Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Hawksley Workman: Toronto Mike'd #536

Episode Date: November 1, 2019

Mike chats with Hawksley Workman about his career as a musician, from "Striptease" to "Around Here".

Welcome to episode 536 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, Brian Master from KW Realty, Capadia LLP CPAs, and Ridley Funeral Home. Cappadia LLP CPAs and Ridley Funeral Home. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is singer, songwriter, musician, producer, poet, playwright

and a few more things I don't have time to tell you. Hawksley Workman. Welcome. Thank you. Are you digging this jam? I'm digging this. Yeah. Custom made for yours truly. I'm very proud of Yeah. Custom made for yours truly. I'm very proud of it.

But it's by a local rapper producer, Ill Vibe. Okay. So shout out to Illy. Yeah, I'm feeling this. I'm feeling the whole thing. Okay, do you want to know what I asked him? So this is going back several years. And he's a friend of a friend.

Our mutual friend passed away, actually, which makes me sad when I think about it. But Illy, I said to him, I like the As It Happens theme on CBT Radio. Ah, yeah, yeah. And I said, I want that, except I want it to sound modern and cool and then talk about Toronto Mike

and having conversations on a podcast. And this is what I got. I'm a big fan of that song, too. In fact, I was really bummed when they updated it. Yeah. It's a Mo Kaufman. It's a Mo Kaufman that song too. In fact, I was really bummed when they updated it. It's a Mo Kaufman. It's a Mo Kaufman piece, yeah. Yes.

But it totally rips off 25 Miles by, oh crap, who's the guy? Edwin Starr. Edwin Starr, yeah. Five more miles to go now. Yeah. Do you hear it? Yeah, it's true. And I keep saying that.

Yeah, but Mo did not give any writing credit to Edwin on that jam. I won Kiwanis Recorder Festival when I was a kid playing Mo Kaufman's Swingin' Shepherd Blues. I'm a big recorder guy. I love the recorder. Because every student does it because it's inexpensive as instruments go. It's a horrible instrument.

It's the worst possible instrument to start any kid on. Is that right? Absolutely. Terrible. It turns children off of music forever. Yeah. In fact,

I've been playing the Friendly Giant theme on stage on this tour. I love the Friendly Giant so much. And even hearing you say that, I get like... It is so badass. I was watching... I was YouTubing Friendly Giant the other day because I was like,

I know I'm playing Friendly Giant theme in a different key than I think he plays it in. And so I was kind of watching some YouTube of old Friendly Giant. And man, what a show. And they improvised that show. There was no script. Him and Jerome are the same. Jerome and Rusty are the same guy. And he just passed away like three months ago.

I had no idea. He was brilliant. It's almost like he kind of, like he had a couple of martinis, shot nine holes, came in and hung out with Friendly Giant. It was just, man. Bob Homme, I believe,

is the name of the Friendly Giant. It was just, man. Bob Homme, I believe, is the name of the Friendly Giant. And I believe, and I like this show, so I know a little bit about it, in that he wouldn't do personal appearances because he didn't want kids to see that he's an average height man because he's playing a giant on TV. So he wouldn't go and do like schools and stuff.

And he avoided other ways to try and big up his business too. I'd read or heard something recently that there was opportunities for him to grow the friendly giant thing, but he thought it was untoward of a children's entertainer to kind of put the business before the, before the kids. Yeah. They don't make them like that anymore.

I don't think so. Although Fred Penner is pretty cool. I'm just throwing it out there. Yeah. Have you had him on? Yeah. A couple of times. Oh,

that's cool. Yeah. And his daughter is a fantastic musician. I think she's based out of California, but we played something from his daughter and it was fantastic. So it runs in the family. Huxley, by the way, that's not your real name, right? No. That's the coolest name. Because imagine people went around calling you Huxley. I can only imagine. People call me Mike, but Huxley's a cool name yeah well to be honest with you I've been Huxley no longer than I haven't so it's it's weird now

to not hear that and if I could have no name that's what I'd prefer when I changed my name when I was 20 when I was a kid I was a real high achiever

I won the awards and came in first and like had that and then when I was 18 like I had been this kid who'd done all these things

and I was just like God I gotta give kid who'd done all these things and i was just like god i gotta give that kid a rest and i just wanted i wanted him to be done he's been done a while because let me guess you were in the gifted program i wasn't oh i was rejected for the gifted program it was devastating i really wanted out of i i think where my quote-unquote gifts lay are not in like reason and school, schooly type gifts. I don't have any school, schooly gifts. Well,

that's not true. I did well in school. Okay. Now we're going to compress 90 minutes of content into one hour. That's my pledge here. Cool. Uh, I just did a couple of shadows right off the top is thank you,

Doug Thompson. I just got a tour of the chorus key. Uh, he's actually working at element FM and they broadcast. So it's like sandwich right there with like Q107, 640, GNR 640, and 102.1, The Edge. And it was pretty cool to get a tour of that place. So I just did that at lunch today.

So thank you, Doug. And thanks, Tyler. I got to give a shout out to my man, Tyler Campbell, for actually he put this together. So I'm sitting here with you now because of Tyler's efforts so nicely done Tyler shout out to Tyler good man good man now you're from Huntsville right yeah around Huntsville yeah and what brings you to the Big Smoke like when do you move to the Big Smoke and why well I um like I you know was sort saying, I was very visible as a kid.

I was in the church musicals, and I did a lot of public speaking. And so in my town, people knew who I was. I also taught a lot of private lessons to kids, guitar, drums, and what have you. So I had a dream to leave my small town and come to Toronto to seek my fortune in music. I knew I was going to do that from a very, very young age. And it was never because I was like, I got to get out of this damn town because nobody understands me here. I was very well understood

and people were very good to me when I was a kid. But I just knew that I was going to be leaving to go to Toronto. The whole time it was to become a drummer for hire. That was the whole focus for me. I spent my entire adolescence, my entire youth becoming very good on the drums. And when I moved to Toronto,

I was surprised that people hired their friends. They didn't hire necessarily the best guy. They hired the guy they liked. And of course, now that I've spent 20 years on the road, I totally understand why that is the case because sometimes you can have the best guy out there

and that person's driving everybody else nuts. So it's like maybe we should have somebody here we all get along with. Right. Absolutely. So you come out here to be like a session drummer, I guess. And it's worth noting your mom is an artist, right? Yeah, that's right. When we were kids, she had a hair salon in our house. So she was sort of quietly harboring her artistic dreams back then. She sort of raised us and then changed her life. But yeah, we had a hair salon in our house.

And she's a painter now and actually quite successful. Yeah, I mean, she's often featured in the Algonquin Park Art Gallery, which sounds impressive to me. I have no idea if that's a big deal or not, but it sounds impressive to me. It's a big deal. She's got a gallery now in Montreal that shows her. And that's a big deal. not, but it sounds impressive to me. It's a big deal. She's got a gallery now in Montreal that shows her, and that's a big deal. She sells a lot of stuff.

It's kind of interesting. All right, lead me to, I know you have so many albums. How many albums do you have now? Well, we just released a single from the 18th. Wow. That's ridiculous. That's prolific,

because you're a young guy. Yeah, very young. 28, 27, I can't. 44. Okay, okay. Oh, I was going to say I'm 40. You know what? That's terrible. That's prolific because you're a young guy. Yeah, very young. 28, 27, I can't. 44. Okay. Oh, I was going to say I'm 40. You know what? That's terrible, right?

I thought I was 44 for a moment. I was like, I'm 44. And I'm like, no, I just had a birthday. I'm 45. Like I totally lost track. 1975? 74. 74, okay.

Right, right. See, that's a bad sign. Like if you forget your age, that's a bad sign. I never thought that would happen, but it just happened. Okay. So, all right. So the first album is for him and the girls right yeah so why don't you help me understand like how does that come to be like give me a little bit of like what gets you there and then if you don't mind i'm gonna play a few hoxley workman jams as we

kind of love it build our way to the new stuff well the story uh so i moved to toronto i'm trying to be a drummer for hire uh it's really really hard there's not a lot of money um it's uh real poverty i wouldn't say power i was poor like you're supposed to be poor when you start in music it's hard to not be um i was playing with a lot of singer songwriter guys i was doing studio, but never really making a whole lot of money. And what I noticed was I'd play gigs and be told, oh, I'm going to make $35, and at the end of the show, being told that you're going to make $15 because nobody came. And it's like, well, that wasn't necessarily what I was,

I didn't put that on my, I didn't hang that on my sort of set of responsibilities. Right. So I was seeing somebody who I was playing in their band. Anyways, I just had this feeling like, you know what? All of your songwriting friends and stuff, they don't really look me in the eye. I get a sense they don't think much of me because I'm just some drummer kid from the sticks. And I had an inkling that I could make a record.

And then I did make a record, and then it turned into a thing all of a sudden. And then my dreams of a record, and then it turned into a thing all of a sudden, and then my dreams of being the drummer for hire were dashed and replaced with this guy who all of a sudden had this record that everybody thought was so cool and was kind of turning into an indie sensation. And this is in the early kind of,

I wouldn't say I was like in the earliest days of when you're allowed to be an indie sensation, but I was quite in the early days. The idea of being indie was pretty new the idea of owning your own studio which i had bought studio equipment all like old tape based equipment put it in a basement in a in my in a friend of mine who actually hung out with this morning his grandma had a house at young and eglinton and i put the studio in the basement there and made for him and the girls and it turned into a thing cool man cool now that's not your your breakthrough comes in oh one i guess 2001 like this is the uh right when people like me

discover you exist right with striptease and all that stuff so can i let me because that's a jam right there let me if you don't mind going back in the time machine yeah yeah a little striptease and i'm gonna ask you about it here but let's hear a little bit of it. I want, I want you back. In a dress that's painted black, I want you back, I want you back. Always my mother taught me how. I want, I want you now. In any place you'll allow, I want you now, I want you now. Man, I might have to turn it up a little bit in this song.

I still love this jam. I know it's early days for you. No, I mean, I still have to turn it up a little bit in this song. I still love this jam. I know it's early days for you. No, I mean, I still listen to this. It still thrills me when I hear it. Okay, good. Because I don't want you to be like, I had Danko Jones in here last week. Right.

And Bounce. You know Bounce? Yeah. Well, Bounce is the song. You ask like 10 guys on the street right now to name your favorite Danko Jones songs. They say Bounce. But Danko, I got a real strong impression,

he's trying to distance himself from Bounce. Like when he tours Europe he won't play he doesn't play it he has to learn it again when he plays in canada this is what he's telling me and i was worried that if you had the same kind of but you're okay with striptease i mean i love it as a song i love it as a recording it's really really successful on a lot of fronts that i can kind of dissect with almost 20 years kind of like hindsight, but we never play it live. I played it live when I was just on tour in Europe, and we pulled it out twice. I feel like it's like one of those songs

like, you make your first relationship with your fans when you're both sort of locked in this like rowdy, libidinous early 20s, and you kind of got this thing and you write a song called striptease it's funny i was working out with my trainer the other day and i was i was describing to him how he doesn't know who i am from adam it's great in a way and i said well i had this

hit it was called striptease and i said look and i never play it because you know that band um who does sex on fire yeah uh king kings of leon so here's the issue when you write a song like this at a time and it describes sort of the kind of people that you are when you're in your 20s and stuff. All of a sudden you turn 44 and you got to sing This Sex is on Fire. And it's like, the question is, is it really still on fire? And even I feel a little odd because the striptease thing,

like this was a, I'm not this person really anymore. Right. But that's fine. But it's still, I mean, let me read a couple of, like, so I always open it up to questions from the listenership. Like, we got a question for Hawksley. And again, I'm going to change my name to Hawksley, like Toronto Hawksley. I just want people to call me Hawksley.

That's cool. That is a cool name. Cool damn name. Good on you, buddy. All right. Jason from Sudbury, for example, says, stririp Tease is still my favorite tune of his. I heard something about him being roommates with Brother Bill back in the day. Is that true?

And if so, ask him if he's got some good Brother Bill stories or anyone from the edge. So coincidentally, I was at the edge today, but I'm friendly with Brother Bill, even though he's in White Rock. Yeah, that's right. He's in Surrey, B.C. Were you roommates? Never roommates with Brother Bill. But it's funny. I feel like Brother Bill, he's got such a lovely demeanor.

Oh, yeah. Do you know him? You know him a little bit. Well, we definitely communicate through Facebook and Twitter all the time. And we've done Skype conversations for the recording here. And I definitely, back in the day when Striptease would have been on the radio, I was at the edge all the time

when I was on Yonge Street and he was just that friendly face that I always saw there but never lived with him. He's now going by his birth name, Neil Morrison. So he's on the air at West as Neil Morrison,

not Brother Bill. They gave him that name at the edge. Now, is there anyone else at the edge you want to, like good memories of any other personalities at Edge 102 you want to shout out here?

Well, of course, like Dave Bookman. Back in the day when they were on Yonge Street and sort of almost, you know, in another time culturally when you could walk down Yonge Street, and I walked down Yonge Street this morning, and see Dave Bookman in the window doing radio. And, you know, I'm fanatical for radio. Always have been.

I still, it's still one of my favorite mediums. This format is, to me, the most magical way of creating any kind of recorded culture. More than video or anything camera related. So, to me, what was amazing about Bookman was that he was like one of those honest to goodness, old fashioned kind of radio people he knew a lot about a lot of stuff and yeah he was great yeah so I think back to those good old days with 102.1 and really when Striptease Megan Simzik who was um working at Universal Records back then who was I feel like kind of a junior publicist type who was working in radio as well and I'm sorry Megan if you ever hear this and I don't didn't know exactly what you were doing back then but you believe so strongly in striptease as a song that I mean I

think she kind of strong-armed it into becoming a thing on the edge and then all of a sudden it blew up across Canada and again like I said that was a time in canada in the canadian music business that corporate rock and roll really owned the radio waves and owned much music so it was like a very very odd thing that this kid who'd made a record in a basement had a hit song on rock radio right and mal furious on twitter he he talks about how that the beat for strip tease is wild like the beat is wild talks about how the beat for striptease is wild. Like the beat is wild. Forget the words for a minute here. Like that's a jam right there.

Maybe that's not who you are today or whatever. But he wanted to know, is there a story behind striptease? Well, back in the day, I mean, when I recorded for him and the girls, and this goes sort of in a way, I loved radio and I grew up on radio. And I grew up on a dad who bought singles and 45s and as a kid i i mean i was raised on singles not albums my dad was the my dad would would begrudgingly buy a record if he couldn't buy the single gotcha um and i started to fall out of love with radio and i thought well i would make a record that would give radio something good to play again this is the naivety that comes from somebody who's 20 or 21 years old and um i sort of listen to

striptease now and hear when i put that together i knew it was a hit like it was like oh my god this is a hit i know it yeah i could just had a feeling and i remember playing it for some people back when i used to carry my cassettes around like I think this is a hit and people were like I think this is a hit too and it just had an energy to it and do you get royalties when they play this at peeler bars? I sure heard that it gets played at strip clubs

but no there's no royalty look I don't frequent strip clubs I'll be honest but I'm certain it's played at strip clubs I've heard about that yes oh yes what's this? honest, but I'm certain it's played at strip clubs. I've heard about that. Yes. Oh, yes. What's this? What's this? Here and there go pretty faces Oh, this don't mess my stuff And only one thing got me hot I'm jealous of your cigarette

And all the things you do with it I'm jealous of your cigarette And the pleasure that you get from it Cannot be All this time you're talking No, no, no Where are your Juno Awards right now? I need to know. Are these on display somewhere? They're in the bathroom?

Storage? They're in my studio at home. My parents each had one for a long time, and then I took them back about five years ago. I was embarrassed by them at first and now i feel ridiculous that i was embarrassed by it is it because you thought if you want to just like uh groucho marx has a great line you don't want to be a member of any club that would have you as a member whatever like you're like if i you know junos if i won this i can't be cool

is that the deal i think it may well i remember getting getting word that i was winning junos and i was living in paris at the time and i was like well i'm not i can't i was playing a gig in like the uk and i wasn't able to come back and i think i was you know i was being informed by a whole different set of hormones back then than i am now i'm more interested in the fact that somebody decided like the junos will never probably notice me ever again. And so it's very interesting that I was somehow,

the business thought that I was going to make somebody rich enough that they should put me in line to win an award like that. You know, like. And to be specific, if my research is to be believed here,

my research, that you won, let's see, you got best new solo artist. Yeah. And best video for Jealous of Your Cigarette, which we're listening to right now. Yeah. Good on you. So two, but have you won any since?

Is it just the two and out? I have a third Juno. And it's funny, whenever we're putting together our bio, my manager and I are always like, do we say that? I mean, I have a third Juno that i won from the waving flag uh song right am i allowed in my bio to go three time juno award winner you think absolutely if i were your pr person of course it's not a lie no it's not i own there's three junos sitting in my house so they never care about the details and that way, but that's the one

where Justin Bieber is at the end. Is that the one at the end, Justin Bieber? That's right. Yeah, that's right.

For Haiti, right. That's a, I think I did this thing of my butt on this broad podcast where you have to, you know,

we kick out the jams periodically, but we were kicking out the charity jams. Oh, yeah. Tears are not enough. Right. That was one of my jams and i i kicked out

waving flag yeah yeah yeah canadian version come on i uh it was quite an experience i was so so so so sick when i did it um but still fun i remember getting the juno in the mail and i was like what this is nuts they give them to me now this is good they've lowered the bar now. I mean, no, listen, I'm a fan. But if Hawksley Workman can win a Juno, like, why can't I win a Juno? That's what I'm thinking over here. It's funny. It seems like it should be so easy, really. I don't understand.

Yeah, the Juno is its own thing. It's off doing its own thing. Yeah. The business is changing so quick that the awards, like, I think we're still all trying to figure out what any of these things really mean. Yeah, and business is changing so quick that the awards, like I think we're still all trying to figure out what any of these things really mean.

Yeah, and I still tune into the Junos and I used to have that box set called Oh Canada. It was four CDs and all the CanCon hits.

Yeah. You know, it was fantastic. I've had Gino Vanelli on the podcast. You have? Yes, it was one of the most

memorable episodes. Yeah, Gino came on. He must be a dude, huh? He's something else, yeah, and his brother was here and he played and I'd ask him a question. Like, Gino came on. He must be a dude, huh? He's something else, yeah. And his brother was here and he played

and I'd ask him a question. Like, let's say I asked you a question about Love or Fight or whatever. And you'd look at me, but instead of answering, you'd just break into like a different version

of Black Cars or something on your guitar. Because his brother wrote the tunes, right? Yeah, he definitely wrote a lot of the stuff, yeah. He was a writer, great music.

I can't remember his brother's name right now. Me neither. Something Vanelli is what I'm thinking. I think you're right's yeah. He definitely wrote a lot of the stuff. Yeah. He was a writer. Great music. I can't remember his brother's name right now. Me neither. Something Vanelli is what I think. I think you're right. Yeah. That is his name. All right. They'll come to me later.

Now let's talk about Lover Fighter. So this is a 2003 and again, though, lots of, lots of hits come off this album. Yeah. Yeah. That record was the record,

I guess, that changed my life and some for the good and some for the bad. And this was my big outing. Universal Records spent millions of bucks on me. And there was a number one hit in French-speaking parts of Europe off this record. And yeah, I turned into a real thing. And then it also when it didn't sort of when it failed to perform as the industry sort of had hoped it was kind of the uh the the hardest

few years of my life after that could you elaborate uh with little smoke baby in the background like okay tell me about i mean i don't want to sound like i'm looking for the negative here but tell me about the the bad you're alluding to here well um so you know when i was when this record came out it had an international uh push behind it and i was one of the first domestic signings for universal that had a real true to life international story that was being pushed and when it looked like the record wasn't going to sort of reach the heights that everybody

had hoped you know you got that feeling when you were doing your first press tours you know all the Universal record reps anywhere in the world they're all high-fiving you and they're picking you up from the airport they're taking you out for expensive meals, and then those people stop coming to the airport,

and they stop being able to really look you in the eye, and they stop buying you meals, and then it's like, oh, this is happening, and I can tell that it's not working in the way that everybody had hoped, especially when they make a massive investment in you like that. So this is all I have. I'm a high school dropout.

I only have music it's it's been my singular focus my entire life so here i arrive in my late 20s feeling old washed up and being ready to be tossed out in the garbage alongside all the other you know major label stuff that when it doesn't work you get put away and forgotten forever right and so i yeah i mean i thought about killing myself for three years because i just thought well there's nothing left you know because you felt like you were like a commodity like bought and sold on the market and but i'm all good with that i was good with that i was i the failing part was what i couldn't deal with that i had failed these people and that I was the leader of a team, ultimately.

And people got behind me and believed in me. And that all that needed to work was I just needed to write a song or do that thing or do that one last show or be on Jules Holland or whatever it was going to do to push that thing over the edge. And it never happened. Is it because of how you were measuring success at the time? Absolutely. 100%. Because I'll tell you, I've just met you, but I know your work and I think of you as like a true artist.

Like you can't be put in a genre bucket here. You're all over the place, but you're an artist and you can't measure artistry by how many units sold on them. You know, it's different measuring. Thank you. And I greatly appreciate that and it's true um and i feel

like an artist and i i've always load that word but i'm into it right now because i feel like an artist i think that because i really i get to do whatever i want and i so i have to live a really weird life and i get to make and sing and yeah it's odd but in this era here in 2003 i was young and wanting to win the game, win for my management, win for my agents, win for the label, win for the people around me. I don't think I was really built to be.

I'm not a mass consumption kind of human. Like, and that's, I think you need to be 44 years old to wake up and realize, like I was never built for for the masses i don't think you're not justin bieber no no even though you worked with him on uh wave and flag would you ever meet each other no i got the feeling that i've often wondered if his mom was a fan like i kind of thought there has to he's had to have heard uh striptease or jealous i heard

his mom maybe works to striptease maybe i'm just kidding everybody that's a joke that's a bad joke i apologize to the bieber family the uh yes but and i'm listening by the way i'm listening and again i mentioned the genre you can't be put in a bucket like uh do you think these labels trying to like uh you know maximize like sell units and make as much money as they can off you wanted you to pick a genre and stick to it like i think definitely i mean for any kids who are out there like work hard stay in school and pick a genre honestly um genre hopping does not get you rich and famous like take it from mcdonald's take it from nickelback these are the same take it from garth brooks yeah what was the name of his alter ego who did the pop

pop album chris joint joint chris chris i feel like you're on it it's uh yeah join no chris joiner joins oh crap i mean it's gonna kill me nobody wants chris gaines chris gaines nobody wants to hear Chris Gaines. Nobody. Nobody. Even if it's good music, it doesn't matter. Because you picked your genre. Now we need you to stay there.

Yeah. And I'm not good at that. And partly that is just being a drummer. You are always, you have to be, in order to be a hireable, accessible, good hired drummer, you need to be somebody who is familiar with a whole lot of different ways to play music. So I think I always approach music as just like, well, music is just supposed to be good. It doesn't need to be anything other than that.

