Category: Podcast

Ep. #209: Justin Small of Do Make Say Think

Post author By vish
Post date August 18, 2015

Justin Small is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Small is well-known for playing in bands like Lullabye Arkestra and he’s won awards for his film scoring work with Ohad Benchetrit. The two also play together in the critically acclaimed and mostly instrumental band Do Make Say Think, one of the most influential post-rock ensembles to ever call Toronto home. Something about the freedom of DMST is apparent in Small’s ambitious new song subscription series, in which he is writing and uploading a new song every single week. With Do Make Say Think scheduled to play Camp Wavelength on Toronto Island on Sunday August 30, it seemed like a good idea to find out exactly what he’s been up to lately. Here, Justin and I discuss a potty breakthrough and other rad dad stuff, the origin of his song subscription series and its connection to his other music-making, working with Ohad, artistic ambition and challenges, the new Do Make Say Think record, why the band slowed down, tension, back to basics and five members, scoring the film Hurt and its TIFF premiere, new songs, Will Oldham, the future, and then we said goodbye.

Related links: justinsmallmusic.com domakesaythink.com wavelengthtoronto.com vishkhanna.com

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Tags Camp Wavelength, Do Make Say Think, Hurt, Justin Small, Ohad Benchetrit, TIFF, Will Oldham

News Podcast

Ep. #208: Gary Taxali

Post author By vish
Post date August 13, 2015

Gary Taxali is a gifted and renowned visual artist, author, and illustrator who lives in Toronto. He has exhibited his work in galleries around the world and his images have appeared in many major magazines and advertising campaigns. He also owns his own toy company, Chump Toys, is a teacher at OCAD University, and is one of Canada’s most sought after speakers and lecturers. The Cambridge, Ontario gallery Idea Exchange is exhibiting Here and Now: The Art of Gary Taxali at Design at Riverside until September 20. Here, Gary and I talk about the mysterious tulsi tea that yogis often drink, teaching at the National Institute of Design in India eight months ago, returning to India after many years and not knowing the dialect, Hindi school, seeing Indian movies on Gerrard Street in Toronto’s ‘little India’ as a kid, secretly loving Indian films and culture growing up in Canada, the film Amar Akbar Anthony, assimilation and culture shock as a first generation Canadian, recognizing one’s cachet after high school, Indians in the NBA, the Indian-ness of Gary’s work, parental and family support, his dad the hobby artist, Johnnie Walker, Indian judgment, working for Penthouse and doing a billboard for Levi’s, working collaboratively and the importance of maintaining one’s copyright, ethical considerations, doing fewer illustrations, working with Converse, talking about the Mississippi Delta Blues, Wyatt Cenac and Jon Stewart and white dudes satirizing people of colour, political correctness in art and life, the Bernie Sanders #BlackLivesMatter protesters, punk rock, holding a gallery exhibition between now and the third week of September at Idea Exchange in Cambridge Ontario, Canadians not recognizing achievements by Canadians before international patrons do, watching Kanye West perform at the Pan Am Games, a new solo exhibition called Hotel There at the Robert Levine Gallery in NYC, where the art goes, the Morgan Spurlock story, a Mike Myers story, my print of Gary’s famous work OH NO., the future, and that was it.

Related links: taxali.com ideaexchange.org vishkhanna.com

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

News Podcast

Ep. #207: Slim Twig

Post author By vish
Post date August 6, 2015

Slim Twig is the moniker for a young man from Toronto named Max Turnbull who’s a noted actor and musician. Over the past 10 years, he has released a lot of challenging, artful pop music in projects like Tropics, Archaic Women, Plastic Factory, U.S. Girls, Darlene Shrugg, and of course, Slim Twig. His most recent Slim Twig album is a challenging yet accessible blast of psych-pop called Thank You for Stickin’ With Twig, which is available via DFA Records. Here, Max and I discuss his parents’ house in Toronto, the internet and its trappings, drugs, Slim Twig’s cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s song ‘Cannabis,’ not making stoner rock, self-awareness and external perceptions and leading the discussion about your own work, anti-fundamentalism, self-defence, media distillation and brevity, wearing one’s influences on one’s sleeve, gratitude on the new album, tongue in cheek, submerging pop hooks, studio creations and how demos might impact songwriting, unplugged, his idiosyncrasies and accessibility, artists who evolve, over articulation of one’s intent, message control and Donald Trump, “Stoned Out of My Mind” by the Chi-Lites, the twigs of today won’t defend themselves against the seventies, inequalities and protest songs on the new record, era-ambiguous production, Twig’s other amazing band Darlene Shrugg, Young Guv, moving on from Tropics, how Darlene Shrugg influenced the new Twig record and their future plans, Ice Cream, touring plans, a Pleasence Records cassette, the song “Fog of Sex (N.S.I.S.),” and then there was a fadeout killer.

Related links: slim-twig.com dfarecords.com vishkhanna.com

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Tags Cannabis, Chi-lites, Darlene Shrugg, DFA Records, Max Turnbull, Serge Gainsbourg, Slim Twig, Thank You for Stickin’ With Twig, Toronto, Tropics, U.S. Girls