Post-Fame Plus 1.3

s1.3 Post-Fame Plus

[00:00:00]

Glen Erickson: Now we can officially, no, I was just gonna, I don’t want to, we don’t need to do a cheesy intro. This is, uh, cheeky. Oh, I’m sorry. Okay. Um, this is episode three of our summer series Post Fame Plus. Um, hi Lexi.

alexi: Oh, hi.

Glen Erickson: Uh, we’re trying some new things out. Um, not always super successfully, but that’s okay.

Uh, we’re gonna work some of this stuff out, but,

alexi: Yep.

Glen Erickson: quickly, uh, once again, uh, four part series in the summer we are doing some song exchange. We’re. One person brings a song, one person brings an album. We’ve done two weeks of these. We flip the seats back around

alexi: Yes.

Glen Erickson: week, [00:01:00] back to you taking, uh, a song to share a single song, and I’m gonna share an album.

alexi: Yeah,

Glen Erickson: So, that means you get to go first.

alexi: I think so. Is that how we did

Glen Erickson: I think that’s what that means. I think that’s what that means. Yeah.

alexi: Okay. Well that’s awesome then. Um, okay. I, I feel like this is, um. The best song that I’ve given up on the podcast so far. I’ll start strong saying that.

Glen Erickson: Oh wow. Okay. Big swing again.

alexi: Big

Glen Erickson: I love it.

alexi: Um, yeah, and I literally, I considered, this is so terrible because you know how all for I am with like. Music sharing and just like putting other people on and that whole culture. Um, and I’m so against the whole like jokey, like gatekeeper stuff. Um, there was a part of me that was like, I don’t really wanna share this. ’cause if people start listening, like not my little niche song anymore, but, uh, I got over myself. Um, it’s [00:02:00] okay.

Glen Erickson: Hold on, hold on, hold on. Are you suggesting that you think you might gate keep a band for the whole world?

alexi: Not for the whole world, but just for like, the community that I’m in. Uh,

Glen Erickson: Okay.

alexi: okay, okay. I’ll start with the backstory before I say it, um, because it’s more fun, fun that way. But when I was in Europe last summer, um, you know, I flew there alone, met a friend, a little bit backpack in, um.

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.

alexi: When I was there, I was like dating, kind of talking to um, Eric, who’s now like my current boyfriend. Um, and he sent me this song and it was one of the first that he had ever really sent me. And it just like mimicked my whole trip, like encapsulated my entire Europe trip and the experience that I had so perfectly. Um, and I [00:03:00] instantly, like I, I played it so much when I was there. I remember I was in Germany and I was in my friend’s house, in their little bathroom. I had this big window open in there and this big skylight and from the shower, um, ’cause their curtains are different, you would just see out this whole window and it was just like this beautiful, like sunset.

But it looked like the sun was like coming down. And the song was playing off my phone on the little Edge, um, and I was like, oh, this song is just like this trip. And so every

Glen Erickson: So are you, are you saying it? You mean, do you actually mean that it, it imprinted itself

alexi: yeah,

Glen Erickson: the whole trip? In other words, it’s kind of woven into every memory that you have.

alexi: Every, when I think about that trip, this song comes to mind

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

alexi: of it. And when I hear the song. All I can think about is a trip. Like it’s, they’re woven together and I didn’t expect that to happen. Um,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

alexi: but [00:04:00] anyways, so Oopsies, let me pop this

Glen Erickson: Are you also subtly implying or suggesting that this is the reason that you now have your current boyfriend is because he locked in by sending you the song that was locked into your great trip?

alexi: You know what?

Glen Erickson: I don’t know. Seems a little, A little bit subtle.

alexi: for him. I believe he definitely knew what he was doing. yeah, that was honestly great play by him. I’ll, I’ll give him that

Glen Erickson: That’s good game. Yeah, that’s good game. Okay.

alexi: Yeah. Um, this is the song’s called, why Is It Light Out? Um, by the Kilons Kilans I don’t know how to pronounce the band title. an arguable topic between my boyfriend and I for sure. Um, I say the Keans or the Kans, it’s K-I-L-A-N-S. Um, but Why Is It Light Out? It’s genuinely like of [00:05:00] 2024. I think this was like one of my top songs and like holds a special place in my heart to the point where if I’m like driving. And I have like a shuffle on and it starts playing and I’m not having just like a peak day or I’m not like in a great mood.

I skip it. ’cause I don’t want the song to be tarnished and it’s so,

Glen Erickson: Wow.

alexi: But I do, I do and I have no shame.

Glen Erickson: No, no, that’s not stupid. I, I heard, I heard a study, I heard someone talking about a study on a podcast about. What they’re learning about the brain and memories and where they live in the, in our brain, and that every it’s, they think that it’s almost like every time you access it. You might be able to tarnish it with whatever your current mood or state or stuff is in, and that it’ll like kind of change that memory permanently just a little bit every [00:06:00] time.

But, uh, I don’t know if that’s fully true or not, but it sort of holds true with what you’re saying if you don’t want to, uh, change what that song means or holds. Okay. I have something quick to say before you tell me more about why you love the song maybe, but. Uh, for, I, I get a lot of comments that people enjoy you and I doing this thing.

It’s a nice surprise. They, of course, are under this, um, obvious guise that you and I are super close and we love music and we share everything together. So just so everybody knows things aren’t perfect in La la Land, you’ve never ever shared this song with me before. How can we be this close doing this podcast and then.

If I hadn’t come up with this theme, you would never have told me this song. That means so incredibly much to you.

alexi: okay. Hear me up though. Let’s say we’re driving to the gym in the morning. I’d play it and you’re like, yeah, it’s all right. actually think my heart would like [00:07:00] start cracking falling into my

Glen Erickson: Oh my goodness. Okay, so this is, yeah, this, this song, it, this song is like a, a very like. It’s like when you would’ve made me some ceramic pottery candle holder in grade three, and now I have to tuck it away and not let anybody see it or even handle it again, because it’s probably gonna break the first time I touch it.

alexi: Yeah. Yeah. See

Glen Erickson: Okay, I get it.

alexi: this is why I was saying gatekeeping, that was the wrong term. It’s not that I wanna gate keep it, it, like, I’m just, I don’t want it to be ruined.

Glen Erickson: You are fiercely protecting it for yourself

alexi: Yeah. I.

Glen Erickson: and what it means to you.

alexi: A

Glen Erickson: Okay,

alexi: I will

Glen Erickson: that’s fair.

alexi: it once very briefly on my Instagram

Glen Erickson: I.

alexi: When I was in Europe. I posted a video of like, [00:08:00] it was like me laying on like one of the beds I was staying in and then just like up and having my phone just like kind of outwardly go through the window.

And then it was just like. Skyscape and Sunset, and it’s called, Why Is It Light Out? And the, it just fit. Um,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

alexi: probably had the story up for four or five hours and then I deleted it. I didn’t, I didn’t, didn’t wanna share.

Glen Erickson: Okay, so this is like a super, this is a high risk move for you then, everything you’ve just described.

alexi: if

Glen Erickson: Are you in immediate regret right now?

alexi: You know what? No, because I actually talked through this with my boyfriend before I chose it because I was like, I’m nervous. Um, but I was like, no, because um, if any of your friends don’t like it, um, don’t tell me. And if they tell me, um, then obvious that we just can’t be friends with them anymore. Um. And that’s just that. I think also all the rest of their songs are good. Um, they don’t have a lot of, they’re going on their first tour right [00:09:00] now without their first album out, which is kind of fire. Um, so

Glen Erickson: So it’s the killins

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: and it’s important that we spell this again for people because I would probably look at this and think just killins and, but it’s, it’s kill like with one L, so it’s K-I-L-A-N-S. It’s almost looks like it would be a family name, like a, a weird family name. But, um, yeah, so it looks like it’s just the.

Killins, K-I-L-A-N-S. So if people wanna look it up, we will put the song, of course, on our Spotify playlist and in the show notes if people access those, uh, wherever they’re listening to the podcast, if they wanna look it up. Or it’ll be on the website too, maybe eventually. So, um, well that’s fantastic. In fact, that’s, um, incredible backstory, twist and turn there and that you.

Bravely put that song out. I absolutely love it.

alexi: Brave is a really good

Glen Erickson: [00:10:00] Okay. Brave is a really good word for that. I appreciate courage. Um, okay then let’s switch things over to album. Uh, you know how I wrestle with this, I actually pinpointed my wrestling match with this, which is, just the modern change in music and how we listen.

Is that we don’t listen to albums as albums much anymore. And we kind of have talked about this and um, and so albums that I can quickly access as like pillars or memorable or ones I think everybody should know. Like the way I shared the last one with the war on drugs. Those are easy for me, but they’re in the past, like they’re

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: a little or a long ways back and I have an endless amount.

So if I wanted to access that pool of. Albums. I have all kinds, but it feels so dated to me. So I started really trying to think what is something that I just couldn’t stop listening to? And then that joy to me of an album is when you [00:11:00] start playing it and you have no desire to turn it off once you’ve heard the song or, or something like that.

Right? Like it’s just that they, yeah. So, um, so that one for me, when I really took a look at it and is also a 2024. Release, which I absolutely loved. Um, so probably in my top five best indie rock songs of the last five or more years.

alexi: okay.

Glen Erickson: So you probably, I saw you just have your eyes kind of roll back. In other words, you’re trying, you’re already trying to think.

You should be able to probably know what those are. The best song. Uh, one of the best songs, top Five for me, indie Rock songs in the last five years, I would Give Anybody in a Heartbeat, is Surefire by Wilderado and endlessly listened to that song. It, it ends up in my shameless in my, um, Spotify [00:12:00] top couple list for the last few years.

So last year they released a new album called Talker. They really slow-balled that release. It was like song, song, song and then five song EP going into the summer. And I listened to that five song EP religiously through the summer, as you know. And then they released the full album, I think. And uh, I absolutely love it.

So it’s called Talker. It’s by the band Wilderado, who I think is just an underappreciated. Band probably still, I find very few people in my circles who know about them. Maybe that’s the reason they never seem to come and play shows or tour in Canada, which is kind of killing me.

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: And so the reason I’ll tell everybody that I love this band so much is I’m a sucker for indie rock, of course.

Um, but there is a. Like the song Surefire is big, right? It gets to a [00:13:00] nice, big, happy feeling. Like very few songs make me just feel as good when that one hits the chorus, which is what a, almost like any pop song or great rock song does. But what the band really does well, actually to me is create. Lots of grooves, lots of subtle momentum without having to be heavy handed in anything.

They right. They don’t get super loud with their guitars. They don’t get massively layered. They don’t have these ridiculously layered background vocals all the time. Um, but they put together the simple pieces so well, every single time they do a song, it seems that they just find a groove and an idea and a little hook.

And those are really the building blocks of any great song. So what I’m saying is I think that this band has, for me, kind of figured that out. And when you can feel it on an album, so like the first song is the title Track Talker. And then the second song is Bad Luck, which I really like. [00:14:00] And then the fourth song, it’s called Higher Than Most I Really Like.

And then the sixth song is called In Between, which is maybe my second or third favorite. And then the. The eighth song is called Sometimes, and I think that’s my second or third, maybe second favorite on the album. And then the song tomorrow. Uh, anyhow, I absolutely love, and, and that’s down to Song Nine.

So you’re getting consistently an album like that and I don’t get that anymore with a lot of these

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: bands, like really great bands and great songs. But anyhow, so those are the things that appeal to me. In an album, and there’s something about their particular style of doing it that is continuing to grow on me year after year.

And I think that’s the album for me. So

alexi: I

Glen Erickson: yeah,

alexi: I literally, as you just said

Glen Erickson: I.

alexi: I’m not gonna tell you what, but you said a, a key [00:15:00] phrase in there that when you and I were talking about like kinda. Back in December or January when we were doing Spotify wrapped, were talking about like what makes like our top albums or top songs and we both decided on something and now I know what I’m gonna say next episode for my album. So we can record whenever we can.

Glen Erickson: Oh,

alexi: Uh, I

Glen Erickson: to go right after this? That’s funny.

alexi: no, literally as soon as you said that. ’cause when we were talking about it a few months back, you brought up this album and a different one and I had brought up a certain album.

Glen Erickson: Mm mm.

alexi: About like how the whole thing, you can just listen and there’s like zero complaints, like, you know, a lot of albums have like that one or two songs where you need to skip it. We’re talking about

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

alexi: how this one,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

alexi: that you just mentioned doesn’t, and the one I’m gonna say love

Glen Erickson: you wanna hear a, you wanna hear an old man’s music story or a, an older generational experience with the Skip a song. This is how you sort of can [00:16:00] three or four x that frustration, which is when all my music came on cassette tapes.

alexi: Um,

Glen Erickson: So it’s like the wound tape. Right?

alexi: yeah.

Glen Erickson: And they would have. The same is now, they would have this average of 10 songs, 11, 12 songs on a release,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: a cassette tape would have five or six on one side and five or six on the second side, and the worst was if the last song on side A or side B for that matter, maybe even worse on side B if the last song sucked.

And you wanted to just flip the ca the cassette over, which you had to go walk over and manually hit eject and then pop and turn around and then press play again. But then it won’t be at the very start and then you gotta do a rewind and it wouldn’t be ready. And it was just so frustrating if the Skip a song was gonna mess with your ability to just keep flowing on into the next song you wanted to hear.

’cause the first song on either side was always good, [00:17:00] right? They, they knew how to map it out. Anyhow.

alexi: Oh.

Glen Erickson: Um, old man, first world problems. That’s what we’ll categorize that as, but Okay. Uh, I love it too. Um, okay, well, thank you. I love that, uh, the Killins or however we’re gonna figure, maybe we’ll do some Googling and figure out how to,

alexi: To,

Glen Erickson: you know, probably and we could follow up with that.

And then WIlderado’s album Talker.

alexi: Yes.

Glen Erickson: Um. Our, our picks this week and I thought I was gonna slide in ’cause we were talking about it. We’re we’re prepping for starting to prep to get ready for one of our favorite things where we live in Edmonton with our folk fest and the lineup. And, uh, I’m, I swear I’m not gonna miss anything great this year without, I have so many regrets in other years, which is my.

Uh, well, Lexi, this is my Easter egg into next week’s e episode. You just gave me an Easter egg [00:18:00] about your pick. My Easter egg is going to be that. And, um, the other, the other thing cool thing is that, uh, I’ve been talking to some folks about some other music events and festivals and maybe. Having some Almost Famous enough appearances as such.

And, and as a result I’m getting introduced to some new kind of local Western Canada ish, up and coming Canadian artists. Um, and I talked to you about one this morning, so I’m just gonna drop since this is, uh, us just saying artists and recommendations to people who listen. Uh. That in all the things I’ve been coming across this, the last little while, the, there’s a voice that stood out to me and his name’s Noah Derksen.

He’s from somewhere here in Canada. I have to figure it out. Um, but it’s that new and fresh on me. Noah, how you normally spell [00:19:00] Noah. And then Derksen, like D-E-R-K-S-E-N, uh, Canadian artist, Noah Derksen. He’s the one that was playing those cover songs in the car. Yeah. Um, and my reference point for people will be the voice of Ray Lamont, which is one of the most u uniquely, well just unique voices period that I’ve ever heard.

And um, so I think people should check out that guy’s music that I came across. So, yeah. Okay. That’s it. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much for your time as always, and I’m looking forward to our last, our last part of the series for number four, so,

alexi: be a fun one.

Glen Erickson: okay.

alexi: Okay. Bye.

Glen Erickson: Woohoo. Okay. Bye. I love you.

alexi: Love you too.