Okay, one of my favorite Huxley Workman songs is from this album here. favorite Huxley Workman songs is from this album here. This got made a long time ago now. Ah, yeah, right. You like this. I do like this, but maybe because I heard it on the radio so often,

it's like Stockholm Syndrome. Totally. You're allowed to say swear words yes you may because they push the shit out of this and the whole the whole all of universal records canada did not want to leave with this as a single there was a a uh a renegade radio guy who took it upon himself this was going to be the song that broke me and i was like nobody, nobody believed it. Do you remember who this renegade was? Yeah, of course I do, but I won't say his name.

What market? He doesn't live in this market anymore. He was on the air in this market. No, no, no, no, no. He was the radio promo guy at Universal Records. He was head of radio at the time. And everybody at Universal Records Canada

was like, it's got to either be We Will Still Need a Song or Smoke Baby. And he was like, no, no, no, no, no. You just stand back and watch The Master. We're going to put this rock and roll ditty up.

Because he said, you know, we got to hit up Rock Radio, who gave us love on striptease and stuff. We got to go back to them. So the same week that this was released as a single, Billy Talent's Try Honesty was released as a single. And I knew right away, I was like, we are fucked. Because that is an iconic

rock song never to be equaled. And I was like, we're dead. We're totally dead. I don't know if you guys have heard it, but I do not belong in this lane. Have you heard this? You know, that guy worked at Edge 102 at the time. Which guy?

The main guy. The main guy worked at Edge 102 at the time, right? Which guy? Yeah. The main guy. The main Billy Talon guy. The singer who's, I don't know why I'm missing his name because he just had a kid. Ben. Ben Kowalski. Yeah, Ben Polish name. Ben Kowalski.

Is that Kowalski? Yeah, he was working at 102.1 in some capacity. I think I maybe knew that. I mean, I listen to this and I hear a great intention behind it. You know how I know this? I remember how I know this for sure is that I was at this party for Marty. This is at the Opera House. We did.

All of his old colleagues and fans came to the Opera House to celebrate. It's been, well, not to celebrate, but to remember Martin Streak. It's been 10 years since Martin Streak took his own life. And it was, yeah. And this is where I learned, yeah, so just you have to trust me on this one. I was there with my gear recording people like, you know, whatever, Alan Cross and May Potts

and old David Marsden and Scott Turner, all these, Ivor Hamilton, they all came by and they jumped on a mic and we talked about... I don't think I knew this about Martin Streak. Martin Streak, back in the day, when they would do From Whiskey Saigon on Sunday nights, the 80s show. He didn't do the 80s show, though. I feel like he did all the.

Oh, he did the dance. He did this. I guess we would say like whenever wherever you'd play like the Thundercats 65 and the Beastie Boys and some Nirvana and that kind of stuff. Rage Against the Machine, Killing in the Name of. I love that. He was a big Nine Inch Nails guy, a big, yeah. And Korn and stuff like that. Right, right, right.

That's crazy. Yeah, 10 years. He took his life in July 09. But yes, so Ben from Billy Talent did work in some capacity at 102.1. Coincidentally, I was there today, but that's a complete coincidence. Okay, so Anger is Beauty. Yeah.

I mean, I could play, we could, again, I only have an hour. I can't play them all, but we will still need a song you mentioned. There's a lot of hits on this. I mean, you recorded this in an old schoolhouse in Muskoka. Yeah, the school, a one-room schoolhouse, the first house I ever bought. I bought it with the first chunk of real money I ever made in the music business.

It was the little schoolhouse where my grandma went to school when she was a kid. Oh, wow. Yeah. Amazing. Okay. I have some gifts to give you. I'm going to do it now. It's almost like we're at the midpoint.

I'm going to tell you. What do I give you first? Okay. There's a six pack of fresh crab beer here. Good Lord. Okay. Courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery.

Brilliant. Thank you Great Lakes Brewery for being a great partner of Toronto Mic'd. That's for you. Thank you. Stickers. You mentioned before

I pressed record that you... I love stickers. So that actually commemorates... They have a new storefront. They have a new bricks and mortar store on Queen Street. Cool.

Like near Dufferin maybe, maybe Bathurst. Okay. But on Queen Street there, that's stickeru.com. Thank you, stickeru. And they actually made a sticker that's going to tell people that they're going to bump their head on my low ceiling. Apparently I just have to bike over and pick it up in Liberty Village.

Like this is ready. So thank you, stickeru, because that'll prevent concussions from future guests so and this is the most important sticker of all of course the toronto mic sticker so that's for you hoxley the the die cut on that's pretty serious they're uh real they're real serious about stickers man if i was gonna say if the premier had used these guys for his gas station stickers, there'd be no controversy. I'm a big believer in stickers and posters. Despite what you're told, kids out there who are thinking about getting in rock and roll, when the promoter says, oh yeah, we've done our Facebook thing and that's the promo,

posters and stickers still work. I'm with you, man. It's an incredible technology. Because humans are still forced to walk around, and if you're walking around and passively taken in the world, like I like to do, you like to see posters and stickers, it helps you stay informed.

For me, I wouldn't know that the gig's on unless I see the poster. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but put the poster up. It's worth it. Yeah, don't go digital only. No. Do digital and. Put the poster. It's, I must, maybe I'm old fashioned, but put the poster up. It's worth it. Don't, yeah, don't go digital only. No. Do digital and.

Put the poster up. Put the damn, put the damn poster up. I should put up posters for TMLX5. That's the Toronto Mic Listener Experience 5 that's taking place

December 7th at noon at Palmas Kitchen. Everybody's invited. We're going to do a live recording from Palmas Kitchen. I have a, I'm serious going to do a live recording from Palma's Kitchen. I have a,

I'm serious. Where are you going straight from here? Where are you going? Grooves the Ontario. Yes. So you're not going to be near any kind of like a freezer or anything.

I don't think I'm going to be near a freezer. Okay. So we'll talk after what we can do with this. I'll just be living in Canada and Canada is going to be a freezer any minute. Pretty close.

Pretty close. I have a frozen lasagna courtesy of Palma Pasta and it's in my freezer. So that's an empty box just so the periscope can see it. But yeah, courtesy. And again, that's actually why I went to chorus key because Doug Thompson, who came on to do the 10 50 chum retrospective,

I owed him a vegetarian lasagna from Palma Pasta and I made the trick. So anyways, thank you. Palma palma pasta at palma's kitchen for hosting our event on december 7th there's free food for everybody who comes so fresh pasta on the house i want to thank capadia now let's listen to a little brief clip of rupesh capadia we talked about rock music recently so here's rupesh dadia. We talked about rock music recently. So here's Rupesh. Dave, a listener of Toronto Mike says, Rupesh, you're the rock star accountant. What's your favorite rock band?

And what's the best accounting software for tracking invoices, etc? So I'm a rock star for sure, but I'm a rock star from India. So with all due respect, I don't have any favorite rock band here, but saying that there is a song I usually end up getting very much attached or attracted to songs. And then it stays with me for a few days, few weeks and so on. So these days I'm very much attracted and attached to Billie Eilish. I'm a bad guy. You're a good accountant, I'm a bad guy. You're a good accountant, but you're a bad guy.

I'm a bad guy. Recorded before Around Here came out. I think that might have been the answer. But thank you, Rupesh. Again, if you want a free consultation with Rupesh Kapadia, give me a shout and I'll hook you up with the rock star accountant who sees beyond the numbers. Brian Master. Brian Master is a longtime Toronto radio legend.

He was on Chum FM and CHFI, but he's also a salesperson of Keller Williams Realty Solutions Brokerage. And he urges all Toronto Mike listeners to get on his mailing list. It's a piece of snail mail he puts out every month with a lot of interesting information. It's not like, oh, buy now, sell now.

It's nothing to do with that. It's actually tips for your home. And it's very, very, very good information. Just write him now at letsgetyouhomeatkw.com. So write Brian at letsgetyouhomeatkw.com. And one more, Hawksley, this is kind of exciting because the first time we've done a mention of a brand new sponsor here, and it's something really different. So I was like struggling with like, how do I put this in in here but i think this is the best way our latest our newest sponsor is ridley funeral home a local funeral home this is in uh south etobicoke and i met with the owners and i talked to brad and he's a wonderful guy and it's really like you wrap

your head around death people a lot of people are scared of death, but death is going to happen to every single one of us and it's as natural as birth. I don't even think Hoxley Workman can avoid it at some point. So what I will urge our listeners to do is to attend the Holiday and Hope Candlelight Service. So Brad and the good people at Ridley Funeral Home

are going to meet at the Assembly Hall, which is near Kipling and Lakeshore on Wednesday, December 7th at 7 p.m. It's their annual free memorial service in honor of those loved ones who have passed away and cannot be with us this holiday season. For more information, go to RidleyFuneralHome.com or call 416-259-3705. And I had a great question. I'm trying to dig it up right now here,

but it was from a, let's see here. Where was it here? Here, okay. Basement Dweller. This is for you, Huxley. If he had to pick between being a solo artist, being in a band like the Mounties, I want to talk about the Mounties,

or working as a multi-genre producer in which in which order would you rank those choices in that very order okay in that order I think being a solo artist is pretty neat I realize now uh after kind of this is what I established myself in for 20 some odd years that there couldn't have been a better place for me to to kind of position myself literally to do whatever i feel like whenever i feel like it so it's a good thing i think when you're in a band and you decide look i want to write a play and they're like okay well this is going to really eat into our next tour our next thing and like when you are kind of free and easy and only have yourself to look after it's it's a good thing although i believe in you know the power of a good struggle in a good relationship to bring about uh positive change in you as a

human uh and there's certainly enough struggle in any given rock band so there's a lot of positivity to be reaped there if you want to join a band and become a better person tell me about the mounties the mounties or mounties yeah get the out of there I gotcha Like I asked this If Gord Depp was here From Spoons And I'm like The Spoons or Spoons He goes

He doesn't care Just call us Like you can call us The Spoons Spoons He's like I would have said It was The Spoons as a kid He says it could be either

So I mean that's him It's The Spoons Cause I listen to I listen to Romantic Traffic all the time And I'm pretty sure That it's best for me. You want to hear,

this is going to blow your mind, but the owner of the aforementioned Sticker You, he was over here kicking out the jams with me. He married an extra from the romantic traffic video. And I joked with him that if I married an extra from, because that video, I would tell them I married the girl from the romantic traffic video and everyone will think you married uh what's her name lena what's the name of uh the woman i don't know okay well the very attractive uh most of our

first crushes i think was uh was the woman from spoons i don't remember that i remember i remember that the spoons didn't um Oates of Hall & Oates take them under his wing and produced a record, a late career record for them? Oh, I don't know. Like after Tell No Lies? Tell No Lies. Tell No Lies.

Do-do-do-do-do-do. Love that. I mean, all the areas and symphonies and all this, they're fantastic. Okay, so the Spoons. Go for Spoons. But all this, they're fantastic. Okay. So, Spoons. Go for Spoons. But this is Mounties.

Yeah. Okay. So, who's in Mounties? Me, Ryan Dahl, Steve Bays. And for those who don't know, by the way, your real name is Ryan. Did you know that? Oh, yes. Fun fact for you.

Ryan is from Limlifter and Steve is from Hot Hot Heat. Yes. You know, both great bands. Yes. Yeah, I mean, I'm a CanCon guy, but fantastic, fantastic. There's a great question about specifically two Mounties here. I'm lost in my own wonderful notes here, but can you tell me a little bit about that experience while I dig this up?

