Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Boxing Day Message and Graven Chat: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1825

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

In this 1825th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike shares a Boxing Day message with the listenership before sharing a recent chat with FOTM Graven. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, RetroFestive.ca and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

What the hell's the deal with Boxing Day? I'm in Toronto. I'm in Toronto, where you want to get the city love. I'm from Toronto where you want to get the city love. Okay. I'm in Toronto, Mike, you want to get the city love me back for my city love. Welcome to Episode 1,825 of Toronto Maked. An award-winning podcast proudly brought to you by Retrofestive.ca, Canada's pop culture and Christmas store.

Save 10% with the promo code FOTM for a limited time. Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at greatlakesbeer.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. Fusion Corp's own Nick Aeini's. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Building Success, two podcasts you ought to listen to. Recycle MyElections. Committing to our planet's future Means properly recycling our electronics of the past

And Redley Funeral Home Pillars of the Community since 1921 Happy Boxing Day To all who celebrate I hope everybody is enjoying a little break This festive season The next new episode of Toronto Mike is on Monday When I catch up with FOTM Ben Rayner

Then on New Year's Eve, I'm sharing my 90-minute chat with Matt Schichter. He's the director of the new CF&Y documentary. I love CF&Y, and I'm glad this is airing on TVO on January 6th. But man, something smells with the birth of this thing. In fact, I wrote about how Matt Schichter isn't invited to the premiere of this documentary at Chorus Key on January 5th, 2026. And I shared a little video on YouTube with Matt telling me this. And then I received this email from someone

whose identity I shall not disclose. Quote, don't let those guys pressure you into taking the pod down. They are not good people, and the making of this doc was not a happy story. I'm not willing to talk as I have a lot of scars from the experience. and it ended my 20 plus year friendship with these are people I never want to see again but if you want to dig there's a lot of stuff that can be found on anything Matt said is 100% true

end quote there was so much more as I probed for further details but let me just say there is something rotten in the state of Brampton. But in happier news, and I'm trying not to repeat anything that will be shared during FOTM cast in very early January. I'm personally blown away

by what transpired with me in this little podcast in 2025. I got on, this hour has 22 minutes. I did a couple of live hits on CNN. I was the Grand Marshal of the Atobico Lakeshore Santa Claus Parade. And then I won a Canadian podcast award for Outstanding News and Current Affairs program. That happened, but all of my love is for you, the listener.

And here's a big kiss. Earlier this month, FOTM Graven invited me to chat with him for his podcast, Graventown. I'm going to drop that chat here in its entirety. Graven has not only given me his blessing, but he's asked me to tell you that he has a new album coming out in early 2026. I can't wait to hear it. So here's Graven and me shooting the breeze. There's Graven.

Hey, Mike, how are you? Good to see you again. You too, man. Thanks so much for last minute recording this on Zoom. That's great. I'm nothing if not nimble. Yeah, that's true. Get a bit closer.

I wasn't prepared to be on camera today, but you know. Well, you don't have to use this. You can just turn off your camera, but I like to read your eyes. You know, you've got beautiful eyes. Thanks, man. Well, you too. You have beautiful hair. So I like looking at your hair.

Yeah, I like people to look at my hair. Yeah, I was going to say. So I'll do like a little preamble and just kind of butter you up, put some air in your tires for a second, and then I'll say like Toronto Mike, welcome to Graventown, and then you're in, then we can go. Is that cool? Yeah, I just have to remind myself, this is your show, Graventown, not Toronto Mic, which means I follow your lead. Yeah, but you can take, you can hop in. I like that.

I like that you're going to hop in. do your thing. Okay. If this was my show, we would have, this has already begun. Like, I like this stuff. So, uh, I know you'd like it. I'll sit back and listen and let you do your intro and then, uh, I'm recording everything. So I'll say it. Perfect. All right, here we go. Three, two, one. And we're back at it again. Friends in Graventown. I appreciate you being here. I see the clicks. I see the upticks. It means a lot. And, uh, I think some of that is maybe because on episode 100, I had George Strombolopolis. I'm not sure. but I think that's part of it.

But at any rate, it means a lot to me that you sit and listen and wash dishes and do whatever you're doing while I'm just kind of yammering in the background. Thank you for making me a part of your life from my tiny corner of the world. And if you want to support me, it's eight bucks a month only. That's the only tier possible through Graventown. That's at cofi.com slash Graven Canada. That's K-O-FI.com slash Graven Canada. It's a little tricky, but you'll find it.

I send photos from the road and all kinds of things and thoughts and even songs that I'm working on. But that's neither here nor there, friends, because today we have a legendary, a legendary guest in the podcast space. One would even say that beyond one of my podcasting heroes, Mark Marin, Toronto Mike, has recorded more episodes than Mark Marin. How is that possible? Mark Maron retired. so Toronto Mike is surpassing him but you want to talk about a fount of information and a found of knowledge and it's just a guy who is connected in so many ways to the arts to the general community in Toronto and even all across Canada I would say

Toronto Mike is just a jam and he's someone who I've really gotten into his podcast and followed along the little nooks and crannies the little breadcrumbs that he leaves along the way. By the way, I wish this episode was sponsored by Palma Pasta, but I don't have the connections that he does. And yeah, I just really want you to listen and have a good time today. And Toronto, Mike, welcome to Graventown. You, son of a, you are making me follow the legend that is strombo. That's not cool, man. No, you're getting, you know what? I think there's one episode in between. So there was one with just me. I do a lot of episodes where it's just me.

I don't know. Do you do guests every time? Yeah. Do you sometimes do your, oh, you do? Okay. Yeah, but did you drop, as we say in the podcasting world? Did you drop that episode 101 already? Episode 100?

Yeah, I did. Oh, but 101. Like, 100 is strombo. Yes. And it's funny that I'm 102. I'll explain in a minute. But 101, can I listen to that today? 101 will be out.

going to put the i'm going to put up 101 today and then i'm going to put this one out i think tomorrow so if the listeners they're all they're going to be mind boggled in this time capsule we've created that's so why do you like when did you record episode 101 uh when did i record it i think it was last week but what happens is i record it onto uh i can't i don't want to shift the camera but i have an older mac that i used for my podcasting in my basement and you i have i have The internet doesn't work on it. It still records great, but you can't actually access any web browser. So I have to use a memory stick, like a USB stick, every time to transfer it to my other computer.

