Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Monowhales: Toronto Mike'd #901
Episode Date: August 16, 2021Mike chats with Sally, Zach and Jordan from Monowhales about everything Monowhales....
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Well, sir, there's nothing on earth like a genuine, bona fide, electrified six-car monorail.
What'd I say?
Monorail.
What's it called?
Monorail.
That's right, monorail.
Monorail.
Monorail.
Monorail.
I hear those things are awfully loud.
It glides as softly as a cloud.
Is there a chance the track could bend?
Not on your life, my Hindu friend.
What about us brain-dead slobs?
You'll be given Cushy jobs
Were you sent here
By the devil?
No good sir
I'm on the level
The ring came off
My pudding can
Take my penknife
My good man
I swear it's
Springfield's only choice
Throw up your hands
And raise your voice
Mothering
What's it called?
Mothering
Once again
Mothering Once again! Marie! Marie! Marie! Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie!
Marie! Marie! Marie! Marie! Marie! Welcome to episode 901 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything.
It's proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer.
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and your business. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from
Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921.
And Mike Majewski. He's the real estate agent who's ripping up the Mimico real
estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torottomike.com. And joining me this
week is Sally, Zach, and Jordan, better known as Mono Whales. Welcome, guys guys thanks for having us yo yo yo hey hey now the big question
of course is it the mono mono whales or just mono whales like do you care about the mono whales so
no i did correctly and and nice to see you guys i have met you before but it was via zoom and now
you're in the backyard and i'm'm just so happy you're here.
This is the way I prefer to do it.
So thanks for coming, man.
Yeah, thanks for having us.
Yeah, this is a super cool setup.
Do I get to crack this beer on the mic now?
Yeah, yeah.
So Jordan, you're going to crack a beer.
Which one do you got, a lager?
I got the lager.
Okay.
On the mic.
But I don't have nails.
That's a tough one.
Okay, a little off the mic, but close enough here.
Oh, man.
So, Sally, are you going to drink, too?
Yeah, I'll have a drink.
Sure.
Okay, so you got the IPA.
That's the burst.
This is our branding colors here.
I like it.
That's perfect.
It goes with your shirt.
All right, let's do this properly.
Okay, wow. Honestly. And, Zach, you couldn't wait. Alright let's do this properly Okay wow honestly
And Zach you couldn't wait
You've already dove in
I was thirsty
And which one do you have there
Canuck Pale Ale
I have a Sunnyside so I'm going to crack mine now
And that's how you crack it on the mic
You're putting me to shame
Like Sunnyside Beach?
Yeah.
Because they're local.
That's right where I live.
Okay, so everything's local.
They're just, they're Southern Etobicoke craft beer.
Like, they're not far from here.
In fact, I'm going to do this off the top.
Not this Friday, but next Friday is TMLX 8.
And Great Lakes Brewery is hosting this event.
It's like, I'd say rural York and Queensway is your nearest major intersection,
but it's down the street from the Costco.
And it's outdoor events if you're worried about everything.
So it's outdoors.
And we have the finale of Pandemic Friday recording.
And everyone's invited.
But not only will Great Lakes host,
Great Lakes is going to buy you your first glass of craft beer at this event.
And this is awesome, too, because I found out one of you can't have gluten.
But we'll get into that in a moment.
But Palma Pasta is going to feed everybody at this event.
So I just want everyone to know, come on out to TMLXX8.
There's going to be Palma Pasta.
There's going to be Great Lakes beer.
And I'm going to be there.
And if any of you guys are around, of course you're invited.
Sweet. Thank you.
Don't get too excited.
Kids today.
Okay, so
Sally, you have
you can't have lasagna.
Is that right?
Oh, did I get bad intel? Because I was asking somebody
about if you guys could all have lasagna
and I was told you don't eat gluten.
I don't.
Oh, this is complicated.
You don't have to disclose private medical information.
No, no.
I'll be open about it.
It's just how many people do I want hating me out there?
Because I am vegan.
I don't eat gluten.
I'm intolerant.
So I won't die.
And also I can't have nightshades.
So like tomato.
So, okay. So what I learned was you're not having a lasagna.
But the good news for Zach and the good news for Jordan
is you guys are leaving with a large meat lasagna.
Honestly, you're going to love it.
Thank you.
You didn't know that.
Zach looks excited.
Yeah, seriously.
Who doesn't love lasagna?
I'm basically Garfield.
That's right.
He's John Arbuckle.
And the configuration back here, to those who listen regularly,
is I only have the two swing boom things.
So Zach will forget to get on the mic
because he's going to have to lean in when Zach talks.
But I'm going to try to remind you throughout just to be super annoying.
Oh, yeah.
Lay it down, Mike.
So did I hear correctly, though, that you're're not it's not like you're celiac like
you won't be sick you just choose not to i mean no no i will be sick but it's not like i have to
go to the hospital i'll just like be bloated and in a lot of pain but also i combat that with like
um like eating a lot of fermented foods and drinking a lot of kombucha.
Or, George, you got me into those pills.
What were they?
Which ones?
What pills are these?
Probiotics.
Probiotics.
Oh, you've been taking probiotics?
Because of you.
Nice.
It really helps.
They're so good.
But, Sally, why did you say you think people will hate you?
Because if you are environmentally conscious, going vegan is a good thing.
It's the best thing you can do for the
environment is going is going at least going vegetarian i agree but it's more that people
are hyperly sensitive and argumentative and and feel threatened and angered by it and i have and
i personally have no one in any part like anytime someone's like oh yeah why are you vegan i'm like
dude google it i i don't want to do this.
Right. But you're not
pushing it on others, right? Never.
If Jordan wolfs down a slice of his
meat lasagna, you don't judge
him. You're just looking out for yourself.
This is your own choice. It's my own choice.
It's everyone's choice. Yeah, absolutely. Let me know anyone
who gives you trouble for that.
I'll send you a list, a black book.
Who biked here? Jordan um who biked here jordan you biked i did bike here yeah it was nice how was the ride it was beautiful yeah so okay so
i have a bike obviously and like earlier this year like we're going back to april now so that's a few
months ago uh i needed repairs done to my bike and And I was told by my bike guy, who's not far from here,
he's at the Cycle Boutique, that he couldn't get the parts.
Like, there's a bike shortage.
Right.
Like he said, Mike, he goes, because normally it's like,
oh, maybe it's a week or so.
He goes, Mike, I can't promise you I can get these parts in 2021.
That's what he said to me.
Yeah.
What parts did you need?
There's a cartridge for my hybrid. So it's a cartridge and then the the crank set and then the chain he has is
the other two parts he doesn't have so i started looking i ask around like maybe my guy's like
he can't be right like he can't get these parts no one can get these parts so basically uh what
i decided to do was uh i bought myself like a single speed bike just to like zip around the
city while I wait for parts on my hybrid
and I'm just here to tell you I haven't
owned a single speed bike since I was a kid
and it's really fun that's all I'm
here to say is like I'm having a good time on my
single speed bike. Yeah those are tough man. Well only if you
have a big hill. Yeah yeah yeah that's
tough. And then you do the walk of shame. Like I
don't shift gears that much
but for hills it it's nice.
Like, I'm basically always maxed out on the front,
like on the left side.
Yeah.
And then I'll just gear way down on the back.
So if you have a big hill,
now, like, if I'm on the waterfront trip,
I went to Ontario Place on it today.
Like, there's no hills that bother me going,
like, on there.
It's just, obviously, like,
Toronto's not the hilliest place.
Anyways, I'm just here to tell the people out there,
if you're looking for a fun ride,
and you can actually buy these bikes,
because there's a lot of bikes you can't even get a hold of,
the single speed bike,
I was shocked at how much I enjoyed riding it.
And then I threw real money at this thing
just so I could have a bike to ride while I wait for parts.
So that's my bike story.
And I was really excited to see that
one third of mono whales got got here by bike that's
pretty cool i thought about it but then jordan was like it's this far away and i'm like yeah no
i don't it wasn't even bad i think i did it in like 40 minutes yeah and not even it's only 14
clicks like how many how far are you coming i was coming from like right downtown like young
and bluer basically yeah i think okay young and bluer it's a bit north but it's probably about
16 clicks or whatever it is but i I'm glad you did it, buddy.
I love it when people bike here.
That's pretty darn cool.
It was good.
How's the Great Lakes going so far?
It's delicious.
Yeah, this is, I honestly never drink beer usually,
and this is really good.
Yeah, the IPAs are fruity and hoppy.
Fruity, yeah.
Yeah, but the Canuck Pale Ale,
I think that's like the best-selling Great Lakes beer
that Zach's got going there.
I think it tastes great and looks great.
It's less filling.
It's kind of fun.
And Jordan, how's the lager going?
Lager's legit.
I'm not great with beer.
I only like lagers and wheat beers.
That's really all I can tolerate.
Okay, good.
So this is delicious.
It all worked out.
There's like this aftertaste I'm getting, and I don't know.
Is it a good aftertaste?
It's kind of salty, but I'm loving it.
Like, I don't know if that's normal, but it's a really great thing.
And there's no gluten in there?
I don't know how it works.
Honestly, there probably is.
But don't worry.
I'm going to grab some kombucha after and I'll be okay.
All right.
So you have been on via Zoom, but I'm almost going to pretend like that never happened.
Not that it wasn't a good episode, but because when somebody shows up in person it changes the
whole energy and i feel we could really like get into stuff here do we look different than you
thought uh i've seen you like at the phoenix and i was in the front row i know it's not the same
thing but the only thing is uh you are slightly shorter than i thought you were gonna be like
slightly yeah i don't know if you ever get that before you look taller on videos or whatever but The only thing is you are slightly shorter than I thought you were going to be. Like slightly. Yeah.
I don't know if you ever get that before you look taller on videos or whatever.
But no, I knew what to expect here.
So mono whales, I actually opened with the Simpsons clip about the monorail episode
because people probably slip and call you monorails or something when they're talking about monorails.
It has happened.
Yeah.
I loaded up a few jams from other acts
that you might get confused with.
This is a fun little audio game
and you'll hear these in the headphones.
Are you ready?
Yeah, let's do it. Okay, can anybody name that tune?
And I don't mean to put you on the spot here.
I was there, but I've got a good chunk of years on you three.
Where were you exactly?
The Phoenix, actually.
Oh, cool.
I don't know it.
Okay, so, Sally, have you ever heard this jam before?
I don't, but I really like it.
I like it too.
Yeah.
I like it too.
Okay, so this song which any any gen
x are listening will know this jam it's called hobo hump and slobo babe and the artist is whale
so this is whale i do know this song i just don't know this part because there's like another part
all right well here comes more. Here comes more. But you always came back.
Yo!
I'm so dopey.
I get it.
I'm not me.
You know what would be a fun episode?
If you guys came back and I played you stuff that was played at the Phoenix in the early
90s or whatever,
and you can tell me if you know it or not.
I'd have a fun time with that game.
Okay, so this is Whale.
That's cool.
It reminds me of Beastie Boys meets Down with Webster
meets an original thing of their own.
Yeah, and it was a fixture.
Is that a local Toronto band?
No, I think they might be Scandinavian, actually.
Of course.
See, I heard this for the first time on the radio
maybe six or eight months ago or something,
and I was like, what is this?
I forget what station was playing it, but the DJ.
Well, there's only two options.
Yeah, I guess it's only Indie Your Edge that's going to spin this.
You're only hearing this on Indie Your Edge.
Yeah, it's true.
And is it fair to say those are the two stations That are playing Mono Whales
If you hear Mono Whales on radio
Is it most likely
If you're in Toronto those are the ones
And Sirius XM
I think I heard this on
The Edge or Indie 8 months ago too
Something ridiculous
What the hell is this
I think they said it was a Scandinavian band,
and I'm like, this is crazy stuff.
Okay, good.
It sounds like Ben caught stealing.
Watch out, Zach.
Someone's coming to get you.
Oh, yeah.
Like, the female part reminds me of Perry Farrell.
Right.
I can hear that, too.
And by the way, another standard from these, like,
mosh nights that we'd have.
Like, you'd hear that in the mix, too.
Like, it's all right.
And with the Beastie Boys.
I know that wasp is really lazy looking like i wouldn't worry too much
if anyone sees me like kind of bugging out it's because there's a wasp and i'm i don't do that
well with them so if i'm all of a sudden can you protect sally from that it really likes the back
of your head oh great are you wearing a perfume no because her hair is the same color as the
outfit too they like flowers right
You do look like a flower to be quite honest with you here
Oh
So there goes whale
I know this is a fun game we're going to play
I'm going to play another jam
This one's a bit more recent than that one
And don't be ashamed if you can't name that tune
I'm not going to shame you
We prefer you shame us.
This is also whale, but this whale has no H in it.
This is whale, the rapper, W-A-L-E-A.
Okay, so we got whale.
Is he British?
American.
American, I believe.
Here we go.
This is my PYT.
Okay, so we heard a Scandinavian band and an American.
Now let's go really hyper-local here.
In fact, an Etobicoke band.
You ready?
Yeah.
Give it a moment to brew and let's see if... It's worth the wait. Purify me, purify me, Claire
Let me see you save a mind
That isn't there
Purify me
Clarify me
Claire
Do you guys know what band this is? No. Let me clear.
Do you guys know what band this is?
No.
This is your band.
This is my band.
Is it? That's awesome.
I wish I had a band.
I'm not nearly cool enough.
Is it called something with whales or monos?
Okay, so there's a whale angle here, but this band is called the Rheostatics.
Oh, they're from Etobicoke.
They're an Etobicoke band.
Yes, exactly.
And the Rio Statics,
this song is from the movie Whale Music.
Have you guys ever heard this movie?
And this is like literally like the album
is called Songs from Whale Music.
So what we heard was,
and this bit when I constructed it last night
when I was falling asleep,
it was better in my head.
I just want you to know.
But we heard Whale with an H
and we heard Whale without an H and we heard whale without an H.
And now we're hearing a song from whale music.
And these are bands that could be confused with mono whales.
That's a long way to go.
I know.
I know.
I know.
Now we need to hear actual whale sounds to really round it all out.
That's right.
We could get some real whale music.
Good question from Jill.
This came in.
And again, I'm actually pretending like your Zoom episode never happened.
So I know you answered this on that episode.
But Jill says, can you get into why they dropped the ginger ale from their name?
I always thought that was memorable and catchy.
Who wants to take this great scandal that ginger ale was dropped from the mono whale.
Sorry, mono whale's name.
You know what's funny about that is today I watched a review about our album on YouTube,
and the person reviewing it was like trashing how they're so grateful
we dropped the ginger ale.
Yeah, that guy was ruthless.
He was like, it was terrible.
What did he say?
He was just like, it was terrible.
He hated it.
He hated it.
So he's glad you're just Mono Whales.
Which is totally fine.
Like, we don't care either way.
It was actually awesome.
He was scathing.
Brutally honest.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Refreshing.
Okay, but wait.
So he wants Ginger Ale in there, or he's glad he got rid of it?
He's glad.
He said the full name was terrible, so he's grateful that we dropped it.
And remind us what the full name was.
Ginger Ale and the Mono Wheels.
It's not a name we thought would stick with us for a long time,
but it ended up taking a long ride with us for a little while.
And at a certain point when we wanted to shift direction of the band,
but not necessarily lose all the work we'd done with it,
we thought dropping the Ginger ale would just also make it
clean it up yes i know it's cleaner and the music feels like it it's it's way different than ginger
on the monowales in our opinion it's hard to because you're so close to it so we just wanted
to like have a clean cut and do something and remind me again where did uh monowales come from
like is it just monorails okay we talked about this last time i know i know and
it's an argument in the band like for me it is that mono whale mono rail reference from the
simpsons jordan disagrees you can go on i i just don't think that's what happened okay well it's
okay let's have it out now this is why i'm glad like i can see you look eye to eye we can hammer
this out here so why sally why do you think it's coming from the simpsons Because I wasn't even in your band and I think it came from The Simpsons.
It just seems like the undercurrent must have.
Because what a set of words to say without thinking of The Simpsons.
I know that there's like a graffiti wall with a whale that was wearing a monocle.
So that is the controversy.
That is where it actually came from.
Okay, so Jordan, let's hear it.
You seem to be confident.
We rehearsed.
Am I peaking on this mic a little bit?
You're okay.
I'll bring it down a tinge.
Don't worry.
I'll bring it down a tinge.
Cool.
We rehearsed a block away from a mural of an enormous whale with a monocle on it.
So it should go without saying that that had something to do with the origin. Maybe that was part two of a monocle on it. So it should go without saying
that that had something to do with the origin.
Maybe that was part two of how we came up with the name.
I feel like what happened was I said monowale
in reference to that.
And you probably immediately met that with going monorail.
But you also didn't actually come up with the name.
So how could that have been?
Who came up with the name?
Who came up with the name? Technically how could that have been? Who came up with the name? Who came up with the name?
Who came up with the name?
Technically, it might have been Alicia Aziz.
I think Alicia put it together.
Sally had red hair.
That's where Ginger came from.
Yeah.
Okay.
Our keyboard player, Holly, had a whale tattoo and kept saying, can it be something with
whales?
That I do remember.
Yeah.
And I was probably like, there's a whale with a monocle over there.
That I actually don't remember.
And when we had a Facebook group,
like that was the first cover photo, right?
Yeah, because that's where it came from.
But I didn't even know about that at the time.
I was like, how did they find this picture?
That's so fitting.
Jordan looks so confident.
I'm actually thinking Jordan's on this.
Like, I think Jordan saw this mural,
made the comment.
Sally broke into the monorail song from the Simpsons.
And then it became like that spark was lost maybe in translation.
But see, he didn't even come up.
It's technically our friend.
So this is really convoluted.
Well, can I ask about your friend?
I need to ask about your friend.
Because when I watch like older videos, you can't help but notice there's four members of Mono Whales.
It wasn't even a member.
It was someone literally sitting in on our rehearsal.
Is that right?
I don't even remember that person being there.
I remember this either.
I think this is a false memory.
This is real.
This happened.
I can ask them and they will say they were there.
And this is Holly Jameson.
No, this is a random person.
What happened to Holly?
Holly was in the band.
Yeah.
Now Holly isn't.
Okay. So the random person, you go on with the random person and we Holly was in the band. Yeah. Now Holly isn't. Okay. So,
so the random person, you go on with the random person and we'll find out about Holly.
Yeah. Well, that was just a friend. I think Alicia was my ride that day. That makes sense. So that's why Alicia was there. Okay. Okay. Um, but Holly, yeah, Holly's moved on to studying
music therapy and we're really excited for her and I think she's going to thrive in that career.
So you didn't kick Holly out. She just said, I'm going to do
something else and you were like, you were happy
for her. Yeah.
We're still best friends. It's like nothing.
There's no drama is all I'm trying to say.
I'm here to try to find out if there's any drama.
There's no drama. What's the scoop?
Because Destiny's Child
had a fourth member. Oh, we don't talk about her.
And there was drama there.
There was also drama about Michelle, you know.
That's right.
Can you name all the members of Destiny's Child?
Kelly Rowland, Beyonce Knowles, Michelle, who was actually like newer.
There were two different members.
There was originally four, and it was Kelly, Beyonce, two other ladies.
Then it became Michelle,
Kelly. Michelle Rowland or something?
No, Kelly Rowland. Michelle...
What's Michelle's last name?
It was like a meme
10 years ago. What, of just
the other one? Yeah, like what about Michelle or
something? Michelle
Williams, actually, which is confusing
because there's another Michelle Williams. We can't have two
of these because, of course, there's an actress named Michelle Williams.
Never heard of her.
Have you seen Brokeback Mountain?
Never.
I actually haven't and I've been meaning to forever.
I saw it for the first time with my daughter recently.
Great movie and Michelle Williams is in that.
But she's from Dawson's Creek.
Anybody watch Dawson's Creek?
My brother liked that show.
She was the blonde.
He's going to hate you for saying that
I feel like Robbie's going to die inside
He doesn't know what age my brother is
Could be younger
What do you mean?
I watched it
It's not heavy metal at all
My brother, he understands that he used to
Do a lot of lame things
And now he would say that he doesn't
Would you though? I love my brother do a lot of lame things. And now he would say that he doesn't.
Would you though?
I love my brother.
I'm not going to ever talk shit about him.
So I didn't get any drama with the Holly Jameson scandal.
It was not a scandal at all.
And Holly's doing well.
And can she come back or is it too late now?
I think that she has different life goals. if i'm going to be honest i don't know if she ever signed up for like the rock star life you know like she joined we were
friends playing music and it went too far currently living no but you know like it went too far it
started to really take off and then she's like oh boy like and she has her own she has some like
um like medical problems i'm not gonna disclose
yeah yeah that made it hard to tour and stuff okay stuff she's public about i just don't want
to speak for her okay um that it was just like not safe for her to be touring and so we just
wanted her to be the safest she can be and happiest she can be okay if holly's listening
uh we're glad you're doing well. We miss you.
I really do.
She's back in school, and
she's killing it.
Rockstar life here. I got a lot of things
I want to cover. I hate that I said that now.
I'm sorry.
What is rockstar life?
This is, man. He rode here on a bike.
Yeah.
Because I can't afford a car.
Because this rock star wife.
I actually like to think that if someone gave me
here's $20 million.
I like to think I'm still going to bike
everywhere.
Biking is so much fun.
I would just have a better bike, I think.
This used Norco.
Although this bike's alright.
You know what you might do?
You might get disc brakes.
Yeah, I've never tried those.
Honestly.
Are they nice?
I have.
My other, my normal bike, which I need parts for, is disc brakes.
And it really is kind of almost like a, it's a big.
So it's just smoother?
Yeah.
And it's just, it's easy to maintain.
It's smoother.
Anyway, that might be what you'll do when you, but the Rockstar Life, so you're biking.
I don't need a security guard biking next to him or something you know that'd be cool
when do you need a security guard like oh i hope we never do oh because i don't know i feel like
you're getting there but let me so as we kind of uh drill into your rockstar life and everything
i got some i do have some great mono whales jams but i also have a note from uh an fotm do you guys know what fotm stands
that's okay come up with because you actually are fotms uh friends of toronto mike so once
you're on the program i know i guess you didn't get the uh the metal in the mail
you just did uh brittle star do. Do you know Brittle Star?
Yeah, actually we do, just through Instagram, I think.
And Twitter.
He's always tweeting at us, and we appreciate it.
Yeah, he's had a good run here.
Brittle Star.
He told me that you're one of his favorite bands.
That's so sweet.
Thank you, Brittle Star.
It's you guys and Led Zeppelin, I think.
What?
Sick.
I made up that part. part oh you got me there like
come on he did say you're one of his favorite bands and then he said he has questions for you
so let's take care of brittle stars questions first since you've answered jill's question
uh brittle star says uh which artists would you collaborate with or have feature on a tune and
i'm curious too about like uh like now that you're rising,
you know,
you're becoming rock stars.
Maybe you already are,
but like,
like who would you like to collaborate with who's out there?
So you can't pick like John Lennon or something.
You got to pick somebody that's like alive and you could actually collaborate.
Paul McCartney.
He's alive.
Exactly.
Do we have,
I feel like we all have separate answers for this.
But one at a time.
Sally, we'll start with you and we'll work our way to Jordan
sure I think lately just because of
how much I've been into it
I'm sure this changes over time
the answer but Trent Reznor
is someone I'd love to work with
that's a good answer
that would be a dream come true
I feel we can make that happen
Zach who would you like to collaborate with,
with mono,
but not solely,
you're going to do this with mono whales.
You can't go off and do this like on your own.
Oh,
I would like to wait with mono whales or on my own.
Uh,
answer both.
I want mono whales and then you can answer on your own if you like.
I won't,
but mono whales.
Um,
Oh,
I would love to work with the producer,
Andrew Watt.
He's amazing.
Okay, what else has he produced that I might know of?
A bunch of Post Malone stuff.
He's worked with, what's his name, Charlie Puth.
He did Ozzy Osbourne's new record.
Wow.
He's a wicked dude, wicked pop writer, but also a rock star too.
Okay, is there an answer for, that's great for your production,
but what about, is there someone you'd like to have featured
on a Mono Whales tune?
Snoop Dogg.
I mean, that has to happen.
I feel like that could happen.
Sure.
We're all going to wear Crocs in the video.
Heck yeah.
I think he's the most featured person on the earth.
Like I looked this up recently.
Kendrick is coming up on Snoop,
but Snoop has been the most collabed with.
That or Gilbert Gottfried.
I'm Gilbert Gottfried.
I listen to Gilbert's podcast actually.
He's doing like for like old,
like old time Hollywood,
what I'm trying to do for Toronto,
you know,
just kind of capture these stories before they disappear into the abyss.
But shout out to Gilbert Gottfried. But okay so uh we're about to get to jordan but uh i think snoop
dog's attainable like i feel like he's uh somebody you could actually get to collaborate like for
sure honestly really hope it happens but are you pursuing it like do you go to your management or
whatever and see not yet no i think that that's the kind of thing that just that happens you get But are you pursuing it? Do you go to your management or whatever? Not yet. No.
I think that's the kind of thing that happens over time.
It's like a notch on your belt.
But is it fair to say you three, and I won't speak for you, that's your job,
but are you cannabis friendly?
Yeah.
We are friends.
We're supportive of it.
You're supportive of it.
Do you partake?
I do.
I do. Are you getting married? I do. I do.
Are you getting married? It's okay. You're not going to get in trouble. It's legal.
I'm freshly
dabbling in...
I don't smoke. I never have, but CBD
has been a really good friend of mine.
I'm like the
new stoner kid.
That's my new role. Well, you're learning.
Now you're learning all the terminology, right?
And you're micro-dosing.
Is that what you're doing?
What are you doing?
You're learning your lexicon.
I like to eat the gummies.
Actually, my favorite thing ever
is the CBD drinks.
Okay.
Those are good.
I'm really into the drink thing.
They really chill you out.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Okay, Jordan,
what artists would you like
to collaborate with or have feature on it i would love to both collaborate with and feature chaos
on a mono will's track i literally so i do these pandemic fridays which are out here once a week
and we kick out different thematic jams so we were doing canadian hip-hop and i kicked out uh
heaven only knows by chaos that's a deep cut too.
That's an old one.
That was the first one I heard.
So you always go back to your first one.
But I'm a big Chaos fan.
I think we can hook that up too.
Chaos is awesome.
He did this cover of Just What I Needed by The Cars recently.
And like my dream is to like, we'll be playing like a festival and he'll be around and we'll
be like, Chaos, we're going to bust this out.
You come out, we're going to play that.
You're going to do your top line.
It's going to be sick.
You got to tell me that.
Sally, you just get off stage.
Chaos is going to take over for us.
I'm down.
Yeah.
Now this, I think I can put this piece together.
I think I can make this happen.
That's for right now.
If you can make this happen, I'll be forever indebted.
Honestly, Jordan loves Chaos so much.
I used to listen to Exit on a Discman
walking to school in grade eight.
Is Exit, is that the one with Sunday Morning?
No, Exit is the one with Heaven Only Knows.
Okay, Heaven Only Knows.
That was the first one, yeah.
Okay, so I saw the video on MuchMusic,
Heaven Only Knows,
and he's riding a bike.
It all comes back to the bike or whatever.
And I'm like, what?
This is like a dope track.
Like, what is this?
And then I'm like an old person.
I make my way to 333 Yonge Street, and I pick up this album.
Chaos, amazing.
Great answer, too.
And I think he might have worked at 102.1, The Edge, at some point when he was younger.
Like, I think there's a connection there, I feel.
I think it was from Ajax.
He was in Ajax.
Yeah, Whidbey or Ajax.
I get them all confused.
But, yeah, good answers.
Good answers.
Okay, there's another question from Brittle Star,
because you and Led Zeppelin are his favorite bands, he says.
Can I sing Out With Old live with you guys at some point?
Oh man, we love that so much.
Out With The Old?
Yeah, probably.
Sure, why not?
Okay, because he's going to hear this.
And this is like a legally binding moment.
Just be in the front row. Yeah, be in the front row and I'll come out to you.
Wear a red shirt.
He's got shirts. I got shirts too,
by the way. Or wear no shirt.
If you also wear no shirt, we will also recognize him.
That's funny.
I did see, like, I went to your website
to see, like, hey, does Mono Whales
have any, like, upcoming dates?
Because everything's so weird right now. Although I'm going to see Blue Rodeo at whales have any like upcoming dates because everything's so weird right
now although i'm gonna see uh blue rodeo at the budweiser stage soon nice that'll be cool uh and
i saw like i saw that you're in niagara falls for something on september 4th and then you're in and
i feel like a brittle star might be at that but also you're in montreal for december 3rd and 4th
uh what's it like like getting getting back to 3rd and 4th uh what's it like getting getting
back to playing live like like what's what's it like in this COVID universe sorry wasp wasp
it's been great it's been great to play we did the Burles Creek show two days ago with Our Lady
Peace oh my god yeah and I'm Mother Earth and it was awesome so how many people can go to these
shows like that was capped at like 5,000 people.
Although the Arkells this weekend, it was apparently like 10,000 people.
That place only holds, I feel like 9 plus 5 or something.
I thought it was like 16,000.
Yeah, I think that's full.
I think it was packed.
Yeah, it looked massive.
Yeah, as far as I know.
I don't know.
It is outdoors.
I mean, and so is Brills Creek, but I feel like maybe outdoors. I don't know. They outdoors like i mean yeah and so is brills creek but i feel
like maybe outdoors i don't know they let you have 15 000 people at blue jay games so maybe that's
inside it's half capacity or 5 000 people i think okay but would you be he's like would you be
comfortable playing indoors yes okay you all agree i mean. I mean, as long as we're taking proper safety precautions,
like, obviously we want people in the audience to be as safe.
We want to be safe ourselves.
And so as long as those things are happening,
then I'm comfortable with it.
Okay.
And I hope that's not a personal question,
but are you fully vaxxed?
Like, are you set for that?
Oh, yeah, I'm totally happy to say I'm double-vaxxed.
We all are. We all are indeed. set? Oh, yeah. I'm totally happy to say I'm double vaxxed. We all are.
We all are indeed.
Yeah.
Okay, good.
Then I'll let you stay here in my backyard.
Would that have been like we have to walk away right away if we said anything about that?
No, no.
I do have a rule for indoor recording.
But for backyard recording, you don't actually have to be fully vaxxed.
In fact, Ben Rayner revealed on this show like a week ago. He was sitting there and he's only had the one shot and he's like hesitant to
get a second one and anyway that doesn't matter if you're outdoors because it's i'm safe i feel
safe anyway that's good yeah but but the question yeah we're really looking forward to touring it's
our favorite thing to do as a band in general and so we're excited about the Sam Roberts band tour in the fall.
I guess, I don't know.
Is that the Montreal?
Yeah, yeah.
So it's a full tour in the fall.
I guess we haven't updated the site yet.
But we have a full Canadian tour
pretty much with Sam Roberts in the fall.
It's just, I had the drummer from The Watchmen
on like last week.
His name's Sammy.
And I just wanted him,
he was going to tell stories about bands
he's been on stage with.
And so the Tragically Hip and some other bands.
But Sam Roberts was one of the bands that we featured.
And we talked about him playing,
The Watchmen playing with Sam Roberts.
And he sounds like a pretty cool guy, Sam Roberts.
We've heard good things about him.
We're excited to meet him.
We're seeing him this Thursday at Budweiser with Chaos and Matt Mays,
actually.
Well,
maybe that's where we make the chaos thing happen.
Right?
It's all going to come together and then Snoop Dogg is going to show up and
it's going to be great.
Where's Snoop at these days?
And where's Trent Reznor?
He's got to come in here somehow.
Yeah,
seriously.
I love it.
Okay.
So good questions.
Thank you so much brittle star thank
you so throughout this episode though i am going to play some monowale stuff uh i got a few jams
loaded up and then so we will play some stuff and then ask you about it uh maybe i should do that
right now so the first jam i have loaded up uh is so i'm gonna it's gonna be kind of chronological
order so we're gonna make our way to the current time. But let's start with real love.
This is a cover.
I'm searching for a real love.
Right?
Yeah.
Okay.
Nope.
Nope. Is it okay to talk right now?
Yeah, yeah, of course.
It's your song.
Oh, wait, can they hear us?
Yeah, you're still on.
Yeah, you can talk over it, though.
I can bring it down.
But what's your question?
I was just going to ask you
if you could turn my headphone volume down a bit.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Here, hold on.
I just need to figure out which one you are.
Hold on.
So you're...
I think that was mine.
It's okay.
How's that?
Perfect.
Is that okay?
And is yours too low now?
Are you okay?
Yes.
Okay.
So that's you.
Hold on.
See, I'm trying to do this backwards.
Okay.
Did that one just affect Zach and not Jordan?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're coming back up.
Give me more, Mike.
You want more?
Is that good?
I want more.
I want more.
Okay.
Because the jam's low too.
I want more.
Okay, because the jam's low, too.
That tells you Jordan's young,
because when I have these salty old rockers,
they can't hear anything,
so you've got to jack up their heads. I guess we're salty old rockers.
You call me a salty old rocker, Mike?
Just one of you is a salty old rocker.
Okay, real love.
It's not a Mary J. Blige song.
This is your song.
Who wrote this song?
We did.
And remind me of the collaboration of like how does it work
does somebody come up with a bit of a tune and then you just like throw it back and forth like
what is the process this was a zach sinardo originated composition he brought in the
original idea that was i think put together on um garage band i think you put it in GarageBand. No, but the guitar riff came about in GarageBand, actually.
That's what I'm thinking.
At first, it was just bass notes and a melody and lyrics.
You don't meet a lot of guys with the alliteration Z,
like Zack Zanardo.
You know what's funny?
There's another Zack Zanardo,
and he reached out to me on Instagram recently.
He's like a 17 year old kid in the states
I found out about him
Like 5 years ago and I was really pissed
Because I thought I would always be the only
Zach Sinardo in existence
Do you have to chop his head off like in Highlander?
I threatened to kill him yes
There's two ways for Zach
There's the Zach attack
He's with an H2
Unacceptable
Zach Morris is everybody's go an H2. An H2. There can only be one. Unacceptable.
Did you get Zach Morris is everybody's go to Zach.
I'm like, yeah.
Wait, wait.
He reached out to you.
What did he say? Yeah, he followed me on Instagram.
He's like, ha ha.
Like, I'm Zach Zanardo too.
That's cute.
Yeah, it was funny.
I think we both feel okay about it.
Are there any other?
And I don't.
Is there any other Sally Char?
Is that how you say it? um yeah there I've been yeah I've been messaging this girl no no I've been messaging this girl
on Instagram that has my name that I'm like can we can you just give me this name and she hasn't
been on for I don't know what her deal maybe she she's dead, I don't know. Oh no. There's not very many, there's a lot of Shars, but
believe it or not
Sally's not my real name.
I'd believe that. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So
there's a lot less Sally Shars. Real talk, real talk.
Yeah, there's a lot less of them. Are you going to expose
the real name? I don't know.
It's up to
Sally, if we can call her that.
I'm sure you can find it out online.
I'm not going to dox her here.
So Sally Char might not be a Sally.
No, I'm a Sally.
That's what I've been called my whole life,
so I don't really identify with the other name.
Well, this jam, I know we're going back a few years with this jam
I'm opening with here, but it sounds great in the cans.
I'm just saying, what a great song.
Thank you. You guys are talented. Thank you. I hope you know that. Thanks, Doc. here but sounds great in the cans like i'm just saying what a great like great song like you guys
are talented thank you i hope you know that thanks doc very very well done okay so real love though
and again i did think it was a mary j blige cover but it's not that's a zanardo uh riff that sort of
balloon ballooned into something real if you will so and again that is that that's not the first
song you guys heard on the radio, right?
I think the first radio song was Take It Back.
The Edge picked it up and we were like, what?
And did Indie 88 follow suit?
Like, did they?
Yeah, pretty much.
They also picked it up too, yeah.
And like I said, they've both been
really big supporters of us.
Indie had spun some ginger ale in the Mono Wheels prior to that.
Well, you'd be right.
Like Indie, you'd be right.
I mean, both those stations actually.
But Indie particularly, I feel like you're right up their alley.
Like this is some like local, you know, can con.
It sounds like the other stuff they're playing.
Like it just makes sense to lean in, I would think, for these guys.
The other stuff they're playing, like, it just makes sense to lean in,
I would think, for these guys.
Honestly, they've both been supporting kind of as much as we could possibly hope they would.
Like, it's been amazing.
We're very grateful for it.
And, I mean, COVID sucks.
I don't know if you know that.
So, like, a whole bunch of these, like, you know, big station musical events
and stuff that we're used to having, like, we took them all for granted
or whatever, but I guess they all went on hiatus for a extended period of time but uh hopefully things
start to open up here okay so i'm going to play another jam here if you don't mind this is mono
whales just another one because i think some people need to hear how good you are. Right here, right now Oh, she's haunting me
Batter up, batter up, baby, let's go
She's haunting me
Hold me up, but I really wanna let you down
Really wanna let you down
Really wanna let you down
Really wanna let you down
Lose touch
Really, oh, sorry, sorry, I need to get the proper title.
This is a parentheses jam, so it's R-W-L-Y-D,
and then in parentheses, really want to let you down.
But again, another banger.
I'm telling you.
You guys are good.
Thank you.
You guys are good.
You're too kind to us.
I think I say that to every band who drops by the back yard.
I bet you say that to all the bands.
Pull the tape.
Oh, he does.
Shit.
Oh, my God.
And again, Indie88 and 102.1 The Edge Both very supportive
Of you guys
And SiriusXM
Do The Verge
I know you know
I don't mean to
I just don't get them
So like
I mean I get them
I just don't
I don't actually
Like subscribe
I'd recommend it
Great station
They're great
Okay so The Verge
Is a station
That would pick you guys up
Yeah
Indeed
Well same with like
I thought we were just
Talking about Toronto
Because there's other
Alt stations across the country
that have been hugely supportive
obviously
MonoWale fans that are in like Edmonton
or whatever are still going to tune in
here I always think Toronto centric but
what are some of the stations
that are very supportive of MonoWale
do you think we can name them all
can we do one at a time
tell me what city and the station.
I need to be educated.
Sonic in Edmonton.
Okay.
The X's in...
Oh, you're going to go?
Oh, I thought we were doing...
Oh, you're going to do it.
You're going to have another one.
Okay, well, you get the Peak in Vancouver.
Okay.
That's a great name for a station in Vancouver.
The Peak.
The Zone in Victoria.
Woo!
Yeah, Seafox in Vancouver.
Oh, yeah.
X in Calgary.
Yes.
X in Red Deer.
Wow.
Yeah, who are we missing?
There used to be one in Windsor that's not there anymore.
And now there's the Surge in Halifax, which just started.
And we also have Ottawa 88.
Live 85. Live 88. And we also have Ottawa 88 live 88
and we also have
Shom
who does feature us
in Montreal
Shom
and
there's more
there's more
are we forgetting some
we definitely are
so when you get east of Quebec
you only got that one
in Halifax
or whatever you mentioned
there's a new Halifax station
yeah it's brand new
yeah it's sort of like
an alt rock desert out there man
I was gonna ask
like if you're in Charlottetown Prince Prince Edward Island, and you like alt-rock,
what do you listen to?
The Verge.
The Verge.
Actually.
Exactly.
The Verge is all over North America.
You can go on a road trip to Las Vegas, Mike, and you could still be getting that can-con.
Honestly, I am one fan in West Virginia listens to us.
Shout out to Dwayne Yancey.
Dwayne Yancey to Dwayne Yancey
West Virginia
Mailing us maple syrup and listening on The Verge
Okay so Dwayne's listening on
Sirius XM good for Dwayne
Shout out to Dwayne but
Do you find you get a lot of listeners in
Buffalo and other stations
Other border towns
Windsor yeah there were some people that came from
Detroit to see us play
Cause that's what, I mean,
I'm thinking of my buds from
Lowest of the Low. So, like,
they can go now, I mean, I don't know about COVID stuff,
but they can go and play Buffalo, and
they have a fervent fan base there, because they were
pulling in 102.1 over the border.
Yeah, they got that out there. We did have
a couple spins in the state, actually.
One in Florida,
like, they were featuring. There was another one, I feel like, in actually. One in Florida. They're featuring.
There's another one, I feel like, in Hawaii.
Another in New York.
In California.
In California.
So we've had a couple plays.
And in Europe, too, on the, what is it called?
The DJ radio syndications.
So we've had.
No, but monetarily speaking, that's the goal, right?
Like, obviously, you want to be played in the States,
so you have a whole bunch more people to go to your concerts and buy.
Yeah, I mean, the same with Europe.
We just want people listening.
I'm watching that wasp.
Oh, the wasps have been getting up close and personal.
They like the beer just as much as we do.
They're lazy.
Like, I feel like these are your lazy August wasps.
Like, I feel like they're just kind of there.
I feel like you're upsetting them by saying that.
You're lazy.
They're like, oh, yeah.
I'll show you lazy.
Yeah.
Where's that Sally sharp?
Let's go.
Let's go.
She looks like a flower.
Oh, that's nice.
Hey, two of you have nose piercings.
Which two?
That's true. Okay. So, Jordan have nose piercings. Which two? That's true.
Okay, so Jordan, did you consider getting one as well?
I had other piercings that I took out.
I had my piercing time, and that time is done.
You can see the hole in his lip.
Jordan needs to his own drum.
I had my lip.
I had my eyebrow.
Then I needed jobs, so I took them out probably when I was like
18. Right. Okay.
And now I'm just a tattoo guy. I just like getting tattoos.
When was your last tattoo?
Like, two
and a half weeks ago, and I'm getting another one on
Wednesday. Wow. Do you all
have ink on your body? I don't see Zach.
Zach's a clean and pure man.
Zach's coming. He has to keep
himself pure for the rapture.
That's not true because we were about to get a tattoo
when Really Wanna Let You Down went number two.
We stopped at a tattoo shop and you were down.
A year ago, last September.
I drove by that shop and thought of that moment.
But they were closed kind of COVID regulations,
but you would have gotten one.
Yeah, I'm a wild card.
You never know what Zach's going to do.
It's true.
By the way, I realize, Sally, why the wasps are going after you.
Do you realize there's a flower on your hat?
I really think it's more of this.
I got no flowers, and this guy is really fucking with my shit.
Just slap them.
I mean, that's rude, but it...
No, no, just whisk them away.
No, don't slap them.
No, it's all about the lazy art.
Like, they respond well to this.
Non-threatening.
Did you ever have any piercings or tattoos?
My left ear was pierced like in 1990 or something.
And then my second wife said I should lose that.
Like it's not in fashion anymore.
And I let it like close up.
I know.
Don't let her change you, Mike.
I know.
She totally did that actually.
She just told me like I don't think that's cool
anymore and yeah, you know.
But yeah, I got it done in the
early 90s. Let's go get it done right after this.
No tattoos? No tattoos.
None. I don't know what I
could put on my body that I know
for sure I want to see. Monoails? Toronto Mike.
Yeah, it should be Toronto Mike.
Zach just prompted me.
Poma pasta.
Mike the sellout.
How much will they
give me for that?
Okay, so there are stickers.
One for each of you.
That's Toronto Mike stickers.
Oh, thank you.
Put this on my bike.
Okay, if you did,
I'd be so honored.
Like, that would be the best.
I will.
Because that's courtesy
of stickeru.com.
So when you guys need
Mono Whale stickers
or whatever,
go to stickeru.com. Good quality stickers there mono whale stickers or whatever go to stickeru.com
good quality stickers there you can get
decattles and stuff as well I did notice how good
quality they are and trust me I know the difference
because we've ordered terrible stickers before
that's good shit they're in Liberty Village
but of course it's an e-commerce site
so you can go anywhere in the world
much like SiriusXM you can get anywhere
and you can get your stickers
so shout out to stickeru.com they've been can get your stickers. So shout out to StickerU.com.
They've been awesome.
I do also want to shout out Mike Majeski
because he's ripping up the Mimico real estate scene.
So if people go to realestatelove.ca and reach out to Mike,
just let Mike Majeski know that Toronto Mike sent you
and I will appreciate it.
And since I'm yakking here for a moment,
I just talked to Brad Jones at Ridley Funeral Home
and he's going to be at TMLX 8.
So I don't know if he's going for the free
Palma Pasta and Great Lakes
or if he's coming for the finale of Pandemic Friday,
but Brad's going to be there.
I just want to say thank you for the support
to Ridley Funeral Home.
They're fixtures of the community.
They've been fixtures of this community
since 1921. I don't remember 1921.
I just want to put that on the record.
That's when they started.
And McKay's CEO Forums,
they stepped up to help fuel the real talk
this summer. They have a great
podcast called the CEO Edge
Podcast, fireside chat
of inspiring CEOs and thought
leaders. And I urge everyone
listening to give it a spin.
I post new episodes on
torontomic.com. Are you guys
ready for another question?
Absolutely. Hit us.
Hit us up. They're definitely
I'm going to put on a voice for this.
They're definitely a band who have hustled
opening for a range of
established artists that has exposed mono whales to countless potential fans.
Has there been a clear favorite and or someone they now talk shit about?
Are we a band we've opened for?
Like I dare you now to talk shit about a band that had the,
had asked you to open for them.
No,
I'm just kidding. Maybe do
the other one then at least. The favorite
bands that have
asked you. How does it work? Like does Sam
Roberts say, does his management reach
out? Like how does it work that you guys are opening for Sam Roberts?
The agents talk. The agents talk, you know.
So you have agents. We have agents. That's big.
We have agent. Okay, that's big.
Actually, we kind of have agents. Agency.
Okay, an agency. Filled with agents. Okay. Do you big. Actually, we kind of have agents. Agency. Okay, an agency.
Filled with agents.
Okay.
Do you want to shout out your agents?
Seven Cs.
You won an Oscar.
You know how they do that?
Shout out to Mikey G.
He's a real buccaneer.
Wow.
At APA.
APA.
Wow, this sounds big league.
Good folks over there.
So what?
Does Sam Roberts' people, they're just looking for a band to open and they like what they heard?
I think it's like they're looking for bands and then the agents at the agencies are like, take mine.
And then the other ones are like, no, take mine.
And then someone wins.
And this time we did.
There's a fierce competition for that.
It's hard.
There's lots of bands like you guys trying to get noticed and airplay and recognition.
like you guys trying to get noticed and airplay and recognition.
It's hard to know exactly
unless you talk to someone who made it happen
what the exact reason is
that we got it over someone else.
Because I guess once in a while
it's going to be literally
a band is going to be like
I like those guys. I want them.
You're going to be cherry picked.
That's the best.
I'm so envious
of the fact you guys get to go on stage
and play rock music.
Come up with us. You can do it at any time.
You just have to choose. You have to pierce your
ear again first.
It closed up, man, because
I think I tried
at some point. I just said, hey, let me see.
I'm saying we go right now after this interview
and do it. And we'll film it. You have a sewing needle in there yeah actually my the same wife the same
wife who told me like it's not like in fashion anymore sews like she's a sewist she has a lot
of needles in there my sister pierced my ear with the sewing needle ones and after she pierced it i
was like did you sanitize this needle and she was like yeah yeah for sure like fire what are you
doing no she pushed it through a bar of soap that's what she told me she was like it's sanitized now
and i'm like i don't think you understand what that means even i know that that doesn't work
didn't get infected though you got lucky yeah i still have earlobes uh you don't want to talk
shit about any bands in this country do you this is for i don't really have any band i mean i will
definitely poke a little bit of fun at
Electric Six, who we opened for
way back. I love Electric Six.
It's hilarious and awesome, and I feel like they
could definitely take a joke.
I love it. Do you know Electric Six?
No. Do you know
Fire at the Disco?
Fire in the Taco Bell.
And also, you gotta take me to the
gay bar. Yes, absolutely.
There you go.
Because that's in,
who's Greg Gillis?
Girl Talk.
Do you know Girl Talk
at all?
Does anyone ever,
okay,
so I feel like that,
take you to a gay bar
made it in the mix
of a Girl Talk jam.
True.
And that's where
I got exposed to.
So that's that band.
That's where I learned
about music.
They do poke fun
at themselves,
but it's fun.
And they're called
Electric Six?
Yeah, they're interesting guys who just got the
call randomly way back. That was
Ginger L. Lamont of those days. Half the band was out of
town or something. We had to
put a line up together and go play
that gig. It was fun, though. Shout out
to The Horseshoe for hooking us up with that.
We should always shout out The Horseshoe
Tavern. I once did an episode where we just dove
into the history of The Horseshoe Tavern with a guy who wrote a book, the book about The Horseshoe Tavern. I once did an episode where we just dove into the history of the Horseshoe Tavern
with a guy who wrote a book,
the book about
the Horseshoe Tavern.
And it's a really fun episode.
David McPherson,
I think his name was.
So shout out to McPherson.
Hey, I'm going to play
another Mono Whale song
if that's cool with you.
And I'm playing the hits
as you can tell.
I'm not going to do
any defense.
They're all hits, Mike.
They should all be hits.
Here's a...
Please focus sharply
and adjust the sound level.
There was a terrible...
Sub-Dino Stoner!
Me, that's who!
Oh, dear.
Say it at last.
Crisp and crunchy every...
Vitamin B.
Congeal it on your TV. Let's go. Told me I wasn't worth a dime like I had nothing to lose
Well, I got a dollar in my pocket, baby, what's it to you?
Back on the streets in the city where there's nothing to do
It kinda hurts, it's a curse, cause it ain't built for you
It kinda hurts, it's a curse Cause it ain't built for you
I went all or nothing
Took my best shot at something
Crawling through hell and back again
I can't live without it
I'm having dreams about it.
Crawling through hell and back again.
Okay.
I gotta know.
This thing's catchy as fuck.
Like, who came up with the chorus on this sucker?
Oh, that's a good question.
That was the Zack Sinardo melody, I think.
Not only that.
Get this.
Yeah, I'm ready.
Wait, was it?
Oh, yeah, yeah. I had a con, get this. Yeah, I'm ready. Wait, was it? Oh, yeah, yeah.
I had a concussion.
Wow. Yeah. Couldn't open my
eyes, man.
Sometimes you get hit in the head and you suddenly become a
genius. That didn't happen.
I saw it in a movie,
I think, once.
This thing is like,
this is for a big arena
rock show. This thing's a big sing-along number, right?
This is a big one.
Yeah, we want people to sing along.
Yeah, fine.
I brought in a verse.
I brought in a verse of this when Zach had his concussion.
And then he was like, I was like, this doesn't have to be even a song.
This is just a cool thing that maybe we could do on stage.
Because I had a riff and I had the verse melody.
And then Zach was like, no, it should have a chorus like this it should kind of be country but not
and then i remember i went to the bathroom and i came back with lyrics to the chorus i think
right correct the first two lines yeah i had crawling through hell and back again that
and uh lyrics that didn't make it. Yeah.
I feel like Jordan's your biographer. He's the one who's
tracking all the details. You know what? That's actually not
true. It's actually Zach.
Zach gave me a look. He's just being modest.
He doesn't want to say. You keep asking questions
that are Zach related and he doesn't want
to be the one to say it. So Zach is
like, he's the brain trust of the organization.
Right. Okay. Yeah, it's the brain trust of the organization. Right.
Okay.
Yeah, it's all me.
I designed this.
I seeked these two guys out.
And master plan.
And when I look at Zach's hat quickly,
like if you just look quickly and then you glance away,
you can read it says Sam Roberts.
Like if you just read it quickly.
Yep.
Shout out to Sam Roberts, brother down.
Yeah, that was the first Sam Roberts hit, I think, Brother Down.
I love Brother Down.
Yeah.
There was a period of time where I would see the Tragically Hip every opportunity I could.
And just because I was doing that, I caught Sam Roberts three times in a 12-month window
just because he was so often opening for the hip.
Nice.
But he's very good.
He's very good.
Shout out to Sam Roberts and the Sam Roberts Band
who did like a tweet I sent last week.
Who does your tweeting?
Sally.
I do.
So Sally is the, okay.
Oh, and there's a little construction going on here,
but that's part of the joy.
Where do you think the...
Oh, okay.
So don't mind that. We're almost wrapping up here. But it but that's part of the joy. Where do you think this... Oh, okay. So don't mind that.
We're almost wrapping up here.
But it's all part of the ambiance here.
Okay, so again,
I know I'm sounding like a broken record here,
but Zach comes up with a riff
and he brings it to you guys
and says, listen to this,
and then you guys are like,
oh yeah, it'd be really cool if we did this.
It's always different.
So that one, Jordan had the...
What do we call it? Jordan originated the song it's a very jordan song um and what often happens is there's
ideas and we uh fill in the blanks you know someone's carrying a torch and then we relay it
to the next person and do you ever like like there's no like uh feeling that oh i don't know
perception from two of you that
the other one's always out to lunch of this idea they're trying to get jammed in or anything or
you're all the same one of us are always that person who's out to lunch right there's that's
the dynamic i think two people usually gel and then one person is just like the chaos
i mean i was down for all or nothing though oh i'm not saying you were
that in this case it was just like i feel like there's a dynamic where we're never all on the
same page and that kind of lets us make stuff that's sort of interesting sometimes uh speaking
of interesting and again i covered this on your zoom episode but i'm gonna hit this spot again
uh this show spinning out remind me so netflix has a show
called spinning out and uh they just they they heard mono whales or whoever's in charge of music
on that show and says like get me some mono whales for the song is that what goes down there yeah the
music supervisor is a fan he's been to some shows nice guy guy. Hooked us up big time. Is that also a mic?
Yeah, it is. There's a lot of mics out there.
A lot of mics. So there's a mic
that works on
this show Spinning Out.
What's Spinning Out about?
Would I dig it? Be honest with me.
I don't know what you like. It's more like a teen
drama if anything, but it was
tackling bipolar disorder
and also ice skating was the medium they put it through.
So it was really interesting.
I'd never seen anything like that.
No, I might like that, you know.
I watched Austin's Creek,
but I guess I was closer to being a teen back then.
How do you feel about Austin Powers though?
Groovy, baby.
Yeah.
How many?
So you had three songs on that show.
But what I think is cool is that the band makes a cameo there.
Is that right?
There was actually four songs, Mike. All right.
Come on, check your facts.
Let me tell you something.
I pulled that little factoid from this thing called Wikipedia.
But there is a Wikipedia person.
It's because the fourth song is by a different band.
Called Ginger Ale and the Mono Wheels.
Oh, I see.
Okay, because there's a user on Wikipedia called Rosie Gray TO
who takes facts that are like clarified on Toronto Mike
and adds them to Wikipedia.
That's awesome.
You're a source on Wikipedia?
Yeah, all over the place.
All over the place.
There's a woman at Sportsnet named Christine Simpson.
If you ever watched a Leaf game, you might have seen her like ringside.
Okay, and Christine Simpson on her Wikipedia page, a Leaf game, you might have seen her ringside. Christine Simpson, on her
Wikipedia page, it talks about how she had a cameo.
No, she had a guest appearance
on Friends. The show
Friends. Big time. So I have
her on. I got this from Wikipedia. We're just chatting
away. And she reveals
that that's not at all true. She's never been on
Friends. But this is on her Wikipedia page.
Rosie Gray Teo corrects things
and that is learned from Toronto Mike. So we friends but this is on our wiki page so rosie gray to corrects things and and and uh that that
is learned from uh toronto mike so we can get that like erroneous three mono whales song no but it's
true though because your name changed it's true so if ginger ale and the mono whales had a wikipedia
page you would say this band had one song they're gonna say this band sucks hey if finger 11 uh has
a bunch of songs out there,
here's an old reference for you,
but one of them is from Rainbow Bunkies.
That's just a name change.
You take credit for that, right?
Come on, you still get to like,
that gets absorbed into your catalog.
I know Sally's like,
who the hell are the Rainbow Bunkies?
Good on Jordan for knowing
where the hell I was going with that.
From Peterborough.
I'm proud, honestly.
Is it Burlington? Is it Peterborough? Oh, you might be right. I thought it was Burlington. I think it's Burlington.. From Peterborough. I'm proud, honestly. Is it Peterborough?
Oh, you might be right.
I thought it was Burlington.
I think it's Burlington.
You might be right.
I'm not ashamed, though.
I'm not ashamed of Ginger Allen Monoel.
It's not about shame.
It's about factual history.
I feel like he's shamed.
I'm going to be honest.
We're going to be real true.
Ginger Allen Monoel was a very special thing
that blew up and rising from the ashes
like a phoenix came Mono Whales.
Today is our anniversary for Home.
Oh, it's not our anniversary.
It's Ginger Ale and the Mono Whales.
Happy anniversary to you.
I knew that, of course.
That's why I booked you today.
But so when you guys do change the name
to Mono Whales,
you all three have to agree, right?
Like you guys are like equal partnership in this,
or is it like,
uh,
it's Zach's band and you guys are hired guns.
What's the deal here?
That's how Bon Jovi works.
You know,
I am Bon Jovi.
No,
it's higher as Richie Sambora.
Everything we do is an agreement.
Yeah.
Equal partner.
Yeah.
Usually someone's kind of sour about it,
but we get there in the end.
I think we learned from rick
emmett who used to be an advisor for us who said in a band i have his book inside he wrote a book
of poetry and i have it inside right now he like helped us a lot in the beginning and he always
said to us someone in the band always eats shit and dies and that's the way it goes so sometimes
someone just eats shit and dies that's how it goes and usually it's jordan is that right no
no actually it's all different of that right? No, actually,
it's all different of us.
All different things.
Yeah.
I'm just,
I'm trying to cause
a little like friction.
Trust me,
we have friction.
You seem to like each other.
Oh, that's good.
I mean,
it's only been an hour.
We're a real family.
It's only been an hour.
So I feel the longer we go,
the more likely
I'll uncover the cracks
of the monorails.
We're a fam.
We're a fam.
All right.
So Daytona Bleach.
Bleach, you know, is a Nirvana album. I don't know if you know that. I know. It're a fam. Alright, so Daytona Bleach. Bleach, you know, is a
Nirvana album. I don't know if you know that.
I know. It's a good one.
And this is your
most recent effort.
The Mono Whales. No, no, it's just Mono Whales.
No, the, there. Sorry.
Mono Whales, Daytona Bleach. Can I play a jam
from Daytona Bleach? You may. Let's do it.
Alright, let's do it.
Futuristic. Talk the talk on the chat, black collars, but please Fill me up with my handkerchief, hot on my sleeve
Tossing in my sleep, waking up like I'm caught on a leaf
I weigh like a disease, yeah
I weigh chemical breeze Like a disease, yeah I'll wait Chemical breeze
I'll wait
Second degree death
That's what he said
That's what she said
That's what he said
That's what she said
Wow That's what he said Wow.
Oh, maybe I turned it down too early.
Hold on.
Can I tell Rick Emmett that you guys say hi?
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Uncle Ricky.
Okay, I gotta bring it back to the bike for a second
because the guy I bought this bike from knows Rick Emmett.
I just found him on Kijiji.
Okay, and it's just a coincidence.
I won't tell the whole story.
Why not? I like that story.
Because it's long.
It's juicy.
This guy apparently missed out on a multi-million dollar Lotto Max jackpot because of Rick Emmett.
That's amazing.
That's his story.
I can't verify its truthfulness.
I just know a guy I bought a bike from
told me that he was going to win the lottery
and he didn't because of Rick.
Did you know Rick was writing poetry?
Like, is that something you knew?
You didn't tell me.
No.
I had a...
Did we both?
We both had a songwriting course with him.
Yes.
Were we in the same...
No, I was with Holly.
No, we were different.
That's wild to me because, you know,
you don't...
Kids aren't talking about Rick Emmett these days.
I just think that's really cool.
I love it.
Triumph is a long time ago now.
But the reason I said can I say hi for you
is because he's in the Toronto Mike calendar.
I think some date in September.
Can we sit in on the interview?
No, no, please bring us up.
I email him every now and then.
That's what I do.
I try to make all the pieces fit together or whatever.
So I'll be like, my dear friends, Mono Whales, say hello.
And then we'll hear what he says about you.
And he goes, oh, I loved working with those guys.
Oh, I hate those guys.
Those talentless.
Anyway.
Snakes.
That's funny.
I think Rick Emmett, I think maybe he used to do some heavy golf.
I have a client from Humble and Fred named Howard Glassman who golfs all the time.
And I think he used to golf.
I feel like he used to golf with Rick Emmett maybe.
Do you think Rick ever golfed?
I think so.
Did you just say heavy golfing almost?
Yeah, maybe.
Is that heavy golfing?
What's heavy golfing?
It's when you golf a lot.
It's like heavy petting, but with golf.
He said, she said.
Is it the same deal?
Zach writes it and you guys take credit.
Is that what happens?
What happened when he said, she said?
Yeah, you got it.
Okay, that laugh.
See, I think I've succeeded.
When I read next week, oh, you know,
Mona Wales broke up or whatever.
I'm taking partial credit for it.
Nice.
That's a cool thing
to take credit for.
Then you should get a tattoo.
Yeah.
I ruined Mono Whales.
No, Mono Whales on a heart,
but like with a broken heart.
Oh.
That's cute.
Now, Long May You Run.
I love this song, though.
This is my favorite,
one of my favorite songs
on the album.
So speak about that song
because that's the last...
Speak about it, Sally.
Speak to He Said, She Said.
Sure.
That was a song actually that we'd worked on like almost like a year before this record was even like the other songs came.
I know Zach's dying because he has all the dates like chronologically in his head, but I'm just going to tell it my way.
gonna tell it my way and when we got into the studio we we had like all the songs ready and we were going in with like we're gonna have one song that we just choose on the spot that's more
like we'll see how it goes so showing it to our producer at the time ryan warsley we showed him
a couple ones unfinished and he was like this one and i was personally like, yes, because I was rooting for this one. And yeah, I think it was like, what, 70% there, 80%?
In the end, like, we basically had all the, most of the lyrics written.
You added the chorus part.
Yeah.
And Ryan really just helped the music kind of take structure.
Like, we just needed someone from the outside to tie it.
Even just to tell us that what we had was already good.
Basically, yeah.
Which is helpful in a producer.
Edification.
Yeah, it was like a year after doing a lot of the work too.
He's just like, no, this is all dope.
He just had like one rhythmic idea and everything fell into place.
But it was also like nice to go into the studio
and have like all those other songs we prepare so hard for so to go in with a song that's like more
free-for-all it felt really good to have that kind of loose loose thing sounds great again i'm here
to boost your confidence uh because everything i hear from you guys and again i've seen you live
so i'm not just pretending like oh oh, who are these mono whales?
Let me pretend I like them or something like that.
Like, I've been there, me and my brother Steve,
on a very cold, I biked there too.
And I remember because I got there,
it was so cold out.
Like, it was really cold.
You biked there from here?
Yeah.
That was the sock drive?
Yeah, it was an indie thing.
Oh, that's deadly.
It was an indie thing.
That was a cold night.
So I was, yeah, I was at the Phoenix.
I dressed for the ride.
I remember I dressed
for the ride, so I know how to dress with
layers and stuff so I could bike in minus 20 or whatever.
It was really, really, really biting cold.
Once I got in the Phoenix, I was dressed for
minus 20, and I just remember
thinking, I'm going to overheat.
I loved you guys. You guys were fantastic,
but I'm a huge Sloan fan, so that might have been another reason i was there uh oh actually jay
ferguson was just on toronto mic last week uh maybe 10 days ago for uh east coast jam shout
out to jay ferguson he's a good boy but bottom line is i just i uh that day i remember thinking
like what do i do i think i started like stripping or something like i was just like overheating during our set well you have that effect on people so you know i love it but you
you guys make oh it's getting red you guys make uh songwriting sound kind of easy though because
it's like you just kind of like all of a sudden you got this thing it's like like like like uh
it can't be that simple because these are all radio friendly,
catchy songs that I'm playing that you guys are writing.
Like,
you know,
anyone can write a piece of music,
but to write something that can get airplay and people can sing along to and
enjoy,
it's a whole different level.
I would think.
Thank you.
I mean,
we don't think it's that easy.
No,
no,
no.
I was going to make a bad joke.
That's what happens when you sell your soul to the devil.
Do you have like, are you already, are you always writing?
Or is this something like you have to focus on?
Like are you always writing?
Depends.
We were like, for years we were writing in a kind of haphazard way.
We had like a song every once in a while.
The new record we've been working on, we sort of wrote all,
kind of all at once, like all in like one period of writing over zoom
right this is like the record that nobody even knows exists yet except right now i'm telling
everyone oh this is we have been working on a new record okay i gotta make sure i don't bury the
lead here uh shout out to that wasp that really likes sally quite a bit actually this was like
this record was the first time, the upcoming one,
where we did all the writing in a writing period.
But wait a minute.
Maybe times have changed
because it used to be bands made money on selling albums
and now they don't necessarily make money on selling albums.
So things have changed.
But you did release Daytona Bleach in March 2021, right?
Mm-hmm.
So when does the next album drop?
Do you do it in the calendar year 2021?
We'll figure it out, man.
We actually don't know, so we can't,
because we're still working on it.
Jordan's playing cool over there, like he knows something.
I know things.
We all know a few things.
But we're not done yet, so we're still working on it.
Okay, because you could have slipped me a file or whatever.
I could play some unreleased thing.
Anyways, obviously I don't have that.
My manager would be like, that's a no-no.
Okay.
Well, shout out to your manager who blessed your appearance here.
So it has good sense.
For sure.
For sure.
No-no.
Okay.
So when you, and almost wrapping up here because uh
i we're just getting started well it's up to you come on we're one beer in no rush where are the
other beers and and i'm happy to report to you that if you needed to use the washroom uh there
is a washroom in this uh building behind me in your in your home yeah i'm glad i like to make
it sound bigger like i thought you had an outhouse for us out here.
Sorry, in the studio at the mansion that we're sitting at currently.
Yes, it's wonderful.
Right, exactly.
The mansion here.
Or the outhouse over here.
So did you, and I want you to be very honest with me on this one.
So you guys did Zoom with me a few months ago.
And that was an episode of Toronto Mic'd.
Did any of you three nice people listen back to hear yourself on Toronto Mic'd?
I'm just curious.
Does a guest who appears on a podcast like Toronto Mic'd,
do they go and listen to it to hear how it sounded?
I need to be very honest.
None of you did it.
That's fine.
I don't do that anymore.
I used to.
I don't do it anymore.
To hear how you sounded, because then maybe next time you won't say that.
How do we sound, Mike?
Do we sound terrible?
Yeah, pretty bad.
No, just kidding.
I do.
I do check them out.
And as someone who has to kind of
do the social media marketing,
I kind of have to.
And then if there's sound bites and stuff.
And I'm curious how it comes off.
So it's good to know,
especially because we've heard
so many good things about you.
Oh, is that true?
Because I feel like
we need to spend some time on that.
No, they speak very highly of you. We're really excited.
Who are these people? We can't say that.
Any names? One of them I will say
our radio tracker,
Kara Heath, is like
you're pretty cool and so we're
really excited
to come on. Did I live up to
those lofty expectations? Absolutely.
Kara Heath acceded them, you might say. Zoom went so well that that's why we're like absolutely okay absolutely because by far my
preference is what we're doing right now i'm not i mean i'll take a zoom over nothing of mono whales
but uh when i find out a band is like living in toronto i'm like well what if they uh showed up
in the backyard is that cool so this has been awesome. This is
something you'll care very little about,
but listeners might be interested to know that
today is the
third anniversary of
the infamous Molly Johnson
episode of Toronto Mic'd.
So that all sounds very exciting when I put it that
way, but basically three years ago today,
Molly Johnson came over.
Do you guys know who Molly Johnson johnson is no rings a bell that's a neat award ring ring my bell you can ring my bell
that's good i like that mo Johnson is a pretty BFD
big fucking deal
in this
city
this country
I'm googling her
FOTM
she's an FOTM
absolutely
and her episode
is the most referenced
episode of
until this one
what went down
yeah
so it's a long story
what went down
except that
it's all recorded
and sitting there
and today
I get these updates
like oh two years ago this guest was on and then i usually tweet about it or whatever so i saw today
three years ago today molly johnson came over and i will say because i talked to like i uh i do these
uh speaking engagements for colleges like i think they're in like radio or media classes
and i think their teachers or profs are like we need someone to talk podcasting and then i usually
end up getting the call to come talk to these kids about
podcasting.
And I think without a doubt,
the most referenced,
most talked about episode of all 901 episodes,
again,
until this one was Molly Johnson.
So I just want to shout out the Molly Johnson episode.
I'm just looking through her Wikipedia page to see the paragraph that says
infamous,
infamous episode on Toronto. Let me'm just looking through her Wikipedia page to see the paragraph that says infamous episode on Toronto Mike.
Let me guess. Posted by Rosie Gray Teo.
She's got the Order of Canada.
I know that Sally's goal
is one day to get the Order of Canada.
Is she a jazz vocalist? She's a jazz vocalist.
Yeah, I know because that's where I know
the name. She runs the
Kensington Market Jazz Festival.
What happened in this episode, Mike?
You guys do any jazz?
I'll get to that.
We do a little bit of jazz.
We do some jazz if you want to hear it.
We got you, baby.
Tear on Toronto Mike.
Okay, we're going to stop now.
No, the good stuff comes.
Just getting into it.
Now we're into it. That's No, the good stuff comes an hour into it.
That's when the good shit happens.
What happened?
Basically, I just did my thing,
but it happened to be the day Aretha Franklin died.
So I opened the episode by playing a little Aretha.
I should point out, before I pressed record,
she was really, really, really mean to me.
Okay?
Is she an FOTM?
Yeah.
She gave me a hug after we...
Or is she fugly?
Just kidding.
Just kidding.
You know what?
FOTM did stand for flavor of the month, I think.
Oh!
Shout out to Baskin-Robbins.
It's now fugly of the month for us.
Fugly of the month?
Yeah.
But you don't judge fugly people.
Because not everyone can be born attractive.
No, fugly doesn't mean necessarily bad.
Like, Funyuns are great. I see it more as a person who isly doesn't mean necessarily bad. Funyuns are great. I see it more as like a
person who is closely
related to Funyuns. Funyuns are great?
I mean all four of us are. What the fuck?
As long as you don't call anyone ugly.
I gotta cover this up.
I'm not. Gotta say something about Funyuns.
Yeah, well
you take the F, you put it on a word, makes it fun.
Yeah, yeah. So fun
ugly.
Anyway, if you have an hour to kill one day,
listen to Molly Johnson on Tronobike.
And then let me know what I like, what I actually enjoy,
is people who listen and then they send me these emails
or other correspondence, you know, however.
Maybe they write me a letter with like ink,
with like a big feather pen or whatever
but they tell me their thoughts along the way like I noticed when this happened you did this
and then I thought it was that was the part you were talking about but then it got better and I
said okay but then it got even worse than it was and I said oh my goodness this is unsalvageable
and then it started to repair itself and then when you called her out I thought that reset the whole
thing and I used a word on her that got me in trouble with her i used the uh the d word but i didn't call her the d word i just
said i was getting d d well the d word is diva i guess i'm allowed to say oh i thought it was
gonna be dog dick i would never call someone a dog i might call someone a dick also footnote
we're not calling her fugly you can move on on. We don't even know. I know. She's very attractive.
Anyway, it was the day Aretha Franklin died.
And I think for some reason it set a bad tone because she, I don't know, she didn't like me opening with Aretha Franklin.
Meanwhile, again, like I said, before I pressed record on that episode, she was so mean to me that you can hear my voice.
Like this, how I'm talking to you now is my normal voice.
This is how i sound but if you listen to the my voice at the beginning of the molly johnson episode i don't sound like
this i sound like somebody who's like nervous like can you play it can we you want to hear it
yeah i do because there's an appearance at the beginning because i didn't know what to do with
this audio because it was such a train wreck and i've never had it go south on me before so i made
a decision to uh frame it with a person I call Future Mike.
So Future Mike will show up
after the fact to set up
what you're about to hear.
So just so listeners don't just go straight into that,
they get a little bit of reference,
like a little framing or perspective or whatever.
Anyway, do you really want me to play it?
Do you want me to do it?
I just want to know if I can tell the difference.
Oh, Jordan's like, no, don't.
I know, I'm saying I would love this to happen.
Okay.
Because I thought you weren't going to tell us what happened.
And you sort of still haven't.
I haven't.
I've just teased it enough that you might be interested enough to listen.
But let me do this really quickly.
And that's how you do it.
Yeah, that is.
I'm impressed.
Right.
And again, I don't, you know, I don't get paid by the listener or anything.
So it's just, I think it's an interesting case study in interviewing, if you will.
And again, I don't have like a,
I didn't go to,
I'm not trained in this.
I didn't go to like Humber College
and interviewing school.
Honestly, this is a great setup though.
This is good.
All right, let me see if I can find it.
You think I can find it.
Okay, so it's episode 368.
And you guys are 901.
So it's been a while here. Although it's only been three years.
Three years ago today. And
I'm just going to press. I have to skip the
intro and stuff, but let's listen in here.
Hold on here.
We're going to skip ahead a bit.
Please do.
Here, this is my
feelings at the time. Anyways,
I told her I would skip the intro
and add it in post and I would This is Future Mike, okay? So Future Mike is setting up the time. Anyways, I told her I would skip the intro and add it in post and I would,
uh, this is future Mike. Okay. So future Mike is setting up the episode. So hold on. I mean,
you hear them. I'm going to hear if you can tell it in my voice. And I'm like,
I was scared of her. I'll be honest. So I took every second of that hour and I didn't want to
waste it on this intro. And I, uh, told her what I tell every guest when they come on, as I tell
them, um, you need to be right on this microphone because these unidirectional mics
won't pick you up if you're off it.
And I got to skip ahead of it.
Yeah.
We just want to hear your nervous voice.
You too long.
Of course, normally.
Okay.
I know.
I hope this.
And I swear to you.
And we said goodbye.
We had a hug.
Okay.
This is the last bit of future Mike.
And then we'll get to friends.
So I've never experienced a met. Okay, this is the last bit of future Mike. So I've never
experienced a metamorphosis like this,
but you're going to now witness it
live. Now because of
the nature of this episode,
I still worked in a
traditional sponsor mention for
Brian Gerstein from propertyinthesix.com
Shout out to Brian.
But Molly never got her six pack.
So I want to say thank you.
I didn't give her the beer.
No beer for you.
September 12th for Toronto Mike.
We're drinking it right now.
You were going to leave us a beer.
Go to censusdesignbuild.ca.
Okay, I know.
These are the sponsor mentions.
You did a great job.
I haven't started yet.
Please do that.
Tell them Toronto Mike sent you.
Compelling audio, I know.
I wish I could video you right now.
It's just because I don't know.
Because of the player I'm in,
I can't just go fast forward.
I'm in a bad player.
I'm in the HTML5.
I totally feel you.
I just like watching you squirm.
It's true.
Here we go.
Heavy dose of real talk.
Okay, we're only going to do a minute of this.
Molly Johnson. Okay, here we go. Okay, we're only going to do a minute of this. With Molly Johnson.
Okay, so I opened
with Aretha. This is all happening live with
Aretha in the basement.
Is she scowling
at you as this is playing? Welcome Molly.
Thanks for coming.
Thanks for having me.
It's a sad day.
Aretha Franklin has passed away.
Was Aretha an inspiration for you?
I'm off my game, by the way.
I'm sorry, I just heard that noise about a minute ago, a second ago,
and I didn't realize that you were starting with an Aretha Franklin question.
She's had a huge impact in my life,
and I'd like to take a moment to just absorb
what's just happened
and so sorry I don't have an answer
for that
no I completely respect that
I mean that was a good answer from her
that was fine I totally respect
people who do that
normally listeners of this show know
we go rather deep
keep this one a little shorter than normal.
It's higher, basically.
It goes higher.
Keep it going.
I want to see you be uncomfortable.
Now, quick hellos.
Liz West and Gene Velitis are a couple of your fans.
Okay, yeah, I see it.
Anyway, it's all there for you, Sally.
You can listen to it later.
But that was nothing, okay?
We haven't even begun here
so I do hope you listen and then send me
does it get way worse?
that's nothing
honestly what would it take for this interview to go south right now
let's do it
okay go for it like try like what do you want me to do
you already gave Zach all the credit for all the songwriting
I know yeah yeah yeah
so we don't write anything apparently
I'm trying to cause a rift in the band
unsuccessfully.
Next, compliment Zach on his artistic direction for the album art.
All the press photos.
That's all Zach.
Is it?
All the management.
You're the creative straw that stirs this drink here.
Can you sing though?
Because I feel like you would just boot Sally over.
Yeah, that actually is Zach on the press.
Oh, actually it is Zach.
It's just pitched so it sounds like me, but it's actually Zach.
It's AI.
It changes my voice.
Wow.
Just see how he plays the drums.
It's amazing.
Oh, my God.
Would you go solo?
Like, are you considering it?
Oh, no.
This is my solo project.
He's like the Trent Reznor of the Nine Inch Nails.
Yeah.
I feel like your listeners have no idea if we're joking ever, and I'm loving it.
So let's keep it that way.
In all seriousness
though uh Zach is this band you're happy to be in a trio or is going solo something you're
considering um I love collaboration no no absolutely I love collaboration um I think we
all think about that sometimes too and you know being in a band it's an interesting thing because
I think learning about being in a band is it's not about just carrying your vision forward it's about the group dynamic
and what that makes something so uh i could never make anything that sounds like what we do but i But I did So what do you know But Yeah but what
Mono whales could be
Your Alexis on fire
Alex is on fire
You could be city and color
No that's Jordan
City and color
That would be his solo piece
No no no but we all
We're very eclectic people and have,
like what makes Mono Whale so special is we're not just a bunch of kids
that all liked, I don't know, let's just say nine-inch nails in high school.
You know, we're very different.
So we make something special.
So I think we all have different interests in some ways and it would be nice,
uh,
as individuals to explore different things.
Uh,
we all like so many different types of music,
but I love being in a band and working with people.
I think that's where the real magic comes from.
Remind me the origin story.
Like how did you guys,
how did the three of you hook up?
Um,
at a sex club.
No,
the sex club.
Funny enough,
Jordan and I did hook up.
Wow. We did. In high up wow you did in high school so
we were high school sweethearts he took me to prom is that right uh well you took me to prom
technically i guess so because you didn't we didn't go to my prom and that's when he had all
the piercings and stuff i did yeah yeah he was a major like like kind of scene kid and so was i
you were you had a lip piercing and a come on.
He wore pink Converse
with me.
That's because you asked me to.
But also you were way more
seen than I was.
You cannot.
And I'm not ashamed of it.
I just that wasn't my.
I was more like emo
kind of punk.
Not punk.
That's the distinction.
Not punk.
I was in a punk band.
But we used to we used to date.
You were a couple.
Yeah.
But the band didn't become a band
until way later after we broke up, actually.
And we all went to college together.
And it wasn't until we met Zach
in our second year of college.
Yeah, yeah.
You were in second year.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Which college?
At Humber.
So that's how we know Rick Emmett as well.
He was one of our professors.
I used to live down the street.
So South Campus?
Yeah.
I was just thinking Woodbine.
No, no, no.
Etobicoke.
But I remember Zach.
Wow, that is nearby.
Because if you go back and find our OG bass player,
Soren Delamonte,
they are kind of the ones that brought us all together.
Because Zach, to me,
was like a beautiful, gorgeous wallflower
that I'd never noticed before,
even though you were around.
But to be fair,
Zach was like,
I always saw you and you seemed annoying.
Yeah, I know.
I flat out told her that.
You don't seem like the type of person
I would be friends with.
But look at us now.
That's wild.
Okay, so, and there's never been any friction with the fact that you were a couple with Jordan.
Like, that never.
Still tons of friction.
I mean, I'm sure.
I'm sure there's baggage we still deal with.
Yeah, like, it's like that and many other things we probably fight about.
Like, you don't usually, like, it's not usually a reciprocal, like, uncoupling.
Like, usually there's somebody who says, says you know this isn't working for me or like like somebody he broke up with me if you want to know that's what i want to know the disclosure
if you must know if you must know but the truth is like you know when i i believe when you start
to date someone you saw something in them in the first place that you sparked with and that you
wanted to be friends like i believe in friendship first before relationships so with that being said like i'm so grateful that
we do this together it's pretty sick i feel like sally realized that i did her a favor a couple
years like thank god this relationship ended and now we lead happy lives and we're in a band and
we have other relationships and it's great.
I can't believe that
this thing starts
at Humber South Campus.
Like, you know,
they film Police Academy there.
Oh, I know.
Yes.
Is that part of the tour?
Toot, toot.
And Suicide Squad
was filmed underneath.
You know, there's like...
Oh, the tunnels.
Right, the tunnels.
I think my uncle
was one of the bricklayers in the tunnels.
Okay.
Cause I took a tour of the tunnels for like a doors open Toronto thing or
whatever.
Amazing.
Like just the,
that these tunnels are there.
And of course,
those who don't know what we're talking about,
like these buildings that are now Humber college and I'm trying to get the
right turn.
I once called it something else and someone called me out,
but they were,
it was a psychiatric hospital.
Lakeshore asylum.
Mimico maybe?
Mimico.
Mimico. Well, I once called it a lunatic asylum and somebody was mad at me using the word lunatic but i thought
that's what they could was called that's what they called it back then yeah not anymore like i
wouldn't call it a lunatic asylum now of course you know what the word lunatic comes from right
moon nice because uh wikipedia no because i know what luna means that's for sure um wow okay so uh that's an
interesting origin story i don't think the first zoom episode we revealed the sally jordan but now
we're all annoying together so so what's next like you guys just keep trying to create good music and
then one day you want to be the sam roberts band right where you're picking like who's going to be
your opening band or whatever i mean we still get to do that when we headline
sure it's fun
and to choose we don't
like I don't know how you can know
your exact
future in this industry
it's like we are here for
whatever the ride is going to be and all
we know is to make music
and make art the way we do and whatever
it leads us like we have
goals but it doesn't mean it's going to happen other goals can happen i guess again no judgment
here what do i know but it feels like uh the city's got uh so much more expensive meanwhile
the art is seems to be compensated less like it just seems like these two things have happened
over the past 25 years or whatever for sure i mean we just
don't know the difference because we've never like we don't know what it's like to to have that
you know scenario so for us it's like we this is what we're doing this is what it is
and we're making the best of it and honestly we're not unhappy so we've been lucky we've been like i
think bands that aren't in our position, not to say we're hugely successful,
but we have enjoyed some success.
There are a lot of bands that could really use some more help.
Definitely from the city to remove some barriers,
make things easier, make last call later,
make the alcohol cheaper, make it easier to run a venue.
There's lots of things that can be done.
And COVID didn't help with any of this definitely not and there are i mean i talked to some bands and like their primary income comes from performing live like if that gets taken away from you like
like how do you subsist like do you need to lean on loved ones how do you do how do you do no i
mean there's other ways in music to make
money like there's it depends what road you're going to take like there's licensing road
you know there's there's the radio road there's the the dsp road with streaming there's a lot of
different things you can do and i think we are versatile and that we like to do all those things and i know jordan helps a lot of younger
bands actually coming up um right now and so hit him up i've helped them too with other things like
marketing and like we both kind of do that zach has been helping other bands with production so
we're also like this is our main thing to be like up front with you but we're also here to want to help primary that's your your thing
but there's these like uh accessorial like things which we don't dip in too much to to be honest
like we've gotten to a place where we can dip into it when we want to but that's the truth is we'd
still with any experience we've ever gained we want to give it away that's the thing it's like
mentorship is so important i feel like when we were up, there was like not a lot of it to be found,
at least in my life,
like few and far between.
You find people like really willing to help you
and like take you under their wing
and like teach you some stuff you don't know.
And I think for us,
like we have limited knowledge,
we have limited experience,
but we've been here for a little bit.
So when there are people we can help,
we really want to help them.
Good for you.
Honestly, that's cool and
i'm giving back i think it's too bad that when you guys were coming up you couldn't find that
kind of like mentorship honestly rick helped me a lot in a lot of ways i'm gonna i'm gonna shout
out to him like i think he gave me a lot of confidence that this was going to be something
that was going to work if you want like if i shut up for a second, you could have a clean cut to speak to Rick
and I'll pull it and I'll play it for him when he's on.
Sure. I feel like I speak to him so much.
And he's probably like, did I really have this effect on you that much?
But he really did.
There was a time, especially in school,
where everyone is kind of made to feel like they're a piece of shit
and that you're not going to make it.
And with him, he truly was someone who like championed me and was like, actually like you're,
you're unique. Like you've got something. And he believed in me where a lot of teachers didn't.
I failed in the same course that he, I was in his course later that year. And I, and I excelled
within it because it shows you what a teacher that like
actually you relate with can,
can do for you.
And I want to say that he inspired me and changed my life greatly.
And I'll always be really grateful for him.
Perfect.
I'm going to pull that and I'm going to play it for,
for Rick Emmett.
And I think he's on in September.
So for sure.
Very cool.
So did you have a good time and would you return for another visit to the backyard?
Can we say it together?
One, two, three.
Yes.
And next time we could do this thing called the kicking out the jams where basically like
maybe because there's three of you, you each pick three songs like that are literally like
your favorite songs of all time.
And we play them and we talk about them. This is something people do when they return down you're so down and uh so
you're the nine inch nails gal right but uh i only recently got into them to be honest i thought it
was like a high school thing no no they're new influence okay okay i was gonna quickly here
before lois the low takes us out uh find out like what were you listening to in high
school like what are your high school bands like death cab for cutie bright eyes white stripes
that kind of thing elliot smith the late great now what about you zach
caius queens of the stone age black sabbath hendrix blue cheer like I don't know, the ant trip ceremony,
random psychedelic things, nuggets.
And Jordan? Arcade Fire,
Owen Pallet, Neutral Milk Hotel,
Akron Family, Sigur Rós.
Broken Social Scene.
Neutral Milk Hotel.
Elephant Six Collective.
I already said that.
I'm just making sure everyone got it.
Okay. And that
Update your website so all those tour dates
We'll update it yeah
What did you listen to?
Alice in Chains
I actually bought a first Alice in Chains
So good live
Even their new lead singer sounds good
He sounds like Layne Staley
I saw them open for at the
amphitheater a few years ago but the uh yeah i was still a lot of grunge but i was also a massive
public enemy guy like i was listening to public enemy all the time i had chuck d on the show
and i thought about like just like i'll throw all the gear in the lake ontario like i'm done
like what am i gonna do now how do you feel about cool thing with chuck d i loved it yeah yeah in
fact i've kicked that out we did like a it. Yeah. In fact, I kicked that out. We did
a cameo episode of Pandemic Fight
and I kicked that out. I love to tell it
like it is. Word to your
mother. I love the Chuck D.
What was it? Anthrax and Public Enemy?
Bring the Noise. Loved it.
We'll let you do an outro though.
I love it. It's okay. This is a long song.
I love it when
rap and rock collide. I don't care what that means. This is a long song. I love it when rap and rock collide.
I don't care what that,
you know what that means.
I watched the Woodstock 99.
You guys got lots of rap rock collabs.
And we love Limp Bizkit.
Love Limp Bizkit.
Have you seen the new look that Fred Durst is rocking?
Yeah, dad vibes.
Looks good.
Handsome, right?
Chocolate starfish, baby.
And the hot dog flavored water.
And that brings us to the end of our
901st show
You can follow me on Twitter
I'm at Toronto Mike
Come to TML
Are you guys around on Friday evening
Not this one the one after
I'm out of town
Why don't you come
I know that sucks for the
I'm actually out of town
That's our vacation It's not a joke I swear we are Why don't you come? Like this free pasta. I know that sucks for the... I'm actually out of town, but...
We're all out of town.
That's our vacation, man.
We're gone.
It's not a joke.
I swear we are.
Boo.
You can follow...
Oh, yeah.
Monowales.
Is it at Monowales?
At Monowales on everything.
Google us.
There's no other Monowales.
And are any of you on Solo?
Like, I know there's...
Once in a while, I see a liked tweet from a Sally Schar.
That's you, right?
You can follow us all. We're all there.
Yeah, Sally Scharr, Jordan Strakosta,
Zack Zanardo.
Zack Zanardo, ZZ, ZZ Top.
You can follow,
did I say that already? You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at
Toronto Mike. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery
are at Great Lakes Beer.
McKay's CEO Forums are at
McKay's CEO Forums.
Palma Pasta's at Palma Pasta. I really do have lasagnas
for you in the freezer.
Sick.
Prove it.
Thank you.
I hope you can bike
with this big heavy lasagna.
Oh, I'm going to ride.
Don't worry.
Oh, you're going to ride.
Wow.
Half biker.
Chauffeur.
I'm going to steal your bike.
Sticker U is at Sticker U.
Ridley Funeral Home
is at Ridley FH
and Mimico Mike.
He's not on Twitter.
He's on Instagram.
He's at Majeski Group Homes.
See you all next week.
Peace.
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