Well, it was incredible. I mean, it changed my life for the better. There's lots of difficulties, but there was just so many wonderful things about it. I'd never been in a band. Being a sort of a student of pop culture and rock and roll, I knew that, like, there was a reason why, you know, four guys who weren't really good at their instruments could come together and be U2 and be more powerful

than four guys who were really good at their instruments and just made garbage that nobody wanted to hear so the question is why is that the case and then i really got to see it up close with mounties because it was like oh these are three very unique people who when they do this thing together it is very much just them it couldn't be like reproduced or stumbled upon by any other combination of humans and i found that to be a remarkable thing to see actually up close like you know like remove any member of the police and it stops sounding like the police you know what i mean it's like one of those things and then i got to see that i was like remove any one of us from this and this whole thing

just disappears like this sound goes away are you familiar with the super group uh trans canada highwaymen have you heard of these guys yeah with moberg and yeah chris murphy right and uh steve page and was it craig northey correct yeah yeah just uh yeah throwing that out there's no follow-up question i just want to know if you heard of the trans canada highwaymen well i i feel like i have a varying i mean i think I think Chris Murphy is a very funny guy. My wife is fanatical for his band. Craig Northey is a doll

and a half. My wife also thinks he's cute and super cute. I have been running with him in Vancouver and we just heard that big smash hit of that band yesterday on the radio. Which one? There are several CanCon hits. The one that I know is, I'm a sheep in wolf's clothes, baby.

I'm holding the photos of someone who is cool. Yeah, someone who's cool. Man. But they had a bunch, a whole bunch. Eat My Brain, for example. Eat My Brain, yeah, right. A bunch of them, right. That's right.

Yeah. And Heterosexual Man with the kids in the hall in the video you remember this in the hall yeah i love the kids in the hall me too they're they've shaped my uh sense of humor they shape my sense of humor oh we're almost the same guy but i thought we were the same age about 10 minutes ago yeah well i i sometimes think my brother and i will sit around and kind of we'll we will passively discuss the potential amount of scott uh part of me of bruce mccullough who's in us like it's like how much bruce mccullough is in us i mean i sort of put letterman up there and even early seinfeld i mean i was a big fan of his stand-up

before his show and i kind of look at those and gary larson and in fact yeah sometimes when people say like what was your biggest influence? It's like, my dad was crazy about funny people. He'd come home from work, oh, somebody at work is so funny. Oh, there's a new guy just started, he's so funny. I was raised to think that humans should be valued for nothing more than how funny they were or weren't. And so comedy and humor was a big part of my household.

And I look back and think, Letterman, Kids in the Hall, Gary Larson, Jerry Seinfeld, probably almost as big an influence on me as Led Zeppelin, The Smiths, Michael Jackson, all the stuff that was absolutely paramount to me. Yes, it's right with you, man. I think back to that time with Kids in the Hall and God, it was wondrous. It was, I think because too, like you and I would have been teenagers. I used to watch the kids in the hall. I was seeing a girl who was, who lived near Pawasin, Ontario, and I was living near Emsdale,

Ontario, and we'd watch kids in the hall on the phone together. And it just felt so counterculture. It felt like it was the closest thing to seeing reality in the way that as an artsy teenager that i was seeing reality that absurdist thing that was being called out by letterman larson gary larson and like that was how i saw the world and they enabled me to kind of feel comfortable and having a sort of a detached yeah like absurdist viewpoint on things limo ray wants to know if there's any plans uh any future plans with mounties well i hope so but right i mean we put a record out that kind of got lost in the shuffle um we'll see i that Mountie's next move, we need to make a record that's unlistenable.

Cause I think if you like are looking for long careers, um, I would sort of look at Neil Young who disappoints arguably more than he satisfies, you know? And I was like, well, he's been deified.

People think you can't, you know, they don't get better than you. You passed a portrait of Neil Young on your way down here. Okay. He's definitely deified. He's deified. So I'm like, well, what has he done to be deified?

He's frustrating half the time. And I think there's something to that. Let's give a quick shout out to my brother's high school friend, Justin Rutledge. Oh, my. They both, yeah, they were classmates at Bishop Allen Academy. Not too far from here, actually. Okay. So shout out to Justin.

Hey, Justin Rutledge. And I'm going to play a little bit from a show called scrubs here let's see a little bit of a clip here oh my god i'm sorry about the wash me thing put that on dan you were out with him i thought you dissolved we decided this is the only way to do this without feeling incredibly uncomfortable drink This is the only way to do this without feeling incredibly uncomfortable. Drink. Now talk. What do you want me to talk about? The pros and cons of blitzing a weak side quarter when you're in third and long situations?

Thank you, football for dummies. I gotta tell you, little brother, you were always the apple of Dad's eye. You know, that's the worst thing about college football, the male cheerleaders. Oh You know, that's the worst thing about college football, the male cheerleaders. Oh, God, that's a check. You know, when my father died, all I could focus on was how much he was never there.

But you, you're lucky. You got some positive stuff you can dwell on. Throw the ball, you jackass. I had no idea how long we went before music shows up. I'll bring it down and I'll bring it back. But your music has been featured on some pretty interesting shows. I mean, Scrubs was a great show. Yeah. And at some point in this clip,

there's a Hawksley work. And it didn't get there easily, I gotta say. There you go. Me too. Like, what is it like watching a show like this and hearing you? What's that like?

I'm sorry I came down so hard on you. Yeah. I've been a bit forgetful lately. I suppose it's possible that I could have told you. I didn't see the show at the time. Sir. Apology accepted. Seems like an emotionally sweet moment there.

It was. So, so the cast back in the day, I remember getting word that the, that the cast were big fans and they wanted, uh, one of my songs in the show. Um, the first time that, that this song was lined up for an episode um the money was crazy it was gonna like change my young life at the time and i was like i can't believe it this is gonna happen it's gonna be incredible yeah and then they play it for the executives at disney who go absolutely not whatever what is this downer song and then the song was pulled obviously the Obviously, this money disappeared and it never happened. But I was sort of led to believe

that the cast were kind of, they had strong will about wanting to have a song. So I believe it was the next season they made it happen. I'm glad they finally made it happen. Yeah, yeah, it's cute, hey? It's weird how all that works. I have a question from FOTM.

I'm trying to make this catch on. FOTM. It means Friends of Toronto Mike. Okay, FOTM, yeah. FOTM, yes. Jim Slotek, who wrote at the Toronto Sun for many, many, many years. Please tell the story behind the song, Safe and Sound. Man.

Is there a story? There's a story. I mean, I was seeing this person at the time who had a piano, and she'd go to bed early, and I would write a song on her piano at night, and I wrote this. I remember reading an interview with... Goodness, I can't think over that damn song.

Read an interview with a songwriter-type person who said that every songwriter needs to write a great travel song. Traveling songs are like one of the sort of cornerstones to any long career in songwriting. So that took that to heart. And I was like, oh, okay, yeah, for sure. I'm going to have to write a really great traveling song. And yeah, so that's what this is. Lots of biblical references.

Oh, man. Love this. Fast forward to the future. Here we are, current day. Rock and roll. Listen to this. Sounds badass on here, actually. Do you have a compressor over the...

Yeah, I turned on a compressor on here. So you're hearing it get fed through the board. That is sick. Love it. I want it to sound ballsier. It's wicked. It's wicked. Around here. Not the Counting Crows song.

I should have changed the damn title. It was the working title forever. And then what ends up happening with these working titles is like it gets sent off to Spotify or whatever. And somebody like, what's the title of this? We need to. Right. They got to tag it. So, yeah, exactly.

They can pull it into all their HTML markup. And this is like super fresh. Like I can still smell fresh from the oven. Came out a week ago. Wow. You could have

debuted it here. What's going on? I know. I blew it. I blew it. Somebody messed up. Tyler. Tyler, we need to talk.

And this features local jazz fusion super great Rich Brown. He plays bass fills on this song. All the boring bass, I covered. All the extraordinary wild bass, Rich Brown covered. Is there a new album coming out? Yes. It's called Less Rage, More Tears. And I pretty much just finished

writing it last week. Since I'm again, 90 minutes of content into one hour. So I'm going to, these are just short answers to all these questions. Is there a really quick story about working with Hey Rosetta? Because I know they're not together

currently right now. I think they're amazing. Me too. Incredible kids. When I first got their demos, I said, without a lie, I said, this is a dream project. This is a lifelong dream project. I could just tell I'd never met them. I flew to Newfoundland, and I said to them, my only job is to never let you forget while we're in the studio that you're the best band in the country. job is to never let you forget while we're in the studio that you're the best band in the country.

Because they, you know, being from St. John's and stuff, it was very much like you know, oh, they had their humility and stuff and I was like, you know, you gotta drop that. Like, you're the best band in the country. That's what we're here to do. Yeah, I think so. I mean, honestly, I absolutely adored Hey Rosetta. Agreed.

Robin, he always bants a weatherman pun from last summer. Please collect. What's that about? And remember, quick answers. I got a few more

I gotta bring up. I can't, it's, my wife told me I'm not allowed to say this one. Okay. But man,

I love puns. I love playing with words. Okay. Who's Drunky? Drunky is my inner self-loathing over-drinking alter ego. And I play out my self-loathing through a fox called Drunky.

Whenever I see a fox photo, I think I can make him into my Drunky. So when you're on the web, you're using Firefox. I guess so. I don't know. All right. Remember, 20 seconds answers now okay

before I get beat up here okay Andy Burns please quick one sentence about working with playing of Dirty Boulevard

right playing Dirty Boulevard with members of Lou Reed's band at the Lou Reed tribute that Kevin Hearn yeah super heavy super crazy heavy

yeah that was super heavy. That's one of those moments where you're glad that that happened. Fully Podcast wants to know if you're coming to play the Waterford Town Hall. Are you going to come back to the Waterford Town Hall? Do you know where the Waterford Town Hall is? I'm guessing it's in Waterford.

Take a note. Is that on one of the Great Lakes? Probably. Okay. Okay. Real quick again. Michael Barclay wants to know what it was like with Tegan and Sarah's first album. Wow.

Michael Barclay. Goodness gracious. Okay. The one and only. Yeah. Who, by the way, wrote a book about the Tragically Hip. And I was, for FOTM, Jake Gold told me that you played with the hip. Yeah. So if I had more time, i was going to ask you about the hip the the tegan and sarah thing we i i really got to come back in

and talk about it because spin magazine had asked me about working with tegan and sarah and it's been a long time but they were different it was a we were all different people back then before i do my uh wonderful extra here, the Tragically Hip, good people, good experience. I mean, I didn't play with them. I only knew Gord a little bit, and I will say that when I released Lover Fighter and all of the Toronto media were racing to be the first one

to give it a shitty review and to knock me down from the pedestal that they built for me, I had dinner with Gordord and he thought it was impressive that the Toronto media was making a meal out of tearing me apart. He thought that that must mean something that I'm doing something culturally right and not wrong. And it was really

a beautiful and lovely kind of moment and to hear from sort of the elder statesman and those guys took a lot of knocks from the Toronto media as well. He was like, look, it must mean you're doing something right. Grimsby tonight. Grimsby. You're literally on your way right there now.

Yes, I can't wait. Grimsby tonight. And Hamilton tomorrow, but that's sold out, I'm told. Such a sellout. And Hamilton, I'm big in Hamilton, you know. Sunday and Monday in London. And there's some tickets for Sunday still. So people should see Hawksley Workman.

Because you're a great artist and you're a great musician. Bless you. Thank you. And that brings us to the end of our 536th show.

Wow. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Huxley is at Huxley Workman. Is that how you say it? Huxley Workman? Huxley Workman. Right.

At Huxley Workman. Right. www.huxleyworkman.com Follow me on Instagram for the love follow me on the Twitter I'm really hot on the Twitter our friends at

Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta Sticker U is at Sticker U Brian Master he's at Let's Get You Home

at kw.com and Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP and Ridley Funeral Home is Ridley R-I-D-L-E-Y F-H see you all next week LLP is at Kappa DLLP and Ridley funeral home is Ridley. R I D L E Y F H. See you all next week. And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you,

but I'm a much better man for having known you. But I'm a much better man for having known you Oh, you know that's true because Everything is coming up Rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Wants me today And your smile is fine

And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rolling in gray. Well, I've been told that there's a sucker for...