Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Rob Preuss: Toronto Mike'd #952

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

ike chats with Rob Preuss who joined the Spoons when he was 15 years young and was part of their glory years. We talked about Nova Heart, Romantic Traffic, Toronto Rocks, his time with Honeymoon Suite, his love of musical theatre, his relationship with Carole Pope, and more!

Toronto Mic is brought to you by the Yes, We Are Open podcast, a Moneris podcast production, telling the stories of Canadian small businesses and their perseverance in the face of overwhelming adversity. Subscribe to this podcast at yesweareopenpodcast.com. What up, Miami? Toronto! Welcome to episode 952 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery.

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to 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, a RE-MAX specialist Majeski group who's ripping up the GTA real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com

and joining me this week is Rob Bruce. Rob, what a pleasure to meet you, buddy. You too. Hey, are we live on Facebook? Yes.

I see that now. Oh, I should figure out. Can I share that? I wonder. Well, so it's facebook.com slash Toronto Mike with a D at the end. Uh,

you can share it if you want. Like, uh, you know, go ahead. This is just people who want to watch us bake the cake. I know, but people like watching cooking shows, right? Right. Oh, yeah.

I'm a big fan. Also, this, of course, will be archived for all eternity. It's like an emergency backup system. People can kind of see this happening whenever they want, but most people will consume this via podcast. Right. I love your podcast by the way. Like, like it's an honor to speak with you. Cause I feel like

I'm listening to an episode, but I'm on an episode. Like it's a weird thing. So I'm honored that you listen. I had no idea. So you, I had no idea. Like I actually had no idea that Rob Pruitt, uh, listened to Toronto Mike. That's amazing. I'm so honored. That's fantastic. I became aware of you, I guess over the last year. I've been digging back because then I'm on Spotify and I see that you've got all these past episodes.

It's really cool to follow your history because you interview so many people that I'm interested in, subjects that I love as well. Okay, well, you know, I had Carol Pope on last year. Yep. And we played something.

I'm going to play it a little later, but World's a Bitch. Yep, it is. That's just like my own commentary. World's a Bitch. We're going to get to that,

but dude, I know that I follow you on Twitter and I could tell we're like cut from the same cloth, except unlike myself, you're like ridiculously talented. I would say you're a bit of a child prodigy. Is that fair?

I'm old now. I mean, I guess they liked to call me that when I was a child. Sure. But even at the time, I mean, when I was a kid, I was already taking it pretty seriously and i always felt like don't talk about my age my age like it doesn't really matter like i'm just trying to make make cool music you know but it sort of became like a selling point for for the band and all that kind of stuff um but yeah i mean i started in my first band when i was

10 wow so um and even at 10 i guess i didn't think i mean it didn't occur to me that i was young to be doing what i did because it just felt like the right thing to do you know but that's ridiculous like i mean i've i've got four kids and two have passed the age of 10 and at that point i'm just like glad they can kind of you know skate without holding my hand and they just like 10 years old to be in a band is remarkable. Like, that's fantastic. It was, well, it was just like a, it was like a light bulb went off in my head. I have periodically through my life, these light bulbs go off to like give me a clue

of like things that I might be able to do. And yeah, I had been playing piano. I started piano when I was five and listened to the radio obsessively, like CKOC and Hamilton, because I grew up in Burlington. And I was listening to the radio obsessively, like CKOC and Hamilton, because I grew up in Burlington. Right. And I was listening to the radio,

of course, nonstop, but then I'd go to my piano teacher, and at some point, the light bulb went off, and it was actually a connection through Elton John, and I thought, wait a minute,

if I had the sheet music for an Elton John song, I could play these songs that I'm listening to. Wow. You know? And that was when I was nine, so the light bulb flicked when I was nine. So

that, so the light bulb flicked when I was nine. And then, so for like, like a year, I was sort of just playing on my own in, in the basement and playing along with records and stuff. And then my friend across the street who was like a year older than me, he was 11 and he's like, yeah, I got a band. We formed a band. So if you want to come and play, come and play. I love it. I love that at five years old, you're playing piano. And my five-year-old, you saw in the shot on our Zoom here, but my five-year-old was playing with a castle. I don't know. There's a disconnect here. But I know you thought that was my castle. And then you thought of the Friendly Giant. This is before we press record. And I just want to put on the record, which I've done many times on

Toronto Mic, but I was an absolute Friendly giant freak growing up like that was and i loved it when he put out that chair for me like that was for me man that's my chair yep yeah no i think we all that it was a canadian tradition for all of us right like that that it's a show that we loved to grow up watching um when i used to watch it uh i was always scared at the end when the cow jumped over the moon like Like, I don't know that. And for some reason I have that memory of being scared of it. And I think I must've been so young. I don't know what, what sort of fear it was triggering in me, but it's like, I was watching the credits go up and I was like, I know that cow's coming. I know he's going to show up. And then he'd come on and be like, Whoa, there he is. Okay. Let me ask you this then, since we're similar vintage, uh, you would watch like Polka Dot Door on TV Ontario,

do you remember how that rolled into Doctor Who? So here's my – for years, I don't know how long it was, but it felt like years anyway. But I'd be watching my Polka Dot Door, which I loved, and that would kind of conclude, and then there be some like promos on tvo and then that and i you could probably play it on your keyboard but that oh yeah like the doctor who theme scared the shit out of me like traumatized me and to this day i avoid all things doctor who because of how frightening that was as a kid that music is

super cool i only i never actually watched doctor who growing up um and only i've seen episodes now and i like to go back and like try to watch real early ones because it's it's so like old-fashioned but in a cool way you know um but i've read lots of stories about the creation of that of that theme and like it was in the bbc and they had this thing called the radiophonic workshop which was like an early electronic music studio where they were manipulating tapes and oscillators and stuff. And the ability to make that music at that time was like primitive. And we can sort of take it for granted

now that you could open your computer and you could open GarageBand and make that sound. And like people wouldn't understand how amazingly advanced that was at the time, you know? Well, it was amazingly advanced. But it's scary too for you. Scary for me because I mean, that was a big, big you know? Well, it was amazingly advanced. But it is scary too for you. Scary for me because I mean, that was a big, big step

from Polka Dot Door to Doctor Who was a big leap too far. But hey, before we get going here, a few like notes off the top and then we're going to talk about that CBC show Going Great, which is where I kind of saw the child prodigy that is Rob Pruitt.

But Colin Kennedy, so I did open it up for questions, and I got some great comments. I want to just shout out Colin Kennedy, who said that Rob is a fantastic interview and has so many great stories to tell. Look forward to listening. So let's not let down Colin. Okay, no pressure on you, Rob.

Hi, Colin. Hello, Colin. And Babsy Wolf says, oh, nice. And I got lots of exclamation marks. And then I'll have to tune in. Mike, treat this man like royalty. He's my pal. And I'm just here to say, I treat, as you might know from listening,

every guest I treat like royalty. And you're no exception. You really do. You're no exception. So I'm looking forward to this. No, you really do. By the way, did you hear the Gord Depp episode of Toronto Mic'd? You know, I think i did it's it's

escapes my memory um but i think i probably did so yeah okay uh can we start by this fun fact that your nephew is in the nhl yes of course i'm a proud uncle i mean he's he's direct he has played two nhl games but he's in the a he's playing in the ahl right now so he's, he's direct. He has played two NHL games, but he's in the AA. He's playing in the AHL right now. So he's in the farm team for the New Jersey devils. And what's his name? His name is Nico Dawes and he's a goalie. And he played his first NHL game last month at, in New Jersey. And I went and saw it with my sister, my wife and my, my wife and I, and my sister and her husband, they, they flew them down for the game and it was amazing. Well, Rob, tell me this.

So yesterday, coincidentally, yesterday was my seven-year-old made his debut in net. So at this house league, like they take turns playing net and the coach said, hey, Jarvis, do you want to play? And he's like, yes. So it was our turn yesterday. And that hour I spent watching my boy between the pipes almost killed me.

Like it was, I don't know how parents of goaltenders do it but what my sister yeah like what's it like for you watching your nephew in net in an NHL game like I can't imagine it's it's ridiculous like it's it was weird first of all to be in the Prudential Center and then he comes out and it is it's it's like it's weird because i feel like the first time i watched him in burlington and he was like 12 or 13 14 maybe right and all of a sudden he's in this arena and it was i mean i feel like oh my god i see like like it's exciting you know but my sister can't watch because she's like she watches like this yeah because she can't she averts her eyes she doesn't even want to know it's you know it's terrifying like every shot on that like you're just hoping like you know the devils have possession like because every shot on net you're just hoping don't no bad goals no yeah and and i i mean what i've learned and what i'm learning as i watch is that especially as a

goalie you you take it in stride the wins and the losses because you realize you're the last line of defense you're the last place and if the rest of the team isn't holding up their end of the game then you're a bit screwed you can be screwed and you you just take a goal and i mean i see it now that it has to sort of not phase you sometimes you just you know the physics are against you like if a shot comes through a bunch of guys i'm talking about hockey like i know anything about hockey i still don't i still don't know what icing means and i don't know what like is there an offside i don't understand a lot of things about hockey, but I love watching it and there's a lot of, like, weird things that'll happen

and I don't get that stuff, but I don't care. Well, congrats to your nephew. Again, Nico Dawes, is that the name? Yep. Okay, so we have a player to root for in the Devils

and you said it was the Utica Devils. Is that the name? The Utica, so the team that he's with is called the Utica Comets. Okay. But he's like,

he's on call for the Devils as well. So that if one of the goalies is injured, they bring him down. Gotcha. Okay, well, good luck to him. That's exciting. That's very exciting. Now I have some clips and there's one I wanted,

I mentioned off the top here that it's called Going Great. Can you just set up, what was the show? I actually don't remember Going Great. I don't remember it, but set it up. This is 82. 82 and then if it's okay with you can i play this in its entirety and then come back to you for uh sure okay so then i'll get up and jog around the room while it's playing um so four minutes i don't four minutes i don't i know i don't know how long the show ran for it might have been like a replacement series or something and it was hosted by chris make peace and we had just released or we're just about to release nova heart so so our record ready records our record company was was reaching out to you know get whatever they

could and i and this was one of those things where people like like a talking point was like wow the keyboard player in the spoons is just 15 or i guess I had just turned 16 at the time. And so they hooked us up and a TV crew came to my house and like filmed me and my mom like preparing for a gig. And they came to film us in Hamilton. I think we were playing a club. I think it might've been Bannisters in Hamilton.

So there's like some pretty, like I love watching it when I, cause I uploaded it and like transferred it from VHS tape. And it was fun to watch again, like the footage of us on stage and backstage and all that stuff. So yeah, that's what it is. So I'm going to play four minutes and, uh, I guess the story's in here, but then we're going to come back to fill in the cracks obviously, cause we have a little bit more time than four minutes, but I don't want to bury the lead, which is that you were playing with the spoons at the age of 15. bury the lead, which is that you were playing with the spoons at the age of 15. Yeah.

Okay, there you go. That's your headline. And now here we go. Four minutes from 1982. This is going great. And then we'll pick it up again here with Rob. Here we go. Okay. If you're an aspiring musician, your biggest dream is probably to perform with your favorite band. After going to almost all their concerts and being a true fan, 16-year-old Rob Brewis did become a member of his favorite band. After going to almost all their concerts and being a true fan, 16 year old Rob Brewis did become a member of his favorite group

The Spoons. Well before I was in the band I was always a fan and I used to go and see them and then one night I saw them and the next day their cute old keyboard player quit. And Gord put an ad in the paper, and I saw the ad and I just called up. And I went down and tried it. Rob's parents have always supported his musical ambitions. Now he goes to school by day and plays concerts by night.

One rock critic has called his synthesizer music sizzling. He started practicing with the spoons and they asked him to join. I guess things just kind of worked out you know we just I just kind of kept going back for practices and everything and then before I knew it Gord said oh yeah we're playing next weekend. I said wow. I have some people calling me now it It's funny. Like, girls would call me. I never know who they are. This girl calls me and goes, hi, I just wanted to tell you your record's really good. Bye. Hi.

Gorgeous. You shouldn't use that. Why? Because you got bass on it. People in school, they recognize me now after the singles at Nova Heart. But before that, people just kind of thought, oh, The Spoons,lington band i saw the human league in toronto and some girls came up to me and they said are you wrong i said yeah they said oh sign this i didn't know what to do i signed a piece of paper when all else fails you there will always be a Nova Heart.

Rob, is it all the music now for the end? Or is it in this four-minute clip, is there more? I can't remember. Okay, well, it's okay, because we're going to hear a bit of Nova Hurt, actually. Live. Yeah, so let's get to, yeah, and speaking of live, let's get to Rob today, 2021. What's it like?

I know you probably revisited that recently, but what's it like hearing yourself in 1982? Well, I sound, I'm very soft-spoken. I guess I wasn't, I't like a little i was a little shy well you're 16 years old let's uh i know it's true like i mean i don't know what i can't imagine doing that at 16 but here let's fill in like let's flesh this out this story so like i don't have so many questions so you literally you were you were a fan of this kind of music and you played keyboards and And like you told in that story,

you just, you got the tryout and then Gord, I guess, and Sandy said you're in? Like, that's how you end up in the spoons? That's how I ended up. Actually, they played, yesterday, November 21st is the anniversary of the last gig that they did with their original keyboard player

who I sort of knew him as well and um they played in burlington at the central library at the public library in burlington and i went to the gig and i guess he left the band that was like his last show so then i knew of the band before that because my friend who lived two doors down his older brother was like a co-manager of the band or like friends with the manager so he was sort of helping promote the band so around town in burlington they were the local new wave band and so i was into the new wave when i was 14 like it was it was the the thing actually this is sort of related to uh i listened to a conversation you

were having i don't know how recent this episode was where you're talking about cf and y and like the early days of transitioning from like progressive music into the new wave music and all that stuff yeah but rob you gotta be it's recent but i think i've done a hundred of those episodes but this is iver hamilton with uh iver hamilton yeah okay that was okay that's that was the inaugural episode of a sub series i've got with brother bill that's right i love that show and cam Cam Gordon. Yeah. And we call it PPMM, which I can't remember what it stands for anymore. I wrote it down.

It was something and something melodies. Yeah. It was basically, we took the name, you know, Alan Cross has ongoing history of new music.

Yes. And we took synonyms for every word. So it's progressing past of modern melodies, I think. Progressing. Progressive.

The progressing past of modern melodies. CF and why not? Okay. Well, coincidentally, and this is so secretive, I'm going to say it now, but no one even knows this,

but we have a plan to record the second episode in that sub-series tomorrow night. So there's going to be a... So Brother Bill and Cam are all set. But yeah, Ivor Hamilton was our guest for that show. That's right. We talked about that.

So what I was thinking about that was that at that time, when I was... So around that era, and I was 13, 14, and the new wave stuff was coming in, like I was listening to Gary Newman and Ultravox and whatever was coming from England,

I was falling in love with all this stuff. And so Spoons were the local band. There was another band called the Onos, which Michael Dana was in. He's a composer, a film composer, and I was a friend of his younger brother. And and his younger brother, Jeff and I played in a band as well, but I knew the spoons and I, and I had only heard, I don't even know if I'd actually heard much of their music other than a single that they had released. They did an independent 45.

Um, but I knew of them. So it was like the concept of the spoons was like obsessive to me. So I had posters, like they would make little flyers for all their gigs around Toronto and wherever they them so it was like the concept of the spoons was like obsessive to me so i had posters like they would make little flyers for all their gigs around toronto and wherever they were playing and i had these things all over my bedroom wall like i mean i had kiss posters and queen posters and farrah fawcett and shara ladd and all the usual suspects but then when it was getting into the new wave the new wave era there weren't as many things to put on the wall but i had these spoons gig posters that i had all over. So their keyboard player left. Gord put an ad in the Hamilton Spectator

and there was a section in the Spectator called Teens, Things for Sale, Jobs Wanted. And that's where everybody would post for bands. And I used to look in there all the time thinking I was going to find my perfect band. And I had even put an ad in there myself at one point when I was maybe 14, like looking for somebody to like want to play electronic music and stuff as well.

But nobody responded. So I saw the Spoons ad and I freaked out inside and and called Gord. And he sort of knew who I was because I'd met them. I met them at that last gig that they did in Burlington. And he said, OK, well, come over to our rehearsal studio. And I did. And that was that was it. I never left.

But, Rob, this is a movie. Like, really. What's the movie? Is it Iron Maiden? Who is it who took the cover singer and said, I can't even remember anymore. Judas Priest, Iron Maiden? I don't know.

I get those bands actually all mixed up, but there is some story about where someone who sings in a cover band ends up and it's maybe it's maybe i'm journey well journey for sure yes i've said yeah i think there's another one but okay i think mark walberg they made a movie about it in wolf anyways regardless regardless my memory is what it used to be uh you being a 15 year old super fan of this local burlington band, the spoons. Uh, and then you ending up being the keyboardist, like that's a, that's a movie, my friend, that's mind blowing. That's amazing. That's amazing. It was fun. And it was, it was, um, I was nervous as heck and yet confident at the same time, because I just, I think at an early age, I learned to just sort of suck it up

and just do the thing, you know, because I think it goes back to like when I was five taking piano lessons. I mean, I was, I was turning six. So I was, you know, I was old. Um, but my piano teacher threw me right into like doing piano recitals and stuff. And I remember like, I have these specific memories of her making me practice, like walking through the doors. If I was coming on stage and playing my little song and then bowing afterwards. And so, and then doing piano exams from an early age and like all of those kinds of things along the way. So I was always, I was always getting used to performing music and also being nervous at the same time and thinking, well, it doesn't really matter. Like, and I'm still that way to this day. Like I still get super nervous doing stuff, but I kind of don't care. Like I've learned to embrace it and accept it,

even though it bothers me still. Like sometimes I'll be like, if I'm going to play a new show or have to accompany some singers or something. And inside I'm like, Oh, I'm so stupid. Like,

why do I do this? You know, but it's just the way I am. Well, you said it doesn't really matter. Of course, that's a platinum blonde song. It is. And, but they stole it the way I am. Well, you said it doesn't really matter. Of course, that's a platinum blonde song. It is.

But they stole it from Freddie Mercury because nothing really matters. Nothing really matters. Oh, rest in peace, Freddie Mercury. Okay. By the way, I've been trying, Mark Holmes has threatened to come on this program, but he's yet to kind of commit to a day in time.

What kind of, like, you must have crossed paths with Mark Holmes a hundred times or whatever. Not a hundred times, only a few times, and I don't really know him that well, but I, I think I have friends who know him, so we should get on,

get on him. Cause he, he should come on. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Now, Stacey Thompson,

who is also an FOTM like yourself now, Rob, and she's a radio personality. Stacey has a great comment. She says, I remember hearing, this is, I think I tweeted that you were 15 when you joined the spoons.

And she goes, I remember hearing about that when I interviewed Sandy and Gord. They said at some venues they played, they used to have to sneak him through the back entrance because he was underage. That was what I thought. How are you seeing so many concerts at that age?

Are these old-age shows? Because you'd think in these clubs, you've got to be 19 plus. Am I crazy? Yeah. I saw a lot of concerts when I was a kid. But it was all like you know cne stadium maple leaf gardens those kind of gigs right first time i went to a club to see a band was at the edge um after we'd played the edge so that my first gig with the spoons was at the edge

uh and it was the night john lennon was killed december 8th 1980 wow so it's a moment in history for the world and in my own personal history i always put those i correlate those two events as like a good one and a bad one you know um and the edge of course uh the gary's were did the gary's bring you there is that the deal at the time yeah yeah the gary's were were big supporters of us and they were they were big fans and and they sort of helped they were very helpful to us in the in the beginning and in the first few years of the band for sure yeah and cormier and top uh the two gary's there band for sure. Yeah, and Cormier and Top, the two Garys there are both FOTMs as well.

They sure are. I was listening to your Gary Cormier episode this morning from a few years ago. Yeah, he cracks me up. I missed him. It was so nice to hear his voice

because I haven't heard him, I haven't seen him in ages, but hearing his voice brings it all back to me like the memories of them. And you're connected to him of course through Carol Pope

which we're going to get to but I know he was working closely with Carol Pope back in the early days. That's right. So they were real champions of us through The Edge. And so our first gig, my first gig with the band was at The Edge. I think they might have played there already, maybe once or twice. But certainly by the time my first show with the band, they had already booked that gig. So it was a few weeks after I auditioned.

But like I was going to say, the first concert I saw in a club was at the edge and i was the teardrop explodes and uh that was cool but for my own gigs i had a permission slip from the liquor control board so i had to join the musicians union when i was 15 and they had a had a regulation because there were probably since the probably since you know theies or the fifties or whatever, when young musicians wanted to play in bars, they had to have a permission form that was signed by a, by a parent or a, a,

whatever you call it, you know, a guardian or something. Guardian is the word that I couldn't remember. Um, and it says, I know that this child is underage, but they're a musician and I give them permission to be in the bar as long as

they're backstage or on stage. And this is cool. So I had this form. I still have it in a box in my library upstairs that I folded up into my bag and I kept with me. And I think I only actually had to show it one time, but I just had to have it on me just in case. Okay. That's great. I love that detail. And I will point out the interesting fact. I'm SmartServe certified, so I can tell you in this province, you need to be 19 to consume alcohol. But to serve alcohol, you only need to be 18.

So there are 18-year-olds who are like serving booze who cannot consume it themselves. Interesting. There's your fun fact for the day. Hey, without further ado, we've got to get to the first jam, I think, where most people

discover the Spoons is Nova Heart. And I'm curious, before I read this question from FOTM Gear Joyce and play a little Nova Heart and then talk to you about that, can you help me? Because I don't appreciate

the status of the Spoons pre-Nova Heart. Like, were they just simply a Burlington new wave band that would be popular in burlington like was there any like did cfny play spoon stuff before nova heart can you help yeah we understand that yeah we were cfny was was like our our not i would say our goal but all we would have cared about at the time was getting some airplane on cfny because we weren't aiming for any sort of um like top 40 success at that point in in the first year that i was in the band

we were more inspired and influenced by bands like talking heads and and simple minds and um you know that kind of angular new wavy kind of stuff really um and and so the natural progression into the into getting played on the radio happened a couple like a year and a half into the band really but we were number one we went to number one on the college charts across canada like the campus charts in 81 with our first album so our first album came out in the summer of 81 it was called stick figure neighborhood and um we recorded it in hamilton with uh our producer was grahamohl and our engineer was an unknown dude named Daniel Lanois. Wow.

And Daniel at the time was running, he was working at the studio with his brother because it was their studio. And Dan was like the in-house engineer who was assigned to our record. And I mean, of course, in hindsight, we're like, yeah, man, we worked with Daniel Lanois. But at the time, it was Danny.

He was our engineer and he was a super cool guy and very, very integral to the sound of the record because he, in conjunction with our producer, created the sound and mixed the record, and they did it all. But we released the album without a goal of... I don't even think we actually had a single on the album. We just released the album and just sort of put it out there,

and it was getting played on college radio, and that's when cfny picked up on it we did our our very first radio interview was for cfny gordon i did an interview in the summer of 81 with jim reed right yeah i love the name drops to anyone anybody could remember uh from cfny back in the day just drop that name i love all those names you you have cfny people on your show all the time and it freaks me out because it's so cool to hear them talking still. I love it. I love it. By the way, your homework is

go back and listen to the Marsden episode. I think it's one, I don't know, it's early 100s. It's a very early episode, but he came over and I made him cry a couple of times. And honestly, there's some great clips in that too, but go listen to the Marsden episode. Okay, here's the question. And then I'm going to play.

And it's, I love how I didn't have the 12 inch single. So I'll see you in 17 minutes or something. No, just kidding. Uh, Garrett Joyce says, I want an origins.

Oh, you missed a word. I'm going to, he bought, what he means is he wants the origin story of Nova heart. He says the song still stands up. He shocked that he, uh,

that it doesn't, no, that it did not become an anthem for the locks industry. Okay. Anyway, Gare Joyce is also a wannabe stand-up comic. So shout out to Gare. But let me, because I'll have to figure out that joke later,

but let me play, and I know it's going to be a slow build here, but let's play a bit of Nova Heart and then I'll bring it down and we'll talk to you all about this jam. Here we go. Cool. It's a big one. I can dance

Over a home I'll walk your streets And live in your towns Camper out of the I can dance Over a home You served us well until now But soon we'll be on our own

And I'll sleep, sleep in your arms As things come apart I'll hide Hide in your no-bombs At ease with the thoughts That you shout out With the voice of this song Oh You know, it's amazing listening to that song again in the headphones.

Like, talk about a nostalgia rocket. Like, that's incredible. Still sounds really good. Yeah. All right right tell me i'm gonna shut up you tell us whatever you can share about uh the origin story of nova heart here the origin story of nova heart um i have a i have a vivid memory of gourd showing me the melody the intro melody the very first time he like created it and he had borrowed an electric piano from me um because we this was like like summer 81 and we gourd had seen omd orchestral maneuvers in the dark play in hamilton and i

was obsessed with their albums as well and so we were like oh the synthesizer electronic stuff is like like really happening we need to like figure out a way to sort of increase some of the electronic sounds in our band. So I had this extra keyboard, and Gord borrowed it. And he came back and said, OK, I've got a couple of ideas that I'm working on here. So I went over to his house, to his parents' place. And in his bedroom on the floor was my Elka electric piano, which he had borrowed. And he's like, I got this idea. And he played me that little melody.

Da-na-na-na-na-na. And I was like, oh, that's really cool. And it was just the snippets. So he came up with a couple of thematic things. It was three songs that he started. And then we went

and took the keyboard to our rehearsal studio, our rehearsal space, which was a tiny little room in his dad's office. His dad had a little house in the West End of Burlington. And office his dad had a little house in the in the west end of burlington and we used to have a little bedroom upstairs that we had crammed all

our stuff into so for for a couple of rehearsals it was just gordon and i we went up there and i had my keyboard and i brought a second synthesizer and then gordon had the electric piano as well and we started jamming these ideas and so there was nova heart and gourd always came up with lyrics last so that so the song was quite fleshed out in in a lot of ways before he started really getting getting lyrics happening for it but he was always a master at like following his phonetic inspiration i don't even know if that's a that's a new term um he'd like have nonsense lyrics and things that would just sound cool in the context of the music. And then eventually he'd like work it out and go, what does it sound like I'm saying?

You know? And so Novahart was sort of born out of that. And I mean, he's a master craftsman and I don't know what the hell it means. I mean, it's a beautiful lyric and I feel like it has a lot of positive things about it in so many different ways. It talks about the future and it looks at the world we're in. And I don't quite understand it, but I love the unspecific nature of a lot of it.

But it's like a hopeful song, you know? Gord, you know, he likes to keep it a little mysterious like that. No, I played like, it's just wrapping up now, actually, in the background, but it's about 4, I don't know, 4.18, 4.20 or something. This is like four, I don't know, four 18, four 20 or something. This is like, uh, the, the, I don't know, the radio edit or whatever, but that I referenced earlier, the 12 inch single. And I don't, can't remember how long it goes, but that's, that's what I always go to.

I love that. It just keeps going. Yeah. I just, it's, that's, it's only like six minutes. Yeah. I think it's like six, not even minutes like 6 45 or something it always like i'm always thinking yeah this is like the uh early 80s uh new wave uh free bird it doesn't go anywhere though i mean the extended version i always look back now like god we could have just like we could have done more but we sort of kept it like a linear kind of a dance thing and we put in some

sound effects in the middle and stuff and then there's a synth solo um but it kind of didn't have it sort of stayed as like this really landscape of sound which i guess is kind of cool and that gourd lyric the style you described there reminds me of like uh guns and roses sweet child of mine or whatever where uh you know he's like where do we go now where do we go and he's sort of like talking like we need to where do we go now and then they just keep that like it's like yeah well sometimes yeah and and a lot of times it's you know when a song gets written and recorded there's always analysis after the fact of like what does it mean and how did you get to that point and sometimes it's not it's not so cut and dry and the meaning is not so cut and dry and i don't think it's worth people thinking too deeply about things sometimes because unless

you're unless you're a storyteller kind of a writer like like Joni Mitchell or you know people tell stories in songs as well but there's also a way to have a have a poetic lyric that sort of leaves it up to the listener and I sort of feel like Gord always rode that line really well with some songs feel more specific but I think he and his in his own mind like to keep it a little vague sometimes too which I always thought was cool and i mean that jam does that jam change everything for this band like suddenly you're not this burlington new wave band but you're like this is a that was a big jam for you guys yes it was a step it was a good stepping stone because it was our first song to get get airplay on am radio and get get get played on stations across the country

and all that kind of stuff. So it definitely started opening doors for us in terms of being able to book gigs. And, um, it just gave us a confidence to go to the next step because we recorded Nova heart and the B side was a song called symmetry. We did those two songs as, as a one-off session. And then we decided that we would come back and record our second album with the same producer john punter and follow up the album follow up those songs with him but it gave us a great confidence to finish off the rest of the song ideas that we'd been working on because we had been demoing tons of songs like once we released the first album we knew that the next step is just play play play

gigs play gigs but work on more songs because now you want to be? All options not left open. Playing games for the benefit of the heart. Rob Pruess, ladies and gentlemen. Wow. Loving this chat. If you enjoy Toronto Mic'd, please support the sponsors that fuel the real talk.

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and their perseverance in the face of overwhelming adversity. Go to YesWeAreopenpodcast.com and subscribe. Get inspired. Speaking of inspiring, Mike Majewski, you know, the real estate agent who's in the know in Mimico. This is amazing. He has purchased 200 beautiful full-sized Christmas trees. And you can have one in exchange for a donation to the Daily Bread Food Bank. Just write Mike right now. Mike at realestatelove.ca. Put Christmas tree in the subject line. And you can arrange with Mike what day to pick up your tree in Mimico. You got November 27th and 28th from 9 to 1 p.m. And you got December 4th and 5th from 9 to 1 p.m.

This is amazing. And I'm so proud of Majeski for the great work he does in this community. for the great work he does in this community. Speaking of this community, Ridley Funeral Home, they've been pillars of this community since 1921. Much love to Brad Jones and the other FOTMs at Ridley Funeral Home. Go to RidleyFuneralHome.com to learn how you can pay tribute without paying a fortune. Now let's get back to Rob, shall we? Here's a great question from Ian Merchant.

He says, ask Rob if he still remembers their first in-store. It was at sunrise on Yonge when I was managing it. Sandy, Gord, Derek, and Rob were so nice and patient despite the very low turnout. Who would want to come get a record signed by us? I mean, if it was our first one, what the heck? I don't know. I remember Sunrise, and actually, I do remember that store.

I can't say I remember specifically the very first one, but if that was, that's really cool. Because there got to be a point where they would send us out on in-stores a lot and some of them were i mean a few years into it all some of them were kind of manic too i can imagine now the sunrise uh outlets i remember because they also they were ticket master outlets sunrise and this is i mean it's when i talked to my kids about getting concert tickets back in the day like like i think the best thing ever was the wristband policy. Like, but I remember you had to get there,

I don't know, let's say a Saturday at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. or something. And then you got your- Yeah. Go ahead, yeah. I was gonna say, then that's to get the wristband, but you had to come back. Like maybe two weeks later,

you come back Saturday at 10 with your wristband. And then there was some lottery to decide who was first in line. And then you lined up by your number. We didn't even have that. I mean, when I was a kid, I rode my bike across Burlington. So I lived in the east end of Burlington, and I wanted to go see Kiss. That was like the first concert, my first real rock concert I went to was Kiss.

This was in the summer of 77, ages ago. But I rode my bike across Burlington to this place called Brandt Ticket Agency, which was on Brandt Street. And it was a small, small office building, like small, small business, right? And you'd have to just line up outside and they'd open the doors at 10 a.m. and you'd be in line and you'd line up to get your tickets and you'd get up to the counter and you're like, I'll take two tickets. You didn't get a choice. You didn't get anything. They're like, okay, well, I mean, they might say, well, we have reds and we have golds and we have the price range but yeah i i rode across town to get those tickets because yeah that's what you do that's what you did back then it's it's sort

of bizarre to yeah that's how we rolled and and we dug it there's the only way we knew but and we loved it yeah we loved it now one thing i'll the spoons i always felt and uh compliment to yourself i noticed your hair is a bit different like the hair when i look back at the old clips uh like was there a lot of work to maintain i feel like i could do that with a little product or whatever if i give it a little yeah you totally could so i maybe i will do it uh for my 2022 goals but don't do it tell us okay tell us a little bit about maintaining the hair and then uh my observation is that you're an aesthetically pleasing band in that you were kind of like you're a little early for much music I think but I'm going to play a clip from Toronto Rocks in a moment and we're going to talk about that but first talk about the hair then I'll play a little

clip from Toronto Rocks the hair took a lot of hairspray and a lot of gel and it's funny now because I look at those pictures and my hairline was down like here. Like, I'm like, wow, that's amazing. Like you don't notice the, the, the passage of time until you see a picture of yourself at a different age. I'm like, wow. And I don't really have a memory of like, like the hair was here and here, you know? And I think it made me look much more petite in many ways because there was a lot of hair but i was really good at like teasing it and combing it and we had really good uh hair stylists who sort of you know helped and they would come to gigs into photo sessions and do that stuff for us as well but we certainly got good at doing it ourselves as well it was the 80s what are you gonna do and i will apologize to you right now so i watched that cbc clip uh off the top and you were introduced by, I think you said Chris Makepeace was the host of the, okay. He introduces you as

Pruess. Yeah. And please, for the record now, so I can feel great shame, pronounce your last name for me. I always tell people it's like Dr. Seuss.

Pruess. Pruess. Pruess. Okay. Or in Germany, they call it Pruess, like Rolls Royce. Because that's the German,

it's a German name and that's the, if you go to Germany, they would call me, hey, Mr. Preuss. So I've screwed it up all episode and I've been screwed up. Okay, can I- No, but actually,

but I listened to Chris Makepeace and I thought the same thing. People get it wrong all the time. I don't care. It's all Chris's fault. So I apologize for that. You're in good company, though I butchered some pretty important names

in this industry. Toronto Rocks. I'll play, I have a couple, but I'm going to play a very short clip of you and Gord on Toronto Rocks, just because I think it's fun. And then we'll talk a little about John Major here, the late great. And then I have a little longer clip, but it introduces a song I need to dive into with you. So

let me see if I've got the clip. Here's you and Gord Depp on just about 25 seconds on Toronto Rocks. All right. Hey, Gord. Hi, we're The Spoons. And we're filling in for John Major today as he is on vacation. Say something.

Hi, Rob. How you doing? And we got a great show for you today. Lots of our favorite videos Including Pointer Sisters Yeah, that's my favorite actually Tears for Fears, which I want to see Yeah, that's the first one actually we got today

Is Tears for Fears and their new single Shout Remember this Ooh, what a good song Shout Oh, one of the buttons just fell off over there. I think it's being held on my gum or something. That's real good.

So what are we doing here anyways? Well, John Major's on vacation in Buffalo. It seems that's like his favorite. All right, just a little taste of you and Gord, yeah. But, you know, what do you remember about appearing on Toronto Rocks and John Major, who was the primary host. It was a lot of fun. I mean, compared to that first

The Going Great clip where you played and I talk about like this. Right. And I was a little shy. And clearly I've become a little bit more obnoxious in a couple of years.

And it was always fun to do stuff with Gord because Gord was always a little more, I wouldn't say he was more serious than me, but definitely our slight age difference made me want to be more enthusiastic and goofy about stuff.

And I always just like had a lot of fun, but we were, I always felt like we were fun together in that way that I, I would sort of tease him about things. Then he would try to tease me and not tease me as well as I teased him. But it was fun because to be on that little Toronto rock set, you know, and, and it was, it was just a kind of a cool thing to do. And is that 299, uh99 Queen Street where that set is? I think so. I don't remember.

I'll say yes. My mind can't remember. They were 99 Queen Street East, and then they moved to 299. I can't remember when that was, but I think you're at 299 Queen Street West. Okay, so I'm going to just play. This is a little bit longer, but you tell a story about a jam and a video, which is still an iconic Toronto video. And we're going to dive in because I believe you're, uh, you've got a writing credit on this sucker here.

And we got to talk about, so let me, let me just play a little of you and Sandy. By the way, we have to get Sandy Horn on Toronto Mike. She's a, yes, I'll talk to her. Yeah. Talk to her. We got to do that. Okay. So here's a little of you and Sandy on, uh, Toronto rocks. 408, not 409. Now you're watching Toronto rocks live on city TV and Robin Sandy from the Okay, so here's a little of you and Sandy on Toronto Rocks. 408, not 409 now. You're watching Toronto Rocks Live on City TV, and Rob and Sandy from The Spoons finally made it. Finally made it.

That's snowing like crazy out there. Yeah, very badly. Thanks for coming in today. We've been promising and promising and promising and promising and promising that you guys would come in, and you finally made it. Yeah, we're here. And I think you may have met some happy fans downstairs.

Yeah. Do you think? They're all very wet. Yeah, well, that's life. Life in the fan lane, as they say. Okay. This is interesting. Yeah, you like it, huh?

Okay. Well, enough about the studio. Tell us about the video. The video, romantic traffic video that didn't arrive when we arrived. It almost made it. It almost made it today. Yeah. We're having problems transferring it to a video.

From film to video. From the video. It's not taking the color. Because when we filmed it, we used natural light in the subway as opposed to setting up our own light. So there's changing tones and they're trying to match them and they won't match. So it's going through a third process. It's not our fault. We tried very hard.

We apologize. We've been working on it now for two weeks, trying to get it to work. So 9.30 tonight is the next print. Okay. But you're happy with it so far from what you've seen? Oh, yeah. It's very human feeling.

It goes from being serious to being fun, like the Tell Me Lies. Yeah. Did you have fun working with Robert Fresco on the video? Oh, yeah. I think he might even be in this one. Yeah? Because we were doing some parts for the chorus,

and I think he snuck himself in there. In the doot-doot? Maybe. Ooh. Ah. Mm. So you'll be able to catch the producer in there. Okay.

Well, let's roll some video, and then we'll come back, and we'll talk some more. Okay. So we're going to roll old emotions here. Okay. Some old video from The spoons on Toronto rocks. I love that. Toronto Mike.

Yes. I just realized that we're on zoom and I can mess around with my face. Oh, I get to switch screens. Oh my God. That's how long we've been talking. It's, it's growing in the goatee.

It's going in. Okay. You're having a good time okay so let's get serious here rob this is serious business because romantic traffic is like an iconic toronto not only an iconic toronto jam but the video of course is your chance to catch a glimpse of the red rockets we had in the tcc i love the video like it's just a great shot of like 80s toronto but where do we begin? Wait, let's start with the song. Actually, can I play the song and then we can get into this?

And I want to hear about the video story too. Okay, so let's play a bit of Romantic Traffic and then we'll talk about it. He's changing lanes Caesars chance He passes up ahead She's losing him In romantic traffic A place with no signs

To tell you where they're going to Wow. Wow. I almost don't want to bring it down. But hey, let's get to the good stuff which is Rob like Dr. Seuss Rob Proust yeah it's about time I got it right okay again my apologies okay so let's start with the song then we'll get to the video uh because I know you play let's talk tell me about writing romantic traffic um so we had recorded uh our album talk Back. This was way back in 1983. And we had done this album with Nile Rodgers.

He produced this album for us. And Nile had seen us touring. We did Culture Club's first U.S. tour. And it was the coolest thing ever because they had just hit number one and they had booked all these small theater kind of gigs um and we were the opening act because we had we our record company we had signed to a&m records in the u.s and they got us onto this hot spot on the culture club tour and nile saw us play in new york at the palladium um which is a club that either doesn't exist now

or became something else but it was a like a new york cool club in the 80s um and niall was at the show with the the stories that he was there with sting and steve winwood and everybody was coming out of the woodwork to check out boy george and on this tour like everywhere we went there were you could spot people in the audience you know um so uh niall approached our record label and said he'd like to produce us and so we did an album with him and then the record label in america were like well we like it a lot but we don't really hear a single and meanwhile we'd already released a couple of singles or at least one in canada yeah old emotions right old emotions exactly and then

it comes back again right so a&m records in the states the States was looking for excuses to not want to release the record. So they said, why don't you, you know, got any more songs for us? And so we had been working on a couple of new ideas. Like we were more geared up to start promoting Talkback. But Gordon and I had been working on a couple of things. He had, we, the two that came together that ended up being recorded at the same time

were Tell No Lies and Romantic Traffic. So we were rehearsing at a friend's basement in burlington and romantic traffic sort of came together the two of us just jamming around with a drum machine i had a rolling tr808 drum machine that i was getting all i loved programming the beats and stuff for it and and yet romantic traffic felt like this more like like a traditional song in a way because tell no lies i had programmed like a real i wouldn't call it a hippity hop kind of a beat, but it was like a funkier kind of a thing, you know, that I would hear on music that was coming out of New York at the time. And then Romantic Traffic, it was one of those songs that as we started playing through it

and coming through it, it just all flowed, like the arrangement of the song, where the choruses come and the half verse and the little sections you know it all kind of came naturally and so we took we we demoed the two songs and our record company was like great you got two new songs so we went down to new york to record at the power station with niall this was like coming towards the end of 83 i think it was like christmas time we went down flew down to new york and specifically to record these two songs and then they got released like the following year because we were still pushing the rest of the record as well but we now had these two other songs in our back pocket that were like oh these songs are pretty cool oh super catchy jams too both of

them and i think earlier i think you might have slipped and said tell no lies but you mean old emotions is what right uh no well old emotions was on the talkback album already okay gotcha but the two songs we recorded a separate from the album were tell no lies and romantic traffic okay and tell no lies though that's not on talkback that's on listen to the city and as romantic traffic as well so those two ended up getting getting put onto that soundtrack album okay amazing and so but i gotta ask about like working with nile rogers like that like what's that like it was great he was a super cool guy he i mean we we got to work with him at a point when his career was really on the rise you know he had just done let's dance for david bowie i think he was just finishing that right when when

he had seen us he had i, it might have just been released. And he worked with us. He had worked with Southside Johnny, did an album with them. And I think right after he worked with us, he did In Excess, what was it called? Original Sin, Boy Meets Girl. Yeah, the one before Kick,

whatever that album's called. Exactly. Yeah, he did a single for them. And he flew up to toronto it was this was in the summertime and and it was it was a great experience because we just sort of trusted him we we knew his track record as far as making disco records and chic records and stuff like that but he was more interested in working with us and working on something that wasn't going to be like like a strictly mainstream we didn't hire him to make

us like a quote-unquote hit record and bring in a range arrangers and stuff you know he wanted to capture the band and sort of put it through his lens in a way which he really did and the writing process for romantic traffic uh because you mean that you should be in the canadian wait are you in the canadian music hall of fame no because you should you should be for romantic traffic alone, in my humble opinion. I'm just one man here, but a great influencer. I'll tell the right people this. Okay, but tell us

about your specific role, Rob, Proust, like Seuss, in the writing of romantic traffic. I think that I contributed to, definitely not lyrically and melodically, because that's always Gord's area. it was more in the chord progressions like like there's some stuff in the chorus and like i said it really was

was us kind of organically playing through it together which i think is how i ended up as a co-writer on the song um the the thing that i'm proud of in the song which is is more of an arrangement arrangement thing is is the bass line in the chorus that changes like the chord progression is very like a very standard chord progression but i, is the bass line in the chorus that changes. Like, the chord progression is very, like a very standard chord progression. But I like moving the bass notes in a different inversion. It was sort of like an Elton John kind of trick. And I actually kind of borrowed Elton John's bass line

for Rocket Man, which leads into the chorus. If you listen to the Chorus of Romantic Traffic, the chord is an F, but the chord moves with an A up to a C to an E flat to lead to the chorus. And I was like, it was too, to me, I was like, oh, this sounds like Elton John. This sounds like Rocketman. So I made Sandy play those bass notes. I thought you got to do it just like this. So, and it's kind of cool. That's, that's the gold right there. Who wrote this lyric? This is one of the most, the brilliant lyrics I've ever heard. Who wrote this lyric?

Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Who wrote those lyrics? I just need to know. You know, I think Gord, he dreamt that up one night and it sort of came to him in a dream and he woke up and he wrote it down,

but he only had to write one do because he knew it would just follow along. And I'm sure it was inspired by the police. Do, do, do, do, da, da, da. And there was a lot of nonsense things. And I do, I mean, I've heard Gord tell this story too. I think there was a point where

I think he may have intended to fill it in with lyrics. And Niall was probably like, just keep that because it's super catchy. You know, it becomes a sing-songy kind of a thing. Oh man, totally. And it's great live, right? Like, I mean, I've seen Spoon so many times live.

And the current, you're not in the, I mean, maybe we'll get to that later. I'll save that. But the, you know, Sandy and Gord are sort of, they're the founders and they're kind of, who joins them on stage could depend on different variables at play, but we'll kind of get to that in a moment.

But let me bring another question from the crowd here, the FOTMs. My school rocks. That's the handle of this person. Outstanding. Can you please ask Rob if he looks back at the 80s Canadian music scene as the planting of seeds slash sparks that can be felt today? I personally, and I am My School Rocks, I personally believe that many of these 80s bands were

pioneers and played an important role in a fledgling canadian music scene that's very good i agree um i think it's it's probably true of every generation of music that comes along i feel like our our music of the eighties did sort of seem to come out of nowhere as well. Like I can look back at it now and, and feel like we didn't sound like anything that was coming before us. And, and we were trying to do new things and we, we weren't consciously emulating another, a sound from another time. But I think as time has gone on, there was a point, culturally, socially, musically, creatively,

there was a point where things started to look backwards more than they did at that time. Like we, you know, if you think of music in the 80s, it was like a shock, not a shock, but it was like a unique thing

if you sounded like a song from the 50s, like when Neil Young did his song, Wandering, and you know, it sounded like, unique thing if you sounded like a song from the 50s, like when Neil Young did his song, Wandering. And, you know, it sounded like, or like when Robert Plant did, what was it called? Come With Me, Sea of Love. Yeah, Sea of Love, exactly.

So they kind of hinted back to the 50s and Tracy Ullman would harken back to the 60s a little bit. Yeah, and Paul McCartney would show up in the video, as I recall. Yeah, exactly. And those kind of things were sort of few and far between. but, but meanwhile, the eighties music

that we were a part of as, as far as the early eighties was kind of trying to go forward and break new ground. But at a certain point you can't keep breaking new ground. And, and things then started kind of looking backwards. Like I hear bands in the last 20 years that sound like eighties bands. And I think that's really kind of cool, but it's cool because it sounds like something that was being done back then. And you want to take it forward to a new generation as well. So I guess our music did springboard off to keep inspiring other bands.

And I think that keeps happening now as well. Everybody looks, you want to look backwards because you've got a whole history of music to look back on. But hopefully you take it and you put your own spin on it to keep it moving forward as well. Awesome. And Rick A, and part of this question you've actually already addressed, I should have asked it earlier. I'm sorry, Rick A, but Rick A says he'd like your memories of playing the forum at Ontario Place. Then he had a couple more. He wanted to know any stories behind the video. Oh, that's right. We never did get to the video for Romantic Traffic. So thank you,

Rick A. Oh my goodness So thank you, Rick A. Yeah. My goodness. Thank you, Rick. So he does want memories of you playing the forum at Ontario Plays. And then we're going to go back to the Romantic Traffic video. His final point was something we did address, which is he wanted to know how it felt being profiled on Going Great with Chris Makepeace.

Going Great. Oh, we should talk about that. Okay, let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, Rick A., you're the hero of the day. Shout out to Metallica and, of course, the greatest captain the leafs ever had wendell clark please rick a hit all three of those notes here the forum romantic traffic video and go back to talking about what it was like being on going great with chris make peace going great was fun um that was cool uh ontario place was really fun there was that was a really Ontario Place was really fun.

That was a really exciting place to play just because you're in the round, right? And there was something about an outdoor venue, I think, it always has a magical feeling to it. And just the whole concept of Ontario Place for all of us localers, right, the Southern Ontario people, there was something really magical about that place.

So for us to get to play there, it felt like we'd hit a pinnacle of attracting a crowd. Because up until that point, we'd been playing clubs, you know, and venues had been getting a little bit larger,

but there weren't a lot of other places for us to play other than, like, we played the concert hall. We did a show at the concert hall in Toronto. We did the usual clubs. Like, I love hearing your episodes where you talk about

the bygone clubs of Toronto. We played them all, from The Edge to Larry's Hideaway we did uh the usual clubs like like i love hearing your episodes where you talk about the bygone clubs of toronto we played them all from the edge to larry's hideaway to the cabana room and hotel isabella and all those kind of places but once we started getting played on am radio and having songs on the on the radio that the kids wanted to hear there weren't a lot of places for us to start playing which i feel like maybe ontario Place was one of the first times that we were able to be in front of a crowd that now knew who we were. And what is that rotating stage like? I mean, I'll just say my first ever concert was at Ontario Place's The Forum, and it was to see Chalk Circle. Oh, nice.

So there you go. Shout out to FOTM Chris Boardman. Okay, so tell us about, the rotating stage was neat? Like you didn't feel seasick or anything, you were fine. It was real slow. Yeah, no, it was, until you got to the end of the night and then they wanted to like pick it up and get it going.

So I always remember like maybe the last time we played there, the last encore that we did and it felt like the stage was, they wanted to get everybody in the audience to have a chance to see you one last time so they started speeding it up and we did a cover version of Whiter Shade of Pale by Broca Harum.

Sure. Harum. Harum. Harum. Harum. And there were like balloons on the stage. And there was, it seemed like there was confetti and stuff. I don't even know now.

But it was just a massive stuff as the stage was kind of going faster. And it was really kind of cool. And I think that was the last time we played. Last time I played there with the band. Because I do think they played there one more year after Derek and I left as well. But it was really kind of cool. And I think that was the last time we played. Last time I played there with the band because I do think they played there one more year after Derek and I left as well. But it was always exciting because you'd get there in the day

and they'd already have let people into the stands and we'd come out for soundcheck and there were already people waiting, you know. And so you already sort of felt a bit more exposed in a way, but it was kind of cool because you felt like you were sharing an experience, which people do all the time now, right? They have meet and greets and they're like come watch our sound check and come sit out with us and in in those days it didn't happen as often except except in

an outdoor venue like ontario place so that was always cool and as i recall like you didn't get a ticket to the concert you you bought yourself admission to ontario place and then you could see the show as part of that is that it wasn't yeah so it's like you'd have family you could see the show as part of that. So it's like you'd have families there. This might be how I ended up seeing Chalk Circle but families would be there because Ontario Place was a great place to be in the early to mid 80s there. And then you just, oh there's

a Bird and Cummings is playing. Let's watch this for a while on the hill. It was very cool. Okay now you did we did listen to you and Sandy on Toronto Rocks with the late great John Major. And you were, there was a story being shared about the romance, the technical difficulties,

traffic, romantic traffic to video, which that's an interesting story that we wouldn't consider today. But tell us about the making of the video, because of course that's the subway video for those who are wondering which great video is this but tell us about the video for Romantic Traffic. Robert Fresco was the director

and I believe he shot I might be wrong on this it just popped in my head I think he did the Parachute Club Rise Up video and I think maybe that's how we got connected with him so he did Romantic Traffic video

and the Tell No Lies video and we would get together and have brainstorming sessions That's how we got connected with him. So he did romantic traffic video and the Tell No Lies video. And we would get together and have brainstorming sessions and sort of concept ideas. I don't know who came up with the idea for the subway first, but it's romantic traffic. And it seems like it's easier than trying to do something on the highways. We're like, go to the subways. So we were like a guerrilla camera crew down in the subways. And I mean, in those days, I don't think that we had to get specific permission things, except that we'd have to explain to people where we were and what we were doing.

And they would sort of assist us and mark off areas and stuff. Yeah, they'd shut you down today. Today, they'd be like, show us your permit. And then if you didn't have one, you'd be shut down. Totally. This was like the summer or whatever it was of 1984 and and we just i'm pretty sure it was like one or two days at the most maybe even just one one long ass day that we were just down there and going to the different stops and and riding on the cars and doing all the stuff you know and and stopping people because

it was sort of like like there was a concept but you kind of went with whatever was happening around you as well, you know? So we would get people to come in and like, like to have little cameos and whatever. I've seen people there's, there's one, uh, the videos uploaded somewhere on YouTube and some, I saw somebody commenting saying I was in this video and I, I was, you know, I was a kid and I'm in this scene. And I thought, well, that's really cool that there's enough places throughout that, that there are people who will know somebody or have seen somebody in there and although i'm drawing a blank on the name and i apologize but there is an fotm who has told me in the past that uh his girlfriend well he married this woman so now it's his wife is in that video as well so it's like one of those badge of honors like i'm in the romantic traffic

video neat sadly i'm not myself but i wish i was okay so uh before maybe tell us why you leave the spoons like why why does why do you leave the band like when and why do you exit when and why it was uh i had been in the band for five years at the point that i was considering leaving and we were having we were having some management changes happening and i think it all kind of a lot of the things that we were going through at that time had stemmed from some record company stuff like like i had said earlier with a&m records in the states not releasing talkback and we were in a bit of limbo in that way with some of the recording stuff that was happening and we'd been on the road a lot and and we weren't we were writing some new songs but there wasn't like a real prospect for like the next step as far as a recording thing happening and i always i mean

we tried to keep up keep up a brave face and be like yeah we're going to the studio we're gonna you know we're gonna be starting working on the next album whatever but there were there weren't really definitive plans ahead and i just started feeling like god i had just turned 20 years old and i've been in this band since I was 15 and like my I'm getting old I need to get serious now like my life is changing like I you know I need to move on somehow I'm like middle-aged you know um so I I just sort of made the decision that I was going to leave and so Derek left at the same time and we ended up leaving at the same time and Derek Ross ross for those who are following our drummer

right so we we both left at the same time it was early 86 that we left and i left without really knowing i had no no definite plan at all that what i was going to do i just sort of felt like it sort of felt like i just needed to get away from the band to know what i wanted to do next even though i didn't really know so now in in, in 2012, uh, the 30th anniversary edition of, uh, areas and symphony symphonies, uh, you guys do reunite. So there's a, there are shows of that. I guess we'll call this the classic lineup, uh, not the original lineup, but the classic lineup, which of course is Gord Depp, Sandy Horn, uh, Derek Ross and you, Sandy Horn, Derek Ross, and you, Rob Pruce.

So you did do some shows. So how often have you played since you left the band? How often have you reunited for a show or two? It's been a while, actually. The first time that we got together, I feel like I did a gig with them. Not a gig. I came up on stage once and played with them at the Horseshoe.

And I played Romantic Traffic with them. and that was sometime in the 90s because in the 1990s i got into the world of musical theater and i was playing in toronto um i was playing around the corner from the horseshoe i was at the princess of wales playing miss saigon or beauty and the beast one of the shows and spoons were at the horseshoe and i think i had been in touch with gourd because he had been working on some other new music and we'd vaguely talked about maybe doing something again and he's like oh we're playing the horseshoe come on over so after my show i went over and i got up on stage and played played romantic traffic with them then i played with them and we released the greatest hits cd in 95 called collectible spoons and that was the first kind of reunion gig that we did and i played like maybe six songs with them at this club called Ultrasound sure

which was an upstairs club somewhere right no for sure uh quickly though I just saw my notes did you play with the Moody Blues yes in 19 I played at Ontario Place at the forum that was the last time I played the forum um I was because at that time I was already playing shows and stuff and the Moody Blues were touring. They would tour around and hire an orchestra everywhere they went. And so the contractor for the Toronto show was a guy that I was playing with Saigon with. And they needed a keyboard player to kind of join the string section of the orchestra. And they're like, Rob, come and play the show.

So yeah, I had to wear a tuxedo. And I was on stage with the Moody Blues, but as part of the orchestra. Okay. I just, I took that note down. It was just, I know that was quite the random segue there, but I was like, it's very random. My whole life is like just random segues. You know, you just dropped the bomb and we're going to, I mean, Beauty and the Beast, Phantom of the Opera, Tommy, Miss Saigon, Starlight Express, Blood Brothers. Oh yeah. Oh, that's all that comes later. But, but as far as the spoons like yeah the arc of the rest of my of my time with spoons right which were fewer and farther between so i did this gig at this show in 95 then the next time i played with them was not until 2010 and they were doing a

show in toronto that was that was going to become at that point the 30th anniversary of of the band and i was in i'd already been living in New York at that time and I was doing Mamma Mia on Broadway, but I was coming up to Toronto and I actually had tickets to see Eddie Izzard at Massey Hall, same night that the Spoons were playing at the Tattoo Rock Parlor. And Gord said, you should come up on stage with us.

And I was trying to maybe think if I could get an excuse to not do it, but then I started thinking, oh, I guess it would be kind of fun to do. But I wanted to see Eddie Izzard. That's really the reason I was going to like maybe think if I could get an excuse to not do it but then I started thinking oh I guess it would be kind of fun to do but I wanted to see Eddie Izzard that's really the reason I was going to Toronto I was like damn they're playing the same night I got these tickets so I went and saw Eddie Izzard's first set and then I went over to see Gordon Sandy and we actually got together the day before Gordon and played through a couple songs so okay before beating this so much ground to cover with you, buddy, it's unbelievable. But before we touch on your musical theater, uh, predict pedigree, which is amazing. And then,

of course I mentioned, we're going to talk about FOTM, Carol Pope and world's a bitch. And I'm going to play a bit of that, but there's another band we got to talk about right now. You ready? Okay. Okay. Honeymoon suite. Oh, for God's sake. That's right. Wait, did you forget? Just to remind you. Now, I'm going to, okay, because this, I have a gentleman named Mark Weisblatt on this show every single month to do basically three-hour deep dives into, like, everything you should know from the past month and, like, Canadian pop culture and the media zeitgeist

and all these different things. And Richard Donner passed away recently. And we have the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment. And we were talking about Richard Donner passed away recently. And we have the Ridley Funeral Home Memorial segment, and we were talking about Richard Donner. Richard Donner directed a movie called Lethal Weapon. Okay. So while we're talking about the death of Richard Donner, we played...

I'm going to play it. I'm going to play a bit of this jam, and then we're going to talk about Honeymoon Suite. Here is a song called Lethal Weapon. When your life turns cold When it tears you apart Your heart and soul just can't go on Love's a life to set you free When it's gone, it's plain to see How even love can be cured When it's gone, it's plain to see.

How even love can be killed? Lethal Weapon. When you lose control. All right, I'll bring her down now. But, okay, this is Lethal Weapon. This is from the soundtrack for Lethal Weapon. This is Honeymoon Suite. I can tell that's the soundtrack version because we released it on our album as well,

but we spiced it up a little bit, but I can tell that that's the soundtrack version. So you're part of Honeymoon Suite when this jam is... That's me jamming on there. Yeah, that's you. Yeah. That was my first recorded song with Honeymoon Suite. Rob, you're all over the Canadian musical landscape here. That's you. Yep. Yeah. Okay. That was my first recorded song with Honeymoon Suite. Yep.

Rob, this is just, you're all over the Canadian musical landscape here. Okay. So where do I go with this? Except, funny, because we had discussions, me and Mark Wiseblood, about whether this is a good song or not. We didn't write the song. You can say what you want. Okay. Who wrote the song?

Mark Kamen. Okay. So. Who was the composer? He's the, he wrote the score for the film he was a film composer as well so how does honeymoon suite end up uh recording the the title song theme song for this big jam that uh from a movie with mel gibson and uh a big big big freaking movie lethal yeah Yeah. It was a record company thing because we were signed to Warner Brothers in LA and Warner's always loved Honeymoon Suite and were always looking for places

to give us new opportunities. And I think that they had the song, they knew for the film they wanted to have a band record the song and they were like, let's get Honeymoon Suite to do it. So they approached us and said, you guys, we want you to do the song. And our manager was like, you're doing the song and they were like let's get honeymoon sweet to do it so they approached us and said you guys we want you to do the song and our manager was like you're doing this song because we listened

we heard a demo of the song and the demo was was cool it was different i wish that i still had i might have it around somewhere but they sent us the song we're like what this is not like what we do but you know we decided that we would make it work for us and we went down to la the the plan was also because they wanted us to work with ted templeman as the producer because ted was one of the ceos of warner brothers but he was also like a uh long history of of recorded music producing van halen and the doobie brothers and all kinds of cool stuff and he was the lead one of the lead singers of uh harper's Bazaar in the 60s and stuff. But they wanted to pair us up

and see if maybe we could then have a recording life beyond this. So this was like our first song to do together. So they flew us down to LA. This was early 87. Wow. Only 35 years ago. Come on.

But how did you end up in Honeymoon Suite? Oh, that's right. I had to join the band first. I forgot about that. It's okay. It's my bad. So it was like nine months after I left Spoons. It was that same year.

And I got a call out of the blue to audition for Honeymoon Suite because I knew one of their managers. This sounds like my Spoons story too. Like I knew one of the managers as well. One of the co-managers of Honeymoon Suite had recently left the office and he was now managing, like he was going to do clients on his own. And he was quote unquote managing me,

even though I didn't have much to manage in my solo career, which was not really a career yet. It was just me trying to figure out what to do. So he heard that their original keyword player, Ray Coburn, had left the band. And he's like, oh, you know, I'm going to put you,

like throw your name in the hat. so i got a call from the tour manager and said he said we're auditioning keyboard players on this weekend and if you want to audition here's a list of songs and learn he listed like 13 songs from their first two albums and said here's some songs learn like four songs and come to this rehearsal studio in mississauga so I was like okay I guess like you know and then the more I thought about it over this this period of of the week to prepare for it I thought you know this might actually be really cool because I'm not really doing anything right now my hair was really long and really blonde and I thought god I sort of look like I could play in a rock band now too um and so I sort of got ambitious and inspired to learn these songs. And I thought, I'm really

going to try my best to get this gig. So I got the first two albums, got those albums, and I listened to these songs and I made a little cheat sheet. Like I had a little notebook and I wrote down, I programmed my keyboards. I had all my keyboards in my parents' basement and stuff. And I programmed all the songs and I learned them all. And I decided I would learn all the songs instead of just like four or five. Cause I didn't, I didn't want to say I learned these four songs and they're going to ask about the song I didn't learn. Right. That's so that's like me cushioning myself against failure is I made sure I went too far to be prepared. Um, so I went to the rehearsal space and I loaded up my parents' station wagon with my keyboards and went, um, and I said,

they're like, okay, what songs do you know and i said you pick a song like i was trying to be all cool about it but i was nervous as hell and so then i got the audition four days later we were opening for journey in kansas city so they were in the midst of a tour and they wanted to like find a keyboard player quickly so they could move on and i think they were happy that i had learned all these songs instead of just a few songs i was more prepared so they threw us back on the road and then that became like a moving train for like the next six months of my life,

which became the next like two and a half years of my life. So the Lethal Weapon opportunity came along into that whole process of me joining the band. I mean, and you're on their Racing After Midnight album. If people want to seek it out, you're playing with Honeymoon Suite on that one. Now the Lethal Weapon movies, like subsequent sequels,

I think they've done five now or something, but they would have theme songs. Like you'd hear like Eric Clapton and George Harrison and Sting and Elton John and these lightweights like that. But it's kind of cool that Honeymoon Suite does do that original theme song. Yeah.

So they flew us down to LA. Like I said, once they had said, you guys, you're going to come to LA and record the song. And they booked the studio. And the first thing we did when we got there was we went to see a screening of the film. So we got to meet Richard Donner. And he sort of thanked us for coming down

to be a part of the project, whatever. And we saw a cut of the film that wasn't quite finished. There was still like temp music in it. So it was neat. And I remember the weird memory of seeing it was that the ending wasn't quite finished like they hadn't finished editing the scene like the last final fight and the rain and the christmas lights and all that stuff you know but they wanted us to see it just to get a

sense of what we were heading to be a part of you know wow okay you're a big big part of uh hollywood history there as well so okay and and again musical theater is the bulk of i mean it sounds like at age 23 uh you were playing musical theater. I mean, here and then you're in New York right now. And that's, is that because you need to be close proximity to Broadway? Is that the deal there? I came down here specifically to do the show Mamma Mia.

I had started with the show in Toronto in the year 2000, turn of the century. In the year 2000 turn of the century exactly um and I did the show in Toronto for a year and then I came on the road to do it on the west of America I was in San Francisco and in Los Angeles and then I went to Chicago and in the meantime while I was doing that they asked if I would come to New York to do the show because they were getting ready to set it up on Broadway and and i was like sure i'd love to come to new york with a job so i settled here so i moved here in the summer of 2001 august 2001 i moved here and i always just i always say specifically august 2001 because then i was here on september 11 2001 which made me become like an

honorary new yorker because that was just the event that sort of propelled us into the 21st century right but we were the first show to open on Broadway after September 11th and we ran so I did the show like the entire run on Broadway which was uh 14 years we closed in 2015 wow wow and you are you do you have a Grammy or you're part of a Grammy because uh once the music once the musical uh one technically I think I could get like a certificate for a Grammy because I was on, like I was the associate music supervisor on that Grammy winning soundtrack. But I don't have a Grammy. My friend Martin Lowe has a Grammy,

but I was his assistant on the recording and I worked on the show with him and stuff. Okay, well, well done, my friend. Now, very recently you became, you went top of mind as they say, because is it Church of Trees? Church of Trees is the name. Okay, so basically, I got my hands on Worlds of Bitch and used that as an excuse to get Carol Pope on the phone, basically,

and chat her up. She's in New York as well, as you know. Now, let me play a bit of World's a Bitch and then we'll talk about working with Carol Pope on this fairly recent. I think we're going back only about a year or so, right? This is only 20. Not quite a year, yep.

Not quite a year. Okay, still pretty current. Good. So here's a bit of World's a Bitch and then we'll talk about that. The number you have dialed has been... Mask off! Mask off! This effed up world's a bitch This locked down life is so closed in I am so tired of being alone

I can't go out, I can't see shit No romantic circumstances So claustrophobic on my own They keep saying Just be patient Mask on and raving Can't take much more before I spit And of course, this is literally the Rob Proust version of Worlds of Bitch.

So tell us your role in all this and anything anything you can about but i think i just think the world of her like i think she's cool as as hell tell me about your pope yeah um we became friends in new york we met in new york actually in um almost 20 years ago i'm pretty sure it was like 2002 and um i was in a store down on 23rd Street, just bumming around, and I was with a friend of mine, and I was just looking in a rack, and over there was Carol Pope. I said to my friend, that's Carol Pope,

and my friend was like, I don't know who that is. My friend was American. So I was like, oh, she's a really famous Canadian singer. And I just went up and introduced myself, and as I was walking up to her, I said, oh yeah, of course you know me because we met like at the Juno Awards or something.

I said, you might not remember. She probably didn't really remember specifically, but I said, you know, I was in The Spoon. So of course she knew the band, blah, blah, blah. And she's like, oh, cool. So I said, I think I just gave her my number. And I said, you know, she had just moved to New York as well.

And I said, if you want to stay in touch or if you ever need a keyboard player, call me, whatever. And sure enough, like know, she had just moved to New York as well. And I said, if you, if you want to stay in touch or if you ever need a keyword player, call me, whatever. And sure enough, like a few weeks later, she called and left a message on my machine. It was like, let's go for coffee or something. So we just sort of became friends in New York and, and we started like looking for ways to, to do music together. Um, I played, they did a really cool Joni Mitchell tribute concert at a place called

Symphony Space in New York. This was years ago and I played piano for her and we did two Joni Mitchell songs. And then I played bass guitar for her at a couple of gigs and then we co-wrote some songs. And so this goes by over the last like 20 years, you know, working on things sporadically with her, but, but also just being friends, getting together, hanging out and stuff. She's just such a cool person. She's very intimidating at first like you know she's a really nice person but she she's so cool and she's like quiet and she's a little bit shy but the shyness sometimes comes off as

like who do you think you are wanting to come talk to me but she's not that way at all like she's just i don't know i love her love her to death so in the last few years i've been working with bernard fraser and his band church of trees and bern've been working with Bernard Fraser and his band Church of Trees and Bernard likes working with different vocalists and at some point we had been having a conversation about trying to think of new singers to bring in for the new projects

and he had this one song and I think I just suggested to him I said you should send this to Carol Pope or he said to me what do you think Carol Pope would do this and I was like yeah sure why not so I texted Carol I said my friend's got this song what do you think and i sent her the demo and she was like

cool i love it so it was it was really kind of that easy to put it together so i i put her in touch with bernard and they organized the recording session in toronto and i played some keyboards and stuff and then i did that remix version as well and yeah it's sort of like a like a magical marriage and then we did a music video. Bernard did a music video with a video director from Burlington who was somebody that I knew as well. Love it and it sounds great. And it's a cool song, thanks.

And yeah, Carol Pope, like Canadian legend. I'm not forgetting, I gotta remove Canadian. I always say Canadian, but you know, just what a legend. She really is. Imagine being friends of Carol fucking Pope. Look at your life, Rob Proust. That's amazing.

Okay, buddy. Listen, honestly, we covered so much ground. I feel like I could talk to you for hours, but you probably won't. And we only touched on the surface of Friendly Giant.

Okay, well, I was going to say, this is like your opportunity. I've learned that sometimes I'll rap of a guest. I think they put in like 90 minutes. They must be exhausted or whatever. And then after we stop recording, they're like,

oh, we never got to. And then they'll blow your mind with something. And you're like, why didn't you bring it up? So this is like an opportunity just before we hear some lowest of the low on our way out. Anything you want to share with the FOTMs, with the masses

here on your Toronto Mike debut, which by the way, you hit it out of the parkOTMs, with the masses here on your Toronto Mike debut, which by the way, you hit it out of the park. Honestly, what a debut. I hope you can come back at some point because this was amazing for me. I would love it. I got nothing. I really, I mean, my plans for the future are really,

I'm sort of planning a music tour, like a solo piano synthesizer thing that I've been dreaming of doing for a couple of years, but since the world shut down because the world's a bitch, as the world removes its bitchiness and I see things starting to happen again, I'm like, okay, now's the time to put this in motion. So I'm sort of like scouting out locations of like small clubs and maybe even like house concert kind of things. And that's sort of where my future lies beyond the yellow brick road. And that involves playing in Toronto, right?

Toronto and Canada. I mean, really, what I really want to do is I really miss traveling across our home and native land. So that's the thing. And it may start somewhere in Toronto or Burlington or maybe in Halifax or maybe in Chilliwack, BC. I don't really know because I have different friends in different places who I'm like, oh, in Calgary as well. I have a friend in Calgary, in Edmonton that I'm working on some stuff too. So I don't know.

But I really come make music for people. Well, listen, if you play in this city, Toronto, I'm going to bike over and watch this meet you, finally get to meet you face-to-face because here you are. Which borough are you in? Brooklyn? Where are you in New York?

I'm in Queens. Queens. Queens. So. Queens. So Queens represent. Okay. I just watched a hip hop documentary on CBC Gem and they were talking about the Queens versus Bronx rap battles of the early 80s. So you've got your side ironed out there. Again, Rob, thanks so much, buddy.

And I can't wait to, at some point, meet you in person. For sure. much, buddy. And I can't wait to, at some point, meet you in person. For sure. And that brings us to the end of our 952nd show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at

TorontoMike. Rob is at RobPruisX. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. ChefDrop is at GetChefDrop. Chef Drop is at Get Chef Drop. Mineris is at Mineris. McKay's CEO Forums are at McKay's CEO Forums. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta.

Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home, they're at Ridley FH. And Mike Majeski of Remax Specialists Majeski Group. He's on Instagram at Majeski Group Homes. See you all next week. Everything is kind of rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the snow, snow, warms me today. And your smile is fine, and it's just like mine,

and it won't go away. Because everything is rosy and gray. Well, you've been under my skin for more than eight years It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you oh you know that's true because everything is coming up rosy and gray yeah the wind is cold but the smell of snow won't stay today and your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy and green

Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day But I wonder who Yeah, I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize There's a thousand shades of grey Cause I know that's true Yes, I do I know it's true, yeah

I know it's true How about you? Are they picking up trash and then putting down ropes? This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started. won't go away cause everything is rosy and green Well I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain

And I've kissed you in places I better not name And I've seen the sun go down on Chaclacour But I like it much better going down on you Yeah, you know that's true Because everything is coming up Rosy and green

Yeah, the wind is cold But the smell of snow Warms us today And your smile is fine and it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is rosy now Everything is rosy, yeah Everything is rosy and great Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah