Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #77: Maica Mia

Maica Mia is a three-piece band from Montreal featuring Maica Armata, Jonny Paradise, and, most recently, bassist, Mauro Pezzente who is also a member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Together they create a compelling, emotionally rich kind of contemporary folk music bolstered by heavy instrumentation and electronic flourishes that propel Armata’s evocative and powerful vocals.  This past January Maica Mia self-released their gorgeous second album; it’s called Des Era and has prompted them to tour, including a stop at the Drake in Toronto on Friday March 7, shows at SXSW on March 13 and 14, Quebec City on March 28, and Montreal on April 4. Here, Maica and I discuss face-touching danger, the beauty and joy of physical mail, the sound of Maica Mia and what cinematic music means, Maica’s favourite movie and her love of “animals” and phoning home,  I AM NOT AN ANIMAL, music and things that inspire Maica to make the unsettling music she makes, why a movie she hasn’t seen yet is probably her favourite movie, particular themes on the record that have become evident to Maica, Dimitri Nasrallah, how Mauro Pezzente ended up in Maica Mia, the next album, the song “wish,” and more.

Related links: maicamia.com vishkhanna.com

maicamia

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #76: Jessy Bell Smith

Jessy Bell Smith is a Guelph-based musician with one of the most remarkable singing voices I’ve ever heard. She’s been playing her own songs live for a long time, was a member of a band called Beautiful Senseless, and is currently in the Skydiggers. She recently released her highly-anticipated debut album, The Town and will be playing Kazoo! Fest in Guelph between April 9 and 13. Here, beyond some friendly bickering and badgering, Jessy and I discuss my reputation as a totalitarian bandmate (sometimes we play together), artists in Guelph who need an encouraging push, the long-gestating history of Jessy’s first album, happenstance and J.J. Ipsen and Andy Magoffin, fate, confidence and productivity, a Gary the cat interruption, musical eras and nostalgia, Watergate comes up somehow, Kate Bush and Tom Waits and singing in a musical family, burnt rice, deliberation and re-recording The Town, her role in the Skydiggers, how you are not going to die, turning anxiety into antagonistic anger to conquer an annoying audience, the song “Douglas St.” and more.

Related links: choosemymusic.org/jessy-bell-smith/ kazookazoo.ca vishkhanna.com

jessybellsmith

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #75: Michael Feuerstack

Michael Feuerstack is a well-respected, sophisticated and possibly underrated singer, songwriter, and musician who is based in Montreal. For many years he played in a Ottawa band called Wooden Stars and also nurtured his own project, Snailhouse. Last year he released an LP called Tambourine Death Bed, his first record under his own name, and he’s due to release a new, collaborative effort as Michael Feuerstack & Associates on April 19 called Singer Songer (Forward/Headless Owl). He’s scheduled to play Kazoo! Fest in Guelph (April 9-13) with more tour dates to follow. Here, Mike and I discuss doing this episode in my living room, weird weather, true facts, purple seagulls, tasty coffee, celebratory enthusiasm, the musical shift between Snailhouse and Michael Feuerstack, home recording, my lack of preparation for this interview, Mike’s relationship with the press and his interest in how he’s perceived, antagonism vs. cynicism, Mike’s hardcore punk past in Moncton in the band the Underdogs with Rick White of Eric’s Trip, my son’s blue puck, Mike’s musical origins and early collaborations with White and Julie Doiron, how Wooden Stars began, what punk rock means, and why the gruelling lifestyle of lowly rock bands makes it tricky to keep them together, the intermingling of earnestness and irreverence, how Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are really funny, and the connection between music and comedy, how working as ‘Michael Feuerstack’ might be a confluence of every kind of music he’s ever made, my desire to get everyone to say they’ll “Yahoo! it” instead of “Google it,” some details about his forthcoming album Singer Songer, which includes vocals by the likes of Mathias Kom, Devon Sproule, Bry Webb, Leif Vollebekk, John K. Samson, Jessie Stein, Jim Bryson, Angela Desveaux, and Little Scream, the song “Leave Me Alone,” and more.

Related links: michaelfeuerstack.com vishkhanna.com

michaelfeuerstack

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS