Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - The Trews: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1795

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

In this 1795th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with vocalist Colin MacDonald and guitarist John-Angus MacDonald from The Trews about the ongoing history of the band. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, Blue Sky Agency, Kindling, RetroFestive.ca and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hey, this is Colin. This is John Angus. We're from a band called The Trues, and this is our debut on the Toronto Mike podcast. Welcome to episode. Welcome to episode 1,700. of Toronto-Miked, proudly brought to you by retrofestive.ca, Canada's pop culture and Christmas store. Great Lakes Brewery. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in

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Today, making their Toronto mic to debut. It's vocalist Colin McDonald and guitarist John Angus McDonald from the Trues. How are you guys doing today? Doing real good. Doing good, Mike. Thanks for having us. What a pleasure. So I'll tell you right off the bat, I was on, I guess, are you on Cape Breton or in Cape Redden?

In. Yeah, on P-E-I. You know, if you ever meet an Islander, they say on P-E-I. They don't say NPEI. But you're in Cape Breton. I've never heard on Cape Breton. It's usually in. It's also attached by way of the causeway now.

So it's not, you know, it's sort of linked to the mainland. So when the Tragically Hip had their final concert in Kingston, I was watching it from an Airbnb in Ganesh. Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean. But you guys are not from Inganish. No.

Antiginish, different Ganesh. So I got a dumb question. Like, what is, like, so there's Inganish where I was. And there's, anti-Ganish, where you guys are from, does Ganesh mean something? I don't want to mess this up. Tough questions for you guys.

But it's not English, right? It's anti-Ganish. It's like a... Is it Gaelic? It might be Gaelic. But it also, I heard it, there's some kind of indigenous origins to the word, too. And now I'd have to grab my Wikipedia or something and look it up. Like, is there any relation at all between In Ganesh and anti-Ginnish, other than the fact that the names are similar? I think it's just a Ginnish thing. I don't know.

Almost certainly, but you're asking the wrong guys. I haven't, you know, we're very proud of our blue-nose roots, but I have not lived in Nova Scotia since the year 2000. Like, I've, I grow back all the time. My mom is there. My sister is there. And we love to tour there, obviously. But I, you know, it hasn't been home for a very long time. I've lived more of my life in Ontario than I did in Nova Scotia at this point.

You guys are hammer guys now. You're from the Hamilton. Hammeroids. We're like a nomadic. Canadian rock band we've called many different places home over the years and yeah Hamilton's been the spot like John Angus and Jack moved there

2013, 2014 and I made the move over the pandemic and yeah, love Hamilton. I was going to say the unofficial mayor of Hamilton is Tom Wilson, right? Yes, sir. He's my neighbor. I mean, we live in the same hood. His grandson and my son were at school together at Earl Kitchener Elementary.

that's cool yeah you got the junk house strays album my strays vinyl yeah we've been Colin and myself have been to Tom's house he does like little incubator songwriting sessions where he kind of just tries to mix and match all of his friends and he put us in a room with

Colin James and him and Jesse O'Brien he's also and his son Thompson oh Thompson was there and he gets Tara Lightfoot in the mix and he's a he's great he really is the sort of nexus of the Hamilton music scene.

He's like the great connector. Yes, he is. Yeah, he is. Very much so. I'm working on a parody song to the tune of the great pretender. It'll be the great connector. I love it.

I'm working on it. It's a good idea. Stay with me. So, gentlemen, we're going to go back, and then I want to talk about the new stuff, and then we'll go back again to talk about some of the big jams you can't avoid on Canadian radio,

these big trues jams. But a question came in for you. Uh-oh. And it's funny, I didn't even take, I'm looking now. I don't have the, person who wrote this question, but it came to me on blue sky, but it said, when was the last time the Trues covered Bohemian Rhapsody and were they still called Trouser? Oh, wow. We did,

we did cover it a lot. When we started, we were called One-Eyed Trouser because we were Monty Python fans. Sure. And then we shortened it to Trouser. And one of our big moments when we were like a cover band trying to get attention, like throwing in originals, is we would tackle these like kind of very ambitious covers, and one of them was Bohemian Rhapsody. And for whatever reason, I mean, it definitely, I mean, it was not a perfect version. Queen's an incredible band. Well, that's really a studio jam. Like, that's not really meant to be done live.

Queen never did the metal section, but we attempted it. We tried to make it sound like the who during a quick one while he's away. So we, like, made it like kind of punky in that way. Like, we didn't try to make it really opradic. But yeah, I think people were just blown away by the brazenness of it. And speaking of brazen, I think the last time we performed, it was actually on a national broadcast New Year's Eve show in front of 55,000 people in Niagara Falls. We did it. We were opening for Collective Soul and there's a version of it online.

I can't speak to the quality. We have done it as the truth. We have done it as the truth. Well, this begs the question. Where does the name the truths come from? Well, next question. Yeah. So it started with one-eyed trouser when we were starting out as a band. Actually, one-eyed trouser snake. And then it was one-eyed trouser. And then when we moved to on We had a manager out of Buffalo. It was like, yeah, I had trouser. Those like eyed bands are kind of passe. It was like 2000.

And he's like, you should just short it to trouser. And so we went around as trouser for a couple years. And then on the eve of releasing our very first EP, produced by Gordy Johnson and Big Sugar, in 2002, we got a cease and desist letter. And we were the first question was, what's a cease and desist letter? Because we were all young and we had no money and we had no reason to get lawyers involved. Certainly no lawyers. And there was a Mississauga acid jihad. jazz band maybe you're listening if not um they said you're not allowed to use our name we had it first

and we have it copyrighted so we were in a mad dash to find a name for the band in 24 hours and we got a call from jack cyprick's mother jean and she goes well if you're not going to call yourself trouser why you call yourself the trues it's spelt t r ewes it means the same thing as trouser and it's kind of got a cool ring to it and we put that in 24 hours we put that as our name of our band and our EP came out And of course, when you put out your first EP, you don't know if you're going to do another one. It's just one thing at a time. So that's how the name came about. Okay.

Now, here's an interesting confluence of events here. It's just one week ago today, the lead vocalist and lead guitarist for Finger 11 was in the same seats you're in right now. And they got their big break because of a contest on 977 hits FM. That's true. And that's brilliant. Yeah, and same as you. Right. And I will tell you guys, because I want the story from you guys now.

but I had Polly Morris on the program to talk about building the White House of Rock at Hit 977. And we spent quite a bit of time talking about how 977 helped break the truths. Oh, big time. So can you, yeah, share the, how 977 played a role in breaking you guys?

A, forever grateful. And B, we entered the rock search in 2002. And the biggest thing about winning that is they spin your song for a few weeks after winning it. And if the song's got, if the song's any good, you know, people start reacting to it. And that's what happened to us. We had a song called Fleeting Trust off our EP that they started spinning over the summer of 2002.

And I remember getting a phone call from our manager at the time. Larry Wanigis saying, oh, you know, you guys are actually getting, it's actually getting played like three, four times a day. And that really helped launch the band. And they were like the first national station to get behind us. And we're not the first band that. They did that with like they minted Finger 11 and then the glorious sons. and I think even like my darkest days and stuff. Monster truck, we're in there.

They've done it over and over again. In fact, when the suns, this is, you know, fast forward a bunch of years later, and I was producing them, and they were looking for, we had these songs recorded, they were looking for some kind of entry point into the industry. And I was like, why don't you enter into Rock Search, you know, because it really did work for us. And I think we had to kind of fudge the, where are they from on the application. We just said they're from Southern Ontario, which is not strictly untrue.

and they won and then their song Mama went into the charts and the rest is sort of history from there well here that's a perfect you know segue to talk about the new stuff before I go back and talk about some of the older stuff because you mentioned the glorious sons so how are the glorious sons

involved in the bloody light well Brett and Jay the brothers from that band the singer and the guitar player co-produced the album with us um we we were in um i don't know we were in this phase of making our record where we had a bunch of good stuff but maybe we weren't feeling like we had the great stuff and i was bouncing both myself and colin were bouncing things off of brett and brett is uh honest to a fault sometimes brutally honest and he's like yeah i don't think you guys have your record yet um he's he's like

give me one shot at uh producing a song and you know which is kind of a weird role reversal because I was their producer for a long time, but he was starting to show interest in that side of the glass. And I was like, yeah, go for it. We're not too precious. We've worked with many, many different folks over the years. And he, yeah, he came with an idea called The Bloody Light, and we kind of co-wrote it all together,

and then we recorded it together, and we were all looking around going, well, this feels right. So let's do some more. And then we just took it one song at a time until we had a 12-song album finished. And this is your eighth studio, album available now i see it was released on october 24th you mentioned produced by brett and jay from

the glorious sons maybe if you don't mind i'll play a little bit of uh some of the new music and then you can tell me a little bit more about how it all came together and then we're going to go in the time machine and go back because i've been holding on to questions for years here so i got i got to get my answers here so here let's go hear some new trues I'm sick and tired of feeling sick and tired all the time And all my worst fears coming to mind Waking up over my head I'm in deep

I made my own bed Everything feels like a giant regret When you're up to your ears And heart aching in bed I took a shout Stead at the drain Wipe the mirror And there was my face

The freedom lies on the other side You're a look in my eyes You're a fool not to break down Sounds big man This is good I don't mean to act surprised here But tell me Well here before you say a word actually

John Angus You and I were going to pop a great Great Legs beer here. So you grab your light logger and right in front of that mic. At the count of three here, right. So three, two. All right, cheers to you. Cheers.

Sounds good. Thank you. I've got my burst here. Shout out to Great Lakes beer. You two gentlemen, I've got fresh beer going home with you back to the hammer. Oh, that's so sweet. Absolutely. But tell me about the breakdown.

Sounds great in the headphones. It was number one at Rock Radio for us this year, which is our first in a while, which felt really good. It was one of the fourth or fifth songs we worked on with Brett and Jay, but it was a song that I had from the spring of 22 when I was just writing in my apartment in Hamilton. And we finally got a big old chorus for it sometime in July, 2004, when Brett and I were sitting around trying to finish it. And he said, what's this song about?

I'm like, I guess it's about having a breakdown. So let's call it the breakdown. And this is the song. It's kind of got a beetly, slash East Coast kind of vibe to it. Yeah, there's a tit of Beatles in there, for sure, for sure. But it just sounds kind of epic, right? It kind of swells and it'll sound great live.

Oh, yeah, it's been great live. So we're happy with it. So a question for you is, now that Q107 is sort of doing like a greatest hits type thing, like they're chasing boom or something like that, right? So then I'm wondering, where do we get to hear new music from the truth? in the GTA, is it really 977 and the Rock out of Oscewa? The Rock out of

Oscewa, there's the Barry one. 95. Rock 95. There's also our 7.9. Our hometown, yeah, why 1-08? Of course. Hamilton's been a huge supporter and hits. The Edge in Toronto

has played it a few times. So, you'll hear it around. You know, radio does not wield as much power as it once did. case in point we're sitting in a podcast studio but it's it still means a lot

especially to us to have seen the support we saw from coast to coast on a what is like our 22nd or 23rd top 10 single it's like to see that kind of support over the length of time that we've had from radio we don't take it for granted

and we realize how lucky we are to have it you know another thing strikes me okay so thoughts will hit my head and I'll just spit them out I don't know if they do that on radio but they probably have a better filter there But, like, one-eyed trousers, so it's from Monty Python, right? You mentioned?

Yeah. It's also, it's a dick reference, right? One-E-Refference. Yes, yes. But Finger 11 is a dick reference. It is. I know. I just thought of that.

I mean, that's what happens when you name, like, that band was... Good Scott and James back here. We'll have a nice conversation. Well, they deny it, eh? I call them out on it, but they kind of deny it. But, like, finger 11 means... Yeah. We're not stupid, guys.

So, One-Ey-Trouzer Snake is what happens when you're 14 years old and you name your band. So I had a punk band in my high school with Jimmy Barter on Highland. on Highland Drive in St. John's Newfoundland, and we were called One Eye Trouser Snake. That's the origins of the name. So when you name your band at 14, that's what's going to happen. Well, that's funny.

But Finger 11 was, of course, rainbow butt monkeys. Oh, yeah, there's another one. But that's not perverse either, right? They claim that's the clean version of butt monkeys. Oh, they've sanitized their whole history. Right, of course. Well, look at, like, Pearl Jam.

Like, what else, guys? They were Monkey Blaylock. I know, and then they went to Pearl Jam. What else does Pearl Jam? And they start as like, it's an old preserve that I'm like, no, it's not. No, yeah, that's right. Everybody reinvents the origin story of their name. Well, the funny thing is it's a blessing and a curse because you're lucky enough that you have a career like as phenomenal as Finger 11.

But then you're like, oh, but this is the name we had when we were just in the garage, like, you know, right in the song. So right in the making the band up. And they didn't have to fudge the fact they're from South Ontario. Like they didn't have to make bullshit some story. Oh, we're not from Nova Scotia. Come on now. They're from Burlington. So, hey, I'm playing another new one here,

and then we're going to give you some gifts and go retro, if you will. Manifest. Manifest Manifest I got you We all want the star in the happy end Slow full of sugar with the medicine

Legendary lover A famous friend One thing after another Okay so I've heard Manifest several times I like it very much But I get a couple of vibes Like I get a bit of a Bruce Springsteen vibe From this jam

Do you hear it, right? Yeah I definitely feel it I get, because Colin, Colin had that rapy, catchy verse for a long time. We've tried to, like, we've worked on the song under many different fashions, but to me it reminds you a little bit of Paul Simon,

like the way that the lyrics flow, but I always has, but production-wise, it's nothing like Paul Simon. No, I would say production-wise, a little bit like the killers. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. I love all that stuff.

You get Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, the killers, you mix it up, you got yourself a stew right there. Those are all phenomenal. That's all phenomenal. I would love to have every one of those guys's problems. Here's a big question for you. This will tie into what you were up to this past weekend.

But when you guys hear, so when the truth hear, the news, okay, Machine Gun Kelly is the halftime show at our Great Cup. What are your thoughts? Well, the funny thing about that, we were just talking about this. Like, we've been a band for a very long time, and we've got this great fan base. And they're always like, anytime we put stuff out on our Instagram and face,

Everybody's so happy and so kind, but the moment you kind of dip your foot back into that world where it's everybody else and you're just getting thrust in front of people that might not necessarily want anything to do with you, the comments get a little bit more spicy on the posts and stuff. So we just did the halftime for, and it went great. Eastern final. But it was one of those ones where I'm like, I'm not going to look at the comments at this one. Most of them were great and they're all our fans, but then there's people like, I don't give it. You know, so as far as Machine Gun Kelly doing the halftime at Great Cup, good luck. luck my man you know but do you feel like maybe a canadian band yeah i think that they did that for a long time and i think once they bagged green day i mean i'm sure they saw their ratings go up and got a taste

for that and like at the end of the day anything that's on tv is on there because it's trying to sell you soap or deodorant or a truck and like they're just trying to get eyeballs and you know if in plenty of canadian bands have you know i remember when the hip did it they also had like keith urban it's not the first time they've done in it. Black IPs played the Great Cup today. Okay. So there you go. It's a big get for them.

Lenny Kravitz. Yeah. It's all Americans. There you go. For an all-American sport, like CFL. I just want to say, I think that's shitty. Yeah. This is a Canadian showcase.

Yeah. I think now, I think of all the years that they could have maybe sent a message and gone domestic, this might have been the year that we're not a 51st state and all that kind of thing. But they're making decisions for very different reasons than their fans, you know. So, you know, I can't imagine being in charge of a national, international television show is an easy job this day and age

where you're just constantly competing for any modicum of attention you can get. So I'm sure they're making big, bold statements just trying to make sure people tune in. They got OLP involved, right, in the pregame? I saw that. But pregame's not really ad, like, you know. It's different, right? It's like a bridesmaid, never a bride. But you guys did get to play the in-hampers.

Hamilton at the Eastern Final, which was yesterday, right? Yeah, it was Saturday, Saturday. It was cool, except for the... Anyway, I shouldn't say that. The tie cast loss, which is a bummer. I'm going to say it, even though I shouldn't. They made a big hoopla about us, like, doing Highway of Heroes as the intro, and they're going to broadcast it, and we were there all morning rehearsing it, and then last minute

they didn't broadcast, it was like, thanks a pantload, guys. Like, we put a lot of work... But they told you they would broadcast it? And that's bullshit, too. Yeah, and then in the middle of... I'm like, now I'm going to get in trouble with TSN or whatever. But in the middle of the show, we were supposed to, yeah, they just broadcast like a minute if not ready to go, which was like, you know, always lovely to be involved in stuff, but kind of like, you know, give us an extra minute, guys. Well, I can tell you, my last guest on this program was, well, two guests ago was Ralph Benmergy.

And he went with Steve Paken to this Thai Cats game. I'm sure they both had a great time here in the Trues. Better than Machine Gun, Kelly. We had a really good time. I mean, I wish machine gun Kelly Luck. I also am at this point in my life where I don't, I know the guy's

name, and I know he's a celebrity, but I don't know how his songs go, and I feel like a slightly out of touch in some ways. Like, it's kind of power punky, pop punk, right? You know what? I think, who's the Blink 182? Travis Barker? It's like a Travis Barker. You're ready? I'm not even sure.

I'm not sure. But I'm not, you know, I'm older than you guys. Well, the numbers don't lie, and he's doing well. I bet you there'll be millions of Americans tuning in for the Great Cup fire. We'll love our Canadian football with that one less down. Well, they're changing thing. I mean, that's the last holdout.

We're going to keep that extra down. But they're making changes. They're making changes. Yeah, it's definitely becoming more like the NFL. But we better hold on to that. We don't want four downs. We want to keep it three down. Then CFL predates the NFL.

It does. It does. Okay, yes. Yes. And Tal Brady, they clicked this. shared it today, Tom Brady was talking about how great a game Canadian football is on air yesterday. Oh, wow, there you go. He's like, honestly, if you can play every second down, like, it's your last down, you're going to be a better football team. Because you're not relying on two more backstops,

you know, essentially. Right. And he was talking about what a great level of play that forces you into. Some reassurance for urgent. Urgent style. But the goat says that, then I'm all on board the Machine Gun Kelly show. Let's keep it going here. Let's do it. So John Angus, how is your beer? It's really nice. I don't normally drink beer at lunchtime on a Monday, but I mean, who am I kidding? It's a light logger, right? I didn't give you the full premium logger.

No, I wanted to go light because I've got a busy afternoon ahead of me still, but it's going down nice. Well, enjoy the logger here. How is yours? Yeah, so I'm drinking a burst, which is my go-to IPA when the Sunnyside is not being brewed. So Sunnyside is a summer brew, and then when... fall hits, I switched to burst. You're an IPA fellow. I like the IPA, but I do,

the logger is great. Like if I'm having, I don't know, if I'm having a sausage or something, a bunch of mustard on it, give me the logger right now. It kind of depends what I'm doing there. But, hey, and John, I'm curious, does anybody bug you, bug you about being Johnny McDonald? Our first Prime Minister? Do you get that a lot or no?

I mean, surprisingly not as much as you think. Because people don't know he's our first prime minister. What did that band say about you? You're the non-controversial Johnny McDonald's. Yeah, they were like, they said, no, one of them who said, sorry about your name. Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know. They were a great, what's their band?

Tiny, they're a great band. Yeah. My, my, I don't think my, it's not, my parents weren't tributing the first prime minister when they gave him my name. And I don't, he's not an Angus either, right? He's, uh, Alexander. Yeah, I don't think he's an Angus. So, it's just a coincidence.

But, um, I am John A. McDonald, which is kind of funny. What's a really, what's really funny is, um, and no one gets that his first name is hyphenated. It's John Angus. as sure as my name is Colin. Right. People always think that he's introducing himself by his full name. And like when he goes to Starbucks, he's like declaring himself like,

that would be for John Angus. And I was like, okay, whatever, dude. And they put John. Yeah, it sounds pretentious, right? Yeah,

it's like, I would like this for Colin Kirk McDonald, please, like you're, and some of the misheard versions of my name are pretty funny. Like, I got one time Starbucks wrote John,

I guess on my cup, like John, I guess. That's funny. Okay, so the bloody light out now, Get your mitts on the bloody light. Listen to some new The Truths.

And I do have a note here, and maybe you guys can have more announcements have happened since I took this note. But I did take a note. This is a long buildup while I look for it. But I did take a note that you guys are at Fallsview Casino on January 15th, 2026, with one of my favorite bands of all. I love both these bands.

The Watchmen, who gave me this Brian Linehan picture over here because I love the Watchman. Oh, cool. And Skydiggers, both FOTM bands, friends of Toronto Mike, like you guys are now. But that'll be amazing at Follsview Casino, January 15th. Yeah, it's a great lineup. And, yeah, like, I think Danny Greaves has got one of the greatest voices in the country. And the Skydiggers are incredible.

Like, Andy's a phenomenal performer, Frontman. Yeah, that's some tough bands going on before us. But we're going to try to rise to the occasion and have a good show. What a trifecta, honestly. I think that's an unbelievable. trifecta. By the way, I just saw Danny Graves open for Big Wreck at the Phoenix, like maybe two, three weeks ago. I heard about that show, yeah. How was it? Well, Danny does like a acoustic set. Like, it's just him and a piano. Yeah. And he'll do some Watchman songs and he'll do some covers.

And he actually, okay, so here, I'm going to do this now so we can just rock and roll the rest of the way, which is I have an event coming up called TMLX21. And this is happening the last Saturday of November. So November 29th, noon to three piano. at Palmer's Kitchen in Mississauga. And the reason I'm tying that to Danny is, because I had an event at Great Lakes Brewery one time, and Danny drove from O'Reilly to sing acoustically for us to close out the night. So Danny played one of my events.

So he's an app, I think he's a sweetheart. And when I had, who did I have over here? Paul Langua was over here. And you were talking about, like, will we ever be able to see the hip? Like maybe you call it the hip and frat. I don't know what you call it, because there's no gourd. I saw Danny. We were at Mariposa.

And we were playing acoustically, and Paul was playing solo, and Danny came up and sang a couple hip songs. You know exactly where I'm going, which is at the Juno's, they played with Feist. It's the only time the hip have played with El Gordony is that Juno's in Violet Light. What's that song called? It's a good life if you don't weekend. Great song. But I suggested to Paul that the guy, if you're going to do something,

the hip plus friends or whatever, Danny Graves is your guy. Oh, he'd be great. Yeah, Colin would do a great job, too. Have you ever seen Colin do some hip? What's your go-to hip song, if you're going to say hip-song? I mean, everything, I'm a little bit, I was a bit obsessed, to say the least. I actually, I did a couple of, we did a couple of shows with, well, a bunch of shows with Gord Sinclair, but we did one with John Angus, me, Paul, and Gord, we did this benefit show.

And Paul just looked over at me, he's like, you're almost doing those a little too good, because I, I kind of grew up, like, anybody starting a band in the 90s in Canada, and, like, the tragically hip, we're just omnipresent everywhere. and, of course, we just fell hard for them. Day for Night was my record. Mark Howard. Yeah, that's right. And I was just, like, obsessed with that.

Yeah. We are pretty close, very close with Gord Sinclair. He produced our fourth album, a album called Hope and Room. We did it at Bath. And if you ever, have you ever been to the hip studio? No, but I got a note this weekend from Carolyn Taylor, who was on Baroness Von Sketch Show, that she recorded an album at The Bath House.

Yes. I want to go. What you could do, you could charge admission, and it would be like touring a hip museum because, like, they have the console from the Phantom Power album cover. They have the blown up fully completely artwork, like the OG print of it. And they have, it's just, it's like a hip museum. It really is cool. Books that inspired lyrics that ended up on records are lining the library.

And so we spent like a few months marinating in that space. And we made our fourth album there with Gord Sinclair. And we've been very, very close with him ever since. Whenever we can, we get him up to do Grace 2. And just because to have him play that baseline and Colin can really nail it. And we really like playing that one. That record.

Oh, and we do one from that album. Do we do Cordelia? I love Cordelia. I think back to when the hip got that break on Saturday Night Live because Dan Aykroyd was hosting. And they could have, I always think back to that moment because I was watching live like a bunch of us. I'm sure you guys were watching.

They could have played, they could have done something like New Orleans. is sinking and maybe little bones or something, but they said, no, we're promoting day for night. We're going to play the two singles off day for night. It doesn't matter that they're singing to a giant audience that really doesn't speak hip like we do. I think that was like a true artist. That's what makes them so cool.

I feel like just knowing those guys, they wouldn't have, I couldn't picture them doing it any other way, at least not with a straight face and, you know. And he was so nervous, you know, now I'm preaching to the choir, but he was so nervous. I'm fabulously rich. like the opening lyric to grace too he accidentally says i'm tragically hip yeah because he was

trying to wish his 11 year old nephew uh happy birthday and that's why he did those things with his fingers and he forgot the opening yeah he so they just introduced him the tragically hip and i guess that was and i remember like in the lore like history just changes all the time the longer we go like now everybody looks back at that as this amazing moment but like at the time it was like oh they had this big opportunity to play saturday i remember like when we were younger before we met them, that was the, that was the word on the street. But now it's like, it was awesome and cool. And it always was. But it's just the way people's perceptions change over time. But I still think it was so cool. They did the more, uh, they did the more artistic integral integrity thing.

Um, and, and good on them. Well, I think this ties in with you guys too, because what I think from a fan's perspective, but I was born and raised in the city, Toronto here, you guys are from uh, Maritimes and now you're in Ontario for many, many, many years. But I think, at some point we collectively realize like it's better for us if they don't understand like who gives a fuck if the Americans appreciate the hip I never thought of that's such a good line

that's how I think of it now I love that I love that you use that it reminded me I don't want to change the topic from the hip but I read a review of losing my religion the other day because they did the top 20 REM songs of all time from their major label run and they said that was Michael Stipe saying I don't know how

to write a hit song in the line that they highlighted was oh no I said too much, I haven't said enough. And I'm like, oh my God, I got chills. That's exactly what it is, right? Like, it's like trying to strike that balance between relatability and connectability and then not revealing so much of yourself.

And I'm like, wow. It's funny you mentioned R.E.M. Because I don't know how to describe to an American Gore Downey. But you have to do a hybrid of people. One of whom is Bruce Springsteen. I want to ask you about in a moment. But another of whom is Michael Stipe.

Yeah, he's like, the thing about Downey, he's also a goaltender, right? So you have to remember, like, he's very, it was very, lonely end of the rink. Yeah, lonely end of the rink. And he was a good goaltender by all reports. And so Michael Stipe is very, I love Michael Stipe, incredibly, like, a very artsy guy, like very, like, out of central casting, artsy guy. And Downey, it was a very artsy guy, but he had this whole other manly jock side to him,

which is what all, that's why all the dudes were, like, so obsessed with the hip, especially before they started writing, like, a head by a century where, you know, but he's kind of a funny, it's very Canadian. and I hate to say that because it's such a cliche, but he does embody all these things. So it's like putting Bruce Springsteen and Michael Stipe together, and Americans, I think, would have a hard time with that at first. Do you know what I mean?

No, I totally get what you mean. It's like if Bruce Springsteen started to get really eccentric and strange, but no, he's always like, this one's about, you know, working at the gas station and everybody's like, okay, I get it. One thing I saw a mansion on a hill. Yeah. One thing I somewhat lament is that like these were like the biggest pop stars of the day were like Michael Stipe

writing songs about swimming naked at night and it was like a colossal head and it's like whoa like we lived through it I was we were pretty young we were teenagers but like the biggest voices of the day were so genuinely alternative

like we don't have any comparables to that anymore if you look at like the top 50 on Spotify everything makes perfect sense it's all written by committee in Nashville and like 42 in them are by Taylor Swift and probably chat CPT in the room so but like but but and I whatever some of those songs are really good you know but

everything makes complete sense all the time like and it was so funny to live through an arrow and like the more obtuse and weird you were right the better it was you know and I mean like in like in downy fit slot right in so with all that stuff and so Michael Steipp and like Eddie Vedder and like these guys and again I'm not want to be like a we're not wouldn't be okay boomer be okay X or like or okay whatever else well welcome to Toronto Mike that should be our byline right okay Xer but uh anyway whatever it is what it is but it's just like, what a funny time to have lived through when the biggest voices in popular music

were genuinely different. So smart and soulful and arty, and you felt it. It wasn't just like obtuse and eccentric and pretentious. It was like, it was also hit music. It's like you felt it. Never mind outsold, at least I think it was just after Christmas,

never mind outsold the Michael Jackson. Although the part of that story nobody ever talks about, but Michael gets back the next week, right? Yeah, don't let that get in the way. But the really cool thing about that story, And again, not to get two in the weeds, but Chris Malamphi. If you've never heard of Chris Malamphi, he's a really good podcast. I listen to his Slate podcast. Okay, he's great. So do, but do you know why it went to number one the week after Christmas? Oh yeah, because people got gift, no, they changed

exchange. They exchanged their Michael Jackson or their Mariah Carey or their Whitney Houston for Nevermind. Right. So they're like, kids were choosing their own music after Christmas. The uncle, the uncle or the aunt who doesn't know anything about it, bought you something else. And the week, next week you went and changed it for Nevermind, which is the biggest compliment you could ever have. I love that you drop that fun fun. because I did hear that on the Chris Melanthie podcast. He's really good. Yeah, he's very good.

And I'm always interested in chart history, although looking at the charts these days, I'm sort of like done with the charts because whatever change of streaming, it's like they don't mean anything anymore because they're all tied, they're sort of gamed and it's all, and now that we have like an AI song

on the Billboard Hot 100, which is just a mediocre, running the mill, Beyonce sound-alike piece of slop or whatever. And the person who created it has no musical talent herself. she just writes like poetry and then she does prompts until she gets back something from it's called sonos but until she gets something back that sounds good to her and then suddenly that's the that's the song like to me there's no art history in that yeah and like the thing about music and literature and art everything it's like it's such an it's the human expression it's the thing that outlasts the wars and outlast the times if it's any good and it's like that's the whole idea behind art It's just, we were here, we existed, and we wrote about it. And now, if you can't trust that, I don't know what to think.

Well, I also think that there's, like, a point at which it's all generating content off what has been created. So we could be witnessing, if we lean too heavily in that direction, we could be witnessing essentially the end of culture because it's going to keep recycling itself. Right. And so without a snake eats its tail. Exactly. And without something genuinely new, like this thing zigged when it should is at. is what human ingenuity is all about. You know, it's like, and if we just keep feeding off

what's already been created, again, you're right, the snake will eat his tail, and then it'll be over. It'll be, like, we'll keep listening to the same things and watching the same movies. Well, you know, what do you call it? What's that Simpsons line? Like, it was a hell of a toboggan ride, okay? So, there we go.

Tyler R. I was, so I had Tom Cochran on the show because I did something at the Joe Carter Classic. It was like a golf event, and Tom was there, and I was set up, and I chatted with him. and he promised to come back, and we talked about him coming back. He hasn't been back yet, even though I saw him open for the Who.

Tom, get over here. We were at the Who show. Oh, yeah. I thought they were pretty damn good. Which night? I went to the second one. I can't remember now, actually. You know, my only complaint was that I never heard

Roger Daltry sound better. I thought he was incredible for 81 years old. But I didn't know the, I didn't find the band loud enough. Like, when I go to the Who, I want my face to melt off. I was in the lawns because pizza, pizza had a promo where you could get a ticket for 11-11.

Oh, okay. Fantastic. I know. Good deal. $10 surcharge, but I was happy to pay $21 to see who. And I bought this ticket. That's less than a beer at the end of the theater.

That's beautiful. They don't even have great lakes there, which kind of sucks. So I'm in, I'm there, and I watch Tom Cochran from the lawns. And my buddy, Paul Farberman, who actually is managing snow right now. Oh, no way.

You guys should collaborate with snow. Well, you know, I see your Meistro record back there. You ever heard our collaboration with Maestro? Wait, You said there was a collaboration with Maestro Fresh West. Yes. You know it. I love this song.

I'm going to ask you about that. So we'll do it right now. It's so high vocals, man. Are we able to talk over this? My 11-year-old discovered this song a couple years ago. And he loves hip-hop. And he couldn't believe that we were on a hip-hop song. I want to know.

So he listened to this relentlessly for about a year. It's a good track. Let's listen to a bit and tell me. And then I will eventually get back. to TMLX21, which I started about 20 minutes ago. I remember Maestro used to call me at like three in the morning. And I was like at a time in our career where we were touring incessantly. So I would get any night at home was a precious night.

But I would get a phone call from him. And he would say things like, I don't make music. I make history. So I love him. It was the Maestro. He's in the Maritimes now. Yes, down in St. John, New Brunswick. We've been trying to work it out.

he could come out to a true show so we can do this. So how did this come to be? He saw us in Queen Street West Music Fest in 2010, and he really liked our song Tired of Waiting. He liked the chorus. We're going to get to that. But if you remember the after party? Oh, I barely.

We took over the stage at the underground. Some Toronto club on Queen. It was a messy, messy night. It was a cover band playing, and we just like spilled onto the stage post-show. commandeered all the instruments and he got up and wrapped freestyle over hold me in your arms or tired of waiting oh cool one or the other okay so he freestyled on stage i love this guy i think he's great and then we then we made a then we made a like a commitment like a hey we're gonna write together someday and it actually came to be um and he came to my apartment yeah on king he's a talented talented

guy and like our way of writing is more like we'll just jam on chords and just like see what happens but maestro's like so intentional like with his lyrics like no what are we writing about how are we going to write it he's a very talented guy and it kind of was intimidating because i was like you know we kind of let things happen as they will kind of almost like a hippie-ish approach but he's very intentional and i love and i will say at the session itself it was our first time at a hip-hop session yeah there was 25 producers yeah he's like hey that's so-so he's the producer on the track that's so-so he's a producer on the track that so-so he's a producer and we're like whoa uh but you know what but Everybody contributed like that little keyboard hook, like the do-da-do-d-d-d-do-do-d-d-d.

Like somebody created that. Somebody else created the beat. Maestro, of course, wrote the lyrics. And then there was another rapper on it. Was it Richie-Ritchie-Ritch kid? Rich kid. Rich kid. He was also on it.

So everybody was in the room. It was a very busy studio. And I remember just playing the guitar one or two takes. One of the things he told me, and I thought was really cool, just in terms of songwriting. Because he was really good, his good friends with. Chuck D from Public Enemy and he said the most important thing in a lyric is your opening lyric and Chuck D is like such a

like bass how low can you go Yeah throw what a brother knows once again back is the incredible rhyme animal That number Another summer Yeah yeah sound of the fuzzy drummer Yeah and he was all about that I can do this all day so I love it man

But Maestro is like no if you're going to start a song You start big and I don't know if you can curse but you can't mess You can curse yeah don't fuck around like bass Like that's a really good opening lyric And no one even thinks of it. It just hits you. And there's an example of that song, bring the noise with anthrax.

Yeah. Right? They bring in this is what you're doing now. You got a rock band. You got a rapper. It's the same deal. The song was, it turned out great. And it was a single off that record.

And we made a video. But unfortunately, I don't think radio knew what to do with it. No, it didn't do much. Your voice was obviously like very recognizable and very rock radio. But the rock radio is not going to play something that mostly raps. Yeah. And it didn't fit on the hip-hop. section of things, unfortunately.

Well, there's a special message from the aforementioned Chuck D. Hey, what's up? This is Chuck D. You are listening to Toronto, Mike, right here. Did you have him here? Yep. Well, I had to go to him. He was at the C&E Banshell.

That's so cool. He's such a legend. Well, I literally, this is back before Elon Musk going to Twitter, and I had an active Twitter account, and I just literally tweeted at the guy and said, oh, you're going to be here. I think it was Beer Fest or something. Yeah. And I said, I'm going to see you at Grandstand.

Would you come on my podcast? And then he connected me to this hand. handler person who said, okay, you get 20 minutes. And I brought the whole studio. Like, I put it in a box. I put it in a trailer, and I biked it to the C&E grandstand. I set it up behind the C&E Bandstand. Did you bike from here?

Oh, yeah. Nice. Oh, yeah. And, well, I, I, I've biked to the opera house from here for a recording. I guess you can do it all along Lakeshore, right? I just, I can do easily, I can easily go on like a 50K ride right now. Like, that's not that's not about. Now I'm just bragging about myself.

Oh, you're in good shape. I'm in good cycling shape. That's about it. But love Chuck D. So I'm going to finish. the TMLX21 thought because you guys from the hammer, if you made the trek

to Mississauga, and everyone listening is invited to this, I'm doing a live recording from Palma's Kitchen in Mississauga. That's near like Burnham Thorpe and Mavis. It's a great Palma pasta location. So we'll be taking over the second floor, but here's the deal.

Everybody eats for free, so Palma pasta will feed you. They have a hot table there. I have a lasagna in my freezer for you guys. That's take back to the hammer. It's a frozen lasagna from Palma pasta. You'll love it. So everybody eats for free at TMLX21.

I'm bringing cold Great Lakes. You can a can or two of fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. And the newest sponsor RetroFestive is going to give everybody a gift for coming. On that note, I have a gift for you two gentlemen, courtesy of retrofestive.ca. By the way, the promo code FOTM saves you 10% if you go buy something for Christmas. is somebody on your Christmas list. Go to Retrofestive.C.A. right now, save 10% with the promo code FOTM.

I think earlier we mentioned Dan Aykroyd and Saturday Night Live, and there was a guy on that show named Chevy Chase back in the day. And, of course, Christmas Vacation is a great Chevy Chase movie, and they have moose mugs in that movie, and you guys are each getting a moose mug. Oh, that's so cool.

One for each of you. This is great. This is what Uncle Eddie was drinking when he said, Kirk, that's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year. That's it. Just to bring this back to the trues, we actually covered the Christmas vacation song at the Phoenix, what was it, the Andy Kim Christmas?

Andy Kim Christmas. We covered that in 2015. And all the guys from the Burr-Naked Ladies were really impressed with that. And I do have to give credit to Jeff Hesalt, who our keyboard player, he said we should cover the Mavis staple. It's that time. Yeah, I know the song, Christmas Vacation.

Yeah, it's great. And Mavis Stapel's still with us. She's great. I always think of the last waltz, What the staple singers do and the weight. Yeah. Fantastic. It's so good.

All right. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home for Pops. He's no longer with us. But Ridley Funeral Home did send over a measuring tape for you guys. Oh, geez. By the way, here's a small world story. Measure what kind of casket you need. That's dark.

Goodness. It's dark, but you know, it's funny. But here, you mentioned Andy Kim. It's funny. I was chatting with Andy Kim the other day because I produced the Humble and Fred show. It's a podcast. And tomorrow, Andy Kim is their guest because he's promoting his Christmas show. Yeah, every year.

We've probably done it four, three or four times. We did it. Yeah, we've done it about. We did the Massey Hall one in 22. And before that, we did a bunch of the Phoenix. And we did one at the Mod Club. And yeah, he's amazing. Andy, he's written some phenomenal songs.

Sugar, sugar, baby. I love that. But my favorite is Rock Me. I think that song is so good. Covered by the TransCanada Highway Men. Yeah, very good guys. I saw them do it at the horseshoe. Yeah, shout out to Stephen Page and Chris Murphy.

Chris Murphy. And, um, it's a. and Craig Northie. You got it. That's the big four there. Okay, so it's funny because I was going down that road of Tom Cochran. Why did I bring him up? Because I got a question for Tom when he visits, but I'm going to give it to you guys.

Okay. What was it like riding live as highway? I don't know. Close. Apparently you guys share the stage of the East Street band in New Brunswick. Yes, we did. So we've already brought up Bruce kind of organically, but tell me about that. That was 2012?

Okay, so 2012 Every year back then Moncton at Magnetic Hill Would have like this huge rock show They had like U2 They had ACDC And then one summer they had Bruce Springsteen And it was like August of 2012

The show was happening in September And I remember just on a whim I just I called our manager Larry Wanagis and said Hey is there any way we could possibly get on this bill If you know And typically you know The answer we got back at

first was you know Bruce doesn't usually have opening acts but I guess I don't know whatever the show was doing but last minute they decided to add a couple Canadian bands and we were top of list and so it was it became us and then Tom Cochran it was early September of 2012 wow and um yeah we were blown away he's an absolute Bruce Springsteen like he's actually that's what I would define him as no I'm just but he's like he's he's the most Bruce Springsteen of all the Bruce Springsteen so we get there and we're just Sean said it was like meeting G-I-J. Yeah, yeah.

But, was that because of the pectoral muscle? Real American hero. He just look, he's, real American hero. Americans,

he just looks exactly like an American hero. And, and we asked, when we got there, we had a good show. It was fine. It was fun.

And, you know, we were begging our road manager to go to their role manager and ask if we could just get a picture with the boss. And at first, they were like,

you know, Bruce likes to take his time, get warmed up for the show. If you, it's the only way you're going to get to meet him is if you hang out by backstage,

right when they're on their way to the show. And sure enough, we're just hanging around there just nervously kind of waiting to see if we can meet the boss. And then the entire cavalcade of East Street band members come in in these black escalades. And I'm like, oh, wow. And there was really tight security back there. You weren't allowed to fuck around.

And in the background, I've told this story many times, but I'll tell it again. As all the escalades were coming in and all the backup singers and Niles Loftgren and all these people were making their way to the stage, I see a little golf cart in the distance just burning around like some some guy snuck into the grounds and was just doing you know whatever like donuts donuts yeah and as it got closer i'm like oh shit that's bruce springsteen he was driving the

golf cart and he had little stephen in with him wow and max max wineberg so if he had wiped out the show would have been messed but he drives right up to us kind of like almost like a little kid and he comes right up to the band and he's like how's it going how was your show like it was good he's like where are you from like we're from annie ganish and it's like Where's that? I'm like, about two and a half hours east of here. And he goes, that's great. Do you know Twist and Shout?

And we're like, yeah, we know Twist and Shout. He's like, come sing it with me in the encore. And we're like, holy crap. That's a good bruce. Then immediately your mind goes to, okay, how do I stay sober for three and a half hours? Which, we struggled. We struggled. We got there.

And then we watched, his show was incredible. Like, I mean, needless to say. But it was like watching, like, I compare it to like John the Baptist coming down with the word. I mean like I it was just incredible but that almost feels like something that goes without saying and then we got up in the encore and he said please welcome the trues and then counted off the band and you can see it on YouTube and it was one of the greatest moments of our of our lives okay couple of thoughts one is you say it goes without saying but until I saw it I didn't fully understand it like I had to see it for myself in November the day after Trump got elected the second time

at the Scotia bank arena I got my first first Bruce Springsteen live experience. And it is very religious. Like it's very, you have to, but you can't really explain it. You kind of have to tell somebody to go experience that.

It's like watching a sermon, man. It's really good. How do you describe a sunset? Exactly. I often say that that was probably the best band I'd ever seen. Them and I saw ACDC in like a pretty good prime like on the black ice with Malcolm was still around

and Phil was still the drummer. And I feel like that and Bruce those were the best rock shows I'd, I'd ever seen, I've ever seen. What struck me was his ability to make it so intimate so quickly. Like he was down with this ginormous outdoor crowd and he made it feel like all of a sudden you're just in the living room with 50,000 people and he went right into the crowd, was looking at what people had on their posters and asking requests, immediately brought everybody in

and not in this kind of contrived, lame way. It was just so perfectly executed, but it also felt so only, this is only going to have like this tonight and yeah he just killed it I remember working on the highway really hit me that night that song yeah which now that the biopic which I haven't seen yet but you realize how many of those songs that we got on born in the USA were written during the Nebraska like yeah it's a great record that one that's a great record that's a good lesson to like how many great songs he got out of like not trying to have these huge hits he was like he kept everything really like low because he was that's where he was right and then

when he kind of came out of it and did Nebraska, he's like, well, you know what, we could probably muscle up some of these and then make my biggest selling record of all time. Absolutely. But it wasn't written with that intention. It was written with the opposite intentions, and it made it all the more satisfying when you get to born in the USA, and all those songs are so

you know, real. Well, that, you know, I'm of an age where that was my first Bruce Springsteen experience was born USA and it was everywhere. Yeah, it was that Michael Jackson thriller. Massive, like Madonna or whatever. Absolutely. Mike from KW, you guys touched on this

because you guys played a couple of nights a couple of days ago at what is the name of the Ticats Field? Is it Tim Horton's field? Right now it's going by Hamilton Stadium because Tim Horton's, the naming rights have lapsed. That's bullshit too.

And nobody's picked it up. So I don't know. We were going to see if they could call it the Trues Stadium. So like, come see the Arkells live at the Trues. But when Neil Young, I saw Neil Young this summer, he played the Budweiser stage. He called it Freshwater. Freshwater stage.

Freshwater. We were at that show on stage, side stage, watching Neil. Get out of here. Yeah, it was amazing. I met Neil that night. He's turning 80. Same day as me, that I turned 45. Was that show?

In 82, you look great, man. He made the same joke. But, no, we share a birthday. It's in two days. Yeah. Did you, how was the show out there? On stage, it was religious. I was in the lawns again.

Okay. Although I paid more than 11-11 for the Neil Young show. But, yeah, it was amazing. But it's funny. This will tie in with a sponsor mention only because I was with, guy who he had maybe the strain of cannabis he was consuming, he wasn't prepared for, and he went

down. And then paramedics came and I'm kind of watching. This was your friend or just the guy? Yeah, he's a friend. He's going to be at TMLX21. Langer, shout out to Langer. But he went down and then, you know, paramedics are giving him some water and, you know, he just took the wrong strain of weed. Who gave it to him?

Canada Kavn? No, it was Andrew Ward who gave it to him. I'm shutting out of these guys we're hanging with. And Tyler, from I'm going to see tonight, there's a new Terry Fox documentary called Run Terry Run. I'm going to see the Roy Thompson Hall tonight. I'm going to see Tyler at that show. So great. But bottom line is, I've told the story,

and I don't want him bears Langer again, but I saw him get up and I go, okay, he's feel better, he got some water in him, he's coming back to enjoy Neal. Then I saw him go down again, and they took him to the tent. So part of that show, actually,

I missed because I was at the tent, but I caught enough. It was great, yeah, good reason, but it was great fucking show. And this is a good chance to tell you that if you want to order cannabis online, you can go to shopkindling. And then when you order your cannabis or cannabis products,

it'll be in your hands in under an hour. It gets delivered to you. The delivery is free. In under an hour, you've got your weed and you can track the delivery. Like, where's it out? Like, it's an Uber or something. And it's discreet.

Like, it doesn't come with, like, a giant green leaf or whatever. It's very discreet. So go to shopkinling. com for all your cannabis needs. You guys mentioned you were at Tycats Stadium there, and you guys talked about Highway of Heroes. And a question came in from Mike from Kdub. Mike from Kdub writes,

please thank them for their performance of Highway of Heroes before the Ticat's Alouettes game on Saturday. It was truly a moving moment in honor of Canada's brave men and women who sacrificed so much. Could I play a bit of this? Sure. This isn't the live. This is the recording.

I shipped out They numbered a dozen Upon my return We're a hundred or so From the coast and from the prairies I bet they keep coming Add one more name From Ontario

And carry me home Down the highway of heroes People above With the flags flying low Carry me softly Down the highway of heroes True patriot love There was never more

Could you please share with me the inspiration For this wonderful song Highway of Hero Before we do I want to shout out Tim Chasing Oh, it's so good. For playing violin on the track. And him and T. and Wigmore, as well as our former drummer, Sean, on the beautiful backup vocals, which I have to imitate every night, as if I'm singing them.

Of course, I play guitar, and I do some harmonizing later on it. But those guys sound really good. I don't listen to that very much because we play it every night. But that really jumps out, great violin. And also, Jeff Haysol on the accordion, and really, those flavors on the track really add a lot. So this song, we were actually rehearsing it with, John Angus' middle child has a Remmeringus Day ceremony tomorrow, so we're going to go and play it with the kids tomorrow.

But the song was inspired by the story of Nicola Giddard. She's a girl from her hometown at Andy Ginnish, Nova Scotia. And she was killed in Afghanistan in 2006. And they wrote a book about her called Sunray in 2009, and they interviewed my mother for it. My mother's really good friends with Nicholas' mom, A woman named Sally, and my mom had a conversation with Sally around that time saying, you know, I'd be so pissed off if this was my kid that was killed in this war.

We don't even know what the hell we're doing. You know, by 2006 even, we were like, what are we doing in Afghanistan, you know? And Sally just said, you know, Nicola's whole dream in her life was to serve in Canadian Armed Forces, and she died doing what she dreamed of doing. So I have to find some kind of meaning in that. And that really moved me, and that was how we got the song. Like, that's the point of view. And it was just written about Nicola.

We never had any intention of it for it to become, like, this military song, and it kind of became that, and people really connected to it. So I love that. But, yeah, it was just written about a girl, and that's Nicola. And, of course, the Highway of Heroes is that stretch of the 401 between Trenton, The CFB Trenton and downtown Toronto. And it's a beautiful song. And, of course, tomorrow is remembered and stay.

Is this live? Are we live? Is this going out live? It's live and recorded. It airs today, though. Yeah, it'll drop right away. Okay, cool. Yeah, it'll drop on the time of year.

It always takes on special significance. It's also brought us all over the world. We were just in Riga Latvia playing the song for the troops on the NATO base there. And last summer, we were on the beach of Normandy for, the 80th anniversary of D-Day playing for Justin Trudeau and Prince William and the French Prime Minister and

we've been to Dubai to play it for the troops over there. We've been to the south of Spain and it's just one of those songs that's really taken us all over the place because it resonates on that level with people so I'm grateful for that.

And it's very cool. So you're going to actually play it for some what primary school kids? My second child he's seven I have three boys and he his whole school has learned of the song so they're calling an assembly at 10 tomorrow and we're going to there's about four or 500 kids that we're going to sing it with that's amazing yeah yeah the true's are going to play the the auditorium or whatever yeah we rehearsed it today because they had to work out the kinks and make sure that the kids knew it they did great and they also had a little Q&A they wanted to ask us questions

which was cute but we did that this morning and we're going to I'm going to go play it with them tomorrow morning. That's amazing here. Okay, so you guys are so easy to talk to, my goodness. So I realize I said an hour, and I can do an hour, but I'd rather steal a few more minutes. Like, do you have a hard out now? I have a hard out in that I have to be back in Hamilton by three.

So we could maybe fudge it by five or ten minutes. Okay, I'm taking ten. Okay. Since you just offered it up there. I'm taking ten, because there are three songs. I'll just play a bit of three songs and just, if I can capture the stories of, like, like, where it came from.

Because these are just three songs that are sort of what I call, like pervasive on our airwaves, like sort of like anthemics, big, big Canadian jams. So I'm about to play it. I'm going to shout out a couple last sponsors here really quickly. I want to let people know that if you're looking for a dynamic and creative work environments with the return to office movement, you need to speak to Doug Mills from Blue Sky Agency. He's Doug at blue skyagency.ca.ca. He's the man to talk to.

They got a silent pod, which offers privacy and a lot of great creative dynamic work furniture. So talk to him. Two great podcasts from Nick Aeney's I want to shout out. Building Toronto Skyline. We just had Jennifer McKelvey on the show talking about what the federal government is doing to get us building more housing. And building success. Steve Paken was our guest. He was also at that Thai Cats game.

I think I can hear him now. And he's saying Oscar Weewee. Was that what you say, Oskiwiwi. I should know that. See, I'm an Argos fan. What do I know? Okay. So, shout out to Nick Aienes.

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Okay, you guys, we're going to do this three big jams over the next 10, 15 minutes. Okay. And I won't play the whole thing here because I've got time problems. But... Oh, yes. You didn't think you'd escape

Without me playing this It's never ending As far as I know But there's never ending, as far as I know But there's a doubt you feel Between us both You're grounded daily I'm on a cloud

I float up every night As you come down I'm not ready to go I'm not ready to go I'm not ready to go I'm not ready to go Are you want to have? Please bury me in fun facts about not ready to go.

What a jam! It sounds so good on these earphones. Three things came to mind as you played it. One time, I met a girl in Newfoundland who thought you were saying, but there's a dodgy feel between us both. I should have said it. It's a doubt you feel, but I was like,

I love that you said that. I also remember the sound of those gang vocals, which is sort of the sound of the chorus was from like an impromptu party we threw in the studio because there's some evidence of this on this track but Colin's voice was really hurting during this session. We did the whole record in like six days

and he had so much strain on his vocal, so many vocals to do that he went home to the hotel early to rest up and we were having a little party in the lounge drinking beers and it was a bunch of pals and girlfriends and friends and we all spilled into the live room to sing the chorus

and then double the chorus and then triple the chorus then quadruple the chorus. So then he ended up with like 45 voices singing, I'm not ready to go, which sounds very jubilant. Sounds big. Gordy Johnson produced this? Big John.

He did. Wow. This was, we wrote this song in Tired Waiting in the same week, and it was right after we got rejected from this big record label guy who was going to fly up to Toronto. He did fly to Toronto, came to see us at Ridley, and didn't get it. I remember the exact quote was, I came here expecting train and I got Aerosmith.

And we're like, what the fuck is wrong with Aerosmith? And we just got- Aerosmith's better than train. Big time. And we just leaned into our classic rock love. And I remember the morning that we finished this song, you and Jack actually went to see the Who that night. I don't know how you even afforded it. We had no money.

I guess maybe somebody bought us tickets. I don't remember. So, yeah, that reminds me of that particular time. It was a very good time. I remember hearing that back the first time when it was all done. and I thought, oh, this is, this could actually do something. It was pretty cool, so. I was going to ask you if you knew, because a couple of quick fun facts here is that that's

number one on Canadian rock radio, like the most played, in that format anyways, the most played song of 2004. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you guys did that. It was a very, like, how do things change for the truth? I would say it was like an unexpected surprise, but in around, I mean, I think we did the research one time because we were putting together a box set for that record.

and I think we did 200 shows in 2003 and 200 shows in 2004 and that was because the song took off and it's like careful what you wish for something we've always wanted and then honestly it was all going such a blur at that point we were so so busy

I remember being at the Juno's in 2004 in Edmonton and Chad Kroger we had opened a couple of nickel back shows he came with me and goes your song's number one I'm like no no it's not it's like number two and he's like no no it's number one And then, like, he knew ahead of us because he was Chad Kroger and I guess he had access to that, but it wasn't until we went on much on demand on the Tuesday, and Rick Campinelli told us. And it was really cool, you know, it was, and everything changed.

And, like, and the cool thing I hear about now is there was a bunch of major label, because we were an indie band on a major label for distribution. And we were, like, just destroying all these bands that had all this major label money. Like, they couldn't, our song was doing better than all these, like, super, pretty like that that record was done for a couple of thousand dollars full value six or seven thousand dollars yeah and and then we uh yeah we were just crushing these other bands just because everybody liked that song so much so i was kind of proud of that and um and you get a bunch of juno noms off of that yeah um yeah it was cool but like what i say is like you know it was 2003 2004 we were all in our early 20s and it's like you go from doing everything wrong to doing

everything right overnight like everything that we would get criticized for six months before I'm not ready to go. We're now like, oh, that's the cool thing about them. They don't give a shit about their images. They're, like, they're just rag tag and really honest. But that was everything like, well, we're not going to sign you because you don't give a shit about your image like six months earlier. So it's just funny the way it works. Don't change the thing.

Yeah, as long as it's working. And so, yeah, it was, it was wonderful. It was a lot like most fans don't get right to number one right away. We did. And that was definitely really cool. But I remember my manager saying at the time, like, ooh, Where do you go from here, except if you don't, you know... Well, you've got to follow up that big monster single.

How are you going to follow that up? There's no hope, right? What are we going to do next? Here we go. Same chords. Sounds weird. Blaming Good drum sounds

Follow in and trailing Words you might be saying I am tired of waiting I'm tired of waiting I am tired Altered expectation Long anticipation

Everything is changing I'm the same and aging I'm tired of waiting I am tired of waiting I'm tired of waiting I am tired of waiting I'm tired of waiting I am tired of waiting

I'm tired of waiting I am tired of waiting of the long way down the long way down The long way to tell The long way you change So, you know, if you ask us about the song, we're going to tell you a story

We've probably told a thousand times But I'll tell you a few other things about it Yes, please. Colin is playing Gordy Johnson's double-neck 12-string So those like bring-brings or that's like a 12-string guitar It's one thing we don't recreate live quite as well is this recording because it like really pops. Yeah, yeah.

And then that drum fill you just heard was Sean Dalton ripping off Jeremy Tagger from OLP, the fill that goes into the chorus of one-man army. Sean was very obsessed with that fill. He thought that that was the coolest fill. And so he's like, I'm going to put that fill in our song. And nobody's ever called us out. And I think we told Jeremy, he's aware of it. I think he was flattered.

But so it's interesting. No, just because I do these tangents, but in the video, for Hero. Remember the Spider-Man 2 song that Kroger sings? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tagger fills in for who's the guy who just quit Pearl Jam? Oh, Matt Cameron. Matt Cameron. Like, Taggart's in the video. Yeah, I saw that. I remember that. He mentioned Chad Craig. He's a good friend. And around this time when we started taking off, we were label mates with OLP. They were also on Sony BMG, so we would hang out with him quite a lot in those days.

He would come and jam. Amazing. And you were saying, sorry for that, uh, that tangent. there, but I'm a big Tagger fan too. Yeah, he's awesome. Great guy. Great guy. And I like a Navid. I like, I can live a Navid over there. He's a really creative.

He's an inventive drummer. He came up with a lot of cool parts. But yeah, the song was, you know, it's when the success became a little more solidified. I think Not Ready to Go was like our introduction to everybody. And then when this song came out and was a hit as well. That's where people started to really show up. But now you're not a one hit wonder.

It's also when we started to sell our own tickets. Like we were, when Not Ready to Go was a hit, we were opening. We were opening for Big Sugar. we were opening for three days grace, we're opening for Nickelback, we're opening for Evanescence, we were opening, opening, opening, opening cheap trick,

all these great tours. We were all over the map. Like, we would, because we didn't really care. Like, we're from the East Coast. Like, you play live. It's not about like how you're marketed for us. So one week we'd be opening for the dears.

And then we'd be opening for evanescence. And like back then it was like, never the twines shall meet. But we would be like, oh, we're here with Sam Roberts one night, who we absolutely love. And then the next night we're with Nickelback. But that was back in the day

when it was like, oh, nickelbacks. Like, they were selling a million records, but everybody was like, they suck. Well, a lot of people love them. And they were great guys, and we had great times opening for them. But we weren't very, we were never precious about who we played with. But when that song hit, we put our first ever national headline tour on sale and actually sold, you know, a few hundred tickets in every market for the first time, which was great. One more here because, like, if you're listening to rock radio in southern Ontario, these are a big three, I think.

You can tell me I'm wrong. They're, I mean, they're definitely the ones I hear quite a bit. They were all kind of written really close together. I mean, there was tired and not ready to go. And then this was the song that was our first kind of, oh, we have to have a follow-up record. And we sent this one to Sony, who was going to distribute the record again. And they were like, oh, this is the one. So it's all just a blur, but cool.

It's funny, I wrote this about my girlfriend at the time. And there was a night before we started to make it. where none of her friends thought I was a good, a good choice for her. So I had that, don't listen to your stupid friends. And then when the song came out, a bunch of her friends like, oh my God, are we the stupid friends? Yes, you are. Yes, you are.

In a cold October, cemetery blackbird flying on over. Where's this going to take me? I'm outing for a mystery. Kill is abandoned All alone and empty I've felt love to take me home She don't want to live alone I'm always out on the road

So she's leaving Oh my girl please don't give in Don't listen to your stupid friends I hear them going off again So she's leaving Come back me from all the wrong It's hooky Like it's gonna be bouncing around my head

But I just like I had finger 11 on last week So I was playing a lot of finger 11 And that I'm so paralyzed I need to be struck by you I can't get out of my fucking head It's very good We played with them over the summer I mean and we had nothing but respect

For all those guys We've been playing with them forever But we shared a stage in Port Cobra in this summer And they closed with paralyzer And I watched from the side of the stage As like 20,000 people sang And I was like, oh, no, we got to play next. And that's an international hit.

International. And it's really powerful. And, yeah, it's great. I think Scott's got a wonderful voice. And, yeah, I always like those guys. I like that they just do their thing. And they kind of throw everything into the mix and stuff. And I respect that.

And I love that, like you guys, they have new music because that's when they're magically able to visit the basement here. Yeah. So our new album's out, just because we have to leave, I have to go pick kids up. But I do want to throw out that we're doing a Toronto show on the six. which is almost sold out, but I think we need that little mic bump. Okay, so December 6th, where is it?

That's the Danforth Music Hall. And we're doing one of the London Music Hall in the 13th, and we're playing Niagara in January with that great Canadian bill. And then we're off, for those listening across the country, we're off to do a national tour early next year in January and February. So if you want to see us in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton,

Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, all those shows are up now too. so the trues music.com is where you go to see where you can catch the trues and again the new album is called the bloody light I was going to play the title track but yeah I stole my 10 minutes you offered me 10 I took them all but guys I love this thank you this was a great so much it was really great I think I saw you wearing the rolling stones I know you guys played on the same stage we open we open for the stones we'll have to save it for next time yeah you're gonna have to have us back you want to hear the stone story well you don't have to twist my arm that's another great hip

song. Twist my arm. Yeah, it is. We could probably do a podcast just about the hip. I would do that. Gladly. And that brings us to the end of our 1,795th show. Go to TorontoMike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Much love to all

who made this possible. Again, that's retro festive. Great Lakes Brewery. Don't forget your beer, guys. Palma pasta. I got your lasagna in the freezer. Nick Aini's, Kindling. Go to shopkinling.com.ca. Recycle My Electronics.C.A. Blue Sky Agency and Ridley Funeral Home.

See you tomorrow. It's toast. That means Rob Pruse, Burlington's own, Rob Pruse from Spoons and Bob Willett from Indy88 here in the basement for an episode of toast.

See you then. We're going to get rolling on the live stream at 11.15 a.m. See you tomorrow. I'm going to be able to be. I'm going to be able to be. Thank you.