or Harborfront Bar or something. And we came up on stage and danced the, what do you even call it? One of those dances. Macarino, what are you doing? Chicken dance? What are you doing? The name escapes me. It was one of those ones.

Take your right front and take the... Oh, hokey-pokey. Hokey-pokey. Oh, that takes me back. They had a really funky version of that way. So we went up and I realized, holy shit, there are people here. like there's like this like a thing going on here like wow good work guys like oh my god and so yeah it was a different story when I got back and there was

even people kind of going who's this Andy Krigan guy like what's the deal with that like they already had ownership of the band and there was this kind of furrowed brow about this new guy right and I was like yeah oh that's Jim's brother yeah this Jim's brother and so I had to sort of have proved myself and also find a place for myself because, you know, I technically would have been the drummer had we gone down the route, the natural route, I guess, but I hadn't got to that spot yet because I was still playing congas when I left. So I was like, oh, I guess I'll just play congas and then maybe eventually move over to piano. So that's what ended up happening. But when you find out, first of all, did you exchange, I don't know, letters with Ed or something

in which he told me told you about Tyler? Like, when did you learn Tyler was in the band? I can't recall exactly when, but yeah, there was definitely some correspondence. And, of course, Jim, you know, I saw him regularly and talked to him. So I knew there something was up. There was this Tyler Stewart character that I would have to meet. But what's your initial, I'm not trying to cause any Canadian rock riffs, waves here, but. Listen, my story is a very, very B part to something else.

Anyway, go ahead. Well, I'm just wondering, though, if you were planning to play drums and bare naked ladies and you go, you know, you got the blessing to go away for nine months, the Canadian World Youth Exchange program, and you come back and there's this Tyler Stewart guy banging away at the drums, like, was there a moment where you're like, hey, that's not fair? It's like being, you know, it's like being the starting quarterback, you get hurt, and then the backup takes your job. No, I didn't feel like it was unfair. That wasn't ever something. I think I left that behind in high school when I realized that music wasn't about, you know, playing time. But I definitely had to deal with it.

And, you know, I was okay with it. It was more an issue of what Tyler brought to the band changed it in a way that I wasn't totally comfortable with. I got to say right off the bat. His, I mean, I love Tyler, obviously. Well, you're going to meet him later today. day or tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, and I'll see him and I'll give him big hut and we love each other. And it's no secret that I had to adjust to what he brought to the band. And there was a

definitely style-wise, there was a definite friction in the fact that he thought, you know, he brought a propulsion to the band. Whereas percussion wise or drumming-wise, I brought something else. Like the main propulsion would have been between Jim and Ed. And, and Ed is one of the most amazing rhythm guitar players I've ever seen. And I've really was spoiled to learn. And I thought that Jim and Ed had this incredible rhythm connection. And when Tadder came in, I just didn't feel like it was as natural. And Tadr had his own propulsion.

And there was an adjustment for sure. And then you add my congas to it. Sometimes it was just like redundant what I was doing. So like I sort of had to figure out where my place was. and one of the songs that kind of demonstrates it in an interesting way is this song crazy on Gordon where it starts with Ed playing this great rhythm thing and then Jim adds and just the rhythm together

that's a guitar and bass, they really have it. And then I come in just with some chords and kind of float over top and that was something I thought I did pretty well and let them do their thing and was able to add texture to what they did. and then eventually, and there's lots of singing, of course, that's a big part of what I added to the

Barney Candidies as well. And then comes in Tyler with a big bash and a cram and then off it goes, you know, and, you know, there are arguments happening. So whether Tyler represents what the band had to become in order to be what it eventually became, this, you know, very successful pop group, you know, whereas, I don't know, if you take away Tyler and you add me into the band, I'm very curious about what path the band would have taken. It would have been a different one, that's for sure.

So this is crazy from Gordon. You can talk over this, obviously, like pop-up video. Yeah, sweet. I'm more than content with the state of mind I'm in because I am crazy like you. I get chills even just like you.

And then here goes piano. I don't think I need a rubber room, but that might be nice. I'm not a man express. I'm not getting in the way, right? And I'm just crazy. Crazy. Like you. And this represents early Barney Cadets is what you're hearing here.

Great bass plan. And musical, you know, like doing one thing and then responding. and this is I love singing back up but Steve was amazing. Enter Tyler I flew up with a cooose and I'm never ever coming back

I'm never ever coming back because I'm just crazy like you And then we added this in studio and never performed it like that But yeah It was a Michael Philip boy of Ode's idea Just to bring it down a tone

And then we did this whole smorgish board of stuff. There's Mike Quike back there. Samples, and we're doing weird percussion stuff in mics. Yeah, that's like from the Looney Tunes, cartoons, or whatever. And that's Martin Shelley, playing the guitar. Real Statics.

It's me in the back on the piano tunes. I'm kind of cording on top. And then there's this neat moment in this, It's just sort of mode of magic that only tape can create. Whereas there's Martin doing this thing. It's awesome. But then it just sort of morphs in to Hello City. And it's nothing, we didn't plan it at all.

It's just because Yellow City recorded, this is right here. Yeah, so that was just a natural thing because Hello City, a take of Hello City had been sitting on the tape and recorded over it. And we stopped there and then that continued on. I was like, hey, that sounds pretty good. That's unbelievable. I had no idea. This is like Song Exploder crazy from Gordon here. Okay, so Voa Voda, by the way, who has been over, you should listen to that episode, Michael.

Oh, I'd love to hear that. I mean, the Canadian classics he has produced, it's unbelievable. So, yeah, he just, he wrote his motorcycle over here. He didn't ride his bicycle like you did. But, okay, so we're going to get, that's Gordon, of course, but I got to ask you about the yellow tape here. So you've got to find your spot in the, you're, you're going to find your spot in the, the band basically because Tyler Stewart is the new drummer. Was there ever a moment where you felt like, oh, there's no room for me in Bear Naked

Ladies? Sure. Yeah, absolutely. It's just like, hmm. And I, you know, like struggle with it all the time. And it could be, you know, essentially why I left. I felt like I could leave without affecting the band too much because it's like, all right, so there's the, you know, guitar going constantly in sort of the mid range.

Jim's got his bass range. You know, there's drums happening. there's vocals happening. There's barely any solos. I don't know if you don't know as Barra and Qaeda's, but there's not a solo, it's not a solo band. You know, there's singing. And then maybe a small little musical thing,

but not much, right? And so. Like the Beatles. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But they're more solos and the Beatles than there are in the Bayon Caledas. But, so I was kind of thinking, well, what do I play? Like, where do I, and where do I play?

I'm just looking at the keyboard, saying, well, that's that. This, this. So, you know, I ended up being really high or just, you know, doing just chords or Jim and I would, you know, organize some sort of baseline that we would play together. And so I was constantly kind of asking myself, what the hell do I play? You know, like what do I do? You know, so, and I still ask myself that question. I haven't really been able to answer it. Interesting.

I find this all so fascinating. And that extra dynamic that your brother's in the band, like, that's an extra dynamic here where you, to me it's not like to me that does change things right like uh you know your your brother is a member of bar naked ladies so yeah okay you're gonna add that to the psychological mix yeah yeah exactly and you know i think for a long time tyler felt intimidated by the connection we had and uh you know we represented you know the the real high standard for rhythm and ed as well and tauter uh was working hard to live up to it, you know, because we

had our own idea about what tempo was, and of course, anybody who's listening and has been in a band, they know that basically the band is about the tempo and the groove and the rhythm. And so Tadar had a different approach to it. Like he tended to be a top of the beat, and we

thought that we had a different thing going on, and he worked hard to try and fit into that. Now they've worked it out. and they've worked out their thing. But during those times, we're always, always talking about tempo and talking about we sped up there. We did this. We slowed down and we spent up.

Usually it was about speeding up. And Tyler, knowing Tyler, you can sort of understand, he's kind of a speed up kind of character. When I see Bear Naked Ladies, typically Tyler gets like a chance to kind of be in Led Zeppelin or something. Like he'll, or Black Sabbath or something. Like he'll kind of do some covers of some. classic rock staples or whatever, like rock out. So always very interesting. But here's a fun fact for you quick before we get away from it too often.

So I have had, so Stephen Page has been over. And in fact, his debut, I think, was, he was in upstate New York and zoomed in. But then he finally dropped by with Chris Murphy from Sloan. They were doing some Trans-Canada Highwayman stuff. But it was revealed to be after that when I became friends with informer. I was going to call him, he's not an informer. He's not an informer. But snow came by, and snow tells me he is Stephen Page's cousin.

Oh. So I'm just throwing it out into the abyss. This is as per snow, Stephen Page is his cousin. I just think that's a fun fact, Andrew. I remember we crossed baths with snow. In Vancouver, we did a show together, but I don't remember that aspect of snow. Okay. Well, he dropped that bomb here.

Similar to when Ashley McIsaac came on the program and talked about Jack White as his cousin. You never know. There's someone that I'd like to have a good sit down with, Ashra McKenzie. He was bananas, but in a good way, like just wild. Yeah, well, listen, I'll broker that deal. He's in the maritime, so we can hook that up here. Okay. All right, so where do I want to go next?

Because the yellow tape. So what can you share with me about recording the yellow tape, which I believe was the biggest independent release in this country's history? Do I have that right? I think you're right. But I don't really follow those things. That's my job. I know it's something.

It was big. And we had to divvy up the task of selling during our, you know, intermissions in our songs, in our sets. So I knew that people wanted it. One of the stories I remember from recording it was that I was already on Canada World Youth. And they wanted to record it. And so I got special permission from the exchange program to hop on the train, leave the program, bring my African counterpart who had never been

outside of Africa and suddenly we were on a train and then we were downtown Toronto and this guy didn't even speak English. He spoke French and, you know, Kenya Rwanda, which is the language of Rwanda. But, so Martin Chimimimana was

with me while we recorded during the night at Wellesley Studios. And I think it was if I had Bima Yoakono, I think. Anyway. Yeah, so I remember that specifically. Now, I think we have Fight the Power on there too. 100%.

Yeah. I owned two copies of this damn yellow tape back in the day because you were going to get to this, but CFNY played the mess out of it. Yeah. That was my station at the time. And just like similar, and I think this might have had the record

for independent release before you broke it, but Shakespeare my butt by lowest of the low. CFNY played the mess out of Shakespeare in my butt. Those are the two I remember from like 1991 local Toronto bands. It's funny, you know, I grew up, and that's true, like, you know, Hal Harbour was an incredible supporter. And, you know, I thought that that was normal. What was happening there? And it's just like, I've grown to know that the support that we had and also the chemistry that we had and the friction and the electricity.

city we had was not just normal. But I, you know, just coming out of school, there was this guy and I thought it was just, you know, it's like, bands do this, you know, it's like, right. And there was never a doubt in my mind that we were just doing good work and people were loving it and it was incredible. And just hanging out with the, you know, Tyler, Steve and Ed, my brother, of course, hung out a long time before that. So, right, his vibe.

But they were just incredible humans. like their brains were just working so fast, way fast as mine does. And the encyclopedic knowledge, the knowledge of, you know, popular culture, just the reference, the back and forth, the witticisms, like, all those things were just incredible. And then music making was pretty, pretty awesome, too. And that's where I chose to really put my energy. But I knew that there was just something electric and incredible.

but so the yellow tape and there was other recording I think I sang on some of the other stuff but they recorded it without me I just can't remember exactly well I pulled one track because I feel like this was the first one that kind of leaked into the atmosphere or whatever

from the yellow tape so let me play if there's someone you can live without the show about how does it feel to be Andrew Kriegan and hear that in the headphones right now Well, I haven't heard that particular version of a yokeo in a long time, and I like noticing all kinds of things about it. Some things like the energy number one,

and there's another good example of just if you take away, you know, the content of the singing and you take away, you know, all the studio techniques that were overdone, if you just listen to the bass and listening to guitar and listen to, you know, what I was doing on the percussion, which was further up the mix than I thought it would have been. It was damn loud. There's some good playing.

It's like it's full, you know? There's incredible energy going. It's amazing. And, you know, like the back of vocals, of course, overdone. I think we probably tripled them or something like that. And it smashed on lots of reber and just because it was like, we can do this, you know. And if you sort of strip that down and you just,

take a look at the music things that are happening. It's like it's pretty solid. And then go in, and then, of course, always add to that what Steve brought to the band, which was great melodies, great singing and this sort of, I don't know what else to call it, but he had, you know, his bent, his kind of dark, dark way of approaching popular culture. And so there's joyous, energetic stuff with this, with this sort of mysterious and, negative vibes happening at the same time. You know, I think that's part of what Bernicoletti's was.

Well, I know exactly what you're referring to, because you hear it there in this song about, you know, Yoko Ono, and then, of course, he also writes a wonderful song about Brian Wilson. Yeah. Yeah. And you're doing some Congo work on that one. Yeah.

And I love that song. That's the one conga bit that seems to have, you know, like remained as something that's still, still around. Oh, it's key. The Congo part. It's key. Okay, so I don't, obviously,

we're not just going to talk about bare naked ladies, but here we are in the mix of it here. And there's a couple of hotspots. Like, one is, whose decision was it, hey, we should go on Speaker's Corner and sing Yoko Ono? Yeah, I was away. You're not even in that Speaker's Corner.

Yeah, I just remember that they did it, and it was, they got some fun, you know, excitement and coverage from that, and they were pretty pleased about it. Might be the, might be, even though I know for a fact, the, this is one of the truth or things. And there was a documentary about 299 Queen Street West, which said that that was the first Bear Naked Ladies television thing.

But I happened to know there was a YTV award that went to B&L before that. That was like a national television broadcast here. But again, trying to cause up some shit here. But we have also June Rollins, who was mayor of Toronto, and I don't believe this was her call. I believe this was actually, she took the hit on this. But I believe it was like, you know, civil servants trying to do their job. But that was very good exposure for bare naked ladies when you guys were banned from playing Nathan Phillips Square because of your name.

Yeah. Funny, funny business. It was the first gig Baranical Ladies ever played was at that place. Nathan Phillips Square. Anyway, but it hit the Toronto Sun. Like the first story showed up and it was on page 8 or something. And it was just a thing, hey, look what happened. You know, like, isn't this crazy?

then three days later or something, Toronto Star decided to put it on the first page. And then it became something crazy. Yeah. And that was, for me, it was a lesson in, oh, interesting. PR work or something. Yeah, there was, it was like a political correctness run amok, basically, I suppose here. Very interesting. I remember this very well.

Okay, but, and then we played a song from Gordon, which of course is the first official release, right? But the money for Gordon comes from the CF and Y new music search contest. Correct. Okay. So were you there? I'm trying to understand what's it like for the band when you win that thing? What was it like? I don't know.

It was just like one. That was real cash. Like that was $100,000 or something? Yeah, we're like, great, man. Let's go to where Rush recorded. Cool. We'll do that. We'll get Michael Philip Vojaro and we'll record it there and be able to ski.

ski to the studio and you know see where you know police recorded all she does is magic everything she does is magic so we were like totally excited

but for me it was just like another detail and the list of incredible things that were happening just in the rise of bernicadees in Canada it was you know it's just like one thing after the other well starts with Hal Harbor the late grade by the way

who this is more homework for you go listen to the Hal Harbor episode of Toronto Mike There's a lot of B&L talking that one. I would love to. He was an amazing guy. Doug Barron, I want to say, was his name. Doug Barron. It took me a long time.

I was listening to Safeway, Hal Harbour. It took me a long time to realize, oh, it's a fake name for Halifax Harbor. Like, it took me far too long. Yeah, me too. And I'm hanging out a lot in Halifax. So I'm thinking I'm him every now and then about that.

But he was, during the rise, during the time, there were certain individuals, of course, And you slowly realized, too, the quality ones and who the sort of integral ones was, Hal Harbour was definitely one of them. Okay, so you're only in Bare Naked Ladies for two official releases.

So there's Gordon we've been talking about, but you're still there for maybe you should drive. And you did tease a little earlier why maybe some of the psychology behind you leaving the band, but would you mind revisiting this decision of yours to leave the band after two full-length releases? it was actually a marketing decision I noticed that there was a certain amount of backlash to the band and so I figured if I left the band then I could become the champion

sort of the captain anti-barricade lady person and everybody would come to my camp and I could create this like a civil war and that it would be very lucrative didn't work out I don't believe you though

I feel like you're you're winking at me on the inside there. But like, I must confess that just having known you now for about an hour, maybe, yeah, about an hour,

there is a sense of maybe, oh, this band doesn't need me. I'm not adding enough to this band. Maybe I should exit stage right and do something else I want to do and maybe go to McGill or something. Yep, that's,

you're not far off. And, you know, add to that a whole bunch of things. So one of them was, you know, I talked about, you know, my love of classical music and instrumental music

and jazz music. and you hear some of those influences. Steve and Steve Page, of course, was also a classical singer and Jim. We grew up playing in orchestras and stuff like that. So there's definitely some of that refinement that classical music can bring and a knowledge of a really huge amount of music. But it wasn't doing pop music was never something that I aspire to do. And so I was doing it because I was enjoying it.

And I enjoyed the people and enjoyed the experiences. And it was teaching me tons. And there came a time when A, I kind of saw where the train was headed. And I realized that it wasn't a place I wanted to go to necessarily. I wanted to do other things. Add to that, B, some young naivete and idealistic thinking about who I was and see, you know, like my own artistic ego, young artistic ego, that thought that everything was easy.

And for, you know, me as a guy, I wasn't particularly a loud member of the band. And so, whenever the, for example, whenever the band was sort of walking through a crowd or something, I would kind of hang back, you know, like, and let them sort of, do, you know, do their thing. And I would just sort of come in the wake and just sort of be one of the members of the entourage. And like I do that all the time. And it's to my own detriment often. But, you know, they would say, oh, yeah, Barry Nicolades. And they'd kind of go, yeah, Andy, or Steve, Ed, Jim, and where's Andy? Oh, Andy's back there. Okay. Yeah. You know, it's like,

I wasn't particularly, particularly, I was a little bit shy about what the band was. and through that I didn't wasn't necessarily that comfortable with being identified with the band because I didn't feel like it was really something that I was responsible for. I know what I was responsible for and I'm very, very proud of what I did and how I was able to contribute. But I was uncomfortable with the whole thing and wanted to do other things. So eventually that sort of took hold. Unfortunately, one of the things I wanted to do is, you know, Brothers Kregan, which was a band with my brother, and me leaving forced him into a really tough spot. You want to hear a little Brothers Kregan?

Yeah, here's places, yeah. Of course I had this one pulled. Interesting choice. Guess vocalist on here. Brothers Kregan. Produced by Michael Philibuya Buddha as well. Well, she's already been never too hot, never too cold. But this is 1994.

Lannis Morissette. I love how this sounds in the headphones, man. So is this a, like when you decide you're going to go study at McGill, one of the, in addition to leaving the band, you got to leave the brothers Cregan? No, no, no. Okay, good. Just, okay. So.

In fact, we did a tour in the middle of my degree, and I took semesters off. Okay. I didn't care. Gotcha. Recorded Sleepy had our last album in the middle of my degree, yeah. Okay, right. That was 2002.

Right, right, right, right. I got to say, kudos to you, though, that you kind of left for these, the right reasons, if you will, as opposed to sort of holding on just to see, oh, I'm in this band, we're getting some traction. Who knows, maybe one day we'll have a number one billboard Hot 100 hit. you never know

like it's just it's just I can see people oh I'm in a band it's tough to get into a band with some traction going who knows where this might take us maybe one day will I don't know we'll have the most popular sitcom of all time will have one of our songs as the theme song or something yeah

although who would ever dare to dream like that yeah I don't know I've been I've been able to watch like for example my brother just watching him do his thing over the years and realize oh shit man if I'd have stayed, think of all the people I've been able to meet and maybe collaborate with and be exposed to and meet on a sort of peer basis, you know, as opposed to just someone. And you can't deny the money that they've been able to make to, you know, the lifestyle that they've been able to have.

and, you know, although those things, you know, it's just kind of incredible to think that they've been able to do that. But then, you know, I sort of look at the choices that I made and look at the life that I've been able to lead since then. And the times that I've been able to actually work with them, use my, you know, my skills. For example, I arranged a lot of their music for when they play with, you know, symphony orchestras I was able to work with them a bunch of times.

And plus, you know, they called me in for, you know, the children's album in different spots. I appear here and there, and those have been joyful occasions, you know. But when I look at what I've been able to do on my own and the places I've been, and I don't regret one bit. No regrets. Yeah. I'm glad to hear it. And you seem content.

I mean, you're here for some very sad reasons, but it sounds like you made some choices for yourself that, that worked out. Did you want to leave the band earlier than you left? Like, for example, maybe after Gordon, you thought, okay, maybe it's time for me to exit, and maybe you decide to stick around for one more. Like, did you leave exactly when you wanted to leave, or did you hang on a little bit just to help out the band?

Yeah, it was an ongoing kind of subject of discussion. I remember trying to leave in the middle of just doing demos for maybe you should drive and having some discussions with, especially Tyler, was one of the important figures in that. We had dinner a bunch of times together and talked about it. Of course, our relationship was a little bit more complicated compared to the others, and I think he felt somewhat responsible.

And so we had some issues to talk through for sure. So I stayed until recording with the idea that we would record it and someone else would take on the touring part, and then we decided that, of course, it was kind of ridiculous that someone else do that. So I did the tour, and we had a great time. It was still good, but once the tour was over, and it was time to think about the next album,

I said, okay, then I'm done. And it was still, I think, a shock. And a tough time for the band, not just because of me, but also Steve was going through some tough times as well. So it was a bit of a dark period for the band. But, yeah, so it was a bit of a story going through them. I remember two different times when I actually got sick

and was kind of having feverish dreams. Anyway, whatever. I was just imagining being out of the band and these sort of feverish delusions and waking up from me going, okay, yeah, something I really want to do. Yeah. And then, you know, going through a couple moments of panic.

It's like, wait a sec. I don't know what I'll do by myself. Like, can I actually get by? Like, what about money and stuff like that? Right. But, yeah. Well, I find the psychology kind of fascinating because I'm so glad you're here that we could, you know, talk openly and honestly about all this. Yeah.

I appreciate you making this time. Now, it's worth noting eventually, I guess they did do an album like as a quartet, but then Kevin Hearn, who's been on the program, who's also played at the Rio Statics. And shout out to James B and the Look People. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's some vinyl from the look people hiding there behind Maestro Fresh West. Yep.

Yeah. Shout out to the look people. Okay. And Kevin Hearn joins the band, and how do you think Kevin's doing in Bairnaked Ladies? Well, for me, he's the MVP. That's my opinion. Well, for your brother. Get your brother out for that award because Jim's in contention for MVP.

No, I just really am a fan of what Kevin does. and I admire his solo project. I admire what he brings to the band. And of all of the people around, I really understand what he's been able to bring and how he's what he's done. And I really enjoy his output for sure. Yeah, I think he's kind of fascinating.

He was there for Lou Reed at the end of Lou's life and then he was there for Gordony at the end of Gord's life. Yeah. He's a remarkable human being, really. He is. I don't know how that comes about. He's an incredible artist, Kevin Hearn. Jeez, okay.

And he still does stuff with the Rio Statics because they put out the Great Lakes album, and Kevin's all over that. So still working with Bidini and the gang in Rio Statics. Yeah, for whom, let's talk about Rio Statics, for whom I have a great, great deal of respect and admiration for. Dave Bidini represented just this guy who understood so many things that I didn't,

and I was just in awe of him all the time. Martin Talley was an incredible artist as well, just natural charisma and talent and when he was able to do with the guitar and his songwriting and also as a back of musician for the other guys as well and is an inspiration to me. And Tim, an amazing guy, pointed me in so many cool directions,

just through chatting. And of course, Dave Clark was the drummer when I was associating with the band. And I loved what he was able to offer as well. And what a great dude he was as well. And so I learned so much from just watching them go and just cherish all those times and all those learning moments that I had with them. I just had correspondence with Tim in which he expressed interest in making his Toronto Mike debut finally.

but have you, Andrew, had any contact of Martin in the past little while? Nope. I know they have an open invitation, but he opted not to join the Rio Statics on their most recent album anyways. But just think about him a lot. I think he's unworldly. I think he's this amazing. I mean, you know, things can happen to people who are so,

so connected to some somehow, another plane, you know, and it's not necessarily the most stable of things. I can see it kind of in a way in my son in a different kind of category, but in sports, he has this incredible talent, and I think it's tough on him. And I feel like Martin was similar in that sense. He was sort of in connection to a different place. and it was a lot of us were in all of him. Any contact with the other members of,

obviously your brother's in the band. You've been a lot of contact of him recently, obviously, all the time. But then you mentioned you're going to say Tyler, but do you still keep in touch with Stephen Page, for example, and Ed Robertson? The odd communication, yeah. Like, for example, Stephen wrote just a condolence message this morning because he reads the newspaper, and including the obituaries, I guess.

and sent a message of condolences. And I've worked with Steve, actually, in the past, where I've arranged one of his tunes and conducted a thing where he played with an orchestra. And so we've actually worked together and have a good relationship. I was never sort of a threat to him. And that's, and then I supported what he did. And I didn't have the same, you know, wit or intellect. And so we had a good working relationship, in fact.

but and Ed same. Every now and he'll see something in Instagram or something and think of me and Jim. We have a thing where we share stuff that we thought the other would dig and every now and then I get to sit in with a bed. And in fact, tonight they're playing in Toronto. Right. And lucky old Mia I get to play a couple tunes, just for old time's sake.

Amazing. That's amazing. That's very, very, very cool here. Now I have a song that's well post, well, B&L and, well post the brothers Keegan and I'm going to play it. Did you say Keegan? Cregan. Who am I thinking of? Keegan. I don't know why I said Keegan.

Maybe I'm thinking of those Blue Jays transactions and what will Keegan Matheson have to say about it. Maybe that's where my brain's at there. My apologies. But I want to give you a couple of gifts here. So in my freezer upstairs, Andrew, is a large frozen lasagna from Palma pasta. You can take that back to Scarborough with you. Awesome. That box is empty, but it's in my freezer.

It's in my freezer. I'm honored. Delicious. Thank you, Palma Pasta, for signing that over. I also have some fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. They brew it right here in southern Etobico. It's delicious, and they sent over some beer for you as well. Fantastic.

Can't believe I said Keegan. That's going to haunt me. I would fix it in post, but I don't edit these shows, so it's got to stay there forever. Krigan is one of those names that just gets, you know, just mis-setset. mispelled. It's just a hard one's going to get the two Gs right. Nobody. I get it right because I know, oh, there's two Gs in Cregan.

But I think the average Joe or Jane or whatever is going to put one G in Cregan. Yeah, that is just one of those things we're used to checking. It's still not supposed to be Keegan. On my dad's death certificate. You put one G? Yeah, we had to say, no, there's two G's in. Yeah, well, no one sees that coming. That second G just, boom, where did that come from?

Okay. I don't know how long you're in town for. When do you go back to the Maritimes? Tomorrow. Okay, well, at some point when you're in town visiting your brothers, you can go to Christy Pits and catch some Maple Leafs action. No ticket required.

Just fill the hill at Christie Pits. Get a hot dog, get a beer, and enjoy some quality baseball. That's the history of Toronto Maple Leafs baseball. Andrew, you can read that on your flight back to the Maritimes. Very cool. I mean, we have our local team amongst the Fisher Cats. who are now, I think, a different name, but I know them as the Fisher Cats.

But this will be some interesting read. It's been a neat to grow up in Toronto, do the Barnicolady Journey, let it go, experience, you know, French and then smaller town, East Coast. I've got kind of a unique vision on things. And I don't know, where my, if I'm a guy. going to be a fan of these Toronto Maple Leafs or my Fisher cat, I don't know, I'm somewhere in between. You're a man without a country, as they say on the wire.

Okay, I also would like to shout out quickly. Recycle MyElectronics.c.a., because if you have old electronics, old cables, old devices, you don't throw that in the garbage to be, end up our landfill. The chemicals will end up in our landfill. Go to recycle my electronics.coma. Put in your postal code and find out where you can drop that off to be properly recycled. And I want to give some love to Nick Iini's from Fusion Corp because he stepped up to help fuel the real talk so I can have these long-form conversations with people

like Andrew Cregan. I don't know who that Keegan guy is, but Andrew Cregan is here. And there's two G's and Cregan. I will always know that. So thank you to Nick Iienes. I would like to play a song that's not by the Bare Naked Ladies and it's not by the brothers. Cregan. You ready, Andrew? Yes. What are we listening to, Andy? We're listening to a tune called How's Work. It is from my fourth solo album, Andy Work. Andy Work has A-N-D-I work.

And this is your fourth, and that was, what, a few years ago now, I guess, 20-21. Yep, yep. It's kind of the product of some of the experimentation I do in studio or writing for instruments or pieces or whatever's going. So Andy Work was concurrent with the Brothers Kregan for a while there until the Brothers Kregan went on hiatus. Yeah, it's kind of a similar where Jim and I,

Brothers Kregan was originally sort of an idea or a demo for the next Parenthood Ladies album. And we all quickly realized that Brother Krigan was something, It was different. And then doing Brothers Krigan, I would always have some instrumental tunes. So if you listen to early Brothers Krigan, in fact, right up to Sleepy Head, there's instrumental tunes on there that usually are started with me. And so that it was always an interest. So gradually we figured out that the instrumental stuff was kind of its own thing, too.

So that's where Andy work came in. So it's just these streams that are breaking off, you know. So, okay, so is there plans for another, like an Andy Work 5? Andy Work 5 is released. Oh my goodness, I'm out of date with my 4-1-1 here. Okay, when did Andy work-5? What's the research, man? Who's the research?

I'm going to fire my staff, okay? I got a big staff. They're all going to be in big trouble after this episode, Andrew. So when did Andy Work 5 come out? Anywork 5, I believe maybe it was a couple years ago. Oh, my goodness. Way out of day here. I'm embarrassed here.

Okay. Anyway, I'm working on six right now. On six. Andy work five is kind of a special one in that it's just solo piano with a little bit of delay and with the intent of trying to put my wife to sleep, basically. So I was trying to think about what could I do to help her sleep? Because I noticed she was having trouble. And so I thought about where on the keyboard I need to play, what kind of things I need to play,

what kind of time frames I need it to be. I was trying to sort of find a solution and all those things in my own way. So that's what Anywork 5 is. It's kind of its own thing. But Anywork 6 is going to be a little bit back to what Anywork 4 was. It's amazing you have that outlet

for your creativity and your musicality. Any chance of a Brothers Kriegen reunion? I'd say there's a chance. Because it's been a while, man. I think the last Sleepyhead was 2002. Yeah. It's 2026, Andrew. Yeah, we have, we have enough songs, that's for sure.

It's just a matter of finding the time to do it and really commit to it. And we've talked about it. You know, we've sort of made some attempts, attempts. And sort of we finally digitized and put it out on all the, you know, the streaming things. That was a step towards, you know, getting something happening with Brothers Kregan. But, I mean, the truth about the brothers Kregan is that, you know, we're now the father's Kregan. We had kids around the same time.

So when we were together for the past bunch of years, it was usually with our kids, you know, and time to actually jam was, you know, far and few between. We were, you know, doing activities with them, blah, blah, blah. Right. And over the time, we grew up. kind of filled each other's, the gaps in each other's musical experience. So where Jim didn't understand drums, I kind of filled that void. And where I didn't understand bass, he was the bass player.

Like, I grew up, we were two trees that grew up together. And then since being apart, we've, both of us in our own way have filled in those gaps. And we kind of don't need Brothers Griggan as much anymore. and so we've we've we've we've kind of moved on in a sense I feel that way but I still feel like it may happen still but you know we've got to deal with our dad or our family business for the moment and that's the first thing on the table but so we you know

it's just one of them things well you know as part of the morning process I know it's different for everybody but add John to the brothers Cregan you could record an album for your father That's a good idea. I don't know what John would do. He did, I don't know if you know, the Blues Brothers, we did, everybody needs somebody and you know, there's that big speech by Elwood. Yeah, right.

Well, John, John did that for us. He put on a fedora and he did that speech. Very, very admirably, by the way, because he's a pretty shy guy. Okay. But I don't know what he would do on the next thing. maybe we could record his voice or record his conversation. Give him a triangle or something. I don't know.