And this, my new-ish Mac, this one here, has the USBC. It doesn't have the USB slot. So I have to get the adapter. You understand. It's a whole thing. No, that makes complete sense because I was going to say, what are you doing? and record these things and then drop them like they're hot.

Like, I don't understand podcasters who, like, oh, I'm going to hold on to this episode and drop it next week. I'm like, no, drop it now. I know. I need to do that one. Like, drop this today and make it 101. Yeah.

And by the way, did you hear that can crack? Or was that pretty, was it pretty under the radar? Did it come up? So a little, I mean, I like learning how this cake gets baked. I was going to say sausage gets made and somebody said that's gross or whatever. So I changed it to cake, it's big. But typically you record on your end.

I heard the Strombo episode, and Strombo is like on the phone, and then you're like local. But this episode, I'm recording, so I will sound better than you because I'm local and you're actually over the internet. So I Zoom suppressed the sound of the crack. Oh, that's great. Yeah, you're right. Zoom does that. It's sort of a buffer. Now, what do you think about Zoom, Toronto, Mike?

because I know that you're so good and we'll just go down the every rabbit hole you're interested in, every rabbit hole that a carrot is dangling in front of. But I, what do you think about Zoom? Like, do you like that? I remember when I was there, you said you really like the in-person interviews, but I feel like I got zoomed out over COVID because all of a sudden, that's how everyone was doing everything. Every local radio station, everything that I was involved with,

any interview that I did, always Zoom. and I got sick of looking at myself while I'm talking to it's just kind of a thing how do you feel about Zoom are you okay with it do you hate it well so so you know shout out to Mark Merrin

you mentioned he's retired he got to like I don't know he almost got to 1700 episodes or something but I like I dropped this morning I dropped episode 1815 and I can tell you I try to make every guest

visit me in this basement but during COVID when we couldn't do that I set up a studio you in my backyard and I tried to get guests to just come in the backyard. You'll be 10, you know, 10 meters away outside where ventilation is 100%. And I tried to keep them in person because I don't love doing what we're doing right now. I loved the fact that you visited me in July and you sat right there and I could, I could just reach out and pinch your cheeks. I know, it's true you could. I think you did at one point. I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Which cheeks are we talking about here?

I love that. You too quick. No, it was the posterior. But no, I think that, yeah, I love that. You do the in-person. I think it's so fun. Also, I don't know how you feel about this, but being a little bit of an audio file myself,

I don't love the... You'll sound really good in this recording. I don't know how I'll sound, but there is just kind of like a compress. that happens digitally. And it happened when a lot of people were trying to do live streams during COVID and they were like plugging in like a full band

and they're like, I got this great setup and it's blah, blah, blah, going through this and it's like, you know what? Once it hits the internet, it doesn't matter. There's compression, there's stuff going on, there's digital distortion. I don't know. How do you feel about all that?

Well, Graven, so I produce podcasts for other people. Like, theoretically you could hire me to produce your podcast. And if you, because what you're talking, what you're describing is absolutely true that once your voice is going through the internet, there is compression and then so when you listen back to this episode you'll be like hey mike was recorded locally no internet involved but hey i sound a bit like i'm through the internet but there are solutions man i'm just telling you i have clients where i use a service called

riverside and it records locally and then it uploads to the cloud and then you grab it from the cloud like so that basically gets rid of that whole internet layer so i personally make a choice like if I'm having somebody on who geographically can't visit the basement because I don't know I'm having Ray Don Chong on right and she's in California Oh no way

Yeah amazing Can you ask her a question about soul man That movie because apparently She's a huge fan of it And it's got lots of blowback It's the one about the guy where he takes The tanning pills that chemically turn him skins You know that one?

Of course of course I know all the problematic films But All right But she was in that yeah Sorry, go ahead. No, it's, I've already done this. Like, I've had a couple of episodes of Ray Don Chong already.

Oh, wow. One of them, scandalous. She talks about sleeping with Mick Jagger when she was like 14 years old. Oh, my God. Yeah. Speaking of problematic, but all this is to say that I always decide, yeah, I, let's do it on Zoom. You'll sound like you're coming through the internet, but I'm fine with that. This is the fact.

You're in L.A., and I'm in Toronto and you're not in my basement. But when I do get people on my mics, of course, it's, sounds amazing. I control every bit of that fidelity. So it all depends on how, you know, how picky you want to be when it comes to fidelity. But there are solutions if you want to record of someone who's not in your presence and you don't want it recorded through the internet. There are solutions. Yes. That's true. And, you know, if we were, this is the kind of conversations we would have. If we were hanging out and we were both audio producers and we went to a local place called the Peach Pit. Now, speaking of the Peach Pit, you had a recent member of Beverly Hills

902-10 on your podcast. And I can't remember her name for the life. Oh, Kathleen Robertson. Kathleen Robertson. I listened to that episode, man. I loved it. How was that? Was that kind of mind-blowing? Well, it's mind-blowing only because she visited the basement, right? Because you, you know, I've had Jason Priestley on. And Jason Priestley, for example, he zoomed in from Nashville or something like that. But Kathleen, like she's so it's kind of neat that you get a knock on the door and there is a person you know from 902 and O

and that's kind of neat and we chat is cool. But what I liked about Kathleen is multiple FOTMs, you know, Friends of Toronto Mike, you're Graven, you're an FOTM. You know this, right? Oh, thanks brother. Yeah. I appreciate that. Well, for life, you have that title.

All right. No matter what you do. I just learned yesterday an FOTM has gone all racist. Oh, God. Yeah. So, like, and I was thinking, oh, that sucks because she was a reasonable, interesting person who I knew from the radio. And she was, you know, we had a good chat, like episode 300 and something.

So it's a while ago. But then yesterday, uh, an FOTM named Lannrick sent me a screen cap of something she tweeted. And then she retweeted it, like she was proud of it. And she sure didn't delete it. But it's like, it's like grossly racist. Anyway, this is all to say that she's still in FOTM because she appeared on Toronto Mike. but it's like, geez, okay. So where am I going to this?

Oh yeah, multiple FOTMs told Kathleen Robertson to visit my basement. So shout out to Tom Wilson from Junkhouse. You know Tom. I love Tom Wilson. He's so great, man. So talented. He married the best friend, like BFF for life for Kathleen Robertson. Tom married her and therefore knows Kathleen well and told Kathleen to come over.

But also shout out to Rob Pruss, who also knew, like, Kathleen's sister or something, or knows her she's a Hamilton girl and he's from Burlington and Tom of course is a Hamilton guy but anyway that is two people ordered Kathleen to the basement and she showed up so cool

wow that is cool and you know that's I'm sorry to hear about the the FOTM who kind of went racist but you know Roseanne Barr's had a tough go so you just got to you know some people

I got to say I loved Roseanne I liked it when they showed people like I guess we were so used to like the Cosby show or whatever where these people live in these giant mansions and then like he's a doctor, she's a lawyer and it was kind of neat to see like oh yeah this is like a real person like who's got real like money problems and job problems and I kind of dug that vibe. Yes. No, it's true. I mean her show was so great for a long time like in the, what would that have been? 80s, 90s, I guess. but she she was funny obviously like a young John Goodman unbelievably talented

and then you hear stories about like Norm MacDonald was a writer for that show I mean I actually think I think yes Norm McDonald that I love talking about Norm but I think Mike Bullard's brother wrote for that show Pat Bullard

yeah but and also John Goodman just shout out to him in that my first exposure to John Goodman was I used to get like a free week. We all got it, obviously, in Toronto or in Canada. But like you get a free weekend of first choice, you remember? Or was it First Choice Super Channel? Yeah.

Yeah. And one free weekend, I recorded the movie Raising Arizona. Oh, dude, same here. That's so funny. And I had it on VHS because I recorded it from my free weekend of First Choice Super Channel. And I watch, because, you know, well, I'm a bit older than you, but not much, okay? Not much, yeah. All we could watch was what we had on VHS.

jazz. That's it. Unless it was on TV. Nope. We didn't have the streamers. So on one of those free weekends also, I found one of my favorite movies still to this day in life called The Monster Squad. Don't know if you've ever seen that.

Classic from that era. I know of it. Out of curiosity, is Fred Savage in this? He's not. But it's mostly unknowns, like a guy named Andre Gower. The guy who played Frankenstein in it is kind of. he's been in a bunch of stuff Tom Noonan he was in like heat

He's been in lots of movies But it's it was more like a rag tag group of kids Fighting Against Monsters Like very stranger things sort of vibe I love it But it's just now that we're talking So I could almost recite Because I had a few cassettes that were full of stuff

I got from First Choice Super Channel Free previews But the reason I brought up raising Arizona Before I forget Because I have this habit like I'll do a show and then I'll go on a tangent And then I have to remember to come back it's like oh yeah you were going somewhere okay so where i was going graven and you and i cut from the same cloth i was listening to some of your graven town and i was thinking like yeah we're doing

the same thing i just do it more often no you're yes yeah you're you're way better you do it way more often and you're also like um i like having an outline uh which i did for you and i do and i have some stuff written but it's like i like the i like going down bunny trails too and being sort of surprised and being like, oh my God, I can't believe we talked for 10 minutes about Raising Arizona. Okay, well, if I don't get this out, I'm going to forget. But John Goodman is in Raising Arizona, and it was the first time I saw John Goodman. And then I saw, when Roseanne came out, I watched it because there was a lot of buzz around it. And I was like, oh, yeah, that's the guy from Raising Arizona.

That's true. Yeah. And you know what's funny? An actor from Raising Arizona actually reached out. I think he found my music. I'm going to forget his name. This is horrible. He was one of the characters in that.

He was also in... Oh, brother, where art, though? Yeah, well, no, you know, okay, like things to do in Denver when you're dead. He was in that. He was in The Rock. Let me find his name. Those are big movies, man.

I thought you were going to drop some indie flicks, I mean. William Forsyth. That's a huge name. Okay, so his wife runs his Instagram or something like that, and she reached out and just said like, I think she heard a song or something, or maybe heard part of a podcast now. So I didn't say anything about him wanting to be on it.

And I was like, oh, my God, this is so cool. Because at first I was like, what's that name? And I remembered his name. Yeah, I think Cohen brothers use him a lot. they do so i reached out to to the wife again or that instagram account which is his it's legit and i was like hey um you know i would love to have william on the podcast but she was like oh he's really busy but uh i have this other actor i'm working with maybe he could be on and i was sort of like oh i didn't know who that was or anything so so one of those things you know how

that happens to you probably right people want to get other people in that you didn't want and And then you're like, but I wanted that person. Well, yeah, that's called the bait and switch. And that's total bullshit, man. Like, don't, don't you dare. It kind of just happened. Okay, I had a woman, and I don't even want to say this, because it sounds like I'm not happy to have this woman on.

I am excited to have this woman on. But a woman reached out and said, can rain made a visit? And I'm like, I just had Chantelle Craveijek over, and she said she was going to bring her husband rain over. Of course I would have Rainey over, because I love Our Lady Peace. Of course I would do that. And then she did this bait and switch thing. We had it all set.

And then she's like, oh, he's flying in from L.A. for this War Child Canada recognition thing. But he's not recording anything on this day. But he's happy to Zoom with you on this day. And then she said, but I can send over Melanie Done. Okay? So this was the whole thing. This just happened like last week.

And then I'm like, okay, no to the Zoom of Rain because I'll wait. I'll play the long game. I'll wait as long as it takes to get rain in the basement. because I know that will eventually happen. And yes to Melanie Donne, because I would like to talk to Melanie Don't. So she's over tomorrow. Oh, that's cool.

So that is, but that is kind of a bait and switch. And then you're forced, but then it's like, you know, the intention you set out with, or you're like, I could talk to this person and I have ideas and things that we can maybe riff on, that completely switches, right? So now it's like there's all this other research.

Now Melanie Donne's a name we all know from Canadian music. So for you, maybe it's not a huge stretch, but I don't know. Yeah, like, at least I know who she is. Right. Yeah, but do you find that kind of stressful when that happens? Like, it's not my comfort zone because off the top of my head, I can't really remember any Melanie Dohn songs.

Like, it wasn't my, like, at that time, I would have been listening to 102.1, and they were not playing any Melanie Done. But I also watched a lot of much music, because I'm sure you did. And I do remember there would be some Melanie Done on much. So I have to do a bit of homework on that one. But, you know, I'm happy to chat with her, because it's in person and rain. can go screw himself.

Yeah, he can. I, you know, I got to say, big fan. I was a big fan of Our Lady Peace for a while, but I really liked their first record. Navid. Navid, yes. And then when they came out with Clumsy, and I know I'm probably in one of the,

I'm in the minority, but I just found like it wasn't, it just wasn't my thing. And there was, but yet, that album, rocketed them to success in so many hits, like 4 a.m., Superman's Dead, all these huge hits that came out off of that record. But I was sort of like, I don't, doesn't feel like, I felt like with Navi, they were doing more interesting things.

Again, this is all my own opinion. But then, but I was a big Pumpkins fan. So I saw this interview on Much Music. I don't know if you remember this with, who was the, this is going to sound bad. not sure. Who was the interviewer on Much Music, the VJ who was of

and this is not meaning to be, because I'm not sure whether she's, I think she might be Korean. Oh, Sukian Lee. Sukhin Lee. Okay. On the weekend, I just watched her latest movie that she directed.

It's called Payne for it. And I fucking loved it. It's great. She's so fucking talented. So, anyways, she was interviewing Billy Corgan and the Pumpkins and in all those interviews the rest of the band never said anything and she goes

Do you feel like people are doing kind of what you're doing? This is right around the era of clumsy and all that or she said do you feel like you have a unique style or sometimes you sort of get ripped off? There's kind of a question like that and Billy Corgan goes

I don't know, you should ask our lady peace and I was like I was kind of I was a huge Pumpkins fan and I knew there was something that irked me about it and I was like, oh yeah,

but I don't think it was the same. They were doing very different things, but Billy's one of those people who thought like everyone was, you know, stealing from him. Oh yeah, yeah, but both great bands as far as I'm concerned. And Our Lady P's Toronto band

and, you know, Rain is really a mic, so he's really a Toronto mic if you want to get technical about it. And I will say, because I've had Jeremy Taggart over and we talked a lot about that first album. The song,

and I like the whole first album, album but I love the song Navid like uh yeah it's a great song navid yeah so anyway shout out to Our Lady Peace but I realize this is not Toronto Mike this is grave in town so here's what we're gonna do because you mentioned you actually have like a structure so I'll try to follow your lead because I could take over this damn thing and talk to you about watching the natural 130 times because I recorded it from a free preview of first choice super channel and how much I love the natural but please lead me brother oh man now that's like awakening so many things in my brain wheel. But, you know, I will lead you. I'll do my best.

But, you know, recently, not too long ago, you had someone on your podcast who I met briefly in Hamilton backstage at a Joel Plaskett concert. Actually, there was a group of us kind of going up for dinner. I think we were sitting at a hotel bar. And I sort of knew this, I couldn't really place and this is circa probably 2011 or something like that and i was shooting some video for joel plaskett on this tour and um this guy i was like i recognize him and he introduced himself but then i was like oh that's dave hodge uh and because i found out from that and that experience that he's such a huge fan of multiple canadian musicians like he's a huge fan of kathleen edwards he's a huge fan of Joel Plaskett. I think he's a fan of many others, but it was just so cool and

sort of interesting that a sports, like a sportscaster, a sports broadcaster, was so dialed in to the Canadian music world. Did you get to talk with Dave Hodge about any of that, about his love for music? So, my friend, I'm almost disappointed at how out of the loop you are, because for the past eight years, every single, usually it's in November, but sometimes December, At the end of every calendar year for the past eight years, Dave Hodge has come on my show. Okay. Always in person unless the COVID hit, and then we did a couple of zooms. So he was in my basement a couple of weeks ago, but he comes over and he unveils to me his 100 favorite new songs of the year.

We've done this eight years in a row. There's a website we maintain, shout out to the VP of Sales. It's called Hodge100.com, and you can find previous lists and previous elsewhere. episodes and we have like an Apple and a Spotify playlist of his 100 favorite songs. So yeah, it's like one of my favorite annual traditions is Dave Hodge will visit and tell me the hundred songs, his 100 songs of the year. That is so cool. So do you think that, is it just music is something that was in his blood that he grew up with

or he's just kind of a curious guy and likes to find out about new things? So what I've learned about him is, yes, he loves sports and he loves talking sports, and most of us know Dave Hodge as a sports guy, and we've had many conversations about the pen flip and the reporters and all that, but his love is music ever since he was listening to 1050 chum back in the day, and he doesn't just love music, he loves new music, so where a lot of guys his age, because he's going to be 80 years old soon, a lot of guys his age, they just want to hear, I don't know, Led Zeppelin, or, Or the Beatles or Rolling Stones or whatever they listen to as a teenager or whatever. But he likes new stuff. So the fact that he hears 100 new songs because it's all different artists, right? He doesn't bang off 10 songs from Kathleen Edwards or whatever. So he's got his ear to the ground. He goes to a lot of live shows.

I love my chats with him every year about what he's been up to, what he's listening to, and then hearing the 100 songs. So, yeah, I've talked a lot of music with Dave Hodge. That's so fun. And, you know, I remember talking with Dave Hodge when we were in Hamilton because Joel was playing, I think at, I don't know if it was at Cops or it was like a theater inside of Cops Coliseum. Anyways, really, really cool. I remember that. And Dave was like, oh, where are you from, Ottawa?

And then he was telling a slight story about the NAC. And at the NAC, the National Arts Center, back when things first started opening from COVID, I had a chance with a friend to go see who has now passed away, sadly. Her name was Wendy. And she said, you know, I got tickets to this show and no one can go with me. Do you want to go? And I remember thinking, oh, I'm not totally a fan of that person. But you know what?

It's been a while since I've seen live music. I'm just going to go and immerse myself in the experience. And that person performing was Alan Doyle. Wow. And, dude, I'm telling you, it was one of the most unreal shows. that I've ever seen and that guy just bounces around on stage like boundless energy and they were doing

live huge sets with the full band and then the three of them him and his violin player another guitarist would sit on this wooden box and do like a strip down couple of songs. Is that Kendall Carson? Kendall Carson? Yeah. She's amazing. Tell me about interviewing

Alan Doyle and have you done it before if you talked to him before was that your first time? That was my first time. I had Sean McCann on the show who's another founding member of Great Big C and then what happened was and this is what I've learned having done this since 2012.

Some people you want are pretty unavailable, especially when this guy lives in Newfoundland and you want them in your basement in South Atobico. But magically, when they put out a book they're suddenly available to visit and what happened with Alan is he released a book about

Newfoundland, about his love for Newfoundland. Oh, cool. The smiling land, it's called. And then suddenly his book publisher was driving him over so he could chat with me for an hour or so and I loved it because he's like a down to earth easy to talk to guy we hit it off

and yeah it was a great time a couple of weeks ago of Alan Doyle Was he in town in Toronto performing or you said he was there for a book? Okay so a couple of things one is he spent a lot of time here recently actually because there's a play he had a play

that was he was starring in a musical play thing that was, and I don't know why I didn't see it, but it was here had a run here. So he was here for that a lot, but then he lives in Newfoundland. He's only ever lived in Newfoundland. But he was in town to promote the book. So

I got on, so what's happened now is Toronto Mike has got on the circuit. So I have a lot of people who come over, I don't know, like Finger 11 or the Trus or Alan Doyle, and these guys are coming to promote something like a new album or a book. And they basically they have like somebody, a PR

person who's like, okay, you're going to do breakfast television and then you're going to Yeah, well, sometimes I noticed I get paired up with Zoomer. Like, it's like, okay, you're going to drop by the Zoomerplex and you're going to do AM 740 or something.

And then you're going to go to South Octobico and do Toronto Mike. Like, I'm on the circuit and that's pretty rad, man, because I'm just a guy. Yeah. Like, I'm there, like, with Moses and Rogers and Bell and CBC, and Toronto Mike.

Like, think about that. One of these things does not belong. Yeah, you do. When I do think of you, I think Moses-esque, I can see you standing with stone tablets on the top of, you know. Oh, by the way, Moses, Moses Nymer, the man behind Zumer,

who, of course, was a founding, founder of what we called. Much. Well, yeah. Didn't either have City TV, right? City TV. It was City TV. And then Chum bought, chum partnered, so it became Chum City.

And, of course, that included much. I've been trying to get him on Toronto Mike for years and he won't do it. So Moses, I noticed he doesn't like to do any press that he can't control unless it's a very specific topic. Like, I don't know, he'll talk about the passing of Frank Gary. I'm making that up, but you know what I mean. So Moses is not an FOTM, but man,

everyone who worked with him is. Yeah. Well, that's cool. I mean, just the fact that you were that connected in the T.DOT. By the way, did people in Toronto say TDOT? Or is that more of like an out-of-town thing to say? Like, what's the proper Toronto slang for people? I know the hard-tee, like hard-tee Toronto, that's very American.

It's like saying Montreal, that's very American, too. So everyone that I know said we say Toronto. But what are the appropriate, you know, the slang terms for? Okay, slang? Well, okay, it definitely was the T.DOT. This was big with Cardinal et Feschal. He was dropping T. Dot stuff, and that's a bit ago. And then, of course, Drake decided to call it the six. And the six became a big thing for a while. That's right. Yeah. I don't think I call it anything. I just kind of like, I live here, and I've only ever lived here. I am to Toronto as Alan Doyle is to Newfoundland. I've only ever lived here. So I was born at St. Joe's in Parkdale. And this is so I don't know. But I don't know. But I I do hate it when people, like, put their noses up on somebody because they pronounce that second T in Toronto. Like, I can tell you, a lot of proud Torontoians nail that second T. I've noticed particularly, if you're from a Caribbean nation, you hit that second T.

That's true. I kind of like it. Like, I kind of like it. Toronto. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just kind of put the button on it. But what I was going to say was, so. getting to you we've talked about some of your guests we've talked about some of your things by

the way side note uh i recorded with joel plaskett a couple years ago in his beautiful studio out in dartmouth and alan doyle at that point actually it was just before i think i got there and everything was closed down to covid i was there in 2021 so things had just started to open and joel told me a story that like when things were shut down everything was lost down Alan Doyle reached out to him and said hey I've got some songs I've got I think he had Kendall and one other musician with him he just wanted to come and do you know a few tunes and he was like well isolate what would you think about us coming to Fang Joel's studio and recording and so they did just before a couple months a couple months before I went out there

when everything was shut down it's kind of cool right no that's super cool I would love to have Joel Plaskett over at some point. I just watched, I mentioned this movie I watched called Payne for it, which is directed by Sukhian Lee. And she's, like, there's a character in there that is basically based on her, but they changed the name, I guess, just to put a little distance there. And this person is a VJ on an all-music station in Canada called Max Music. And at some point, absolutely, there's a Thrush Hermit song being played on Max

music in this movie. That is so cool. Oh, my God. You know what? I'm going to help you make it happen, right? Joel is a friend, so we got to get him on. Honestly, I'd love it. I'd love it because just shout out to, I do, I produce a podcast for a film producer. I think he's the most prolific film producer in the country, actually. His name is Avi Federer Green, and the podcast is called Unleashed. And Avi Fedder Green produced a movie by Michael McGowan.

