Canadian Musician Podcast

On the podcast this week, Mike is joined for a frank and insightful conversation with Colette Chand, also known as DJ Coco Fresh, who is the founder of a new Toronto-based company called 10TH FLR. It brings together artist managers, grant writers and consultants to work with musicians from all genres — focusing on grant writing, artist back end, marketing plans, rollouts, and tours.

Colette has had a diverse and fascinating journey within Canada’s music industry over the last 10-plus years, beginning as a professional DJ in Vancouver and being mentored by DJ Starting from Scratch, to concert promotion, working with Universal Music Canada in promotions, and also specializing in grant writing, event promotion, artist management, and more. In this conversation, Colette shares her journey and lessons learned along the way, her mission for 10TH FLR, the key lessons independent artists need to learn quickly, the character traits that set the successful artists apart of the others, and a lot more.

This week, Mike is thrilled to welcome back to the podcast Haviah Mighty, one of the most exciting and acclaimed rapper-producers in Canada. Haviah’s last LP, 13th Floor, won the 2019 Polaris Music Prize and was the first rap album to do so. Because Haviah and Mike happened to be speaking the morning after Cadence Weapon won this year’s Polaris Prize, they begin by discussing the fact that there have now been three politically-conscious rap albums in a row win the prize and what that means. Haviah then discuss her own experiences during the pandemic and how that has shaped her own thoughts on how artists find validation online. That topic is at the core of her upcoming album, Stock Exchange, in a couple of ways. So, she digs into this new project and how it came together.

Following the new conversation with Haviah Mighty, Mike also re-shares the wonderful conversation he had a couple months ago with Cadence Weapon about his album, Parallel World, which just won this year’s Polaris Music Prize as the best Canadian album of the year.

First up this week, Mike chats with pop singer-songwriter Tyler Shaw about his new eponymous album, which is the culmination of the Tyler’s near decade of experience in the music industry. Even with a pandemic and new baby, Tyler is never slowing down. Ever since his first album, Yesterday, and the Juno Award-nominated success of his sophomore disc, Intuition, Shaw has amassed more than 164 million streams globally, and his massive hit “With You” currently has 34 million views on YouTube. In this interview, Tyler digs into the creation and songwriting behind the new album, his experience as a Chinese-Canadian man in the music industry, fatherhood, and being a self-published songwriter.

After the conversation with Tyler Shaw, as a bonus, Mike shares the “director’s cut” version of a video tutorial he created earlier this year for NAMM’s Believe in Music Week virtual event. It’s called “How to Get on a Streaming Playlists” and in it, as the name implies, Mike deconstructs Spotify’s playlist ecosystem and explains why and how independent artists get their songs the streaming giant’s playlists.

Happy post-Valentine's Day, folks. In this week's show, bring you some R.O.C.K. in the form of an interview with Monster Truck guitarist Jeremy Widerman, a good friend of the magazine and absolutely phenomenal writer of riffs. We chat about the band's success on radio, their tours with the likes of Alice in Chains, Deep Purple, Buckcherry, and The Sheepdogs, and what it's like pushing into new territories. We're also happy to have Nick Whitehouse on the show, who designs the ligthing looks for major tours by artists like Kanye West, Jay Z, and Beyonce. Most recently, he took on the design for Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience tour, which Mike had the chance to see (lucky fella). We speak with Nick about some of the things that go into a design for a show of this magnitude - a cool look "behind the scenes," or more fittingly, "above the stage." And in our International Artist Spotlight, we'll hear a track from U.K. synth/new wave outfit Jupiter in Velvet. The band lists acts like Bowie, Duran Duran, and The Killers among its influences, and there's a good reason why. The track will get at least a toe tapping.

This week, we're joined by Richard Todd, guitarist and vocalist of Toronto progressive rock trio Redpath Traffic.

Todd and his bandmates may range from their 50s to 70s, but they're out to prove that you can start a band at any point in life, and music isn't all about youth.