Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - HIGHTEENS: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1624

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

In this 1624th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Zach Erickson, Alex Black and Keith Heppler from HIGHTEENS about all things HIGHTEENS. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1624 of Toronto Miked! Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Recyclemyelectronics.ca. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Building Toronto Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Aynes from Fusion Corp and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today are Zach Erickson, Alex Black and Keith Hapler from Hi-Teens.

Welcome guys. Don't all speak at once, please, please. How are you guys doing? Thank you for having us. Good, thanks. Great. Was that a moment where you just assumed someone else would say hello, so nobody said hello?

Yeah. Is that what happened there? I think we're waiting for somebody to say hello. Hello. It's usually Alex, he's the friendliest. Alex. Are you the friendliest? No See, I thought there's something special about Alex because he brought indoor shoes and in the history of this podcast Because I'm like keep your shoes on because I don't care about this basement area and he's like I got indoor shoes Like that's impressive to me. You brought indoor shoes

It's a Canadian thing. Is that right? I've been Canadian for all my life. I don't know if I have indoor shoes. Yeah, I don't. It's an Eastern European, Canada thing. Yeah. Thank you guys for being here. Are you guys, one at a time here, I almost think I need to address you directly because I want the high teens origin story

and I want to play some new songs and I know there's a guitar here, that's very cool. But maybe right off the top, one of you didn't get the instructions Alex you You broke my heart when I saw you crack that beer before I pressed record But Zack and Keith, would you join me in cracking open your Great Lakes beer on the mic here? Yeah, that's three two one Alex was half crack. Yeah, you stop me in time Alex it's all smoke and mirrors with Alex, but thanks for doing this

So so Zach you've got the hop pop because you don't like beer No, like the taste of beer never have never will Hop pop, but you got a nice hop pop. Yeah, no alcohol in that one and enjoy hop pop whenever you don't want to be here Keith, what are you drinking over there? I have the Canuck pale ale That's the gold standard. That's the staple. A good friend of mine worked at Great Lakes for many many years. Yeah and he still drinks the beer all the time. His fridge is always stocked. See that's a good sign. If somebody works there, doesn't

work there, but still drinks it, they know it's the good stuff. Oh he loves it. He loves it. Are you guys Toronto guys? Uh, like originally, yeah, like uh, maybe give me just one by one maybe like where are you from and when did you get here? I'm i'm from uh, waterloo and i've been in Toronto for about 13 years and to help people with the voices because I find you got all these new voices. So that's keith Yes, and you're the drummer. I am okay. We'll learn more about you in a minute So from waterloo and how long you've here, sorry, but 13 years. Okay Okay, I'll get back to that now Alex. Are you a Toronto guy? Yeah, I was I was living in Toronto for a while And now where both do you live now? I live in the outskirts of the GTA and parts unknown

Okay, so in this current, I don't know what it is snow rain hybrid we've got out there it's gonna be about three hours for you to get home is that what I'm... Yeah plus or minus two. Zach where are you from? I live in North York Scarborough area I say I like to say Toronto but Keith always corrects me because he says it's not real Toronto. So you know what I'm gonna say since 1998 I would accept that as real Toronto. Thank you Thank you, Keith since Mel Lastman came along so because I mean you're in Etobicoke right now Etobicoke is as much Toronto as North York is. Thank you for settling the debate

It's the snobs like nexus though. It's like we're like the universe meets. It's like Scarborough, Toronto North York. I am at the Nexus I'm right everybody Johnny's burgers. Oh, that's a legendary. Yeah. I'm right by Johnny's burgers That's Toronto. Yeah, that's Toronto. There you go debate settled Sorry So I'm going to just pay tribute and spend a moment here while we enjoy our Great Lakes in that we lost a good one So everyone in this room is too young probably to remember John Donobie on FM radio in this and AM radio in this city.

But John Donobie was on our airwaves for over 50 years and much like you guys have now done, he came by for a great discussion a few years ago and he an absolute sweetheart he was going to return in I think it was October 2024 and then I was on a bike ride and my phone rings I answer it and it's the great voice of John Donahby and he's like Mike I'm sorry I have to postpone and I go John are you okay what's going on he goes Mike I have cancer these are the words he says and I'm like I'm like oh my god I just felt it in like my gut. Oh no.

And then he went on to explain it's it had spread and he had to fight it and he couldn't visit and he passed away on late Thursday night. So I just want to pay a little respect by playing like a minute, maybe two minutes of John Donahue be on Q 107 because we lost a good one in in Donahue. Here is John. John Donnaby, Q107 Toronto, Toronto's best rock. I'm John Donnaby, and we've got about 13 degrees out there right now with mainly clear skies, winds will die down this evening with lows around 7 for tomorrow, highs of 20, and same

for Wednesday, sunny and warmer, and mainly sunny for tomorrow, a good beautiful few days coming your way. Gamble Rogers is at the groaning board. I'll be there. One hour from now at 6.30 I'll have for you the brand new Cooper Brothers album as well as music of the Eagles this evening on words and music. And Dean Hill, who I just talked to a few minutes ago, has been tuning up all day getting ready for a visit tonight at 9 from The Cars.

Two of the members of The Cars will be here for a solid hour between 9 and 10 tonight, playing their favorite tuneys. And they'll be the guest jocks tonight along with Dean. So we'll be listening tonight. The Cars and the Q107 Studios playing some of their favorite music. That's between 9 and 10 p.m. On July 2nd, this band will be in our city. This is an old Roy Orbison song from years ago. Jim Capaldi recorded it as well. This is Nazareth with Love Hurts from Q107. That's Barefoot, formerly Atkinson, Danko, and Ford. Duane Ford now married to Patsy Gell-O. 14 minutes before 6 o'clock, I'm John Donobie.

So that was John Donobie. He was at the last waltz, friends of all the members of the bands, and then the last member of the band passes away earlier this year, and now Donobie's gone. So just want to pay tribute. None of you would remember John Donobie on Q107 or CFRB or any of these Toronto stations, right? No, but I did appreciate Nazareth. Yeah, I noticed that as well. That's Nazareth, and I believe that's a cover, and I can't remember the original artist, but definitely a cover, I think.

Now, I'm going to start with you, Zach, okay, because you're the lead singer of High Teens. So what I'm interested in, if you could share with us, sort of like, just a little, like a little bio and like when you fell in love with music and how you came to form High Teens with these gentlemen, and then I'll get the story from each of you and then I'll have a bunch of questions and some audio and And then I'll get the story from each of you and then I'll have a bunch of questions and some audio and stuff and we'll get like the definitive origin story of high teens.

Sure, yeah. So back in, so I grew up in Burlington, Hamilton and I went to, when I was in high school, I did the musicals and plays and stuff. Sure. And then I went to Toronto Metropolitan University, which used to be Ryerson. I went for policy and public administration.

And I started playing guitar and singing probably in like grade 11 or 12. And then I kind of just really fell in love with playing in especially university, I joined like a bunch of groups and was playing on the city doing open mics and doing stuff like that. And then I started a band 2014 called Little Boxer. And we were around for a while. We played from like 2014 to basically 2019, 2020. We were recording an album with a great producer engineer called John Drew.

It was a nine song album. We're gonna release it and then COVID happened and everything was kind of like put on the shelf and then, you know, a year went by, two years went by, everybody kind of had their lives. So the, I was just kind of like roaming around. I hadn't played for like two years, probably a year and a half with COVID. It didn't feel the motivation, you know, you wasn't really sure what was going on. I actually, I play for a living as well full time and that was all on pause too. And then I just what do you mean play for a living?

So I do like covers. Yeah, for for for I do like I'm a cover musician for a living. So I play all around the place. I do like bars, restaurants, weddings, and then I do retirement homes to play retirement homes. That's fun. Would you do me a favor at the retirement homes? Yeah. Hand out brochures for Ridley funeral home. Okay. I will. I know I got to call. I got to call, uh, two weeks ago for a funeral. So I'm going to play a funeral. I'm going to play a funeral. Yeah. What are you going to do? What? They are big fan of, I don't why Dylan and you're gonna go be gonna play MCR

They want me to know they want me to play They want me to play country roads by John Denver at their funeral They called they called me to make sure that I would still play their funeral and I was like, yes I will still play your here one of the one of your clients from the home. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah Oh, that's amazing. But yeah, so fast forward to like 2022, and then I was just kind of itching to start playing again and writing again

because I hadn't done so for so long. And then I saw Keith had a message on Facebook. It was like a Toronto Musician Network. And he was like, oh, you know, a serious band looking for a serious singer or guitar player. So I reached out. It was like a Toronto musician network and he just was like, oh, you know serious band looking for serious, you know Singer guitar player so I reached out and he kind of like he called me and he was like, okay Well, let's set up an audition and like just so you know, this is a really serious project. We took this stuff really seriously He's not fucking around. No, he's not fun. Is that what you said? I don't think he phrased it like that

I don't remember exactly. Are you serious that much? I think I made it clear that we wanted to get going. Yeah, I don't remember exactly. Are you serious that much? I think I made it clear that we wanted to get going. Yeah, we don't fuck around. You said 2022? Is that what you said? It was 2022. Yeah. That's the key. Yeah, it was like March 2022. And then, so yeah, we set up a date to jam and, or like a rehearsal slash audition jam. And then,, it went well and here we are now 2025. So was that like, maybe I should ask Keith, was that like a chemistry test? So Alex and I were in a band

for about six years before High Tunes. It was another trio and we were touring all over the place. It was super serious, really, really serious. Very serious. Serious, serious. What was the name of this band? It was called Hot Lips. Yeah. Shout out to Hoolahan from MASH. Yep, there it is.

One of the few. I'm old, remember. I watched MASH. And we were about to leave for a tour and then COVID happened and then we had kind of built a little infrastructure and managers and agents and label interest and all that good stuff. 22 shows in the states or something too. Yeah. And then it all disappeared. And then the band kind of fell apart and Alex and I wanted to keep going. So because we had been playing for so long, I guess a chemistry test, he had sent us a song, we had sent him a song and he had sent us something back. He wrote over it. So we knew he could write and sing and we just wanted to get in a room and make sure that like he could

play and that we all got along and it sort of made sense and but Alex you can sing right oh yeah I mean I can yell I can't sing is not I can't sing like Zach vocal performer I would say of a vocal performer right backgrounds only yeah backgrounds definitely okay yeah so so before we return to Keith because I vocal performer. I would say of a vocal performer. Right. Backgrounds only. Yeah. Backgrounds. Definitely. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, so before we return to Keith, cause I got come our question for him. So it sounds like a Facebook ad posted by Keith cause you two are in a hot lips and all these projects are, is it, so COVID killed a bunch of musical projects pause like as they're, uh,

but it started a bunch of new ones. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it did. Yeah. Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end. Like a phoenix, we will rise again. Use that for a song. Yeah. Use that at your funeral. I will. You gotta play it.

I will, I will, and I'll quote you. Where is this funeral? I don't know. It hasn't been, it hasn't happened. It's not really a funeral home. No, no. Wait, it hasn't happened? Like the person hasn't passed away yet?

Wait a minute, what? Wait, holy shit. They haven't passed away. They just call it to make sure I would like the person hasn't passed away. Yeah. Wait a minute. What wait haven't passed away They just shit they just call it to make sure I would still do it when they pass away Made it sound like you had this gig booked. I mean, it's not in your calendar It's not on my calendar, but they're like they're asking about price and just making sure I'd still do it What is the price? We're all gonna die To do a John Denver cover at my funeral at Ridley Funeral Home, what's that gonna set me back? Probably like 200 bucks. That's it? Yeah. It's only one song. Fuck, I want you to play three of my funerals. You have three funerals? I'm going to now.

There's measuring tapes. Each of you get one of these green guys. That's courtesy of Ridley Funeral Home measuring tape. Oh thank you. Don't worry, I will promote you to all of my favorite customers. Yeah, well, you know, book them before they die. You gotta do the prepay or whatever. But I will tell Brad Jones at Ridley Funeral that if he ever needs a musician to cover a song for somebody,

but ideally they die first. Ideally, ideally. You could tell Brad Jones that I took a deep dive and was looking to get into the funeral industry for a while. Is that right? Yeah, yeah, it was very interesting. How deep did you dive into this world?

Well, I was looking to get into, you have to start as a funeral director assistant. I didn't know this. Oh yeah, yeah, this was like my backup plan. It's the home of real talk. And then, and then... It's a weird backup plan. Why? I wanted to become a mortician. It's great. It's a growth industry.

My mom tried to get me into that Yeah, it's high school. She was pushing me to get it's a good industry and people don't realize how would like it? The importance that grief plays the thing that really fucked up some of the funeral directors that I was talking to was it was Like at my my dad's funeral that I was talking to them about this and oh my god Yeah, and there was um, and then prior to that it it was at my significant other's, her grandfather's funeral. Like I was having frank discussions. Glad you went to grandfather's where you'd, okay, good. And now, so you never went to school for this or anything?

No, I was looking into it. There's like a, it's a pretty quick program at Humber to go into. And then- South campus or North campus? I think it was in North. I can't remember North campus. You can walk to the South campus from here. Yeah. I'd come by and see you.

And maybe you intern at Ridley Feudal Home or something. Yeah. I mean, I'm great at carrying caskets. Well, you know, you always need- You're very strong. You're very strong. Yeah, that was one of my assets. And he's got indoor shoes.

So I feel like he'd be, you'd have the wardrobe for this. Or booties, you get booties too. Yeah. So it sounds, okay, so fascinating that you almost went into that industry there. And it is more fascinating to me that Zach booked a gig before the guy croaked. Yeah, we're learning this just as you are.

I think Zach just avoids telling us things because it just comes far. But did you get the money yet or no? No, no, no, they're just making, but they're putting the deposit down. There's no're just making no, there's no prepay. I mean, we haven't, we haven't talked. We just called me to make sure it's still do it. I was like, yeah. So speaking of Ridley funeral home, so little boxers dead, hot lips is dead, right? But what a segue. You guys all come together

because of this Facebook post and you got good chemistry. We're only going back a couple of years here, right? Like, High Teens is a relatively new band. Yeah. Yeah. Who named the band? Keith named the band. I kind of named the band. Can I ask, cause I was thinking on this, I literally did a bike ride this afternoon,

I was thinking about High Teens, cause your first thought is smoking cannabis and getting high as a teenager, right? But then I'm like, It's exactly what I meant. But then, The weather. Then I thought the meant. But then the weather, there's nothing. Then I thought the weather because then I thought, no, I mean, they're neither teens and I don't know.

I didn't get a cannabis vibe from these guys. I'm not saying you don't partake, but I can't even get this guy to drink a beer. You're not smoking weed, right? You can't get me to drink a beer, but you can get me to drink a delicious hot pot, a non-alcoholic beverage from Great Lake Brewery. He's like Bannon White, this guy. and on alcohol beverage from greats like that away this case used to work with the guy every spring we'd be like

hanging out outside and he would say that he wants high teens in at the weather that's what i thought but we can only now you saying it but when he said it by first thought just went to my friends and i smoking weed you know in high school and the bleachers. And, um, and I just, I don't know, I just, it just stuck with me. I thought it like sounded cool and they wrote it down and it kind of looked cool. And I just kept it in the back of my mind for like a song title or a lyric or high teens. And

it just rolled off the tongue and, and it wasn't taken. That was the important thing. That's the most important thing. Did you just go find that you could buy the domain name and that was everything? It's like I can get highteens.com. We were looking at we would like plug in the band names on like Spotify, Apple Music to make sure yeah make sure that we would be the first SEO on it. It's not great. We had better names but they were taken. Yeah we had one great name that we really all like called, we were trying to call ourselves Newspeak from- Orwell. From George Orwell in 1984.

Which is very relevant today. Yeah, it is. That was the other thing too. Always relevant. There's a lot of the music that we write is like pertaining to that kind of theme, you know? But- Well, you know what's bad SEO?

Little Boxer is bad SEO, I feel. And you know what's really bad SEO, because we just mentioned this band because the last member passed away But the band the bands are like if they knew the internet was coming they wouldn't pick that name. No No, not a great band name. No, but but high teens I like but I have a question about these Stylizing of the term high teens like it's important that whenever I see it I see it all caps in one word. We want to yell it. No, it's not the high teens. It's just high teens. But one word.

We are called the high teens by Booker or by like on posters that we have no part of. We're not the high teens. We're just high teens. It's like that classic thing where just like, I don't know where people get it from, but they just throw the even though it's the early odds. There's like the strokes, the high, like the high teens, but that does not flow well. The high teams. So did you have a group meeting to decide, okay guys,

know the all caps one word. It wasn't a meeting, but it was a conversation. There's a lot of conversations. I was very adamant about the all caps. That was a thing people were doing. Our, our Facebook group chat is actually just called No Name because we couldn't figure out a name for the band, so we just named the group chat No Name.

It's still the picture of the Unibomber, right? My wife hates our band name. Oh, the sketch beat, yeah. My wife hates our band name. She tells me all the time how much she hates her band name. And I'm like, you know, I chose it. She's like, I know, I just hate it. But she didn't tell you that when you originally picked it?

No, she did. Oh, she did? From day one. Day one. You didn't tell me that. You didn't tell me that. You just told me this recently. We should get 100 people who don't know you guys in a room

and we should say, high teens. What does that mean? And see what percentage thinks it's about teenagers getting high and what percentage thinks it's about the weather. Yeah. Another, someone told me they thought it was because we didn't want to grow up.

So we're constantly, you know, we're in our very, very, very, very high teens. Oh, I see like 19 and then 20 teen and 21 teen. 50 teen yeah. Yeah which I thought that was so pretty good. But for the record it meant teenagers doing drugs. Is that the definitive or is it the temperature thing? That's his interpretation. When I brought it when I brought it to the table that's what I meant. My interpretation is teenagers walking up lots of flights of stairs and getting very high. Right.

If you end up the CN tower, whatever you want to make it. You're stupid. That's so stupid. No, it's not. That's what I think of. You guys don't think of teenagers walking up many flights of stairs. No, we're not stupid. You could have done a hybrid, a little, little hot lips or, you know, little lips, little lips, box lips, box lips, hot box. Box lips.

Yeah, there we go. There it is. All right, we're workshopping this. Okay, but let me please ask Keith about, so I know you talked a bit about hot lips, but you were also a member of a rather well-known local band Yeah, yeah, are you die mannequin? Yeah, I'm thinking die mannequin only because I mean I've seen die mannequin live and How many years were you in die mannequin? I did their entire last album cycle up until the last show

So the record that I was involved with was called Neon Zero. And I think that came out in 2015 or 2016? 2015. 2015. Yeah. And I did all of the touring on promo and TV stuff, all of that with the band. And then I, yeah, I played their last show and...

Well, speaking of tragedy, I mean, I'm sorry for your loss, like that news was devastating to learn that Kara Failure, that was 36 years old. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. She was great. I was such a fan of that band to actually

Get that gig was like a dream come true. I remember watching that band with Max girlfriend in high school smoking weed Getting high before it was legal. Yeah and She was such an amazing person and amazingly talented musician and songwriter. And I owe her so much and I'm so grateful for the even it kind of felt like a short time I got to spend with her. But I'm really grateful for it. Just so sure. I mean, you know, it's shocking when anyone dies, except maybe this guy who's wanting to hire.

This guy's profiting off of this. you know, it's shocking when anyone dies except maybe this guy who's wanting to hire This guy's profiting off of this, you know So he wants John Denver. She wants she's I see that I assumed assumed gender very popular I didn't you know, I won't make any more assumptions. I'm more popular with the the old ladies Yeah, but if you're if you want want John Denver like she's gotta be like 110 right like how old is this one? I did I did meet a hundred and nine year old In my travels at an old age home at an old age home. Is that the record that's old That's my that's my record so far. Yeah, I met some hundred and four year olds once one one hundred and six year old Quick aside so I produced a show for Toronto legend named

Peter Gross Peter Gross was on City TV during the the Moses era this guy's just 11 living legend But he we were gonna launch a new show called Senior moment and he was gonna produce it and we were gonna get advertisers who want to like target old people like we had This great plan So he's gonna we did a couple of episodes before we had any sponsors and he went into an old age home and he interviewed a 104 year old woman and they had the greatest chat.

And Peter's like, you won't believe it. I just talked to this 104 year old woman and we talked about this great depression. And then one week later, she croaks. Like she said, I got a gig singing John Denver at a funeral home. Yeah. No, like, so that this woman lived 104 years doing great. You know, that's a long time.

She's on the planet, living a long, happy life meets Peter Gross, the legend in that decides I'm checking out. I'm out of here. Like she didn't make it a week post-gross. She didn't like that conversation very much. It's just, I thought it was, She was doing fine till Peter entered her life and that was it. I should follow Peter around. He gave me a lot of work. Can you bring the Ridley funeral home brochures? Of course. You and Peter could make a

killing. Whoa that's another idea. It kills it. You ever watch Dexter? Okay can I play older I want to I want to play an older high teen song Just so I can give people a taste of what we're talking about and then we'll play new stuff. All right All right, so you don't even know it's coming because I will tell the listenership there was an attempt to get me audio but was unsuccessful so I Did it myself. I just went and said I'm gonna try to do this myself So you know, I don't know maybe you're gonna be I love this song. I hate this song We're gonna get a full review from all three of you. This is an older high teen song If I miss attraction, start fleshed out of distraction

When you stop, I might just end And one more taste could knock me out and lift me up into a crowd This song is dynamite! Dynamite. That's the name of it. Shit. We haven't played that one live in a very long time. Who can tell? I mean, I pulled it because you have a YouTube channel and you got it there.

So I grabbed it. Who can tell me anything further? Like what is this? Is this the first album, an EP? What's this from? This is our EP, our first single. It was the first single. Yeah, it was our first single from the EP Bad Broken Things, which we worked on with a fantastic producer called Ryan McCambridge, who we really love. And yeah, it was, the song is, I love this song, I really like the song. One of the things I like about it is the process, the song wasn't really working, you know what I mean? None of us were really figuring out how to like get it right to record and then all of a sudden something kind of

just clicked, you know, everybody kind of changed their parts. And then, and then when we heard the finished product, we're like, well, this actually sounds, sounds pretty good. And I remember cause I was going back and forth with Ryan, he's just like, I, that's something's just not fitting. Like this is not, this is not. What did you change?

Well, I think he, he changed the drum part. Yeah, I don't, I've been in a lot of bands and sometimes when a song is not working, just like next, this band won't give up on any songs. And the ones that were kind of the hardest to figure out are the ones that gave us the most trouble and not being some of the more popular ones that we play. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, it's a unique, it's a unique characteristic to this band. Stubbornness. Everyone's too stubborn But yeah, Keith changed the drum part up and then that kind of like opened the way where I

figured out a new guitar part and I changed up the chorus melody and all of a sudden everything kind of like Settled in a lot nicer Alex Alex was perfect in the beginning didn't have to change much You know if we told the universe yet that Alex plays bass? Yes. Well, we just did it. Because we only mentioned that beautiful voice that he said is not quite good enough to lead. Technically, Alex plays bass and guitar because Alex has a fantastic rig, which he runs his bass signal through a guitar amp as well. So he's kind of like our bass player and rhythm guitar

player. He's very proud of it. We're all very proud of his rig. Did you know Ryan McCambridge was nominated for a Grammy? We did. We did. Okay. Well, would you know what that was for? It was for Mastodon. Wasn't it? Mastodon. Yes. Fucking right. It was. I've seen Mastodon live nine times. Is that right? Yeah. They're one of my favorite bands. I've seen Mastodon live nine times. Is that right? Yeah, they are one of my favorite bands. May I ask you about your neck tattoo? The skull, this was actually a logo for our old band.