It was a movie called One Week. And it's star Joshua Jackson. And Joel, so. the following musicians have cameos in this and I think it's wild like so Gore Downey has a role in this yeah the late great FOTMM Griner

has her acting debut in this thing God she was gorgeous and Joel Plaskett's a busker in this thing so cool yeah with Joshua Jackson I remember that that was a big deal when that came out that was right around the time of let's go out we'll take no prisoners

that a million dollars song? Well, that song, which was great. That was the theme song for a long time. That was the theme song to Avi Fedder Green's podcast. No way. Well, speaking of podcasting, Toronto, Mike, I want to ask you, so what was it in you

that made you decide 1815 episodes ago that you wanted to go down this road? Did you have beginnings in journalists Did you have like aspirations to to be on camera like on a news station or or is it just like more that you wanted to have the more up close personal conversations with people where you always that way as a kid? Like what was the driving force behind Toronto Mike? Okay. So in a nutshell, because I could probably do 90 minutes on this.

In fact, I recorded an episode 1,000, which was just like where I tell the story of Toronto Mike. That episode was almost five hours long. Oh my God. Wow. And I joking, I did this sort of like as a social experiment. Like who's going to listen to a five-hour episode? And then I, when people did listen, I would send them a sticker that say I listened to 1,000 or something like that.

I love it. And that, it's funny because this whole idea of this big episode,000, which is going back a few years now, because I'm at over 1800 now, it got me on, it got me a two-page spread in the Toronto Star with four color photos, my 1,000. and then it got me on CBC Radio 1 so it's like I was sort of thinking like these stunts these bullshit stunts

these marketing things you do like they work yeah it's true that's true that's why I'm telling you Strombo for episode 100 was genius wow I mean thanks

he's someone that I talked to for a while so he wasn't like a rando pullout of nowhere he was someone that I thought would be great and then eventually I just asked him because I'm sure he gets asked shit all the time and he also just launched this new series that he's starting about traveling across Canada

he's like hosting this series it's on something called made new N-O-U-S like New en-Francet so it's this new network it's a new thing so he's really like rebooting so do you want a mind-blow before I get back to my origin story you want a mind-blow? Yes.

Stromble was almost episode 100 of Toronto Mike. Whoa. And what we ended up, then he told me, so I'm corresponding with him way back when, because episode of hundreds a while ago, and then he said he wanted to be episode 102 because he had a good time working at CFNY. Whoa. So he said, can I be 102? And I said, yes, Mr. Strombolopolis, you can be 102.

But then I realized I had already promised episode 102 to Scott Turner, who was a jock on CFNY. And so Scott Turner was going to visit to make his Toronto Mike debut for 102. So the compromise I made with Strombo was he could be episode 102.1, which is also known in the Toronto Mike feed as episode 103. Wow. But he had to visit. He had to visit.

Well, how much of a mind blow is it that he did episode 100 for me? and now you're going to be 102 for me. Oh, yeah, that's why I said, I teased it earlier. I said, I got a fun story about that. But so, yeah, so Strombo was, he thinks he was episode 102.1, but there is no, you know, I can't work like that. Right. So he was episode 103. And it was wild because it was kind of early days of this.

And he just, it was near Christmas. It was like, I don't know, like December 22nd. I could hear this loud music outside and there was like a truck outside, blaring music. I can't remember what it was blaring. And Strombo waltzes in. we went really long in that episode we shared some tears

because we talked about his friend Martin Streak who had taken his life and then he said I said like I was and then he said this is real talk and then I started using real talk

to describe Toronto Mike and then I learned of a podcast out west I think from Edmonton that was starting to call itself real talk and then I stopped using real talk because I figured okay he's using it like as a name I'm not gonna like

it'll look like I'm not gonna but anyway All this case, let me just tell you in a nutshell here, because it all comes back to CF and Y. So, okay. No, I never had any media experience. I had never been on the radio at all. I never studied anything to do of journalism or media or broadcasting. I never had aspirations to ever speak into a microphone.

I thought I had a bad voice and I never even considered it because the jocks I listened to growing up had these big, ballsy voices. Oh, yeah. I'm like, I don't sound like that. I can't do this. I never considered it. But I was a natural-born archivist and a very curious cat who would blog. So tronomic.com was a blog for a long time.

But then, because I used to write about radio, I became friends with Humble and Fred, who were on 102.1, The Edge slash X-F-Wide for a long time. Yeah. And in 2006, they were fired. Well, Fred was actually fired in 2005, and then Howard was fired in 2006, but they were fired by Mix 99.9.9, which is now known as, virgin radio, but they couldn't get a job at radio, and I had lunch with them one day, and I said,

I said, gentlemen, there's a burgeoning new format. You do not need a terrestrial radio signal to broadcast in 2006. And they're like, what are you saying? And I said, if you can record an episode, like bake a nice MP3 file, I can disseminate that to your fans via the internet by making it a podcast. And that's what we did in 2006. So you, you, you, You did a podcast for Humble and Fred? Yeah, I still do it. Like, I did it this morning, so we're still going. That's amazing.

I know. But what happened was, we would do periodically we'd record, like nothing regular. And then in 2011, they decided that they wanted to do it daily, like make a good, honest adult living out of this. And then we started doing it daily. And for the first two weeks of that podcast, I would basically be in the studio with them. And I would see people like Graven would come by. and I would say hey I have questions for Graven

they're not asking I have curiosities regarding Graven that they're not interested in I could like leave my comfort zone and start a show which is like an extension of my blog it would be like a podcast where I have Graven over and I ask all the graven questions that the Graven heads want me to ask

yeah anyways the rest is history so they started going daily in like October 2011 by like January January 2012, I had started inquiring about what gear I need to buy. Like, how do you record a podcast? How do you make it sound good?

Like, I started teaching myself how to do the engineering part. And then I launched my show in August 2012. Wow. Well, dude, that is amazing. It's incredible that you've stuck with it for so long, But you've also developed this conversational skill, which is something that I recognize from listening to a lot of podcasts and also doing them myself and being in journalism before learning how to talk to people. But it's like it's a real art form. And I think the magic of you, if I can toot your horn, if I can put some gas in your tank for a second, if I can give you some flowers, as they say.

I think that you are, the great thing about you is that you can hang back or you can have an outline kind of like I do, but then you're also willing to go down bunny trails with people because that's the thing I think when a lot of interviewers get thrown is when they can't adjust and they can't sort of move on the fly. They're sort of like, I have 10 questions and I'm going to get through all of these like direct answers and okay, you know, maybe we'll chat a bit more about that question. but I think you have an incredible skill to just flow. I was talking to Strombo a bit about that, you know, because he's a huge interviewer, and I respect what he's done a lot. And it's like the ability to be in a flow state is a unique thing. And you have that ability.

So, so kudos to you, Toronto, Mike. Well, blessings to you, Graven. You made my day. And I really appreciate that because I think I've tried to get better at getting out of the way. And I also realize I'm a fan of the tan. Not everybody is. You know, you listen to a CBC show and they're like, you know, what are you doing over there? We're going here.

And I'm like, I got to go over there because I'm going to see if there's any nuggets of gold over there. But I'm coming back to this. Don't worry. And then I got better at coming back because sometimes I forget to come back in the beginning. And give some space to the guest because it's not about Toronto Mike. It's about the guest. And here's a secret. Strombo would echo this sentiment.

You have it too. But the secret is you got to. give a shit. Yeah, that's exactly. He said that on the podcast. It's like the basic requirement is like just giving a shit. 100%. I actually, whoever's coming

over, or if I'm zoom in with somebody or whatever, whoever my guest is, I want to explore and create compelling content and I give a shit. This isn't like, I can't imagine like I never did work for a media company, but like if you worked

for, let's say 102.1, the edge, and you have Raina on the show. Like, you're sort of like a hired gun. Rain's there to be on your frequency. He's not there to talk to you. He's there to promote something. Like, you wouldn't have that sense of ownership.

Like, it's like, yeah, I got to do my job here and create content for my employer. So they cut me a check every two weeks or whatever. But like, if you're having Rain Maida on Toronto Mike, like your baby that you birthed, and I'm the only one who works on this. Every little part of this enterprise is yours, truly. Like, that's called pride of ownership. Like, I give a shit. Yeah. Yes, you do, man, and it's so great. And I wanted to throw it back to earlier you had mentioned something called Virgin Radio. And I grew up very Christian, so I listened to a different type of Virgin Radio.

But I'm scared. Are you a virgin graver? I had that seed planted, and then it just came back now. And I was like, oh, I got to throw that back to Mike because he'll appreciate that. Shout out to Christian Rocker's creed. Oh yeah, Crete And Petra My good friend Brian was a big fan Of the rock band

Christian rock band Petra For a long time I see I don't know Petra But I did see Creed Headline in Edge Fest At Molson Park and Barry Yeah, that's right I mean

Creed and Nickelback We're sort of on the same level For a little while And then Nickelback Just sort of ascended to another place Oh, it's funny you mention that Because the year before Nickelback headlined

I used to go to all the Edge Fest but, well, you know what happens. I like DedgeFest anyway. But once I became friends with Fred Patterson from Humble and Fred, he was good friends with Jason Barr, who was on the Dean Blundell show on 102.1 for a long time until they let him go. So for many, many years, how did this work?

For many, many years, the bar, Jason Barr would get like free tickets to Casby Awards or EdgeFest or whatever and drop them off at Fred's house so I could go to Fred's house and pick them up. That was like a thing we did for years so I went to all the Caspi Awards

and all the Edge Fest and it was because Barr got the tickets to Patterson who got them to me. Man, bar none. That's great. Sorry, I can't have. But yeah, you recently also had like to talk about one more gas

then we can wrap it up, but I think he's sort of an interesting character, a musical guy, uh he had hoxley workman on the show who you uh were very like giving him lots of flowers too saying like i think you could you could be called toxley workman because he's a great talker and can kind of flow and riff as well well he has his own podcast now too see mike you and i started doing well i didn't say you started way before me but now it's like dan mangan has a podcast hoxley workman has a podcast like all these people are seeing what we're doing mike and they're just

trying to ride our coattails man you know hawks become a good friend because when he first came over he was in the basement and uh he's great i love hawksley hawksley so cool but like we started having like phone chats like personal unrecorded phone chats where i would be telling him what i believe to be true which is he's got a good rap on him and he would be great at hosting something like start a podcast or whatever and then he eventually did of course but he has this great fear of being cancelled. He has an absolute fear that if he's just unfiltered Hawksley Workman, he'll say something that will get him cancelled. And that sort of holds him back, I think, is that he's very careful when he's talking on the record. But I want to shout out Hawksley because I just made the trek

to Guelph, Ontario to see Hawksley Workman. This is only a few weeks ago. And he's always great. I went backstage. You made it to the Royal City. You know what? My first visit to Guelph. Can you believe that? Amazing. That's where I went to school, Mike. Well, I saw the statue for a graven. I saw. There was nothing there.

So how was the show? He put on a great show. It was great. This venue, Sonic Hall, so it's the second floor, and it's, like, it's intimate. I liked it. What I didn't like is that, and I've never been to Sonic Hall before, so I don't know what it would be like if, I don't know if Sloan came there or lowest of the low or whatever. Other bands I love that might be put on a call.

But they had rows of chairs. okay I don't am I like you you're like pushing 50 right yeah 49 so I'm I'm 51 I was just at the trues at the Danforth music hall on Saturday night great great fucking show actually but I don't know how to sit for a concert like I can't I have no desire to sit for a concert and I hated the fact that so all the prime real estate was taken up by chairs like put them at the back or something I don't know what the solution is but are we at a point now or if you go to see Hawksley Workman at Sonic Hall. If you want to stand, you've got to go behind

the bar or something? Yeah, that is strange. Yeah, I know what you mean. Something about chairs, it's like it needs to be a certain type of vibe. But yeah, I do like, honestly, yeah, I'm getting older and I do play

acoustic a lot more and sometimes I'm solo. There's something about a seeded energy that is nice because usually it means they're going to dial in a bit more, listen. I find this all interesting. Like, I just, I go to, I don't go to a lot of shows, but I go to, I go to shows. I don't know if I go to like 10, 12 concerts a year or something like that.

And I mean, even if I'm at a venue, and it's not too, I usually go to venues I don't have chairs. Like, I'm at Danforth Music Hall. You got to be in the balcony and I notice they're sitting. I'm like, what's wrong of those people? But okay. But I, if I'm at a show, I saw Bruce Springsteen a couple of November, no, last November. So like a year ago, I saw Bruce Springsteen at Scotia Bank Arena. So, of course, you buy a seat.

I mean, there's a chair. Everybody around me was sitting, and I stood for the whole three-hour show. I just need to, like, I need to, like, move. I need to stand. I'm sure at some point I'll hit an age where it's like my body wants a rest or something, but I'm not there yet. Right. I don't know.

No judgments, you know. Some people are differently able and not everybody can stand for a concert. But I just found that layout interesting that all the prime location at Sonic Hall was for these, you know, these chairs that were pulled. put up for Hawksley Workman. That is, yeah, that is interesting. I have seen the sonic call. I haven't been in it, but I know from having opened and played a bunch of shows with both

Stephen Stanley and Ron Hawkins, who I love. And, yeah, Lois of the Low has played there. I don't know if Stephen has, but Ron has also played their solo. People seem to like it. And Guelph is a good spot. I almost saw Lois to the Lowell. I was, back, that was the plan. I was going to go to see Lois to.

of the low at Sonic Hall. But I think it collided with a Blue Jays playoff game. And I had to make a call. And my call was to watch the game with my kids. Like I didn't want to miss this moment, Blue J action, playoff action. So I missed that show.

Well, Mike, listen, as we get ready to wrap this up, I appreciate your time. And I know that you had a short window. And for the listener, I was like, forget it.

Let's not do it. I can't find my other microphone. phone and then you know we got to tell the people how the sausage is made i don't care how gross that sounds but like i we we booked this a while ago and i blocked okay my my valuable calendar which includes everything from bike rides to recordings to covid shots everything's in there picking up kids dropping off kids at school whatever i blocked for you 90 minutes so like 11 30 to 1 and then thank you man yeah but then at like 1145 you're like we got to postpone this i can't find my other mic what did you need two mics for i don't even understand so the way that i do it for my

because i just do audio only is like i would have had you over phone call speaker and i put um an sm 58 with a pop filter up to the up to the phone and that's the way i did it with strombo and everyone else and then i talk through this guy and so it's cool it gives it this kind of phony effect but it still records it really well so and and i get it now but a phone there's no decompression either like it's just kind of like a flat level but you still get it's i don't know i just have always done it that way and i also like the fact that it's a phone call because there's everything is zoom you're always looking at the other person you can turn off the camera yeah that's true i know so it's okay so you said you got to postpone and then i i i basically

i said well i got i have until one p.m i said we can do an hour because i did hear you tell Strombo that he was like the longest episode. He was. And you don't typically go over an hour. I really don't. I try to be like 30 to 40 minutes because I feel like podcasts who do, no offense, I know you did a five hour one. But like, you know, Joe Rogan and his constant like Alex Jones interviews that are

four hours long. I mean, no one wants to listen to that. Who's got that much fucking time? Well, we'll disagree on that one because you sound like the aforementioned Fred Patterson who told me, no, but I think I had somebody. over maybe Ron Hawkins or somebody and I went like 90 minutes and he said nobody's going to listen to a 90 minute podcast

well that's that's well if I have if I have somebody go ahead you go ahead no it's going to say I want you to have your druthers Mike but what I was going to say was you have now 1815 that was your latest 1815

yeah okay 8,815 episodes and I was just curiously looking up podcasts with the most episodes to date apparently the Adam Carolla show has over 3,000 episodes that's a long running podcast well the Mike Omira show I don't even know what that is

3,200 something called Dark History has over 2,400 so well let's do this, you're Canadian you're getting up my point is Mike you're getting up into that lexicon brother where like you're Adam Carolla who knows how many podcasts that guy's got left in him. He's just going to talk about construction stories from 2004.

Like, no one cares. But, you know, I think you're in the pantheon. You know, you're moving up to this new era. There's going to be history books. There's going to be things written about you. It's like, you know, this forum, this medium happened. And then this guy in Canada called himself Toronto Mike. I mean, he was right at the precipice at the forefront and then continued on right into his prime.

years and is still going you know at episode like 5,000 they'll be like Toronto Mike just hit 5,000 well so do you have any type of numeric goal for any episode you want to hit no no nothing like that either and I used to care about milestone episodes like you took great effort to get a big name for episode 100 and Stromble was wonderful but I used to do that like I had special 100 200 I did a special thousand but I think that broke me like episode 1,000 broke me just how it wasn't like this where we just did live to tape for an hour like episode 1,000 almost killed me but it all

it all worked out it got me in the star I got me on CBC whatever but I basically decided after that like let the chips fall where they made like whoever's in the whoever naturally is episode 2000 is going to be the big winner I don't have any plans to do anything special for 2000 but I reserve the right to change my mind Graven yeah you do and uh you know what

I would love to be even And you know what you could do? Some people do whatever, different things. You'll do your own thing. You can have like a phone line for episode 2000 where just someone can call in for five minutes. I'd love to be one of those people who calls in. So keep me on your back burner.

Anytime. You keep me on your speed dial, Mike, and I'll do the same for you. Well, thanks for making me episode 102.1 of Graven Town. Perfect. Thank you so much, Mike. That was awesome, man. And that. brings us to the end of our 1,825th show.

Go to tronomelike.com for all your Toronto mic needs. Much love to those who made this possible. That's retro festive, Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Nikainis, Recycle My Electronics.coma. And Ridley Funeral Home. See you all Monday when I catch up with FOTM Ben Rayner.

I'm going to be the I'm going to be I'm going to be. I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to the B.

Thank you. Thank you.