Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Odd Marshall: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1885

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

In this 1885th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Odd Marshall about his career in music and how flipping his truck in a snowstorm convinced him life is too short to not do what he loves. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hi, this is Aud Marshall who's making my Toronto mic debut here talking about my second album which just came out called seconds. I was trying to anticipate if you were done. I'm like, well, he paused. Yeah. Because once I start that theme, you know.

Well done. Because you threw me. You said I'm on Toronto mic. You did that early. And I thought you'd close with that. So I'm like, I got to roll with this guy. Herbal. Welcome to episode 1,885 of Toronto Mike, 1885, an award-winning podcast.

1885, that's 100 years before the drive of 85. It's an award-winning podcast, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at greatlakesbeer.com for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees. From Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palmaPasta.com for more. Fusion Corps own Nikainis. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to.

Recycle MyElectronics.cating to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. and Redley Funeral Home, Pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today, making his Toronto mic to debut, it is indeed Odd Marshall. Odd, I asked you earlier, I just called you Odd, I asked you earlier, what do I call you? You said, call me Marshall.

But do people call you odd? Sometimes. No, not really. It's just, people call me lots of things. It doesn't really matter to me, but I just wonder what it's like when somebody says, calls you odd. Like,

do you want to tell us maybe off the top, the origin story? How did you become odd Marshall? Yeah, well, I've been living up in this cabin. Got this cabin on a hill with, you know,

85 acres on the Saugian River. It was my parents bought it in the 80s. My dad was going to probably retire up there, but he died about, he died the area. He's supposed to retire. Oh, yeah. That sucks.

And so. Sorry. Um, he, uh, with the pandemic, we all needed somewhere to go and I, uh, I went there. And I just noticed a change in my behavior whenever I would go into town. I think maybe a lot of us had a lot of, too much isolation or whatever. And I, I just, uh, realized, wow, I'm turning into that weird hermit in the end, on the edge of town or whatever, in the middle in the forest. And, were you writing any manifestos? Yeah, I got lots of those.

Okay. Well, who you mailing? I need to. Let me read those manifestos, man. They're not too angry or anything. Sure, there's problems with the world, and we can get into those later. But, yeah, sure. No, it's been great for productivity, but it definitely, yeah, you notice your human skills,

your people's skills. Your social skills. Yeah, totally. I even know, well, I was actually kind of lucky that I kept doing this, but they became remote. But even I started to feel like, oh, I don't know how to have an in-person conversation anymore. Yeah, right. I kept talking to my kids. They were, like, pretty young.

young, like, I don't know, six and eight or whatever they were at the time. But, you know, you got sharp in those skills. Cut to a sponsor break in the middle of you talking to your kids. I offered my six-year-old some Great Lakes beer. That's great. By the way, if you are thirsty for, this is the Sunnyside Session IPA from Great Lake. So this is the summer drink. Right on.

Of choice on Toronto Mike and beyond in this province. But if you crack it on the mic, just have a sip for me and tell me what you think, man. And then we're going to get into this whole living in a cabin. Oh, that might be the best crack I've heard on this podcast. Again, I was almost going to call you odd, but there's nothing odd about that. Let me know what you think. Sunnyside Session IP, that's fresh, man. Well, I know Great Lakes, so.

Okay, how do you know Great Lakes? Oh, they're everywhere. Are they a drink of choice for you, Mr. Marshall? Sure, sure. Okay, so I'm a little geographically ignorant, and you described, you named the river, and you kind of said you're living in this cabin. Can you just dumb it down for me? Like, whereabouts is this?

From Toronto, Orangeville is halfway. Yeah. So, you know, 90 minutes to Orangeville and then keep going another 90 minutes towards Bruce Peninsula, Tobamori, that sort of thing. Okay, lovely. Now, you live alone in this cabin? I do, yeah. Okay. And like, you go, do you make, like, bicycle rides to the local library or the nearest library?

Yeah. How do you live up there? I was doing that. That was actually a big part of my life kind of for a while. Now, you know, it's, I. I'm bouncing around breweries, it seems, most of the summers in that. But for the winter, you know, it's a, the cabin itself is about a kilometer off the main road. So in the middle of the winter, it's a 45-minute snowshoe.

I park at the neighbors and snowshoe back to the place. So it's, in the winter, it's secluded. Once you're there and settled, it's fine. But if you don't feel like hike in 45 minutes with snowshoes and all that gear and all those layers. then, you know, if you've got to be somewhere on time, that's the problem. Well, I can imagine, is there still snow up there? No, no, no. It's all long gone.

Okay, here I am. It's rain washing out the laneway. Okay. And I guess I'm gathering this story because I do know at some point, you almost die, man. Like, you're in a car accident that almost kills you. Well. But I don't want to, like, jump ahead. Like, you're telling the story.

So is it during the pandemic, you moved to this cabin. Your dad was going to move there and sadly he passed away the year he was going to retire. Okay, so you're living up there. And are you writing music up there? I mean, you're a singer-songwriter. Are you working on your craft? No, actually, not at all. I was, you know, hadn't played my guitar in about 15 years kind of thing.

And I got in this car accident. I think you dramatized it a bit more. I don't know how. Well, it said in my notes here, it said near fatal. Well, I don't know. Isn't that the definition of almost. die? Sure. Who wrote this, Jason Schneider?

I don't know who, how many, you know, the game of telephone. I don't know how, I did, I went off the road and the car flipped, the truck flipped, and it was kind of a wintery road. And my GPS took me around a small town instead of through it. And the back end just slid out and I rolled into the ditch. And I mean, 10 feet further or 10 feet earlier, I would have hit a telephone pole. So that's near. But anyway, rolled, you know, just.

Print the legend, Mr. Marshall. Okay, from now on, you were clinging to life. You know, your heartbeat, they were resuscitating you with paddles on the side of the road. But you got in this car accident that flipped your, your, whatever you, whatever you're driving at the time. That was a trailblazer. It was, yeah. It would, crawled out the passenger window, you know, rolling, you know, it's all slow motion. Everything's, you know, your coins and everything are floating through the air.

And, uh, wow. You just, you know, you have no control or whatever. Like once you're kind of tilting, you just, you know, all is lost kind of thing. Are you a religious man? No, not at all. I wouldn't say. I was growing up. I went to a church thing, but the watered down Jesus thing.

But no. And so, yeah, I don't think it was spiritual. I think what brought me back to music, though, in this whole incident was I was listening to a song came on the radio soon after. And you remember what song? I don't. And I wish I could give proper credit because it was an important moment. Because I remember just kind of not playing along, but like air guitar. But I remember just kind of thinking, oh, yeah, I used to do that.

And then I could almost feel a guitar in my hands. And then the next day, I started playing again. And I started crying. Well, listen, we're going to explore this. Okay. So you flip your truck. Yeah, listen, this is therapy. I'm going to send you an invoice at the end of this.

Okay. Therapy is not free. Okay. Oh, hip doesn't cover this. I want to make sure you know that off the top here. Okay. So you go, and I almost want to go back. So, like, you obviously said, I used to do this.

So then you took 15 years off. But what do you mean you used to do this? Were you in bands as a youngster, like 15 years before this car flips? Well, it's... Or you just loved me. Did you play? Yeah, well, kind of, you know, in high school, I kind of played guitar with the gang.

And then I went to film school here in Toronto and didn't even bring my guitar with me. So didn't even touch the guitar and kind of gave up on that high school. school dream and then I moved to England. Oh. I moved my grandmother's from Liverpool, so I, um, I had the... Nobody famous came from Liverpool. Okay, here's a story.

My grandmother's grandmother from Liverpool. Okay. Her last name is Lennon. I'm related to a guy named John Lennon, who recently retired. He owns a toy store in Blackpool, Liverpool. He just can't play guitar worth a... Anyway, who knows how many... So, so, so you're related to a...

Different John Lennon. Exactly. Okay. I'm related to A. Yeah. You're related to A. John Lennon, not a former beetle, John Lennon. But I wonder, though. They can't. I mean, I guess Lennon's a lot more popular name than we believe.

I don't know, but you may be a descendant of John Lennon, which you should add to your bio. You know what? Tell Jason. I think the descendants are pretty well cataloged already. Let's see now. Odd Marshall gave up his guitar, living in a cat. cabin up in the middle of nowhere, flips this truck, clinging to life. Here's a song.

So how soon after the car accident do you hear the song? You don't know what song it was. But do you hear the song that reminded you, oh, I used to do this. How long after the car accident? Well, it was that night, you know, it was, we were in the service station where everything kind of gets towed and the police are talking to you and all that. And I was just sitting there waiting and kind of still full of adrenaline. and I want to say it was Elton John.

I love his Tumblewee Connection album, but I don't think that would have been on the radio for something. So I can't think. Do you remember what station? Not that I know the station. Well, it would have been a, you know, classic rock regional thing, right? So, yeah. What is the regional classic rock station up there?

Well, where I am, it's Rock the Bruce, I think. Shout out Rock the Bruce. They've played a few of my songs, so I appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely. But that was near down near Wingham. Okay. Anyway, that was, yeah, a lot of things had to go wrong that day. I was heading to Waterloo, but I was leaving from a different destination and went down different roads.

And the GPS took me down this wrong road and Gilmore Road. I think it were Gilmore Lane or something like that. Should out that Doug Gilmore. Yeah. Okay, so you get on. I was thinking of David Gilmore. Okay. Doug Gilmore, too, I guess.

Or Gilmore. from Triumph. Okay, there we go, yeah. We could have fun of this all day. All right, so you're living in the cabin. Are you working? Yeah, well, I, uh, I, uh, I, ever since the pandemic, I've kind of just been helping people in the neighborhood

with their Airbnbs and things like that. Oh, yeah. So it's very, um, um, um, uh, I can do most of it on my phone and I can be kind of flexible and it's allowed for me to get back into music, which is kind of the main thing is you do need time to just to sit there and wait for your guitar. to speak to you. And that is kind of,

this new life up there is kind of allowed for that. You know, I'm not living fancy by any means, but. Well, it actually sounds amazing. So do you have any kids? I have no kids. See, it sounds amazing that you can have this life in this cabin up in the, up north, and now you can focus,

you've rediscovered your love of creating music. Yeah. So obviously you're here because seconds. which is obviously, which is the follow-up to your debut. So can we go back, though, and talk about the debut for a moment? And then we'll spend some time with seconds. Okay. So you craft sand and glue in 2024, so only a couple of years ago.

But I was reading up on you, I'd Marshall. I'm going to play a song from Sand and Glue. And we got to talk about the production and creation of this album, Sand and Glue. But it's very, like, cryptic. Okay, I'm going to read it as it was written. Again, it might be Jason Schneider. He's a great writer. Okay, and I know you're, you know, working with Jason, who's a good FOTM.

You're now an FOTM, Odd Marshall. I'm a friend of Toronto, Mike. How's that beer, by the way? I love it. Okay, I'm going to send you home with more craft beer. All right. GLB, thanks, GLB. Thank you to GLB.

And I want to let you know that GLB pairs very well with Palma pasta. I have a lasagna for you to bring with you as well. It's upstairs in my freezer, but you're going home with a palm pasta lasagna and that fresh craft beer. Okay. Victory. Here's what's written in your bio. You ready? Okay.

Odd Marshall was turned down by a prominent Canadian producer. This is for the 2024 debut sanding glue. So in a moment, we'll talk about who ended up producing it. That's not all true already. I don't want to interrupt. Should I interrupt? No, you're the truth teller, man. No, honestly, because I actually, okay, I'm working on this one-man show.

I'm going to do it with the Elma combo. Oh, well. And I'm going to do it on May 21st. And tickets are available now. and everybody listening, including you, Jason, everybody listening should go to tronomike.com and click Elmo gig at the top and buy a couple of tickets. What's the date for that?

It's May 21. I believe it's a Thursday night, but it's definitely May 21. I got Rob Pruss on stage with me. He's like my Paul Schaefer, but I'm crafting, and part of it, as I'm crafting it, it's this whole idea,

print the legend, okay? I don't know if you ever saw the man who shot Liberty Valance. Did you ever see that film? Oh, sure. Okay, so, you know, that's kind of where this comes from, print the legend, which is,

this is the West, we print the legend around here. I'm sick of printing the legend. The legend that's printed here is that you were turned down by a prominent Canadian producer. Is that true or not, Odd Marshall?

It's partially true. It's the sand and glue. This was after sand and glue. There is a story for sand and glue. How about I, I'll tell you that story, and then we'll walk into that one. Okay.

Okay, so it starts about 15 years prior. Before, actually, I think I was on my way England and I met a Canadian musician on the flight just sitting beside him named B.D. Harrington. Folks, check out B.D. Harrington. If you can, he's also a painter in that. He's from Toronto, but he lives in London. We were just chatting and he had said that he had just recorded his album with producer Don Kerr out on Toronto Island. You know, they used to have gas station sessions, him and Dale Morningstar. I was chatting with a guy about Dale Morningstar yesterday and possibly

recording at this very Toronto Island studio this summer. Well, I highly recommend it. I went in January, so it was very different. But sorry, this was 15 years prior. And kind of, when moving to England, I started writing the songs, got back into music after the film school stuff, started writing songs for the first time. And then did some EPs that never went anywhere. MySpace didn't really work out. And then 10 years go by after not writing, have this car accident, and I reach out, Don Cur is in the back of my head for the last decade and a half because of B.D. Herring.

album. Right. And I say, Hey, Don, here's my, you know, I wrote an essay

in this email saying, if you don't mind, I'm just getting back into it and here's some demos. And he said, yeah,

and Don is like legendary in the Canadian indie scene. Like real statics and there's a whole bunch. Yeah, he's done Kirk credits here. He,

Ron Sexsmith. He plays with Bahamas and Dan Mangon and his own band communism. And, and so I reached out to Don and just with these demos.

And he said, yeah, man, if you can hang on until January. So January 2024, we spent about two or three weeks there and recorded that. Released it in December 24. Can I play something from that before we advance beyond sand and glue? And I got to say, you know, you got a guy named Odd Marshall coming over. And then you're like, I'm not sure who Odd Marshall is, but I'm going to listen to his stuff. I straight up legit love your stuff. Like, I want the listenership to hear it now.

And by the way, I'll tell the listenership, you brought your guitar. so maybe later we get something from seconds. Just doing what I was told. I wasn't sure if I... Well, I love it because I was like, oh, you don't need the guitar, but I'm not going to say no if a talented musician is going to play live

in the TMDS basement. I'm not going to turn that down. Gino Vanelli did it. Okay. So, I mean, if Gino can do it, Odd Marshall can do it, right? Okay, so here is... Something I pulled,

because I quite like it. From the first Odd Marshall album, Sand and Blue Produced by Don Kerr, who I gotta get on Toronto Mike. Mr. Marshall, as you listen to midsummer in your headphones right now, what are you thinking?

Well, it's very different than a lot of the other songs that I've written. Shout out to the players on that. That's Michael O'Brien on guitar, Don Kerr on drums, Don Kerr produced, mix, Jason Haberman on bass, Carl and Nicholson

and backup vocals and keys from guys from Zeus Mike O'Brien and who goes by Mechobrain lots of plugs here check out everybody I like it man name check everybody

and anybody yeah yeah so anyway I'm just actually the lyric in that song Stockholm take the ferry to Vispy I spent a winter New Year's kind of that Christmas break

I was living in London and decided to take a winter break in Stockholm sorry not Stockholm in Sweden in a small town called Carlstad with about four hours of sunlight and I kept seeing these advertisements for the summer mid-summer festival here in January and this so the song is just a complete fabrication of

sunny sunshine midsummer festival written in the middle of January and just now before I came in here I was actually I've booked except into like a songwriting workshop in in outside of Stockholm this summer so I'm going to go there a few days early and take this ferry to vispy and see what the fuss is all about for this midsummer festival. And you're drinking a Sunnyside session, IPA? Yeah, Great Lakes, Brewery, Sunnyside. Yeah, they should use this song for a commercial, don't you think? Honestly.

Well, I know the people to talk to. Are you kidding me? Shout out to Great Lakes. This is the only song I ever wrote with La La La in the lyrics. Well, I just say, it's, it's, okay, so we are going to hear, obviously, we'll hear music from the new album. So you were on your way to, you were blown by sand and glue. first album.

So sand and glue, you know, it was, um, actually I'll tell a little bit of a story. Right before this, I had made a short film. And,

you know, I went to film school, so I'm kind of in two spheres. You've been pursuing that career, written a lot, screenplays and stuff like that. And the struggle is always to get these projects made.

And I, there's something about the film. It's like, what your idea is on the page is, how do I do this on a podcast? But, uh,

let's say 100% is script, perfectly in your head and you get to shoot about what can you afford about 80% what can you what do you have time for about 60% what do you end up with is about 40% and then what you edit it turns down to this you know it was such a diminishing returns every step of the way it felt like and then a little while later I shot made this album and it was the exact opposite I come in with my basic song structure and then you add the drums the bass and it just these talented musicians just bring it to life in ways that exceed your expectations. So it was almost the exact opposite experience.

And that's kind of directed my last three years in my life is, um, these are, you know, the, the music just seems to be, um, um,

um, I don't know. The, the, because you've been living in a cabin by yourself. You forgot how to speak. I understand. Yeah,

yeah. So, yeah, I've stumbling over my words, but, but, uh, but,

uh, okay, so the next, but you have to have just to, to, to, jump on what you said there. You still need, you can talk about the beer,

but you still need the songs. Like the songs are the songs. You're writing the songs. Sure. And then talented musicians come on board and the production and everything. Yeah. You end up with that.

Yeah. And that song I wrote before the 10-year hiatus kind of thing. I wrote that weekend in that week or whatever in Sweden. And recorded it on an EP previously in London that I didn't really know what I was doing because my first time in a studio. There was some horns on that. So someday there'll be. rarities,

versions, you know, alternate versions album, but but, so when that was done, you know, I, I reached into this, you know, these, all these songs I'd written in this kind of past life and, um, reached out to a Canadian producer and it, I wasn't rejected by, okay, so this is where the, you get turned down by a prominent Canadian producer.

So you don't name this producer? Can you give me a clue? Well, no, it wasn't, it wasn't quite turned down. It was just sort of like, Yeah, great. Let's, you know, I'm talking with the manager and trying to get it going, and it just, it didn't work out. People got busy, and I was kind of anxious to do something that winter. And so I had these songs, which were a little more aggressive rock songs. Right.

Which, you know, I've got a, you know, folders on my computer, essentially, which are just, well, what project does that song belong in? Like, this La La La La La La song kind of worked on that album. And with these other songs, I had these kind of four aggressive songs that I would, um, put into this album. Seconds. Yes, the new one, which was just going to be a short project, an EP,

and that, when that project kind of fell through, I just kind of asked myself, who else did I like when I was 14? And the obvious answer was Blind Melon. So, you know, a lot of people in 93, 94, they've got two incredible albums that... Tones of Home, yeah, all this good stuff from Blind Melon.

Absolutely. They've got these, the albums are so, great each of them and they're so very different which I really admire that that's really um so I you know got on kind of look okay well who produced these albums maybe I should talk to that person and one of the producers had died and one of the other producers had only um um hadn't it was mainly a mixer hadn't really done a lot of producing so I kind of thought I looked at a lot of the videos and Christopher Thorne is the one guy he's playing the mandolin he's playing the piano he's playing all these things and I'm like okay well that guy

must have a pretty important say in what's going on. So I just Googled him, you know, found him on Facebook, Instagram, and hit him up with like five messages after a cup of coffee. Trying not to sound like too much of a... But, you know, he opened the studio in Joshua Tree. And, I mean, since Blind Melon, he's been in the Afghan wigs and he's worked with Danny Clinch a lot, who's a photographer, but also a musician.

And Blind Mellon is still active as well, too. So, but I couldn't believe it. He, I sent him some demos for this new project. And, uh, within an hour, we were on the phone and, and I was, you know, couldn't believe it. I was like, I think I said to him, so who's responsible for my two favorite albums? And, uh, we kind of worked it out and we, um, uh, I think he mentioned it. So yeah, well, maybe we should get Rogers out. Rogers Stevens is the other guitarist and the two of them are just this incredible tandem.

The, the, Shannon Hoon, of course, is the voice we all. know and but to me the as a aspiring guitarist in my high school um their rifts and all the little phrases between the the long in the songs were um the kind of the most memorable parts to me so um you know and that happened you know and i uh we turned the EP I kind of reached in and I found a few new songs and um uh you know kind of came out that kind of fit that fit that bill and um um yeah so we had i came down with eight songs and i got denied at the border and uh that's a whole other story that's gonna be oh because you told the truth well i yeah he they sent me back that never happened before they turn you away at the border and they like he sent me here's a here's

a checklist of things you got to bring back tomorrow or next time and it was like um you know they were worried uh you know i guess us Canadian actors and musicians have a bad reputation crossing the border. But here, I, because I just talked to Ron Hawkins from lowest little low about this late last week, because he's not playing Buffalo where the, the lower very popular in Buffalo, thanks to CFNY, 102.1. And they're not crossing the border. And part of it is because they don't like the current regime and they don't want to

support the current regime. But another part of it is, he says, it's very unfair for Canadian musicians who want to play the states. Like the American musicians can go up across the border and just play at the horseshoe tavern or whatever, whatever, willy-nilly. But for a Canadian musician to play in the United States, there's like visa, things you have paperwork

that you typically need help with, and there's expensive, it costs you money. Like it's a whole rigmar role, okay? But you weren't going to play in the States. You were literally crossing the border to be produced and mixed by blind melon guitarists, Rogers Stevens and Christopher Thorne and they still sent you home.

Yeah, yeah. Just to clarify, Christopher Thorne was the producer. Rogers and Christopher were the guitarists. Yeah, crossing the border was... I can kind of make sense of it. You know, there's a lot of... But you're not taking a job from an American.

No, that's true. And I had to specify all that. You're being too kind. This is bullshit. In my own... Or stupidity. I've crossed the border so many times. We get kind of used to that kind of growing up.

going to see a hockey game in Buffalo or whatever. And I just went kind of without enough documentation. I hadn't yet booked my Airbnb or anything like that. Oh, they didn't believe you. Yeah. I just foolishly, you know, didn't have enough information. And that was just my own stupidity. So, you know, the next day I went and booked an overview.

I said things like, oh, you know, I might go to L.A. kind of thing. And funny, the guy at the border thought I was staying. and I was flying into Palm Springs, California, but he thought I was flying into Palm Springs, Florida, and was going to drive to California. I might go to California, and I had to clarify that. But anyway,

they, they weren't convinced you were coming home. Yeah, that's a big part of it. They, um, they, you know,

they, am I going to resort to crime? I looked like, you know, like this, unshaven and, uh, um,

uh, so anyway, I went home and shaved my face and, you know, uh, got myself dressed up for the next, to try not to look like, uh,

Jeez. But the, so the, you know, but the documentation I had to come through and I asked a lawyer, is like, is what I'm doing actually allowed? And they were totally, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, so two days later, I flew down and we, you know, we were recording the next day. So it was like eight songs in four days and it was a lot. And it was like, I'd never been to the desert before, Joshua Tree. And it was kind of like being on the moon.

So I always, I hold those kind of two weeks are like separate from the rest of my life. Because as soon as you come back from something like that, you know, I was snowshoeing to leave my house, to get to the airport, to get to the flight to the desert. And then you come back and you're back in the snow and you're like, what the hell just happened? Where was I? And it must be a mind blow that you're, you know, in a studio with the guys from Blind Melon, a band you love, you know. I've long been saying soup got a raw deal. Yeah. Oh, absolutely.

it's one of my favorite. I mean, it's absolutely. Yeah, it's, it's soup. I actually prefer soup, but the, you know, in the zeitgeist, it's like, oh, what a letdown because it didn't have rain, no rain on it. Like, it didn't have that monster hit. It was like, drag my feet across the floor and galaxy and all that stuff. But I think soup is a cool album.

Absolutely. Yeah, and, you know, Christopher and Rogers, they're, you know, they had stories for, you know, they were kind of reconnecting as well during the whole time. So there's a lot of me just kind of listening to the story. Who is the lead singer of Blime Ellen today? Travis Warren is the name. Do you want that job? No.

And I should clarify, yes, I was working with these guys, but my album is not like anything like Blimeon. People who... Oh, can I play a song? People are going to... Let me just say that... People are going to say, oh, it's nothing like Blind... It's not as good as Blind Mel. And, you know, so I can't win in this situation.

Yeah, it was fun to kind of... But it's not... I'm not Shannon Hune by any means. These songs are not... He was buddies with Axel Rose, you know. It's right. His sister went to high school with him or something like that. And on the rooftop of the Don't Cry video, Shannon's doing backups.

Okay, that's, yeah, I remember hearing that. Yeah, he was a character. And, you know, I am not the ball of charisma that he is, I think. So, you know, he's the, it sounds like he was quite the character. He was, Christopher said he was the best apologizer. So he could, you know, take you through an adventure one night and then apologize the next morning. The people in Vancouver might know that. I don't know that.

I believe he was, yeah, I do remember that he took a whiz, I think. Some like indecent exposures. I'm remembering now my Shannon Hoon history. Gone too soon, 28, I believe. And gone far too soon. And I liked them too. And I like that band as well. And I think that's rad that you got to kind of, you know,

record with your heroes here. But I feel like to give people a taste of what seconds sounds like, I got to play a song. And then we'll get back to it. Here we go. There's no B-girl in the video, right? Negative. Not yet, not yet.

I can hear the desert in this song. Oh, yeah? Yeah. I hear it. Desert rock, sure, sure. So tell me a bit about out of here. Yeah, right. So I'm listening to these lyrics, and these are, you know, juvenile lyrics.

I wrote this song. It was probably one of the first riffs I wrote in high school while I was listening to Blind Melon. So, you know, and I never did. I wrote the lyrics a few years later, but it's like wanting to leave a small town, you know, all this angsty teenager stuff,

but it's, you know, I'm living in a small town now, so, you know, I love all that stuff, but it was a very angsty teenager thing at the time. And to record that, what,

20 years later, with these guys, it's pretty surreal. And, you know, to, they were, these guys are pretty down to earth. Like,

it's not, they made me feel really at home. And, you know, they, served the songs and all that and but I'll admit as soon as we did start laying down for the you know we played recorded live kind of in the room and as soon as those guitars came in I kind of had to stop and do another take kind of thing because it was cool to uh to it was it's it's it's I'm always I'm not really that um I'm not a studio musician let's say that but you know like

some of these guys that can just jump on a song immediately and and uh and own it is incredible to see regardless of whether or not you grew up with them or whatever. But yeah, it's just a song, angsty. It can be a divorce song. It can be a moving on song or whatever, however you want to sell it. I'm out of here. Yeah. I keep saying that.

It's weird how, you know, I think I lived in different cities for almost six months. Every six months, it seems I'm somewhere else. Where did you live before the cabin? Well, from England. I went to a bit of India. I was directing some TV commercials in Bollywood, India in Mumbai. Mind blow.

Right. That's most of my stories from London and kind of, I worked at this oyster bar in London, England, with, you know, Elton John came in on my day off, and the customers that would come through there for, just kind of,

it really exposed the world to me. And London is, you know, the busy, intersection in the world, five international airports, and just shucking oysters and serving champagne. We had the largest white-collar criminal in U.S. history came through, and the lead singer of the darkness, remember him? I believe in the thing called up.

Oh, he's doing a big, he's a big, uh, uh, influencer now. And he, he came in. They had just, um, I remember he, he was so nervous for some reason, but the, uh, the guy he was with gave him a credit card and the, and Justin gave the credit card to me kind of thing. It was kind of a... But now, that was a very... Yeah, that...

Living in London in general, really kind of exposed the world to me. And, you know, you know, I worked in a call center for two weeks and saved up 1,500 bucks for the ticket and moved to England with kind of no plan. And the first job I got was serving oysters and champagne and so...

Sorry, Bollywood. But this... Bollywood, yeah, Bollywood. But this notorious white-collar criminal, was this Mark Rich? It was, yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm just making sure I'm taking notes here, man. I'm taking notes here.

Yeah, he was famously pardoned. He sentenced like 230 years in prison for tax evasion and was controversially pardoned by Bill Clinton on his last day in office. And him and his daughter came in one day, Daniela. Hello, Daniela, if you're out there. And, yeah, we kind of got along. It was kind of weird going to get along. I didn't know who he was, but he paid with his Black American Express card

that was well-worn. You know, it was the first black American Express card I'd ever seen. Wow. And it was well-worn. I went home and Googled his name, and it was Mark Rich. And top 10 FBI Most Wanted kind of thing. Jeez. Kind of left the states for lived in Switzerland for a number of years.

Sorry, in exile. Right. But yeah, so that also I met, one of the other customers I met was this Bollywood producer. And I said, oh, wow, I just went to film school. And, you know, of course, I got his email and all that. And that was kind of, you know, I got a stack of business cards from just shooting the shit with people at that oyster bar. And one of these, I sent my demo reel to this Bollywood producer. And, you know, it kind of went away.

You thought, okay, that's the end of that. I kind of followed up a couple times and never heard from them. And then all of a sudden I got a call, can you be in Mumbai on Monday? day and I was like yeah and so I kind of quit my job and jumped on a plane to Mumbai and there was like a hundred people on set and barefoot crew and uh you rent a light and it comes with three people and and uh it was uh for apy fizz and grapo fizz two cool drinks to hang out with and it was you know it was i kind of felt like okay this film career that i you came out of film school with and you know uh with all these aspirations and moved to

London thinking I was going to get into commercial directing there because it's kind of a big hub for creative um creative um creative world and music videos and commercials and that but um it never really happened um and then i all of a sudden i get this job and i'm on my way to Mumbai and um you know it was fun it was I kind of tick that box of like you know when all of a sudden when these trips kind of come up suddenly or something like that and all of a sudden you're in Mumbai or all the sudden you're in Joshua Tree or something like that. There's always a little moment you're like, where the hell am I? It's still the same meaning.

Or not even where how, it's more like, how did I get here? Yeah, yeah. I have that moment all the time, like, how did I get here? Yeah, this is not my house. Yeah, this is not my beautiful life. And the days go by. Okay, you skipped the New York chapter of your life, right? Oh, no, that hasn't happened yet.

Oh, yeah, okay, we're walking through it. Okay, keep going here. So I was offered to kind of go stay permanently in Mumbai. and at the same time I'd been accepted into a master's degree in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at Carnegie Mellon University, they have an entertainment technology program. And I was, you know, the struggling filmmaker. And this was kind of just as Oculus was kind of getting started. And I thought, okay, well, let's modernize this film degree.

You know, I'm already a big shot in Mumbai, so I better kind of get ready. I say that I'm kidding. But more people have seen those commercials than we'll ever see anything else or hear any song. Right. A billion people. And actually, it's funny. Whenever I meet someone from India,

I'll get talking to them. I, you know, I speak a little Hindi. And I'll show them the videos I made. And they go, oh, yeah, when I was a kid, that was really famous, that that commercial was always on. So it's kind of funny to have had these commercials. I mean, I got, I, There was a confusion that they were going to pay me,

and I made $1,000 for three months' work, and I thought it was going to be pounds because I was living in England, but it was only, I was like, oh, that's kind of cutting it in half. But it was, I shouldn't even be talking about that because it was such a wonderful experience. Well, you know, with the home of real talk, we need to know that you were not compensated fairly, but a good experience, and you get to,

once you live a life, you can write songs about your lived experiences. Yeah, there is a song. that I wrote about the actress. It's called Rocket, which is on an earlier EP. You know, I may kind of record that again someday, but it'll be on that Rarities album.

I keep talking about it. Lost Dogs or whatever you're going to call it. Shut out the Pearl Jam. Okay, so I'm going to do this, because you brought a guitar. So I'm going to play one more song from seconds, and then I have a couple more questions about seconds. Before I press play, though,

you won't name that first producer. So like before, Blind Melon. No, no. I still hope to work with him someday. So the way he's... But can you give me a clue? Like, uh... No, no, not at all. What about after the recording?

I want to know. And I'm not... We already established, they didn't turn you down. They just, maybe they were too busy at that time. Yeah, it got too busy in that. So I don't, I don't... But the way it's been written, I've seen a couple of times, I don't want to, and dramatize... It does appear like they just said no.

And you said, okay, screw it. Who else did I like? Oh, yeah, Blind Melon. I'll let Blind Melon do it. Yeah. So I don't want the wrong, no, it's already been, I don't want to. Was it a Canadian band? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And a 90s band? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I have a guess. I'll tell you later. But let's play another song here by Odd Marshall from the album, Seconds. This is a radio-friendly version. The radio edit, yeah, yeah. Oh, I should.

I need the uncensored version. Who's on keys that I hear there? That's Rami Jaffe from Food Fighters. Wow. There's a story there, too. We had a keyboard player lined up, and he got kind of. called away on tour kind of the week before and Christopher had this I you know oh this guy I used to

work with apparently when they were teenagers they used to work in a shoe shop in L.A. when they just kind of both moved out there and that guy grew up to to be the keyboardist and food fighters. Wow. Wallflowers and the keyboards. You know we that was kind of, it wasn't in the room. We kind of just sent him the songs and he was in Italy and recorded his and you know, David Grohl. I guess had just been kissing a girl he shouldn't have been. And so the band was on hiatus and he had the free time.

Oh, I heard they did more than kiss. Yeah, yeah. And so he was available. So, you know, that kind of. Suddenly they weren't busy. Yeah. And it all worked out for Odd Marshall. Yeah, but anyway, that song, if you don't mind.

There's a bit of a story there. You know, the first line of the song is, when you kill a man, don't look him in the eye, his soul will haunt you every night. There was this dine and dash where somebody went and had dinner at this restaurant and didn't want to pay. So punched out the owner of the restaurant and ran away. And the owner ended up dying. And I remember seeing the news and the only thing there was was this photo of this,

the security, blurry security photo of this guy running away. And the way the whole town was outraged and these guys that had, come and, you know, committed murder. It was really kind of upsetting, more than upsetting. Anyway, so it was, it's not just that. The song's a bit about that. You better run, Mother, sorry, I'm allowed to... No, you know what?

I didn't realize I pulled the radio edit. I'm actually disappointed in myself because I like a good F-bomb. Please tell me with the real lyrics. You better run, motherfucker, run, motherfucker, run. It's much better. Yeah, yeah. And it's, you know, I hate to say it, but we, There's so much, you know, going on in the world.

It's, you know, I can play three hours in a brewery and no one will listen until I start saying, run, motherfucker, run. And everyone starts singing along. So it's, uh, it's, um, it's weird, uh, you know, that, uh, people are latching on to, to that kind of thing. But it's, uh, but why is that? Is that because the world's on fire and it's like, uh, we all need that vent to vent? Yeah, I think so.

I think everybody's got. a motherfucker in their life and something you can't always do you know you can't always respond or whatever so yeah so it's you know it's written about it was written right but that was one of the

funny you say out of here was the first song we played that was written 20 years ago and this one was written maybe one month before we recorded so it was one of the new ones but and how do you describe is this like roots rock is that what we're hearing here if you had to

I don't know if artists ever like putting their shit into like a bucket or whatever, but it's like a roots rock, see, rock, you think. Like the first album, I think, Sanaglu, that's it. That's folk rock. This one is more rocked, you know, it's got a lot of guitars. Maybe a little more, I'm trying to think, like, CCR maybe. Okay. Like a little, like a.

People have said that. I don't hear it, but yeah. Maybe because when you hear run, we say it, run through the jungle. You hear a bit of a little vocal similarities there. I wish I had that. You know, he got sued for copying himself, John Fogarty. That's a real tragic. Only recently has he kind of got back his ownership, I think.

And that's a real, it's weird how that, it's a little, because those are, that's incredible. Yeah, it's like, I'm sorry, I, I'm sorry I sound like myself. Like, you don't own my sound man, you know, shout out to Neil Young. He got sued for not sounding like Neil Young, didn't he? Oh, yeah, Neil Young, you're right.

So, and you're 100% right, you know, sound more like Neil Young. It's like, well, I am. I'm Neil Young. That's my sound, man. Yeah, fascinating. Okay, so I know you got a guitar with you. And by the way, one last question I'm going to search for here, see if you have a story here.

