Barenaked Ladies

0:00Stumble in something. Yeah, who knows who knows what you guys to say, right? So we were playing a lot We saw it cruise for all our fans and we were playing like around the clock the evening and then we're out in the sea air and and I think pretty much everyone lost their voice. Oh really? Yeah, I think it was a lot of fun though It must have been a lot of fun. It was great and Guster was there to air Yeah, Guster was there my all-time favorite bands, and I'm so happy that you guys give them a shout out on the hour I love that so awesome. Yeah, how'd you guys hook up with Guster for the first time? How'd you guys meet each other? They met Guster and I think 1994 very early on when they were just oh, yeah Like parachute air again. They were just called Gus. Oh at that time way back demo tape Andy actually had a sticker on his Congas. Oh, I have a Gus sticker

0:46They open for as at Colgate College in upstate New York, and I think about 94 Then we ran into him again in the the horde tour Before that I remember they opened for us at harbor lights in Boston and Seymour Stein the president of Sire We were no longer on Sire, but he flew up to see them and he grabbed me and said what do you think of these guys? I signed them. I said yeah, they're great. They're fun. I didn't really know them that well I mean kind of like them and we saw them on the horde tour and Kind of like them and then then they had that record. Yeah, I forget the name we lost her gone forever It was just probably yeah I took us over the over the top with them like we just yeah have huge respect for what they're doing and He's respect for Brian's hands. Oh man Poor guy Ryan gave me a copy of lost me gone forever when we did a show with him at the Orphan in Boston

1:32I went back to my hotel room after soundcheck and I was like holy crap. I listened to the record knows like this is I got this so guys have arrived. Yeah, so then they they open for us on the whole whatever that was a maroon tour maybe I think so not Canada unfortunately. No just the flashing lights were good though. I like that work. Oh, are they together anymore? What's going on with them? You know, they're not together. I mean What's his name Matt Murphy was in that movie? Yeah, something crazy long title. Yeah, the guy guy terrific. Yeah, that's right And I heard he's trying to get the super friends back together as well. Oh, okay Steve Pitkin is our friend as the drummer is now in Elliot Brood, okay, I got a new record coming out to it. Yeah, nice. Let's talk about your new record Two CDs come out at different times. How'd you guys choose songs for each record?

2:18Was it kind of like we'll put the best up first and second on the second kind of thing or I don't remember? Yeah, there's a lot of favorites that I have like on the second record But you don't write anything on the second record. What's that none of your songs on the second record? I have one song. It's on the first record. I love that tune. Oh, thank Peterborough. It's an awesome song. Yeah, yeah, it's funny I think we just tried to match them up How they related how they worked as a as a whole so oops, that's not what you do at interviews You don't bring yourself on we can stop you can answer if you want. I'll just turn it off. Okay, it's very kind to you Sorry honey Yeah, I think we we wanted to make the two records work as two separate Entities like things that albums that as you listen through them through once it worked together

3:07So I think that's how we put it together as best I can tell yeah It's kind of for me in a sense like I think they're both satisfying records to listen to But I think when we were putting this together I couldn't get my head out of the fact that it was all one record anyways. Mm-hmm. What made you decide to put them on a different Times then a Double album a retail. Yeah, really expensive. That was the biggest thing was I just we didn't want to get people the excuse To put it down and you know at a $25 CD and my words I'm gonna end up being as a double album. It's just enough of an excuse Yeah, it's a lot it's a lot to digest as well And we didn't want any of the songs to get lost and in a double record fair enough so we decided to give them a little more weight Put one separate record smaller my sense is that fans who buy music online Are a little more focused on trying to sort through it all and maybe making their own playlists and yeah

3:59You also there's a sense of a lot of people listen to stuff on random play as well So they don't listen to the whole record as whole as much or they're really obsessive fans of course they're gonna listen every Where people who buy CD is exclusively tend to be more like they want to something to put in the car on the way to work And I'm CD is should be the length of your drive to work Yeah, and beyond that there's all kinds of stuff that gets lost that you don't hear and we do want to be able to not hear anything You playing everything live on this tour the whole well, probably not everything Through it. Yeah, it's only sorting through it trying to we have a few tunes that we want to get out there Monks are older heads, so we're sort of filtering them in. Mm-hmm. How do you guys choose a setlist? About half of it is the same every night and the other half we mix it up on this Canadian tour

4:46I think we're trying to be a little bit more hits focused just because I have a certain expectation I think Because we have such a long history here in Canada and a lot of hits, you know You look at the audience after show and they're like what no Jane Sorry, we don't play so many songs. We want to play the new record to yeah, I want to play we also want to play album tracks from the other albums it doesn't all have to be that's cool just the hits, but it's hard to It's hard to get that all done. Yeah, well, I mean people have heard Jane I mean if they're gonna come see you now, they've probably seen you a few times at this point Yeah, I think you have a favorite song so is that like favorite songs evoke for the audience something They don't evoke for us right for them It's all kinds of memories to go along with those songs for us. It's just another one of our songs in the sense Yeah, when we play million dollars, I I feel like I'm going on someone's great eight band trip sometimes

5:33Remember last summer Nice Go through a couple songs the new record. Let's talk with sound of your voice Kevin was supposed to sing it originally, but I heard the manager didn't like it what happened I think he liked it. I think the sense was he thought it could be a single if it had a More dramatic vocal. I mean I love Kevin's vocals and I felt weird about taking a song that he wrote But there's other songs like that as well like celebrity and shopping and you know a drift that Ed sings or were mostly Kevin songs that we we collaborated with him on and and changed a bit, but this was exclusively a kev song and and I Think because it had a certain kind of queen element very much so yeah that we just thought that my

6:19More dramatic voice might be a little more pretty Mm-hmm. You trying to be Freddie in the song when you say that? I'm trying to be too Freddie. Yeah, fair enough. Is it hard to pull off those harmonies live? No, not there. We actually They become the second nature after a few tears. So it doesn't sound as big as it sounds in the record. Oh, okay Yeah, we actually layered the vocals Like there's like 80 in total. Wow any voices in there We were trying to go for that big queen sound but yeah live it still sounds full Cool. Well, I can't wait to hear it tonight wind it up Kim Mitchell plays on it How'd you guys hook up with him? Why did you choose him out of anyone to play a map tune specifically? Well, I think that like when I first heard winded up I kind of was I said that you know, this is where you live, you know, this is where you come from

7:08He was a huge Max Webster fan and still is and When we when we played the song it it couldn't get away from Max Webster and Kim Mitchell sounds so and had worked with Kim Mitchell a little bit and then previously songwriting for his record and He asked him hey, would you like to blow a solo over this and so he went in with a camcorder and and Recorded the whole thing. Oh cool. Oh home movie style and did it about? 10 tracks Wow, it was just Kim Mitchell sounding like Kim Mitchell all over the song. Do you guys listen to him Q on the tie? He's good on the key. Yeah, he's all right. I enjoy listening to these case. He's he's laid back He's not doing to a radio guy. Yeah, well, he's the musician, right?

7:53Yeah, so he's in it for the music. It's kind of cool exciting for it though because he is his favorite guitar player So to be there and you know, yeah being the song pretty exciting another song fun and games on the new one Pretty political for you guys talking about how you know The war is basically they're an inside joke for the Republicans and that whole thing is or am I getting the wrong idea from? No, I think I think it was like it was the question was well Why why was there why did the US or the US government? Take the the United States to war in Iraq and that question is often been asked and there's There's never really an answer that's been proven and and so I think it was Ed and Steve's idea to kind of say well Well, maybe it was just a joke that is not white. Yeah, so Cool. Yeah, I think it was a song about some of the

8:42just the brazenness and the disregard for for the lives of their own citizens and that Liberty is their own citizens that it seemed so to us so offensively Callous that it was almost as if it was a cruel joke. Do you think the world would be a whole lot different if Al Gore was present? Yeah, I don't think it would have stopped 9-11 from happening really oh, I don't think so I think 9-11 was a product of all kinds of stuff before that including the Clinton administration But I think I would like to believe the US would have dealt with it a different way. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think it would have been dealt in a different way I think there's a lot of alienation going on. Yeah Ralph Nader was on John Stewart last night and he was talking about how It's the family upbringing and how George W is trying to prove it to his dad now because his dad couldn't do it back then and it's just

9:33It's a whole problem and I'm hoping Al Gore runs this time I mean there's something in Rolling Stone about it and saying he'd make the best candidate But then again you look at Hillary look up a rock maybe the other side of the world wouldn't hate us as much You know if we had someone a little different in power. Yeah, funny how we say we Basically well, they choose what we do anyway. It's not like Harper's doing his own thing. Yeah, it's true I I just want whoever's gonna win to win to win. Yeah, I just don't want him to win I think one of the problems that the that the Democrats have is I don't want him to win by believing the more like a Republican They become the better chance to do that. That's a that was a I think that's a real disease in the Democratic Party in the US I hate to see that happen here in Canada to us For all of his flaws. It's nice to see somebody in in Deon who sits a little bit on the left

10:22of where Our previous premise or or liberal leader sat so to move that way. I think is is Important to have that kind of discourse where I think in the US they really feel like the more like the Republicans the Democrats come The better chance to have which is very possible But is it the right thing for the country? I think you need to be able to separate the ideals and make the choose Yeah, definitely. I mean you must be real happy now that the whole climate thing is actually an issue in the forefront of people's minds I don't want it to go away. I don't want it to be just a Sad yeah, well see that's what I'm worried about too Is that I mean you have the movie that came out the Al Gore movie and it became this big thing and now everyone's talking about it It seems to actually be changing, but do you think people will hook on to it? Do you think it's a fad? I Think what we're seeing right now is the backlash which is good. I think it's good to have that

11:12I think the more the people who are So-called skeptics about climate change will be proven more and more wrong because I think those of us who who understand the science of climate change Versus those who have a different kind of agenda I can't understand what kind of agenda we would have and I think that's the that's the Michael Kriton side of things really I'm not pleased with him. Are you? Well, no, and I mean this suggests that there's a suggestion that That those who are trying to stop global warming or think that we as humans have had a negative impact on our planet That we may have some kind of alternate agenda, and I'm not sure what that agenda would be apart from

12:00Stewardship of our own planet and of our own species. I think you know, it's part of whether you're a religious person or you're You just try and live a moral life whatever else things part of being who you are and I think that anybody tries to stand in the way of that It's unbelievable to me because I mean even look at people who are fighting or believe in the in the war in Iraq Those people at the core, but I want to believe that what they're trying to do is make the world a better place I don't do it. Oh, so yeah, I would agree with them But I think that the climate change deniers are not interested in that They're not interested in trying to make the world a better place They're trying to make interested in trying to make the world a more convenient place for the marketplace And I don't think that's why we're here on the planet. Mm-hmm. Do you guys drive hybrids? Do you plan on driving hybrids? I have a hybrid. Yeah one for a few years. I like it my I try to drive as little as possible

12:48Yeah, you know I live in Toronto and you know, it's really nice to get right there and I walk take my bike You recognize on your anybody? That's embarrassing your helmet your yeah, sometimes you do but You know, it's fine like I ride the streetcar and the subway and rarely get recognized really sometimes I do yeah, I actually My family and I were we've gone two years without a car. So wow. Yeah, we live in Downtown Toronto when everything is very Close and convenient to walk to or ride our bike or take the transit so it's it's an experiment But it's working out really well. Yeah cool. You guys both leaf sands The whole band leaf sand, you know, I think we're all Leafs

13:34Affiliated I'm not a big hockey follower. Oh, okay. I like a good hockey game. Yeah, I enjoy going but I'm mostly for the hot dogs I like the jerseys. Oh, yeah, all right Another live record rocks back spectacular was it French? Is that the right thing Montreal recording? Yeah, spectacular Is there even a point of a live record anymore at this point? I mean, I know you guys are putting the shows out on USB and everything we do a live album every night. Yeah You know the live record, you know We also did the live from the Glenn Gould Theater version of oh, yeah, then you know blam and that you know when those ones are mixed with a little more time and so on they sometimes are a little more sonically satisfying and A traditional live record is often made up of bits of different shows and edited together in a way like oh when rocks

14:19But tack came out there were some fans who didn't like it because it didn't follow the flow concert They were used to our set list. Oh, I'm gonna try to organize it the way we organize it was we try to make it flow look An album and those two things flow very differently But these live recordings we do every night are just the show where it's an all which I think is You know people love bootlikes people. Yeah, I love them as a music fan and the fans like it We wanted to be able to get good ones that didn't always have the guy next to you singing into your paper corner You guys a fan of the Brian Wilson cover of Brian Wilson. He doesn't his live record. Yes, great Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty shocking almost is here. I'm singing. Yeah, I'm sure for Steve like you wrote it when you were 18 Really that young Close one of the first ones. That's probably about 20 or 21 Still early

15:05How did you guys hear about for the first time did he come and get your permission for it or is that work for us? He had he had recorded it and came to the studio. We were working at and played it for us. Yeah, we were working with done was and done was it just done a documentary of Brian Wilson and and so they invited him to the studio and there he was and Played it for us in the studio and asked us at the end. Is it cool guys? Yeah, it's good. Yeah, Brian everything you do is cool Is he can you notice that the like I don't want to say Mental disability, but like is he all there? I Think parts of them are all there, but no in other ways. I think he's like a five-year-old kid. Yeah You know, I didn't spoken to his wife Melinda about that. I mean she is like she says like having another kid

15:53I mean, he's not he's an adult. Mm-hmm makes adult decisions and so on but he I think you know I've seen him at work with his band and he's very focused and really in charge as it looks like when you watch him on stage Looks like he's not but backstage he really is on top of it But then you know in the dressing room. It seems like kind of the world's going on around him. Okay interesting. I Was interviewing Gus I can't remember one like two years ago. I said Brian pick any tune and he chose O'Yoko And now you guys are covering I thought that was pretty cool. What made you decide to do it? Yeah, interesting People seem to really like that cover by the way. I've got a lot of good feedback from good. I just came out this week I think oh they're down on it yesterday. Yeah, I just found out about it and proceeds going to amnesty international That's pretty cool. Yeah, let me choose that song out of all songs you could have done Well, it was supposed to be jumped from John's solo cannon. Oh, okay

16:40Anything any of his solo songs they had his pick and they showed us which ones were only taken by other artists I've always loved that song. I just always it's yeah for me is It's just it's joyful and it's got that breezy popness that that I've always inspired to write It also has that piano line that Billy Bragg stole from him to put in What is it is that Waiting for the great leap forward. Yeah, right? And you know because we already did be my O'Kona. It seemed like the perfect kind of bookend. Yeah very nice I like how you sing all you need is love at the end kind of like they do and all you need is love was she loves you Yeah, is that why you did it? That's why I did it. Oh Cool, and I whistled the jealous guy in the middle there is that what that I was trying to figure out was listening today I was like that sounds like something I couldn't figure out. Oh, it's jealous guy nice

17:26Is yoko heard that the yoko fan? I think she had to approve it in order for it to be up on the part Yeah, also. Yeah, and the first and then be my O'Kona tune. I heard she's a fan, right? I think she's you know, she gets to joke. She's yeah She's cool joke speaking of jokes I mean I hate to bring some because it's such a typical question But you sound a lot more seriously Not as jokey as you once were and that kind of thing is that a conscious decision or is that just how you're writing because you're older and you matured more? I Mean there are jokey songs there too, but I like songs with jokes in them more than I like songs that are jokes Yeah, I don't like listen to a song right go. Oh, I all right I already know what this is about the first two words and then the rest of the song is just playing that out I think yeah, I think when it comes in as a Stream of consciousness in the song. It's just something that comes up. I always like always appreciate that

18:16Let's me know that the the songwriter is He's not too Adam and he's not driving me with an idea. He's he's human. Mm-hmm. Let his mind drift a little. That's cool desperation records Your label are you like the Quigam Brothers gonna be on it? Are you is your brothers band gonna be on it? Or how does it all work? Yeah, I don't know what I have to figure out what the um Kind of the financial logistics of that are you know had because that because you know if I do a solo record I don't want to have to owe the band anything or have them on me like oh, okay I want to end up being in that kind of weird situation But it'd be wonderful to be able to use the resources that these records has I talked to Terry about that a little bit And he's all for it. He's our manager. Okay, which basically means it's up to us

19:02He's it was your label which means if it's up to us and networks working nice then yeah, all right So I'm kind of confused with that networks working you guys your still distribution through Warner Yeah, what is having your own label do then network records is basically a company that we hire a network Network management is a company that we as desperation records hire okay to run our our day-to-day operations All right But desperation records is our company that owns the copyright and administers it oh so you keep all the publishing and all the money from that kind of stuff And then creative freedom all the decisions are ours. Yeah, that's kind of cool Network management we give our you know our 15 20% to anything Make so and they set up like the promo stuff. No, okay cool. I remember reading something Ed said not too long ago about how Well at this day and age you don't really even need CDs anymore

19:49You can just if you want well he's thinking is just releasing a song when you have it written and recorded I'm just throwing it out there on the internet cuz what's the point? I love to see is like you know every few months put out three songs and then at the end of the year You got 12 songs We can make a CD of that for people who don't download stuff online or aren't that religious about checking stuff But for the diaries they already have it they don't have to buy both mm-hmm Yeah, how do you feel about downloading like at least the illegal stuff? I know you're for that obviously everyone's for the legal stuff But I mean are you out there at this point in your career just get the music out there or oh, yeah I think but I think my sense is that P2P is the future. It's also the present and you know as well as emailing and I aming and all just like being able to share and trade music and the sense that the industry has that we need to somehow change the audience behavior is

20:36Util our job is to try and figure out how to get money from that Imagine that cable TV existed, but there were no cable companies And that there were no advertisers on on the TV channels We were just changing channels and watching you whatever they wanted and no one was getting paid for it Well, they wouldn't just stop having that TV They would just figure out how to pay people and so whether that's the networks we were learning to get advertisers and the people They had networks to get watch the most get the most money for their advertisement It was the same thing we could do now. So people who download the or get their tracks downloaded the most. Let's say it's Nelly for Tato or it's a cold play or whatever else get the biggest piece of the pie People who you know who get downloaded once get a sliver, but they get something I think Hollywood doesn't like this because it means all of a sudden they have to start sharing their revenues with kids wiping out on skateboards

21:24pornos and whatever else but who should say that's not legitimate media it's all legitimate and We're watching it. We're consuming it. So now we have to monetize it and we can't punish the audience for that We as a business have to figure out how to get money out of it. And how do we do that and ideas? Yeah, well, I know there are companies out there who track all this stuff. Okay, you know They make a living out of out of tracking what's being traded online. What's being watched on the YouTube type Realize as well and think you know think YouTube itself monitors what's being watched. Yeah, you would think so. It's true. So it's they could easily Give the money the revenues whatever advertising revenues they generate to copyright holders But maybe you can have an umbrella organization who goes to all those things like an ASCAP like a BMI Who goes to all those different places whether it's you know open P2P systems or closed ones or it's you have a rating

22:16You know they have the Nielsen system in the United States where they call different families and say what are you watching on TV? You know you're part of the Nielsen family you could be a Nielsen's rating family for Media whatever you're trading online. What do you listen to what people send you? What are you sending people and as long as you stop? You know you're anonymous in that situation anyways It's not like your names being recorded as long as people aren't afraid of being sued They'll be happy just to tell you what they're trading and give credit to the artists You know they downloaded or they shared what people don't want to have to do is go well geez I bought a hundred records this month so I mean to have to pay a thousand dollars What they want to do is be is people to say well I paid my ten bucks on on my cable bill or on my Internet bill or to my subscription service or whatever else and I got a hundred albums or I got ten albums or I got one album

23:03So you're paying for access. Yeah, do you think people are gonna switch that because right now? It's free if you want it, but it's but for instance internet access is not free. No, that's true. You know So you add that into the cost is not free. It's just part It's part of the service and people are happy to do those things as long as they don't have to transact individually They had to transact every time they change the channel on TV. They'd stop changing channels and eventually they'd stop watching TV but Because it's transparent and it's invisible to them. They They continue to do it. They're happy to pay the premium for more content to it It's funny how I choose that some choose a minimal package that allows them to Funny how the music industry is resisting Moving into something like that because it seems like it's the biggest. That's the way you can make money off music It's the only way it's the way we're going but it democratizes it in the way that they're not comfortable because it will reduce their share of the

23:53Pi because more and more people in their basements without the standard means of distribution will have access to any audience They want and the major labels don't want that so they want to hang on as long as they can and restrict and control their audience and They already know it but they can't do anything about it at this point. They're just gonna keep fighting that battle until they've lost the thing is that Record companies now they still have the old info structure that's that's needed. They still have marketing They still have distribution of you know the hard copies anyways, and they can have a distribution of of online digital Music as well like they still have valuable things that they can make money off They just have to change their deals to reflect that Yeah, they need to start providing services to other copyright holders rather than

24:41Collecting and protecting their own copyrights I think that's that's where their downfall is gonna be because their attitude towards that is what is poisoning the water, but the Services they provide distribution publicity and so on they do very well, and they're starting to cut deals like that Anyways our deal with Warner Warner's Canada. We have a distribution with some marketing in there, so it's okay we create a Relationship with them. It's just more Transparent we know what we're working with them We know what they're doing for us As opposed to the old version where you just sign on you get this Dollar from every CD and everything else just goes into the record company and they do something with it Who knows where it goes right and you see it you know some and some

25:28Reflected in some marketing and things like that But you really don't have a lot of control of what they do with the money 10 years from now. Yes or no major labels gonna be around I Think they'll be around but they'll be doing different things. It'll be more Managing artists They'll be doing what network does where they you know they'll take a cut of everything the artist does rather than owning the whole thing They might share it With the artist but also get part of the concert revenue or the merchandise or whatever else I just remembered what Canada was getting Sort of pressured or labeled as in the movie industry all because this is the camcordering All happening in Montreal I was reading well The hotbed is not that bad. It's really it's not that bad like they say Montreal But Montreal there's like half of the of the Hollywood stuff it have the stuff in the theaters is

26:18English and half of yeah, and so that cuts down the amount right there it's a sort of diminishes the amount that they said that Canada was responsible for for this camcordering and It just it does seem like The US is starting and the lobby groups are really putting pressure on Canada to change their Copyright roles and it's just it's it's funny to get that kind of pressure from the US. It's it's treating Canada like a rogue state And we can't we can't listen to that but you know they're in the process of drafting new copyright legislation here in Canada and My fear is that it's gonna end up being even more draconian than the American copyright law Really because of pressure from the US is that what it was a CCMA that you started something like that

27:05Cmcc Cmcc tell people what that isn't what that's a music creators coalition Okay, essentially was an opportunity for us as a as a bunch of artists ourselves Sarah McLaughlin have a la vin the weaker thans weaker than tonight yeah Andrew Cash broken social scene feist stars lots of great bands across Canada artists across Canada Have signed on basically to say we don't agree with Sui our fans we don't need copyright legislation in this country that protects copyright holders in a sense It allows them to sue their fans for downloading their music or sharing it that allows them to Have legal protections against DRMs which are these digital rights management Technologies right now in Canada if you're to circumvent those in order

27:50Let's say you buy a copy of protected CD or you download a track from the iTunes music store that won't work on your zoom Yeah, right now. It's legal for you to Burn that to a CD and then re-import it's such a hassle though. It's a hassle But that shouldn't exist as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, but you're allowed to do it New legislation could potentially disallow you from doing that you download a song from the iTunes music store burn it to a CD Re-import into your zoom and you could be either sued or taken to jail. Yeah, find them what not Yeah, and it's like you know what those people who are lobbying for that kind of stuff I'm not speaking on behalf of artists because that's not an artist best interest Distancing ourselves from our own fans is the last thing anyone's want to do. Yeah, definitely that's cool You guys are for it. I'm real glad to hear that most musicians. I've talked to have been for it

28:37Which is which is real nice at the beginning I? My my perspective has been changed when it first started happening. I think we were like hey, you know This is my livelihood, but then we started seeing how it really Reenergized our fan base and things like that it it I soon realized that it was very Beneficial to us and also just thinking about the business business models that could happen in the future It just seems very logical that it could be Worked again to be a new in music industry. Yeah, definitely and it just it gets it out there for those for the baby bands at least Well and the potential is in the future and because this technology is so strong and right but it's a pain in the ass like frankly down downloading from lime wire or you know, you any of the bit torrent services

29:22It's a pain. You never know what you're gonna find what virus what not. Yeah, and how's how how many peers you're gonna find out there? Everything's unreliable some stuff takes forever to download where you got a iTunes music store and it's quick And it's yeah, well, I'd like to find that happy medium where it's relaun sources are reliable where the stuff is fast and if we start charging for that and and allowing people access to Sharing networks that are strong reliable fast all those things. It's gonna be the best of both worlds and You know, we can't keep looking at music as a product. We should talk about it, you know downloading illegally like it was You know shoplifting from out yeah from a record store from a from a clothing store and you know

30:08The more you treat music like a product the more the audience treats it like that and the more they treat it like that the less Passion they have for music the more they treat it as a commodity and the more they treat themselves as customers disgruntled customers Which is very different from a music fan. Yeah, especially well you think back to the 60s and what it was like and you know Everyone's jamming around at these festivals and trading records and even mixtapes in the 80s and that kind of stuff It's it's it's getting back to that which I kind of like well Also 70s and 80s the big slogan the RIA double a was home taping is killing music and as you can see they were right music is dead There's no more music. No, it's gone. Okay Yes or no Apple gonna run the world No, but I think they're they're gonna have a huge influence continue to have a huge influence. Okay I think they you know, I think I like them. Yeah

30:56I know a lot of people who don't like them. I think their products are great Yeah, you're running it Do you all have everyone has apples on the buses now and see you have max all of you? Yeah, it's in the music world and music industry. It's very everyone has makes everything simpler so Integrated operating system everything works together. You know nothing's So it works good for me because I don't like to think too much about Integrating it. I want to use it. Yeah, get on with my life cool. Let's get back to music So so you guys are buskers like way back when wow. Yeah Buskers festival in Waterloo one of my favorite nights of the summer. That's where we met Tyler Stewart in Waterloo Yeah, at that festival. No way. Let's hear the story We were we were at the busking festival They blocked off two streets just for

31:43Street performers to plan Tyler was in a band called the would be goods and we were the baronaked ladies It was Steve and I and we walked by the would be goods concert He went he had these huge dreads seems like baronica ladies right on Play with us. Well, then he just he chased us for about six months. Yeah, can I just can I mean your band? No, well, you can just have this one boy. Can I say what I said? What do you guys? I don't really well? Okay, next show just play the snare. Yeah, just bring a snare and then every every show he'd come back Can I play with you guys again? We say well, yeah, okay, and he'd bring like the snare in a tom Yeah, drum kit slowly grew and this is while Andy was away and

32:31Way on Canada worldview, so it's like he sort of moved into the open conga slot because we were only used to the playing with Congas. Oh, yeah, of course and then Andy came back and went I guess all the drums are take care of maybe I'll play piano Cool and then Kevin replay now was that a hard thing for Andy? I don't know if you guys are comfortable talking about it or not It's totally great. He was actually just jamming with us on this cruise that we did. Oh, he came out with you guys. Yeah, yeah, and but he I think Andy just he was the youngest guy in the band and he came out right out of high school into the group and Yeah, I think he wanted to do some more experimenting on his own and he had a desire to learn a Composition and how the composers pulled it off how Brahms

33:19okay down that way and he was just too curious I think and and Wanted to go that direction so what he did was he had a he got a degree in composition and orchestration at McGill University And what's been interesting lately is that we've been doing concerts with the Toronto Symphony and really and with the Boston Pops and Andy's Is our orchestrator cool and it's been a really great thing because he knows us better than anybody Mm-hmm and we trust him and and he also knows the symphonic world better than Anybody we know that's amazing. What do you think's one of the best songs? It sounds really cool with symphony behind it? I have fond memories of another postcard with chimpanzees with a symphony Okay, cool. There's a wall floor. I was doing called that too. It's a really good song

34:11Just wanted to go through a couple songs Give me a little snippet about it so that way I can you know play it before we spin the tunes on your station kind of stuff I'll turn up girlfriend I'll turn of girlfriend Written during the grunge era so it was about when everything was alternative before things got extreme Right extreme girlfriend. You should have a nice double entendre to it and then the video Because it was you know she's an alternative but she's also a mild alternative to my other girlfriend And then the video we got another triple entendre where she was actually a man and drag. Oh Very pretty very pretty Billy Billy beyond Billy beyond Jane Jane written In the in the sessions before maybe should drive I was writing with my friends Steven Duffy this from England

35:00And he was looking at a map of Toronto and saw the Intersection of Jane and Saint Clair inside of that was he said this must be the most beautiful intersection in the world Which it isn't just sounds good especially with an English accent. Yeah Jane's He had a crush on the girl at the health food store So we just decided to call her Jane Saint Clair and wrote the song letter cool now How come you guys aren't running with Steven anymore? He actually he he started writing With Robbie Williams the English Oh, yeah, for star and co-produced his whole last record and co-wrote the whole last record and became his band leader for the whole last two Her so that consumed the last three or four years of his life But what it meant for Steven was he actually made some money for the first time

35:47It's been great So we've been you know we've been busy doing our own thing and we also decided in the band that that the songs that the band Performs come from within the band which is why I did the vanity project record. Okay, cuz I had a bunch of songs I've been writing with Steven that I knew the band wasn't gonna use anymore. So there's my chance to get them out there Was it a one-off thing you can do another one You know what I have a bunch of other bits and pieces of songs that I've done with Steven then maybe we'll do some more Okay, cool. Finish it off. He'd sure he'd like to do some more writing. I just defined the time fair enough Pinch me There's a small bit of song with well. No, Ed and I wrote pinch me together. Oh pretty pretty much from the ground up It was it was I I love that song I love the lyrics You know and the video was a lot of fun to do to those the first video that kind of came from us

36:34I actually wrote the oh no I even for it and I really like that video but the song I got my favorite video to yeah Steve was like a the kind of like a Pillsbury doe boy kind of figure a hamburger icon Yeah, and you actually had to stay very still and we're like heavily make up and was this guy Presence in the video. Ned got to do this great Busby Berkeley Style dancing thing from an aerial shot in it my favorite shot when he lies back on the whole sea of buns That's great you write this stuff down and then all of a sudden it's in a video. It's like it's real That song is it's got this great melancholy to it It's got the jokiness to it of course and it also has the rappy thing that we do and

37:21And that was the funny thing is that that rap thing was actually came from my idea because I was joking I was bugging Ed saying this part. I wanted to be like good be too much of a fun Do you know what you want? Let's do this chakka con thing and we decided we actually would do a Wrap based kind of around that rhythm Cool old apartment Started off as a ballad actually I was trying like you know thinking of back to the old house by the Smith's it was kind of like you know Melancholy ballad and it said why we do this is a rock song we hadn't really done a straight-ahead kind of man Kind of rocks on before and we decided to make it as You know wait, I sort of felt like I wanted to make it as much of a sort of a cartoonish version of a rock song because

38:08And make it all about the brand and nothing else You know just focus it totally on that and to make it completely The most we could make it because we did alternative girlfriend that was during the grunge time and I We couldn't quite be it so we had Rhodes piano in there Which sort of made it prettier than most yeah, so when it came to old apartment, I wanted a chorus guitar And chorus guitar you know we just couldn't quite van that way Old apartment I wanted it to just be like just all about the power cord nice and too little too late Yeah, it was again, you know kind of that rock and roll stomper although I think when Ed and I started writing it was more along the lines of like What's the song I'm thinking about?

38:59It's an XTC song off none such general Peter pumpkin hat or something like that. Oh the crash I stummy's cover Yeah, we're gonna do you know, you know, that's quite a bombastic rock thing on that on that record You know kind of that power pop kind of thing and we ended making a little bit more American oh nice. It's all been done It's all been done was I'm Merby in a hotel room on the Pirate ship tour just trying to think about writing a song. I think I heard Brian Wilson on the radio and thought what a wordy song can I write something a little more simple? thought about those kind of simple straight ahead pop songs that I really like and Essentially stole the riff from it falls apart by the odds

39:44with their blessing they were on the ship tour to one day we're in it and It turned out to be a lot of fun still a favorite cool Can you guys do a couple? Oh, I want to talk about the box that tell people when that's coming out what's gonna be on it Well, hopefully the box that's coming out this Christmas But we have a deadline of March 9th to confirm all the content and the problem is like there's lots of stuff That's sitting around on Dats and cassettes and stuff And I hate to miss out on stuff and not have it on the box that so if we can get it all done by March 9th we'll see then It'll be out by Christmas and it'll be everything from you know stuff from old demos of top You know we've done demos all the way up to this record. It's just all that kind of stuff live stuff That's never shown up B sides Alternate versions of songs that kind of thing. It'll be mostly the rarest type things. Thank you. You gotta go