It's the hot lips tattoo. But okay, but the difference is, and I make no judgments, man. I got it on my neck. So Keith got the tattoo on his arm. He can wear a suit, go to court, and the judge won't see it. I didn't have any more space. any more space. I had he's all tattoos. I ran a real estate We were out for breakfast the day we were getting them and the singer Carly of her old band

I was like, I'm gonna get him on my neck. I was like don't It is low like you could wear a turtleneck Yeah, I could wear it. Yeah, okay words, they live rent free in my head. Brian Setzer from Stray Cats. This is a long time ago now, but he said, ink up all you want, but always make sure that if you're wearing a suit, the judge can't see the ink. Yeah, I mean, he's from, you know, the United States, a little different down there, but yours, you'd have to wear like a turtleneck to court. I can have, I can purchase higher collar shirts.

Oh, like Don Cherry used to wear there. Yeah, yeah, or I mean turtleneck's fine. You know, I'm okay with looking like a blonde villain. But are you done? It sounds like you're, you still, Amy, are you gonna go like post Malone? What are you gonna keep going? Yeah, I'm not gonna do my face and hands.

Yeah, I think that would be silly. Just getting a skull tattoo on your neck. At some point it's a lifestyle choice. So is that hot lips tattoo? Yeah. I mean the hot lips logo? Yeah I also I love skulls so it worked out great. Does it like skulls? Yeah they're like all over my house. Well this all ties back to the funeral home. Yeah yeah yeah we're starting a business. It's a big thing you got to cover up though because it's a fairly conservative industry so. That but you wear like three three piece suits in that one. Absolutely.

The high collars are built in here. So Zach, do you have any ink on you? I do not have any ink on me. So you don't drink beer. Yep. You don't get, you know ink. No ink. You don't smoke weed.

Nope. What is the most like, what is the, do you have any vices, I guess I'm wondering. Video games. Get on me. My vices is caring too much. When you're at a job interview and they ever ask you like, do you have any like personal flaws? And it's like, sometimes I just care too much.

Yeah. Sometimes I work too hard. Right. I overwork myself. Zach just looks them in the eye quietly and farts. That's why he plays music now for a living. So it's funny to have old stuff, like I played something from that. I wanted to get something pre-Insomniac. What's the name of the new album? There's no album. We've just been releasing singles because we're rappers. Because we're rappers and the long form music medium is dead. No one listens to albums anymore. You know what? This is streaming's fault, right? because we're rappers in and the long form music medium is dead. No one listens to albums anymore.

You know what? This is streaming's fault, right? Like, we would love to make a record. We grew up on records. I love records. I love, I would, I've made records, but you can do it anyway. Yeah. Because incredibly expensive now too. Well, it's not. It is. We choose to make it sound better. It's true. It is. It is not. It can not be expensive, but it's also. Is that because you're perfect, you stubborn perfectionists here? Like. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, Hayden, I'm now going way back, but Hayden had like a, I don't know, a four track recording device in his bedroom and he made like as bad as they seem. Just some, you don't have, you can go low fi on there. Well, we might try. sold I sold the Alex on this Oh, I've been I've been trying to sell them on this We might try again

like I think I think the newer stuff that we're working on right now is a little bit like like we definitely couldn't do like for the bad broken things EP it was we had the We were fortunate to get a grant as well And then we were working with Ryan and that was a really like well produced rock album. And you can't like, Ryan's amazing. Ryan's amazing. Yeah, he's just.

Grammy nominated. We did. Who beat him, do we know? Who beat that guy? I don't know. I don't know, but fuck them. Yeah. See you in the funeral.

For Insomniac though, we did record the drums and the bass on our own. Yeah. We did track the. Do you want to play Insomniac and then we can just talk about the new stuff? Sure. When does this single drop in the public realm Insomniac? Today. It just dropped today. So can I ask what that means? Like does that mean you switch it, like you press a button in your Spotify management console or something? Yeah, it's all automated. Oh you schedule it. in your Spotify management console or something? Yeah, it's all automated. Oh, you schedule it.

Of course you do. We just have other people that do it for us now. We fully could do it ourselves. It's not that hard. In my mind, it's like you've got a YouTube video, right? And it's going to be unlisted. And then you wake up today, this is February 3rd, 2025, and you change it from unlisted to public and you're like, I just dropped a new single.

That's right. That's pretty much what it is. Right. Well, let's listen to Insomniac. This is today available today. Insomniac by High Teens. A black town, did you say something? Turn around, everyone's left me askew I look up, my father's laughing Blink once, now he's collapsing too The grave side of a fool Was it all lies or did you believe in a show? Throwing a smile, make it up as you go

I'm not fine, I'm the disaster kid Stand up because I got blasted on cheap real wide Listen in to homemade lies Who wrote this song? Well, we write all the songs together Do you mean like lyrically or just musically? Both Well, I write the lyrics and then we all get in a really like a very

classic band We get in the lyrics and then we all get in a really like a very classic band. We get in the room together and we figure it all out together. It's not like one person comes in and is like this is what you do, this is what you do or kind of has parts and I think that that that's like the best part about being in a band is the interactive nature of it. Collaboration. Yeah. What are the lyrics about since you wrote that? Well, Insomniac is, it's this. These guys are laughing by that. What are you laughing about?

Go on, Zach, is it about a power dynamic or something? No, no, no, it's not. We had an interview with Ed the Sock. Yeah. And- In person or is this a remote? remote every we've every answers that gave Nobody is so the first EP the first EP bad broken things is about the themes is about Power and obsession right so a lot of the songs are about the same thing but different takes on it right so

And the sock would be like oh is this one about and I was just talking about it. Hey you talking like I can't do it but it's been over here. It's about a power dynamic. And then he started picking up and then making fun of me. There's lots of the laughing but Insomniac is not. This is for Oshawa right? The Rock? Yeah. Yes. Yeah he's the only show. But Insomniac is not about power dynamics. Insomniac is about it pyrodynamics. Insomniac is about, it's about kind of like growing up and looking back on your childhood and realizing, you know, that your parents and the people that were around you, the adults in your life

that you looked up to, they were these flawed individuals. They didn't have everything figured out. It's like looking back on your childhood with an adult perspective now, because you know, when you're a kid, you look up, you think everyone has it all figured out by then. You're gonna have your life all put together.

You see these people, because you see the best version of them when you're a kid, right? And that's what kids, they see the best version of people. But then you grow up and then life happens, experiences happen, and then you realize, oh, my mom, my dad, my uncle, my's for like they they were just people were just people and they're just doing their best with the tools They have in their tool kit exactly and it's and it's and it's like being at that age

I'm not like I'm at that age now where and it's this weird thing because I was I was just I was just in Serbia with my fiance. She was originally born in Slovenia and then has family in Bosnia. So we were there visiting them. And it's like we're sitting around the table and we're sitting there with her brother and her sister-in-law and their four kids. And you're kind of just sitting there and you're realizing like I am that adult now. I am that person that I remember looking up at during you know

Thanksgiving dinner and listening to and being like oh this person's so cool this person's so lame you know what I mean, and this is that that weird kind of like full circle moment and And it's funny because like sometimes I just feel like I'm not an adult I don't have everything figured out like I thought it would and that's kind of what the song is about This is like the antithesis of the pursuit of happiness is I'm an adult now. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Very good. Very good. Okay, so Ed. So his name is Steve Kirzner. Yep. Yep. And he does that voice. Yeah. And I think remote, at least then you don't have to see

that, oh, this dude, because I've had him. We've had him. We've had him. We've had him. We did a, we opened for him. Yeah. Yeah. It was part of his that. Oh, this dude, because I've had him. We open for him. Yeah. Yeah. We were. It was part of it. It was in Oshawa, Baltimore, the Biltmore, the Biltmore. We were it was for a charity for the

home homelessness. Like, is this a socks thing to? Yeah. Yeah. I've heard. OK, that's very cool. And I mean, I grew up on Ed Ed's night party like I'm a big guy. OK, I see. Yeah,'s night party. Like I'm a big Ed DeSauce guy. Okay. It's funny. Tomorrow's guest is a guy named Jeremy Hotz. And he's from this same kind of scene that Harland Williams was from. I know Jeremy Hotz. Okay. He's here tomorrow. Oh wow. I gotta ask him about this 51st state bullshit because Hotz

used to have a big routines about Canada does in the name of the country, how we couldn't defend ourselves and all this. And he's a Canadian who's moved to the state. I got questions for him. Remember his standup, yeah. Yeah, but he would, it's not him. Harlan Williams would be Ed's, like the host and Ed would be like the Ed McMahon type character

or whatever on Ed's, the one that was on cable 10 before it moved to a city TV. Anyways, when you're doing a chat with Ed, my question is, does he have to do funny shtick the whole time or can you have a serious talk with the song? Yeah, like he can't, you can't do, I'm just wondering when you do an interview with Ed,

you're just sort of fodder for his joke. Well, he's so good, you're just on edge the entire time. You can try and have a serious talk, but then he'll make fun of you. I did make him uncomfortable in that interview though. You did do make him uncomfortable. How, can you tell me? I need to know how Kersner's getting along. I think I took it too far and he was like, all right let's go to a song.

I don't remember what you said but that sounds like you. Yeah. If you can't take the heat stay out of the dryer. That's what I say to the sock himself. Okay. I grew up on fromage. I know what to expect. Yeah fromage but fromage just again I was as the old man in the room fromage was a Christopher Ward thing You remember this Christopher Ward? He was the first VJ. So this is going back to the first first generation Literally him and JD Roberts were the first VJ dude with a long hair to The big guy forgot his name. He wore the gang gal Galagher. Yeah. Yeah, he says shows a really funeral home he he died of a heart attack a while ago, but but but but This guy Christopher Ward co-wrote He says shows a really funeral home. He he died of a heart attack a while ago, but but but but uh,

This guy chris for ward co-wrote Black velvet for atlanta miles who he was dating at the time. I think he made a pretty penny off this This is you that's your job you guys get in the room and write a black velvet man You can feast on that forever. I had the guy who co-wrote two princes For uh spin-off last week. Yeah, I don't think he has to work again in his life because he co-wrote Two Princes for Spindog. I saw that last week. Yeah. I don't think he has to work again in his life because he co-wrote Two Princes. You're seeing Black Velvet by Atlanta Miles? Yeah. I used to have a rehearsal space and the drum set in that rehearsal space was the drum set used in the Black Velvet video. Okay that's a mind-blow right there. But all this is to say, so Christopher Ward would do

fromage. He would do a French character because he had this comedic background and he would do this. And then Christopher Ward moved on because he became a popular, like a rich songwriter. He left much music and Ed Dasaak just kind of took it on. But Ed kind of made it like more like making fun of the act instead of sort of like appreciating the true stinky cheesiness of this fromage. Like he sort of altered it. But I still watched Ed Dasaak fromage. It was such a great thing to end

the year on. And then then they had tree toss right after. Tree toss, yeah. Anthony would do that. A whole afternoon to throw a tree in a dumpster. It's brilliant. So for an up-and-coming, I got a few questions just because you guys are a freaking band man and that single drop today insomniac and I got more too And I know someone brought a guitar here, but like there is no much music anymore so Like what is the is I mean obvious? I'm just curious like is it you just play to radio Did you hire somebody to kind of get you on the radio?

My buddy's on the air at Indy 88 and he he says one guy makes the decisions on what gets on the air there And my buddy who's on the air there has the decisions on what gets on the air there and my buddy who's on the air there has Zero input into what gets on the air there. Like it sounds like there's only so many stations that are gonna play a song like that What are you doing here? You're just trying to see hey people CF and why pick it up one or two point one Like they played die mannequin. We Will were managed by Doug Elliott who is, I think the program director at 94. He drove here because I put on social media. I wanted a Wii so my kids could play Mario Kart like in 2008 or 2009.

Such a good Wii game. And he drove one over here. Did he? Doug Elliott. Yup. He's a good guy. Great guy. There are the odd radio stations in major markets that'll still have like, you know,

an unsigned hour or something to that. BBC six, but that's way overseas. That's, they do that. We've focused primarily on being a live band to try to get our, just out there and pound the pavement. And that's something I've always felt strongly about growing up playing in punk bands. It was always you just go and you play and you play and you play and you play anywhere

anytime you can. And Hot Lips was like that and played a lot of shows with Dye Mannequin and it's always the way I've liked to do it. Plus I really, I think we all really enjoy playing live. Yeah, so that and Spotify and YouTube and all those wonderful That game is rigged right? Well, I mean seems to be every bands. Yes topic of discussion. Yeah But Spotify could be listening right now By rigged we mean you're great spot, but now I'm kidding

Bow down to your tech overlords. Fight me. It's a tricky game. I was talking to my wife about this earlier today, where when I was sort of growing up doing bands, there was sort of a mix of this sort of social media aspect, but you also were able to network and talk to people. And it feels like if sort of your metrics aren't there

Where they want them to be you can't even really get someone on the I think I know what you mean Like because I always have these guys from CF and why back in like the the 80s even into the 90s But they had had a committee that would meet and they'd say oh, here's all the new music we got I like these guys. They're local. This is a good sound We should add this to rotation or whatever like there was sort of a discussion like that and now I feel like it's all like focus groups or something like Some group of people are hitting take a button on how does this song make you feel one to ten? Does it make you feel joy or whatever like some focus group is deciding? What are the you know five songs that will get added this month or if it's 30 seconds or something? I can get played over and over again on a reel that people will keep reposting, which is another thing.

That's one of the great things about playing live is the more you get out there and the more you play, people will still connect to stuff that's genuine. And they're the ones coming out to shows still. Yeah, and people think they're a little starved for something different. Like written in a room by a real band, like human beings got in a room who play together

and they wrote this as opposed to, I don't know, some AI monstrosity that got spit out by some algorithm. Yeah. Well, you know, everything has its pros and cons because it was definitely easier to get signed back in the 80s and 90s, but the contracts that the musicians were getting were terrible contracts, right? Like whereas nowadays, yeah, the criteria for you to get signed is a lot higher, but the demands are also higher because of that.

You know, I that's what I was hearing a lot about these, you know, tick tock signings, uh, is, you know, these bands, they get lucky, they have something. Catch on tick tock and then they have a built-in audience because of that, so therefore they're able to kind of more negotiate better for themselves, so they're getting better deals. So pros and cons. Yeah, every era of music has its pros and cons. Musicians have complained consistently through all of them. Yeah, like we were...

Consistently, the musicians are getting fucked by the man. Yeah. Every decade. Well, there was were, we were. You were consistently, the musicians are getting fucked by the man. Yeah. Every decade. Well, there was that, the Grammys last night, there was that Chaperone speech, I don't know if you guys heard it. Yeah, I did hear about healthcare.

Yeah. It was about healthcare and just kind of like, it was very brave, it was just like looking out, looking after the musicians that aren't your kind of, you know. She has not been seen since. The recording academy. Well, She was very nervous doing it. That's called truth to power. Yeah but it's true you know like these these labels have you know there's

barely they don't have to do much you know it's like the artists they're doing everything the artists own the property but you know, there's no real Support given to the artists it's either you do this you make a big or you're out kind of thing There's no there's no development process either anymore, which is kind of unfortunate where if you don't really hit right out of the gate You're kind of done done for at least for a little while where you know You're kind of done done for at least for a little while where you know You'd hear stories about back in the the 90s and the 80s where bands you sort of expected your first two records might not do Anything but they anticipated that for you to get your footing And I think it's unfortunate that that artists and bands don't get the opportunity

To sort of develop and grow in that organic way that you kind of have to be fully cooked by the time you get out Same is true for the DJs on the radio like they used to go and suck in that organic way that you kind of have to be fully cooked by the time you get out. Same is true for the DJs on the radio. Like they used to go and suck in some small town Ontario or do overnights or whatever and then they got better. And nowadays, yeah, there's nowhere to go. There's almost no margin for error. Like if you kind of screw something up, it seems like you're done.

So let me reveal to you three for the first time. So I get like, I honestly get, I think I get like 10 to 15 cold emails a day from like bands and stuff. Like, oh, we got a new single. I get a lot of this stuff. And I, I don't know, I, for some reason, I clicked to listen to Insomniac, the song I just played right there. And I, I legit just, I liked what I heard. And I said, I wonder if, no, they're local. Will they visit me in the basement? And then you guys are here now. Like it's just 100% because I liked what I heard. And I wanna know what influences and stuff because like, you know, I'm from the nineties. And when I hear that song,

like I hear elements of stuff I remember from the nineties. Like for example, it opens a little, don't be offended by this, okay? But it opens like mildly collective solely that's what my brother told me I hear I hear yeah I hear it my brother told me that it's not meant as an in so like if I play the study meant it because being collected so sold a fucking ton of fucking albums but like that's shine right yeah yeah just in this only a few chords but then you so you kind of feel a little of that collective soul feeling Yeah. That's Shine, right? Yeah. Yeah. Shine. Yeah.

Just in this only a few chords, but then you, so you kind of feel a little of that collective soul feeling, but then it's got the hook and it's basically, it's a song I dig. Like, I'm curious if you three tell me, like, yeah, a little collective soul. Yeah, just a little bit. But what are your influences? Well, it's very varied. And that's one of the big reasons why I joined the band is, or reached out because in the Facebook post, Keith was-

Very serious. Very serious. And he was listening to a bunch of bands I don't really listen to. Because he's a punker. What are these, like these are like punk bands? Well, they were saying that the inspiration originally for the band was like what?

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. what else was it Alex Keith? It was the black rebel we were kind of strayed from it, but the original idea was was in that vein the the band that Alex I remember for it was dark imagery and You know heavier and very nine inch nine inch nails inspired. Yeah kind of loud and industrial maybe yeah it was it was called electro grungy yeah that's what people yeah but um one cool thing with the band and one cool thing about the way our collective writing works is that we all come from so I grew up like I said I grew up in punk rock and I was really influenced by bands like fugazi and minor threat and stuff like that.

And I think the punk bands of the early 2000s. And then Alex is influenced by. Gwar. Not even music, just war. Norwegian death metal. Yeah, I do. I do love Demi Borgir. See, I'm gonna pretend I know that.

I like them too. And Zach has a, Zach's you know. I'm more like alternative like indie. I love like Big Band Rock or I love the Spring, like Born to Run. Springsteen. Springsteen yeah and that was a bit and then you know. Which I think John Donobie's clip from Q&O 7 he was coming out. Yeah yeah corner running. He did mention it and then you know just like I grew up in the Strokes and MCR and stuff like that so I've always been really Drawn to like really hooky melodies and really like strong songwriting and lots of imagery and like that that's spring that's Bruce

Springsteen kind of style of like trying to cram a bunch of I remember I remember I was like working with Ryan on I think I forget which song was but he's like you really like to torture Yourself by trying to fit as many words in as you can don't you? Have you ever seen spring scene live no, it's too expensive No, I know, but I saw him for the first time just last November a complete mind blow like I don't even had explained it it but this 75 year old guy just still unbelievable three hours. Yeah, he's the boss. He's the boss. I just watched the documentary they put out about the first two they did after COVID and it was

it was amazing but yeah it's a little little priced out for us. Yeah but that's kind of the so it's kind of I feel like all our best songs are kind, you know Alex's bass lines are very heavy very You know, it wouldn't necessarily be something that the sound or the style would necessarily be something that I would play but it fits in a Really unique way and it's the same thing with Keith. So everybody has their own kind of Which is you know, what attract me? Like I said what attract me the band is everyone's gonna bring their own thing, right and is, you know, what attracted me, like I said, what attracted me to the band is everyone was gonna bring their own thing, right?

And make, and my hope was that we would make something. Make a stew or something. Yeah, make something different that is not out there. Spice girls or punk spice, industrial spice, and indie spice. Because you know, if you go online and you type in like looking for people who like, you know, The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand, And it's just like, I like that. I like that.

Everyone's they're going to make, they can make a good band, but everyone's going to sound like the artists that they are, you know, we're trying to replicate. Whereas if you come in and everybody has like so many different ideas of what this should be, then I think you can land somewhere in an interesting middle ground. Yeah, we knew it wasn't going gonna sound like black rebel motorcycle club, but we needed something to get it rolling And you know, I'm a sling. I've I've lightened You know Alex and Keith a bit and then they want some John Denver. Yeah, exactly and they've definitely

They've darkened me up, you know, I the songs, the songs are right in the middle. Exactly. Yeah. It's called compromise compromise. I think that's a great. Collaboration compromise. That's a great way to describe our band is we're a bunch of media media. And if a little collective soul slips in there, there's no shame in that. No shame in a little bit of collectives. So a lot of records. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And shine by the way, my favorite collective soul songs. Great. I like that record dosage. Remember that, that album?

I remember the, like the much music hits is what I remember from collective soul. So they had December was a big hit as I recall. And uh, I had a tape of theirs when I was a kid and it was a, it's called dosage. It's like a bunch of wasps coming out of a girl's mouth. And I, I still like that record. I'm not going to lie to you right now. I've never listened to collective soul. So not even shine. You're fired, but it proves that we didn't copy them

because how young you are because you couldn't avoid shine that summer I actually hear I really like in that song it sort of the bass line I made it a lot simpler was inspired by dinosaur juniors feel the pain okay yeah which fantastic mm-hmm fantastic that's great jam too right so I actually want to play another song from I guess you don't have albums, you tell me. So you'll tell me, I'll play this. You'll tell me what it is.

But first I do want to let everybody know this is important information and you guys take notes too, because, uh, although one of you lives in Aurora, but on June 26th, June case, so listen, this important June 26th, I think it's a Thursday from six to nine PM. And I'm talking 2025. If you're listening to this in the future, after high teams wins their first Grammy award and you're listening and you're like, Oh shit, listen to that. June 26th, 1925, I almost said 19, 2025. This is important.

TMLX 18 is happening at Great Lakes Brewery, which is 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard in South Etobicoke. So be there because Palma Pasta is going to feed us all for free. So Great Lakes will buy you your first beer. Palma Pasta will give you some delicious Italian food to enjoy and we'll have a grand old time. You guys are invited. Thank you. 26 to 9. I'll come and request my favorite beverage from Great Lake Brewery. Hot pop. There will be hot pop there. Wonderful. I think they literally make it there. You get silly on the hot pop. You should slow down. Did I mention this? Did I say no alcohol? I meant double alcohol. Oh, that makes sense. That's all right

I'm not driving. I'm gonna stop making that mistake. That would explain why he pissed himself No, I came in like that. Do you remember the Simpsons? You woke up like that when I there's a Simpsons where the the cop Wiggum's confused a DUI with DOA. Do you remember this? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh And he's like, oh my husband's got another Oh, and he's like, Oh, my husband's got another DUI. He's like, Oh shit. She goes to pick up my husband. Oh my God. Okay. My so my daughter who's eight is upstairs and she's watching the Simpsons because she's a freak for Simpsons. And I actually only this past weekend I said, you know, there's

a Simpsons episode you've never seen because she watches a Disney plus. I said, I said, I felt like I was telling like, I'm like Grandpa Simpson, gonna tell a story. I'm like, it's called Stark Raving Dad, and Homer washes his white shirt in with Bart's red hat and it comes out pink and he wears it to work and they send him to an insane asylum. Is that the Michael Jackson? That's the Michael Jackson, so it's not on Disney Plus. It's the only episode they won't air on Disney Plus. And wasn't it proven that was actually Michael Jackson? No was it actually him? Yeah the singer was not him it was a guy named Kip Lennon but the the speaking part was a hundred percent Michael Jackson. Really? I thought it wasn't him. No they did a... The singing wasn't him because he had some contractual thing with Sony or whatever

So the singing was a guy named Kip Lennon imitating him but all the spoken word in that episode was michael jackson Huh? That's why you can't watch it on disney plus he was Yes, like michael jackson all together michael jackson wasn't Inspiring actor i mean he did acting thing does you know it's michael jackson wanted to play spider-man i? Know he's in the way is the job God the whiz yeah i could talk come on in ease on down i guess I know he's in the Wiz. Is this a joke? No, I'm serious. Oh my God, the Wiz. Yeah. Oh, I get talking with him. Come on in, ease on down. I get talking.

That is a wild movie. Michael, this is with. Diana Ross as the. Okay, so funny. I know you're in the middle of a sentence. No, that's okay. But I actually, so the family wanted to see Wicked. So I went, but I actually went in, I went in so cold.

I had no clue there was a Broadway show called wicked I knew nothing about wicked when I was in the theater to see wicked I thought I was there to see the whiz like I thought it was the same thing because I just knew it was a Wizard of Oz spin-off thing and I only knew the whiz because on an episode of facts of life I watched toody was auditioning by singing the song ease on down the road and this is this is my whole like that's that's what I thought. So I'm like, what's, whoa, this is not what I thought it was. And that's my story. It was like, I would say, what's the first 90 minutes? Like just start watching it when they go to Oz and it's not bad. Okay. I don't, I didn't find it as spectacular as some people who are probably seen at 10, eight, but I'm not a big fan.

Fantastic. Are you talking about wicked? Did you, did anyone catch the press tour? We're talking about wicked or awes. We're talking about wicked. Oh, are we talking about awes from HBO or are we talking about like, I loved fucking awes. I loved it. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah. Showcase on Friday night. I loved it. I have it on, I have all of the episodes, the box sets. So I was a big wot. So here's the box of the wire. And so good. Like to me, I think of Oz is like, like no Oz, no wire. Like she, she, she, well, I'll just take their money if they're giving it away. Okay. I love Oz. I love, I love Oz. And I

love the wire string or ballot taking notes on a criminal conspiracy. It was so good. It was all so good. Okay. We'll do another hour on the odds, but I want to play the song, but I did want to quickly thank Nick Aini's from fusion corp. He has a book and a podcast called building Toronto skyline. And I put out that new year's Eve. Hey, we need a new partner on Toronto mic to keep these conversations going.

He put up his hand. So bless you, Nick Aini's. We're going to talk to you on Toronto Mike to keep these conversations going. He put up his hand. So bless you, Nick. I need is we're going to talk to you on Toronto Mike shortly. Find out more of what you're up to. You're a good guy and recycle my electronics dot CA guys. If you have old electronics, old devices, old cables in a drawer or a closet or whatever, don't throw it in the garbage. Cause those chemicals end up in our landfill.

Go to recycle myelectronics.ca, put in your postal code, and you can find it where you can drop it off to be properly recycled. Got it? Sweet. Sweet. Okay, can I play a little bit of this

and you can tell me what the hell I'm playing? Sure, yeah. Maybe. Turn off the lights Turn up the pain Oh, creating time My favorite thing Close both my eyes Make it all okay Don't hate me now Like I hate myself. Don't let me down, like I did it all last week.

Lick up the smoke. What are we listening to guys? Munitions Street. Named after the street it was written on. This is true. We have a naming problem. Yeah, we're really, really bad at naming our songs. I think we've gotten better.

I think Insomniac's a great name. But how long did it take us to get here? I still don't know what song that is when I see it on the set list because I call it like song 3.4 or whatever the hell it is that it listed as. We're good at a lot of stuff, but the stuff we're bad at. We're really bad.

We're really bad at. Well, so again, I dig this jam and it does have parts of it that remind me of like, that have spiritual, like spiritually inherited vibes of different 90s acts I like. Oasis. Is the one people always ready for this? Cause I hear silver chair. Oh yeah. I'll take that. Yeah. That's it. I hear something.

Excuse me more. I like it. I don't know your name. I think I got it. I hear what you're saying. Yeah. Well, this, the solo right here was kind of like 90s Weezer inspired to just cop the melody. Yeah. And also a little Pearl Jam in there. Like I have to go back to where I hear the Pearl Jam. But there's a little like from Yield. I'd say Yield era Pearl Jam, 1998 or whatever.

This bridge part with the snare drum is my ode to Guns N' Roses' Matt Sorum. Nice. So you know what I heard there was Jeremy Taggart doing Navid for Early Seeds. You were too kind. I wish. No, it was Matt Sorum. Okay, well, all meant respectfully because it's good shit.

Thanks, man. Thank you. Now, no pressure at all, but I did see one of you brought a guitar. Oh, I just brought the guitar because it's cold out so it's... Oh! I didn't know if you wanted to play something or not. No. You don't want to play anything. No, I didn't prepare anything.

Do you know any John Denver? I do know John Denver. Would you play that John Denver song and play it so he can hear it before he dies? He's not going to hear you dies. What we should do is take the sign from the good people of Ridley funeral home and put it behind Zach and we can get some content for them. Only if Ridley home funeral home pays me two hundred dollars. We don't want to, you know, dox this person.

But do this woman have a first name that we could use? No, I actually give her a nickname. I don't know her first name. OK, let's call her Mary nickname. I don't know her first name. Okay. Let's call her Marianne. Because her daughter called me. Oh, it's a surprise, but you know what?

That's like, she won't be there. She won't be there. This is a fun game. It's the worst surprise. Don't you wish you could, serious question. Don't you wish you could just attend your own funeral? Yeah. Like people are going to say such nice things about you.

Maybe. And they might even play your song with a professional musician. Definitely say nice things, but you're not going to be there. Alex, Alex is the nicest person. I want to haunt it. That's what I want to do. I don't even think that's an option. Like, I mean, you know, believe what you will, but

was it Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn? Was it they fake their death and attend their own funeral? Yeah, I think that was Gilligan's Island. I don't want to, I don't want to attend my own funeral. I just want to weekend at Bernie's, my own funeral? Yeah. I think that was Gilligan's Island. Gilligan's Island. I don't wanna attend my own funeral, I just wanna weekend at Bernie's my own funeral or somebody controls my body and makes it seem like I'm still alive. It's just like every day for you, isn't it?

It's every day. Now, before we press record, you advised me that something in this, the initial PR email that I did not, so Cam Gordon, are you listening? I did not completely ignore this PR email. Cam Gordon has now become a dear friend, but he worked for a big PR company and sent me things all the time and I completely ignored them. And I made sure, you know, I didn't reply and say, no, thank

you. I just completely ignored, did not completely ignore this email. But there's something in there that has changed. Can I just ask? I'm just curious. I can bring this up right that you were going to open for Edwin But that's not happening. No, am I gonna get a like a cease and des like a X-nay here. I'm I Just was curious If you would say anything on that or if you would prefer Plead the fair tap out tap out tap out. Okay, so what's next? Nothing against Edwin. It had nothing to do with him. Yeah. Yeah.

I always thought when Edwin was at his peak there, I always thought he kind of reminded me of Eric Lindros. He does have a Lindros thing to him. He's very nice. I've met him before. Yeah, he's a pretty good guy. And when they tour now, right? Two lead singers, if I remember.

Ryhemi? Yeah, because they have the diva. Is Ryan singers, if I remember. Brian Me? Yeah. Because they have the EFA. Brian there too? I think they both do it. They have done it. I don't know if they consistently do it, but they definitely have done it.

They have done it. Because I know that's a band where they change up the lead singer and they got another big radio hit because Summertime in the Void was all over the radio. It's a great song too. Yeah. These are great. One more, one astronaut is it?

Or one more astronaut? Yeah, and Levitate. So good. Yeah, I mean great. Same as one more, one astronaut is it, or one more astronaut? Yeah, and Levitate. So good. Yeah, I mean he's awesome. Yeah, Brian, Brian was- And so gently we go. Yeah. That's, that's, yeah, I'm a big I am E guy.

Brian was in a short lived band that Hot Lips played a bunch of shows, what were they called? Bonds of Mara. Bonds of Mara. Brian, Brian's also, he was a sweetheart too. He's a great guy. He's super nice.

It was the bass player from Default, the drummer from Finger 11, and the guitar player from My Darkest Days. No, it wasn't the drummer from Finger 11. Oh, sorry, it was originally supposed to be. Oh, yeah, yeah. A super group, but you guys are kind of a super group. Yeah, I'd like to think so.

So tell me what's next for you guys on our way out here. Like, what is next? Is there gonna be some live dates or are you gonna? There are. We are gonna be sort of across southern Ontario over the spring and then we're- And winter. And winter and we're waiting

for some festival confirmations and we are actually going to be in Toronto, May 29th at the Baby G which we're really looking forward to. That's cool. We haven't played Toronto. My buddy Simon Head is there quite a bit. It's a great room.

It's one of the better sort of smaller clubs. It sounds really good which is important to me at least. We've been very fortunate that Our last couple of Toronto shows have been like at the access club opening up for bigger names coming through So but this will be our first kind of like You know Toronto Toronto show or just like we're on the bill You know it's a feels like just a local show well if we'll be announcing more and more shows Just as it goes on like it like I said earlier, we're we definitely pride ourselves on being a live band So we're trying to we're trying to play as much as possible and then we're going back in this recording

Next Wednesday Keith's laying down drums for some new songs and I'm actually recording with Devin from altered by mom You know what that I love those two, Gina and Devin. They've been over a couple of times. And that's another band where I just like how they sound. Yeah, they're great. I haven't worked with them yet, but I'm really looking forward to it. I've we've crossed paths a couple of times. He came and saw us at the Rivoli about a year ago.

And we have some mutual friends. And he sent me a message being like, when am I going gonna record you guys? And then next Wednesday. Cause I just mentioned in passing, I mentioned Simon Head and Simon Head works with Lowest of the Low. And I know Devin was producing something

for Ron Hawkins from Lowest of the Low. Like they were working together. I think last time I was talking to Devin. But Alter, yeah, Altered by Mom is another band where I think they got great shit. And I don't know, like, again, we had the same chat about, like, how you get on the radio. It was a whole like, like, how do you get yourself? How do you make awareness or whatever? But I think you guys are smart to be focusing on the live shows and kicking ass live because that's where the money is, right? I think you can't sell CDs anymore. Like really, you're not going to get the CDs anymore like really you're not gonna get the streams like you're not you know no

and sell shirts though yeah yeah they digitize those turn into a EFT yeah well you're back to who is it rain made it was doing that from our lady P yeah he had some NFTs going early on. Yeah, EFT. Yeah. Electric Fund Trans. Straight edge. He doesn't know about this. You know, to be honest, I don't I've never invested in crypto because I don't understand it. Like I don't I can't invest in something I don't understand.

You're smart. I'm smart. But then I hear people are talking about, oh, I put 40 bucks in and now I'm like a millionaire. I've also heard people put a lot more than 40 bucks in and lost it all. So don't know they're a negative millionaire. I don't understand it. So don't listen to me, but I feel like it depends. It could feel like maybe Bitcoin did okay. And the rest all disappeared. I don't know. I don't pretend to know this world, but just, uh, just do, uh, I'm not buying your NFT is what I'm telling you. Please buy my NFT.

I don't understand it. It's the only way I can fund this record. Please buy my floating monkey head for art. Do you have other jobs? Like, do you have other gigs? I mean, other than you're doing cover. Yeah, I'm a cover musician for a living. But like, I don't know. I talk to guys in bands I love and I go see them and go,

yeah, I got a six o'clock start because I'm delivering packages for this company like and that's their job and it's like Oh, yeah, this is Canada. Yeah, like our rock stars have other jobs like the CFL players or something. Yeah kind of yeah Yeah, I play with other people when they'll have me and but my my Link nine to five is I don't work too far from here I work for a company called Real Food for Real Kids in one of their warehouses, warehousing, it's a large scale catering company

that does nutritious lunches for kids in preschools and daycares. They're in Etobicoke? One of the locations is Etobicoke, yeah. Cool, cool, cool. And you're a male model, is that right, Alex? Yeah, yeah, he is. I'm a model actor, not the other way around.

He's an Adidas model, he's a model for Adidas. I noticed that, you got rocked the logo. And do you regret the drive from Aurora for this? That's a long way you came out. No, not at all. I'm having a wonderful time. If you regretted it, would you tell me? Yeah, I'm drinking this Monty Mild Great Lakes Brewery Beer.

Is it good? It's lovely it has a nice nice hint of coffee, which I love I think if you check the The date on the bar. I think on the bottom there might be like a canned date like they they coat it I think you might find that thing was canned like super recently because it was it was canned like two weeks Yeah, the guy from Great Lakes brought it over today as fresh off the line. Yeah Excellent. So this is the kind of service you get when you come on. You got some connections over there. Well, I produced their podcast. We had to come over with some beer. Yeah, it's called Between Two Fermenters. That is excellent. They sponsored a show I put on 2017-2018. They were really, really lovely.

My friend I mentioned helped me. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, buddy, that's right. Well, you know, remember, this is, you can go talk to the owner of Great Lakes Brewery. Like this isn't some conglomerate. Like there's just a guy who owns it and it's fiercely independent, as we say on this show. Next time I see him, I will tell him how much I enjoy.

And it's Canadian beer, which we want to support now. My hop. Absolutely, because you went. My only Canadian beer. We're at war. Yeah. Not anymore. Well, for a month, they a little room. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. Cease fire. We know. We don't forget. What pissed me off. Okay. Last political note here, whatever. But, uh, so, so in retaliation for the, uh, proposed tariff that was going to take effect tomorrow and has been like paused a month or whatever, Doug Ford canceled the contract with, is it called

Starlink? And then they announced they were working something out. You know, master negotiator Justin Trudeau got that really clever Donald Trump to to heel down or whatever. Anyways, I have more words on that. Right. But then Doug Ford uncancelled it. Oh, he uncancelled it. Because that was going gonna be somehow retaliation for the tariffs which had been postponed. So now he's not gonna cancel the Starlink contract. But in my humble opinion,

we should cancel the Starlink anyway. Like it should be unrelated to the tariffs as like for security purposes, not to give Elon Musk this. Yeah, go to, there's a Canadian competitor to Starlink. We should do that anyway. Oh. Oh, what's the game? I didn't know that was yeah, but the can you remember the name of that damn maple link? And that's as political as we're getting today with high teens. They're not the high teens

It's just high teens and make sure you yell it because it's an old cat high teens High teens teenagers walking upstairs. Oh that means the means the 10 year old just got back from soccer. That's what that means. 10 year old was that welcome back from soccer. Welcome back. That means, yeah. Did any of you park in the driveway? That's because I have to know if I'm swapping cars later.

No, we didn't. Oh, your sweethearts. Yeah, your sweethearts. I open with the rest in peace, John Donahby. And that news hit me pretty good good but I just want to let the listenership know that we'll be talking more about John Donobie on FOTMcast which actually is until early April because we do it every quarter but hi teens I enjoyed this very much thanks for dropping by thank you for having us yeah thank you for having and thank you for my

hop-hop from Great Lakes Brewery and my Monte Mild You're all lucky. And this premium lager, which I have yet to taste, but we will meet soon. My friend. So you don't drink. I have nothing more for you, but I do have some more beer if you get to take back. I gotta make it worthwhile to come from Aurora. Oh, it's worth it. I'll just shove it in the space and we'll get drunk and come up with new music. It's not that far. We won't, but we won't name them.

Just let me name your fucking song. I'm on blue sky at Toronto Mike.com blue sky and up a storm. I guess that's what you say. Where's the best place to go? And what's the best place to go? And what's the best place to go? And what's the best place to go? And what's the best place to go? And what's the best place to go? And what's the best place to go? And what's the best place to go?

And what's the best place to go? And what's the best place to go? And what's the best place to go? And what's the best place to go? to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. I'm on bluesky at torontomike.com. Blue Skying up a storm. I guess that's what you say. Where's the best place to go if you want to know where you can catch high teens live? Instagram, we keep pretty up to date. Um, um, and uh, Tik Tok. Do we, I've never installed Tik Tok, but what's your handle on Instagram? Uh, high teens band. I'm going to take, cause we're going to take a photo now before you drive off at the tree.

I would love that. And I'm going to tag you. Yeah, High Teens Band is the best. No, it's Darko's site, so it's just going to be a black screen. Excellent. Yes, High Teens Band on Instagram is the best place. We keep that the most up to date. Instagram has replaced Facebook as the meeting ground for bands now. You know what?

Just as long as you bounty your tech overlord Mark Zuckerberg, he's happy. Bring back MySpace. Heck yeah, bring it back. Much love to all who made this possible. That is Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Building Toronto Skyline, and Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow when Jeremy Hotz visits the TMDS Basement Studio. That should be interesting. Jeremy Hotz on Toronto Miked. See you then. I'm going to be a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a

little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a So So Music