Triangle is not the best because everyone hears the triangle. Maybe something, I'll think about it. You think about that. Okay, so just before I, because this has been amazing for me. I mean, I'm sorry about the circumstances that brought you back to Toronto, but I'm glad we were able to connect like this. And I guess I'm wondering, like, what consumes, I mean, your father, you're busy, but when you go back to the Maritimes, obviously, you're

mourning the loss of your father, but beyond that, what consumes your time? Like, you're working on Andy Work 6? Yep. Andy Cregan or Andrew, both answered to both. Basically, my life is extracurriculars from high school, so music and sports. That's my life. So musically, Andy Work 6, as you mentioned, my composing career is kind of taken off and taken a real nice turn these days.

So I've got some really nice commissions. I just finished a big one and I'm jumping into another one soon. So I'm enjoying the classical side of my life right now. And that's going really well. So it's kind of fun. And then I also play in a band called UMLAB. And that's been fun just to work kind of jazz, instrumental, progressive electro, and it's, that's been fun to get into the synths and stuff

like that. It's been a fun, fun journey. And then, and then sports, as you can see from my T-shirt, I'm heavily into Ultimate Frisbee and coaching. And I'm sending off the New Brunswick junior team to the Canadian Championships just this week. So, and following there, and my son is coaching it. Wow.

So it's a big. Family affair. Yep. Big part of my life is the whole sports business. Well, I enjoyed this very much, Andrew. I've been calling you Andrew the whole episode, even though I kind of want to call you Andy. I always knew you as an Andy,

but then when we were corresponding, you were Andrew, and I'm then, oh, you wants to be Andrew. Yeah. I actually had a little moment. I was like, what do I sign? Do I sign Andy? I had to go up in the feed to see what you called me to see what I would sign.

I answered to both. It kind of depends on the context. Like my wife calls me Andrew, and my parents called me Andy and Glyphones tend to call me Andy. But B&L fans always knew you as Andy. Yeah. Andy and Jim.

You know, that correspondence that got you here, did you see how far back I went? Like, did you ever, so I wrote that initial email asking saying, I'd like to talk to you, was several years ago, I think. And I just, out of the randomly, because I had a little time

because my youngest kids were in Edmonton this week. And I had a little time and I'm like, I'm going to follow up with some people that I bugged like several years ago just in case. Right. And it worked. You're right here. Yeah, man.

Yeah, I think Carol from my record company didn't forward on the first one. Yeah, it was a record company, right? Never got it to you. And then she forwarded on this reminder. So I just followed up. Oh, by way, you were going to say something about the importance of French. I took a little note that you want. I didn't mean not to come back to that.

But did you want to speak for a moment about you mentioned the importance of French in your life? Yeah. Big, big part of it. I mean, the gal, I mean, it's a long story that, you know, started with immersion way on, but way early. But basically, I married a French gal, and we spent a lot of time in Quebec and a lot of time in Sherbrook. And, of course, a lot of time in Moncton and the Acadian community and learning what life is like as a French speaker and a minority situation. It's been a big part of my life. And we brought up two kids basically in French.

so it's a big part of this guy's life anyway. Well, that explains the good accent I hear. Maybe. Thanks for doing this, man. I'm going to get your lasagna after this, and we're going to definitely take a photo by Toronto Tree, and you're going to tell Tyler, maybe it's time for his return.

I'll put in a pitch for you. That should be your first line. Tyler, it's time for you to return to Toronto Mike. Well, you guys have clearly some things to talk about. Lots has happened since his first visit. I just love the guy. There's a guy named Banjo Dunk. He's in Whiskey Jack, which was Stomp and Tom's band.

By the way, Stomp and Tom's comeback, you can tie it directly to the aforementioned Dave Bedini. The comeback was sparked by Badini finding him and telling him Canada needs you. He was like 11 years retired. Anyway, so it all comes back to the Rio Statics. But Whiskey Jack, this guy, Banjo Dunk and Fremlin plays hockey with Tyler Stewart. And at some point, like a decade ago, Dunk goes to... to Tyler and says, what's your favorite podcast?

And Tyler Stewart tells banjo dunk, Toronto Mike. There you go. And then the rest is history. And that brings us to the end of our 1,944th show. Go to TorontoMike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery.

Andy's got his fresh craft beer. Palma pasta. I'm going to get him a frozen lasagna. You might have to give that to your brother if you have time to eat it before you go back to Maritimes. I don't know if you want to fly with that, but you've been giving you a beautiful big lasagna. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball. Andy's got his history book on Leiths Baseball at Christy Pitts. Nick Aienies from Fusion Corp.

Recycle My Electronics.com.C.A. and of course, Redley Funeral Home. Who's next? Andy, I should know this. What kind of operation is this? Okay. Coming up next on Toronto Mike, it's Rebecca Rankin. Rebecca Rankin. See you then.