The Wheat Pool reunite

ep26 – The Wheat Pool reunite

[00:00:00] It only took 25 episodes to succumb to the narcissism of featuring my own band on the podcast. That might be really good or really bad, depending on how you score it. So in my efforts to defend my intentions, let me explain. I sincerely wanna hold as true to the original intent of the podcast in every episode, to engage in meaningful conversation with artists and bands and music professionals about their experiences believing that inspiration and education lie between the stories and confessions and laughs, and I want to continue to find new ways.

To tell those stories. I just couldn’t deny that. A lot of my own relevance comes from the time spent in The Wheat Pool. It’s never just my story. It’s our story, it’s our experience and having gone through the cycle of this supposed birth to life to death of a band, I just can’t help but think [00:01:00] that this is an arc shared by so many.

The context is still ours, but I just think it has meaning for many. And I wanted everyone to see us for who we were and are because nothing has changed about us. Maybe that’s what I’m most proud of, just belonging. Nothing else in my 25 years of musical pursuits has validated or satisfied me the way that those seven years did, and I hope this becomes a glimpse as to why.

It helps you reflect on your pursuits. Why do you do them? Or mostly who do you do them with? What will last? Where is the actual meaning in it? What is the cautionary tale in music or any part of life? What will following your passion produce in your life? I found a band of brothers, some by blood, the rest of us by spirit.

Did we ever really break up? Our belief in the cause wavered, [00:02:00] we ceased operations, but the four of us remained locked in a shared identity time. Can’t even break it up. You tell me. The Wheat Pool was brothers Robb and Mike Angus, Stephane Dagenais, and myself. Indie Alt Country, the New Canadiana from 2005 to 2012, touring back and forth across Canada, producing two albums, Township and Hauntario, and an EP Behind the Stars.

Songs built for Canadian highways and the distances between the places and people we love. My name is Glen Erickson. This is Almost Famous Enough. Thanks for spending your time with us. This Is It. This is The Wheat Pool.

 

Glen Erickson: Robb used one of [00:03:00] his three jokes already before we hit record. Now he’s got an for three jokes. Oh, buddy.

Mike Angus: I’ve been, he’s got several. I’ve been tucking away nuggets. Alright fellas, I’ve been tucking away nuggets. Um,

Glen Erickson: are we loud enough? Yeah, you’ll be loud enough. I’ll try to be a little loud coming

Mike Angus: here when I’m answering my questions.

Just talk like this. We need more

Stephane Dagenais: up noses. We need more up noses though. When you do that, actually get actually fogging the mic, the camera.

Glen Erickson: You’re like, uh, I get, uh, I’ll get like three tracks afterwards. I can boost your signal, blah, blah, blah.

Mike Angus: Uh, I sent an additional, uh, question I forgot to send originally.

Glen Erickson: Oh, well it’s too late for me, so you’ll have to pop it in when you wanna pop it in. Okay. Um, I,

Mike Angus: I don’t, I assumed we weren’t gonna get to all of them.

Glen Erickson: No, well not all the ones your sister sent, but Yeah, I, I got a good run through [00:04:00] to get through. Okay. But, um, I just assume you

Robb Angus: would pick the good ones.

Glen Erickson: Well, I don’t know if you think I didn’t.

You can call an audible. I don’t care. Um, okay, so when’s the last time we were all hanging out in a room? ’cause right now we’re not all in a room, but virtually. But when was the last time?

Stephane Dagenais: That must have been Rob’s birthday, uh, last year. I have a photo at sea

Glen Erickson: change.

Stephane Dagenais: Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Angus: Is that it? Rob’s? I think so.

Rob’s first date or a wing night when I was, yeah. Maybe the next town or something. It’s been a while. I, you guys having wings

Stephane Dagenais: without me?

Glen Erickson: Sh, way to go, Rob. Um, no, I don’t think so. That’s fine. No, I, I assume it, was it Ble? Was it Teeb?

Stephane Dagenais: Was it Tubble? Was it Tubble? Who’s there? Was it Tubble?

Glen Erickson: No, he

Stephane Dagenais: doesn’t

Glen Erickson: like people enough.

Uh, the replacement drummer. That’ll be okay. It’s because Teeb [00:05:00] segue liked Tebo, liked Patton Oswald so much. He came on that road trip with us to listen, just to listen to Pat Oswald all the way to Oh, to Manitoba and back, um, to play inside the grain elevator. Well, this, yep. The worst guy to take to a grain elevator, actually wheezy beats.

And we took him to, we took, we drove him 10 hours outta

Robb Angus: town to kill him.

I forgot about that. Whoops.

Glen Erickson: Uh, it’s just wheat dust in everybody’s lungs for the entire day and a half we were there. Fist illness, like, goodness. Uh, okay. Well then when, when is the last time we played together? Was this the King Eddie? Was it the King Eddie cake? During COVID? Yeah. Oh

Robb Angus: yeah. I

Glen Erickson: think so. I think it

Robb Angus: was 2, 2, 3 years ago.

Three years ago. Yeah, we did. I forgot. I was gonna say, uh, ‘

Mike Angus: cause we did two did [00:06:00] we did two reunion shows at, is that King? It Yeah. At the Needle? Yeah. Yeah. And then we did one in Calgary. Right.

Glen Erickson: Well, no, we also, so we did the first reunion show in 2017, and I don’t, they were called two different things, so I don’t remember which one it was the first time, whether it was new.

Oh yeah. One was a 10 year

Mike Angus: anniversary from Ontario. Yeah. And then one was a, yeah, yeah.

Glen Erickson: So in 2019 we did the 10 year anniversary of Ontario there. And then we also went out to Cameros, remember and played, I got them in cameras. And that was January, 2020. So that’s like just before the world shut down. Oh yeah.

By a couple months. Um, and then at theater we had plans, the Bailey, the beautiful

Robb Angus: Bailey Theater,

Glen Erickson: beautiful Bailey Theater in Camrose. Mm-hmm. And the Wonderful Roots, uh, rose City Roots Mm. Society. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, but I remember we were trying to play King Eddie and it things opened back up and I remember we got to play in Ryan Langua open for us.

And I, yes. My recollection [00:07:00] is that’s the last, the last gig. It is, yeah. Last gig of the Wipo. Okay. Okay. Uh, well established that, let me, uh, let me ask the question then, if that’s the last time we played together, um, in, as you know, quick, high level tldr R as we can, what’s everybody? What’s everybody been up to for the last four years?

I’m gonna start on my left with Stewie d Stefan. Um, introduce yourself. What, what do you play in the band? Stewie.

Stephane Dagenais: I pretend to play drums in the wheat pool. No, uh, that’s what I do. And, um, and I currently, uh, just, uh, ride my bike a lot and, um, you go paper road.

Alexi: Oh, oh

Stephane Dagenais: yeah. And, uh, yeah, it’s basically, uh, a grind [00:08:00] to the finish line.

Mike Angus: You’re in Canmore

Stephane Dagenais: now, right? Yeah,

Mike Angus: yeah,

Stephane Dagenais: yeah, yeah. We’re in Canmore. Now again, again, again,

Glen Erickson: you are employed. You’re not a retired indie drummer. I don’t think there is such a thing, so

Stephane Dagenais: no. Okay. I’m, I’m not a retired indie drummer. I

Glen Erickson: fucking wish.

Well, that’s the sweet life we think down there, that like anytime we’ve come down, visit it, it’s pretty beautiful. So, yeah,

Stephane Dagenais: it’s great. I hope to just be able to keep doing it.

Glen Erickson: Okay. How about, uh, how about Rabo? You’re next. What, um, what, what have you been up to for the last four years?

Mike Angus: Uh, so I went back to school three years ago, uh, graduate school, and I’m finishing my master’s, so I’m a therapist now.

Well, I’ll be a therapist. In two months, three months. Wow. Uh, yeah, which was a, a real kind of left [00:09:00] turn for me. Um, so I’ve been in school, I’ve been working part-time, um, been playing, I mean, for, since about, I don’t know, 20 12, 20 14 was also playing with my other band, the Dre. So, uh, was doing that for a long time, but that’s quieter now.

So, uh, just kind of focusing on schooling and my career. I moved down to Calgary in May of 22, 23. Okay. So I’ve been in Calgary two and a half years now.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Mike Angus: But I’ve never gone to corn more to see Steph.

Glen Erickson: It’s just off. Or has he come to Calgary

Stephane Dagenais: to see me? There you go. Yeah. We’re an hour away from each other man. Like, what the hell’s going on? What’s wrong with us? There you go. Yeah. We could even get the Petro

Mike Angus: can at the Cochrane turnoff. Totally. Any day.

Glen Erickson: Yeah, man, that’s the perfect spot. Do you consider yourself a Cal now?

No, two and a half years. Okay. No,

Alexi: two and a half years.

Glen Erickson: Mike had to, I [00:10:00] would’ve asked Mike to throw hands. Um, yeah, that’s the way it goes.

Mike Angus: Although when I did go back to Edmonton, I’m, which is like every six or eight weeks, our parents are still in short Park. I’m always shocked how much it’s changed, like how much new stuff is going up.

Which Glen, to you, that probably sounds strange ’cause you. You see it every day, but um, yeah, frog and a kettle here.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Mike Angus: Yeah. I’m always surprised how different it’s getting. Yeah. Just new buildings, new businesses, new neighborhoods and developments. So

Stephane Dagenais: Glen now lives in the inner city that makes Yeah. I used to call it the airport parking lot,

Glen Erickson: now I’m in the slums.

No, you went from Bonnie Dune to the south side and you’re right back basically where he started back in, back in the hood of Bonnie Dune, basically kind of, it’s kind south

Stephane Dagenais: Dune.

Glen Erickson: We,

Stephane Dagenais: we call it South Bonnie Dune South. Totally. I [00:11:00] call it North Airdrie,

Glen Erickson: north la. That’s awesome. Both cities have grown so much.

Well, I mean that’s, uh, that is a big left turn of a career, um, from slinging tools and, uh, from Milwaukee all those years and Yeah. And all those other things. And you had your degree to be a teacher at the start, right? Right. Like that’s you were going in your education degree way back when. Yeah. I have my,

Mike Angus: I have my ED degree from the early two thousands.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. And rock and roll of course. Trampled all over that. Which of course, thank God. So as it should.

Alexi: Yeah. Yeah,

Glen Erickson: as it should. Uh, how about you, Mike? You had some adventures?

Mike Angus: Yeah, I spent the last two years, um, training to become a winemaker in Italy, so I got my master’s degree in that. Uh, and then this past year I’ve been living out in British Columbia, working in the wine industry in the Okanagan, so that’s just wrapping up now.

So it’s nice to come back to Calgary, hang out [00:12:00] a couch with this guy,

Glen Erickson: so it’s wrapping up, so you gotta you gotta move on to something else.

Mike Angus: Yeah. The growing season’s over, so everything slows down quite a bit. Yeah, yeah. Uh, it’s pretty typical for people to just take the next three months off and then February it kind of ramps back up.

So,

Glen Erickson: good old seasonal work. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Alright, cool guys. Um, how about you? I think maybe people, yeah. What about, you would know what I’ve been doing, but, um, I’ve had a, this

Mike Angus: podcast has been great.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. The podcast is the new thing. Otherwise, I’ve always been, um, working in the digital design development space and I’ve kind of, I, I tricked some people into making me a, a manager, a boss, um, in all of this, which is, uh, actually really nice.

But, um, the podcast has been, the podcast has been a lot of fun. Um, I felt like I just needed, uh, to do something with [00:13:00] everything. I mean, you guys all know I kind of, I kind of kept dipping my foot in every part of the business besides just wanting to play. So I was hoping

Mike Angus: you were gonna say your peak. Oh no, my

Glen Erickson: beach shit, I missed it.

I missed the prompt. Um, anyhow, it’s, it’s, it’s a fun way to sort of pull all that stuff back up and sort of just kinda, you know, you know, when you’re in a conversation, I often think about this, like in a booth at Next Act is where I picture it. But, you know, you’re in a conversation and you’re just, you’re really just tossing a, a combination of like experiences or stories with ideas back and forth with somebody that you really like talking to.

And it feels like it’s pulling things outta you that you maybe hadn’t even thought all the way through, but now you’re articulating them. And I find that kind of thing happen here a lot. That’s what I want it to happen. So it’s been a lot of fun. Absolutely.

Mike Angus: Awesome. Um, is Lexi gonna do an epilogue of this and talk about Oh, what she thought was interesting?[00:14:00]

100%.

Glen Erickson: 100%. She is, yeah. Um, she, uh, she’s really excited. In fact, we recorded an epilogue last night for. For a recording, a post fame, as we call it. And mm-hmm. Um, she caught me by surprise by trying to Easter egg this whole thing and, and was like, are you so excited? And then I had a moment where I’m like, what am I?

And then she goes, you know, and then, oh, okay. And then she’s like on a scale of one to 23. ’cause that’s her favorite number. How excited are you Had to break it to her.

Mike Angus: You were not excited at all?

Glen Erickson: No. I told her I’m at 21 and then she was shocked and then she’s like, what would a 23 be? And I’m like, well, if we were all in the same room together, it would be right a home run 23.

But, but we’re not,

Mike Angus: it’d be like that show where just eat hot wings and see how hot it can get.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Are you not on social media anymore, Mike? I just posted about da bomb. Yeah. [00:15:00] Uh, I saw that. I just don’t, I just don’t react any Did you And I messaged you about it. Didn’t, did you respond? Yeah, you did. You said I should like, make a segment in the podcast about do a hot ones episode on the

Robb Angus: podcast

Glen Erickson: because I’ve got, that’s our call.

We ordered, we ordered Calle da bomb, and, um, yeah, I’ll tell you right now. I know he is running already. Just talking about it, it, it sets your mouth off in zero minus one second. Like it’s, uh. Yeah, it does. The number on you anyway, person always

Mike Angus: have a Pavlovian response to talking about hot food. For sure.

That, that is one experience, apparently. Is that what’s happening?

Glen Erickson: Apparently. Apparently. Okay guys, so what I wanted, uh, to do is I thought, and I appreciate by the way, all of your willingness to do this. ’cause everybody who’s been listening to every episode is probably tired of me always saying like, yeah, when I was in a band and then, and then trying to be relevant with it.

And I wanted, I thought it would just be an interesting experiment for [00:16:00] people who know a band that has broken up, but maybe don’t hear them come back a long time later and talk about what the whole experience was. Even to draw an arc through it, you know, of like, why did you choose to get together? What did you feel was working?

What was happening during the time? Why did you choose to end? And, um, we asked people on social media for questions and we got a handful of questions and I thought I would mostly pepper them in in the places that I think they make sense as we’re talking. Um, and then if I’ve missed some, we’ll just maybe do a rapid fire.

Session, which of course will, will be great for the social media reels. Yeah, totally. But, um, if that’s all right, I thought maybe we would just go back to the start and talk about how this whole thing came together in, in 2005. You know how the wheat pool came together? We, I remember we get asked about the name all the time.

You know, when we’d stop into college radio stations in Ontario and we’d [00:17:00] always have to start explaining the name, and then we’d have to start talking about what it’s like to be landlocked out in the prairies and, you know, all that stuff. But, um, I don’t know who, who wants to start. I know Mike and Rob, you guys were the ones, you know, deciding to get this thing rolling.

Yeah. So how did it all begin?

Mike Angus: Like, I remember my, my previous band, we had played a handful of shows together. Stephan was the drummer in a band called Turbinado, and the front man decided to move to Toronto, a good friend Chris Stan. And so we played our last show and then a couple of months later I was couch surfing on, at Rob’s place around Christmas time of 2004.

And we got invited to do like a New Year’s Eve show or something like that at O Burns. And, uh, who it. Yeah. Well, Chris, [00:18:00] Steph and I, and I think you are. Oh, really? Okay. Because Keep going. I’m sorry, I interrupted. Yeah, so anyway, it’s going because, um, and then afterwards, like you and I were kind of talking and you were like, we should just start a band with the songs that we have, because you had a handful of songs.

I had a handful of songs. And so we just quickly retooled and then we were like, well, who’s gonna play guitar because we have this, um, spot that we really need to explore. And you knew of Glen through Yeah, I was, I was working at O’ Burns Irish Pub on White Abbo at that time. Um, and I’d seen Glen play, I think it was two separate times, uh, once with Dionne Bryan, and once with back then a group called Fosters and McGarvey, who we now know as f and m.

Yeah, f and m. Um, but, but I, I’d seen Glen play and, uh, I, I [00:19:00] loved, I loved Glen’s playing. I thought, like, I always kind of felt like we needed like a Neil Young kind of gritty, louder guitar for what I envisioned the band being. And, um, I remember sitting in my bedroom, I was in a. Uh, living in a small dumpy two bedroom apartment just off white with Adam Colligan.

And I remember emailing you, Glen and I sent you, I think I had maybe like three or four MP threes of, of Mike and I’s songs said, Hey man, like I thought you were great the other night. We’re trying to get a pro, like a project going. I think you’re the, a great fit. Listen to these tunes and tell me what you think.

And uh, yeah, like pretty quickly you got back and you’re like, yeah, these are good. I’m interested. Let’s get together. So that was kind of, that was the introduction to

Glen Erickson: Glen. I remember, I remember coming, I remember coming to the pub after that invitation and you [00:20:00] handed me actually a CD of five songs, I think.

Oh, okay. Um, and I remember going home and listening to them all and then, and you gave ’em to me. ’cause I had agreed and we were like, let’s just go jam and see what the fit was. For sure. And um, yeah, like if, like based on like what you said there, like the fortuitous part to me, was that like playing with the two people that you said I was playing with?

’cause I was just, I was just a hired hand for, for people. Um, although I think Ryan and Becky considered me their guitar player and maybe didn’t forgive you guys for. Quote unquote, stealing me hoing. Even though Hoing totally, I don’t think I ever got paid for a gig with them. So I don’t think it counts as, Dion wasn’t excited

Robb Angus: about it either.

Let’s just push it

Glen Erickson: out. But those two gave me the opportunity. They, like, they said, like, I got to play whatever I wanted. And I was in this phase, like you say, Neil Young and all that. And I wasn’t [00:21:00] even listening to Neil Young and all that. I was listening to Wilco, to, to, yeah, to death. And

Mike Angus: I

Robb Angus: remember

Mike Angus: when you told me that, I thought you were fucking lying.

I’m like, what the fucking guy’s fucking lying.

Glen Erickson: But I, I was taken, I was just taken by. I needed, I was all over the, you know, I just wanted the tube amp to do all the work. I grew up trying to make all these compressed heavy metal sounds and delays and all this stuff. And, um, I was going through a phase that now when I look back is pretty fortuitous that, that’s what I was exploring a lot, literally at the time that you were just hanging around over.

And to cap that story, by the way, you gave me the five songs, cd, I went home, uh, after our, and I learned a, sorry. And then we went, and I think our first rehearsal was at your parents’ church, which we always got to explore the space and use the sound system there and, uh, explore the [00:22:00] santuary space. Listen, a free rehearsal space is incredible.

What a gift. So, yeah. Um. I’m trying to remember, but I remember the first

Mike Angus: what, Hey, we tied into that. Go, go ahead. Sorry. You tied it into that. Yeah. Your parents paid

Glen Erickson: for that rehearsal space with their Yeah, I get it. Uh, with their 10%. Um, so, well, I just went home after the first practice and, and Arlene was like, so what do you think?

And I’m like, well, the songs, I really like the songs and the brothers are really handsome. So I think this thing has a shot.

I had already figured out the business by that point, but that was kind of my first take. But I, I always, I don’t think I even asked you how, how Steph got in the band for like, probably a year after that. It took me a long time. I was like, how did you guys even know each

Mike Angus: other?

Glen Erickson: But

Mike Angus: do you remember what the five songs were?

Like? I’m trying to remember right now. It would’ve definitely been Neil Young, geo Geographic. Sarah

Glen Erickson: in Canada was on there. Neil Young was on there. FBD was on there. [00:23:00] FBD, Tracy Traces a u and I can’t remember what the fifth one is. Emily Car maybe. Maybe it’s Emily Car, because I think that was round from the start.

Yeah, that’s

Robb Angus: half

Glen Erickson: the first album. Yeah. Right out of the gate. Yeah. And Stewie, you just got, you just got the invitation from like, you two just always knew when you were gonna do this. You’re like, Steph will just do it for us.

Stephane Dagenais: Yeah. I, uh. I kind of assumed I was going along. I think I, I think I invited myself.

Actually. You guys guys aren’t doing this without me. Are you? Steph? Can you just,

Mike Angus: I’m so bad with like timelines and stuff like that. C can you remind me, like, when did you and Michelle get married?

Stephane Dagenais: Uh, 2007. Oh,

Mike Angus: okay. So it would’ve been We were together then as it, we were, yeah,

Stephane Dagenais: we were together. Yeah. We, we were together for a couple years already.

Okay,

Mike Angus: gotcha. So we, it, but we, we matched. That’s the [00:24:00] only in two, one? Yeah. Oh, okay. Right. Yeah.

Stephane Dagenais: So while I think, I’m pretty sure that it was in the sort of beginning of Turbinado that we actually jammed at the house in Mill Creek. Yeah. One time. Yeah,

Speaker 6: yeah, yeah. In the basement.

Stephane Dagenais: Like Dan Holden, Chris, you and I, case of grass in basement of that house.

Mike Angus: Yeah, totally.

Stephane Dagenais: Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Angus: Michelle made chili. I I was just gonna That’s right. I was just gonna say, I remember Mike came home from that rehearsal and he’s like, yeah, Michelle brought us down beers. She made us chili. And that’s why you were in the band with the wheat pool, Steph, because your wife was like, oh, she brings beer and chili to rehearsal.

Stephane Dagenais: That makes sense now. Yeah. It was never about you.

Glen Erickson: One of my first, one of my first memories because when you get, when you get adopted to a band, especially with guys I don’t have a history with. Right. You, I have to start adapting to a new social environment. Yeah. And you [00:25:00] guys, one of the first things we did was go back to Steph and Michelle’s after a rehearsal, I think was one of the first times I went back to someone’s house or did a hangout and all that kind of stuff.

Mm. Which is pretty great. Um, Glen, I think it’s would’ve been

Speaker 6: so young when we first started.

Robb Angus: We only had one kid when we started.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Lexi was in the womb when we started. Like, we started in March of 2005 and Lexi was born in, in August, so. Wow. Um, so yeah, I only had one kid. So Lexi’s younger than the, she’s 20 now in the wee pool.

Mike Angus: So when, that’s crazy. When your boy was born, were you like, this kid has no podcast potential. We need to have another one so I could have a co-host. Is that, was that the, or

Robb Angus: is he too

Glen Erickson: cool? I kind of, the first one was supposed to be a hockey player and the second one was supposed to be an artist, so, um, you’re doing well.

Don’t know how that plan’s going. Not so great, but, uh, that’s okay. I like what I have. I’m all right with it. Yeah.

Mike Angus: They’re super. That makes you sound like you’re [00:26:00] estranged, that you and your children are estranged. Yeah.

Glen Erickson: Which is not the case at all. Um, I think a lot of people make a lot of assumptions about a band that has brothers in it, and not just the cliche Oasis e.

Ones, um, but you guys hadn’t played in any band prior. Well played in to doing that together.

Mike Angus: We, we grew up going to church and we played, um, in like the worship group at church. So I played the drums and Mike played the bass, um, Sunday mornings. Uh, beyond that, we didn’t really, I

Robb Angus: mean,

Mike Angus: we jammed together, which may sound weird, but I think a lot of people would be surprised to find out how many musicians actually get their start in Oh yeah.

What a did, what a great breeding

Glen Erickson: ground.

Mike Angus: Right,

Glen Erickson: right. Yeah, I totally did. I,

Mike Angus: if I had to guess, I would say Justin Vernon did. Uh, I get the feeling Dan Mangan did, but I can’t be sure. I don’t, his mom’s

Glen Erickson: an Anglican priest. [00:27:00] He grew up in the church. I, I, there you go. So the vibe is, there you go. Yeah. Yeah, totally.

Yeah.

Mike Angus: Um, yeah, so it’s a great musical, I think Anglican or

Glen Erickson: United, I might have said that wrong. I’ll do a fact check. That makes, that makes sense. Okay,

Speaker 6: great.

Glen Erickson: No, I agree. I mean, ask Jamie to check it for you. Yeah, I’ll do it. I mean, if you watch, like, I, it’s a pretty strong cliche on like the big name American Idols, right?

Like, how many of them show up and they all, like, they have their little thing underneath and it’s like a worship leader. It’s like 50% of them have worship leader in the states, uh, underneath their, their tag when they’re trying out singing competitions. It’s a great

Speaker 6: musical education.

Mike Angus: Because you’re doing it every week.

You’re showing up on time, you’re rehearsing, you’re every week sober. Learning. You’re sober. Yeah. Yeah. You’re learning how

to

Mike Angus: harmonize,

Glen Erickson: you’re learning how to play with, and honestly, probably one of my favorite things, ’cause I worked, you guys know I worked with teenagers when I was in the church too, and getting to like, have kids who are in that sort of embryonic stage of like playing in a [00:28:00] band with other people rather than just in their bedroom or basement and bringing ’em out of that and sort of, and then watching them go off and form bands and, and do all that kind of stuff was probably one of the most fun things I got to do through that phase.

Yeah. Um, yeah. But um, so you guys got to play together and then it’s like, like here’s the other thing about our band is we didn’t form like the, the typical like in your early twenties or mid twenties? No, um, I was mid thirties and, and I think I got, I’m a, am I older than you Stefan, by a few months? Is that the way it goes or is it the other way around?

Stephane Dagenais: No, you’re officially bandaid the oldest

Glen Erickson: guy. Okay. I’m officially bandaid. Even though you drove the van way more than me and complained about anybody else in the speed they were going when they drove. So, and put

Stephane Dagenais: Greg Rose in his place at least once.

Glen Erickson: That’s still one of my

Stephane Dagenais: favorite

Glen Erickson: stories. That is somebody tell the Greg Rose [00:29:00] story really quick on the road.

Mike Angus: So yeah, this needs a little setting up, but, uh. When we were on tour, it didn’t matter where we were, it was almost impossible for us to drive past a Tim Horton’s without stopping the van. Not, which infuriated me. ’cause I never drank coffee back then. But Mike and Steph drank a lot of coffee. So we were trying to get out of Vancouver to get, or we were trying to get a Yeah.

Out of Vancouver to get to the ferry terminal, right? Yeah, yeah. Which is always stressful. ’cause if you miss it then you’re waiting and waiting and waiting. Greg Rose, a dear friend of all of ours, happened to be on tour with us ’cause he was visiting family out in VC and uh, in typical band fashion, we were running late to get to the ferry.

And like Stefan hadn’t had his morning coffee, which is a big part of his, if you know Stefan at all. That’s the only part of his day that he cares about. And he slept on the floor in the hotel and Greg slept on the bed. Oh yeah,

Alexi: that’s right. Oh, what? Oh really?

Mike Angus: I don’t remember that. [00:30:00] Remember, I remember because Steph was smart enough to pack, like his hiking, camping mat, like those thin little like styrofoam things that people can, how did that happen is a good idea to sleep on.

Anyway, he brought it and so he’s like, no problem guys. Rosie, you sleep in the bed. I don’t mind sleeping on the floor. Hilarious camping mat. We were, we were late to get to the ferry. Slept horribly, no coffee first thing in the morning. Steph had somehow made a, a wrong turn. This was before iPhones and GPS and Greg in the back of the.

Fan van shouted something to the effect of Magellan. Do you like, do you think you have it figured out? Like the freeloader on tour being the Yuckiest guy and, uh, I don’t think I’ve seen more steam come out of Stefan’s ears in my life. And there was a tirade that came past me to the back of the van towards Greg.

And then it was, I feel like it was pretty [00:31:00] quiet

Stephane Dagenais: the rest

Mike Angus: of the drive until we got he, he was

Stephane Dagenais: pouting for a while. Yeah, he was definitely pouting for a while. It was like, did he, I guess that worked,

Glen Erickson: did he stay with us all the way to Penticton? Because Penticton in that came after Victoria, I think on that tour.

He came, he

Mike Angus: came all the way back to Calgary with us.

Glen Erickson: Okay. Yeah. Well, I mean, what a gr Yeah, that just speaks to the grace of Stefan to, uh, not kill him and allow him to stay in that van a number of more days, push him off Ferry bus, the tour. But I mean, Rosie was a pretty funny, outspoken guy, but that was, uh, he didn’t, he didn’t, he didn’t pick the right moment there, that’s for sure.

Robb Angus: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: I mean, that’s a, you gotta

Mike Angus: read the room. That’s a pretty good element to, I think a lot of people would be interested to know about sort of the behind the scenes of touring bands is that it’s good to have someone who’s not in the band, therefore either give relief or a buffer or to break up sort of.

’cause when there’s. Three or four [00:32:00] people in a band, you can get in these stalemate quite quickly. But stupid little things like where are we gonna eat?

Alexi: Yeah. You know,

Mike Angus: and those little day to day things that kind of like add up over weeks when you’re on tour. So to have someone who’s as funny and wonderful as Greg, yeah.

Easy going. It’s just a great guy to have just sort of like drop that ace into the van just to keep things light, because when four guys are stinking and farting for weeks at a time and in a van and dealing with business and missing their families and missing first birthdays and first hockey games and stuff like that.

Yeah. Um, yeah, it’s good to have like a, a a a, a friend who can just keep it light. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, I, all the years that we were together, I, I legitimately can’t think of any time that any of us were fighting. There was times where I can think of a few times where Mike and I butted heads, but like, the two times I can think of it like that was in the studio.

Yeah. And that’s not to say, that’s not to say we didn’t have differences. That [00:33:00] probably just means we just pushed it all the way down and then poured alcohol over top of it when we were angry. But I don’t remember us ever having fights. Ever.

Stephane Dagenais: No, no. It was usually, uh, it was usually pretty like a, a group of good friends on a road trip.

That’s what it felt like.

Alexi: Hmm.

Stephane Dagenais: And, and not, you know, being shitty with each other. I think sometimes people just. When they get fed up, they start to purposely get shitty,

Alexi: right?

Stephane Dagenais: Yeah. They’re like, okay. Totally. I just, I can’t get away from this, but I’m gonna make your life as miserable as you’re making mine.

Yeah.

Mike Angus: Here’s an idea. Let’s put four four primadonnas in a van for days at a time. Yeah. And then starve them and not pay them enough. And then, uh,

Alexi: them sleep on floors and stuff. Like, I mean, it’s

Glen Erickson: not to say there weren’t things we didn’t like. I know there were things I didn’t like that were going on, or, you know what I mean?

Or I, [00:34:00] I’m not, don’t worry, I’m not thinking of anything specific, but I, I just thinking about something specific, I wanna tell a specific story. Right now it feels like

Robb Angus: things about several things, very specific

Glen Erickson: Steph’s line. There are, there are just times that you’re like, ah, whatever. But, you know, like anything, because I, I was married, so I’d go home and then my wife would say like, how did it go?

Or what, blah, blah, blah. And then you’d start maybe telling some stories, and then they’re only seeing your side of the coin and, and mm-hmm. And she’s asking like, well, why don’t you? And then for me, the answer was always like, ah, you know what I mean? Like, this is what you do in a band. It’s like, none of it seemed worth making a big deal about I don’t need to rock the boat.

Like we all were on the same page all the time on what we were doing and what we were there for. Like, that never seemed to waver. Nothing. Nothing felt. Important enough to disrupt that kind of a balance that I thought would be had. Yeah,

Mike Angus: [00:35:00] that’s so true. And I mean, I, I don’t mind saying, like, looking back, there’s certainly things I would’ve done differently.

I mean, it was like a total maturity thing for me. Like truth of the matter, I was drinking for two back then, uh, which was fun for me, but maybe not so fun for you guys. And like that was of the issues we probably ever had. That was probably 50% of the time. That was probably it.

Glen Erickson: Uh,

Mike Angus: so I do have, if I can say I have regret over that,

Glen Erickson: gonna say, I’m gonna say, because I don’t know if this is true, and I guess this is what a instance of a live podcast could do.

Mm-hmm. My interpretation was that you were, you were doing things in your own time and nobody else could really sort of hurry you up or slow you down or make you do what you wanted to do. And I guess looking back, I wonder if that’s related to what you’re saying. ’cause everything I know about you now [00:36:00] isn’t that guy, do you know what I mean?

Like, you’re extremely organized or articulate, you like to be prepared, you do all this kind of stuff. And the early personality you had was for sure. Not the same. And I never, ever actually connected the dots to drinking. I did, I do remember having to go try and drag you out of a couple bars so that we could go and do a sound check somewhere, uh, a couple times.

But

Robb Angus: I’m still mad

Glen Erickson: about that. But, um, it’s all good. You join a Rock Man for a reason. I mean,

Robb Angus: Fairfax, is that what it was called?

Mike Angus: Oh my God, Ottawa. I don’t understand the reference. I don’t even get the reference. Oh my God,

Glen Erickson: you guys okay. If we’re gonna talk about band conflict, you guys have never shit on me more than at breakfast the next day.

I think that was another one of my classic blow up. It was, it was that. Yeah. A hundred percent. That’s the second time I’ve seen stuff. What was it? I loved playing. That was a bad one. He was Breathe [00:37:00] Beeble Rocks, whatever that was called. That classic old bar in Ottawa.

Stephane Dagenais: Yeah. Zad. Pebble Rocks. Yeah.

Speaker 6: Pods, beeble Rocks rolls off the tongue beautifully.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. I loved playing it. The owner was great. Yeah. Right next door to a strip called Facts. It was spelt fax like the machine. Um, apparently they have a really good brunch on Sunday mornings after we played on a Saturday, but when we featured out on content

Robb Angus: during the weekend,

Glen Erickson: so, so everybody understands what the problem was is like we played right till we were hung out there, right till closing.

So it’s like 2:00 AM typical and I, but as a band at the music band, this is another thing people would love to know. You show up at five o’clock to load in and do sound check, and then so you get great parking before all the nightlife starts to happen. So I was parked right in front of the venue, right.

And, and at 2:00 AM we spill out and there was lights and the cop cars were there and they had their neon, some guy’s head, and it was a [00:38:00] huge dude on our van. Like his knee was on the guy’s head, on the van. That’s a, that’s an exaggeration. I must’ve still been in the bar. I don’t remember this. He was just pinning him down.

And I took pictures and I put him on social media. And this was the early days of social media too. This is probably 2010. And, um, all of your partners saw that, and all they saw was Fairfax. They didn’t see, they didn’t see anything else. The gentleman’s club beside the club we were playing. Yeah. Except the gentleman’s club, beside the place we were playing.

And apparently, uh, you all heard about it. So the next morning at breakfast, I, I definitely heard about it. Yeah. But it’s what it is. I would never go in a place

Stephane Dagenais: like that. I would never, um, so we talked about, that’s a lesson in framing a shot, my friend. Oh yeah. This is a lesson in framing a shot. So

Alexi: true.

Stephane Dagenais: Um, we

Robb Angus: talked, we called so later generations could run. [00:39:00] Yeah, exactly.

Glen Erickson: That’s exactly what it is. And um, yeah. Um. Did we answer the question? We talked about the songs that we started with, which were all part of our first record, um, right. Township. And, uh, we ended up, of course filling out a whole record for that one.

And we released that two years into our two plus years into our existence. 2007, fall of 2007. Um, and then as far as like our musical development, like, I think one thing I’d love to hear you guys talk about is, I mean, that’s a typical path for any band, whether you join in your twenties or not, is that you kind of show up with a few of your greatest hits that you’ve had around for a while and you start a new band.

Alexi: Yeah. So that

Glen Erickson: you have some material coming in and that Yeah. That material really drove that first record, which got a lot of good response, I thought. Um, but then we kind of had to move on [00:40:00] to a second record. And I’m wondering, in your recollection, what was the developing of that first record? Like, specifically like you guys had all these songs that you worked on.

We decided, it seemed like we decided to stick with this pattern of like, you guys would split equal songs pretty much. Mm-hmm. Like other than geographic center of Canada, which, uh, Mike wrote, but Rob sings on the wee pool. The songwriter was the singer out of the two of you. Mm-hmm. Um. I’m wondering for you guys how the writing of that, in your recollection, what did the writing of the rest of that record feel like?

Did it feel like it was really easy After we got together

Mike Angus: on the first album? I’m trying to think about how many songs we needed to write for. The first album, phone book for me was definitely one I wrote for the album, uh, penny album. Uh, yeah. Penny album wrote, [00:41:00] you wrote I think for me, wait,

Robb Angus: that’s

Mike Angus: the second album.

Robb Angus: No,

Glen Erickson: yeah, that’s on Hunter Ontario. That’s Hunt Harry. But

Mike Angus: yeah, like I really, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, like there wasn’t too much writing to do. Like when we got together as a, as the four of us, there wasn’t tons of writing to do. Um, yeah. Probably only two or three songs. I bet. So, I mean, Ontario was totally different story.

Um, yeah. But I remember like Chris Winters, great friend of ours, uh, and one of the producers on both those albums, I remember him kind of referring to the first album sort of as like the Angus Brothers greatest Hits. And that, I mean, that was pretty accurate. We had a handful of songs that we’d written and we just kind of like plucked the ones that we thought were the, the best tunes.

We already had them. Um. You know, ’cause we’d both been kind of writing for, I don’t know, maybe five or seven [00:42:00] years alone in our bedrooms. And

Alexi: Yeah.

Mike Angus: And Mike and I also never wrote together, like you guys know, we would bring almost completed songs to rehearsal.

Stephane Dagenais: Yeah, yeah.

Mike Angus: And I was thinking about that kind of, ’cause I re-listened to both albums this week just in an anticipation of us recording this.

And there was only a couple of spots, like in, um, a couple of my songs where I asked Mike, I said, Hey, will you write the lyrics in the bridge for this? Or will you write like the third verse for this? But outside of that, like, we never even had conversations saying, Hey, do you wanna write together? Hey, what do you think about co-writing?

And it, I don’t, it wasn’t like, to me it wasn’t competitive or it just was just kinda the way we did it. It’s, it’s funny too because like now that you say that, I can still sit back and listen to these songs and I’ll text Rob and be like, phone book is still so good. Like, without having any [00:43:00] investment in the songwriting, I, I’ve always been like almost a spectator of it.

Even though I’m participating in the performance of it, I can always step back. It’s easy for me to step back. And it’s just hard to do when you’re a musician where you’ve written songs and you’ve recorded them because it’s, it’s almost like you’ll only hear the mistakes for like. A, a little while you’re too close to the project, right?

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Mike Angus: But then, uh, I think with, because we had that distance and that almost sterility between our songwriting overlap, I can still appreciate Rob’s songs immediately as like, uh, a fan, you know, who just gets to play bass guitar along with them, which is so great. Oh, that’s nice. It’s so nice to not, because your welcome.

There’s my own songs where you’re like, ah, I wish I’d done this differently and I wish this, then we can sing. Yeah. Um, and it just strikes me now that it’s, it’s nice that we don’t, we that overlap. That’s kind of one of the blessings. There’s this

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Mike Angus: Renewal sound. Yeah. Okay. And to answer your first question, I mean, like, [00:44:00] um, township was, we had played these songs for two years as like these sprawling long instrumental driven road road trip songs.

That’s kind of how we were imagining this record as being and going into the studio. I remember James Murdoch and Chris Winters being like, we have to make these more concise just for the studio. You guys can play them as long as you want live, if that’s your thing. The demo, which, which was great. The demo of Neil Young that I gave them was over seven minutes long.

Like, yeah, totally absurd. I believe it. So having to like chip away at it and edit that was, I, I remember that from the, from the township recording sessions. I remember that being one of the hardest things for us. I think we had to do Emily Carr. Over two days. Like we had to leave it alone and come back to it because we were all getting so frustrated with it.

And that’s the first song we ever played together. We played it more than any other song. And it’s funny to like, [00:45:00] have you think we just bang it off in the studio? We played it a thousand times. And they’re like, no. We have to make it more concise. And suddenly it changes. And those are good decisions to make for the studio.

And then going into Ontario, I think we knew how to be a more concise band with more, uh, readily accessible song. Yeah, I guess we have better instinct’s. A good point. Let’s get to the heart of the song here.

Glen Erickson: I think like for me, I remember like, ’cause I remember some of the edits while you’re recording.

Not after in the studio for township that I didn’t like, I didn’t like the edits on penal. Um mm-hmm. Like, ’cause they truncated off, they faded out that, that ending. Um, I didn’t like the edits on Evergreen where they just sort of like, we just cut some little pieces short. Emily Carr was kind of fun because we were sort of, we’d do a, a section of four, but then the next time we do only do a section of two.

And it felt clever. It was kind of nice to be while [00:46:00] we’re trying to record. It’s nice to be clever, make people do math. Yeah. But, um, I didn’t, it’s funny that I didn’t love those edits, but I agree with you that I carried. I carried that muscle memory into recording Ontario about how do you make a song a, a more gelled, compact version of a palatable tune for other people, not for us, right?

Yeah. Um, yeah.

Mike Angus: And for you to say you didn’t care for it, and for me to say, I brought in a seven minute demo is the exact reason you need a producer. Yeah. You need someone who’s not in the project, who didn’t write the songs, who hasn’t heard these songs, you know, 185 times. And so they’re like imprinted on your heart.

And their goal was to narrow it so that we would succeed as best as we could. And I remember choices they made at the time I didn’t like, and I had to, I remember the, the process of that first album, realizing the value of a producer, [00:47:00] why we brought them in for their outside perspective. And we brought them in for their experience, and they brought, we brought them in for the knowledge.

And, um, you know, nobody wants to hear a seven minute version of any song I’ve ever written in my life. So thank God they were there. And, um, seven minutes, you know, in, in re-listening to some of the songs this week, there’s some edits and changes in the recordings that we never played them that way ever again.

Ever again. Agreed. Outside of the studio. Yeah. Yeah. So live, we did do it how we wanted to do it. Maybe it wasn’t the original way, but, um, I, I really appreciate. W you know, Chris and James’ vision and knowledge and experience editing. Yeah. And, and those two went to the wall for us with all of their contacts, their industry, you know, pushing the band and, and, and, you know, helping us get our foot in the door.

And, uh, yeah. So for me, ’cause I’d never recorded before. I’d been in band before, but I’d never recorded before that first album. I’d done a lot of four track stuff, like in my bedroom or [00:48:00] four track stuff with other previous bands, but just demo type of stuff. Yeah. So, um, yeah, for me that was totally necessary.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. We chose to use the same combo to go record Ontario and now that’s a whole new set of songs. So, I guess one of my curiosities is, if you guys can remember back, ’cause I can remember pretty distinctly going into the Hon Ontario sessions, what you were feeling about that, and if it was very, if it was distinctly different then than the, uh, the previous recording session.

Mike Angus: Oh, for me it was like, I’d never been in a situation where I needed to write for a timeline or a purpose or a deadline. Mm-hmm. Because my, I have the most unfortunate songwriting process, which is start a song, get excited about a song, work on a song for about a week. Realize I hate the [00:49:00] song. Put the song away for six to eight months, then go back through all the back catalog and be like, oh, that’s actually not awful.

Okay, there’s gotta be some. Yeah. Then here’s somewhere. And that was, that’s always kind of been my, you know, going through voice memos or going through voice recordings or, you know, lyrics and stuff. And so for me, the second album was very hard.

Glen Erickson: Um, well, like, people would maybe not know, because you already referenced that.

You already referenced that you, uh, would write complete songs and bring ’em to the band pretty much. Mm, mm-hmm. And I think people might not realize that. Like, you hear a lot of stories about bands and they’re like, yeah, you hear them talking pre-release to some radio guy and they’re like, yeah, we, I, we had like 30 songs demoed for this, and we had to narrow it down to 10 or some stupid thing.

That was never the We pool. We literally, we rehearsed the songs that we played and we kept, and that was pretty much it. I can’t [00:50:00] even think of a song that we might have.

Mike Angus: There was one tune of mine from the first album we didn’t do, but we recorded it. Um, but we really struggled. We really, really had a hard time with it.

Alexi: Mm.

Mike Angus: Yeah. I remember, I mean, speaking of the second round of songwriting, I remember telling somebody this, maybe you guys are in an interview where it was like. With the songs for Song Ontario, I can have 70% of the song done. And I trust bringing the songs to you guys that will finish up whatever’s left.

Whether it’s structure, maybe we need to write another verse here. Maybe this needs a bridge. Maybe we need to move these spots or these parts of the song around. So I think for me, I remember it was, I don’t know if I had a clear final idea, and you guys were always so great at listening to, like, I would come up with a template example for this is how I want this song to sound.

You know, whether it [00:51:00] sounds like this song from Wilco’s Mermaid Avenue, for example. I want to have that feel to it, um, as an example. And it would be 70% there. And by the end of, you know, a couple of practices, we would have it. So I, I feel like my songs was so much Well that was the difference. Better coming out of the gate on that record than yours.

Yeah. But it didn’t need a whole lot of, no, I’m just kidding. I don’t know how you felt Stefan, but I just trusted you guys a lot more to be like, okay, finish this for Yeah.

Glen Erickson: I appreciated that. That to me was the distinct difference of the two records was the first record. I was learning parts to a degree.

Like I was trying to be true to the things that you guys liked in the demos you had made while also adding my own thing. But it wasn’t really until. The second record, and maybe, maybe I got excited because of songs like Penal and Phone book I felt really represented how I wanted to play and things I [00:52:00] wanted to try doing and experiment with.

So going into a full, fresh record of being able to do that was definitely, uh, uh, really exciting for me. I remember that distinctly. Yeah. Remember. Was it like,

Stephane Dagenais: uh, you know, the biggest, I think the biggest difference between recording those two albums was the township was the first recording in that type of environment that I had done.

And the, and the use and need for Click track was like shock to me how different, like how in my head it made me feel psychs you out so bad as a drummer. Yeah, it really does. So, um, I think I was more used to it for Ontario, but it was also, yeah. I, I always felt like I was kind of, I needed to rein it in and not try to like put a big, you know, animal like Muppet stamp on everything.

Right, right, right, right. Yeah. So, [00:53:00] and, uh, I don’t know. That was good. I was, it, it was a learning experience for sure. Like. Less is more. It really is. Hundred percent. Anytime I’m impressed by Yeah, totally. Anytime I’m impressed by a drum riff these days, I’m like, look at how little is happening right

Mike Angus: now and

Stephane Dagenais: how impactful it is.

Like at that point

Mike Angus: in the song. And he only did it once. Like Yeah. They they only did it once. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. If there’s one thing I learned from recording, it’s that space in a song has so much power.

Alexi: Hmm.

Mike Angus: Yeah. So much totally, so much more power than two or three or four layers of vocals or three guitar, like space, having room for things to kind of sit down and everyone take a breath for three seconds or a moment, like not playing is a choice and a contribution.

Yeah.

Alexi: Oh, we’re being joined.

Glen Erickson: We’re being joined by Alexi before her posting. Where are you right now?

Speaker 7: I’m in the hallway of my hotel in downtown [00:54:00] London, Ontario.

Glen Erickson: Oh, nice. What are you doing next? Whatcha doing there? Lexi’s on a school trip. Oh, cool. She gets to present, yeah. In London, right? Yeah,

Alexi: ar she’s part of her, uh

Glen Erickson: oh, nice.

She’s, um, she’s in a lab, uh, an independent lab in, at the university and she was doing research and she gets to present on it at the big national conference, so pretty awesome.

Speaker 7: Wow. Yeah. Are you

Glen Erickson: at Western Ontario Proud dad?

Speaker 7: Am I what?

Mike Angus: Are you at Western?

Speaker 7: Um, yes.

Mike Angus: Oh, okay. Cool. Yeah. Great.

Speaker 7: Like, not for school, just like for the week.

Mike Angus: Yeah. No, congratulations. That’s great. That’s where our mom went and our niece is there right now working on her master’s.

Speaker 7: Okay. Represent. Yeah.

Mike Angus: If you can go find her graduation photo. Oh, that’d be a

Speaker 7: crazy task. That’s funny. Okay. It’s from

Glen Erickson: the, I asked Steve, I asked Lexi to [00:55:00] pop in because we asked a bunch of people to ask us questions.

Right. Which we’re gonna get to here shortly. But, uh, I told Lexi she could pop in live ’cause she has and asked the

Speaker 7: first one and asked the first question,

Glen Erickson: which is why I was holding back on some of the other ones so that Alexa could jump on and, and ask the band her questions.

Speaker 7: I love, okay, I’ll give it, I’ll preemptively set the stage first is because, um, what I’m asking, I’ve literally just had the assumption that it’s gonna happen and I’ve just been saying it’s gonna happen and my dad has known this.

And then like, I think this year, oh, this is the

Glen Erickson: question you’re gonna ask. Okay. Oh, of course. Okay, here we go. Of course

Speaker 7: it is. Um, but literally earlier this year, my dad was like, I think you gotta tell the band, like they don’t know what they’re in for. And I was like, oh, like in my head, since I was like five, maybe this has just been my assumption, um, but when it happens, can you guys play at my wedding, please?

Yeah,

Glen Erickson: why not? That’s her legit question.

Speaker 7: That’s legit my question. ’cause in my [00:56:00] head this is happen gonna happen. But he was like, you need to like ask.

Glen Erickson: Yes. And what and what song in particular has to get played?

Speaker 7: Oh, oh, evergreen. Because on October 30th, I’m literally getting a tattoo of an evergreen tree after your guys’ song.

Speaker 6: Oh, kidding. Okay. So do you know, do you know the story behind that song? I,

Speaker 7: uh, in the mix of my dad’s million stories, he’s told me I probably can’t dig it out, so you might have to remind me. So

Mike Angus: I wrote that song for when my best friends got married, the wedding. Okay. So it’s perfect.

Speaker 7: It’s wedding.

Glen Erickson: It’ll be full circles.

Somebody’s

Speaker 7: perfect.

Glen Erickson: Yeah, she’s been sitting on that one a long time, guys. So yeah, we’d be on it. But I told her you’re right, Lexi, I remember I told you, uh, Stefan’s not getting any younger and you better a figure out how to get, let’s how to get married soon. And, uh, he’s just riding a bike through Canmore now, so no pressure.

Stephane Dagenais: But my drum chips are [00:57:00] getting weaker and weaker. What the heck? The chips, the chips are leaving the chip, the chips are falling everywhere.

Speaker 7: Listen, man, you gotta hold out for maybe seven or eight more years. What?

Stephane Dagenais: I’ll only be 63. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 7: It’s okay. You’ll stay youthful. Get some retinol in you.

Mike Angus: Well, Lexi, let me tell you something I realized in the last five years as a, as a musician, is that when you do this, either for a living or part-time.

There’s no greater honor than when people ask you to be a part of like the biggest days of their life. And that could be yes. Sometimes it’s a funeral, sometimes it’s a wedding, sometimes it’s a but, and it’s not always easy to do. Like, but truly there’s no greater honor than than someone asking you that.

Speaker 7: I love that. Well, so there what I’m hearing, so you got your answer? Yeah. I’m hearing a anonymous yes.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. You heard? Yes, [00:58:00] yes,

Speaker 7: of course. And no caveat on the year, so I’m in no rush.

Glen Erickson: Okay. That’s the caveat I needed to hear, so I appreciate that very much. Just give, just give me a year’s notice.

Speaker 7: Oh, easily.

Yeah, me too. So

Glen Erickson: I can practice.

Speaker 7: I’m Type A enough for that.

Glen Erickson: And we all need at least 12 months to practice. Gotta Some

Speaker 7: of you gotta practice more than others probably. And that’s okay. So

Glen Erickson: this is, this is a callback. ’cause we were talking a little bit earlier about in the studio and some of the changes that were made.

And I, I talked about how I didn’t love the studio version of Evergreen as much as the way we play it live. Mm. Um, and so the, the caveat to that story is like the last reunion actually, every time we did a reunion show, I had to go back. I had no point of reference for what my actual solo was. ’cause it’s different on the recording than the way I played it live.

And I finally found a YouTube [00:59:00] clip of somebody that had us playing Evergreen and I could make out enough of it to remember how to play the solo. Was

Mike Angus: that at times changed in Winnipeg? Was it that one? Yeah,

Glen Erickson: it was. That is the Times Change one.

Mike Angus: Yeah, I’ve seen that one with Brad

Glen Erickson: Tebel on drums. Yeah, I see him

Speaker 7: every morning.

I work And I need you to talk know. I know

Glen Erickson: you do. Okay, well thank you Alex. Thank you for it’s late there. I know. So thank you for jumping on on the call lesson.

Speaker 7: That’s like three hours past my bedtime guys. That’s late

Alexi: for a girly okay’s

Speaker 7: so hard. Anyways, thank you so much. You guys love, thanks for coming in.

Bye. Yes. Um, sure. I’ll see you soon.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Awesome. Okay, bye bye Joe. Bye-bye.

Alright. I had really nice, I had to have a little surprise for you guys in there. How dare you make us get emotional. How dare I? Okay, well let’s, uh, let’s, uh, let’s do a little more of, of this [01:00:00] right now. ’cause there’s some relative things here that people have asked. ’cause we’re talking about our songs and the music and how we record it and how some of them are different.

Um. Like right outta the gate. I’ve had this from a couple of people. I had this from Arlene. I had this in a sense from Adam Culligan, another great friend of the band.

Alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: Uh, who really supported us. I, I just wanna make that caveat too, maybe the greatest thing that got us started was the fact that you guys had this friendship circle that came to every single gig we played for like the first two and a half years.

Like guaranteed, like you had the most dedicated group of friends, uh, which was incredible. And there’s really like, what a way to get a, a band on their feet as to, you know, make everybody else in the city think that we had a crowd every, everywhere we went. So, um, but Collie was one of those guys. So, uh, we’re gonna have to dice this question up a little bit ’cause they’re similar but different.

So we have the question from Arlene. What is each of your favorite [01:01:00] We Pool song? Are you able to have a favorite child here? You know, that might be harder for the songwriters. Um, for me even it’s, it’s, I was thinking about it today and I’m like, do I have a favorite song to listen to off the record? Like, I need that feeling the most or different than my favorite song to play.

And there might be.

Mike Angus: Yeah. It, it’s two questions for sure.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. So who wants to go first? Does someone know what their

Stephane Dagenais: answer is? I can tell you that. Uh, it’s, I’ve always had the, um, it’s always been a battle between phone book and right arm. Yep. Really good choices. Yeah. And, you know, one, one day, one rhythm will win.

But right now,

Mike Angus: um, yeah, you know, I, I had seen that a few people had asked this question in the, in the comments of the posts we made. Yeah. And when I was listening to the [01:02:00] albums this week, I kind of was keeping that in mind. Um, but yeah, live and, uh, studio totally different. Mm-hmm. Um, like probably my, so this is a Evangeline from the second album, which is one of Mike’s songs I love.

I love it. I am not sure if we ever played it more than twice, but I love it. I love the song. I love the recording. I love the story. I love it. Um, right arm, I love the song. Um, and I love playing it live, which really for me says a lot because I hate playing the bass guitar and I play bass on that song. I never wanted to ever play the bass, but I did play the bass about 50% of the time.

And, um, I loved playing that song even though I was on base. [01:03:00] Um, that song made the

Glen Erickson: hairs on my arms stand up sometimes when we played it.

Mike Angus: Yeah, me too. Um, I, I always loved playing Neil Young for so many reasons. I loved Mike’s harmonies. Glen, I love your solo. Um, Steph, you got some, which one? We had like four.

Like that

Glen Erickson: song,

Mike Angus: that song has no chorus. Right. Take the compliment plan. Oh, sorry. Okay. I’ll ask you what your favorite, I loved it because there’s no

Glen Erickson: chorus. You had four verses and then we just soloed in between. Yeah. And then doubled it on the way at the end. So, um,

Mike Angus: and, and I loved that in the early days.

That was a song like when I think of us playing that song in the early days, there was a lot of nights where, because we would, we would do a lot of like stomp on our feet, like just pound. There was a lot of nights where when we finished playing that song, there was a cloud of dust that came up off the stage from the carpets.

I was thinking about that, but do you

Glen Erickson: remember the Iron Wood in Calgary? Yeah. So the first time [01:04:00] that happened was the classic Ironwood in Calgary and they had a very old, that ornate kind of carpet rug that you roll out. Yeah. I forget there’s a name for it, but we were stomping the hell. Maybe it was that song Stomping the hell out of a song and I thought my amp was on fire.

’cause I, there was, there was smoke, there was so much smoke and it was all the way up to our knees and it was thick and I thought only smoke outta my amp. Could be, yeah. Totally producing that. So I was like freaking out. But yeah, you lit up your solo so bad. I love that. Neil Young was the best stomper song for sure.

And it would get people up. And, and loving it too. So, yeah.

Robb Angus: So those are my three. What about you, Mike? For different routines, I think. What about you,

Mike Angus: Mike? Uh, Neil Young for sure. Um, I think it’s my favorite song we’ve done as a band because it was one of the first songs, uh, and it had so much urgency and, um, but it was so slow, slow to build as well, [01:05:00] and we did such a great job with, and by the end, I think it, I think it just embodies everything that we’re, we’re great at.

Alexi: Mm-hmm.

Mike Angus: Um, like the harmonies, the rhythm, the driving rhythm of it, the length, you can put that song on, and it’s not seven minutes on the album, but it’s a great like, road trip song where you can, it’s close, you can lose yourself, you know, you can, you, you, there’s a joke that you, you know, a good album will allow you to measure a road trip in songs, not kilometers.

Right. And I think that’s it. It really anchors, um, township, uh, and it was my, my favorite song to play. Uh, and I think when it came to like the studio times, like from the studio thing and maybe one of my. Proudest songs that I’d written is Selfish Guns, which is absurd to talk about because we never played it.

I don’t think we ever talked about it again after recording it. And we tried. I did.

Glen Erickson: I loved that song. I talked, I love it.

Mike Angus: I, I, [01:06:00] I really, we wrote it as part of a songwriting competition with like Nick Perone about your guys at, at o Birds, and I just kind of like ripped it out. I was obviously, the lyrics showed what a place I was in at the time, so it was easy to, easy to write, visceral, just kind of like visceral.

It’s visceral. Totally. And then we go into the studio and we do this arrangement with Dave, and by the end of it, and then Paul Bellows is on Horns. And we, we come up with, and I don’t, it’s almost like we buried it at Track 10 or whatever, and I’m listening back through Ontario last year and that comes up and it starts, and I’m like, oh yeah, I forgot we even recorded this.

And by the end I was just like, this song is so good, dude. But I listen, you know what, listening to that song, uh, this week, like I said, listening to the album again, when I heard it, I was like, and I’ve always felt this way, but this week I was like, wow, is this such a personal song? Like it’s, yeah.

Glen Erickson: And I, that’s why I love it.

Like it [01:07:00] cuts so hard. Like some of the lines, like Mike, the way you put together some of the lines in that song, um, I’m pretty proud of like how the lyrics I like, I. Can’t even get over it. Like when I listen to it. Still phrasing. Yeah, absolutely.

Mike Angus: Yeah. And I, I don’t, I don’t think most people know that that’s even a conflict for songwriters, because I have a few songs on the albums, on the two albums where I was like, listening to even this week I was like, oh, these are grossly personal, pretty naked.

Yeah. Between you and me. Yeah. Is a, like, that’s is a really personal one. FBD is a really personal one. Um, FPD was so good live. Uh, oh yeah. Um, but yeah, like when you’re songwriting, you know, the personal stuff comes out and, and you kind of owe it to yourself to be honest to yourself in the songwriting.[01:08:00]

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Mike Angus: No matter how, uh, naked or vulnerable you may feel. And then, then once you release it, totally. Um, it

Glen Erickson: more, but I talked to this about artists on podcast. More uncomfortable. Yeah. Guys, I talked to artists about this now. Right. Because having witnessed that and seen it, I’ll ask the question. Like, when you write this song, you have no idea, right.

That you’re gonna end up having to talk to it about, about it with like, yeah. Dudes on their podcast for like, the next five years, and you’re gonna have to relive your inspiration and the moments and, and all of that, like over and over and over again. Like. Yeah, that’s a good point. I

Mike Angus: remember, I remember doing an interview with Sandra Speroni when she was with the Journal.

She followed me to do an interview about, I can’t remember which album, the first album. And she had asked me what’s that song about? And I [01:09:00] wasn’t gonna tell a journalist from the Edmonton Journal, so you kind of have to do some tap dancing and use Yeah. Analogies and metaphors and this, but yeah. Um, yeah.

Yeah. It’s a, it’s a, it’s a bit of a, like a tightrope act sometimes if you wanna write what you’re experiencing. Yeah. Some people are great at it using metaphors and analogies and vagaries, but at that point I wasn’t, I I was pretty, uh, yeah,

Glen Erickson: sometimes it’s on your sleeve. That’s it. Yeah. But, uh, and well, I don’t regret it.

We have a question, but it, it was tough. We have a question in there relative, so before I give my answer, I’ll just make sure we get this in here. ’cause there’s a question that people wanna know what the story was behind Right Arm. And since that was one of Steph’s favorite and uh, I know the story and like I said.

The incredible, like, what’s the [01:10:00] line I just about, I didn’t wanna say it wrong. The blood shaped stars are I I was gonna say

Robb Angus: it’s, it’s the i, this perfect blood shaped stars.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. The perfect blood rate, the spinning up perfect blood. I heard. I was like,

Speaker 6: oh God, that’s great. That one to me, I was like,

Glen Erickson: what a weight to like, wrap, put a bow on that whole story.

But Mike went the sound of my teeth getting it around. Can you sort of give the, get outta the, what do you do, sort of the Cole’s Notes inspiration of where that, what do you think you are, where that tune came from? Because we got asked. I was

Mike Angus: thinking about that ’cause I was listening to it and I, I realized that that’s the most, um, that’s the, that’s the song where there’s a story that’s a narrative that I didn’t l live or experience necessarily.

I’m writing from first. You’re not in the story. Yeah. I’m writing Okay. As though I’m a first person. So 10 story telling the narrative. Yeah. Um, oh, that’s Emily Carr. Um, and that’s, that’s a, a story that I was told Emily Carr was a, a [01:11:00] story that I was told. A good friend of mine lib that and I kind of obviously put some, some color to it, but, um, right.

Arm was inspired. Whereas a lot of the songs, like you were just saying, I write from a first person experience if their relationships, and I always kind of looked, I marveled at people like Elvis Costello or Jim Cuddy who can write just song after song after song about. Obviously things that they didn’t live through.

Like how could Jim Cuddy have broken up with women for 40 years? God bless him. In my mind he did. He’s been married the entire time, right? In my mind he did. So I just kind of think he’s got such a gift for putting himself in someone else’s position. Yeah. And being able to, and Elvis Costello was great at that as well.

And, um, their ability to like empathize and, and, and put themselves in a situation that they can explore and then, um, express back to the listener, which is fascinating to me because I’ve always felt so [01:12:00] confined to my own experiences. So right Arm, for example, was I was a letter carrier for Canada Post for four years in Edmonton, and I would spend half of my time, um, walking through neighborhoods where there wasn’t the, you could tell that there was just some very difficult occult domestic situations going on.

Um, and one of the things was, I, I just remember walking past the sidewalk and seeing, you know, that constellation of, of blood on the sidewalk. Um, and just being like, that’s, and that’s what popped in my head. And I, you don’t always necessarily get to claim, you don’t get to claim that as your own. It just kind of comes to you as a songwriter.

You know, like that idea of like, oh, that the stars and like that blood looks like a, a constellation and then you’re just like, yeah. Oh, I gotta write this down. Like, you just have to be attentive when it happens. I think Tom wait, said it. He’s like to catch the big ones, you gotta be really quiet. It’s like fishing, you know, [01:13:00] you catch the big fish, you gotta be really quiet.

Um, and it was just kind of like that where it, when inspiration strikes, you gotta make sure you have a pen and paper or now and a phone or whatever handy. So, and then I would just get to witness these personalities and these people living with mental illnesses. Um, and it just, it allowed me to, I don’t know.

I worry about that song now because it’s like, is there a certain amount of appropriation or exploitation just for me, like observing these stories. But it was based on observations that I had from this that was really powerful for me to, to just see these and, and explore these stories that were really kind of heart heartbreaking.

Yeah. I don’t think it’s

Glen Erickson: appropriation. I think, I think people are trying to make, I don’t know, maybe people are trying to pull those lines closer together than they need to be. But I think storytellers, whether it be awesome [01:14:00] cinematographers, whether it be musicians or whatever Yeah. When they allow you to photographers feel what it feels like to get in the skin of somebody else.

In other words, like you can be in the story yourself. Um, that’s the only way you have a chance of actually learning empathy. Right. Like, that’s how we learn empathy by crawling inside the skin of other people. And, and I think artists do that for us all the time, you know? So I think it’s an incredible skill.

Yeah. Um, well, awesome. Let me, uh, okay. My, I’ll, I’ll give my answer real quick. ’cause I had, I had to think about this a lot. The hard part about me answering this is I have a whole bunch of favorites to play, and they all come off of what I got to play, like, what I’m, and you, maybe you guys feel the same way about the songs you write.

Like, what do you so selfish,

Mike Angus: Glen, what do you, so clearly nothing’s

Robb Angus: changed. You know, I thought we’d get together and things would change. [01:15:00] You haven’t changed a bit. No, it wouldn’t changed.

Glen Erickson: A, you guys had three people and you were like, th the none of us are divas. So you hired a diva and then nothing changes, but, um, we paid you.

Oh man. So good. Um, I’ll say that my favorite song, although like all of you like really hard to do, but I don’t know, I can’t, I can’t get away from Penny l to me as maybe one of the most perfectly written songs I’ve heard, let alone experienced. I think like that song is absolutely perfect, like the lyrical weaving.

Um, just from your background and your knowledge of. You know, biblical text relating to very important cultural things in our country with Louis Riel was, I thought just brilliant. And it’s one thing to have the brilliant idea, like you said, when you’re walking around on your postal route, it’s another thing to be able to take it back and actually do the work and shape it into something [01:16:00] so special.

So, uh, penny l to me, is like one of the most special songs I’ve ever sort of known somebody that I know come up with. So I, I have to pick that one. But I will say out of like, I’m really proud of this. Is it because that’s a song that, that, um, you came not finished to the band. And that’s one of the first things to start the Ontario recording writing sessions.

And that’s this instance where I had a dream about all those parts, like the horn parts. Oh, wow. And the, and the, and that rhythm of the da do Yeah. Instead of the way you were kind of playing it more like, like mic acoustically straightforward. Yeah. Yeah. I kind of, anyhow, so being able to have that influence always felt and the song turning out so well, like, felt fulfilling to me.

Mm-hmm. I thought that would be my favorite to play live. But it’s it’s phone book every time. Like we always played it at the end of the night. [01:17:00] Um, my favorite thing about playing guitar for you guys is that you wrote songs like we’ve already talked about with so much feeling. And I never wanted to be a soloist.

Like I didn’t wanna be the lead guitar player. Like, and you guys didn’t ask me to be the lead guitar player. You just let me play guitar and I wanted to find the sounds and the textures and right to the very end. Uh, that’s the song that I, I’m hiding tears every time I play it on stage at the end of a night.

Um, and and to the point where I thought on a couple of those reunion shows, I didn’t know how I was gonna fucking get through it because Yeah, I know in my head is this is the last time a, it’s the last song of the night, right? Right. It’s the last song of the night. It could be the last time we ever play it.

It’s the last time I play this song, which makes me feel this way every. Time, and I don’t know if there’s another song that makes me feel that way as consistently as phone book does. So,

Stephane Dagenais: so you felt like Rob did every time? Yes. He went through [01:18:00] white, the one that I’m, I’m the one

Glen Erickson: that, that manifested,

Stephane Dagenais: we’re not talking about white young shit.

We’re not talking about white f He would spike the bass into the stage at the end if it was perfect. Just like, yes. That’s funny. I think I only played that properly

Mike Angus: about three times in all the years we were together. I think I lied and it was glorious

Stephane Dagenais: when you did.

Mike Angus: Well, Glen, to your point, like about getting my favorite Glen, to your point was quickly, I mean, the last couple of times we’ve gotten together to start rehearsing for these last couple of reunion shows, I know that like, we would start, okay, what do you wanna start with?

And like, within the first couple of bars of me singing something, I would choke up because like this wave. And I remember looking at Rob once and he is like, don’t look at me like, we were just like, well, gonna like Don, you can’t look at me. I’ll cry. Like there’s like getting back into those emotions and getting, and even though I’ve changed.

Yeah. And I’m not the same person. I think I remember talking to you guys about this when we were rehearsing for one of last reunions. I was like, [01:19:00] I feel like I’m playing covers of my own songs. Like I’m not the same person that lived in these clothes and played these songs when they were, when we were performing them as a band.

Right. And it’s true because I I, I’ve grown up, I’ve had different experiences like, you shouldn’t be and you shouldn’t be. Totally. Like, and I wonder if Neil Young’s like still, like he’s. Plays old man, and he’s just like, well,

Speaker 6: like it does he, but that

Glen Erickson: emotion, Mike, like, I, I don’t remember which reunion show it was for, but we all met in Calgary.

I’m thinking it’s the second one. Um, we met in Calgary at that like rental shop that had like that little rehearsal. Oh, KMM Space. That was

Robb Angus: the first one. Yeah. K lm was that the

Glen Erickson: first one? Okay. Yeah. And we got back together and all I remember is us setting all our shit up, that feeling in my chest that we’re like actually doing this and I couldn’t wait.

Everything’s set up. We’re just sort of like humming and hawing and it’s like, what do we do? And then Steph, you just, you just did the, the fill into geo and, and away we went into geographic center in Canada, which just look, I [01:20:00] don’t know if I’ve felt such elation out of so many, like amount of times we played these songs.

That moment is stuck with me of like us being the band that we are and the guys that we are when we’re together was like, nobody needs to say shit. Steph knows what to play to get us going.

Alexi: Right.

Stephane Dagenais: And so a hundred percent that, that thing was always like. Just pouring gas on everything and just like,

Glen Erickson: ugh. Um, okay. Uh, a couple cool questions since we’re on the music thing here. Um, we have a question from former guest of the pod and current guest Kidding. Of Rob’s house, Brandy Sador. Uh, that’s a terrible way to put that. I know.

Mike Angus: Yeah. I mean, she’s, she comes and goes. He’s getting, ah, yeah. Okay. Um, her question was, she’s a frog right now, by the way.

Glen Erickson: [01:21:00] What? Oh, I’ve seen the pictures. Yeah. It’s amazing. Yeah. On socials. Good for her. Um, so Brandy wanted to ask, what evolution would the band have taken musically if you had recorded more music? What would the next record have sounded like? Which I think is a great question because we left off with two songs in the can.

Um, the, I love the cover that we did. I love both

Robb Angus: of those songs

Glen Erickson: and I, I still go back and listen to them. So Mike had written a song that ended up on his solo album called Swallow It Hole, and we did the loudest song other than maybe what we did with Gio sometimes. Wow. But what we did in the studio, and it’s only two minutes long.

And we layered so many guitars. I was in heaven. Yeah. And, um, so we recorded Swallowed Hole and we recorded, um, the, the song the Gordon Lightfoot cover for that, uh, that music circle. Halifax Circle is small. Yeah. Circle is small. Which Stefan the fact that people don’t get [01:22:00] to hear your drums on that. And this is where, I don’t know if you’ll ever have the chips to play that again.

’cause I don’t like Pattern on

Mike Angus: that song was incredible.

Glen Erickson: It, and even the very ending, I’m sitting here again, I’m the diva. I got, I layered four guitar parts onto that outro solo. And I was so proud. Proud. I remember coming

Mike Angus: into the studio after lunch break and you had worked through lunch and I came back in and you were just like, you were vibrating.

You were like, oh, I could

Alexi: use nobody. Guitar job.

Glen Erickson: We went crazy. I loved it. And yet every time I listened to it, it’s the way the bass drops out right at the very end and you flip the drum pattern and start doing these little roll. Um, unbelievable. I think I was

Stephane Dagenais: channeling Brian Devor for something during that whole Yeah.

Believe it was like, I believe

Glen Erickson: it.

Stephane Dagenais: But so we had

Glen Erickson: two in the can that were loud. And so I’m wondering, like, we can just answer, answer Brandy’s questions straight up where each of you think we were headed. But I know for me, I’ve always wondered, was I [01:23:00] pushing. I’m just being honest. Since we’re on the podcast here, like, I, I always wondered what was I pushing us?

Because, you know, I was the indie rock guy more than I was the alt country guy, right? So yeah, I was, I’m like, wanted, I think I was

Mike Angus: more excited about like a more guitar driven, electric, guitar

Robb Angus: driven

Mike Angus: direction.

Glen Erickson: What’s that guy from the band? Come on with a big, long beard. Ian something. Ian Blurton. Oh yeah.

Ton. I wanted him to produce the next record.

Mike Angus: Yeah. Like when, when I, when I look back, didn’t hear Next Records, like, yeah. Perfect. When I look back on that kind of, the, the, the later part of that, of those two songs, I look back and I think like I was probably going towards like, uh, Constantine or like, uh, early Arkels kind of thing.

Guitar driven rock band, and I was listening to those guys a lot and I can, that’s, I mean, at that time, that [01:24:00] was the direction I just assumed we were going. Like it wasn’t a decision. Huh. It’s almost not a decision, right? It’s just No, it’s not Like Geographic was when I first wrote it, that was one of the first songs that I think we ever collaborated on and yeah, I made a demo of it and it was like this very quiet Sia and Stevens esque.

I, I remember there was a falsetto on it. Rob was like, we gotta get rid of that. I remember our, I remember the first time we played that song, I was like. No. Everybody stopped. Absolutely not. Yeah, totally. This is what the song is. This is the tempo. It’s this, it’s this tempo. It’s loud guitars, it’s this beat.

And it’s, and I think the reason I ended up singing it in the studio is because the first 25 times that we ran through it together, I was like, just let me sing and I’ll show you guys what my vision is. I’m like, this is how I’m hearing it. So you tell me what you think. And then by the time we, we were done, it was just like, [01:25:00] yeah, yeah, that is, that’s probably how it should be.

That’s a take. And we were, we were used to me doing the vocal. I don’t think I even really remember asking you if I should sing the vocal, like, but fine. But I, I remember, I remember having really, really strong opinions about that song when we started working on it.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. And uh, which was typically at the loudest song in our set quite often.

Yes. So, yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Mike Angus: And then I think about like, we did, um, blurred lines a couple of times for our shows. Which reunion? The second reunion,

Glen Erickson: yeah. And show. Well, you wrote and then you brought it to the band. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m cutting you off for a quick second to caveat that you used this specific phrasing.

I, let’s. Let’s wheat pool this thing. In other words, it’s everything you guys just said, like what you said about geographic, which is like, I used to have this nice soft recording and then the band absolutely blew it up. Totally. Which is what we did. Blurred lines. I

Mike Angus: think I, I played a couple of solo shows and I [01:26:00] intentionally played it like, as if it was from Ryan and Adam’s heartbreaker, like just really quiet.

And I love that I could do that like almost Bob Dylan style picking thing for it, and it, it could translate, but then I knew when I’d bring it in for you guys that I was like, let’s, let’s do what we do best. And I think there, I mean there’s a big gap between Circle is small and blurred lines, obviously 15 years.

So I dunno if it’s a fair conversation, but I, the thing I loved about that is that we worked it and worked it and we kept whittling away at being like, let’s make this the most interestingly concise rock song that we can, it’s punchy. Let’s put this here. And it came together really quickly in a really interesting way.

Glen Erickson: Well been 15 years. Let’s, let’s make a point of that for a second, Mike, because I think that’s an interesting point unrelated to what Brandy’s asking, which is like what evolution would’ve been next. The fact that we’re basically saying here we for sure we’re gonna go heavier and louder. [01:27:00] Um, and then we end in 2012, right?

Mm-hmm. And then both at the 2015 and 2019 reunion shows, I remember. It so interesting that people would say, people who had watched us from the very beginning said, you guys sound better now than you ever did. Like, we practiced hard, really hard for those shows. We had become better musicians. Like, uh, a lot of us were playing.

I know Robbie had had a lot more experience with the Dungaree at a level of professionalism and a lot of your gigs that were, you know, pretty high and, and you brought that to us anyhow, like, so we a pulled that off, but, but doing blurred lines. Mike, it’s interesting to me that that’s 2019, so seven years later it’s like, we picked up where we left off with wanting to make a rock song essentially, right?

Mike Angus: Yeah. And it felt so concise and so punchy and we whittled away. It was like the antithesis of, [01:28:00] of 2005 Wheat pool where we were trying to stretch these songs into road trip songs. We took the song, we were like, let’s make it this perfect little rock gem. I remember we opened with like the bridge, we put the bridge, your guitar riff from the bridge in there, and then right into the lyrics and then right into the chorus, and then a quick punchy bridge again, and then a great mm-hmm.

And didn’t we do like, like the Matthew Sweet finish on it too, where we stopped and then we restarted. Yeah, totally. We did. Just to be completely cheeky.

Glen Erickson: Okay. Okay. So it’s funny how we keep doing this. No, you’re totally right. Well, two things. I have the recording where I just put my iPhone down in the Yeah, yeah.

Totally in the room. And it was closest to Stefan. And so Stefan did this like,

Speaker 6: yeah.

Glen Erickson: And there’s a crackle on Snap because it’s distorting too close to my phone. Overdr though. Yeah. At the start. That sounds so good. So if we were ever record that, I would be like, we unmistakably. That has to be [01:29:00] the sound to start this song off.

It’s so good. Yeah. That drum tone. But we actually do have a question about do you still have song ideas around that you’d like to finish and or record perform together? And I think we’ve always talked about whether we wish that we had gotten those songs. Yeah. I mean, recorded and out. I,

Mike Angus: I don’t write too much on my own anymore.

Um, which that’s all I used to do when we were together as a band. Like I only wrote on my own. Um, yeah, there’s little bits and pieces and chunks here that I think are a good fit for our project. Um, but I don’t actively do it. Like, I’m not like, I gotta write this week, I gotta write this week. Kinda like when you’re in an album cycle, you feel that way.

Um, but, uh, I mean, we do have a few songs that I don’t think we’ve ever played that we’ve toyed around with that are kind of bits and pieces, like when we did the first [01:30:00] reunion. I think Mike, you showed up with two new ones and I think maybe we only played one, but

Glen Erickson: that’s true. Um, we, we toyed around with one quieter one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. In, uh, in your living room. I remember that. Yep. Yeah.

Mike Angus: Yeah. I mean, I’ve got some, um, I do wanna play again. Like I would love to play more shows together and, you know, if we had a timeline on that, I definitely would flesh out, uh, more of the ideas I have and would want to nudge him to flesh out more of his.

For sure. Well,

Glen Erickson: every other person who asked a question included in extra question, which is, when is the reunion tour? Um, so it’s funny that you say that. ’cause I had to ask that question whether it was, uh, cheeky or what it was. I think, uh, we’re some people that we know and love well,

Mike Angus: we’re, which is nice.

Glen Erickson: Ross done. He’s like, no. Um, he’s taking the fifth anyhow. He’s outta here. Um, yeah, [01:31:00] I don’t know. I guess that’s, uh, no, it’s, it’s

Mike Angus: good that we’re all, we’re all in the same continent again, which is nice. Um, yeah.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. It’s true. I’ll be honest, like I got asked this question not that long ago and my answer was, I don’t think it’s gonna happen again.

I’m being really transparent. Um, how much money, that’s the question we asked in 2019. Um. Which was kind of funny. Worth. Yeah, totally. Yeah. We asked that question, but, uh, that I asked it more because I was like, someone’s like saying I’ll pay you this much to come play this place, and I don’t even like the place very much that we were being offered to play in.

And I’m like, I know how to run a show. I’ll run our own show out of a venue that I, I know that we can connect with an audience better. Yeah. Right. And then we’ll make a hundred percent of the money off of it. Which, um, let’s be honest, we did okay on those two reunion shows.

I used to joke that it was

Mike Angus: like those reunion shows were so great because people showed up, we sold out, they bought [01:32:00] merch and they sang along. That’s four things that never happened. What a dream we were touring. It also reminded me not to

Glen Erickson: be so critical when Glass Tiger keeps playing the White court casino over and over touring around those.

I’m like, if they can bring out a room full of people who will sing along to their songs, like they’re feeling something I’m not getting to feel right now, so I can’t hold it against them. But I don’t know, like, it’s interesting. I’m always interested whether you guys think about playing another show together the first time.

If people don’t know Rob, when we broke up, set a moratorium of five years before bands are allowed to play a reunion show. Otherwise, it, I don’t know what you said. It just looked. Bad or it is just a shitty move or whatever it was. Yeah. It’s just

Mike Angus: like getting back together with your ex too soon. Yeah. It just seemed kind of needy.

Yeah. Five years. Five years is a little needy.

Glen Erickson: But you were the one who first sent the text out in the group chat when five years had passed and [01:33:00] asked what we thought about it. So I thought that was pretty awesome.

Mike Angus: I don’t think we ever stopped playing ’cause we didn’t wanna play music anymore. Um, and actually there was a, a question that came in about how did we arrive at this discussion.

It wasn’t ’cause we were sick of each other. It wasn’t ’cause um, it was more of a bigger discussion about to continue. What did the, you know, what did a, an album cycle involve as far as time travel away from families writing a whole new album and where were we at? Yeah, so I mean that was,

Glen Erickson: um, I remember it by the way, we were in Royal Pizza, uh, yeah.

Just off white out white out area before I, after sound check

Mike Angus: at the Pawn Shop. Yeah. Sound show. That night

Glen Erickson: night,

Speaker 6: we didn’t

Mike Angus: even do the, it wasn’t the Pawn shop. I think it was that charity gig, wasnt

Speaker 6: it? Break Up is the black dog. You don’t break up the Royal Pizza,

Glen Erickson: Mike. So it

Speaker 6: was, it was like a,

Glen Erickson: I always thought it was that charity gig [01:34:00] we did. The Helping Kids one that we went and played. And those were, despite that you’re participating in a charity, they still felt a little soul sucking, if I’m being totally honest. But, um, what’s a charity? I remember the conversation.

Being that it was very pragmatic

Robb Angus: and, and just opened. Yeah. I had been

Glen Erickson: doing the business part of the band quite a bit of it for a long time, and I said, it’s been two years since the last record. Like, we need to, like, the next thing we know what the next thing is. Right? I was running 18 month cycles on those albums.

Right. It’s trying to stretch ’em out at least that long. And that’s a long time. And I remember, Rob, if you remember it this way, I’m wondering, I remember you questioning like whether it’s gonna happen almost like, you know, if I’m, if I’m, if I’m passed up in the first round in the NHL draft, like you stopped believing maybe whether you’ll get drafted at all.

And we sort of felt like we had been introduced to a lot of people and [01:35:00] everybody kept telling us, you guys are awesome. Right? Like, when, you know, you guys are gonna totally make it. Or like, we had a lot of people pumping our tires for seven years and I remember your sentiment of like, I’m not sure it’s gonna happen.

And I, and I think I raised the question of, I think I’ve said this to you guys before, I hope I have otherwise this, I don’t know what this will sound like, but, um, I, uh, I remember regretting in a way asking the question like, oh right, do we wanna still do this then? But I asked it there,

Mike Angus: you know. Yeah. You know, and I was, I was thinking about.

The moment you’re describing. I mean, I’ve thought about a lot and I was thinking about it a lot this week, and I think the sort of the heart of it is that, and I don’t think we ever talked about this and, and probably I, I would imagine other bands experience this too, but I remember feeling a lot of heartbreak that, and everybody loves [01:36:00] their own music and everybody loves their first album.

I thought we made a, a great first album for a band, for a first album. I thought we made a great first album. And then the challenge for a young band is, can you make a second good album to me in my heart, the second album is better than the first album. And I thought, I thought the songs in the second album were deeper and darker and richer, and I thought the second album blew the first album out of the water.

And, and this is probably like a function of being like the creative type and an artist type, but I know I was pretty hurt that it didn’t, which it sounds ridiculous to say I was hurt, but like I was hurt that it, it, it didn’t, it didn’t move forward to the, the places I had I had dreamed of. That’s not ridiculous, by the way.

We, we had done two [01:37:00] albums that I, I loved and I was so proud of and so to talk about, okay, are we gonna do a third album? It’s gonna mean this much time in the studio, this much time pumping it, this too much time on the road, this much time, you know? And yeah, Glenn, you shouldn’t feel, uh, regret for asking that question because it was totally respectful and fair of all of our lives at that time.

Yeah. Do we have the gas for this? Do we have the energy for it? Um, and for me, I think the crux of the decision was, I was kind of heartbroken that I believed in it so much and so many other people seemed to, but the industry didn’t seem to, I don’t know why. Uh, well, I have thoughts on that, but that’s another whole other podcast.

But we weren’t, and some of them, some of them lie on our side of the table without question. Without question. Yes. Sure. I’m not saying we were flawless in the [01:38:00] industry, but No, no. A a big part of it, at least with me and I speak only for me, is I was, when you asked us that question, I was comfortable kind of asserting my heartbreak about

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Mike Angus: Where, where we were at that point and were we ever gonna get over the hump.

Glen Erickson: And I think my response was, and I’m interested in what your other, the other of you were thinking as well in the response. I just know for me, maybe I wasn’t prepared for that. So maybe I’m not using the word regret properly to name that emotion, that response as much as.

Yeah, maybe I just wasn’t prepared that that was actually the truth. And you know, it’s almost like your hard conversation with a, you know, someone you’re dating or whatever, when you ask the question like, are we what we think we are? And, and for me, like just being at the later stage of life and uh, I just thought, if these guys don’t have their heart in it, how am I going to go, like, [01:39:00] pour myself out again for 18 months?

And, and I was carrying something as immediate as we had come off the road, um, that spring. I think we had done the whole, um, when we’d go out for, uh, north by Northeast or whatever it was, and then try to do that whole run of Ontario shows again and stuff. And I remember coming home and Lexi, who was on earlier was seven, and just picking her up when I get into the house and that great moment of seeing my girl again, um, and her asking if I’m, I’m, if I’m done leaving, are you gonna not go away anymore?

And like, that was pretty hard. And I think when, when I look back, I think that just imprinted itself where I was like, am I able to still do this if these guys aren’t all the way in it, you know?

Mike Angus: Well, I remember there were so many times where we’d be rehearsing or we’d be playing a show somewhere [01:40:00] and Glen, you’d say, oh, I’m missing.

Um, your son’s first hockey, you hockey stuff for school or I’ve been saying a birthday party or, and I remember thinking about, okay, we need to commit to two more years if we’re gonna do a third record. And I had my own life outside of the band that was really picking up and nice in a, in a way that I had never had before.

Um, I was met someone that I was intending to marry and like I wanted for the first time in my life, like a stable relationship with a mortgage and the white picket fence and like all these things. ’cause when you’re a musician growing up, you sleep on floors and you don’t really have steady source of income and you’re making all these sacrifices.

And I think we were all quite happy to do that for those, for that period. Um, those early formative years, we were like, everything’s exciting. And you’re just like, okay, yeah, I don’t need a mortgage. I’ll just pay [01:41:00] rent when I can and yada, yada yada. And I, I had a point in my life where I was like excited about how my life and people would pull me aside and be like, man, I would do anything to have your life.

I don’t want the white picket fence and the mortgage and all this stuff. It’s boring. Like, you should be a rock star and stay a rock star. So I had, first time in my life I was kind of seduced by this idea of like some stability and other things that I wanted for my life outside of the band. And I thought about like what you guys were, you and Stephan were having sacrifice with having families and kids and these things, and it didn’t feel.

Fair for me to not let you know how I was feeling, which is like, I don’t feel like my heart’s a hundred percent at at the expense of you guys missing birthday parties and first hockey games and your kids’ first goals and stuff like that. So that, I think that was part of the conversation where maybe it was like, oh, uh, maybe I should, shouldn’t have asked.

I wasn’t like quite ready for that answer. Um, yeah, but I think it was like it’s part a business decision, but it was also part sort of like [01:42:00] that awkward breakup. Yeah. I

Glen Erickson: mean if I, and retrospect is what it is. So I should first of all preface like I don’t regret any of our decisions. Um, the fact that we still have our text group chat and I probably count you guys my best friends in the world that I would turn to prefer to spend time with over almost anyone, um, is like the thing that came out of it that I, you know, the rest of the stuff doesn’t matter as much.

I think looking back, I realize, ’cause I’ve spent a lot of time coaching bands and trying to develop bands and studying the industry and learning that the hardest thing is to just keep going, right? Mm-hmm. The easiest thing is to stop. And I do think what colors my perception of it probably is. I think if we had kept going, we probably would’ve.

It done really well. I really believe we probably, [01:43:00] now knowing what I know. Yeah, but you don’t know that. You don’t know that then. Huh? Now knowing, now knowing what I know, I think we would’ve broke through. Like, it just needed perseverance. Like everything we did came out the way we wanted it to be. Mm-hmm.

And we were always proud of it, and we were always unified in it all. And those are things that even bands succeeding don’t have, um, in spades like we did anyhow. Like, so the, all the things I’ve learned looking back, I’m like, like my kids are, are, my kids are okay. Like, they’re great kids. Like they’re great kids.

You know what I mean? We, uh, like, I like Lexi. You got him to university. Lexi. Lexi would’ve been fine. Like kale’s going to grad school in Australia, by the way, Rob, so,

Robb Angus: oh, okay. Yeah.

Glen Erickson: So, oh yeah. Okay. That’s cool. Perf right?

Robb Angus: He’s gonna perf

Glen Erickson: No, he is gonna Adelaide,

Robb Angus: Adelaide.

Glen Erickson: Yeah, same ack. So same sack. And, uh, anyhow, that’s retro.

That’s, that’s [01:44:00] incredible. That’s cool. That’s retrospect, right? But, um, again, like I, you can’t change any of that kinda stuff. Life happens the way it was gonna happen, but I think, um, I don’t know. Stefan, I’m curious about your take on it and I’ll tell you why. Okay. Is ’cause you had this like, you know, the coolest guy in school is always the one who genuinely, actually doesn’t care about anything else.

That’s why Steph’s always been the coolest guy in the band. You guys, I think that you guys might maybe agree with me, but, uh, no, this is heartbreaking for me. I thought, no, what I love coolest, Rob thought it was him. Um, all this time what I, what I wanna say about it is, uh, like I cared about all the other, I cared about all the other bullshit.

I, I cared about the business stuff. I cared about all the little details that it had to do to promote a band to, you know, get attention to all the, all this stuff. I cared about all that stuff so much. And you cared about it. None. You just loved showing up, [01:45:00] playing and hanging out with us, which was so pure and so different than the place I was at.

Um, so I’m just curious sort of how you looked at that whole time and coming out of it.

Stephane Dagenais: Um, you know, I think that it was like, looking back at that, I think it was a. The confluence of real and perceived external pressures, uh, about continuing and feeling like maybe, and I’m not kidding, maybe I was like the part that was holding the whole works back.

So kind of going like, I feel like I might get nickel backed here at any point. So, so I should probably, I I

Mike Angus: don’t, I don’t think there was ever a conversation about another drummer ever. No, no. The

Glen Erickson: conversation actually was, I remember Mike saying this [01:46:00] isn’t a, this isn’t the we pool unless Stefan’s part of it.

Mike Angus: Yeah.

Stephane Dagenais: No, yeah, it’s not.

Mike Angus: Yeah.

Stephane Dagenais: Well, I, that’s awesome to hear and I appreciate it, but it’s kind of like, um, I, I, yeah, I had a feeling like I didn’t contribute to the same extent. So, you know, I honestly, I was like, if these guys can go on and do something beyond this, uh, without me, then I mean that’s the right thing to do.

Not that I did not wanna be part of it, but, and when we were talking earlier about what do you think the sound would’ve evolved into? Had we carried on and I was part of it, I think I would’ve probably been wanting to. Go more circle this small kind of vibe. Mm-hmm. Yeah, me too. On the drums.

Mike Angus: Like, how loud could we get all of us?

That was so good. Well, [01:47:00] just like, and it’s not like we weren’t a loud band before that.

Speaker 6: I know.

Mike Angus: That’s what’s so funny about it. No,

that’s amazing. Loud, proud. I mean, yeah. So, oh, that’s so funny to hear you say that. Like, I don’t think I, there was ever a four seconds in my life, here’s the whole time we were together where I, I thought, yeah, you weren’t gonna be the guy moving forward.

Stephane Dagenais: Well,

Mike Angus: here’s the thing

Stephane Dagenais: too, Stefan, I just wanted to be the solid guy.

That’s why. Well, you were, this is the thing.

Glen Erickson: I didn’t need you to do any of all. I love doing all the business shit. Like I didn’t want you to do that. I, what I loved was when I stepped into the rehearsal room and picked up the guitar, all that other shit always disappeared because I was with like three other guys who cared more about what happened between the four of us in that moment than any other part of the entire thing.

Yeah, yeah. Is the way I perceived it. And you, like I just described, I felt you held that down. Like you wouldn’t let anybody get away with their shit ever. And Yeah. [01:48:00] Thanks for that. I’m Ben. Thanks dad. Love you, dad. Well, it’s just a different kind of love, man. Fucking Magellan. Um, yeah, anyhow, that’s, that’s an interesting take.

Uh, and after having

Stephane Dagenais: my, uh, my, my morning advances rebuffed in a hotel in, uh, Mississauga, Ontario, so long ago, is that where that was? I really, I mean after that point I was kind of like,

Robb Angus: we should probably tell this story then.

Stephane Dagenais: One of my favorite memories ever. Yeah. Of any band moment. We were in Mississauga.

I mean, I would never have remembered where that

Mike Angus: was, but

Stephane Dagenais: I’m pretty sure it was the night before we were flying back.

Mike Angus: Yeah. And, and you and I shared a bed that night. It was your last chance. Hey. Which I don’t think happened a lot. I think Mike and I teamed up a lot. Yeah. ’cause we’re brothers. That’s right.

So why you and I would’ve been sharing a bed that night? I have no [01:49:00] idea. No idea. Something must have happened. Rift. Yeah. A rift or maybe some bad, uh, papaya or something at a restaurant, I don’t know. But, uh, we weren’t sharing a bed, but you and I were sharing a bed stuff and uh, it was early in the morning, at least for a band.

It was maybe eight, nine in the morning and you rolled over. And kind of draped your arm across me. And then your other hand scooped underneath. And so gently caressed my Botox.

And it woke me up. It woke me up and I remember thinking like, where am I? Am I a hold, I’m in a hotel Who’s grabbing my ass? Whose arm was across my chest? And I looked across at the other bed and it wasn’t Mike and it wasn’t,

Stephane Dagenais: and the only thing I said was, [01:50:00] whoops,

those aren’t pillows. Yeah, exactly. Oh, no, Rob’s, that’s a great moment. I think, I think Rob’s, Rob’s comment to my whoops was, that’s okay, you can buy me breakfast later.

Oh my goodness. Oh man.

Glen Erickson: That’s funny. Well, I mean, Brent, Oliver actually had piped into some questions, guys, and one of, he had, uh, his serious question was the band had seemed to reach a certain amount of momentum in its prime. Was there a conscious decision to make either a decision to go for it or to look at other paths?

I think he’s asking the question like, did we hit like a real cr Like we, maybe it looks on the outside, like we hit a crossroads for a decision rather than the way a lot of bands just peter out. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. And play less and less. And I think. I think we already answered that by saying we just took the crossroads head on and we decided Yeah.

And we even used the [01:51:00] language right. About the Neil Young language about we’d rather, um, not fade, burn, and fade away. Yeah. Our burnout Yeah. Than fade away. It was definitely

Mike Angus: an on point decision. And there was a couple of people that submitted questions asking something similar. Yeah. It was for certain an on point decision and it wasn’t like an ugly one.

It wasn’t, you know. Yeah. Um, I, I, I think we really looked at it pragmatically and we openly discussed where we all were and what it was gonna look like the next, you know, what the roadmap of it was gonna be. And it wasn’t an easy decision. Like it wasn’t a, it wasn’t without like heartache. Um, but I think we were, even though it was difficult, I think we were a, had a fair amount of peace to it

Glen Erickson: with Yeah, I’d agree.

I’d agree. Um, well, Brent also asked a silly question by the way. [01:52:00] He asks if we feel like we were ahead of the curve on mustaches. And the answer obviously is Hell yes. We can grow. Well, not just that. Yeah. We started, we started mustache parties. We did, yeah. Before November came around. Do you remember that?

Long before

Mike Angus: November? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In fact, um. Yeah. We never did another mustache party after November. November Became a thing. Out of respect.

Glen Erickson: Out of respect. Yeah. And people should know Mike could grow the most incredible Borat, uh, to the degree that you showed up one year in, uh, I think like a pale blue suit like Borat with, with uh, and the microphone.

What a glorious Oh yeah. We wore st suits. We wore suits one year. Anyway, we would have for those.

Mike Angus: I had, like, I had my afro at the time too. Yeah, you,

Glen Erickson: you teased it out curl. It was beautiful, like curly hair. We would do these mustache parties and it was basically like a look like 25 guys there, a bar crawl.

Right. We would just kind of go from bar to bar to bar and it just show up. And there were strict rules up, like [01:53:00]

Mike Angus: it, like no fu man shoe. Like it had to end at the side. And this is like early two thousands. So the mustache wasn’t back. There were specific rules. Yeah.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Mike Angus: It wasn’t

Glen Erickson: ironic. It wasn’t. And then my joy as a, as a married man, my joy was to see, like we, we’d hit some bar, just absolutely take it over 25 dudes in mustaches, which was not, it would shock even ironic back then.

Shocking a lot. And, and my favorite was like the, the guys with the cahones to still try to get some phone numbers. Wheel women. Yeah. Yeah. And,

Mike Angus: and Brent, Oliver would’ve been at many of those, uh, yes. Absolutely. Annual parties. Absolutely. When he would’ve pushed out a beautiful mustache himself. Absolutely.

Um. He pushed. Let’s, uh,

Glen Erickson: let’s keep burning through a couple of these. Uh, our good friend Steph Blaze relative ah, of the family, uh, member of Postscript who opened for our first reunion show. Oh, yeah. Um, Steph asked the question, she wants to know about the most hilarious slash horrendous sleeping [01:54:00] arrangements on tour.

So the first thing I think we talked about. Yeah, well, we just talked about maybe, um, we just went

Stephane Dagenais: over the most

Glen Erickson: glorious

Stephane Dagenais: one. Let’s talk about some horrendous ones.

Glen Erickson: I think. Uh, do you guys remember that band room in Saskatoon? I can’t remember venue Best, best band room in Canada that had the, uh, the, the Jagermeister bathroom?

Yes. And the, it, it

Mike Angus: was above, uh, it wasn’t, um,

Glen Erickson: like the, the shadow Lydia looked What? Lydia’s, you’re right. Lydia Pub. No, Tia. Was it Lydia’s Pub? It’s Band

Mike Angus: room in Canada.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. It had just a room with Is a wall, a wall of beds. It had eight beds, eight double beds in it. And the paintings on the wall were like the silhouettes of stripper girls that you see on the trucker mud flaps.

But they were like painted large across the wall. Um, but it was clean. The, all the beds were well made. It was like a hotel. Listen. And they would pay us Well. Yep. And then you get to stay in that place. And it was clean. Which is so different than, do you remember two [01:55:00] places? One, the, the house in Banff. Oh God, yeah.

The bead house. The Rose Sound Place.

Speaker 6: Oh, river. I lost my voice. We didn’t even wanna

Glen Erickson: sleep. We didn’t even wanna sleep on top of the blankets, which is often what we’d end up doing if we showed up at a place and it looked like bedbugs would be there or something. You

Mike Angus: guys obviously don’t remember this, but when we checked into that place, there was a freshly used condom under my bed and not like way under the bed kind of, almost barely under the bed when we checked in and, and then Mike lost his voice that night and the second night, ’cause we were doing a two nighter, I had to sing every song and I think we were doing three sets that night.

I had to do, yeah, I had to sing all of our songs like the song, first song we would start with and all of the covers. I just, second Song of the Night was Trace of You. I Lose My Voice halfway through the second verse. Rob doesn’t, I think I dropped two words before he jumped in [01:56:00] and he covered the rest of the song, like the crowd wouldn’t even notice and then he sang every song for the rest of the night.

Glen Erickson: We did get to ask the question, what do you miss the most? Um

Speaker 6: Oh.

Glen Erickson: Which I know can have a few minutiae sort of mm-hmm. Reactive responses. I mean, I’ll say right off the bat, and I think you hear it a lot, but it’s not, it’s not cliche like, like I just miss being around you guys all the time. Mm-hmm. It’s like, I remember Gretzky after he hung up the skates in New York and they asked him the question and he was like, I miss getting up.

5:00 AM and go into the rink with the guys. That’s all, that’s all I missed team. To miss the game locker. Yeah. Yeah. I, that’s, um, I don’t know, like, uh, I don’t like nonstop laughs Yeah. I, everything, the,

Mike Angus: the thing about that is I think for people who are like observers or fans or spectators, one thing that maybe they don’t fully [01:57:00] understand is that their part of our day or of our tour is 60 minutes.

Like the, there’s 60 minutes on stage, that’s great, but it’s just 60 minutes of a day. And so when you’re at a band, you have to find a way to make the other 23 hours. Passable. Survivable, yeah. Or great. And like in,

Glen Erickson: uh, wi No. Windsor. Is it Windsor? Yeah. The fog. The tiny little Fog. Fog. I, Stefan you might remember ’cause I, I had like the closest I had to a meltdown in a van right beside the fog before, you know, between soundcheck and playing.

’cause the next day was Father’s Day. And that’s like you guys were saying before, to your recollection of what I was missing, I was having this moment where like, I’m playing this venue that only fits 15 people in and I don’t think we’re gonna sell out. And um, and I felt so low. We, we didn’t for the record.

No we didn’t. I felt the bartender loved us though. And apparently he doesn’t [01:58:00] love anybody. So, um, I felt so low. Like so low. Um, but the next day you guys were like, let’s drive through the tunnel and go to a Tigers game. Oh yeah. On Father’s Day. And remember that Father’s Day story all the time, dad with like a bunch of like real all American blonde kids and he bought us all hotdog and stuff.

And um, we got to see, went over to Hockey Town, Justin Lander pitch. Yep, yep. And uh, we went over to Hockey Town across the street. Yeah. And, uh, do you remember,

Mike Angus: do you remember it? The custom, the American customs guard that is like, let’s see your passports. And I was like, four guys in a band ba trying to cross the border.

We’re like, we’re toast. Right? And he takes all of our passports. He’s like, what are you guys doing? We’re like, we’re going to the Tigers game. And he is like, give tickets. You’re gonna miss the first pitch. You better go. And he like literally threw the passports back and down. He’s like, get going. Like,

Stephane Dagenais: yeah, that was a great pitch. It’s awesome. Like the memories, it, it’s the best to hear stories about things that [01:59:00] you were involved in or I was involved in, but from someone else’s perspective and what they remember about it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like

Mike Angus: I remember we were really getting into the national, some of us were really getting into the listening to the Nationals boxer album.

Right. And like, I think that was kind of like it, we talk about Circle of Small, like that was kind of like we were following the nationals. Style arc very closely. But when Boxer kind of first came out and we were all geeking out about it, and Rob was just like, far notes is all you get. Like, I, I hated them at first.

I hated them so much. Sitting outside of a Tim Hortons and like Sue St. Marie or something, and he’s like, we’re all just like, isn’t this cool? And he is like, Fardo, which is all you get. Like just the, that’s one of my clearest memories of like being on the road. We were leaving the boathouse in, uh, kitchen or Waterloo.

Well, we Okay. Yeah. That’s where it was. Oh, we were headed back to, that was a fun night. Remember we did get asked the question

Glen Erickson: about what our favorite [02:00:00] venues to play. That was kind of a, one of those unique venues for sure. We played it maybe twice.

Mike Angus: Yeah. I love the Dakota. I thought was awesome. I love the Dakota more than anything was great in Toronto.

Yeah. It’s Is it closed now or is it closing? Yeah, they

Glen Erickson: sold, they sold. I will say we, we got the crest. Do you guys agree? We got the very end of a golden era in Canada where every major city changed, had a classic venue like from the railway club in Vancouver. Yeah.

Alexi: Yep.

Glen Erickson: Ironwood and Sidetrack Cafe.

Sidetrack and, and you know, times changed in Winnipeg and the Dakota Tavern and like, and Toronto

Robb Angus: was good,

Glen Erickson: huh? Cadillac? We played the Cadillac in Toronto a few times. Yeah. The Cadillac lounge and, and the du Gras of the Cadillac lounge is when we finally got, um, ah, shit. I just lost his name. When we got our.

Hertz rental car guy, Val Val, the Russian val Val, when he brought a, a [02:01:00] girl out to watch the show, we actually, after using him for about four or five years, he finally came and watched a show at the Cadillac Lounge. But

Mike Angus: remember he asked for a signed poster for his, for his car rental. For his car rental office.

Yeah. Maybe Besides Post them. Yes. He was a good guy. We’re not, we’re

Glen Erickson: not appropriating that at all either, by the way. That’s exactly how he sounded. It was so, I was,

Mike Angus: I was telling the story. I was one of the most

Stephane Dagenais: oddball shows that we ever did was in that place on, uh, queen Street West, where it was like, not my dog.

That’s, yeah. Not my dog. The tiniest, tiniest venue. And that was the day that the van, the back of the van just exploded with a bunch of shit everywhere, just trying to get ready for the show. Like out on the sidewalk. Yeah. Street

Mike Angus: Dressing. I remember during the set at one point, Mike put down his [02:02:00] guitar and left it, it wasn’t a stage we were playing just on the, the floor.

Floor. And he just left. He was, and kinda walked across the room. ’cause they had an upright piano, like Yeah. Yeah. Not on stage. No. He just started playing along to, I don’t even remember what song we were playing live as a band, but he just kind of. Started playing the piano patterned. Yeah.

Glen Erickson: Which, yeah. Which totally exposed my fatal flaw of getting lost at looking at my feet and not paying attention to my, the other players enough.

And then by the time I looked up, Mike was like eight bars in to whatever he was playing. So before I knew he was gone, I was telling this

Mike Angus: story the other day ’cause someone was telling me they were from Toronto or from Vancouver, and we were talking about like what we like about Vancouver. And they said, yeah, the railway pub.

And I said, we played a show there. I used to be in a band, blah, blah, blah, blah. We played a show there. And it’s the first and maybe only time in the years we were active before we had our reunion shows where I looked up [02:03:00] and the room was full. And there was two guys at the back of the room that were singing along with one of my songs, complete Strangers.

Yeah. And that had never happened. And it was one of those moments where you’re like, this is not my mom singing along with it in my hometown. This is a complete stranger who knows, who’s listened to our records enough to Yeah. And I was just like, I I, there was a moment where I was like, I think I probably did this, like deer in the headlights on the stage, but I was like, oh, this is how it happens.

Like you make these connections mm-hmm. Two guys in time, and then you come back the next year and hopefully it’s four. And then, and that was, yeah. There was no TikTok, no Instagram. Yeah. And you could ask my MySpace and face, there was nothing viral back then.

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm. You ask what you mi get missed the most like.

I don’t know, maybe I don’t have these conversations, whether the band’s enough, but I don’t know that other, what other people have. But we had these certain [02:04:00] connections. Like when I got written, remember the, the kind of the crazy haired host of that radio program in, uh, Toronto. And uh, he told us how like his dad died and he went and built a barn just listening to our record over and over.

And it was so cathartic and it’s what kind of got him through. Yep. His name Bob, he spent a whole summer. I can’t remember. Um, I remember it was at Ryerson, I think remember he had a mm-hmm. A radio show. And, um, and then there’s like guys, like the people that came to our, that’s a crazy story to tell the guys, the people that came to our reunion shows from across the, the, the United States, like from Washington or whatever, like am Oh, yeah, yeah.

He was a huge fan. And he, he would come and, uh, and the, and the couple that got married that were big on radio three’s, blogs. Yeah. They lived, they came to the Windsor shows. They he lived right across, yeah. To Detroit, outside of Detroit. And, and he would, uh, and you guys, I’ve told you guys this story about how I [02:05:00] ended up at North by Northeast at the Radio three picnic.

They always do. And then they actually exchange vowels and Grant Lawrence officiated and mm-hmm. Uh, or maybe Amit officiating, grant Lawrence was standing up, but either way they used. The opening line of this is it to start the vows, and I’m just standing there going, who gets this kind of a moment? Right?

Like, um, it’s pretty amazing to have those kinds of moments. For sure.

Mike Angus: Yeah. Like, like what I was saying to Lexi when she was on, like, there’s a lot of things when you start doing this that you think are big goals and really meaningful goals, but when people ask you to be a part of the biggest moments of their life.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Well, yeah, I completely agree. I, I

Mike Angus: didn’t, I didn’t appreciate it back then. I probably do it more now as a performer, and I’ve really come to be humbled by it. [02:06:00]

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Mike Angus: Yeah. I remember back the time we had some friends asking us to play their weddings, and I would have to say, I’m so sorry. We can’t, we can’t, ’cause you wanna play shows based on the band you wanna be.

Mm-hmm. Not the band you are. And it, it’s this awful feeling of just like, oh, we can’t afford to play weddings because then we’ll get labeled as a wedding band. And it’s like this awful sort of like Yeah. Shitty thing that you’re faced with as a band. And like when Lexi came on and she asked me, I was like, of course.

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. There’s no, she could have asked a week before the wedding, she answered those. Hey. Yeah. Totally. Yeah.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Um, I had, I had That’s awesome. I had a friend

Mike Angus: when, when, uh, Ontario first came out and this is, it opens the record. Right. And our good friend Trent Wilke, uh, who’s a, was a great journalist at the time.

He helped do interviews to push the records and stuff like that. And he texted me, he is like, [02:07:00] he ruined my day in the best possible way. Like the first opening lines of this is Yeah. Which is like, it, it’s kind of the opposite of what you’re talking about when someone invites you into the, you know, their weddings and these special occasions.

And if you can slide into someone’s life in a very personal way, in a quiet moment and have an impact. I’m not saying that like I, I wanted to ruin his day, but he said it in a complimentary kind of way where it’s like, you made a big impact in my day just by hitting

Alexi: play.

Mike Angus: Yeah. Yeah. A very personal moment.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Mike Angus: That’s how I’ve always experienced music the most powerfully is when it’s just me and the headphone.

Glen Erickson: Well, fellas, uh, we could probably talk all night. It feels, um, which is maybe the sweetest thing I’m gonna take away from this is just knowing mm-hmm. This, it’s still the same as it ever was. Um, and I’m gonna have a lot of editing to do ’cause I.

Pooch the thing two and a here. Yeah. And I, I [02:08:00] don’t, it’s a long podcast. You problem Glen. That’s a you problem. It’s a, this is, this is the Neil Young of podcasts right now, by the way, guys. Um, for sure. Uh, so, um, anyhow, um, if you guys still wanna play another show, all you can text me on the text chain anytime and, you know, I’ll do all the work and make it happen.

Where,

Robb Angus: where would we do another show? I’ll do another, another show.

Glen Erickson: I dunno, somewhere that people will say that they will show up. That’s after all this time. That’s, I feel like our, maybe I, I don’t know. I feel like it’s our biggest shared concern is like, there may be a, a few dozen loud voices that say, do a reunion show, but, you know, I want, I wanna do it for more than 36 people if I can.

So, yeah. Um, if I’m being honest. But anyhow, yeah. Regardless of all that, I would love to play with you guys any day. Anytime. So, um, thank you.

Alexi: But beyond that,

Glen Erickson: we’re [02:09:00] gonna have to have a real life hangout soon. If, um, if we’re not gonna be so spread out all the time, I’m gonna have to come down to Calgary clearly.

So, um, make it happen. So we’ll do it. Yep. Yeah. Any final words, boys? Anybody parting thoughts? Who has parting thoughts?

Alexi: I mean, who’s,

Stephane Dagenais: well it, it. Well, my parting thought is, I, I honestly do feel like there may be, and there probably is more wheat pool down the road. Yeah. I I mean, you guys are all fucking old.

Mike Angus: Oh yeah. There’s that. But

Stephane Dagenais: I turned 50 in a couple of months. Still think it will work.

Mike Angus: Yeah. We have a couple of songs we’ve never really fleshed out, and I’m not against kind of writing a couple more

Glen Erickson: phone. You’re still handsome. You guys are still handsome,

Mike Angus: buddy. I’m doing the best I can [02:10:00] here. It’s a struggle.

It’s, I went through my phone recently and I found five other songs from when, um, we were working at Blurred Lines,

Glen Erickson: really? Together. Holy shit. That’s cool. Um, that’s kind of in there. I

Mike Angus: think I sent you guys the demos at some point, but they could do some, some tweaking before we re-examine them. Um, yeah. If we had three or five new tunes.

Alexi: Yeah.

Mike Angus: Last time we did the reunion, uh, my dad was just like, and bless Bruce. He’s sweet man. But his only comment was Don’t play yourself. Don’t play

Speaker 6: any, just play the hits. Just play the hits. Just play the hits. He, he is,

Mike Angus: he’s salted the earth. Like, and I, I would love to record blurred lines. I think that was so good how it turned out.

I would love to,

Stephane Dagenais: yeah.

Mike Angus: Work on some new stuff and see where it would go. See how loud it could get.

Stephane Dagenais: That’d be fun. Well guys, I’ve [02:11:00] already got hearing damage, so Yeah, I too was talking about this.

Glen Erickson: I had, I dunno if you remember Joel May. I just had her on as a guest and that was mm-hmm. One of my first questions because I only used to see her at gigs and conferences and I’m like, how’s your hearing, by the way?

Because I’m starting to notice mine isn’t the best. Oh, for sure. I wouldn’t wear stuff on stage. I, um, I wanted to hear the noise and I’m paying. Yeah, me too. I’m paying for it. Yeah. I get, okay. I get a lot of, uh, I’m gonna cut it off, off and tell you guys that, uh, I love you guys more than anything and yeah, love you too.

Love you. You’re the best friends the guy could ask for, and I appreciate you doing this and keeping me around all this time. It’s been special. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for making

Mike Angus: time, Glen. Yeah, great job. We, we didn’t even fight about how you had Brandy, my partner on the podcast before you had me.

Glen Erickson: Yeah, well, uh, you had her

Mike Angus: like

Glen Erickson: third episode, didn’t you?

No, she was eight. And by the way. Nonetheless episode. What the

Alexi: fuck?

Glen Erickson: [02:12:00] Her episode is outperformed all but two people in my entire, I believe it thing so far. But that’s ’cause

Mike Angus: I’ve listened to it a hundred times.

Glen Erickson: Okay. That’s it. It counted every single one of your downloads. That’s great. Uh, she had a great episode and she’s got so great at social media.

I’m not surprised, but yeah, she’s, she’s, she,

Mike Angus: she’s a lot of great shit to say. If you haven’t listened to her episode, go back and listen to her. She’s great episode. She’s really great. She’s very smart and a hardest worker.

Glen Erickson: Yep. I agree. Okay. Thanks boys. Appreciate you all. Love you guys love it. Thank you.

Thanks for pulling it together, Glen. Appreciate it. You bet. Let’s talk again a little soon. Yeah. Okay, cia. Okay. Okay. Bye-Bye. See ya.

 

Alexi: Okay. That’ll have to do,

Glen: that’ll have to do, oh, okay. Eventful morning. Uh, yes. To record post fame because, um, first

Alexi: morning episode.

Glen: First [02:13:00] morning episode of post fame. A hundred percent live in the car and not just in our garage, but actually driving you to school and me to work. Yeah. We’re coming out of the gym

Alexi: post fire alarm.

Post

Glen: fire alarm at 7:00 AM at the gym. Um,

Alexi: in shambles. My bad. Yeah, in

Glen: shambles. And Sand’s curling Iron and MAs mascara for you and san’s mascara and all these wonderful things. Um, I did find out, however, we’re from the front desk girl that they were planning to test fire alarms, but she wasn’t told about it.

Oh, by her, her man, her manager. Uh, she looked a little disheveled. Um, anyhow, so, and we’re coming off of, uh, a crazy time too where, um, you were away for a while. Yeah. And London, Ontario with school stuff and a cool presentation thing. And, um, so you were a part of this episode from [02:14:00] London?

Alexi: Yes,

Glen: Ontario, which was kind of from my

Alexi: dingy little hotel.

A

Glen: super fun pop out in there. And then, uh, I was away and. Like Vancouver for the weekend. Yes. Things were all a little bit hectic. You come back, you’ve written two exams.

Alexi: Two exams in

Glen: two days, and a presentation.

Alexi: Yes. Today. Which is why the mess tomorrow now.

Glen: Oh, what

Alexi: tomorrow? I just wanted to look pretty today ’cause I have a staff

Glen: meeting.

Oh geez. Oh, I thought I. Okay. I thought the mascara tragedy was because of you’re also doing a presentation. Oh,

Alexi: no,

Glen: but you just wanted, okay. You’re just a girl. I get it. Yeah. Um, okay. But, so here we are. We arrive on an episode that you and I have talked about for a really long time. Mm-hmm. Um, which is having the band on to talk about the band experience and full transparency.

I really, right. I started the idea with, um, really that I think I was like. We’ve never like, sat down as a band and I don’t know if anybody does that. You sit down years later and be like, [02:15:00] what? Like, so why did we break up? Or like, what were you thinking about? Yeah. Or, and, and here was the funny, I’m gonna give this little nugget first before you talk about it, but after that whole episode here was, here’s what really dawned on me, which is it doesn’t actually feel like we broke up.

Alexi: Well Yeah. ’cause you’re all still so close.

Glen: Yeah. And we, and we talked about in there. How, you know, we had gotten the, asked the question, you know, did you guys make it a conscious decision? Like did you come to a crossroads versus just kind of decide to just kind of Peter out?

Alexi: Yeah. And

Glen: we didn’t want to be one of those typical, and there felt like, at least in Edmonton.

So many bands that just kind of disappeared and then they would show up every two years and play a, a gig somewhere and it just felt irrelevant.

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: And we didn’t want to feel irrelevant, which is why we ended things. And we did reunion shows and they were really good and significant for people that really wanted, you know, just to see us again for a while.

Um, [02:16:00] anyhow. Um, but in all of that, you know, we used the language that we broke up and we did in the sense that we weren’t just a. A relationship. It’s not like we were actively together anymore. Yeah. Doing the thing that made us the band. But I guess there’s just this other layer, which is the four of us are always the we pool.

Alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen: And you just, I guess some people could choose to let that die and not talk to each other again or whatever. But we never let that die. And I’m just gonna say that, I mean, you saw me while I was editing.

Alexi: Oh my goodness. Yeah.

Glen: Like this was the hardest. Episode to edit, because it was a, the longest thing we’d ever recorded.

Mm-hmm. It was hard to even manage that, but I was laughing so hard, just enjoying it again, and I think I said to you and your mom that like, if anybody wanted to see what it was like to be part of the band, the inside of the band, like what it was like to be in the van over and over again, that’s, that [02:17:00] was the perfect glimpse.

That was it. That was the glimpse into the band. And I don’t know if that’s what people wanted or do want. But I’ll just say that that episode to me was literally the perfection of what it meant when the four of us get together.

Alexi: I love that.

Glen: Yeah. It was, it was pretty beautiful. Um, there were like fun answers to some questions.

Uh, we didn’t get to all the questions people wanted, like some questions were a little bit silly and that’s fine. And I would’ve answered them if I didn’t realize that we could have gone for three hours. Um, so I didn’t, but I hope that, I just really hope that that’s, it’s got some things maybe to learn and some insights.

And mostly though, if, um, there’s some people that have always been super kind and cared about us as quote unquote fans. And I hope, I hope that, that, you know, I know that for myself as a fan of some bands, like a big fan of some [02:18:00] bands, I would take everything I could get from just. Knowing what the dynamics

Alexi: Yeah.

And

Glen: what that life was like. And I feel like we actually put a lot in there in this episode. So

Alexi: I love that.

Glen: Yeah. And you got to ask your question. Oh

Alexi: yeah.

Glen: Which was really fun. It wasn’t

Alexi: really like question though, it was just like an assumption and in my head it was happening. So like they didn’t really have a choice.

Glen: Well did, but here’s the funny thing, and I don’t know how you felt about how the response came out, but it was, it was like pretty, uh, stone face. It was almost. Like an assumption of Yes, of course.

Alexi: Yeah. Well ’cause

Glen: also

Alexi: because I had assumed it was just like a yes and that was happening in my life. And then mom’s reaction was kind of like, you haven’t asked them.

Like, they might be really surprised or like, you know, they might have no idea. And I was like, oh, like, that’s a good point. So then I was like, okay, I’ll ask. And then I was like literally 50 50 between like, they’re gonna just be like, uh, [02:19:00] like, yeah, why are you even asking? Or they’re gonna have that kind of big red.

Oh, oh my goodness. Like, you know,

Glen: I never thought, yeah, I wondered about the big reaction in the sense that they might hear it as I’m getting engaged. So I know

Alexi: I was like, guys, and then I drop, we’re not there.

Glen: Yeah, absolutely. But they, and they get, have

Alexi: degree first. Um, yeah. But no, I, I found it funny too because they also think it’s like, so like the fact that I grew up with all the boys, like around, it’s just like I asked and it was.

Like stone faced, like, yeah, of course we care about you. Like that’s the biggest honor. Like they took it very serious. And I was just like, that’s so

Glen: they took it very, very seriously. Very, I mean we,

Alexi: I thought they would, they crack a joke or make fun of me, but it was like

Glen: they didn’t doing dad mode on me.

Got you. Got you. You’re totally right. You did get total, you got dad mode from Robb. I know Robb Eng gets mad. I was like.

Alexi: I was like, why am I on Zoom with my four dads right now? Like,

Glen: that’s, that’s funny. ’cause we did talk about [02:20:00] that in the episode where they were like, when we were talking about the beginning at 2005 and they were like, did you have, how many kids did you even have at that point?

I’m like, Lexi was in the womb.

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: When we started the band. So you literally,

Alexi: I’m a product of the band. You

Glen: kind of came out with the band. Yeah. And uh, your entire early years were

Alexi: the wheat pools.

Glen: PRobbably because it was my biggest part of my identity.

Alexi: Yeah.

Glen: Um, I can’t help but think that you pRobbably grew up just knowing that, or feeling, I don’t know.

You can tell me whether like that’s what you knew me as. I don’t know whether you, you know, how parents look at their, or kids look at their parents with what job they have when you’re little and how you associate your parent or something. And I don’t know what your association was, whether I was stay at home.

Dad or you know, ’cause I did graphic design and websites and to pay the bills or whether my whole life was music and band and going to shows and [02:21:00] running the record label.

Alexi: No, it was pretty Band Dad for like a. At the start of my, like, memories. Yeah. Because I like when you were home, like, I didn’t know you were like doing your work on your computer.

Right. ’cause kale and I would hop off on the computer and like put a CD in it and watch a show like Right. Like, I didn’t know

Glen: Yeah. What

Alexi: you were doing or what you were Up

Glen: to you. It is, uh, it’s, I, I used the term with, uh, another recent interview I had where it was like that beautiful oblivion of Yeah. Of being a, a kid and, uh, you don’t need to.

O and you don’t care in the most sincere way. So I mean, that’s totally fine. But yeah, it was very bandana. I remember like we would always leave on our road trips from the driveway. Yeah, right. You pRobbably, I don’t know, you might remember I wasn’t

Alexi: being over ’cause I remember when I was a little bit older, like near the end.

Glen: Yeah.

Alexi: Um, there was like one point where all the boys were like in there and, um, Robb Angus had sat down and colored with me. [02:22:00] Yeah, I just like, this is like some vivid memory I have, but Robb, I guess had sat down and colored with me like when you guys were all prepping and stuff and then you guys left and then mom made some comment about me having like a crush on Robb.

And then I like, I think for like the next few times I saw him, like whether it be like at the next act or if he was over, whatever, I like didn’t wanna be near him. ’cause I was like, oh my goodness, he knows I have a crush on him. Like, I didn’t know what it meant. Uh, yeah. But no, that’s definitely what I remember.

That’s kind of

Glen: funny. It, I mean. There.

Yeah. I mean, that was pRobbably the McEwen house.

Alexi: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I mean he

Glen: was, it was just, yeah, it’s, he was like really sweet to you and you really liked it. Mm-hmm. And who doesn’t like the attention? Right. That’s what it is really around when you’re a. A kid and then, um, those guys were all so great with both you and Kale.

Yeah. All the time. And I often do remember both the leaving off the driveway and even coming back up and getting dropped off on the driveway. Um, and you guys always coming out and, [02:23:00] and yeah, those are like pretty vivid memories.

Alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen: Anyhow, uh, I’m really glad that you got to sort of share in that whole thing.

I did find maybe there were a couple of. Really interesting parts. I’ll point out one was, um, when we were talking about how we had a band of no friction, which was really true. Yeah. Like we had a, we had a, a band of guys that

Alexi: love each other started

Glen: with respect.

Alexi: Mm-hmm. Right?

Glen: Because you don’t know each other super well and then you’re forged into all.

That life together. Yeah. And then it, you know, there’s already brothers, so there like, and just, yeah, a quick love, but I mean, people who love each other like have conflict all the time and we just, we didn’t, and maybe a bit of it was avoidant, not the best personality version traits, but it didn’t really matter because we found a way together.

And I just found it interesting that Robb said pRobbably the only pRobblem the band ever might have had was. He drank an awful [02:24:00] lot in the early days.

Alexi: Yeah,

Glen: and I, in real time kind of put together how I had a certain. A version of Robb in my mind. Mm-hmm. That doesn’t exist now and hasn’t existed for a long time that I never connected to.

He drank too much because this is the thing about being in music, and I’ve said this a couple times. Maybe on the podcast is that it’s a crazy culture where you’re just surrounded. You’re in bars, at least in that era especially, you’re in bars all the time, every night of the week, like everybody’s drinking all the time.

It’s hard to actually pick out who has the pRobblem. In any way, right? Mm-hmm. And you get a little like blinded to, you know, is this someone’s personality or is this the alcohol personality? Yeah. And anyhow, like we had never, again, this is the thing we had never talked about as a band. And then there we talk about it and, and [02:25:00] the conversation around how and why we ended was awesome.

So very transparent and vulnerable and honest and kind with one another I like, which I, uh, really, really appreciated. And um, and I guess I’m gonna say this one thing, which is I’ve had to listen to myself, interview and talk with a lot of people. Yeah. Right. And I like doing it and I love conversation.

But listening back or watching back especially. Even, um, I felt like that’s a version of myself that I really like.

Alexi: Hmm.

Glen: Which says something about being around people that you love. Yeah. I guess, which is pretty sweet. Right? Um, and that they, and then the other one I played for you guys like that where, like, the other shocker is like, it always surprised me when Robb all of a sudden is like.

Yeah, I’d like to play more shows. And then Stefan at the end is like, I guess my [02:26:00] parting words is I don’t think that we’ve seen still the last of the wee pool.

Alexi: Well, I haven’t been married yet, so That’s true.

Glen: Well, besides. Besides your wedding band reunion show where we just play evergreen on repeat over and over and over.

If you imagine we just kept playing the same song mean people would

Alexi: pick up on it

Glen: over and over again. I feel like I’m gonna have to go get an evergreen tattoo with you. Um,

Alexi: amen. You got a week to decide?

Glen: I go. That’s it? Yeah. Are you going to that person down in our, in Devon? Oh no. That Devon person. No, I don’t

Alexi: wanna go to that person.

Glen: Okay. Um, okay. Well. I thought we had nothing to talk about. Now it’s been 14 minutes. So that’s,

Alexi: so it happens. This is the longest and I haven’t even watched the episode taken

Glen: Sure. You’re not supposed to disclose. Oh my bad. Um, okay. That’s, uh, that’s all. This is the longest episode ever. But I also think it’s such a gooder and I hope, um, time flies and people love it so [02:27:00]

Alexi: well, I can say it’s.

The best or my favorite because I’m not the the main host. So I’ll say this is my favorite. Okay.

Glen: That sounds good to me. Okay. Okay. Thanks for rolling with it this morning.

Alexi: Yep.

Glen: Okay. Bye. Love you.

Alexi: Bye.