Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - MELLEEFRESH: Toronto Mike'd #863

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

Mike chats with MELLEEFRESH a.k.a. Melleny Melody about being Cheer Bear on Care Bears, singing in Rock & Rule, transitioning to becoming active in the dance music scene, starting Play Records, discovering Deadmau5, and losing her beloved Princessmobile to a family of raccoons.

Don't worry, you're safe with me. Welcome to episode 863 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. 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. StickerU.com. Create custom stickers, labels, tattoos, and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville.

Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. And Mike Majeski, or as I call him, Mimico Mike. He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com. And joining me this week is Melly Fresh.

Nice. All right. Melly Fresh. Do you want me to call you Melly Fresh? Is that the preferred? Yeah, that's my name. But I i mean just melly is fine melly okay because i'll do melly fresh i'll be honest with you i think that's a cool handle like i'm happy to call you melly fresh okay all right so real talk okay this is this program is built on real

talk you have no idea who i am and where the hell you are right now. Exactly. I'm confused. Okay. So let's break this down. Okay. Cause, and, and let me just dig up an email. Hold on. I'm going to my Gmail. I'm searching for a gentleman's name. Stand by. This is very, very exciting. I'm very happy to do this. Okay. Mellifresh. So here it is. Okay. So i have the subject line of this email it says melly fresh is all confirmed for you that's the subject line this is by the way dated may 10th okay so we've gone way back here and it says a positive thing about you it says she's a bundle of joy and excitement which which i'm a big fan of joy and excitement it says, Tuesday, June 8th, time, 10 a.m. Eastern, on Zoom, audio and video.

And it says outlet Toronto Mike podcast. And then it says city Toronto contact. It's me and there's a phone number here, whatever. And then there's the link. Did you ever, so from your perspective, this was not all confirmed for you. You know, it's kind of a mystery. Sorry to say.

And you're SiriusXM, yeah? I know. See, I love this. I love, I absolutely love the fact you really do not know what's going on

or where you are. I am not SiriusXM. It's just, I mean, I did have a meeting with, I think it was Sean Pru on Sirius XM. And I did miss that meeting. The first time I had like really a hard time setting up the Zoom and everything. I don't know. Zoom has a mind of its own and does its own thing sometimes.

And it totally did its own thing on this particular day so we rescheduled okay now i don't remember missing a meeting with you have i did i miss a meeting it was today at 10 yeah so the i was told that i had missed a previous meeting with you no and that this was the reschedule uh you didn't miss any i i will be. No, you have not missed anything with me. Like we had a 10 o'clock and then it was, you know, you were 15 minutes late. But it makes sense because you have you had no idea this was happening. I'm so sorry. It's all good.

I'm sort of I'm jazzed about this. I got a few tunes. We're going to walk down memory lane. But you you you still and I love it. Like you you're like, who's this guy i could be anybody right now who's hogging your time for an hour and and shooting the breeze with you and you have no clue who is this toronto mic that's okay it's a pandemic right we're in covid right now covid time so whatever happens happens and we just go with it right uh that's that's absolutely right

i love going with it. And maybe at some point I'll reveal my secret identity. But no, it's not SiriusXM, that's for sure. I'm excited. But Melly Fresh, where do I begin? You're a Toronto girl, right? Yeah, yeah. And in terms of neighbourhoods,

you got a preferred neighbourhood where you've lived? Well, I've lived or. Well, I've grown up around St. Claire and Bathurst to St. Claire and Avenue road to, to that's been my neighborhood, you know?

And, and then I grew up and I moved to Bathurst and Dundas. And, and then I moved back to St. Claire. Bathurst I was like it's kind of like a fish spawning you know salmon I've kind of gone back to my my home base it's funny. No very now at what point and we're gonna you know we're gonna talk a lot about uh like just the cool scene you've been a part of like uh the edm and the house music and it's just very cool vibes but uh let's start though with your cartoon work right is this sort of this is your foray into the uh the world of media is that right you were doing a voice work for cartoons

i was doing cartoons yeah i was a care bear okay wait wait which care. Which Care Bear were you? I was Cheer Bear. Little pink one with the rainbow on her tummy. I said things like, what did I say? Gee, I'm glad I got dressed up for the parade. That was Cheer Bear. And then I was Baby Tugs, which was a little boy bear. And he said stuff

like, it's not a thingamajig. It's a thingamadooey. So it's like I was like bisexual bear, especially when I had the people. Sure, but you know, this is Pride Month. It's Pride Month. And I actually did a Hello. I did a special

Pride episode yesterday in my backyard with Brian Bradley from the Toronto Star. And it was really awesome. And I urge people to check it out. I will say Cheer Bear. That's a major Care Bear. I grew up watching Care Bears and Cheer Bear was a big deal. Cheer Bear. I know. Cheer Bear. And then when I had my I used to have a pink car, which was covered in jewels of Baghdad and bowling trophies, and stuff like that. And the police tried to take me off the road at one point, because they said I would impale pedestrians with my bowling trophies. And, and the write up in the paper, I was front page news on the sun, which was crazy. And it was a slow news week, I think. And everybody in the world wanted to find out what it was that had happened with my car.

But one of the newspapers wrote, Cheer Bear gets busted. And that was like, oh, my God, how how did they know? And why did they have to mention that this is the princess mobile right the princess mobile i've seen it i i i'm a lifelong torontonian and i remember this this was like it was like baby dolls like yeah it was more than trophies yeah and beetlejuice characters on the dash and actually the raccoons uhons came in and broke into my car a couple of years ago and ruined it. Just tore it to pieces and, and they,

they made a mess and they had babies in there and there was dead embryos. And it was like, gross. So the car had to go. Okay. It's gone. So it's not in a museum or anything we don't have a no i wish i wish i'm actually i um i ended up getting a uh a porsche instead

a purple porsche with a turquoise interior and i'm i'm considering doing something to that but i keep getting uh shouted at by porsche porsche, no, no, you can't do that. So I've got a disco. Um, and I thought maybe I would turn that into an army mobile, like change up the colors and put some little army guys on there. Sure. Yeah, sure. Why not? No, why not? I love, I love it. And, uh, I will say like, so in this, this week we've toppled the, uh, Egerton Ryerson statue because of course I love it. And I will say, so this week we've toppled the Egerton Ryerson statue. I saw that. So why not put up the Princess Mobile or a replica? I feel like that's something worth honoring.

Aw, thank you. I'll make some calls, is what I'm telling you. Because you don't know who I am, but I'm very, very powerful. I mean, if we could find another rabbit convertible, I would do it again. Wow. If anyone out there has a rabbit convertible for Melly Fresh, let us know. Okay, but not just... It needs to be melanized.

Not just Care Bears. I don't want... Just before we move on from all this cartoon work, I loved Inspector Gadget. Like, what would you do on Inspector Gadget? I was supposed to be Penny, but it came down at the audition. It came down to me and, oh, Don Frank's daughter. Not Rainbow.

Yeah, I was going to say Rainbow. Huh? No, her name isn't Rainbow. I'm just trying to think. I can? No, her name isn't Rainbow. I'm just trying to think. I can't remember what her name is. Sorry. But she was, I think, seven or eight. And I think I was 25. Cree Summer.

And they Cree Summer. Yeah. And Cree got the part because she was a kid. Even though I sounded like a kid I wasn't a kid and that was about the time when when things started getting very precious about kids being kids and you know Asian people portraying Asian people even in voice work um black people being black people and no matter how good you were at doing voices your roles were starting to get reduced because i mean my whole thing was kids voices more than

anything except i was erga queen of the dulocs in the ewoks and droids and she was uh a big queen Duloc. She had a very large voice. She said stuff like, if you don't get me a babysitter, then you don't get any dinner. I still remember the Ewoks theme song because it was like, we're the E-E-E-E-E-E-Woks and we're...

Oh, and one more thing I gotta say I was checking out your IMDB But I loved this You were in Rock and Rule I remember watching Rock and Rule in the early 80s Wow, yes I was this little character Dementia

She was outside um in new york after the big uh the big huge uh event that mocked it and she's like uh she's like and it smelled just like cleaning fluid and all i wanted to do was like wax the floor so somebody could tell me is this concept for real or is it just another rip-off and then she fake faints. And she had a much bigger part, but it got reduced, which was a shame. But I also, I sang a song in there. That was one of the first times

I actually recorded some music. And I did a song with Patricia Cullen, who composed the entire musical score. And our song was called Hot Dogs and Sushi. Okay, so is this like a, this is your segue into becoming a musician? Like, is this sort of the moment where you kind of? I think sort of, yeah, more than anything.

I mean, it was one of the first opportunities I got. I wrote the song and I got to sing it. And and at the same time, I had also. I've been dabbling in music here and there. I did a song with Jodi Calero called I Got the Rubik's Cube Blues. cube blues and they actually um made me a rubik's cube outfit and wanted me to go sing in shopping malls kind of like britney spears but um but then everybody started everyone started fighting island records was really interested in doing something with the track and um people started fighting as to who had written the track and who really owned the

track and i never got paid for singing the track but you know i was i happened to be there because the original um thing was that and we recorded it at kensington sound um was that some man had bought recording time for his son to sing. And when his son sang, he was a little bit tone deaf. Right. So I happened to be there and they were like, you know, Mel, you go in and sing it, you sing it. So I sang it and then all hell broke loose. But it was a shame.

You know, I mean, that just goes to show you that it's so important to have contracts and agreements and know who has done what and who owns what before you start doing anything. Because you never know when something might happen. And then all of a sudden everybody is like deciding that they own part of it you know it's weird this is around the time i suppose when you become melanie melody um i yeah probably yeah because melie fresh didn't come into play till about 2000 or so both good handles by the by the way. I like them both. Thank you. All right. So just take us back.

So just like I said yesterday, we had a special Pride episode and we learned the history of basically the drag queen performance scene in the city of Toronto. But I'm curious, Melanie Melody or Melly Fresh, as I now call you, what was the dance music scene like in the 90s? Can you just

take us back and give us a little taste of what it was like? In the 90s, it was just, I mean, for me, I had lived in New York at one point. And I actually went to the opening of studio 54 um which was really uh insane and i used to hang out there and so that whole disco music and disco scene was really ingrained in my in my brains and uh it was something that i like to do um go dancing late at night like you got ready and you went out around midnight. And so that was what was really happening for me when I came back to Toronto. It wasn't I wasn't doing music like I wasn't doing music right away. So it wasn't doing music right away so it wasn't until yeah and when I started doing I had a Bubblicious Lounge which was a um a event I would do on special occasions like Christmas and

New Year's and Valentine's Day and and it was um a performance where I was the Las Vegas showgirl hostess. And I would have about, oh, 20 different performers and an eight-piece band. And people would come out and sing standards. And it was always hilarious and fun. And we would like, I mean, that was at a time when you could smoke in clubs, you know? So, I mean, you'd go into this smoky club and the atmosphere was, was great, but the smoke was disgusting for your voice. And, and we would give an amazing show.

It would all be decorated with fairy lights and, and costume changes and just like nonstop insanity. It was, it was pretty great. Remind us where the Bubblicious lounge was. That was at the Rivoli. Wow. On Queen street.

And that's where I did it most every time. One time I couldn't get into the Riv. I ended up doing it at the horseshoe. That was the monster truck and trailer trash show. Kind of a country Western rock and roll scene. So that was like, everything was themed and it was such a good idea. And I actually,

I wanted to turn it into like a TV show, but I was told that variety shows really didn't work. And I mean, this is before YouTube, like such a drag. If YouTube had existed when I first started doing what I was doing, that would have been amazing. I would have been 10 jumps ahead for sure. And that was cocktail music, like loungy cocktail music so and and i wanted to take and i was also doing recordings too at the same time my music and i wanted to take it to that

next level and i wanted to get remixes done and turn it into to more dance music, electronic dance music. So that's kind of the progression. Okay, so I'm going to ask you about play records, obviously. Okay, yes. Obviously, but my first, I have to ask you a question. I ask this of anybody who, you know, anyone like yourself who comes on the program, because it's been a recurring question. In your humble opinion, Milly Fresh, is James B famous? Oh my God, James B. That's funny. I think maybe semi sort of as far as like he's really,

he's done great for himself. Like I first met James when he was part of the look people. And he actually had seen me being interviewed on fashion TV and called a friend of his a publicist friend. Yes, yes. And he had said, you know, who is this girl, Melanie Melody? I have to meet her. You know, she seems like she's insane. So he got my number. He called me, and he came over for tea. And we had tea in my kitchen and became, you know, new best friends right away. I mean, I've known James forever. So I ended up designing a bunch of outfits for him, jackets and crazy, you know, snake in the grass jacket and one with money on it, a money jacket to bring him money.

And some some a mouse jacket. I think I made him a mouse jacket with little mice on it once. No, but just like a ton of jackets and we did a hat and chicken show I think at the phoenix where um I was modeling hats that had chickens on them and um little chickens and eggs and things um and and he was singing about hats and chickens um but he he has taken like his whole thing when look people broke up i said to him come on james we should form it we should get together and do something together like let's make a record label and so we did and we made a label called nepotism and our motto was family friends are fuck off excuse me you can swear on this program i know you still don't know where you are but i know you're digging it and you can fucking swear like a sailor okay and um yeah and

and this label we produced a record for him um a lounge a lounge record and um and then we produced a record for me which was melanie melody and the Syncopated Symphonies of John Henry Ninehouse. And my music, I was very it was very sort of Betty Boop, Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Temple and acid kind of vibe. And and cutesy because of the whole cartoon thing and everything. It's like I really played into that. And John Henry was like an amazing, like virtuoso as far as like playing keyboards. And we started recording this album. We did it on an 8-track machine and went from 8-track to 16, found a studio that did 16.

studio that did 16 and then I spoke to my uh my friends um Tim Thorny and uh he was at Sounds Interchange and he had said come come here come here late at night so I got like the midnight to 4 a.m slot um to record finish recording my album and it was like on two inch tape, which was amazing because it was such a great sound. I mean, two inch tape doesn't exist anymore, I don't think. And and we recorded, we finished our album, John and I, and and we put it out. It got played maybe once or twice, I think, on CBC. It was it was quirky,, I guess, novelty kind of music, but it was really good. Everything I've ever done, I'm really proud of. And James was there too at the same time, because we put out my record and then we put out his record. And yeah, I mean, but your question was, is James B famous? Well, it's very difficult to answer this question because I am of the opinion that James B is a famous person.

This is my opinion. But I've had others who tell me that it's so niche that he's not famous. And then I start wondering, okay, like if I randomly took a hundred people on the subway like maybe at Young and Blue or Subway Station I grabbed a hundred people and I said do you know James B I might find out maybe eight of them know James B like and so is that famous like what is fame it's just it's basically like a philosophical question more than anything but I will say just so you know because i know you're a friend of james b a couple of my friends are currently actively making a documentary about james b so shout out to joel goldberg oh joel i know joel i've been giving him some information

okay well then we're on the same page here by By the way, here are the early VJs and music people of the, I guess, early 80s. Joel is in this picture because he was Jay Gold on CFMT. They had a music show. But he's, you know, Retro Ontario. Have you heard of Retro Ontario? Yes, I have. I have. So his real name is Ed Conroy.

He's also heavily involved in the James B. Project. So shout out to James B. Wow. heavily involved in the James B. project. So shout out to James B. And we should, you know, obviously we need to do a Melly Fresh documentary as well. I think so. I think it's long overdue. So I've got more calls to make after this recording. Okay, tell me about Play Records because you're not just, you know, you're the president. Like this is the label. Tell me, bury me in Play Records because you're not just, you know, you're the president. Like this is the label.

Tell me, bury me in Play Records information here. Okay. So after Nepotism and James went off, he got a deal with BMG and started getting some funding for that, which was great for him. But I wasn't sort of part of that, except I did get to sing on a few tracks. I sang Courage, the Tragically Hip song, and I also sang Superman, which was Crash Test Dummies. But I only sang Superman because the Tragically Hip song,

BMG wanted to make a video out of it, and the Tragically Hip, their manager said no. Jake Gold, I know him well. Yeah, I actually ran into him in London in a hotel. Which London? England, England, London, England. So I was surprised. But yeah, but I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that James ran into Adam McGowan in an elevator and pitched him the track.

And he was all set to, he was really curious about it. But he went to the Tragically Hip and wanted Sarah Pauly to sing the song. And she sang it exactly the same way I sang it. Oh, that's too bad. Somebody actually mentioned it in a magazine article. So is there a recording? Is it on YouTube or anywhere? Is there a

recording of you performing Courage? Yeah, I have it. I'll send it to you. Get it to me because the Sarah Pauly cover of Courage from The Sweet Hereafter uh in my circle anyways it's commonly referenced and shared and stuff and i would love to blow some minds and

yeah no it was such a it was such a great track and it was such a shame that um that i got right i didn't get to follow through with that because that would have been a really fun thing to do. But this whole Jay Gold denying you, I'm very interested in that. Because, yeah, okay, so Jay Gold. For whatever reason. It's funny because I mentioned Joel Goldberg who used to be known as Jay Gold.

Not to be confused with Jay Gold, of course, who's now managing the hip again. And then there's the famous accountant to rock star to the star. Accountant to the star is Jake Gold. Do you know him? Now it's getting, no, I don't know any accountants. I don't have enough money to know these people.

Yeah, he's an accountant. Hey, I'm going to start a song quietly in the background because it's got a long buildup while we talk about this. And then when it starts to really happen, I might turn this up on you here, but we are rolling freestyle here, as you know. So let us just, let me start this jam in the background here. Okay, so you might not even be able to hear it via Zoom,

but it's quietly percolating in the background, but it's Hey Baby. Oh, Hey Baby. Just quietly, but so tell me more about... What's cracking who you're macking what you're doing who you're screwing watch out carol pope we got a we got a new one here okay tell me about more about play play records though so okay well play records um after after i did the um nepotism, the next thing that happened was play records. And it was play records, gay records.

And the play records end was more underground house. And we were doing vinyl. And I had a partner uh peter jarvis not peter jarvis who does uh marcel marceau kind of you know what's it called mime not that peter jarvis another peter jarvis who uh was from england and actually ran off to live in the trees in Costa Rica and took our studio with him, which was really annoying. Maybe he knows where Chris Shepard is because I'm trying

to find Chris Shepard and somebody told me he's in Costa Rica. So if you have any hints of where Chris Shepard is. I'll ask him the next time. I know. Honestly, this is going to be a fruitful relationship. We've just started. I know. I like you. No, honestly, this is going to be a fruitful relationship we've just started. I know.

I like you. No, and I actually had a chat with Simone Denny the other day, who was a singer for Chris Shepard. Right. BTK? BTS. Which one is it? I think that was it. Yeah. No, Chris, I've been trying to hunt him down, but he's been very elusive these last few years.

So, yeah. So we formed Play Records and we did parties and events and a whole bunch of stuff around Toronto and found other Toronto, young Toronto producers and DJs and put out a few compilations, Floor Jammer and Floor Play. There was a few of them. And I also, at that time, had formed Melanie Melody and the Pop Machine. And that was me and Peter and Dave Howard. And we recorded a whole album and got that out. And it was pretty eclectic, again, kitschy, kind of hard to place kind of music. I mean, if only YouTube had been around,

it would have been so much easier. It was was um it was really hard to get uh any interest especially i mean major labels weren't interested and uh it was more kind of um you know like dimitri of paris kind of music it was very quirky and um eclectic i would would say. It was kind of eclectro-trashy. But it was really, really great. Okay, let's listen to a bit of this and then we'll come right back to it here. Okay. Hey, baby. What's crackin'? Who you mackin'? What you doin'?

Who you screwin'? What you drinkin'? What you thinkin'? Hey, baby. Say my name. Play your game. Wanna do me? Wanna screw me?

I'm your pet. Make me wet. Hey, baby. Don't you stare. I don't care. Want some fun? Make me come. Keep it goin'

cause it's snowin'. Hey, baby. Tie me up, pin me down Flip me over, upside down Make me make that fucking sound Oh, yeah Really? Really? Oh, yeah Oh, my pussy's so wet

oh what you do to me baby oh god baby yeah i'm yours. Wow. Wow. Okay, who do you collaborate with on this jam, Hey Baby? On this song, it was Deadmau5. Wow. And yeah, that was one of the first tracks that we did together. That was in 2005,-6 around then yeah so deadmau5 like uh he's essentially cutting his teeth working with uh you on uh at play records right is that right that's right good

for you so i would you do take credit for discovering him or was it you first signed him? Right. You're the first one to sign Deadmau5. Yeah, I think so. I definitely I mean, I was the first person that worked with him. And we actually I went to meet him flogging his music. I also went to ADE and Ibiza and all these other sort of marketplaces. I had a guy in London in England who was helping me and actually got a few of our tracks played on BBC, which was great. And a lot of people started picking up on him, on Deadmau5. And he, actually Chris Slate came and stayed at my house for about a week or two.

And worked with Deadmau5. And I think at the same time was convincing him that he should go with his management team. And then everything went haywire. Does he, but does, does he pay, like would he give you the props you deserve in terms of like what happened to his career and where, how, you know, how does he, does he? I would say he, he likes to pretend that it never happened and that we, yeah, no, people are weird. It's, and that we that's a shame yeah no people are weird it's i find the people that are that are really solid are the ones that always keep in touch with you you know i mean like

i've worked with uh alphonse lanza who is known as alexander the third or ally x and. And he had a group called Azari and Third. And they had quite a few really hot hits. Hungry for the Power was one of them. And Al and I, we had done a whole album together called Secrets. And we put that out at one point on vinyl, some bits of it. Beautiful, Rich and Horny was one of the hit singles that Al and I did. And one of the first songs that Deadmau5 remixed for me. And from doing that, Deadmau5 had said to me, do you have anything else I can do?

And I said, well, sure. Or why don't we do some new stuff? And at that point, he was living at his mom's house in Niagara Falls. And I went out and got him. I think it was like one in the morning or something. I drove out there with my son, Zach, and we, and we grabbed him and brought him downtown. We kidnapped him. And it was the start of a really amazing friendship and, and musical relationship. Because he, I mean, he was up late, I'm always up late. And he would like

call me and send say to me, you you know what do you think of this track and I'd go oh it's really cool or I didn't like it or whatever but if I really liked it I'd say why don't you send it to me and I'll come up with some lyrics and we kind of have this back and forth thing going on I mean it's great when you find somebody to work with and it all falls into place it's like it's magical i mean i've had that i've had that with with dead mouse i had that with alphonse and we're still out on is on a whole other level we're still really good buds and he's in mexico now and And he actually just did a remix for me on a new track of mine called Let's Do It Together. And it's a super fresh mix with Princess Superstar. And I have a mix from Al, which is really cool.

But it's like, I don't know, there's like this business is great. You know, it's really it's so much fun. It can be. It's really, it's so much fun. It can be. And I think if you find that people aren't picking up on your stuff, then you just have to try and get it out yourself somehow. But Mellifresh, where the business, so there's the music side,

and then there's the business side. And then at some point they intersect. That's a pretty cutthroat point right in the uh in that intersection it's pretty competitive right very much so yes so what i'm curious of your perspective because you're the president and founder of play records and you're also uh you're a woman i'm curious about your perspective as a woman in the thick of all this uh cut throat cut throat sorry in the thick of all this throat cutting as terrible a thought as that is. I know it's just, you know, it's tricky. It's, um, I find, I mean, over the years it's, there were not,

there weren't a lot of women in, in the music business and especially in electronic music. And I found that, um, a lot of women in in the music business and especially in electronic music and I found that a lot of times the guys would think you know she's just some stupid girl she doesn't know anything but over the years I've learned a lot and I have good lawyers which is something you really need and um and i've tried to cover my ass almost everything i've ever done but um it's yeah it's good to be aware of everything and to understand uh contracts and i mean i thought i should maybe go back to school and study law at one point well it's like when stringer Bell goes to business school so he can learn how to better deal drugs in the towers.

There's an obscure wire reference for you, Mellie Fresh. I apologize. It's sort of that same concept. It's like you're on the streets, but you got to learn the business 101 basics and get yourself back to community college. It's true. Okay, so back to put the bow on the, the dead mouse here. Uh,

my buddy Freddie P calls him dead mouth five. I just want you to know that a lot of people do, and that's not the right pronunciation at all. No, I would never make such a mistake. Although my buddy Cam once called Joe to see, he once called him Joe to Kai, which I thought was amusing. Okay. So 2008,

Melly Fresh, that's you, by the way, you were nominated for, you got a Juno Award nomination for that collaboration, for After Hours. Yes. And did you go to the Junos that year?

I went to the Junos and actually, Billy Newtonis was also nominated at the same time and it was uh both of us for our tracks with dead mouse and the funny thing is we i had actually put in because i had to put in the tracks to the junos so i had put in mine and i had put in billy's and i'd also put in a few random ones of Joel's and one of them was faxing Berlin which didn't even get a nod which is really funny because they always say oh it's Joel's classic song um but I think uh I think hey baby is probably more of a classic song of his but after hours got nominated which i thought was weird because the first line

is i see you sitting at the bar i wonder who the fuck you are like you know a song that's got swearing in it right off the top is probably not gonna win but i was so excited and pumped and billy got nominated too and he's had how many junos i was gonna say he's so good like i just want to shout out billy newton davis if he's listening here now that uh i And he's had how many Junos? I was going to say, he's so good. Like I just want to shout out Billy Newton Davis if he's listening here now that I think he's so good. There's a, I got to get him on Toronto Mike. Yeah, you should. He's amazing. Oh, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would do that. And he's got some amazing stories, but,

but I was the first one to get him to come and do dance music, which was really cool. And, uh, and he's had some really good success with that, which is great. I mean, he's now back to doing, he's doing some jazz stuff, but he actually did a performance for me the other day when we, um, I'm doing a show. I did a show at the El Macombo and, um, that I shot the other day for play records, 25th anniversary.

Okay. Did you, did you have years in the business? That's amazing. Did you work with Andy Curran on that Elmo project? I'm trying to find it. Do you know Andy Curran? Does that name resonate at all?

Maybe he wasn't involved in that because I know he's a, doesn't really ring a bell. I have my producer on. This was Brad Nelson from Cylinder Sound. Okay. But he just got it all set up. I mean, there was like three cameras.

It's like a small soundstage now. Yeah, he put a... Michael Weckerle only sunk, I think, $25 million into that studio or something like that. Oh, is that it? It's chump change for Weckerle. But yeah, that's good. It's going to be, you know,

his timing was shit because COVID hit just as he was kind of launching. I know, I know. But it has like three cameras going and sound. And then there's a control room and there's a guy up there shouting cameras, you know, it's, it's crazy. Every time I do something like this, I think of a million things I should have done, but that's okay. Live and learn, right?

Live and learn. And congrats on the 25 year marker. That's, that's incredible. But I got to ask you, since we're talking about play records here, why does DJ Peace Har talking about play records here uh yeah why does dj uh peace harvest leave uh play records oh because he wanted to go to costa rica and live in the jungle okay sorry i mean it's pretty simple you know it was like a no-brainer right um he just that's what he wanted to do so So that's what he did. And he also, and at the time he decided he took our studio with him, which was kind of a bummer, but that's okay. And I was left with the label, which was fine because he was thinking he could operate from Costa Rica, but it was just not possible. Not in the real world, you know? Well, here's a nice quote in the jungle here's a nice quote about you from clash magazine i just want to bang home your your importance on this but this quote i'm sure you have this uh tattooed on your body somewhere

but i should one of the pivotal figures in north american dance music so that's some good edification right like that must must feel good to be recognized for the contributions you've made to EDM in this country. Yeah, that is a nice quote. I'll keep that one. Are you considering a tattoo of that nature?

That way it may be backwards so when you look in the mirror you can read it? Right. No, I have no tattoos. Okay, I don't either but I thought I was it? Right. No, I have no tattoos. Okay. I don't either, but I thought I was the last one. Like I'm in... No. Okay, there's two of us.

You know, I just don't really like the idea of tattoos. My mom always used to tell me that the only people that have tattoos are sailors and prisoners. And I thought, oh God, that's true. I've been to a few edge fests. I think that, I don't think that's the case anymore. But I, so I want to ask you because I know these great singles you would do vocals on like Sex Slave

and I'm going to play the Redux in a minute. But can you tell me about this Redux series? Like, cause I have Sex Slave Redux which I'm going to play actually. But it sounds like you're taking these classic club bangers Redux series. Like, cause I have sex slave Redux, which I'm going to play actually. But, uh, it sounds like you're taking these classic club bangers and you're kind of making them like contemporary, uh,

tech house music. I'm just trying to keep up with the times. Right. And unfortunately, um, the last time I had an altercation with dead mouse where he tried to sue me for $50 million. Really?

Yeah, that was a big one. It was on the front page of Variety. Was it Variety or what's the other magazine? Hollywood Reporter. Right. Front page of the Hollywood Reporter. And I'm coming home from London and I get a call from the Hollywood Reporter. Do you have anything to say

about this and I'm like say about what and he's like the same thing as with you I knew nothing and um they said Deadmau5 is suing you for 50 million dollars and I said well that's news to me and I said uh I have nothing to say you know I speak to my lawyers. That was random. And so in the end, one of the end things that we came to an agreement on was that I would not do any remixes or mashups anymore on any of the tracks that I have, because I have quite a large dead mouse catalog. Right. And so there's no, there's no law about doing covers. Right. Right. There's nothing that says I can't do a cover and a cover constitutes remaking a track and and rerecording the vocals.

And so this is something that I've done and I got permission from the label to put it out. Amazing, because I own the label. Yeah, that's that's that's that's why, you know, always own your shit. Like, you know, even my little outfit here, you know, you're talking, I know you still don't know who you're talking to or what's going on here, but you've been amazing. So, you know, you rolled with it. You're a pro and that's awesome.

But TMDS, Toronto Mic Digital Services, like I own my shit. Like it is whatever it is. I own that shit. Like that's, you know, you own your shit. So good on you. So Sex Slave slave you got to basically remake sex slave and it's sex slave redux yeah okay let me play a bit of this here hold on okay Thank you. Keep, keep moving.

My heart rate matches the beat. That's by design, right? This is by design. Okay. I hope that's okay. Yeah. You remember you used to go to the basement of HMV and they'd always, every jam would be there and they're like, they'd put the beats per minute there

and then shout out to the basement of HMV back in the day. Okay. Here, let me turn this up here. Let me hear some of you here. I'm telling you, just thinking about that's Cheer Bear there. Yeah, I know. That's what people have said. Some people, if you look online on YouTube, and once or twice somebody said,

you know, this person is also Cheer Bear. And the kids are like, no, Cheer Bear, are you serious? Like shock and alarm, right? I have a new video for this track. Yeah, tell me everything. So this is, now we're in current day here, right? This sounds very contemporary and sex slave redux. So tell me, you got to tell me where we can find like your new stuff, these reduxes, and where can we find these videos?

Tell me everything of that nature. Well, all my tracks are everywhere, like online, everywhere. stuff these reduxes and where can we find these videos tell me everything of that nature well all my tracks are everywhere like online everywhere um i have worldwide distribution so you can find find me on spotify on itunes on track source on beatport on deez Tidal, you know, any digital download service, you can find me. And YouTube. I've got a YouTube page, too. And lately, I've been doing a lot of new videos. I mean, especially during COVID, because I've had a lot of time.

And I work with a really good friend of mine, Keri Vibrant. She's directing. And we have a new video for Sex Slave, which is really awesome. It looks good. Like you should look it up. Sex Slave Redux. It's hot.

Okay, do that. Sex Slave Redux. Melly Fresh. And Melly is like M-E-L-L-E-EE F-R-E-S-H. So one quick thing here. What's the Doin' Dishes cartoon? Oh, wow. That was back with Melanie Melody and the Pop Machine. And that was when Pete Jarvis was around and Dave Howard

and we did, what happened was Dave, we were connected. Dave was connected to a animation company that was right next door to his studio called Chromicide. And Jeff, one of the guys there, Jeff Martin, I think it was, decided to do a video for us for doing dishes. And it was this, these little characters, these three little characters. And we, and then, and we have a video of doing dishes. There's also outtakes of the video of doing dishes, which is us in the studio, just chatting and the boys are smoking dope. And yeah, that's the song. Here we go. Just a little bit. This song should have gotten a lot more notice. Like I actually went to Japan

on an Australia on a music mission mission and i took this video with me thinking oh the japanese are gonna love it and they did and they didn't i don't know they didn't really kind of jump up and down and get back to me you never know here's a little bit here. All right, Melly Fresh. So you've kind of been there for, you know, you've taken the electro pop and then it became kind of like trip hop and now it's a little bit of a harder edge,

the electro house dubstep and you got some techno in there. It's like, what's next? What's next for you? you like assuming this pandemic goes away at some point soon like what are your post-pandemic plans um i would really i mean i'd love to get back to england because i have a i have a studio there, recording studio, Play Deep Studios in Kings Cross. And my partner in crime and son, Spider Brown, he runs the place and keeps it going with three rooms, a live floor. It's an amazing, amazing space. We've got the Spice Girls there.

We've had Chance the Rapper. space we've had the spice girls there we've had uh chance the rapper um it's been like a ton of different amazing artists plus whenever i'm in town i record there um but yeah i would like to get back to england i'd like to travel again and um and also lately i've been doing i've been working with um this DJ, DJ Gender Fluid. I don't know if you've ever heard of them. But we have, look at this. I have vinyl. Vinyl.

There you go. Very good. Yeah. I don't know if it looks backlit. And the label is Play Tracks. Yeah. I don't know if it looks backwards. And the label is Play Tracks. Yes. But we wanted to make it look really like it was old style, old school styles. And I have three songs here.

I want you to be my lover tonight, love and kisses. And it's Hard House. So it's super fast. It's like anywhere between, God, what is it? I think it's about 138 or something BPM. Like it's like anywhere between god what is it one i think it's about 138 or something bpm like it's pretty quick that sounds dangerous to me it is dangerous it's very late night raving okay so you basically as soon as these uh i guess i mean but you you can you can fly to england now right like you can legally i think it's i think it's, you can fly to England now, right? Like, you can legally...

Can you? I think it's that you can't come into the country unless you're a Canadian citizen. Right. Well, the thing is, I've got two passports, right? I'm Canadian and British. Yeah, well, you can definitely, like, if you really wanted to right now, I think you can go to England,

but maybe it's more prudent for you. And I just got another shot, too So I'm okay. Good for you. I'm halfway there as a Bon Jovi once said, but, uh, Melly fresh, honestly, uh, I know you still don't know where the heck you are or who the hell I am, but you were great and I enjoyed this. So. Oh, thanks for putting up with me. And the, uh, the guy who, who uh told me it was locked and loaded at

this time this person is going to click this um give that guy heck for me because uh i don't think it was locked and loaded well i don't know some something got missed somewhere along the line because i mean i tried to find an email even that reminded me about this. I mean, what's the date we're we're in June, right? This is June. This is June 8th.

And I never had another appointment with you at all. Well, I'm going to give him heck as well. So if we can both give him heck, maybe they'll, they'll delete that CNN article about him. I don't know if you saw that, but CNN.com did a big retrospective on him. But no, he's a good guy.

We like him. But I'll give him a heck anyway. Are you hearing that? Yeah. What is that? What is it? I don't know. Somebody on my keyboard?

Well, it's okay because I'll play us out now. Are we done? Well, hold on. I have to say the magic words. Is it my keyboard? Well, it's okay, because I'll play us out now. Are we done? Well, hold on. I have to say the magic words. Is it called speaker? And that! Oh, oh. What do you got going on there, Melody Fresh?

What is that? Sorry. What was that? Mexican jumping beans? What's going on there? It's my other computer. It was trying to rebel. And that brings us to the end of our 863rd show. You can follow

me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Melly Fresh is at Melly Fresh. That's M-E-L-L-E-E F-R-E-S-H. Right on. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, Melly Fresh, I wish I was giving you some fresh craft beer now? Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, Melly Fresh, I wish I was giving you some fresh craft beer now.

That comes from Great Lakes Brewery. So next time I meet you in my backyard or somewhere, I'll get you some fresh beer from Great Lakes Beer. My favorite. Not. No, listen.

You haven't tried it, clearly. I'm a girl. Princess. I only drink champagne. Well, when I give you a little bit of this sunny side pale ale, we'll convert you. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.

Sticker U, they're at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. And Mimical Mike, he's at Majeski Group Homes on Instagram. See you all tomorrow. And my special guest is Doo Doodoo the Clown. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable

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