Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Skye Wallace: Toronto Mike'd #491

Episode Date: July 25, 2019

Mike chats with Skye Wallace about her critically acclaimed third album, being a Canadian independent musician, and what's next for her. She also plays live in the Toronto Mike'd studio.

Welcome to episode 491 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Propertyinthe6.com, Palma Pasta, Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair, StickerU.com, andappadia LLP CPAs. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com and joining me this week is singer-songwriter Sky Wallace. Welcome, Sky.

Hey, Mike. How's it going? If I looked at your driver's license right now, would it say Sky? Yes. That's a real name that you were given at birth. Yeah, real name. Thanks, Mike. How's it going? If I looked at your driver's license right now, would it say Sky? Yes. That's a real name that you were given at birth. Yeah, real name.

Thanks, Mom. And there's an E at the end. There is, like the island in Scotland, which is what I'm named after. See, I don't even know about this island. I should know this, right? It's in the Hebrides. It's a bit of a ways out. It's probably raining there right now.

For sure. I envision like Game of Thrones like castles and maybe there's like somebody's golfing in the rough terrain. Oh yeah perhaps yeah it's very dramatic the whole thing yeah. See I thought sky I'm thinking like you know there's people named summer and there's people named river yeah right and then but I never even knew about this island. Well it's funny like I grew up in Ontario and then I moved to the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, and I was about 15 and finished high school. And there were already three different skies there,

but I'd never met one previously. Wow. Because it's like the granola. Very much so, yeah. Left coast thing. Yeah. Yeah. In Toronto, we don't name our children sky.

Unless you're my parent. We should. But I'm going to read this quote. I think it's from your site. I don't know. You'll tell me. But it says, Sky Wallace is what happens when a trained singer with East Coast roots

discovers punk rock in her youth and writes music that makes you feel excited. Is that from your bio? Do you know where I got that from? I think that's a bio. Yeah. Bio quote. So East Coast roots. Yeah. My mom's side of the family is from Newfoundland and I moved around a lot when I

was younger, so I don't exactly even have a hometown. Toronto's home now, but I do, you know, like the East Coast element definitely kind of infiltrated my sound in the way that I write, for sure. So it's definitely an inspiring factor. Yeah. No, amazing. I love the East Coast. But I thought you'd come in from Nova Scotia because that's like New Scotland. Yeah.

That's where the sky. They're actually from Newfoundland. Funny enough. Yeah. I love Nova Scotia, though. And you've lived all over this country, right? Like, do you want to name drop like places you've lived? Oh, okay.

Let's see. Whitby, Ajax, Mississauga, Port Perry, Kitchener, actually Breslau, Toronto, then lived in Edmonton, Vancouver, Central Coast, BC, etc. My wife is from Edmonton. Really? Yeah, Central Coast, BC, etc. My wife is from Edmonton. Really?

I have to say that because there's a Toronto Mike bingo card and they get like a square for that. So anytime somebody mentions Edmonton, I have to jump in. A source tells me that you're good at curling. Whoa, yeah, you are correct. I have good sources. I won't reveal them, OK? But I've done my uh my my homework here nice so tell me a bit about like how you fell in love with curling and are you a good curler and do you fall like do you follow it on tv like do you know who vick router is i know the names like i don't follow it religiously but like my entire family does uh i

i first started curling because i i mean i didn't really have a choice in the matter. Actually, I lived behind the curling club that my grandfather managed. He's an ice maker and we all lived together behind the curling club. And I started curling little rocks when I was about six or so, six or seven. So, yeah. So it's in your lineage. It's in your blood oh yeah you couldn't escape it and do you still curl like you're part of a club or something no occasionally i'll do the odd like when i was i did a residency in dawson city yukon last year and that was like i curled probably 10 times that month i was there but uh not on the reg as it were you know now i realize i can't do any of my vick router material i have a wealth of Vic Router material,

but I know you don't know who that is because you thought it was a curler. But it's the commentary. Oh, okay. Make the final, but I won't do any Vic for you here. But amazing. Now, you recently toured with Lowest of the Low. I did. I need details.

Like, did they approach you? Like, how did it come to be? Like, where did you play with them? Are they nice to you? I need to know everything. They are the nicest. They were the nicest people I've ever met. I first encountered...

Did they pay you to say that? Yeah. Actually, I will say, just before you even... Let's hear from Mike. They are very nice. They're so nice. They're sweethearts and great musicians now please continue yeah so i guess

i first um became acquainted with those folks when um ron hawkins approached me to open four nights in a row for him at the only when he was doing that solo show you wrote a song about the only did yeah it was a cool thing it was like i've never seen that kind of following before where he could just like sell out four nights in a row and the the amount of material that guy has like he did two sets every single night and i don't think he repeated a song you're right because he could do he can do his like he's got of course there's lowest of low stuff yeah there's like rusty what's it ron hawkins and the rusty nails and the do-good assassins there's like the solo stuff you can draw from all these different places oh is it, Ron Hawkins and the Rusty Nails. Right. And the Do Good Assassins. There's like the solo stuff you can draw from all these different places.

Oh, yeah. It was incredible. And it was all good, too. Like, yeah, that was pretty. Okay, but that's Ron Solo, right? That's Ron Solo. That's where I first kind of was. Yeah.

So, basically, he's watching you perform and he's obviously thinking this woman is very talented. I'm just assuming. Here's hoping. But that was interesting, too, because he was solo and I was solo. And he's with the lowest of the low with the full band stuff. And I'm used to playing with a band. So I think that kind of piqued his interest.

He wanted to see what the full band was all about. We also share an agency. So it seemed like a good match. They were putting out a new record, which is excellent, way agitpop and uh oh yeah here okay real i don't mean to interrupt you but there's an agitpop sticker for you for me oh and also they didn't even give me that well they didn't make them that's why you you made these okay i got them made but they were actually made by a sponsor of the show sticker you oh amazing made them because because I had an event on June 27th. Okay.

It was called TMLX3 and the low played that event. Amazing. So everyone who came to the event was given, that's a tattoo. I love temporary tattoos. Oh, do you?

Yeah. Sorry you said that. I brought a temporary tattoo for you. Did you? Mine too. Because I've got lots of them. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

All right. So, and then we're going to get back to Agitpop and everything but so you have an agitpop sticker so like perfect uh temporary tattoo of the agitpop the new release by lois delo there's toronto mic uh reversible i mean uh temporary tattoos and a toronto mic sticker you can put on your car somebody people have been doing that you have to put it on your car and take a picture and tweet it at me and of course it's all courtesy of sticker you dot com i actually need to get stickers printed honestly so this is perfect i can even yeah uh the like you just upload the image okay and you can get as many as you want like one or as many

as you want and you can get these decals came from these guys like they're in liberty village like not too far from you like they're i highly recommend them for anything you need that sticks like a sticker or like like perfect for uh sky stickers absolutely no done okay now back to your uh lowest of the low story yeah so um yeah they put out that record and we're going on tour and we were asked to open, which I was over the moon about because I'm a big fan. And it was a really cool fit. Like it was a cool bill. We were honored and just like such nice audiences, like cool folks. Great.

We did six shows in Ontario with them. Yeah. There's no assholes that are fans of the low. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Because they've all been weeded out. Like there might have been in like the early 90s. There some jerks like in the low right for sure like but then by the time you get to 2019 those guys have all been like defeated by life or whatever so everybody's all

like chill and just having a good time totally it's great now uh you were not born when uh shakespeare my butt came out right i? I think I was. Were you? Am I allowed to ask? Yeah. So what year were you born? I was born in 89. Okay, yeah. So you were probably jamming out in diapers or whatever, having a good time.

Okay. So you're doing the tour of Lowest of the Low. And then this kind of, let me find this here. Hold on here. Let me find it here. I'm trying to get myself organized okay brad wheeler writes for the globe and mail right i'm trying to get him on the show he covers music and stuff and he says that your new your new album is self-titled right it? It is. That's right. Sky Wallace. He says, this is his words. Okay. So Brad's watching.

I'm quoting Brad. One of the four best Canadian albums in the world right now. And this is a recent thing. It's not like he put that in there like years ago. No. Yeah. I was floored by that. Yeah.

I did not expect to be on that list. And I will read. Can I read it all? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. You know, I'm going blind. I have to start increasing the font size of mine. that list and i will read can i read it all absolutely yeah okay okay yeah you know i'm going blind i have to start increasing the font size of mine i think i just need to wear glasses

but anyway that's my own problem there's a problem in the indie music business because the artists aren't making any money off streaming they tour more and take other jobs to support themselves all of which leaves less time to write songs. Maybe you're fine with songwriters working on verse during a break at Burger King. Fine, have it your way. But the art suffers. For her fourth album, the Toronto-based rocker Sky Wallace was able to ruminate on material during writing retreats in Dawson City, Yukon, and Norris Point, Newfoundland. Those are far away from each other.

Very far away. Yukon and Norris Point, Newfoundland. Those are far away from each other. Very far away. The result is a work of rugged guitar-based angst by a songwriter inspired by ghost stories, family lore, folk tales, and more than one small-town nursing history. Coal in Your Window sounds like

the Amelia Curran, Queens of the Stone Age collaboration I Never Knew I Needed. Always Sleep with a Knife is good feminist advice. Wallace herself describes There Is a Wall as an anthem against glass ceilings and a song for the untold stories. I'm not sure whether Wallace has a switchblade under her pillow,

but I bet there's a pen there. Okay, do you have a switchblade under your pillow? Not currently. Okay, I'm actually relieved to hear that. Like, am I in danger right now? My pillow's not here, so you don't have to worry. So did you like, did you print things up? Like, did you, like when you saw this, I guess it's digital now. Like, did you go buy a physical copy? No, I didn't even think of that, but I definitely screen captured it. That's the new physical. Yeah, absolutely.

I was honestly, that was such a thoughtful writeup too. Like it was one thing to be on that list. Obviously that was incredible. I was over the moon, but to have that kind of thoughtful, uh, articulate writeup and someone who actually definitely,

it's got a lot of credibility. Absolutely. Yeah, no, he's incredible. That was like very, very kind of him to take the time. It's not like I said and you'd be like oh come on no brad wheeler's like a real guy for a real publication yeah he's uh he's the guy he's the guy now the expression uh over the moon you

like i said that twice haven't i not only that you when i first wrote you about coming on the show you said you'd be over the moon and i was and i thought to myself like oh what a neat expression like over the moon like i'm gonna start working that in yeah conversations but you've said it twice already already said it now i'm i'm really gonna try to not say it a third time but it might happen i was once told by a loyal listener that i nodded too much and okay and then for the next episode i was like so conscious of this like am i nodding too much like oh i am just letting the guests know I'm listening and agreeing or whatever. And now, and you can't live that way.

Like you just can't, you can't, you gotta keep saying, uh, over the moon. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

You can't, you can't change who you are because some, somebody noticed or, you know, had an issue with it. So true. That's good words to live by for sure. I hope that you're over the moon with that advice i super am yeah all right take a sip of your water i'm gonna read

a little bit more here so um because i want to hear about like this dawson creek yukon in new finland oh yeah retreat or whatever but get right into uh the toronto singer's voice soars like colliding fireworks filled with the thirst of lovers. Okay, I'll say it again. I guess that's you, right? That's me, actually. That's about me. Your voice soars like colliding fireworks filled with the thirst of lovers. That's from Noisy. Mm-hmm. Women are making the best rock music on the planet. The list is lengthy and adding to it is Canadian rocker Sky Wallace. That's the review. Sky Wallace is a national

treasure. Sad mag. Should I know? I need to renew my subscription to sad mag. All very kind words. Everything this woman does is with raw passion and musical power. Grant Lawrence,

CBC. I was just listening to him on the way here on radio three. Radio three. Yes. Yeah. So lots of great press, like good reviews. That's the Brad Wheeler thing is amazing.

So why don't we just start by like when Brad Wheeler talks about your, like, yeah, your Yukon, Newfoundland, like, what did you do? Like,

tell me, like, did you work at Burger King or did you just kind of like, I think that Newfoundland like what did you do like tell me like did you work at Burger King or did you just kind of like I think that was an arbitrary representation but you know like I have worked and do work at different service jobs especially in like you know in the process of creating an album there's a lot of investment so while you're waiting for it to come out it's definitely good to have a supplementary income can you be specific on all of this like yeah this is the place where like, I'm crazy for the details.

Like you want to know where I work right now? Okay. Okay. I work at mom's the word, which is a cafe on college street at college and Bathurst. Okay. No, this is okay.

So you, did you work there today? I did. Okay. So did you come straight from there? I did. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. So I finished at one and then I walked my managers in Vancouver right now. And she, my manager is Megan vancouver right now and my manager is megan davidson and she let me use her car and drove out here with my guitar okay here i am because you have your guitar here which is an important detail because it's gonna at some point yeah at some point i'm gonna make you take it out of that that case there oh and can we stick the toronto mic sticker on it oh absolutely oh you don't have to say yes anywhere you want okay cool yeah can do absolutely i was gonna i was thinking do i put her on the spot like that that's mean no poor lady doesn't want to do that okay so you work at the cafe

and what's like when you put out an album like this is a critically acclaimed album like i've been and we're gonna play some stuff i pulled some stuff because it sounds amazing and by the way when your name is sky wallace and people say you're a musician i was listening i thought i'd hear something like a little more like like softer and more like delicate you know what i mean yeah i get that all the time like i didn't think it would rock totally i like that i like playing with people's expectations it's kind of fun yeah and it's like well this is like a like a little bit of like, what's her name? Brody Daly. The distillers.

There's this whole like, cool. Thank you. Yeah. And I think that's like drain the blood or something like that. It gets really cool. Cool. I appreciate that.

Okay. So, so, so when you're making the album, it costs you money. Yeah. Like, yeah.

Can you tell me how much? No, I mean, it's, you don't have to give me the, there's an amount for the recording, but there's also just the variables of like, you know, you're not making any money off of it yet.

And there can be like a year to two years where you're sitting on it and you know, your, your investment that can't pay off for a while, that kind of thing where it's, it's, you know, it's harder to, you're not circulating it with touring as much as say like when you do when you release it, that kind of thing. So it's really, I honestly, I feel very lucky to have a very um flexible tour schedule or a side side hustle for sure for sure okay because and i've never made an album but you have to do two things right you have to like write the songs yeah and then you have to record the song yeah and in places that require you know rentals and with people that require uh you know being paid for their work, etc. Like producers.

Yeah, producers, mixing, mastering, all of the players on it. Right. Yeah, everything. Studio owners. And how expensive? It sounds great. But okay, so we'll get to the phase of you writing the album. But basically, to write the album, you can't work at the cafe.

No. So do you just save money? like to write the album, you can't work at the cafe. Like, so, so do you just save money? Well, I had, so I had a period starting last summer where I was not working at the cafe. They, I kind of went away and then came back in the, in the winter time here. So I was on tour a lot last summer. I was like doing a lot of different things and,

and I kind of have been able, I've been lucky in that I've been able to take some windows of time away from work and do these things. And the residencies where I wrote these particular ones, especially the one in Dawson city, Yukon, like the travel, for instance,

was, was supplemented and that kind of thing. They were kind of like, they provided me a place to stay during my, my time there. And so it was like, okay, so you have to get yourself there?

No. They brought me up there, which was really nice. Which is incredible. But we keep doing that. Like that sounds really good on the mic. Oh, right there? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Keep moving away. I'm sorry. That's okay. I just, every time I increase in the back end, then there's just like little. Okay. Little high pitch thing here.

And it's like, I don't like that. Okay. thing here and it's like i don't like that okay so uh you can leave your job and go to uh dawson city yukon yeah and when you're there like tell me what happens when you're there well this was like an incredible residency that it was through the dawson city music festival and they put this on where it's the entire month of January. The program differs person to person where the application process, you actually kind of map out what you have in mind for the residency for yourself. So for mine, it was I had in mind to write this record and to like to like finish writing the remainder of the record that I already started.

And I wanted to do a series of things. I wanted to be inspired by the place, by the people, by stories. I wanted to research in the area. I also wanted to, you know, like have my own radio program. So I had one on CFYT in Dawson City. Cool. Yeah. That is cool.

And you can stream that on the web, right? Yeah, you can. So like Toronto friends can like listen. Yeah, it was really cool it was like i had a bunch of call-ins i actually um i interviewed lawrence hill who was up there at the same time who's the uh author of book of necros uh it was just like all these crazy things kind of came together it was a cool time it was really cool and but you came back so i did come back but i went back last summer for the festival itself, which was the best festival I've ever played.

It was incredible. And I can see myself going back for sure because it was so incredible. And I thought it would be more remote. I thought I'd have all this alone time. But I was busier than I was in Toronto, to be honest. What time of the year was this? This was all of January. So what's it like there in January?

What's the climate like? It got down to minus 45 at one point, and there's very few hours of sunlight in a day which was wild that's why sad mag covers you yeah yeah yeah seasonal effective disorder magazine yeah that's it that's it it's a thing up there but uh the the house that i was uh being put up at that i was in it all by myself and it was a big old house that was definitely haunted based on a lot of people in town had had experiences like i've been told many times did you have an experience i didn't but it was because i was very against having an experience but do you believe in ghosts i don't know what I believe, but I was like very determined about mental blocks and like, you know,

like not going in certain rooms. It was hard when it was dark all the time. Sounds like you believe in ghosts. I think I do. Because you altered your behavior. I just don't want to chance it, you know? You've left the window open. There might be ghosts.

Yeah. So that sounds like it would just add to the ambience or whatever. For sure. But it's, you know, you're by yourself for a month in that house. It's, you know, scary when you're there. Okay. So, yeah.

Any more details about the whole process? Well, the songs themselves, they're all, I do tend to take like a storytelling element to my songwriting. Just like that's what interests me the most. I don't tend to write about myself very often. All of the songs are inspired by the stories of women that I learned along the way or that I know that inspired me. Be that from Dawson City, Yukon or from Newfoundland where I did the other residency or some of them are of my family.

Should I know what a residency is? Should I know what that is? It can be a bunch of different things the one that i'm referring to is like where an artist can go and be in the space and work on whatever project they're they're working on but you have to like win this or be like appointed or something or do you there are tons of different ones in canada which is i'm so ignorant no no they're honestly there are so many different ones that it's can i get one yeah yeah absolutely i did one at the nmc last, which is... I'm so ignorant, Skye. No, no. Honestly, there are so many different ones that it's hard. Can I get one? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I did one at the NMC last year, which is in Calgary,

the National Music Center, where it was a residency under a master in residence who was Stephen Page. So that was very different from the residency in the Yukon. I know Stephen Page. He's amazing, right? Yeah. Drove downtown in the rain. You're better than me at that. Oh, I'm not. I'll let you do the singing from.30 on a Tuesday night

you're better than me at that I'll let you do the singing from now on on this show and Steven, oh yeah cool so it's a very diverse, it's a very loose concept because it can be all these different things and the one in Newfoundland, that was fairly self-directed

and it was just in collaboration it was kind of a pilot project for something that they want to do more of in the future it was the first time they'd ever done this i worked with the bond bay cottage hospital heritage corporation and you remember the whole title there i do very good okay so you so okay so you write songs great songs thank you because we're gonna hear some you're gonna like i don't want to do you want to tell me now what you're gonna play so i don't play it or does it matter um i was gonna do a song called midnight okay i don't have that so man we're good midnight was a great iced tea song okay it's actually a cover of that song because that's where i learned all the streets in like

compton because in this song it's like midnight yeah and i remember he'd name drop all the streets and then i'd find out these are real streets or whatever from like where he grew up or whatever so this is going way back now i can't even remember now maybe maybe uh the og original gangsta anyway doesn't doesn't this doesn't matter sky but i see did have a song called midnight okay and i'm glad you covered it and And I can't wait to hear. Who covered that Boys in the Hood? There was a band. I saw them open up for like Weezer at the Phoenix.

Oh, wow. Okay. A band covered Boys in the Hood by NWA. And they actually had a hit with it. Like it was all over 102.1. It's ringing a bell, but I can't. I can't remember their names, but I saw them live and it was like,

they weren't that good, but they had this cover cover of and i guess it's like an ironic cover because that's such a gangster song that was like a bunch of time too i guess like it's been a thing for a while it's like the band's covering rap song yeah but ironically like because these were not these were not this was not a very like street band or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. From some suburb or something. But okay, I want to thank some people. Before we even go in here. So I want to thank Doug Mills from Blue Sky Agency because yesterday Doug came over and gave me a new chair. The chair I'm sitting in right now is a new chair

because I threw out just yesterday. It's funny. Yesterday I took my, the only chair this studio has ever known. I took it outside. It was broken and I put it out in front of my house. And then this morning I was walking the kids to summer camp. Okay.

And I saw my chair like 15 doors down. Like some, I don't know if somebody in the middle of the night, just it has wheels on it. Like maybe somebody just went for a spin so now it's in front of a house like 15 doors down or whatever but thank you blue sky agency for this chair it matches your chair because they also donated your chair but they did that years ago so they're very good to me and lisa um macintosh came over she's a local photographer she was here when doug got here

and she photographs like musicians like cool has she ever photographed you no no i've seen her yeah i think i've seen her on instagram yeah like i was looking at like all of the musicians that she had photographed and there's like oh there's tom wilson there's jim cuddy there's tom cochran and all these people i and i'm thinking, like, yeah, she should photograph you. Yeah. Would you be down for that? I'd be so down, absolutely. Okay, because she would love it, yeah.

Okay, so Lisa came and photographed me. Cool. Because, you know, I'm a famous musician, so I should be photographed, too. No, no. But I want to thank those two people. Oh, and Andrew Stokely, longtime friend of the show, helped set this all up in the beginning, loves your album. Like,

what did he write? He wrote, always, always sleep with a knife and death of me are my favorites, my personal favorites off the album. So here, before I even give you these, these gifts,

I already gave you the stickers, but this is a little taste. So this is one of Andrew Stokely's favorite songs. Going out to Mr. Stokely. I can't stop, I can't concentrate I got 15 more hours to go A couple of years, no since I worked here I have been the one dressed in white It's a blessing and a curse to know What we are in for

I've seen this before My lungs are filling with dread I may be done for This is a final love What's Death of Me about? So Death of Me I wrote in what used to be an old cottage hospital and is now an art center, etc. And I stayed there for three weeks.

And I was told the story of a woman who had been the head nurse there at the cottage hospital when it was in operation. And she gave up her position when she was married. And she returned to the cottage hospital when she was giving birth. And she actually died in childbirth due to complications. And it really struck me as so insane that she would have had such a knowledge of what was going on and so closely knew like the ins and outs of how this went that she would have known exactly what was going on and she was dying and apparently she she haunted the place for quite some time people have said and that story

really struck a chord with me so I wrote the song. Now this song and many on this album are kind of like, they really bring me back to like, they're kind of, I won't say grungy, but you know what I mean? They're kind of, like I said, they rock.

So what are your musical influences? What do you... I mean, there's lots of stuff. Because people are like, you're supposed to be doing pop music now. You know that, right? Yeah, I know, I know. What are you doing?

I don't know. But by the way, you guys in here are wishing there was more of this out there yeah i mean i thank you i i'm stoked to be making this kind of music and also to be like a female identifying person taking some space in this kind of realm because it is like a fairly like rock is fairly male dominated um and it's it's been really fun to make this kind of music and to like bring that kind of energy to it um my musical influences i would say would be like like patty smith and and but then neil young but then like against me but then you know i'm like i realized recently the tragically hip are a huge huge influence so

things like that all across the board lots of pieces at play did you ever like uh biff naked yeah absolutely i love biff naked did you in vancouver yeah she's so cool you know where she lives now did you not live in vancouver no she abandoned vancouver for this neck of the woods she's in mimico really yeah she lives in mimico now i know she was in vancouver like 30 years or something yeah i know and we took her like i feel like it's like one for us We got Biff. We got Biff. Hello, Biff. Yeah, she's great. Now, let me think. Let me give you the lasagna here.

So you wanted a vegetarian lasagna. I did, yeah. Thank you. Do you eat meat? I do, but very rarely. Okay, good. My roommates are all vegetarian too, so I figured I'm not going to eat the lasagna all to myself. But they're not vegan,

are they? No. That's the big difference because the vegans won't eat the cheese. Yes, that's right. Yeah. So I'm catching on here. But you vegetarians,

this is perfect. There's no meat in here. Okay. This is courtesy of Palma Pasta. I actually just saw a tweet before you arrived from Andrew Ward

who went to Palma because Palma sponsors Toronto Mike. So thank you Palma Pasta for fueling the real talk. People should go to palmapasta.com. They have locations in Mississauga and Oakville. They're on

Skip the Dishes. Great family-run business. Authentic Italian food. I promise you, Skye, when you cook that up, you're going to be tweeting at me that it's the best lasagna you've ever got from a store. Oh, God.

I'm so excited. I'm so excited. Thank you, Palma Pasta. Thank you. Do you drink? You don't have to. It's okay. I do.

I mean, not right now, but I will be come in a few weeks. I'm taking a bit of a time off. Oh, you took like an alcohol break. A little break. Yeah. Okay. Because was it getting too crazy? Yeah.

I feel like, I think a lot of people, I've talked to a lot of people in the industry about this where it's like, it's hard, it's hard not to in this business and there was so much,

we were very busy with the release and with all the shows that there's a certain point where you kind of have a drink or two to keep your energy going

because you're so tired and you don't want to interact with people sometimes because you're, you just drove and then you drove another place and then you drove another place and then you have a drink or two to keep your energy going because you're so tired and you don't want to interact with people sometimes because you just drove and then you drove another place and then you drove another place and then you have a drink or two to get you there. And that's fine and good. But for the next little bit, I don't have to do that. But you're taking a break. Exactly. But not a permanent hiatus. So this will still be fresh when you come back from the break. I appreciate that. It's a six pack from

Great Lakes Brewery.pack from great lakes brewery they're a local uh brewery they uh you know fresh craft beer they've been very good friends of the show the octopus here from octopus wants to fight one of my favorites but i uh in fact i i often tell people you want to support the show when you're in like a bar or restaurant or whatever and they don't serve great lakes talk to the manager and, why the hell don't you have Great Lakes beer? That's the best beer. And that's how it works. Then, you know, they can talk to Great Lakes

and start offering Great Lakes. I love Great Lakes. Yeah. Thank you very much. This is where Lois and Lolo played. They played on the Great Lakes patio. Really? Oh, cool.

You should play a Toronto Mic to Listener Experience. I want to do that. Can I do that? Dangerous words to say because I'm going to remember this forever and then I'm going to ask you to do it. I'm ready. I'm ready to do this. Would you do a duet with Danny Graves

from The Watchmen? Definitely. I got ideas flying through. Okay, we're gonna we're gonna okay good that's exciting so the great lakes beer the pasta the stickers now let's just before we get back to uh sky wallace jams whenever i say the word wallace i think of the character from the wire where's wallace where's wallace you don't know what I'm talking about right now. I don't know who I am. I'm sorry. String, where's Wallace? Anyway, let's play a song that was number one 20 years ago this week.

This is on the Billboard Hot 100, so the big US chart. What was number one? You ready? do you know this song i do but now you're getting comfortable and do most things you did no more you're slowly making me I do. Do you like this song? I do. How could you not? I'm with you. I'm with you. Even come and step to me Ask to hold some money from me Until you get your check next week You're trifling

Good for nothing type of brother Silly me Why haven't I found another I'll bring down Destiny's Child And let's hear a bit more Sky over top Are you kidding me? Do it Or I guess

Or 10. This is back when there were four members of Destiny's Child. Oh, yeah. Did you remember that? I forgot about that. Yeah. So, yeah, that's beyond. This is like the Diana Ross and the Supremes.

This is Beyonce's old band so yeah yeah bills bills bills was number 120 years ago this week and i remember the time is brought to you by fast time watch and jewelry repair sky do you wear any jewelry not really no okay this is elastic do you have any you own any watches i aspire to when you do finally have a watch when it's battery needs replacement or the band needs replacement or if you needed a new watch you go to fast time watch and jewelry repair they've been doing quality watch and jewelry repairs for almost 40 years if you mentioned that you heard about them on Toronto Mic, I hope everyone listening is taking a note.

You get 15% off any regular priced watch battery installation. So go to FastTimeWatchRepair.com. Okay, goodbye, Beyonce. When Milan from FastTime, it's a family-run business, and when they need to save money, be it in taxes or in business ventures, they're acquiring new stores all the time. They have a new one in Richmond Hill. They trust Rupesh Kapadia, Kapadia LLP CPAs.

Rupesh sees beyond the numbers. Yeah, this is a pop socket. Cool. Stick that on your phone next time you're watching Netflix or something like that. Gotcha, yeah. So he sees Beyond the Numbers. He's the rock star accountant and I urge everyone listening to,

I can even hook this up for you, but you get a free consultation with Rupesh, run some ideas by him and he can give you some best practices, good solid advice with your music career, Sky. Cool. Cost you nothing to chat him up about this. Amazing. Let's hear from Rupesh.

Hey, hey, hey, this is Rupesh here. And for all these condo buyers who are buying condos, like there's no tomorrow, please be aware. If you're going to assign the rights to your condominium to any new buyer, you will have to charge HST. And HST would not only be charged on the money that you're making on the assignment, but also on the deposits that you have paid. So please be aware. And if

you're not sure what to do with it, please call us before you make this decision. You can call Rupesh or one of my associates and we'll be happy to hold your hand and walk you through the process. You can reach us at any time between 9.30 and 5.30. Thank you. Thank you, Rupesh. Let's hear some more Sky here. swing by swing this is the last time i will let you touch me with that thing take another look my eyes are occupied with the violence Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, We did. I struggle with the scene I'll be as good to you as you are to me There's death in these eyes

I feel it in my spine I'm not gonna take it this time Gonna ruin your life like it ruined mine I can't believe I could have had like coffee served by you today. Like listen to you. Seriously. Do you hear this? Like do you ever like separate yourself from like,

you're so close to all this. Like do you ever listen like through somebody else's ears? It's been a little bit since I've listened because of, you know, the whole ramp up time and then the release and all that. So it's nice to listen to it now actually. Yeah. Cool. And I'm telling you like you've got a fantastic voice for this thank you and it just rocks thanks you're so good i'm not saying i'm always fascinated by this canadian singer songwriter

who serves coffee by day and then kicks ass at night like it's interesting yeah it's you know we're all we're all on the grind to make it make it sustainable right oh you said grind because you serve coffee i did yeah i'm over the moon about that okay i need to know what the song's about before i go on and ask you all the tough questions yeah being a musician Wow, okay, Swing Batter. Yeah. What's this about? So this one was the first one that we put out on the record at all.

It was on International Women's Day last year as a single. And this song is about a story that really inspired me. It was about a woman named Angelina Napolitano, who was from Sault Ste. Marie. It was about a woman named Angelina Napolitano, who was from Sault Ste. Marie, and she was subject to years and years of domestic abuse from her husband, and in 1911 killed him and went to trial and was sentenced to be executed. However, she was pregnant at the time, seven months pregnant,

so she was in prison for two months, and during during that time there was international uproar that happened there was all this discourse that happened lots of like fledgling feminist groups spoke up there was just like a huge conversation that happened about this trial and about this sentencing so before they were like they carried out the sentence and executed her they commuted her sentence they reopened the case and commuted her sentence to life imprisonment. And she was released 11 years later. Wow. And this was the first time that that kind of happened in Canada.

1911. 1911. And so I wrote this song as a testament to her and what she went through. When you hear a story, like where did you hear that story? Did you take a note? Do you have like, I envision a notebook. You're scribbling out notes. I like reading about historical things,

especially in the country that I'm part of here. And yeah, just that really stuck with me, that story really awakened something in me. Will you stay in this country? I think so. Because a lot of people in your position, they end up going to California or something. I've never envisioned myself living in the states and i don't know

this is i mean i have i have guesses as to why but i definitely feel what if there was a different administration like what if uh maybe i just i really these things swing like pendulums right like obama had two i always say majority you can have there's like two okay so yeah obama two two terms right that swung one way right yay and then now we're the other way but it's in the same thing in this province like i know like of doug forge right like we we were the first province in canada i believe to uh give an openly gay leader a majority like we we voted in uh openly gay woman yeah right we voted for her i gave her a majority and now we're stuck uh openly gay woman yeah right we voted for her gave her a majority and now we're stuck with this buffoon like it swings each both ways it's insane yeah

absolutely but i do feel at home here like it doesn't feel very much like my spot if you will i think even steven page lives in the states i think he does yeah upstate new york or something like that so we couldn't even keep the pager there come on pager I just you can use that if you want

I'll call him that okay may I play another Sky Wallace song oh absolutely please excited to see which I am We'll be right back. It's been a long seven nights since I could hold you tight And I, I can't wait another second Oh, they are gonna find a sad girl

Oh, they are gonna find a sad girl Oh, they are gonna find a sad girl So leave me in the back, girl Very grungy. Like it's very mid. I got a big mid. I mean, I'm from the 90s. Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah it's totally like yeah i wanted to kind of like definitely get that energy for sure and that sound has always

really intrigued me so this was a really fun this is also a really fun one to play live which is great coal in your window yeah this is obviously about santa claus right yeah absolutely what's this song it's It's a Christmas song. So this was also written in the cottage hospital. And it's like, the goal of this record is to have this storytelling element that you would normally pair with or like what you'd expect from like a folk record, but have them be like these like universal, like high energy, like kind of aggressive rock songs a lot of the time. So I liked that juxtaposition. And this one is kind of no different.

It's about just a story of one of the young nurses at the hospital that had a curfew and couldn't stay out past a certain time. There's a boy in town in Norris Point. They really liked each other and they couldn't see each other. So they struck up a deal with the groundskeeper. He would throw coal at her window and then they would meet down in the boiler room, which was conveniently left unlocked. And then they ended up getting married later etc that's great it's about like you know the lustful use of that you know that story it's not about santa claus no no

no not per se cool yeah it's funny when people uh one time the last song, Swing Better, got put onto a baseball-themed playlist. Oh, yeah, because it's... It's like, ooh! Yeah. Oops, okay. But that's like... That happens a lot, I think, where songs are kind of misappropriated. Remember, Ronald Reagan did use Born in the USA for his campaign rallies, okay? So I think it does happen quite a bit.

Sure. Yeah. But this one, yeah, it was kind of cool to like have it be this like nice love story and then have that kind of wildness to the song it's really i'm trying to think what's there's a song some that reminds me of something like is it cannonball maybe by miley cyrus no um hold on let me see if i on, just bear with me a moment here. Let's see if I have it. Not that it's a... No, it just reminds me.

This is great because I'm not going to edit this. So this is like, what are you doing this in your live show here? Drink your water while here. I'll tell people. Again, I do need a new macbook so this shouldn't take so long but uh okay i do have it of course uh let's see huh next time uh okay so the breeders do you know the breeders do you know the readers okay so just a little taste of what i was getting a vibe from here

i love this song too. Yeah. You know what I mean? Just a little. Yeah. you know what i mean just a little uh yeah which is a high compliment to you yeah absolutely yeah thank you bring it down just a little bit there but um okay so this is your third album but the vibe like with the brad wheeler stuff and it being self-titled is that you're a new artist like don't you doesn't it feel like a rebirth totally well i feel like this was kind of like i've tried a lot of different elements, like a lot of different genre blendings throughout my career. And, you know, finally come to this point, I feel like this was the sound that I've been after for a long time. And,

you know, I say this every time is that like, as an artist, you're ever growing. So this isn't like the thing. It's like, finally, I've done it. Like there is no it. But it felt like the true iteration of what I wanted to accomplish. And that's why it was, you know, it's this new sound. It's, it's self-titled.

It's kind of the, the jumping off point. It definitely has new artist style buzz. Yeah. But third album, I should, I maybe I should edit that out, not reveal the fact, but I didn't have a chance to go back and listen to the first two albums.

That's okay. Yeah. How does the, uh, sound compared to what I heard on Skywall? Let's see, the last one was produced by Jim Bryson. I had such a good time

making that record and it's definitely the link between this record and the one previous to it. It had this rock element but I was still playing acoustic guitar the whole time. But there was definitely

like a rock vibe throughout the record. The one before that was very folky, very like string. That's what I expected to hear from Sky Wallace. I don't know. It's such stereotypes, right? Yeah.

Sky Wallace. The name evokes a certain vibe. I feel like it. Yeah. Like you need to change it to like killer or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally. That's actually, that's my actual name.

I haven't told anybody. Sky Killer Wallace. Watch out. Where's Wallace? Watch out. Now, so you're not frustrated at all that like maybe people dismissed your earlier work or whatever, like you're. No, I was growing and developing for sure. And I think, I think any, well, anytime there's like a quote unquote new artist, there's, there's so much work and time behind it that you know it's it's all kind of par for the course i think for sure now but so back to the case so you're working at a cafe yeah and you get time off so you do do gigs right oh yeah so i guess i'm wondering okay stupid question but can you live off being a musician in this country, in this age? Especially like once the record is coming out and you get like,

you know, there's certain, certain places where you can get good income with like, you know, like radio play and royalties. And where's the radio play going to come from? I'm serious. I don't even know, except for CBC.

Like, well, like, like Indie 88 has been very supportive. Oh yeah. So has like a couple of stations for seriousius Satellite Radio on The Verge. They've been super supportive and that's been, that's super helpful. Like Indie should be playing the shit out of this.

Like it's CanCon, right? Yeah. And it's, it's a great sound and it's modern. I mean, I've been very grateful. But also the record's been charting on like college radio and stuff, which is cool. For sure. Yeah. I'm very, very happy with that.

college radio and stuff which is cool for sure yeah i'm very very happy with that now now when you tour and stuff is like a as an opening act like are you doing that for exposure i mean it's a huge uh help for sure it's like exposing me to these audiences that i wouldn't who wouldn't encounter my music necessarily otherwise so it's a huge help have you ever like thought about i'm just gonna go like i want to sound like miley cyrus for this album because then i can get on like whatever kiss will play me and virgin will play me and chum fm and then chfi and then i can open up for pink or something at the scotia bank arena like you know what i mean do you ever think of selling out i mean it's i i'm i'm all for like you know selling out to some, but it's got to be fulfilling.

It better be fulfilling. Like can rock music, I mean, that's my go-to genre is rock music. But I do know my, I have teenagers and they don't listen to any rock music at all. But then again, that's, you know, there's a lot of people that do still. So I don't know. It's a really wild west time right now. Cause there are no like answers. There are no right answers. Like nobody knows what the next,

like what to predict what's coming next. Like it's a very interesting time. So I think like doing your own thing is like pretty important right now. And as Brad Wheeler mentioned, like you can't make money on streaming, right? Not really. Like unless you're,

unless you're Miley Cyrus, like the way you get a volume or whatever. But if you get, I don't know, make it up, but 5,000 people today go stream your album or whatever. That doesn't actually make a... No. But it gets your sound circulating and your name out there. And maybe that will translate into numbers in other means. My roommate slash collaborator who produced the record,

who is also in my band, Devin Lohied, he... Shout out to Devin. Shout out to Devin. Shout out to anyone you want, by the way. Oh, okay. I'll do some shout outs. Do some shout outs. He just switched, because we all, you know, we all stream.

He just switched to Tidal because out of all the streaming services, they have, they pay their artists the best is it like uh okay that's good news yeah it's interesting yeah i did not know that that's the i know that's the one that jay-z and the gang were promoting at some point or whatever that's why we played beyonce for remember the time so it all it all comes full circle now you were a musician in vancouver yeah and you're a musician in toronto you need to do a little uh compare and contrast like is it is it easier to be a musician in uh the big smoke here i think it is um mostly just because of like the resources available and just

the sheer size of it um it's like the population is so much bigger. So in Vancouver, like I love living in Vancouver. I love returning to Vancouver. I love playing there. But if, you know, the population is only so big, so it's hard to get, you know, when you're building something and when you're building something that doesn't quite fit into something that's already in existence. If you're not like, you know, if you're kind of between things, then there isn't an audience for absolutely everything because there just aren't enough people or enough venues to to try different things out and right so yeah whereas here like there's so many different things that you can do you can try like a one-off show and do something completely weird and there's an audience for it like there are people that want to see that no wonder biff moved here yeah yeah i mean it's it's it's been a really cool thing and i think it's also my

personality like i grew up kind of around ont, so it did make sense for me. And it's not for everyone. But I love the city a lot. It's been hard. And there are advantages. As a singer-songwriter, there's advantages to being based in Toronto. Oh, God, yeah. Even touring, there's access to so many more markets here within a short drive

instead of the seven-hour. Right like the, you know, seven hour. Right. Like you could, yeah. Cause you could do Hamilton and there's a whole bunch of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Toronto,

Oshawa. Oh yeah. The schwa. I'm playing that on Saturday. Are you? Yeah. The dirty schwa on Saturday. A little fusty.

Yeah. Cool. At eight o'clock. Okay. Well I, yeah. At the end of this show, we're going to,

yeah, we'll promote all of this. For sure. For sure. For sure. Speaking of drives, I did the drive Vancouver to Calgary last week. That was insane.

How long is that drive? I'm actually going to be in Vancouver in, when am I leaving? August 20, but I'm flying to Vancouver. Yeah, that's better. I don't have time to do that drive. No, but that drive is 10 and a half and you lose an hour and you inevitably have to stop. So it's like more like 12 and a half. But it's beautiful, right?

It's so beautiful. Yeah. It was for a, there's a song by this band Kitty and the Rooster from out there and they call that drive one gig hard drive. But it was for one gig. It was to go out to do the Stampede. It was very fun. No, good.

What a drive. No, it sounds good. And the Stamp do the stampede it was very fun no good drive no it sounds in the stampede was fun it was very fun yeah yeah it was it's my first time ever going so cool yeah very cool very cool i'm about to play another sky wallace jam but uh first uh i'm told that you like we know from like you telling us about what these songs are about like you're you're like a natural born storyteller. Like you're telling all these stories, but I'm told that, uh, and you tell me, but you sell a book of collected lyrics at your shows. I do.

Yeah. Can you tell me about this? Yeah. So there's, um, the lyrics from all the songs, uh, the synopses of the stories that inspired them.

And also there's a piece of art for each song, uh, kind of inspired by the story and the lyrics. That's kind of like in a sort of tattoo kind of vibe and it was done by all these pieces were done by a woman uh named megan magdalena based out of vancouver and she's like a longtime collaborator of mine excellent excellent stuff so are you always writing like new stuff like um i have i'm kind of a weirdo i write in clumps uh so i like to write lots all at once and then i go for like a period where you know like there's a lot of

i've been touring quite a bit and that takes a lot of creative energy so i like to i like to stave off the the writing until i'm like ready to burst and then i write a whole bunch all at once so okay here's another jam from Sky Wallace it's not a sweet lesson in the day with the night is dark with a thousand stars and I can't see it. And I'm working, I'm working. Every day I'm a little harder, and I can't see it. And I look forward, I look forward to nothing at all, to nothing at all to nothing at all

oh Your voice is so interesting. Like, there's so many different parts to it. Like, you got this soft part, this, like, rock part. Thank you. Cool. Okay. This song's called There's a Wall. Yeah.

What's this banger about? So this one is less about a specific story. It's more about, like about the lament of the glass ceiling and for the quieter stories, the underappreciated, the unknown, that kind of thing. The glass ceiling. Is there a glass ceiling in music for female rockers? There's a lot happening to make that change.

But it definitely still exists. Absolutely. So it's kind of like lit a fire under all of us. And I think there's, I don't know, there's a lot of really cool change happening.

I think it's a very interesting time. We should bring back, I was like, let's bring back Lilith Fair. Can we do that? Like, does Sarah own that or something? Like, how can we make that happen?

I just think it's time for another Lilith Fair. Lilith Fair round two. You could probably we make that happen i just think it's time for another little affair they're around too you could probably uh help make that happen so like is it is it let me ask you straight out like if you were a male doing the same thing would it be easier like is it is it tougher it it's hard to say and in rock music it's definitely um i like i've said, it's definitely, like I've said before, it's definitely male-dominated. So it's interesting, definitely, being like, you know, identifying as a woman. But yeah, no, it's, yeah. Like, do you ever like hit, I mean, no, I guess the pun is intended.

Like, do you ever hit a wall because there's a perception that women women used to go sing pop music or jazz or something time or like oh i assume that because this is a solo woman's name it's not going to rock oh yeah i made the assumption like i thought you were going to come in here and sound like a yeah joni mitchell wannabe or something totally that yeah happens a lot which would be great i love joining me absolutely love her but she doesn't rock hard yeah so do you want to uh at this point do you want to get your guitar and sure because that's amazing that you and is this audio setup okay absolutely yeah no i'm down for it okay all right so i'll give play by play for everybody. Sky Wallace is getting her guitar case. She's opening it up.

And there is a guitar. Watch your head. Watch your head. Right. That would be so bad. I just checked. It wouldn't have been caught on the Periscope feed,

so you couldn't send that, you know, video to your lawyer and say, this happened in Toronto Mike's basement. Okay. That's cool. I'm watching you on the happened in Toronto Mike's basement. Okay. That's cool.

I'm watching you on the screen there. It's neat. Okay. So this is my fanny pack. Everyone is watching. They're back in Vogue now. Yeah. Cause they were big in the eighties.

They're excellent. Yeah. They're practical. So if I go back here, will that be enough? Well here, I think so. Like I was,

I kind of, I i have i own like there's four mics but i actually only have two set up right now so like just maybe i think it's going to be fine because the acoustics are wonderful i think it's good cool um so we've been playing all these rockers on on the program i was thinking it'd be nice to considering i don't have the bandwidth me to do like a after all this talk of like rocking out i'm gonna do uh one of the one of the more contemplative ones on the record um on acoustic this is a song i wrote for a friend of mine he's one of the strongest people i know uh this is a song called midnight Take the sand from the sheets and make me whole again Take the shackles from the memories of your midnight skin

I know it's time to come around I know exactly what went down Another winter alone Extremities can't catch a break From the aching cold I know it's time to come around I know exactly what I'm down What did I ask for?

What did I ask for? What did I ask for? Cause I am naked and shaken to my core Trying to keep one eye open and one eye on the floor I am wicked and string down once more Maybe I'll move down myself But my time to leave is gone Imagine words fall from your mouth It's time to come around Oh, I know exactly what I want

What did I ask for? What did I ask for? What did I ask for? Cause I am naked Shaken to my core Trying to keep one eye open And one eye on the floor I am wicked Stricken down once more

Oh The time will make me whole again The time will make me whole again The time will make me whole again The time will make me whole again The time will make me whole again The time will make me whole again The time will make me whole again What did I ask for?

What did I ask for? Cause I am naked and shaking my core Trying to keep one eye open and one eye on the floor I am wicked, it's tricking down once more. Oh, and I know it's time to come around. I was worried I'd come in too soon. Sometimes you get the false stops in music. You never know when a false stop is coming in there. Honestly, that was incredible.

Thank you. I can't believe it. I had the best seat in the house. That was really cool. Thank you very much. So, more detail on who that's about. It's about a friend of mine. I don't want to get into too specifics just because it's a living person story.

Oh, no. She moved up north a while back, like 10 years ago, and has been through a lot and has persevered as one of the strongest people that I know and has made a life for herself up there. It's a cool track.

Thank you. It was really good. I don't know. I didn't set up the studio for live music, uh it was really good and it's i don't know i didn't set up the studio for like live music but that sounded really good in the headphones like i can't wait to hear it on the playback but i definitely um that one was heavily inspired my favorite songwriter of all time is john k samson of the weaker dance yeah fantastic and it's definitely like inspired by his style of writing. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, he's, he's, uh, he's fantastic. Absolutely. Yeah.

You should, you're from, like you spent all that time in Newfoundland. Did you ever play the Woody point? Uh, no songwriters. No, but that's across the Bay from North point.

So I, and my friend, uh, Tom has like a, a hand in, in like, I know a guy, I know a guy who's on this, whatever, this crew of people who pick artists for, uh, I know a guy. I know a guy who's on this, whatever,

this crew of people who pick artists for... I know a guy. Cool. I am serious. Like, I can put you in touch with this guy. That would be great. And the listeners know this guy too because it's Steven Brunt.

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Totally. Oh, yeah. I know. It would be a natural fit, I think. That would be great.

I'd love to go back. It's been a while. Can you take me with you? Yeah, absolutely. Come you yeah absolutely do you need a roadie yeah absolutely i saw splash splash and boots are children's entertainers you probably haven't crossed paths with me because they're aimed at like i got kids that are like in their demo but not the teenagers there's other kids i got lots of kids sky if you keep track of them all but uh four nice so there's two of them all. How many kids you got? Four. Nice.

So there's two of them that are in the Splash and Boot the demo. And they went to Newfoundland. Wow. And I was like half joking but not really like, do you need a roadie? I'm trying to find a reason for me to get to Newfoundland. It's an amazing province. I love it there so much. I think I've never been.

It's amazing. Honestly, there's so many different parts of it and yeah oh do you want to put the would it be yeah sure yeah put the guitar back that was amazing thank you in one second y'all okay sky is going to put her uh i'm giving play by play i like it and sky is while your head oh it's. I feel like that was close. Wow. Not today, Walt. A lot of heads get banged, but not during the recording. It's either before or after. Heads will bang. Head banging track.

Like, okay, so Lowest of the Lowest is a band you've played with recently. Can you give me the roster of Canadian musicians that you've either played with or will be playing with this summer? Yeah. Yeah. So like we're playing with Sam Roberts coming up, which we've, who we've played with a bunch of times already. Sam Roberts is great. I love them.

I love that band. They're so good. Yes. So good. I accidentally saw them cause they kept opening up for the hip and I used to see all the hip shows and I accidentally caught him like three times. And then once I, now it's called the Sony Center, but at the time it was called the hummingbird center oh yeah which was after it was called o'keefe center but okay it was a hummingbird center and i went to see

the hip there and sam roberts opened and i was sitting there like i like to see the opening band so i'm there and i'm thinking like uh these guys are good like this is the sam roberts band is great yeah they're honestly a nice guy so nice they're all so nice they actually it was funny we played a show with them uh in at queens university in october and it was the night before my birthday and so at midnight it was my birthday and so we were all on the bus and my uh my manager surprised me with a cake actually no devon devon loheed surprised me with a cake and they all we all on the bus were singing happy birthday but everybody is a musician so at the very end it just all split into harmony and nobody kept the melody it was amazing they are like the sweetest

people that happened at midnight and the song you just played is called midnight yeah but we're playing with them at uh key to bala in muskoka for two nights over labor day weekend i'm so stoked i'm a big fan. Okay. So Sam Roberts band. That's big time. Yeah. Matt Mays is coming up. We're doing a big tour.

I think 14 or 15 dates for a cross Canada tour with him. Or cross. So how can you afford to do that? Like, I know I get all in your business, right? You're like, why is this guy all in my finances? I mean,

I just, I just put an application for a grant in, so we'll see. There's grants? There are grants. Grants exist. It's hard to get, but I'm working on it. No, good. That's what I want. I want talented Canadian artists to be able to focus on their art. Totally. Of course, but the model doesn't seem to... I always think the model

kind of works against you. But I, I, the model doesn't seem to, I always think the model kind of works against you. Like, well, especially with Canada touring, like with, with a tour like that, like it's a lot of time to take off, off of work.

And then there's just like the cost of gas with how much you have to drive to, to access like a sizable population. Right. And it's like hotels. It's like, it's a lot. And I don't have a lot of frames of references here because I've never been a musician.

I just sing in the shower. But like, was's a lot. And I don't have a lot of frames of references here because I've never been a musician. I just sing in the shower. But like, was it Acid Test was in and they were talking about, they had a moment in like, I don't know, 92 or something where they had a moment and they're touring the country and they actually abandoned the tour halfway through because it was costing them too much money. Wow. And I was thinking like, and I'm like, oh, like you don't, like, oh, I don't think the people realize that sometimes, depending where you are, if you're not Bryan Adams or whatever, it can be very expensive to tour the country, especially Canada. Yeah, there's a lot of expenses, right?

Do you sleep in a van or something? I have, I have. But hopefully not. Honestly, at this point, we've been doing it for a little while. So we have a really nice network of, like, friends or family members, especially within, like, my band. Like, for instance, Jenna, the bass player, their family is all from Alberta. So we have, you know, places to stay there.

So it's just, like, a really nice way to, like, kind of connect with the network. You know what? As you say that, like, I'm thinking there should be a Canadian musician couch network. Like all dotted along the way. Like we're Canadian musician friendly couches where you can crash, you know, get a meal like just as you pass through. That sounds like a million dollar idea. But we could do this.

Let's do this. Let's do it. All right. Honestly, with these tours, it's a long way to go, but it's definitely worth it. And what an experience, too. Like, I don't know, to see the country in that way is pretty amazing. No, no doubt. No doubt.

So you got Matt Mays and you got Sam Roberts. What about, like, you mentioned in the past you did the Stephen Page thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. And Lois DeLow. Is there anyone else uh let's see we opened for our lights uh opened for Danko Jones recently that was really fun oh yeah uh Lisa Leblanc she sounds a bit like you she's cool there's a bit of that like east coast kind

of rocker right she's definitely east coast yeah but she also I did hear a bit a bit of like that sound in some of your stuff where it's got that like. Cool. Thank you. I don't know. I was going to say balls to the wall, but you can't say that with women rockers, Mike. That's so rude of you.

I mean. I don't know if you can do balls to the wall. But, you know, just kick ass rock in that kind of have the East Coast little bit of an influence there, I would say. I don't know if you have any fiddles that show up in any songs. I used to. Yeah yeah not in recent years but um yeah the biggest band i think i ever opened for was like the you know the punk band television yep yeah so i opened for them at the commodore in vancouver and i was asked to open solo and I was like, Ooh, you sure?

Cause I'm like a solo acoustic playing. Right. And I was like, for like one of the, like the, you know, one of the biggest punk rock bands from New York in the seventies, you know, like it was like a pretty,

uh, a large gap between the, like sonically between what was going to be there, but it was actually great. I had a great time. And people were listening surprisingly. They're huge. I love them.

So in your music and in this thing, you sell it events like you're sort of documenting like the woman's voice in this country. Like, yeah, definitely. Like, have you considered,

not you, but have you, would it be a good idea perhaps to even have like a, like a, like a documentary, like some kind of a visual yeah definitely like we're actually putting together some ideas right now i don't know to what end yet like i'm not sure how it'll come together but there's yeah there's definitely some there's an opportunity to create something there i kind of see it in my mind's eye i can kind of see it okay now sky we talked a lot

about your name it is your real name it is after this island in scotland or whatever yeah do you have any do you have a little time for me to play just a little bit of like sky my favorite sky songs can we do this i don't know how much of a rush you're in oh gosh is it the sky boat song no what's this i donat? I don't have... Come on. You have to tip me off before we start recording. But here, okay. So here's a little, some obvious stuff, for example. Thank you. Yeah, we won't do the whole thing, but...

There's no reason for it. You've got to go somewhere. The great gig in the sky. Yeah. Okay, so there's some Floyd in we have. Let's bring it back to CanCon here. I once knew a pair that used to fit very tight But now a man standing tall in the wake of this night his eyes are watering anger at the thought of her sight the scene of adultery sets the stage for his plight

on an innocent trip how can one ruin so much of the Sky? Oh, yeah. Sloan? Yeah. You know, Stephen Page does this side project with Chris Murphy from Sloan. Yeah. Trans-Canadian Highway. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

With Moe Berg and Craig Morley. I love Moe. I love Craig. Have you ever met Moe Berg? Yeah, yeah. I know him from around. He's a big supporter of indie music in Toronto. And he's from Edmonton.

I did not know that. So it all came together. Yeah, we live in the same neighborhood. Apparently, that's the thing about Toronto, is that everyone, and of course you, because you're an indie artist, but everyone's got a Moe Berg story

of bumping into him somewhere. The Moe sightings are everywhere. Yeah, he's an awesome dude. Oh yeah, you wouldn't want to meet a nicer guy of like bumping into him somewhere. Like the Mo sightings are everywhere. Yeah. He's an awesome dude. Oh yeah. You wouldn't want to meet a nicer guy than Mo Berg. Come on. Okay.

So there's People of the Sky. What else do I have here? There's more CanCon. This guy's got a new album out. And. I wonder if he'd come on Toronto Mike. I'll see what I can do. Oh! Robbie Robertson. Yeah. Showdown at Big Sky.

By the way, this is stupid. You can edit anytime. I like to do these stupid things. Here's I Love This Sky song. Spangled And I am Weak I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I I cry I cry

I was born in a land I don't think you understand God damn What I am Red hot chili peppers I'm a native of this place Please don't kick me in my face My race

Johnny kick a hole in the sky From Mother's Milk Nobody's gonna kick sky It's a different sky Oh Won't somebody testify I kick a hole right in the sky No, nobody's going to kick Sky. It's a different Sky. Oh. All right, just another one. Maybe a bonus one at the end here,

but here is another Sky song. Nice. By the way, there's lots of good Sky songs. So many good ones. There's so many I could have picked. An old cowboy went riding out one dark and windy day. Up on a ridge he rested as he went along

his way. Oh, man. Please, keep singing along. It's a nice contrast. Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel. A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky. For he saw the riders coming hard and he heard their mournful cry. And he heard their mortal cry Yippee-ki-yay Yippee-ki-yay

He's riding through the sky That's a good Sky song. And finally, Sky approves. I approved of it all. Last one. And actually, this wasn't on my... It's a bonus. I don't even really like it that much.

But it's very popular. So I felt like I needed to be here. Right. I'm selling out. Selling out. Oh. Oh Lord I've been home many years I hope she holds on a little longer Wheel in the Sky

So you must know all the Sky songs because I mean I can't I don't think I can There must be more than my minimal experience all right thank you journey thanks journey and oh here's the here's a jam nothing to do with sky

though nothing to do with sky this is more to buy and or sell real estate in the next six months. Or if you're even looking to lease, Brian's been doing a lot of leases lately. Call Brian at 416-873-0292 and have a chat with him. I'd be happy to meet you and tell you what's going on in the neighborhoods you're interested in. Brian Gerstein is not only a wonderful sponsor of this program, but he's a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage, and he's at propertyinthesix.com.

So again, 416-873-0292. Would you ever be interested in real estate in the six? Like, is this something that young people can even dream about anymore? Not in my circle, but I'm but one circle. Me and my friends. Or musicians, you know? To me, it's insane out there. It's got ridiculous.

Other than curling, do you follow any other sports? Not really. I mean, I was watching a few Raptors games and that was all I remember. You jumped on the Raptor bandwagon? Yeah, it's cool to see people united. It's cool to see people excited.

It was fun, right? Yeah. I used to play baseball, but no longer. What position did you play? Largely like third. I pitched a little bit. You've got to have a good arm from third base. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, good for you. Really good arm. The hot corner and you've got to throw it across the diamond. That's good. I've been meaning to join like a beer league. A couple of my friends keep inviting me, but I haven't been around enough. Oh, like slow pitch or softball or whatever. Yeah.

And like there's a couple of musicians leagues. Cool. Yeah, I'd like to eventually. Everybody's busy, though. And that's the thing. It's like it's kind of a rotating cast. OK, before I let you go, I just want to know what's next. So I know.

OK, well, firstly, there's the concerts. Okay, so Brampton is August 9th. I just thought of what's the closest to like where we're recording now. So, okay, so that's at the Garden Square, August 9th. People can see you in Brampton. For free. For free. Okay, so they just, okay.

So tell us your website again. Is it skywallace.com? Yeah, skywallace.com. Yeah, that's right. And is there anything, you can put tell us your website again. Is it wall? Uh, skywallis.com. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. And is there any, anything you can put anything you want right now? And then I just want to hear what's, uh,

what's next for you. Well, I guess when is this actually airing? I'm going to like shut this down and then we're going to take a picture together and then it'll be online in 15 minutes. Amazing. Okay. So tomorrow,

if anybody's listening in Toronto, I'm playing a free outdoor show at young and Dundas square tomorrow at 9 PM. Get out of here. I know where young and Dundas. If there's no one listening from Toronto, I've done a horrible job. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Falling off the cliff. They saw the name sky Wallace and they all just completely ignored it. Yeah. Totally. Okay. So tomorrow,

which is Friday, the 26th, 9 PM, 9 PM free show at young and Dundas square. Yeah, totally. Okay, so tomorrow, which is Friday. Friday the 26th. 9 p.m. 9 p.m. Free show at Yonge and Dundas Square. Yeah. That's cool.

Okay, anything else you want to promote to the, okay, there are people, I will, the majority of listeners right now are in the GTA. Not, like, there are people

listening in Vancouver, so you can promote anything you want, but the vast majority of listeners are in the GTA. Yeah. We're playing in Oshawa on Saturday, Crossing Point Music Festival.

Okay. Yeah, I'm doing an outdoor show. I think we're on at 8 p.m. And then, yeah, the show in Brampton on August 9th. We're doing a show up in Blue Mountains on August 10th with Julian Taylor. And then we're doing Riverfest weekend after that, which is in Elora, Ontario.

Okay. And then after that, we're doing the Ketobala shows. You're busy. You're doing Riverfest weekend after that, which is in Elora, Ontario. Okay. And then after that, we're doing the key to Bala shows. You're busy. Like you're doing a lot of stuff. Yeah. Coffee shop's going to miss you. Yeah.

I mean, we're going to Europe in the fall. Get out of here. Yeah. Which part of Europe? Mostly Germany and Italy. Yeah. Yeah.

Great. That Italy's amazing. I mean, Germany's nice too. I like them both. Yeah. But Italy's, I mean,

I spent a lot of time in Germany and I've been to Italy. I went to Italy for my honeymoon. It was like, I don't know, six years ago. Yeah. Italy's gorgeous.

Germany's nice too, but yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. And then the full Canada tour. So we're doing like from Vancouver to Halifax with Matt. Okay, cool.

So what's next? Okay. So you, you got Sky Wallace, your third release, which is critically acclaimed. And we heard a bunch of jams from that and it sounds amazing.

So what's next in your career? Like what's the goal anyways? Just to keep building. Like it's been kind of, it's been very cool to see people's reactions be so positive to this record. I really like this particular live show that we've kind of gotten together

that like with this band that I have right now. It's just like, I just want to keep doing this over and over and over again. So I want to keep touring. Do you want to shout out the band? Absolutely. So there's Devin Lohit on guitar, Gina Kennedy on keys, Jenna Stroutman on bass and Alfie Viannell on drums.

And they're all excellent folks. Yeah. Good to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so we're just touring as much as we can with this record and kind of get it, get it out there as much as we can

and I want to keep going to Europe, I want to keep touring Canada I want to see where this takes us I'm rooting for you heavily, okay because it's good music, not because you're a sweet person although that would be a reason enough to root for you, but the music has to be good I couldn't sit here and blue smoke

up your ass and tell you how good I i think it is if it's shite it is uh genuinely music i like so keep up the good work and this the song i'm playing now speaking good songs i love this song my goodness gracious it's lowest of the low love them yeah absolutely so enjoy your agit pop sticker absolutely amazing i i'm gonna be following your career very closely and i'll be making some phone calls to my friends at indie 88 because they should be playing more sky wallace and when are the chorus guy when when's edge 102 gonna get to get on the sky wallace bandwagon I'm gonna take my bike and go to Chorus Key. Okay. And I'll be talking to them too. Okay? I will

hold you to that. Well, I might work against you, but I'm gonna do it. I'd be over the moon. I will. And I'm going to work that into my lexicon. I'm not joking. Like, good things happen. I need something to say. Now I can say I'm over the moon. And that brings us to the end of our 491st show you can follow me on twitter you're lucky 491 not everyone got to be 491 you

can follow me on twitter i'm at toronto mike sky are you like i know uh i saw you liking some tweets and stuff today do Do you enjoy tweeting? You don't have people doing it. This is really you doing it? I do my own socials. I like Twitter. I like to keep it real. I do Insta, Facebook.

It's Sky Wallace on Twitter. Is it also Sky Wallace? It's Sky Wallace Music on Instagram. And just Sky Wallace on Facebook it also Sky Wallace on Instagram? Sky Wallace Music on Instagram. Okay. Yeah. And just Sky Wallace on Facebook. Okay. Yeah.

Find Sky Wallace. Find me. Come find me. Find Sky. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptor's Devotee. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. You've got to let that thaw before you cook that up, so you're not eating it tonight,

okay? You can have it tomorrow night. Fast Time Watch and Jewelry Repair is at FastTimeWJR. Sticker U is at Sticker U, and Capadia LLP is at Capadia LLP. See you all tomorrow when my special guest, ready to tell all,

is Kevin Frankish. Well, I've been told that there's a sucker born every day. Frankish. Cause I know that's true Yes I do I know it's true Yeah I know it's true How about you