BITTERN LAKE A CONVERSATION WITH SURVIVORMAN & MUSICIAN LES STROUD “You aren’t going to protect what you don’t love. You aren’t going to love what you don’t know. And you aren’t going to know what you don’t experience.” Les Stroud tells me. [...]
FEED THE CHILDREN, YOU DUMMY A CONVERSATION WITH CHEAP TISSUE The eclectically-named garage punk band Cheap Tissue brings back the nostalgia of old school punk rock with its no-bullshit attitude, mocking the inauthenticity of new age politics [...]
INSPIRATION, MOVING FORWARD, AND INVOKING THE DEVIL A CONVERSATION WITH DAVID CLAYTON-THOMAS Woodstock headliner. Grammy winner. Road warrior. Creative force. Icon. What does an artist do, after they’ve done it all? If you’re David [...]
2018 RBC OTTAWA BLUESFEST PREVIEW THURSDAY, JULY 5 – SUNDAY, JULY 15, 2018 As the capital of Canada, Ottawa almost always has something going on – but the people who live here don’t get excited about much of it, having seen the same [...]
A Flock Of Seagulls with The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra Ascension August Day This seems to be a trend. A great many artists, alive and dead, are setting their music with an orchestra. The bands originating from the 1980s are not immune to [...]
HEY HEY HO HUM…LET’S JUST SEE WHAT HAPPENS A CONVERSATION WITH IAN BURDEN Ian Burden has been playing music for a long time, and for a long time he was ahead of his time. He understood and continues to understand how synthesizers can [...]
ASCENSION A CONVERSATION WITH MIKE SCORE OF A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS A Flock of Seagulls was formed by guitarist and keyboardist Mike Score in 1980. He was joined by his brother, Ali (Drums); Paul Reynolds (guitar) and Frank Maudsley (bass). This is [...]
Front Line Assembly WarMech Artoffact Records This is the first new music from Front Line Assembly since 2013’s Echogenetic, which was a brilliant and very successful album for the band. WarMech is not a follow-up to that album, but it is a [...]
BUYER BEWARE…STEVIE NICKS A CONVERSATION WITH THE SHANTICS Who would’ve thought that phone calls across the pond were still a challenge to be faced in 2018? After a few failed attempts, I get a hold of The Shantics. The band – made [...]
The English Beat Starring Dave Wakeling Here We Go Love Here We Go Records The Beat formed in 1978, and released their debut album in 1980, I Just Can’t Stop It. But the release of that album lead to some problems with their name in Australia [...]
GOOD TO GO A CONVERSATION WITH GLEN MATLOCK Believe it or not, my introduction to Glen Matlock came through an album I adored when I was young called Ghosts of Princes In Tours, and it was by The Rich Kids. Matlock played bass and wrote or [...]
A CAREER OF CREATIVITY A CONVERSATION WITH OUR LADY PEACE VOCALIST RAINE MAIDA Raine Maida has enjoyed a long and influential career as vocalist and guitarist for Our Lady Peace, Canada’s biggest alternative rock back from the ‘90s. As the only [...]
NO SET WILL EVER BE THE SAME A CONVERSATION WITH RUBY DUNPHY OF THUNDERPUSSY “It was on a beach in Hawaii. The goddess Athena came down and struck us with lightning, and since then, we have been Thunderpussy” is the response I get after asking [...]
MAKING A SOUNDTRACK FOR THE GLOBAL COLLAPSE OF MODERN CIVILIZATION A CONVERSATION WITH BILL LEEB OF FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY “WarMech is not really a Front Line Assembly album, it is a soundtrack, a follow-up to AirMech (2012), which was a soundtrack [...]
EMERGING ELECTRONIC MUSIC ARTISTS Electronic music is based on the sounds produced by electronic musical instruments. Industrial music, often referred to as the sub-genre of experimental or electronic music, is related to the transgressive and [...]
THE CULT, FILLING THE SHOES OF LEGENDS, AND REVOLUTION 3 A CONVERSATION WITH THE CULT’S BILLY DUFFY Thirty-five years ago, few people would have expected that The Cult would not only become one of rock ‘n’ roll’s elder [...]
40 YEARS OF SONGWRITING, TOURING, AND POSITIVE PUNK POLITICS A CONVERSATION WITH JOE KEITHLEY OF D.O.A. “If you have a situation in your town, then people will fight back, or organize, and maybe get some changes done,” says Joe Keithley of [...]
RIGHTEOUS WOMAN A CONVERSATION WITH MARTHA MEREDITH OF FOR ESMÉ For Esmé is a band based in Toronto, fronted by Martha Meredith. Meredith and For Esmé is getting ready for the release of For Esmé’s third album, Righteous Woman. This will be the [...]
BRING BACK THE BLITZ KIDS A CONVERSATION WITH TIM MUDDIMAN Tim Muddiman is a musician with an impressive resume. He played guitar for Pop Will Eat Itself from 2010 until 2016. During this time he also served as the guitarist for Gary Numan. He [...]
TORONTO’S SONGWRITING SANCTUARY A CONVERSATION WITH MEMBERS OF THE TORONTO SONGWRITERS ASSOCIATION Songwriters need at least two things in order to develop their craft: some form of an audience and feedback. In Toronto, songwriters are [...]
THE PINK HEARTS, BOWIE, AND THE STOOGES A CONVERSATION WITH JAMES WILLIAMSON James Williamson is best known as the guitarist and songwriter who, along with Iggy Pop, brought The Stooges back following their first implosion to create Raw Power, [...]
HERE WE GO LOVE A CONVERSATION WITH DAVE WAKELING OF THE ENGLISH BEAT “I was close to being a Canadian,” says Dave Wakeling during our recent conversation. “My Granddad, after World War One, wanted to be a Mountie. So he applied, but he was too [...]
A EULOGY FOR SCOTT HUTCHISON, A MAN I NEVER MET I turned on my car radio, and “Rained On” by Frightened Rabbit began playing. I had just moved to Los Angeles by myself. Homesick, scared, and exhausted, Scott’s voice played on 88.5 FM on my drive [...]
IF HAPPINESS WON’T LIVE WITH ME… REMEMBERING SCOTT HUTCHISON OF FRIGHTENED RABBIT 2013 was a very difficult year. Professionally, I found my workplace to be mired in acrimony and political rhetoric; personally, my wife and I had struggles that [...]