And then I'm going to thank a couple more partners. And then maybe you play something live, man, since you brought in the guitar. You know, you don't have to play a Gino Vanelli song. You can play an odd Marshall song. But if you break into wild horses, that'll be something else here. But so in winter order, let me do the shoutouts

and then ask you for the story, and then you can, you know what, no, while you gain the guitar, I'll do the shoutouts. So let me ask you, do you, have you ever had a connection and interaction in your life with the mega star known as Ed Shearin? Yeah, okay, well, I'm not sure where you got that one from,

but yeah, in, uh... Listen, I do my homework, man, shout out to Brian Linehan. Cool, it's funny as you said, Ed Shearin, your phone went off. You said, Ed Sherin. I think it's Ed. Ed and earbuds, you want to check,

yeah. Whenever you say his name, you have to, there has to be a little sound effect with it. And an angel gets their wing. every time you say the name Ed Shearan. That's funny you say that. That's usually the punchline of the story.

Oh, Tom Wilson from Junkhouse put his back out. This is not your problem, but Tom, I'm a big Junkhouse fan. Of course, yeah. Tom Wilson, I love this guy. He visits periodically. He's scheduled to visit tomorrow. Uh-oh. And that's the beep you just heard.

I'm looking at it now. Tom Wilson. Yeah, we like to. Back out and laid up. Yeah. Not good, man. How's your back? Oh, I was kind of, I threw it out the first time in England.

But I try to be better. but it yeah anyway well listen Tom Tom's a bit older than you so when his back goes out but I'll let you know Tom's got so the listenership loves the Tom Wilson there's a there's a Tom Wilson

up there but Tom will be delayed but odd Marshall we're still going strong here I actually have two episodes tomorrow and it's okay that Tom delays actually it's okay everybody everybody calm down your Toronto mic your award winning podcast host says calm down, take a deep breath.

We'll get Tom Wilson back when his back heels up. Love having that guy on the show. So I'll thank the partners while you get your guitar. And just remember you're wearing headphones, and I don't want you to get tangled up. And remember, the ceiling is so fucking low. If you stand up, you'll be concussed. Okay, there he is.

He's going to, Aud Marshall's getting his guitar. And I'm going to say, if you have an old guitar, if you have old tech, old, I guess it would be electric guitar. If you have old tech, if you have an old phone, If you have an old laptop, if you have old cables, don't throw it in the garbage. Those chemicals end up in our landfill. Go to Recyclemyelectronics.c-a.cate. Put in your postal coat and find out where you can drop it off to be properly recycled.

This would probably even work if you live in a remote cabin. And like our guest today, Odd Marshall. So he's getting his guitar. One last thank you. Nick Iienes, he'll be back Friday morning for a new episode of Building Toronto Skyline. And of course, Mike and Nick, where we kind of, we go at each other. not at each other. We respect each other, but we talk about what's going on.

We talked about Mark Carney's majority. We talked about floor crossers. We talked about the straight of Hormuz. I'm going to open up this. I'm going to open up this mic, too. In case you want to point that at the guitar, I don't know what makes sense. But let me. So that mic is now open.

Yeah, but you got to move. Yeah, I don't know. We're making this up on the fly here. That looks like it's going to work. Yeah. We're going to get, so you have two mics open for you. Ridley Funeral Home. Shut out Ridley Funeral Home.

They have a great podcast called Life's Undertaking with a new theme song produced by Rob Pruse. And I urge you to subscribe to Life's Undertaking. And Aud Marshall, I'm going to let you know after you've done this song, you will have earned a measuring tape from Ridley Funeral Home. You can bring that home with you along with your Great Lakes beer and your palm of pasta lasagna. To measure the corpses. Yes, we got to know what size casket to order when you are at Ridley Funeral Home. Okay, Odd Marshall.

I feel strange calling you. Odd, Mr. Marshall. You feel good? I think so. I'm going to, you know what, can I take video here? I am taking video, but I might take video through my phone here as well. So, give me a second here. Love it when there's a...

Oh, yeah. Okay, ready? Ready when you are, Odd Marshall? Yeah, well, actually, as you say that, this is a song about the nonsense that we are on our phones. I'm all addicted to our phone and all that, so this is just sort of a random life of living on your phone. called lobotomy, I think

I'm going to this therapy and double rainbow with swift lobotomy I got some feedback for the strangest philosophy duplicate the moon and eliminate gravity is kill a mosquito

don't like the shape I'm in the shirtless weird up things I can win again I need a friend to the very end I need a day if you only believes in me misery

love's company loves company I need answers for just about everything. Why the hell are you defending my enemies? Yes, I need to know your old family remedies. But what's it got to do with who killed the Kennedys? A big of the war, a big of the immunity. Just give me the doo-da.

Without all the yippity, we'll get our best minds to reinvent the Oreo. I'm covered in day glow. You're ready. Away we go. Misery. Love's company. Oh, misery. The stranger with beautiful chemistry

Just wait for my face grows a little symmetry Three years ago when I admired your boots I never expected to still remember you Something borrow, baby, something blue It's something ugly getting over you Well, the sad situation is it's only a fantasy But last night was a riot Allegedly misery

Lose company Oh misery I wasted my life on all of your calamities Lamity's the sultress, Susan saved all the manatees. I got excuses, a hundred or two. Get to know me, baby. I got a few you can use. My lazy fortune tell is full of lies.

She spit him upon as you're at my eyes. My latest horoscope's a little optimistic. If the good luck has to knock, you've already missed it. Misery. Loz company. Oh, misery. Oh, odd Marshall. Dude, that was amazing.

Cool. That's lobotomy. What's it like to have a skill like that? What's it like to perform music like that? Wow. Hey, I would say I am glad you walked away from the car crash. And because you walked away from the crash, I think we can now say that was the best thing that ever happened to you.

Ha ha. Right? Like, if you don't, I always wonder, like, you know, it's like, what's that movie called Sideways? It's like sliding doors, sliding doors, I think. But like if you don't flip that truck, If you don't flip the truck, do you have the epiphany at some point

when that song, whatever song came on the radio, then you're like, hey, I used to do that, I better start doing that again. It's just interesting to look back. Like, do you ever end up in a Joshua Tree studio with members of Blind Melon performing your art? Does that ever happen if you don't flip your truck?

I mean, that's the million dollar question, you know, with the forks in the road and that? I really don't know. for how much I enjoy it now and I used to hate playing live I used to try to write really complex songs and now, I mean that chord right, that song right there had two chords before the bridge

but the you know I don't know what I'm a lot less precious about it and I really enjoy interacting with the audience when I before I used to hate it and it was too you know

too precious about everything but so for how much I love now it's really kind of funny that I stopped doing it for so long. But I mean, I was still expressing myself, you know, I was, I was writing about that time in England and my time in China and my, uh, the, you were writing. You just didn't pick up a guitar for a while. Yeah. And I think having written, I've written a couple of books that are, I can't seem to get published. Uh, I got the great review on one of them, and it got me an agent. And then the agent couldn't find a publisher and, um, uh, sorry, the review is on the manuscript, but, um, right. Actually, that was, you mentioned in New York. I was driving a,

an ice cream truck in New York to the, um, you know, to the five different boroughs, just kind of, uh, deliver an ice cream. And, uh, yeah, the year before I lived in China and I lived, you know, two very different lives. When I was in New York, I was living in an apartment with seven other people. When I was in China, I was living as an expat where you can live quite well. And, um, so two very different years. And then I, one day, driving this ice cream truck, I saw this girl around Brooklyn three times, girl, a young woman. And she, the third time I saw her, she was crying at the bus stop. And I just asked her if she needed a ride. And I gave her a ride over to Manhattan. And right away, it was pretty clear that

she was, you know, homeless and unshowered and a little nervous or whatever. But I, you know, just gave her this ride over. And that was kind of the end of it. And it kind of inspired this story about this guy who you know, is living this weird life in New York and, you know, and flashing back to his time in China and the love interest

and how it all goes wrong. Well, you got the art inside you. You got to get it out, right? And you're doing that. Hopefully you get those published at some point. You got a, your second album is, so it's out now seconds? That's right, yeah.

Okay, you could get seconds. How would you like Alyssa? If a listener liked what they, heard, and we heard three different songs from seconds. I played two radio edits, my apologies, and then you played a song. So if somebody wants to get their mitts on this, how do you want them to do that? Wherever they want. Oh, yeah, I don't know.

Some people are like, oh, you know, Band Camp is where I'd rather. Oh, sure. If somebody wants to buy the album on BandCamp, that's great. You know, you don't get a lot of these just because there's so many free options these days, but it's available. But that would put more money in the artist's pocket if they do it through band. So I'm just looking out for you. And I think people who would like this kind of music, this fiercely independent music you're

making, they might want to help the artist. They're not going to be assholes who are like, yeah, I'll stream it on Spotify and you can get nothing. Well, I won't say no to anyone who wants to do that. Share the art. But yeah, it is available kind of, you know, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, kind of all the options are there. And I'm super proud of it.

And I'm super proud of both albums they've done. So what's next? So we got two great albums under your belt now. I have recorded my third album. I was in Los Angeles last month. And number three is recorded. Not going to be the name of the album, number three? I don't know, maybe.

That's what it is. You called it seconds. Right. Right. Well, seconds, I think that... Thirds is this new album. Thirds. I think seconds kind of came from, you know, the second helping is kind of like an abundance of like.

It was, I kind of felt... It means you're coming back for more. You're coming back for seconds. You're getting a first album and now this is the second album. So come back for seconds. The third album, you know, untitled, I suppose. And can't wait to hear it, man. Like, I think this was inspired.

because I was trying to relate to it because I have no musical talent. Anyone who heard Mike's basement studio in the Toronto Mic feed can tell you that, which is not available on Spotify, by the way. So screw those guys. But I cycled like crazy as a teenager into my early 20s. And then for reasons I don't understand fully, I did not touch my bike for 15 years. And then all of a sudden in 2012,

I started biking again. And I mean, I did 40K already today. I bike every day, yeah? I bike every. I had to go see the house from Nerville. Vaughna the band The Show. Have you ever seen Nirvana the band The Show? Sure, yeah, yeah.

So the house, which is, I don't know if I should report, but it's like Shaw and Queen, basically. I wanted to go see it and take like a pilgrimage of sorts. But all this is to say, I don't know why I stopped for 15 years, and I bet you probably have a thought of like, why did I put down my guitar for over a decade? I do, all the time. I don't know.

I think I just was frustrated, you know, my space wasn't working out, and I just didn't know what to do with it. I was traveling around a different city, so I didn't really have a community. I'm only kind of now getting to know Toronto and the Canadian industry here. So I'm still an outsider and kind of new to Canada again almost it feels like. So I don't know why I gave up. I just don't know what I was expecting.

And now my expectations are just to enjoy it. Yeah. Well, you're here now. Like, how did I get here? We had this chat earlier. Like, how did I get here? Well, you're here now and you're making the most of it. And I can't wait to hear the third album.

And you're now an FOTM. Right on. Can't wait to get that picture with you by Toronto Tree. So thanks for visiting, man. This was really cool for me. Thanks, Mike. It's cool for me. Hope your back's okay.

Yeah, yeah. All the best, Tom. Hope you're doing okay. Hang in there, buddy. And that brings us to the end of our 1,885th show. 100 before the drive of 85. Look at that, 1885. Go to Toronto Mike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs

and to buy El Macombo tickets, May 21, everybody, 2026. Just click the Elmo gig link at the top. Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Nicainis, Recycle My Electronics.C.A., and Ridley, Funeral, Home.

I'm really pissed at Spotify. I understand the rules, okay? If you have a podcast, you're not allowed to play unlicensed music. I played your songs, is that going to get me in trouble? We'll find out. You got the radio, it's your time. Well, not that way.

but if I had a little bit of a John Williams composition in the theme song for Life's Undertaking and Spotify's having kittens over it. Give me a break. I got to call Lauren Honickman. I got to call Lauren right now, but I'm not sure if I have a leg to stand on unless somebody can get me in touch with John Williams. He's 100 years old, I think. But find me John Williams and let's strike a deal.

See you all tomorrow. My guest was going to be Tom Wilson. John Williams, the Star Wars guy. Okay. Whose son is in Toto now. Fun fact for you. Okay, tomorrow, big episode, 1030 a.m. Warren Kinsella. Warren Kinsella.

Author, a lawyer, political strategist, worked with Kretchen and McGinty. And of course, Punker, I might spend all my time on that. Punker,

Warren Kinsella, Toronto Mike debut tomorrow morning. That is going to be rad. See you all. Then.