Tag: Toronto

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #146: Lee Paradise

Lee Paradise is the stage name of an endlessly creative young man from Toronto named Daniel Lee. Over the past few years he’s been a key figure in unique bands like Hooded Fang and Phèdre and he co-founded the Daps Records label. This past April, Pleasence Records and not unlike released the excellent Lee Paradise album Water Palace Kingdom and he’s been keeping busy ever since. On Friday November 14, Lee Paradise performs at Long Winter at the Great Hall in Toronto and, to mark the occasion, Daniel and I talked about two record labels, one record, why Lee Paradise was necessary, getting personal, going down to the basement to make a new Hooded Fang record, stress and on-stage meltdowns in Montreal, amoureux, pissing in a sink, love can be crude, tears and water and emo, making clean music dirty, making interesting music reggae, reacting to and reflecting Toronto, competitive juices, a normal crazy family life, not loving music school, rapping as Able D, Beastie Boys and Wu-Tang Clan, seeing shows at the Music Gallery as a kid, battles of the bands at the Opera House, high-speed electronic music, the Harris Institute is not like DeVry, why Daps Records came to be, making a living as an artist these days, selling out and making ethical decisions, sludginess, surf rock and Joe Meek, Hooded Fang’s musical journey, control versus collaboration, limitations are good, Hooded Fang tour dates including a Nov. 29 show at the Silver Dollar in Toronto, Moss Lime, Fixture Records, Milk Lines, Daps Records is still a thing, the song “Farisian,” and then it’s paradise lost.

Related links: facebook.com/leeparadisesongs torontolongwinter.com vishkhanna.com

Lee Paradise Colour Photo

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #124: Claire Cameron

Claire Cameron is an acclaimed writer from Toronto whose first novel, The Line Painter, won the Northern Lit Award from the Ontario Library Service and was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Crime Writing Award for ‘best first novel.’ Her latest book is a harrowingly devastating one called The Bear, which is told from the perspective of a six year-old girl named Anna who must take care of her younger brother in the wilds of Algonquin Park after a horrible, incomprehensible tragedy strikes her family’s camping trip. The Bear is available now via Random House of Canada and Cameron is a participating author at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, where she’ll read on Sunday September 14. Here Claire and I discuss Toronto the cold and the hot and people in the city who complain, what inspired The Bear, how no one knows why bears attack, making other parents cry and laugh, reading and writing a six year-old’s perspective, how kids can stay in the moment, researching what kids say and think, how we understand death, how Stick might be comic relief, when Anna was a boy, coping with grief, Claire’s role in the story of The Bear, seeing things from her late father’s perspective, bears in society, demystifying bear attacks, Jaws and The Bear, the inspirational and tragic attack at Algonquin Park and basically living with black bears in Hearst, Ontario, Steven Herrero’s research on patterns and prevention of bear attacks, mothers with cubs might not be as dangerous lone, hungry males, collecting bear stories, don’t be a chicken turn musician, trying to teach one’s self to make hard-edged electronic music, how The Line Painter was inspired by a song Cameron wrote, loving Neil Young’s quiet/loud dynamic and seeing him in London, England, the Greendale tour, how Claire is working on at least three ‘dead books’ and at least one ‘live one,’ how people weirdly classify Claire’s writing in crime and horror categories, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, reading at the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, and that’s all we could bear.

Related links: claire-cameron.com edenmillswritersfestival.ca vishkhanna.com

clairecameronsmall

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Categories
News Podcast

Ep. #123: Bahamas

Afie Jurvanen is a gifted musician and songwriter who works under the tropical moniker Bahamas. Jurvanen has been an in-demand guitarist who has worked with Feist, the Weather Station, and Zeus among others. He has released three records of his signature folk-tinged rock over the past five years, earning a broad fanbase and award nominations and critical acclaim along the way. His latest album is called Bahamas is Afie, which is out now via Universal Music Canada, and it’s prompted him to tour across the U.S. and Canada over the coming months including a stop at Riverfest Elora on Friday August 22. Here, Afie and I discuss wearing shorts on stage (S.O.S.), Thrush Hermit rules and Joel Plaskett’s legs, the assertively explanatory title of his new album, the lush production of Bahamas is Afie, Don Kerr and the Rooster, distinctive musical chameleons like Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Beck, that moment where you think of an idea, hope in sad songs, Willie Nelson, wanting to name your hypothetical unborn child Owen, choosing music over sports, social hobbies, going your own way when pushed by your parents, moving to Toronto from Barrie and making friends in a music community, grade 13/OAC, the Miami Heat, Chris Bosh, Fantastic Pop festival in Windsor, Afie’s early band Paso Mino with members of Zeus, Jason Collett, competition and ambition in music, contemporary cultural consumption and metrics, how artists are adapting to the new face of the music business, we are the product, Peter Elkas is under-appreciated, the Aretha Franklin chugging Diet Coke in a golf cart before kicking ass at the Grammys story, playing in a rainstorm at a festival in PEI, the pros and cons of making and promoting music, opening up a laundromat, how to do your laundry, Michael P. Clive’s cooking show and Afie’s unreleased instrumental music for it, making the Weather Station’s new album in France, being added to Riverfest Elora at the last minute, Jason Tait of the Weakerthans, the song “Waves,” and then the heat is off.

Related links: bahamasmusic.net riverfestelora.com vishkhanna.com

Bahamas_BiA_photo_credit_ReynardLi

Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS