Latest / Almost Famous Enough / ep18 Hotel Mira is very noble

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ep18 Hotel Mira is very noble · Almost Famous Enough

• 0:24
  Ramones Nirvana, Tori Amos, Queens of the Stone Age.
• 0:30
  What do all these bands have in common with the Canadian alt rock band, Hotel Mira?
• 0:36
  You may be quickly scanning your memory, bank of iconic singing performances or musical threads that run a through line, but they all actually reference the term lobotomy.
• 0:47
  In their lyrics, lobotomy the distinction of using the uncommon word lobotomy in two charting singles belongs solely to Hotel Mira, however.
• 0:59
  So if you're one of those air quotes, fun facts, guys, you're welcome.
• 1:05
  That might come in useful someday.
• 1:06
  Hotel Mira is a Canadian alt rock band out of Vancouver, BC and our guest is Mike Noble.
• 1:13
  Bassist for the four piece band.
• 1:15
  This is the second episode where I interview the bassist of a band, and I don't think it's the last, no special meaning there either.
• 1:23
  Just more fun facts.
• 1:25
  But Mike is a music industry veteran and the band Hotel Mira, while seeming air quotes newer on the radar, for many people I think who get their band introductions from TikTok or landing on an alt rock station, they're also veterans.
• 1:41
  In many ways, this is the current iteration of the musical journey of lead singer Charlie Kerr.
• 1:46
  And at this point I could make another sidebar set of iconic band references, which have something in common, and that common thread would be very charismatic front men, but I won't.
• 1:58
  Getting behind the scenes of Hotel Mira was best served by the perspective of the bass player.
• 2:03
  And Mike Noble has the perfect combination of extroverted charm, natural humility, and internalized experience, and just the right amount of giving no fucks to put lobotomy in a second song.
• 2:17
  My name is Glen Erickson.
• 2:19
  This is Almost Famous Enough.
• 2:21
  Thanks for spending your time with us.
• 2:23
  This is Mike Noble of Hotel Mira.
• 2:37
  Glen Erickson: Are we here?
• 2:38
  Glen Erickson: Are we together?
• 2:39
  Mike: Yeah, yeah,
• 2:39
  Glen Erickson: well.
• 2:39
  Glen Erickson: There you go.
• 2:40
  Mike: yeah.
• 2:40
  Glen Erickson: So you're back home.
• 2:42
  Mike: I am flew
• 2:43
  Glen Erickson: Okay, so quick, quick, quick references for everything.
• 2:47
  Mike: Okay.
• 2:48
  Glen Erickson: My friend Mike Noble, the band hotel mirror, just came back from Stampede yesterday, a fly in, fly out, um, in your home back in Vancouver, BC Canada.
• 3:00
  Mike: Yes.
• 3:00
  Glen Erickson: I see a summer slam poster behind you, which I love because I I know you're a wrestling fan.
• 3:05
  Mike: Yeah.
• 3:05
  Glen Erickson: Um,
• 3:06
  Mike: new Japan shirt.
• 3:08
  Glen Erickson: oh, really?
• 3:08
  Glen Erickson: Oh, yeah.
• 3:09
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 3:10
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, that's so absolutely perfect.
• 3:12
  Glen Erickson: So, so this is great.
• 3:13
  Glen Erickson: So the reference points are all like fantastic for me right off the bat, but, so you guys just did a, a fly in, fly out stampede.
• 3:21
  Glen Erickson: Did you?
• 3:22
  Glen Erickson: I think you performed more than once.
• 3:24
  Glen Erickson: You were kind of on a, they have like big bills with multiple people.
• 3:29
  Glen Erickson: Right.
• 3:30
  Mike: I mean, going back to the, uh, wrestling reference stampede
• 3:33
  Glen Erickson: Okay, I like that.
• 3:34
  Glen Erickson: Oh yeah.
• 3:35
  Glen Erickson: Stampede wrestling.
• 3:36
  Mike: stampede is kind of like WrestleMania weekend in the sense of like, you have like the one big event, but then, because there's just so many people around, there's a bunch of like
• 3:44
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 3:45
  Mike: that happen.
• 3:46
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 3:46
  Mike: flew there because we were playing, uh, Oxford Stomp, opening for Sheryl Crow, which was mind blowing.
• 3:52
  Mike: We got the offer and I was like, is this a typo?
• 3:54
  Mike: Like, did this go to the wrong email?
• 3:56
  Mike: then we, we immediately got off stage and I got a text from our agent and saying like, Hey, are you guys are around tomorrow?
• 4:03
  Mike: Right?
• 4:03
  Mike: Like, we just got another offer for, WildHorse Saloon.
• 4:05
  Mike: So we, we, we went in with one gig and came out with two gigs.
• 4:08
  Glen Erickson: Oh, that's a great way to do it.
• 4:10
  Glen Erickson: So, Sheryl Crow, like, so you, you with your guys' music, which is like in a, I think in a pretty distinct lane.
• 4:18
  Glen Erickson: I think we could call it.
• 4:20
  Mike: Yeah.
• 4:20
  Glen Erickson: But, but lots of success on the radio and, and the radio likes to play all kinds of things.
• 4:26
  Glen Erickson: Do you find, because you guys still, you book all your own tours, you book a lot of like support acts still on like bigger, longer things, like kind of a mix it feels like.
• 4:36
  Glen Erickson: So is Cheryl Crow like one of the weirdest combos that you've had that nobody would maybe think of or have there been other
• 4:45
  Mike: it's, it's
• 4:45
  Glen Erickson: like that?
• 4:46
  Mike: it's certainly up there.
• 4:47
  Mike: Like you, you always get those, like, you know, when, when you're first starting, like you play these festivals and like, like in my old bands and stuff like that, we played festivals that?
• 4:56
  Mike: were like headlined by Drake and stuff, and it's like, obviously that's a like, not a fit, not a sonic fit.
• 5:03
  Mike: But in terms of like bill, I'd say Cheryl's definitely up there without thinking too hard about it.
• 5:09
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 5:10
  Mike: just because like, but like the bill makes sense.
• 5:12
  Mike: Like, like it was us dro, the sheep dogs and Cheryl Crowe, and you can
• 5:16
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 5:18
  Mike: flow goes, right?
• 5:19
  Mike: Like,
• 5:20
  Glen Erickson: Well, you're more in the Deer Rouge camp and the sheep dogs are still Western Canadian,
• 5:26
  Mike: Yeah.
• 5:26
  Glen Erickson: they're a little more, you know, organicy.
• 5:29
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 5:30
  Glen Erickson: A little more like in that line vintage, uh, with Cheryl.
• 5:33
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, sure.
• 5:34
  Glen Erickson: Why not?
• 5:34
  Glen Erickson: That's great.
• 5:35
  Mike: it, it was an amazing, like everyone played so good, like the sheep dogs blew me away.
• 5:39
  Mike: D Rouge are, were great as always, but like, when Shel came on, it was like, like, you know, like, I, I feel she crow has been like, like it, at least in my life, she's just been like, kind of like in the cultural zeitgeist, you know?
• 5:52
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:53
  Mike: and I never doubted that she was gonna be incredible, but when I saw her I was like, oh yeah.
• 5:57
  Mike: that's why she's like a superstar, you know?
• 6:00
  Mike: Like it was incredible.
• 6:02
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 6:02
  Glen Erickson: It's like you feel like you're a pro and then you meet a pro it.
• 6:05
  Mike: a
• 6:05
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 6:06
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 6:07
  Glen Erickson: So, When you were in those younger bands and you played, or whatever, festivals headlined by Drake, did you do the thing where then when you started to create your bio writeup that you said that you had opened for acts such as Drake?
• 6:20
  Mike: The, uh, the phrasing that I love is shared the stage.
• 6:24
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 6:25
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 6:25
  Mike: that's my, when, whenever I read, whenever I read a, because I, I work with a lot of emerging artists, um, just because, like, I, I dip my toes into like co-writing and producing and stuff like that.
• 6:35
  Mike: And, um, whenever I read a bio that's like, we shared the stage, I'm like, I like I've played that game before.
• 6:40
  Mike: I know exactly what
• 6:41
  Glen Erickson: Oh, I know, I've, I've read, I, I've said this so many times on the podcast.
• 6:45
  Glen Erickson: I've read so many, uh, applications or like grant applications
• 6:50
  Mike: Yeah.
• 6:51
  Glen Erickson: You just sit there and you're like, how do they not think that we know?
• 6:54
  Glen Erickson: Like
• 6:54
  Mike: yeah,
• 6:55
  Glen Erickson: the only people that get hired to review those things are people who have already done that themselves.
• 6:59
  Mike: yeah, exactly.
• 7:01
  Mike: I, I do like,
• 7:02
  Glen Erickson: I
• 7:02
  Mike: I, it, it's kind of like,
• 7:03
  Glen Erickson: but you get it.
• 7:04
  Mike: for me, oh, of course, I get it.
• 7:06
  Mike: Like,
• 7:06
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 7:07
  Mike: I was like, at that stage in my career, I was just like, like friends be like, Hey, no, like, we're cool.
• 7:14
  Mike: You know, like, and then so like that makes it to your bio, but then that's just your bio, you know?
• 7:19
  Mike: So
• 7:19
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 7:19
  Mike: it off to grant applications and they're like, oh, you really opened for Mumford and Sunset.
• 7:26
  Glen Erickson: First question.
• 7:27
  Mike: Yeah,
• 7:28
  Glen Erickson: Mike, I'm gonna ask you a weird question.
• 7:30
  Glen Erickson: First of all, how old are you?
• 7:31
  Mike: I'm 35.
• 7:32
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 7:33
  Glen Erickson: I thought you might be mid thirties.
• 7:34
  Glen Erickson: Um,
• 7:35
  Mike: yeah.
• 7:36
  Glen Erickson: so you've been doing this a while,
• 7:38
  Mike: Hot minute.
• 7:39
  Glen Erickson: Do you feel like you have like a lot of friends in the business, or do you feel like we're all sort of friends, but you really only have a few real friends?
• 7:48
  Glen Erickson: What, what I, and there's a reason I'm asking this question that I'm just sort of curious your perspective on the friendships in the industry
• 7:56
  Mike: Yeah.
• 7:57
  Glen Erickson: it so long kind of thing.
• 7:58
  Mike: I'm, I'm comfortable saying I have a lot of friends in the industry.
• 8:02
  Mike: Um, I think it's because like you and I met like 10 years ago, right?
• 8:07
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 8:07
  Mike: at, at
• 8:08
  Glen Erickson: absolutely.
• 8:08
  Mike: at bootcamp.
• 8:10
  Mike: Um, and I think especially like we've always, like, one of the things we say about hotel Mirror is that we're kind of like.
• 8:17
  Mike: one of the reasons for our air quote success is that we're the surviving members of all of our other bands who wanted to have a career in music.
• 8:25
  Mike: Right.
• 8:26
  Mike: And so we kind of came together and that's why we're so driven.
• 8:29
  Mike: And when you've been it for as long as I have, or we have, it's all kind of just the same people.
• 8:37
  Mike: You know, like, it's like new people show up here and there, but it's like, oh, like, You.
• 8:41
  Mike: know, that person at Radio
• 8:42
  Glen Erickson: You.
• 8:42
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 8:43
  Glen Erickson: You keep seeing the same people.
• 8:44
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 8:45
  Mike: and just through, over time you just cultivate these relationships and like, you know, like when I'm in Calgary for Stampede, I'm hitting up all of my Calgary friends and being like, Hey, like, you know, whoever they work in radio, they work in marketing or whatever.
• 8:58
  Mike: and kind of like a, a bit of a, we're all in this together vibe, which is cool.
• 9:03
  Glen Erickson: I agree.
• 9:04
  Glen Erickson: I, well, I mean, that's a real cool perspective actually.
• 9:07
  Glen Erickson: I was, uh, I was interviewing Jen Fritz publicist from Vancouver, and we were talking sort of about this and about.
• 9:15
  Glen Erickson: After all this time, you keep seeing some of the same names.
• 9:17
  Glen Erickson: And for, strangely, the guy's name just left me right this second, but I was talking with people at the Polaris Music Prize and realized that the person who's running all their publicity and media and all that kind of stuff, I remember his name when I was like, hand mailing CDs to, you know, every college station and everything across Canada.
• 9:39
  Glen Erickson: Like still around, still doing the same thing kind of, you know what I mean?
• 9:42
  Glen Erickson: Like, not the exact same thing, but still in the business still.
• 9:45
  Glen Erickson: And, and it's, I think it's really cool.
• 9:47
  Glen Erickson: I, and I guess last night I was just thinking, because I actually went looking it up.
• 9:52
  Glen Erickson: I'm gonna post it on socials when we release the episode, found a photo of you at bootcamp at Rockridge Canyon.
• 9:59
  Glen Erickson: and then there's a photo that I can't tell if it's you, I can't wait to share this photo and then you can tell me.
• 10:03
  Glen Erickson: But I just remember you wearing those, like multicolor patterned, like,
• 10:09
  Mike: I know
• 10:10
  Glen Erickson: like leggings.
• 10:11
  Mike: Yeah.
• 10:11
  Mike: Yeah.
• 10:11
  Glen Erickson: see a photo, but the some, it's wearing a mask and I can't tell if it's, if you or if it's buddy from mother.
• 10:18
  Glen Erickson: Mother who was at camp.
• 10:19
  Glen Erickson: Um,
• 10:20
  Mike: So I can tell you the story about those leggings
• 10:22
  Glen Erickson: okay.
• 10:23
  Glen Erickson: I love it.
• 10:23
  Glen Erickson: The leggings were epic.
• 10:25
  Mike: so I, I worked for music BC I was, I'm like, I've always been a musician, right?
• 10:31
  Mike: And so I did a year working for Music BC in 2015, which is how you and I met.
• 10:35
  Mike: And uh, basically I.
• 10:38
  Mike: Did a sub gig playing bass for JP Maurice.
• 10:41
  Mike: it was a, it was like three shows on the island and or Vancouver Island for those who, uh, might not be BC uh, locals.
• 10:49
  Mike: And, um, this like festival.
• 10:52
  Mike: There's a brewery called Longwood, and they put this like festival in their parking lot every year called Long Woodstock, which I only think existed because of the obvious pun.
• 11:01
  Mike: Like, uh, I think some, someone in their marketing department said, how about this?
• 11:05
  Mike: And they're like, yeah, let's do it.
• 11:06
  Mike: so set up like vendors and stuff like that.
• 11:10
  Mike: And there was a lady who lived in Nanaimo who made these like crazy tights.
• 11:16
  Mike: And JP basically was like, Hey, like if I get some for free, do you guys wanna wear them on stage?
• 11:22
  Mike: And all of us were like, uh, yeah, sure.
• 11:25
  Mike: And then we just got these wild ones.
• 11:26
  Mike: And because bootcamp, and because bootcamp was like a month after that, we, like everyone was just doing that.
• 11:32
  Mike: So think it.
• 11:35
  Mike: If it wasn't me, it was probably someone in J's band.
• 11:38
  Glen Erickson: Oh yeah.
• 11:39
  Glen Erickson: 'cause they were out there at the same time.
• 11:40
  Glen Erickson: That's right.
• 11:41
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, I remember that.
• 11:42
  Glen Erickson: I remember.
• 11:44
  Glen Erickson: I rem like, because one of the first things that happens at this bootcamp, so everybody knows were all these artists who are sort of hand selected for this massive prize, basically kickstart the whole thing by all being ushered off to the absolute paradise of British Columbia.
• 12:00
  Mike: Princeton.
• 12:01
  Glen Erickson: And, one of the very first things the first night or second night is a, a traditional ball hockey game on this big cement pad that they have between, basically between the industry side and then all the artists who are there.
• 12:14
  Glen Erickson: So everybody who's there at the camp on the business side of things, either their mentors or instructors or camp staff or whoever.
• 12:23
  Glen Erickson: And then artists.
• 12:24
  Glen Erickson: and uh, I just remember your tights and I remember you had a really good game, like you were.
• 12:29
  Glen Erickson: Like, I was like, shit, that guy's a baller.
• 12:31
  Glen Erickson: I love it.
• 12:32
  Glen Erickson: So, and I don't even remember all the circumstances, Mike.
• 12:35
  Glen Erickson: I just remember we kind of became fast friends.
• 12:37
  Glen Erickson: I really liked you.
• 12:38
  Glen Erickson: I loved your spirit and I loved, uh, you, and it seems like you still do all these years later, have a very high social battery.
• 12:46
  Glen Erickson: So it doesn't surprise me that you make a lot of friends everywhere you go and would consider yourself I a lot of friends.
• 12:52
  Glen Erickson: I mean, the reason I ask is I just, I think last night I just found it so interesting that I'm like, you and I run into each other at this thing
• 13:00
  Mike: Mm-hmm.
• 13:00
  Glen Erickson: a decade ago and through not that many, maybe, I don't know, like social, it is just staying up on each other on social media that I still feel like we're friends,
• 13:11
  Mike: Yeah.
• 13:12
  Glen Erickson: you know, not running into each other.
• 13:14
  Glen Erickson: It's, it's weird, right?
• 13:15
  Glen Erickson: But really cool.
• 13:16
  Mike: it's interesting because like, like I, I, I actually get asked sort of different versions of that question, like.
• 13:22
  Mike: Ev not, not all the time, but like, enough that it's like a recurring thing and like, just like, like maintaining relationships with like-minded people over social media isn't actually that difficult.
• 13:34
  Mike: I think like, especially in like an artistic field.
• 13:37
  Mike: Like I, my Instagram is just straight up reserved for like, like I, I, I fully am just like, Hey, like I just wanna make myself look cool.
• 13:45
  Mike: online.
• 13:46
  Mike: Like, I'm not posting, like, and like, I'm fully aware of that.
• 13:49
  Mike: It's like, it's like a secondary marketing tool to the hotel mirror account, basically.
• 13:54
  Mike: Right.
• 13:55
  Mike: So
• 13:55
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, yeah,
• 13:56
  Mike: post like my tour info or like, like I don't really post my personal life because it's like I'm, you know, it's, I, I find I don't really need to, if that makes sense.
• 14:05
  Mike: Like
• 14:06
  Glen Erickson: yeah.
• 14:06
  Glen Erickson: I.
• 14:07
  Mike: and because it's this thing where like.
• 14:09
  Mike: I'm just posting like, here's tour dates, here's some pictures from our last tour.
• 14:12
  Mike: Like we just did a European run.
• 14:14
  Mike: Like, look at all these like, funny things we did, you know?
• 14:17
  Mike: And then like five, like, not five, but like a lot, a lot of people will be like, oh, fucking sick.
• 14:22
  Mike: Like, that's sweet, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 14:23
  Mike: Like you being one of them quite a
• 14:25
  Glen Erickson: Yep.
• 14:26
  Mike: And, um, and then I like, and in a reciprocal way, I like, you know, like an artist will post like a sick tour.
• 14:32
  Mike: It'll be like, dude, you guys fucking crushed it.
• 14:34
  Mike: And then the next time I'm in, let's say Toronto and I run into those guys, it's like, dude, let's go for a beer.
• 14:38
  Mike: Like, you know, it's, it's not like, it's like a kind of like a different thing than maintaining like a friendship in real life, like without similar
• 14:46
  Glen Erickson: Correct.
• 14:46
  Glen Erickson: Yep.
• 14:47
  Mike: I think it's like a, like we're all connected by this crazy music industry, so, uh, we always have something to talk about.
• 14:53
  Glen Erickson: It's true.
• 14:54
  Glen Erickson: And I think I realized at some point along the way, and I don't know when like, like I met these people like you being an example of them at some point.
• 15:02
  Glen Erickson: I'm impressed by them.
• 15:03
  Glen Erickson: I appreciate.
• 15:05
  Glen Erickson: What goes into trying to make a career and doing all this stuff.
• 15:08
  Glen Erickson: I want to cheerlead all of those people all the way along.
• 15:12
  Glen Erickson: It's as simple as a choice as either, like, I hit that, like, or I hit that share, or I even hit the quick message like, you know, fucking awesome or, or I don't like, it's that easy.
• 15:24
  Glen Erickson: And if I don't, then I'm probably just gonna stop cheerleading altogether, so why wouldn't I just go make the other choice?
• 15:30
  Glen Erickson: Right.
• 15:30
  Glen Erickson: And, and if that's the version of friendship, I think it's still pretty cool.
• 15:33
  Glen Erickson: Like, okay, so you, you already started filling in some blanks that I was gonna fill in here, so, I've got you.
• 15:40
  Glen Erickson: Speaking both about yourself and speaking about the band, which is, you know, probably something you're comfortable and have done a lot of anyhow over the time.
• 15:48
  Glen Erickson: But I've been sort of interested, I know in your background, obviously the band started with Charlie Kerr, kind of the founding member, at least the, the transitions have all sort of existed with him there and circled around him.
• 16:03
  Glen Erickson: And you sort of came in at 2018 with
• 16:07
  Mike: Yeah.
• 16:07
  Glen Erickson: a whole new group around him, like, uh, almost completely, except for the, the one guitar player who, who stayed around for a little while and moved on.
• 16:16
  Glen Erickson: But, but the group that came in then is essentially the group that you've been now, so you've had a, now a good seven years of longevity with it, which is great.
• 16:24
  Glen Erickson: And I'm, I'm curious.
• 16:26
  Glen Erickson: A couple of things about all of that, but I think first is a good place to start is I'm, I'm sort of curious about you coming to the band.
• 16:33
  Glen Erickson: So like you said you worked, for music bc the Provincial Music Association, not-for-profit like, and I, and I showed up at the same bootcamp, being on the board of Alberta Music, our provincial association.
• 16:45
  Glen Erickson: and eventually kind of ran the committee when it turned into Project Wild here for the last five years.
• 16:51
  Glen Erickson: So, we both kind of came into it through provincial association work.
• 16:55
  Glen Erickson: I didn't even think I knew you were like an active musician at that time.
• 16:59
  Glen Erickson: Like that's all I knew about you.
• 17:00
  Glen Erickson: So then again, following you on socials and then seeing the hotel mirror thing start and and I had already like loosely been familiar with Japanese girls.
• 17:09
  Glen Erickson: So, I'm curious just sort of what was your background?
• 17:12
  Glen Erickson: Sort of coming into that, like getting into music and playing it, and then how you end up in this band.
• 17:18
  Mike: Yeah.
• 17:18
  Mike: So, uh.
• 17:19
  Mike: I love this question.
• 17:21
  Mike: Uh, so basically I started playing music when I was in middle school.
• 17:24
  Mike: I started playing guitar, you know, girl I had a crush on said she was into girls, guys who played guitar.
• 17:29
  Glen Erickson: Perfect.
• 17:29
  Mike: like, yep, that's what I do now.
• 17:32
  Mike: And then, um, we never ended up getting together, so
• 17:35
  Glen Erickson: Because they never say I'm into wrestling.
• 17:37
  Mike: Yeah.
• 17:37
  Mike: Well, no, I still haven't to this day.
• 17:40
  Mike: That's never been a, a sentence that's been said to me.
• 17:43
  Mike: but yeah.
• 17:43
  Mike: And then so, I also, so my best friend, um, since like, we, we grew up together as Brendan Bachelor, the, uh, voice of the Vancouver Canucks for sports at six
• 17:53
  Glen Erickson: Hmm.
• 17:53
  Glen Erickson: Yep.
• 17:53
  Mike: up down the street from each other and he played guitar growing up.
• 17:56
  Mike: then we went, we got into high school together and, um, we were like, we should start a band.
• 18:01
  Mike: And, it was like, Oh shit, we need a bass player.
• 18:04
  Mike: And I'm like, well, he's better at guitar than I am, so I'm gonna play bass now.
• 18:08
  Mike: so that's how I started playing bass and just started, you know, playing in like high school bands.
• 18:12
  Mike: We were.
• 18:13
  Mike: As a high school, we, I, I actually often joke with Hotel Mira that like, it doesn't matter how bad a show goes, like, I've already played my worst show.
• 18:22
  Mike: Like, no, like, no matter what, like, like it, it's just like I, I'm, I'm never gonna get bummed out about that.
• 18:28
  Mike: and then, so let's see.
• 18:30
  Mike: Fast forward a bit.
• 18:31
  Mike: actually no.
• 18:32
  Mike: So I met Charlie in high school, like him and I have known each other for a long, long
• 18:35
  Glen Erickson: Oh wow.
• 18:36
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 18:36
  Mike: um, my high school metal band actually played a show.
• 18:41
  Mike: It played the very first show of the band that became Hotel Mira,
• 18:45
  Glen Erickson: Like the Beau,
• 18:46
  Mike: Charlie.
• 18:46
  Glen Erickson: called themselves the beauties.
• 18:48
  Mike: So
• 18:48
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 18:49
  Mike: I opened for the Beauties at their very first show loved them.
• 18:53
  Mike: And I went up to Charlie after, and I was like, that was an amazing set.
• 18:56
  Mike: Dude's a generational songwriter.
• 18:58
  Mike: I have no problem saying that.
• 18:59
  Mike: He is so unbelievably talented in a way
• 19:02
  Glen Erickson: Hmm.
• 19:02
  Mike: like, I'm so grateful to get to work with him, and be like best friends with him.
• 19:07
  Mike: but yeah, so him and I just come, kept in touch because, you know, musicians and like we were young then, um.
• 19:14
  Mike: Before everything came together with Japanese girls, he actually messaged me to jam.
• 19:19
  Mike: But I was in school at the time because, uh, you know, graduate high school you go to, I ended up gonna BCIT for radio broadcasting.
• 19:27
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 19:27
  Mike: so that's why I have this swanky setup and I know what I'm doing.
• 19:30
  Mike: But, um, actually, it's like also ironic, not ironic, I don't think that's the right word, but it, it, it helped out.
• 19:36
  Mike: I, I haven't worked a day in radio, but like people I graduated with are in industry.
• 19:41
  Mike: Like, like Jenny West on the Zone, who's
• 19:45
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 19:45
  Mike: I graduated like, she was a first year when I was a second year.
• 19:48
  Mike: So like all these connections that I made in school are still like paying off in my now like long career in
• 19:55
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 19:56
  Mike: Um, and then, so while I was in school, I ended up, I played a, I, so I.
• 20:01
  Mike: Post I, I'm, I'm jumbling the timeline, but we're
• 20:04
  Glen Erickson: that's all right.
• 20:05
  Mike: so it's not that bad.
• 20:06
  Mike: Um, I ended up, me and some friends ended up starting a band called Young Pacific and that, uh, you can still look us up on, uh, Spotify.
• 20:13
  Mike: We're still
• 20:13
  Glen Erickson: Nice.
• 20:14
  Glen Erickson: Nice.
• 20:15
  Mike: absolute pride and joy of Coquitlam British Columbia.
• 20:18
  Mike: just like some of my really close friends, uh, we, I.
• 20:22
  Mike: think, I thought we were really good.
• 20:23
  Mike: Like we wrote some songs that I was just like, damn, like we wrote these, eh, and then, um, we like, but it was like, you know, early, late teens, early twenties, like, everyone's off to school, then everyone gets in their careers, blah, blah, blah,
• 20:35
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 20:35
  Mike: Um, band fizzled out.
• 20:38
  Mike: Our last show we ever played, we opened for D Rouge, uh, in 2014, D Rouge and Fast Romantics at the Imperial in Vancouver.
• 20:46
  Mike: Uh,
• 20:46
  Glen Erickson: they, was that like one or two years off of them winning?
• 20:50
  Glen Erickson: The Peak Performance Project.
• 20:52
  Mike: off, I
• 20:53
  Glen Erickson: Oh, yeah.
• 20:53
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 20:54
  Mike: dear Rouge, were direct support, fast Romantics were headlining.
• 20:57
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 20:57
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 20:57
  Mike: was off, that was off the back of that.
• 21:00
  Mike: I love the Fast Romantics.
• 21:01
  Mike: They had that song, funeral song that I
• 21:03
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 21:04
  Mike: fantastic.
• 21:04
  Mike: And, uh, that was the tour from that
• 21:07
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 21:07
  Mike: cycle.
• 21:08
  Mike: Um, and then, but yeah, so, but before that we, that was like a young Pacific last show, but, and then so Young Pacific died down.
• 21:16
  Mike: I ended up, my first real tour was I ended up playing bass for an unbelievably talented musician named Jordan Clawson.
• 21:23
  Mike: And this was in like
• 21:24
  Glen Erickson: Oh yeah.
• 21:25
  Mike: Um, I love Jordan's music.
• 21:26
  Mike: Him and I still are in touch to this day.
• 21:29
  Mike: Um, he's a great dude.
• 21:30
  Mike: His music is unbelievable.
• 21:32
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 21:33
  Mike: like so we
• 21:33
  Glen Erickson: peak performance winner.
• 21:34
  Mike: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 21:35
  Glen Erickson: Right.
• 21:36
  Mike: yeah, he came Second
• 21:37
  Glen Erickson: Second to Dear Rouge, right?
• 21:39
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 21:39
  Mike: Yeah.
• 21:40
  Mike: so, played with Jordan, uh, did my first, tour, like my first true tour.
• 21:44
  Mike: We did a Western Canada tour and then right out right after we did, uh, it was Vancouver to New York.
• 21:50
  Mike: It's technically Edmonton to New York.
• 21:51
  Mike: We started, uh, started technically Calgary, actually started in Calgary, ended in New York.
• 21:56
  Mike: Um, I.
• 21:57
  Mike: technically toured across America before I toured across Canada, like I hadn't done across Canada yet.
• 22:02
  Glen Erickson: Hmm.
• 22:03
  Mike: Um, and then so, but that was just like a session base player sort of thing and, you know, learned a lot and I was like,
• 22:09
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 22:09
  Mike: to this life.
• 22:10
  Mike: and then toured on and off with Jordan.
• 22:12
  Mike: Played with Lydia Hall for a bit, who was another people Performance Project alumni.
• 22:15
  Mike: it's around this time that the Young Pacific Last Show happened, so that's, this is me jumbling the timeline.
• 22:21
  Mike: Then, I ended up getting the Music BC gig.
• 22:24
  Mike: Um, I've, I've, I knew Sam s and Megan for, uh, a couple years just by being in the scene.
• 22:30
  Mike: I had a background, uh, with my BCIT radio broadcasting.
• 22:35
  Mike: Bob Deeth really liked that, and I told him I'd score goals during the hockey game and he was like, you're hired.
• 22:40
  Mike: and yeah.
• 22:41
  Mike: And I was like, yeah, project assistant, I'll help out Sav, I can edit any content you need and I can put the puck in the net.
• 22:48
  Mike: but
• 22:48
  Glen Erickson: Love it.
• 22:49
  Mike: yeah.
• 22:49
  Glen Erickson: And you're, you're referring to Savannah Wellman,
• 22:52
  Mike: yes,
• 22:52
  Glen Erickson: um, and, and Megan Davidson.
• 22:55
  Glen Erickson: And they have a company now,
• 22:57
  Mike: Tiny Kingdom.
• 22:58
  Glen Erickson: tiny Kingdom.
• 22:59
  Glen Erickson: I don't know why it was escaping me, but they're great.
• 23:01
  Glen Erickson: They're power hoses.
• 23:03
  Mike: they, they're crushing it.
• 23:04
  Mike: Every time I run into, I'm supposed, I, I'm, I, I message Sav all the time just because like, you know, we send memes to each other.
• 23:11
  Mike: Like, we worked really closely during that year and we've maintained like a really good relationship
• 23:14
  Glen Erickson: Hmm.
• 23:15
  Mike: And we've been like, meaning to catch up for beers over like the, like the past two years.
• 23:18
  Mike: But we've both just been like on tour effectively.
• 23:21
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 23:22
  Mike: and, and Megan doesn't live in Vancouver anymore, so
• 23:24
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 23:24
  Mike: uh, that's why I'm messaging SAP mostly.
• 23:26
  Mike: but yeah.
• 23:27
  Mike: And then from there, that was like a year when the BC took odds and ends, like gigs that were local.
• 23:32
  Mike: But obviously I had a day job, so I couldn't really.
• 23:34
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 23:35
  Mike: um, that was a one year contract that was based around the Peak Performance project.
• 23:39
  Mike: And because, uh, that was the last year, uh, my contract expired, I ended up playing bass for a guy named Terrence Jack, who is a fantastic musician.
• 23:47
  Mike: He's now based down in San Francisco.
• 23:49
  Mike: Um, I think he's coming back up here sometime before the end of the year.
• 23:52
  Mike: But, um, we did a cross Canada tour, so it was my first cross Canada in 2016.
• 23:57
  Mike: We went to the depths of the country, just like you would have,
• 24:01
  Glen Erickson: Like Sue St.
• 24:02
  Glen Erickson: Marie.
• 24:03
  Glen Erickson: Did you stay at the townhouse?
• 24:04
  Mike: the places we played, the places we play, places
• 24:07
  Glen Erickson: We're worse.
• 24:07
  Mike: made, would've made two St.
• 24:09
  Mike: Marie look like Paris.
• 24:10
  Glen Erickson: Oh, wow.
• 24:11
  Mike: but like, yeah, like I don't wanna name drop places in case anyone's listening be like, what?
• 24:16
  Glen Erickson: I get it.
• 24:16
  Glen Erickson: I get it.
• 24:17
  Mike: but, um, yeah, media trained.
• 24:19
  Mike: Um, but, uh, yeah, so like all the way out to PEI, all the way to Halifax, still the only time I've been to the Maritimes, actually hotel mirrors, never really touched there.
• 24:27
  Mike: get back, uh, and then kind of.
• 24:30
  Mike: around like bartend, you know, just to kind of like take gigs.
• 24:34
  Mike: Did some things with Wooden horseman, played a gig with, said the Whale, which is really cool.
• 24:38
  Mike: and then Charlie hit me up in 2017.
• 24:41
  Mike: I did like a big, one of my goals was to travel.
• 24:44
  Mike: Like I wanted to do like a really big, like four month backpacking
• 24:47
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 24:47
  Mike: of just worked for the end of 2016, just saved up a shit ton of money.
• 24:52
  Mike: And then early 2017, for the first four months I went from January to April.
• 24:57
  Mike: I did like a four month backpacking trip of Asia, which was fantastic.
• 25:01
  Mike: And then I got home and like literally a week later, Charlie text me being like, Hey dude, do you want to jam?
• 25:07
  Mike: I'm looking for, you know, like the old members of Japanese girls left the band.
• 25:12
  Mike: and I was friends with them, so I messaged them and I was like, Hey, like is it cool if I like.
• 25:15
  Mike: Like, is there any bad blood?
• 25:17
  Mike: Like should I, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 25:19
  Mike: And they were like, no man.
• 25:20
  Mike: Like you have our blessing.
• 25:21
  Mike: Absolutely.
• 25:22
  Mike: Go for it.
• 25:23
  Mike: and so that's how that started.
• 25:24
  Mike: So I've technically been in Hotel MRA since 2017, but we only went
• 25:29
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 25:30
  Mike: everything
• 25:30
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 25:31
  Mike: And that was like a whirlwind, like the first jam session.
• 25:34
  Mike: So
• 25:34
  Glen Erickson: I.
• 25:35
  Mike: we, we, we did the name change on an ep, uh, because we wanted to like, we can't just say you're changing our name and just like sit around for a bit.
• 25:42
  Mike: We want it to have like a big like, impact with it.
• 25:45
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 25:45
  Mike: we wrote probably four songs off the EP in like our first jam session, were 3:00 AM Ginger Ale.
• 25:52
  Mike: That Man, and I.
• 25:54
  Mike: wanna say Beautiful Thing, I'm Terrified.
• 25:56
  Mike: they were, Yeah.
• 25:57
  Mike: just like, and so we were like, oh, four songs in a day.
• 26:00
  Mike: Yeah, I think we'll probably be a pretty good fit.
• 26:02
  Mike: and we still played Ginger Ale to this day.
• 26:03
  Mike: We played it two days ago at the WildHorse Saloon.
• 26:05
  Mike: So.
• 26:06
  Glen Erickson: That's great.
• 26:07
  Mike: They lasted test of time and then, and the rest, the rest from hotel mural onwards is quite well documented.
• 26:12
  Mike: So
• 26:12
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 26:13
  Glen Erickson: It becomes, the rest is history for sure.
• 26:15
  Glen Erickson: I mean, that's, that's pretty incredible.
• 26:17
  Glen Erickson: No, I love that.
• 26:18
  Glen Erickson: Like, even that year you're working for music BC.
• 26:21
  Glen Erickson: And there.
• 26:22
  Glen Erickson: And so you said it's mostly'cause they were pretty well invested in that peak performance stuff and there was a lot of work
• 26:28
  Mike: yeah,
• 26:28
  Glen Erickson: that whole, that whole year.
• 26:29
  Glen Erickson: It was pretty much most of an entire year of a lot of work, a lot of coordination, a lot of men's stuff.
• 26:35
  Glen Erickson: So you just dropped things in there, Mike, that are just so wonderfully subtle, but about how the business and how this really works.
• 26:43
  Mike: yeah, yeah.
• 26:44
  Glen Erickson: like I'm sure there's a ton you learned just from that year of music BC right?
• 26:50
  Glen Erickson: About the business and about, uh, artists and connections and just even administration and how important it is, in the music world.
• 26:59
  Glen Erickson: Maybe you could tell me a little bit about some of that.
• 27:01
  Glen Erickson: I'm curious what kinda things you still lean on from that time.
• 27:06
  Mike: Well, I, I honestly accredit a lot of my post music BC career to just that year of work.
• 27:13
  Mike: Like, I remember we played Philip's Backyard Festival in 2022.
• 27:18
  Mike: We've done it twice, 2024 and 2022.
• 27:20
  Mike: In 2022.
• 27:21
  Mike: Uh, SAV was there and, uh, like,'cause I.
• 27:23
  Mike: worked under her, uh, at Music pc and she was there repping a tiny kingdom artist.
• 27:28
  Mike: Um, and we all just hung out.
• 27:29
  Mike: And, I remember me and Charlie were sitting backstage and SAB came up to us and was like, Hey Charlie, what's it like having someone who knows the biz in the band?
• 27:36
  Mike: And I was like, you're, I was like, you're giving me way too much credit.
• 27:38
  Mike: yeah, just like a lot of ins and outs and like a, like, there have been times where like, like this is all to say as well, like the music industry has changed so much since
• 27:48
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 27:49
  Mike: but it, it's at a baseline core level, like it's still fundamentally the same.
• 27:56
  Mike: Like, it's like, yeah, we are making more tiktoks these days.
• 27:59
  Mike: To what end?
• 28:00
  Mike: Like, who knows?
• 28:01
  Mike: But like
• 28:02
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 28:02
  Mike: terms of like how to connect with an audience, how to grow an audience, how to like, I am a true believer that like, you can't out mark, like you can't, do I phrase this?
• 28:15
  Mike: you can't trick people into thinking a song is good.
• 28:17
  Mike: Like no matter how many marketing dollars you put into
• 28:20
  Glen Erickson: I.
• 28:21
  Mike: if the song just isn't there and isn't resonating with people, it will fail.
• 28:26
  Mike: You know?
• 28:26
  Mike: And like, and that is like obviously like.
• 28:28
  Mike: There's so many subjective ways to take that take.
• 28:31
  Mike: Right?
• 28:31
  Mike: But it's like you've seen, like, you, you and I have both seen just like, oh, this is the next new band out of this ex Canadian city.
• 28:40
  Mike: And then it's like, okay, but
• 28:41
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 28:42
  Mike: You know?
• 28:42
  Mike: Like, like you have three minutes, three and a half minutes to make me feel something.
• 28:45
  Mike: And it's like, yeah, your pictures look really cool and like you're probably a good hang and great people, but like
• 28:51
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 28:51
  Mike: just aren't there.
• 28:52
  Mike: Right.
• 28:53
  Mike: and
• 28:53
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 28:54
  Mike: to like the world of like top 40 and everything.
• 28:56
  Mike: Right.
• 28:58
  Mike: I, I'm, I'm very grateful.
• 28:59
  Mike: All the, like, like going back to when I said I played the set the whale gig, like I for sure, like I only met Tyler because I worked for music BC there's
• 29:08
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 29:08
  Mike: and like, in terms of like lessons and it, it's really like I definitely have a better understanding of the grant system.
• 29:14
  Mike: Like that's like on, on like a very practical level.
• 29:17
  Mike: and I've seen so many grant applications come.
• 29:20
  Mike: I saw somebody come across my desk that like, I can tell when some are good or some are not good anymore.
• 29:26
  Mike: but there is like practical advice such as that, that I like, do take to this day.
• 29:30
  Mike: But also like we have a crackpot team of great management.
• 29:33
  Mike: So kind of stuff more than, more often than not doesn't, uh, what's the word?
• 29:39
  Mike: Like alarms in my head anymore, but like, like with artists that I'm helping out, you know, people will send me their grant applications and be like, Hey, can you look through this and see if it's good?
• 29:48
  Mike: And then I'll just be like, Hey, you need to go into more detail about this.
• 29:51
  Mike: Or like, these numbers feel unrealistic given where you're at in your career.
• 29:55
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 29:56
  Mike: sometimes that's an ego hit for them, but sometimes you can't fake that.
• 29:59
  Mike: So
• 29:59
  Glen Erickson: Well that's nice of you to do that'cause there's people like charging good money just to consult on
• 30:04
  Mike: there
• 30:05
  Glen Erickson: that kind of their stuff.
• 30:06
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 30:07
  Glen Erickson: Um, well probably not that much'cause musicians don't have any money.
• 30:11
  Glen Erickson: It's all based on whether they get the grant or not usually.
• 30:14
  Glen Erickson: And then, um, something comes of it.
• 30:16
  Glen Erickson: But, so like you said, like you join hotel mirror, you release with that EP and the rest is kind of history and I think it's like.
• 30:24
  Glen Erickson: Like looking back and I spent like the last two days kind of listening through the discography and songs and,
• 30:29
  Mike: Hell
• 30:30
  Glen Erickson: and, um, I mean, over 38 million plays on Spotify alone already, which is a huge number.
• 30:37
  Glen Erickson: Right.
• 30:37
  Glen Erickson: I am, I know that you and I could have a laugh about how little money that actually generates compared to the number 38 million, but it's still, that's just Spotify and that's pretty fantastic in that span of time, like three full length albums in that time, and all of them having generated charting singles of one way or the other.
• 30:56
  Glen Erickson: And I know just being at Edmonton, being super familiar with our alt rock station Sonic, who plays the hell outta you guys all the time?
• 31:04
  Mike: good.
• 31:04
  Glen Erickson: That I'm already familiar,
• 31:05
  Mike: I was gonna say, apparently we're, we're being played on the hot AC in Edmonton as well.
• 31:10
  Glen Erickson: Oh wow.
• 31:10
  Glen Erickson: That's, oh, there you go.
• 31:12
  Glen Erickson: But I mean, everything back from like your first singles, like the.
• 31:16
  Glen Erickson: This could be it for me song, which they still play this shit out of like crazy over and over, in Fever Pitch and King of the World.
• 31:23
  Glen Erickson: And, uh, and now they're even playing your new song, making Progress a whole bunch.
• 31:27
  Glen Erickson: And so lots of success that way.
• 31:30
  Glen Erickson: I like, I think this could be, for me, that was my first introduction to Hotel Mirror,
• 31:35
  Mike: Mm-hmm.
• 31:36
  Glen Erickson: radio hit.
• 31:37
  Glen Erickson: Was was that song like a, a signal to you guys that this is, could really have legs?
• 31:43
  Glen Erickson: Did it, was it through a song like that, like catching the way it did on radio?
• 31:47
  Glen Erickson: Or were there other things that really gave you that sort of real optimism?
• 31:52
  Mike: Yeah.
• 31:52
  Mike: So.
• 31:53
  Glen Erickson: I.
• 31:53
  Mike: It's, it, this could be, it for me is such an interesting one for us because we recorded that, summer 2018.
• 32:00
  Mike: So we actually recorded that before we released the ep.
• 32:04
  Mike: Um, be, because basically we, we sat on the EP for a bit.
• 32:08
  Mike: There was like a couple scheduling conflicts that kind of like made it so, like it wouldn't make sense to release the EP at this time.
• 32:15
  Mike: So we had to push it back.
• 32:16
  Mike: But because the, the EP came out like 13 months after we recorded it, we had written so much new material between, you know, then, right.
• 32:25
  Mike: And one song that we were just unbelievably high on was Jungle.
• 32:30
  Mike: and so we basically were like, okay, like let's record Jungle and make it this like, and like we want to work with a producer who has like a track record of radio.
• 32:41
  Mike: Um, because we were like, okay, you know, like radio, I grew up listening to the radio, like I grew up listening to the Fox in Vancouver and
• 32:48
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 32:49
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 32:50
  Mike: And um, it's just cool, like, you like just being able to be on the radio, like obviously in 20, at the time, 2018, uh, when the song came out 2019, it's like, and now in 2025, it's like, it's still an important part of a band's like, resume and like a, a platform to be successful on.
• 33:07
  Mike: But for us, like artists, it doesn't carry the same weight that it did in like 2005 or whatever.
• 33:13
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 33:13
  Mike: But, um, we were like, okay, let's, let's get on radio.
• 33:16
  Mike: Like we, we streamed pretty well for an artist at our level, uh, back in 2018.
• 33:21
  Mike: And we've always had like a really, um, devout international fan base, like at least vocally online.
• 33:28
  Mike: we're like, well, let's do radio in Canada, grow Canada, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 33:31
  Mike: up working with a producer outta Toronto named Eric Ratz, who, um, like Billy Talent Arkels, big wreck, monster Truck.
• 33:39
  Mike: and he is.
• 33:40
  Mike: An absolute, just a gem of a human being.
• 33:43
  Mike: But because it was our first time working with him, it was kinda like, okay, well let's just do a song or two and, um, let's see if this is a good fit.
• 33:52
  Mike: Because like, know, like I've, I'm I think we've never worked with a producer that we've actually been like, this is not a good fit or anything like that.
• 34:02
  Mike: Like, we worked with a ton of producers, especially on, I'm not myself due to COVID.
• 34:05
  Mike: We kind of just had to work with various Vancouver producers and
• 34:09
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 34:10
  Mike: once again, getting ahead of the timeline.
• 34:12
  Mike: But, um, with Eric, it was just a fit immediately and Jungle was the priority we had.
• 34:18
  Mike: This could be it for me in the chamber.
• 34:20
  Mike: And then he was like, well, if I'm coming out to Vancouver, like let's just do two songs.
• 34:24
  Mike: And we're like, oh, okay.
• 34:25
  Mike: Like we have like this other, like, we sent a couple demos around, we were like pretty high on this could be it for me, but we didn't know if it was like the one or
• 34:32
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 34:33
  Mike: And he was like, no, this song's ahead.
• 34:34
  Mike: Like let's just do these two.
• 34:36
  Mike: Like Jungle was always the focus.
• 34:38
  Mike: and basically we recorded both of them.
• 34:41
  Mike: We released Jungle before we toured, uh, with USS in the fall of 2018.
• 34:47
  Mike: It had a light radio campaign.
• 34:48
  Mike: I believe the only people who spun it was X 92 and Calgary, bless their hearts, kind of spun out, which happens, uh, especially like band's first radio campaigns.
• 34:57
  Mike: I'm working with a
• 34:58
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 34:58
  Mike: who just had one of their first radio campaigns not go as well as they thought.
• 35:03
  Mike: And I'm kind of just like, yeah, I know it sucks, but like the nature of the beast sometimes.
• 35:08
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 35:08
  Mike: but, but of course like it, like, you know, when we lived at it, it was like, oh, like, you know, like, are we ever gonna write a song this good ever again?
• 35:15
  Mike: Like that sort of thing.
• 35:16
  Mike: Um, and jungles still stream.
• 35:18
  Mike: It's like one of our highest streaming songs.
• 35:19
  Mike: So like, we were
• 35:20
  Glen Erickson: yeah,
• 35:20
  Mike: thankfully we were right about that.
• 35:22
  Mike: But, and then so the next kick at the can we released, this could be it for me, and it just shot up the charts.
• 35:27
  Mike: Like, like, you know, those classic like.
• 35:29
  Mike: Like, you know, those behind the music scenes things where they're just like, yeah, we never thought this was gonna be a hit.
• 35:34
  Mike: And you're like, that's not
• 35:35
  Glen Erickson: yeah.
• 35:35
  Mike: that you, and like you,
• 35:36
  Glen Erickson: I,
• 35:37
  Mike: it be like, yeah, Aerosmith obviously knew frigging, like Jenny's got a gun, was gonna be, or you know what I mean?
• 35:43
  Glen Erickson: yeah,
• 35:44
  Mike: to us.
• 35:44
  Mike: Like, this could be, it for me blew up.
• 35:46
  Mike: And like, it was, it got to number four, in Canada right before COVID.
• 35:51
  Mike: And so it was kind of one of these things where it's just like, oh, we kind of like achieved our dreams, but now we can't do anything about it
• 35:57
  Glen Erickson: but not, you know, what a feeling.
• 35:59
  Mike: Oh yeah.
• 35:59
  Mike: It was, uh, it, it was pretty honestly like, like fully candidly, it was very, very heavy at the time just being like, I've accomplished something I've always wanted to do.
• 36:09
  Mike: like, but we can't go out and tour it.
• 36:11
  Mike: Right?
• 36:11
  Mike: And, and it was one of these things where it was like, like, because it's happened so early on in COVID as well, we're like, we have no idea how long this is gonna go.
• 36:20
  Mike: How can we sustain this momentum?
• 36:23
  Mike: We released, so the album that this could be it for me is on, is called Perfectionism.
• 36:27
  Mike: And that was released two weeks before lockdown because obviously we had no idea that was what was gonna happen.
• 36:32
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 36:32
  Mike: Um, we had our EP release party where we oversold the Biltmore, uh, two weeks before so far doesn't seem like a super spreader event, but there were a lot of people there.
• 36:41
  Mike: but that was February 29th, 2020.
• 36:44
  Mike: And um, then it just
• 36:46
  Glen Erickson: I.
• 36:47
  Mike: these things where like we were riding high, lockdown came, and then it was like, oh, it's gonna be two weeks.
• 36:51
  Mike: Okay, cool.
• 36:52
  Mike: Like, let's make these plans.
• 36:53
  Mike: Oh, now it's two months, now it's six months, now it's two years.
• 36:57
  Mike: Then we're just like, okay, well that was our shot.
• 36:59
  Mike: You know, like, like what's what's next kind of thing.
• 37:02
  Mike: Right?
• 37:03
  Mike: but.
• 37:04
  Mike: turned out all right, but at the time it was like really quite heavy.
• 37:08
  Mike: And, uh, but yeah, it got to number four in Canada.
• 37:11
  Mike: Got us a lot of, uh, recognition because of it.
• 37:14
  Mike: And when we got out of lockdown, our first tour back was with the Zola's in 2021, fall of 2021.
• 37:23
  Mike: And, uh, didn't miss a beat.
• 37:25
  Mike: Everyone loved it.
• 37:26
  Mike: And everyone and everyone was so familiar with our songs'cause like, the amount of times I heard people be like, perfectionism was my album of COVID because it came out so reap right before.
• 37:35
  Mike: So all people had to, had time to do was just like, spin this record.
• 37:39
  Mike: So that was kind of cool.
• 37:40
  Mike: And like I said, like I, you know, things turned out all right, but like there was a genuine panic after, at least for me, uh, when this could
• 37:48
  Glen Erickson: No.
• 37:49
  Glen Erickson: I mean, that's gotta be the most disheartening thing, I mean.
• 37:52
  Glen Erickson: You know that, that feeling and I remember it so well of like, how do I get everything I can get out of this?
• 37:59
  Glen Erickson: In other words, as an artist, like you said, all you want is to get on the radio and, and then get, even, get charting or some version of, you know, validation for your efforts and your belief.
• 38:12
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 38:12
  Glen Erickson: Some measurable success and not just the kind to, you know, prove to your parents.
• 38:17
  Glen Erickson: It wasn't a waste of time, but prove to yourself and to your peers.
• 38:21
  Glen Erickson: And, and then when you get that you have this feeling put COVID aside, like
• 38:26
  Mike: Mm-hmm.
• 38:27
  Glen Erickson: a feeling of panic, even just like, how do I keep this going?
• 38:30
  Mike: Mm-hmm.
• 38:31
  Glen Erickson: you already identified part of that narrative might be, I don't know if I'll be able to do it again.
• 38:36
  Glen Erickson: You know, um, all that kind of stuff, especially when you're just trying to build something that becomes pretty significant.
• 38:42
  Glen Erickson: So I can't imagine.
• 38:44
  Glen Erickson: Uh, heaping the pandemic on and the literal, like, you're not allowed to go and do anything.
• 38:50
  Glen Erickson: But I think it's an interesting observation you made too, about people making it their COVID album and like, people mostly paused or stopped all releases starting in 2020, right?
• 39:01
  Glen Erickson: Like Phoebe Bridgers put that album out like right early at the start
• 39:05
  Mike: Yeah.
• 39:06
  Glen Erickson: of the pandemic.
• 39:07
  Glen Erickson: It's incredible record and nobody else, everyone else put a pause on their records and then all of a sudden that became like the indie album everybody listened to.
• 39:15
  Glen Erickson: Uh, it didn't hurt that it was a great record, but yeah, that's gotta have a lot of, a lot of panic to it.
• 39:20
  Glen Erickson: I mean, and that song to me, I still listen to it.
• 39:24
  Glen Erickson: If I still hear it, it's still.
• 39:25
  Mike: Oh,
• 39:26
  Glen Erickson: Without being able to articulate like, why is this song so good?
• 39:30
  Glen Erickson: Or why is this such a hook on the radio at first?
• 39:33
  Glen Erickson: Right?
• 39:33
  Glen Erickson: It feels a little out of place with the songs that's usually played or sandwiched between, and maybe it goes back to what you said before, like you can't, like a good song is just a good song.
• 39:43
  Glen Erickson: Like there's something in the mixture, there's something in the baking and the ingredients that, uh, make it what it is.
• 39:50
  Glen Erickson: Uh, I wanna, I wanna call out a couple things based on what you're saying, which I'm interested in your perspective.
• 39:55
  Glen Erickson: Like you, you mentioned touring, we were playing with the Zola's, and even you talked about that sound and, and thinking about, you know, working with a producer with a mind for the radio.
• 40:05
  Glen Erickson: So there's kind of two streams.
• 40:06
  Glen Erickson: I'm, I've been interested and I actually had made notes about.
• 40:09
  Glen Erickson: One that I've been curious is because you've had a really good string of radio songs.
• 40:16
  Glen Erickson: And to be honest, like, and I am a.
• 40:18
  Glen Erickson: Like I listen pretty critically as a musician in, in a good way.
• 40:22
  Glen Erickson: Don't worry.
• 40:22
  Glen Erickson: but like the radio songs sound very cohesive, like right from if it can be to me right up to making progress.
• 40:29
  Glen Erickson: Like all those radio singles sound like they fit the same band.
• 40:34
  Glen Erickson: They could even be on the same album to a degree, which is pretty significant, to develop that kind of sound for radio.
• 40:40
  Glen Erickson: So I guess my first question about that is, like, and you sort of half answered it, but how you're developing and how you're writing music as a group.
• 40:50
  Glen Erickson: Is it like, is there, I don't, I'm not gonna use the word that there's a formula, but there's something that you're trying to tap into that you know, both feels right to you and has success.
• 41:01
  Glen Erickson: And then the other half of that question, speaking of the Zola's and I think of another band like Fake Shark and some others that you're label mates with.
• 41:09
  Mike: Yeah.
• 41:09
  Mike: Yeah.
• 41:09
  Glen Erickson: Inside of that sound you're working on, I feel like for a time, or for quite a while, there's been a Vancouver sound
• 41:16
  Mike: Mm-hmm.
• 41:16
  Glen Erickson: this kind of alt rock sphere, and I'm wondering your perspective on that, if that's a valid outsider's opinion or not.
• 41:24
  Mike: Uh, to answer the first question, so we get asked this, like, I, I've never been asked it on like a, a public forum, but like, you know, like my friends who aren't in music will ask me to be like, Hey, like, like, are you guys like selling out?
• 41:37
  Mike: Or something like that.
• 41:38
  Mike: And like, the actual, and I'm not saying that's what you're saying, but like, it's like a, you know, it's, uh, when you get, when when bands have a lot of like, you know, commercial success, that is something people think about.
• 41:49
  Mike: Right.
• 41:49
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 41:50
  Mike: And like, like my favorite bands are The Killers and the 1975.
• 41:56
  Mike: And it's just like, like, I like the joke that I make is all I'm doing is chasing, uh, when you were young by the killers, like that, that like, to me, that is like the ultimate song
• 42:07
  Glen Erickson: But that's what all of us do.
• 42:09
  Glen Erickson: From the minute you pick up a guitar, you start trying to recreate the thing that made you feel something, right?
• 42:16
  Mike: And like, so all of my favorite bands have been commercially successful in like an alt rock.
• 42:23
  Mike: Cool.
• 42:23
  Mike: But still Poppy way.
• 42:25
  Mike: So it's just like, I'm just like, whenever I like Charlie and I write songs together, we're just sort of, and Charlie, it's cut from the same cloth as me when it comes to that sort of thing.
• 42:34
  Mike: Like we're just sort of programmed to write, you know, three courses and a catchy
• 42:39
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 42:39
  Mike: like, it, it's, it's like I am not like, and I love all kinds of music.
• 42:46
  Mike: Like, you know, like if, uh, of, if a band wants to go on like an eight minute jazz odyssey, I'll be like, yeah, that, that fucking rules, you know?
• 42:55
  Mike: when it comes to hotel mirror, like, like that's like, we don't really sit down and we're just like, okay, how'd we write a hit?
• 43:01
  Mike: You know?
• 43:01
  Mike: It's just like we just write these songs and then'cause Charlie is such a prolific writer, like.
• 43:06
  Mike: Legitimately for the album.
• 43:08
  Mike: I'm Not Myself, which came after perfectionism.
• 43:10
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 43:11
  Mike: we had 60 demos, like 60 like, and how, how, I would say 95% of Hotel Mirror songs start is that Charlie will send like an acoustic voice note and we'll kind of, and it'll be like, like some of them will be like seven minutes long, but not in the sense of like, this is how I think the song should go.
• 43:28
  Mike: But he'll just like put like five ideas for verse lyrics, just kind of like in one song kind of thing.
• 43:35
  Mike: And we'll be like, actually, you know, like this chunk is, this is what resonated with me the most kind of thing.
• 43:41
  Mike: And then we'll weed that.
• 43:42
  Mike: So I'm not myself, it was 60 to 20 to, and then we recorded, how many did we record?
• 43:50
  Mike: There's, there's.
• 43:51
  Mike: 12 on the record.
• 43:52
  Mike: And then the e follow up EP were like the B sides,
• 43:55
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 43:56
  Mike: recorded 16.
• 43:57
  Mike: And then, so from there, I think we have a pretty good like elimination process, for lack of a better way of saying it to kind of get to like what we want, what, what our ideal album would sound like with this, you know, what we're going for in mind.
• 44:10
  Mike: in terms of the Vancouver sound, I think there sort of is, I think that's like, like when people say that, I know what they're talking about, but I think that's also like, like we always would, we would always joke, like if we wanted to get like the ultimate Vancouver band, we should just like, call ourselves like ocean trees or something.
• 44:25
  Mike: But, um, I, I don't think that I, I don't think it's as true today as it was like maybe 10 years ago,
• 44:31
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, that's a good point.
• 44:32
  Glen Erickson: That's a good point.
• 44:34
  Mike: that, like, there definitely like was that, you know, just
• 44:37
  Glen Erickson: There was an alt rock consistency that it definitely wasn't a Toronto thing as far as a Canadian music sound goes.
• 44:44
  Glen Erickson: So
• 44:44
  Mike: was like,
• 44:45
  Glen Erickson: I,
• 44:45
  Mike: was like more carefree.
• 44:46
  Mike: I, I felt Toronto's always been a bit grittier.
• 44:49
  Mike: uh, and there's no, nothing wrong with either end of that spectrum for the
• 44:53
  Glen Erickson: you know, that's, that's a good point.
• 44:54
  Glen Erickson: Like go back 20 years and put two super groups up.
• 44:58
  Glen Erickson: Broken social scene, Toronto, new Pornographers, Vancouver.
• 45:01
  Mike: Mm-hmm.
• 45:02
  Glen Erickson: New pornographers.
• 45:02
  Glen Erickson: New Pornographers.
• 45:03
  Glen Erickson: A much lighter
• 45:05
  Mike: yeah.
• 45:05
  Glen Erickson: feeling sound right.
• 45:07
  Glen Erickson: Both incredible.
• 45:08
  Glen Erickson: So that's a good point.
• 45:09
  Mike: I think the Vancouver sound is just like, it's like we could listen to this at the beach vibe.
• 45:14
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 45:14
  Mike: You know,
• 45:15
  Glen Erickson: That's important.
• 45:15
  Mike: that's kind of what it boils down to.
• 45:17
  Mike: I don't, I don't know if we fit, like we've been told that we don't fit into the typical Vancouver sound a lot.
• 45:23
  Mike: Which, um, sorry about that.
• 45:24
  Mike: I don't know where that came from.
• 45:25
  Mike: Um, which, I kind of think it's cool that people think that, but also at the
• 45:29
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 45:30
  Mike: are from there.
• 45:30
  Mike: So like, yeah.
• 45:31
  Mike: Who knows?
• 45:32
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 45:32
  Glen Erickson: I think it's interesting you say like, yeah, there's this sort of a jump to the stereotype back on my first question of like, are you selling out if you are writing for the radio?
• 45:42
  Glen Erickson: If you just lock it into that simplistic of a, a concept, right?
• 45:46
  Glen Erickson: And I think it's just impossible to lock it in.
• 45:48
  Glen Erickson: And that's probably where.
• 45:50
  Glen Erickson: If I was a musician and somebody asked me that question, I would always start screaming like right away.
• 45:54
  Glen Erickson: Like,'cause, and it would be visible because I don't know how to get the right thing out to make sure it's gonna be clear.
• 46:01
  Glen Erickson: And it probably mattered to me because there's not a version of selling out when, the first time you play music.
• 46:09
  Glen Erickson: Like everything you do artistically, creatively, or even not to be honestly in any version of performative, whether it's trying out for a job and a new skillset that you went to school for, you're gonna take the data of how do people respond to me?
• 46:24
  Glen Erickson: Like in, so in our social constructs, it's the exact same way, right?
• 46:27
  Glen Erickson: Like, if people respond poorly to this, I'm gonna change my behavior.
• 46:32
  Glen Erickson: Like it's just wired into us.
• 46:33
  Glen Erickson: Like as a creative, if you, if you write a song with like, like just, if you decide I'm gonna go the Dylan route, I'm gonna write seven long verses.
• 46:43
  Glen Erickson: And everybody in your circles like tunes out after the first one.
• 46:48
  Glen Erickson: How many times are you gonna do that before you change?
• 46:50
  Glen Erickson: Right.
• 46:51
  Glen Erickson: Or
• 46:51
  Mike: yeah,
• 46:51
  Glen Erickson: like, you get shaped by both what inspires you, but also what people respond to out of you.
• 46:59
  Glen Erickson: So any version of writing for something is, you know, it's always gonna be driven by that, I think.
• 47:06
  Mike: think you can also tell when like, artists chase trends a lot and like, like one of the things I really like enjoy about Hotel Mira is that like, I don't think.
• 47:16
  Mike: Like, leave it in the comments if you disagree, but like, I don't think we, uh, chase trends.
• 47:20
  Mike: Like, we, like, do you remember like, it was like in 2018 when everyone was just like, suddenly a pop punk band and
• 47:26
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 47:27
  Mike: And it's like, it is one of those things where it's just like, as soon as a trend is out, it's already over, like the wave hits crested.
• 47:33
  Mike: Like you can't just like, get in the studio, do a pop punk record and then release it seven months after this.
• 47:39
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 47:39
  Mike: know, that sort of thing.
• 47:40
  Mike: Right.
• 47:41
  Mike: And like, when it comes to what I look for in songs specifically, like, like, again, again working with like the emerging artists I've worked with, right?
• 47:50
  Mike: and with something that I say that is just like a bit of a hot take and like, not everyone loves it, but it's like can write a five minute song that no one cares about.
• 48:00
  Mike: You know?
• 48:00
  Mike: Like you can just like, like you can get all your ideas out there.
• 48:03
  Mike: You can have no hooks.
• 48:04
  Mike: You can say what you wanna say like, you can play as many chords as you want, like play your like, you know, suss fours and ad nines and like, you know, show people that, you know, how a scale works, but.
• 48:15
  Mike: I think it's cooler if you have three minutes to make me feel something and you accomplish that.
• 48:19
  Mike: Like, that
• 48:20
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 48:20
  Mike: is, genuinely like a harder, criteria to me.
• 48:24
  Mike: You know?
• 48:25
  Mike: Like, it, it's just like, okay, you have to have like, the simplicity of being able to catch my attention, but also content that's deep enough that makes me hit.
• 48:35
  Mike: And like, you know, like not, and that, that's withstanding like, production and like guitar tones and
• 48:39
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, yeah.
• 48:41
  Mike: on like, all like, like how everything comes together.
• 48:44
  Mike: And so like, I think that's what we kind of try to achieve in Hotel Mirror.
• 48:47
  Mike: I don't wanna speak for the rest of the guys'cause that's just how I feel.
• 48:50
  Mike: Like Cole could probably just be like, yeah, the drum sound good.
• 48:52
  Mike: So I don't know.
• 48:53
  Mike: but yeah, so
• 48:55
  Glen Erickson: Well, I think you're accurate.
• 48:56
  Glen Erickson: I think you're accurate, Mike.
• 48:57
  Glen Erickson: I think and and time is also the thing that's involved in that too.
• 49:01
  Glen Erickson: So I think critically, anybody looking back at your three full length.
• 49:05
  Glen Erickson: Albums would see that there's the same thread in there, and that's important.
• 49:11
  Glen Erickson: And then there's growth in there.
• 49:13
  Glen Erickson: I mean, I read last night, I was reading back on some other like articles written about you guys and
• 49:18
  Mike: Yeah.
• 49:18
  Glen Erickson: know, and it it, to your credit, it's actually hard to find critiques.
• 49:22
  Glen Erickson: Um, but I like trying to find them on the internet and I, I remember getting a, uh, reading a couple, oh, there are, I, I read one about just like an inconsistency, I think in the perfectionism album.
• 49:34
  Glen Erickson: Um, and the truth is, I, so I go back and I listen, um, again this morning and the new record pity party is definitely the most cohesive start to finish.
• 49:44
  Glen Erickson: And that just shows growth, right.
• 49:46
  Glen Erickson: And it's not trend chasing.
• 49:48
  Glen Erickson: It's, um,
• 49:49
  Mike: I can
• 49:49
  Glen Erickson: yeah,
• 49:50
  Mike: into that if you would like.
• 49:51
  Glen Erickson: I'd love it.
• 49:52
  Mike: So, with, uh, so perfectionism was like kind of just our first time doing anything of that sort, if that makes sense.
• 50:00
  Mike: We were
• 50:00
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 50:01
  Mike: like let's
• 50:01
  Glen Erickson: I.
• 50:01
  Mike: full length.
• 50:03
  Mike: with Eric Rats.
• 50:04
  Mike: Like that rules, right?
• 50:06
  Mike: then we did it because it, like, these are our, I think there's 11 songs on that record.
• 50:10
  Mike: Um, these are our 11 best songs that we have going right now.
• 50:14
  Mike: Let's, like, this is the record, right?
• 50:16
  Mike: And like, we
• 50:16
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 50:17
  Mike: I mean, like, we were young in the band.
• 50:18
  Mike: We were still like late twenties, early thirties, but like, you know what I mean?
• 50:22
  Mike: Uh, by, by, by musician standards of emerging artists.
• 50:25
  Mike: We weren't, you know, do like, actually, let me go back and say, start chasing art at any age.
• 50:32
  Mike: It doesn't fucking matter.
• 50:33
  Mike: Um, and don't
• 50:35
  Glen Erickson: Hmm.
• 50:35
  Mike: age get in the way of anything.
• 50:37
  Mike: Uh, so
• 50:38
  Glen Erickson: Oh, you're talking to me right now?
• 50:39
  Glen Erickson: You're talking right to me right now.
• 50:41
  Glen Erickson: The old man on the conversation.
• 50:42
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 50:43
  Mike: Um, but yeah,
• 50:44
  Glen Erickson: I love it.
• 50:45
  Mike: uh, but yeah, so perfectionism was kind of like our, we're, we're like, we kind of don't know what we're doing.
• 50:50
  Mike: Like we know what we wanna do, but like, how do we do this?
• 50:52
  Mike: Like, what does this look like?
• 50:53
  Mike: What does releasing an album look like?
• 50:54
  Mike: You know, like Japanese girls did it.
• 50:56
  Mike: We weren't a part of, or like the three of us weren't a part of that.
• 50:59
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 51:00
  Mike: So with I'm not myself, the follow up record.
• 51:02
  Mike: Bit of a tricky situation'cause obviously COVID, we couldn't really travel to record.
• 51:06
  Mike: Eric lives in Toronto and if you recall, Toronto had like crazy
• 51:10
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 51:10
  Mike: stuff.
• 51:11
  Mike: So we ended up recording that album kind of over the course of a year and a half with different producers like, so we did, I think there were like five or six different producers on that record.
• 51:22
  Mike: So
• 51:22
  Glen Erickson: Hmm
• 51:23
  Mike: Warley did Fever Pitch Parker Bosley of the gay nineties, and Fur Trade and he's just a brilliant musician.
• 51:31
  Mike: he did eventually everything once Mama and Alone in America, younger of Yukon Blonde did King of the World, and also a few from the Bar Silva that was on the ep.
• 51:42
  Mike: Ryan Worsley also did waste away off the ep, and then we worked with Louise Burns, who's an
• 51:47
  Glen Erickson: mm-hmm.
• 51:48
  Mike: a little bit.
• 51:49
  Glen Erickson: great.
• 51:50
  Mike: she's unbelievable.
• 51:51
  Mike: she did Amanda and then Steve Bayes did, uh, vampire Dancing with the Moonlight Water and Concrete and the Age of Detachment.
• 52:00
  Mike: And then we actually worked with Adam Casper, was crazy because he's like of legendary.
• 52:07
  Mike: He did like songs for the Death by Queens of the Stone Age.
• 52:09
  Mike: He was like sound guard and a Pearl Jams guy.
• 52:11
  Mike: He worked with Kurt Cobain, like he was like a nineties Seattle grunge
• 52:15
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 52:16
  Mike: And he, uh, and like he, it was amazing getting to work with him, like just like the greatest war stories you've ever heard.
• 52:23
  Mike: And so, but he has moved, he moved up to Vancouver over COVID and he kind of reached out to our label being like, Hey, I hear you're the label in town.
• 52:29
  Mike: You got any artists that wanna record?
• 52:31
  Mike: I'll cut.
• 52:32
  Mike: Like a really sick rate.
• 52:32
  Mike: I just want to get into the scene.
• 52:34
  Mike: we did Silver Lake.
• 52:36
  Mike: Him and, um, two songs off the ep.
• 52:40
  Mike: Oh, sunshine and Verona.
• 52:41
  Mike: But, and, and so, and all of them were mixed by the same person, Tony Hoffer out, down in Texas.
• 52:46
  Mike: 'cause we were like, okay, well if there's so many producers, we want like the same glue basically to
• 52:50
  Glen Erickson: that's,
• 52:51
  Mike: not sound too out of place.
• 52:54
  Glen Erickson: yeah.
• 52:55
  Mike: and the, the, the biggest review, the biggest critique we had on I'm Not Myself, is that it's like kind of all over the place and it, and like it is.
• 53:03
  Mike: And like, we kind of, like, in interviews we kind of were like, it's like a playlist, you know, like, you know, sometimes you just like, like it's like a, it's like you go to a party and three people are adding songs to a playlist.
• 53:14
  Mike: And I, I, I like that take.
• 53:16
  Mike: But I really liked about it is that I think it displays how far we can take our sound with still being like, oh yeah, that's hotel mirror.
• 53:25
  Mike: Like, I, like, I think we did some really weird creative decisions and like really went for it in a couple places that I don't think I ever thought we would go.
• 53:34
  Mike: All the auto tune on Age of Detachment or just like some crazy arrangements and like some, like some really, like some some wild thing.
• 53:42
  Mike: Like if you go back and listen to that record, like especially the back half, it's just like, what's going on here?
• 53:47
  Mike: But for Pity Party, which is the album we just put out in March, we went back to Eric Rats and we were just like, let's just bring guitars back.
• 53:54
  Mike: You know, like, let's just do a straightforward, cohesive rock record.
• 53:58
  Mike: obviously, yeah, I, I would also say I'm not myself as notably Cynthia, which is cool.
• 54:03
  Mike: I love synths.
• 54:04
  Mike: Um, we were like, okay, let's dial it back and just like fucking rock, you know, like, kind of just like make it big, make it huge, but still quintessentially us, you know?
• 54:15
  Mike: Um.
• 54:17
  Mike: so, and then with Eric, uh, he just like reigned us in and like all one producer mixed by Eric as well.
• 54:25
  Mike: Um, and we were just like, you know, guitars like bit of sense, just write some really great songs.
• 54:32
  Mike: And that's why I think Pity party feels cohesive'cause it's our third record.
• 54:36
  Mike: We set an objective, um, we kind of got, being weird out of our system, let's say, and then, um, just went for it and I'm really proud of the results.
• 54:46
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, yeah, I love hearing the, the old BTS on, on, you know, the difference between those two.
• 54:53
  Glen Erickson: And it's just so, like, it's, for you, it's like, well, of course, like this is expected.
• 54:57
  Glen Erickson: Like we went this route and this is the, you know.
• 55:00
  Glen Erickson: Th this is the product as a result.
• 55:02
  Glen Erickson: And, and, uh, you know, critics are just gonna look through one little lens of varying sizes, um, all the time.
• 55:09
  Glen Erickson: So that kind of stuff doesn't really matter.
• 55:11
  Glen Erickson: I, I wanted to ask you if I could a little bit about Charlie.
• 55:16
  Glen Erickson: just because, like, I only have the Ty, I have the t uh, the outsider view, right?
• 55:22
  Glen Erickson: I have the, the fan, the music listener, to a degree, music critic type of lens.
• 55:29
  Glen Erickson: Um, where everything I see is curated and performative to a degree, right?
• 55:34
  Glen Erickson: Like, and so, you know, you form your opinions and he's got a very, like, there's a lot of moments in his voice where it's the guy from block party and those early two thousands block party stuff, which I don't hear.
• 55:47
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 55:47
  Mike: say Silent Alarm is a Desert Island album.
• 55:50
  Mike: For
• 55:50
  Glen Erickson: It's one of the greats, right?
• 55:51
  Mike: One of the
• 55:52
  Glen Erickson: And.
• 55:53
  Mike: right back where I was on the new record is us trying to do block party.
• 55:57
  Glen Erickson: Well, there you go.
• 55:58
  Glen Erickson: See, and nobody else, I haven't heard anybody else do that.
• 56:01
  Glen Erickson: So it's immediately got this draw to me.
• 56:04
  Glen Erickson: And then I've heard some people, like when I was reading last night, describing kind of his stage persona.
• 56:10
  Glen Erickson: 'cause there's a lot of physicality to it.
• 56:12
  Glen Erickson: And so they were saying Iggy Pop, but I don't see Iggy popping him at all.
• 56:15
  Glen Erickson: I see, I see like a Michael Hutchins swagger of the in excess days.
• 56:20
  Glen Erickson: 'cause there's a, a brooding swagger to it.
• 56:22
  Glen Erickson: And I mean, the longer hair doesn't hurt either, of course, but
• 56:26
  Mike: Hutchins as
• 56:27
  Glen Erickson: has he?
• 56:27
  Glen Erickson: Okay, that makes sense.
• 56:28
  Glen Erickson: But he's not Michael Hutchins.
• 56:30
  Glen Erickson: 'cause I feel like with the incredible depth and thoughtfulness in that, in the lyrics, it's like a, a Morrissey version of Michael Hutchins or something.
• 56:40
  Glen Erickson: So I'm trying to piece together my own version of what this would be.
• 56:43
  Glen Erickson: But this is all again.
• 56:45
  Glen Erickson: The typical, like if I was an a music writer, I'd be doing it one way.
• 56:49
  Glen Erickson: As a music fan, I'm doing it another way.
• 56:51
  Glen Erickson: I'm looking at things that are curated and performative, right?
• 56:55
  Glen Erickson: Even if it's natural and just him being himself.
• 56:57
  Glen Erickson: It's, that's the way it gets presented.
• 56:59
  Mike: Yeah.
• 57:00
  Glen Erickson: And this happens in bands and mean if lots of people probably sat down and talked to the bass or guitar player of a lot of bands who had a very iconic front man.
• 57:09
  Glen Erickson: and so I, I'm like, I don't wanna miss the chance to ask you, being, as you already described, close friends, the, and a privilege to work with and you're inspired by his highly artistic nature.
• 57:22
  Glen Erickson: I'm just curious, like, how do you see Charlie, how do you describe Charlie?
• 57:27
  Glen Erickson: Like,'cause we only get this one version
• 57:30
  Mike: Yeah.
• 57:30
  Mike: I would say he's one of the most genuine and authentic people I know.
• 57:34
  Mike: Um, like he is.
• 57:36
  Mike: Driven and hardworking in a way that like, I can't sometimes keep up with him.
• 57:42
  Mike: Like, funny story is like, when we finished and rec, well finished recording perfectionism.
• 57:49
  Mike: He came back to us with like 12 new demos, like literally the week later, and he sent it to all the band emails and he sent it to Eric Ratz.
• 57:57
  Mike: And Eric Ratz basically replied being like, wow.
• 57:59
  Mike: Like, like what?
• 58:01
  Mike: Like, you guys just finished?
• 58:02
  Mike: What are you doing?
• 58:02
  Mike: yeah, no, he's, and he's like, like also like on a personal level, he's like an amazing friend.
• 58:07
  Mike: Like he will lend an ear to anyone at any given time.
• 58:11
  Mike: Um, if I was going through any like, you know, emotional things in my personal life, I know I could lean on him to, give like very good advice on it.
• 58:20
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 58:20
  Mike: No, he, he's like a, he's a very great person.
• 58:22
  Mike: Like the stage presence thing is very funny because like, it, it's, it's so interesting to me because like I'm in my own zone when I play, so like.
• 58:31
  Mike: I don't really see what Charlie's doing unless he's like, really in front of me.
• 58:35
  Mike: But like, every now and then I'll look over and be like, oh, he is on, like, he's on the floor.
• 58:38
  Mike: Cool.
• 58:38
  Mike: And like, um, or like, like I'll, like, obviously we get tagged in videos, like after, and I'll like scroll because like, you know, like the impression of everyone, like,
• 58:49
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 58:49
  Mike: the band look like post show?
• 58:50
  Mike: They look like this, you know, like, and for those listening on audio, I'm scrolling through my phone right now.
• 58:54
  Mike: And, um, so like, we'll get tagged in these videos and I'll look through all of them and then I'll be like, whoa, when did Charlie do that?
• 59:02
  Mike: Or like, anything like that.
• 59:03
  Mike: Like, he, but like the, like, I think people think he's like, really?
• 59:07
  Mike: like he gives all this energy on stage and I think like people expect that from him all the time.
• 59:13
  Mike: like, that's like, he's also just like a person, you know, like, you know, we all suffer from like burnout and just like being tired.
• 59:20
  Mike: especially on tour.
• 59:22
  Mike: So.
• 59:23
  Mike: I dunno, like he's, he's genuinely a great dude, like a
• 59:26
  Glen Erickson: That's cool.
• 59:27
  Mike: really cool guy.
• 59:28
  Mike: we send each other just like the dumbest memes and like, I don't think he takes himself too seriously either, which is, uh, good, good thing.
• 59:37
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 59:37
  Glen Erickson: I think a lot of people walk away and they, uh, you know, start to attribute.
• 59:41
  Glen Erickson: You know, a long history of cliches when they see like, is he like the tortured artist type person?
• 59:47
  Glen Erickson: 'cause he's got such deep lyrics and, and um, and all that kind of stuff.
• 59:52
  Glen Erickson: But I think it's always nice to hear a band mate's perspective, uh, on somebody like that.
• 59:57
  Glen Erickson: I think it's definitely got a, you know, for you it's probably had a lot of value to feel like, oh shit, I've got like, I got like a really great personality.
• 1:00:07
  Glen Erickson: Like that goes so far in a band.
• 1:00:08
  Glen Erickson: Especially, I don't know when you first joined it, like, so like the band that I had toured with, right.
• 1:00:13
  Glen Erickson: Um, I never forget when I first got invited to come and like do our first jam together and coming back home and my wife was like, how did that go?
• 1:00:23
  Glen Erickson: Like, what do you think?
• 1:00:24
  Glen Erickson: And I was like, the songs are really good and the two brothers are really handsome.
• 1:00:29
  Glen Erickson: I think this has a shot.
• 1:00:30
  Mike: Yeah.
• 1:00:31
  Glen Erickson: Just, cause unfortunately, it's so true, right?
• 1:00:34
  Glen Erickson: Um,
• 1:00:34
  Mike: hey,
• 1:00:35
  Glen Erickson: but.
• 1:00:36
  Mike: with, uh, blessed with a band that looks good too.
• 1:00:39
  Mike: So, but no,
• 1:00:40
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:00:40
  Mike: also like attribute, I genuinely attribute, like whenever I run into people, like in the industry or like.
• 1:00:47
  Mike: People who like, kind of are a bit more in tune with what I do.
• 1:00:50
  Mike: the, the number one thing I get asked all the time is just like, you guys are on tour all the fucking time.
• 1:00:55
  Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
• 1:00:55
  Mike: how do you like find a moment to breathe?
• 1:00:57
  Mike: They're like, do you guys get sick of each other?
• 1:01:00
  Mike: And like the reality is like the four of us in Hotel Mirror are genuinely like best friends.
• 1:01:05
  Mike: Like I've always said that if I were ever to get married or whatever, like my wedding party would be five people.
• 1:01:11
  Mike: Brendan Bachelor, another one of my close friends, and the three guys, you know, like, it, it is like we are that close knit.
• 1:01:17
  Mike: and that allows the sustainability to have like open conversations without ego getting involved.
• 1:01:23
  Mike: Whether they be like great conversations or like tougher conversations because like the road grinds you down and you just have like these things that you need to talk about, especially interpersonally and whatnot.
• 1:01:34
  Mike: But I do think that like adds to the longevity of, of the band because like.
• 1:01:38
  Mike: I've toured with people that they just become unraveled on the road.
• 1:01:43
  Mike: Like, it's just like, it's, it's like your dream gig until you do it and you realize it's like kind of a nightmare because
• 1:01:48
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:01:49
  Mike: from home and like your creature comforts aren't there.
• 1:01:52
  Mike: But,
• 1:01:53
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:01:54
  Mike: we don't care about that.
• 1:01:55
  Mike: So
• 1:01:56
  Glen Erickson: Well, I was gonna ask you about longevity since like this, like the hotel mirror transformation is like.
• 1:02:03
  Glen Erickson: You know, going on eight years here.
• 1:02:05
  Glen Erickson: Right?
• 1:02:06
  Glen Erickson: So, um, I mean, that's pretty significant and you just sort of answered it and fully relatable.
• 1:02:12
  Glen Erickson: I mean, 10 plus years since my band breakup, these are still some of my favorite people in the world, and we send each other memes on our text thread still all this time later, we're still making the same jokes that we made in a van, driving around and, I mean, you see this stuff in documentaries and, and whatever, right?
• 1:02:32
  Glen Erickson: I, and I don't think it can get undersold how actually important and what actually keeps people together and, and really drives people to have a career is the people you hit your saddle to.
• 1:02:45
  Glen Erickson: So, yeah.
• 1:02:46
  Mike: uh, if you like, I think so I have friends obviously that aren't in music, that are just like, oh, like, you're, you're living the dream, aren't you?
• 1:02:57
  Mike: And like, yes, like the, like, without getting into, like, if I, if I just kind of wanna not dive into that in that moment, I'll be like, yeah, I am.
• 1:03:05
  Mike: But like, the reality is, it's like.
• 1:03:07
  Mike: It's like the hardest I've ever worked.
• 1:03:09
  Mike: And it's grueling and it's tough.
• 1:03:11
  Mike: And it's like you read, like I, going back to the wrestling thing off the top, like you read all these things where it's just like, I was on the road and I missed my baby's first steps and stuff like that.
• 1:03:21
  Mike: Like that stuff is real.
• 1:03:23
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:03:23
  Mike: like obviously like I don't have kids and that's not a direct metaphor for me, but like, you know, I've missed weddings.
• 1:03:28
  Mike: I've missed like, like one of my best friends just had a kid and I haven't met them yet.
• 1:03:32
  Mike: And that was
• 1:03:33
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:03:34
  Mike: you know, like, um, I, to to that point, we'll be meeting him next week or
• 1:03:40
  Glen Erickson: Oh, fantastic.
• 1:03:41
  Mike: But,
• 1:03:42
  Glen Erickson: I,
• 1:03:42
  Mike: but like, you know what I mean?
• 1:03:43
  Mike: Right.
• 1:03:44
  Mike: Like it's just kind of
• 1:03:44
  Glen Erickson: yeah.
• 1:03:45
  Mike: it's this like priority that you have to take that like, I think a lot of people don't understand because like.
• 1:03:51
  Mike: Like, as is intentional because you like going back to what I was saying about like only looking cool on social media, like I'm only posting the accomplishments, you know, like I'm not here storing like, oh yeah, another 12 hour Dr.
• 1:04:04
  Mike: I mean, sometimes I am, but you know what I mean, right.
• 1:04:06
  Mike: like,
• 1:04:07
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:04:07
  Mike: like people only see the good, um, and there's a lot of good of course, but like, there's a lot of, like, there's actually, like they, they, they don't sponsor me, but like there's this, um, I can't even remember the name of it.
• 1:04:21
  Mike: So if they did sponsor me, I'd be a terrible ad read.
• 1:04:23
  Mike: But, um, it's basically like, it's like a mental health for touring musician's Instagram account that's kind of popped up lately.
• 1:04:31
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:04:32
  Mike: it's really, really cool because like they would, it's like kind of formatted in a way that I think is a little cheesy, but like the content itself is like, and what it has to say is like, I read it and I was like, damn, like.
• 1:04:45
  Mike: Whoever is behind this account gets it, you know?
• 1:04:48
  Mike: Um,
• 1:04:49
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 1:04:49
  Mike: it off the top of my head, but
• 1:04:51
  Glen Erickson: it's not the fit on Tour
• 1:04:53
  Mike: No.
• 1:04:54
  Glen Erickson: different, that's a friend of mine from the Lemon Foundation, but,
• 1:04:57
  Mike: Okay.
• 1:04:58
  Mike: Yeah.
• 1:04:59
  Glen Erickson: but I know what you mean in
• 1:05:00
  Mike: I'll, I'll send it to you when, no, it's
• 1:05:03
  Glen Erickson: I,
• 1:05:03
  Mike: tour.
• 1:05:04
  Mike: At this tour life.
• 1:05:05
  Glen Erickson: okay.
• 1:05:06
  Glen Erickson: I love that you brought that up actually.
• 1:05:07
  Glen Erickson: 'cause my very last point is like, I, like I've watched that, you know, you guys don't shy away from, world issues or things.
• 1:05:17
  Glen Erickson: Some of those, uh, tours, the last tour through the states, some of that shit on Instagram was the funniest, like the person giving the finger.
• 1:05:25
  Mike: That
• 1:05:25
  Glen Erickson: The whole time.
• 1:05:26
  Glen Erickson: Uh, and then, and then Charlie getting everybody to just raise their middle finger in the audience
• 1:05:31
  Mike: down.
• 1:05:31
  Glen Erickson: they put it down.
• 1:05:32
  Mike: Charlie crushed that.
• 1:05:33
  Mike: I
• 1:05:33
  Glen Erickson: Oh, that,
• 1:05:34
  Mike: That was a moment for me where I was like, I saw that video after, and I was like, all of this happened.
• 1:05:38
  Mike: You
• 1:05:39
  Glen Erickson: yeah, yeah,
• 1:05:40
  Mike: got like, obviously I saw the raising the middle finger thing, but I was just like locked into my world, so.
• 1:05:44
  Glen Erickson: yeah.
• 1:05:44
  Glen Erickson: I mean, but inside of all those set of things that post, I've also been struck by the vulnerability to talk about mental health issues and stuff like that.
• 1:05:54
  Glen Erickson: So you bring this up about being on tour a whole lot.
• 1:05:57
  Glen Erickson: And I always found like people's perception about us being on tour was so interesting, right?
• 1:06:03
  Glen Erickson: It's like, maybe I was only out for three weeks out of the last six months, but because of social, somebody thinks that I'm always out on tour and, or, or what it really looks like, like you said, we only post.
• 1:06:16
  Glen Erickson: The best stuff.
• 1:06:17
  Glen Erickson: We don't usually post the not best stuff
• 1:06:19
  Mike: Yeah.
• 1:06:20
  Glen Erickson: the, and the soul sucking moments where I, you know, sitting in a van waiting for a gig to start or whatever, like, so I mean, that was part of the, you sort of half answered, because I was gonna ask, you know, with this much longevity, how have you guys figured out how to deal with some of that challenges?
• 1:06:35
  Glen Erickson: Both, whether it be taking care of your bodies or stuff like that.
• 1:06:38
  Glen Erickson: So, I, is there other things that you guys have figured out other than, you know, having a, discovering a new tool or app that really
• 1:06:46
  Mike: Yeah,
• 1:06:46
  Glen Erickson: some good resources?
• 1:06:48
  Glen Erickson: I.
• 1:06:48
  Mike: not entirely sure.
• 1:06:49
  Mike: Like, so we were on the road, I counted for like 172 days last year.
• 1:06:55
  Mike: Like it was wild, like a real, a real run.
• 1:06:58
  Mike: and this year, like we're not, I don't think we'll be cresting that, but like, you know, we're, we're at it, you know, like, like this kind of three month run where I've been run, I'm calling being at home a run.
• 1:07:08
  Mike: That's how tour appealed I am.
• 1:07:10
  Mike: But, um, this three months where I've been home has probably been the longest I've been at home since like.
• 1:07:16
  Mike: Maybe summer 2023, like two years.
• 1:07:20
  Mike: So, you know, it's, uh, pretty wild.
• 1:07:24
  Mike: But in terms of like, like we just have like a really good routine.
• 1:07:27
  Mike: Like we try to eat healthy.
• 1:07:28
  Mike: Like how I des like,'cause I think everyone, like, I think the stories of like Motley Crew in the eighties and stuff like that have like ruined like, have like distorted people's perceptions on like what being in a band is like, it's like,
• 1:07:40
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:07:40
  Mike: where's the
• 1:07:41
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:07:41
  Mike: It's like, oh, like I'm going back to the hotel and playing Nintendo Switch.
• 1:07:45
  Mike: Like, I am not going out.
• 1:07:46
  Mike: You know, like I have to drive for 14 hours tomorrow from Denver to San Antonio.
• 1:07:52
  Mike: You know, like, it's, um, it's like, so there, there's that perception.
• 1:07:56
  Mike: And I think the thing like trying to eat healthy, trying to stay healthy and like trying to make each other laugh, but like in a non bullying way, it's like all also very nice.
• 1:08:06
  Mike: like way I describe Tour to people is like, it's like, okay, like imagine like.
• 1:08:12
  Mike: Let's say you're on the road for four weeks, 28 days, right?
• 1:08:15
  Mike: Imagine if you were just like living your day-to-day life at home, nothing, nothing changed except you're now eating McDonald's twice a day because, or like, or you like two of your meals every day come from a gas station.
• 1:08:30
  Mike: And then like, just, but like, that's the only change in your day-to-day life, right?
• 1:08:34
  Mike: Like everything else is like normal.
• 1:08:36
  Mike: You'd probably be like, sucks.
• 1:08:39
  Mike: Like, like how?
• 1:08:40
  Mike: Like I couldn't do that.
• 1:08:41
  Mike: And it's like, okay, but now add, taking, like, you know, being away from home, missing your loved ones.
• 1:08:47
  Mike: You know, like I had, like, if I can be very candid, like when we did our UK tour last year, was an 18 day run.
• 1:08:55
  Mike: And on day three I got a message from, my partner at the time, uh, that, uh.
• 1:09:01
  Mike: Our dog, uh, jumped off something too high and got paralyzed and like I had to finish the tour and like, everything's fine in the end.
• 1:09:09
  Mike: And like, like it does have a happy ending in terms of like, my dog is like, fine.
• 1:09:13
  Mike: Like she recovered great.
• 1:09:15
  Mike: And like bringing her back, nursing her back to recovery and like teaching her to, I know so much about dog neurology by the way, if, if anyone has any questions about that.
• 1:09:23
  Mike: um, was like one of the most fulfilling things of last year that happened outside of like music success.
• 1:09:30
  Mike: But like, that happened when I was on tour and it was like day two, day three, day four into like an 18 day run.
• 1:09:36
  Mike: I'm overseas, so like I'm getting updates in like I have to wake up at 10 and wait till like 7:00 PM that night to hear from anyone on like, what's going on?
• 1:09:45
  Mike: Like, did the surgery go okay.
• 1:09:47
  Mike: Stuff
• 1:09:48
  Glen Erickson: Hmm.
• 1:09:48
  Mike: Right.
• 1:09:49
  Mike: And like, you know, still have to like, perform on stage every night and like, you know, give a good show and like.
• 1:09:54
  Mike: Get a good night of sleep and not
• 1:09:56
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:09:56
  Mike: like, messed up and like, stuff like that.
• 1:09:59
  Mike: It's like, you know,
• 1:10:01
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:10:01
  Mike: exactly be like, Hey guys, sorry, gotta go home, because it's just like, you can't,
• 1:10:07
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:10:08
  Mike: stuff like that, it's like, it's really, like, at the same time, like, I've seen so much of the world and like, I've seen so much of the world with like three of my best friends and like, I can't take that away from anything.
• 1:10:19
  Mike: Right.
• 1:10:19
  Mike: So
• 1:10:20
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:10:20
  Mike: it, it, it's just trying to figure, figure that out.
• 1:10:23
  Mike: And like for me, like I've just kind of understood that that's part of the life now, you
• 1:10:28
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 1:10:29
  Mike: Um, and like, like, we kind of just like, we kind of joke that we just like flip a switch and we're in tour mode, but, but that's because we just are so experienced at it at this point.
• 1:10:39
  Glen Erickson: yeah,
• 1:10:40
  Mike: Yeah, like I think there was some, like, there were some growing pains, especially early on.
• 1:10:45
  Mike: Um, I'm thankful the shows are really good.
• 1:10:47
  Mike: Like if like, you know, like if the show sucked, they would be, it would be a lot harder.
• 1:10:51
  Mike: But, um,
• 1:10:52
  Glen Erickson: yeah.
• 1:10:53
  Mike: like our worldwide audience, it's absolutely lights out,
• 1:10:56
  Glen Erickson: I.
• 1:10:56
  Mike: I can't complain in like, you know, like selling out Manchester, selling out London, selling out,
• 1:11:01
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:11:02
  Mike: that are, it's like, it's like what?
• 1:11:04
  Mike: Like our
• 1:11:05
  Glen Erickson: another, another thing that can't be undersold to people is how much, how, how many legs that gives a band
• 1:11:12
  Mike: Oh Yeah.
• 1:11:13
  Glen Erickson: support.
• 1:11:14
  Glen Erickson: Like, it's just so easy for us to be like, do I feel like getting outta and going outta the house tonight?
• 1:11:19
  Glen Erickson: Or do I not?
• 1:11:20
  Glen Erickson: And yet that, you know, that inkling is like everything to a band, to have like a full show and have some good energy and makes such a difference in your life.
• 1:11:31
  Glen Erickson: yeah, like you said,'cause you're, you know, your days are on the road, are spent like driving or traveling in some way for long periods of time waiting around, which, you know, in our regular life, we're busy.
• 1:11:44
  Glen Erickson: We don't wait around for anything.
• 1:11:46
  Glen Erickson: But you go on tour and you're, you're sitting waiting for stuff all the time.
• 1:11:50
  Glen Erickson: Uh, and it's a terrible, shitty feeling.
• 1:11:53
  Glen Erickson: And, um, yeah.
• 1:11:54
  Glen Erickson: So people.
• 1:11:55
  Glen Erickson: People make the difference.
• 1:11:56
  Glen Erickson: Right.
• 1:11:57
  Glen Erickson: So that's pretty awesome.
• 1:11:58
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:11:59
  Mike: it's been good.
• 1:12:00
  Mike: It's like ultimately, I, I know the dog story is very sad and like that, and I, I will be the first to say, like, that is easily the worst thing that's happened to me on tour.
• 1:12:09
  Mike: Like in terms
• 1:12:09
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:12:10
  Mike: how it affected, like, stuff in per like, but like, obviously that's just like, it, it's traveling for work, you know, like that.
• 1:12:17
  Mike: Like if you
• 1:12:18
  Glen Erickson: Well, yeah, and I'm also, I'm also sad to hear that you're not with your previous partner, which I was gonna maybe ask you off, off screen, but I haven't talked to you in for so long, so that's, uh,
• 1:12:27
  Mike: That
• 1:12:28
  Glen Erickson: that's
• 1:12:29
  Mike: good breakup.
• 1:12:29
  Mike: We are, it's
• 1:12:30
  Glen Erickson: okay.
• 1:12:30
  Glen Erickson: Good.
• 1:12:31
  Glen Erickson: Okay, good.
• 1:12:31
  Mike: that.
• 1:12:32
  Glen Erickson: Okay, good.
• 1:12:33
  Glen Erickson: Uh, well then we're good.
• 1:12:34
  Glen Erickson: We're happy about all of that.
• 1:12:35
  Glen Erickson: Well, um, I don't wanna take up too much of your time.
• 1:12:38
  Glen Erickson: I could already, I could like, I could sidebar off into wrestling and all kinds of things'cause uh,
• 1:12:44
  Mike: for our other podcast.
• 1:12:45
  Glen Erickson: that's for another time.
• 1:12:46
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:12:47
  Glen Erickson: I do wanna ask you though, bef before we wrap up, um, well, I do also wanna say before we wrap up, like, the band is like, I'm Edmonton based.
• 1:12:56
  Glen Erickson: You guys are coming to play our K days, which I, last night I was like, I wonder if there's, is there an actual circuit for like, Canadian midway, like shows like every, you know, every city has their own little like, stampede, kday,
• 1:13:12
  Mike: would
• 1:13:12
  Glen Erickson: the, you know, whatever.
• 1:13:13
  Mike: to
• 1:13:13
  Glen Erickson: Um, you could get on that circuit and just play all of those.
• 1:13:17
  Glen Erickson: But then, uh, you guys have a pretty significant tour again in the fall, speaking of all the touring, so that's pretty exciting.
• 1:13:23
  Glen Erickson: And you got some Canadian dates in Eastern Canada and a whole lot of America again, it looked like.
• 1:13:28
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 1:13:29
  Mike: uh, when's
• 1:13:29
  Glen Erickson: I,
• 1:13:30
  Mike: coming out?
• 1:13:31
  Glen Erickson: this episode will probably be mid-August.
• 1:13:33
  Mike: Okay, so I can say this then.
• 1:13:35
  Mike: yeah, we'll be playing, uh, midway December 11th.
• 1:13:38
  Glen Erickson: Oh, fantastic.
• 1:13:39
  Mike: We haven't,
• 1:13:40
  Glen Erickson: You got, okay.
• 1:13:41
  Glen Erickson: You have some more shows to, to tag on though.
• 1:13:43
  Mike: haven't, done, we haven't announced Western Canada yet, because, we have the festivals.
• 1:13:48
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 1:13:48
  Mike: So like, once we've announced, once the
• 1:13:50
  Glen Erickson: yeah, of course.
• 1:13:51
  Mike: we'll be announcing early August, so I can tell you right now, we'll
• 1:13:54
  Glen Erickson: Oh, that's so exciting.
• 1:13:55
  Mike: Yeah,
• 1:13:56
  Glen Erickson: great room for you guys.
• 1:13:57
  Glen Erickson: Have you played it before?
• 1:13:58
  Mike: we've opened it twice I wanna
• 1:14:00
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:14:01
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:14:01
  Mike: never headlined.
• 1:14:02
  Mike: So it was time for like,'cause we sold out Starlight.
• 1:14:05
  Mike: We sold out Starlight, just Starlight once, and then we sold out Starlight with Temple Open
• 1:14:10
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:14:11
  Mike: that was the first time that happened since 2017.
• 1:14:13
  Mike: So I thought that was a cool little
• 1:14:14
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:14:14
  Glen Erickson: That's very cool.
• 1:14:15
  Mike: Um, a allegedly legend has it.
• 1:14:18
  Mike: Um,
• 1:14:19
  Glen Erickson: Well, if you heard it from Tyson, he doesn't bullshit anybody, so that's great.
• 1:14:24
  Mike: no.
• 1:14:24
  Mike: Uh, but yeah, so, So we'll be at midway December 11th.
• 1:14:28
  Mike: if this episode is like, it should be announced by the time this episode's out, but if it's not out, it's not
• 1:14:33
  Glen Erickson: Uh, I'll be careful.
• 1:14:34
  Mike: This, is a
• 1:14:35
  Glen Erickson: I'll be careful.
• 1:14:35
  Mike: No, no, it's all good.
• 1:14:36
  Mike: I we're like an hour 20 into it.
• 1:14:39
  Mike: If you, if you've made it this far, you've earned it.
• 1:14:41
  Mike: Yeah.
• 1:14:41
  Glen Erickson: that's awesome.
• 1:14:41
  Glen Erickson: I appreciate that.
• 1:14:42
  Glen Erickson: Okay, my last question for you.
• 1:14:44
  Glen Erickson: I loved you've referenced a couple times'cause I was curious, I'm always curious what somebody does and what your interests or growing interests have been outside of.
• 1:14:54
  Glen Erickson: The band, which can't occupy all of your time.
• 1:14:56
  Glen Erickson: Like you said, you got three months of relative downtime, but you referenced working with other up and coming artists and either in some informal consulting or formal, or even helping I'm sure maybe in some production and all this other kind of stuff that you have skills in.
• 1:15:12
  Glen Erickson: so I'm wondering, I love to hear somebody tell me who I should be paying attention to, who might not be on my radar that you're excited about.
• 1:15:21
  Mike: Okay.
• 1:15:21
  Mike: Well, I'm con, I'm contractually obliged to give Carmine out of Victoria a shout out.
• 1:15:26
  Mike: I'm producing, uh, I produced all their stuff that's out right now and we have a couple things in the chamber.
• 1:15:31
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:15:31
  Mike: produced, co-produced with Kevy from Fake Shark, um, a song called Jawbreaker by a band called Cold Fame.
• 1:15:38
  Mike: Uh,
• 1:15:38
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:15:39
  Mike: 14 on the Canadian alt rock charts.
• 1:15:42
  Mike: Uh,
• 1:15:43
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:15:44
  Mike: for someone who's only dipping their toes into production, having a song in the top 15 is kind of
• 1:15:49
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, man, that's pretty sweet.
• 1:15:51
  Glen Erickson: I.
• 1:15:51
  Mike: yeah, it's kind of crazy.
• 1:15:52
  Mike: who else?
• 1:15:53
  Mike: Uh, there's a lot of great bands outta Victoria right now.
• 1:15:55
  Mike: Uh, dead Summer is like a, kind of like a DFA style drum and bass band.
• 1:15:59
  Mike: They're, they fucking rip, they have one song out.
• 1:16:02
  Mike: I'm working with a band called Trophy Dad.
• 1:16:03
  Mike: Great dudes.
• 1:16:04
  Mike: in Vancouver, uh, uncle Strut is gonna be the next big band out of Vancouver.
• 1:16:09
  Mike: Like you can, I'm gonna call it right now.
• 1:16:10
  Mike: Like I am absolutely like Owen Nolan All Star Game
• 1:16:14
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:16:14
  Mike: calling my shot pointing at the top corner.
• 1:16:16
  Mike: and other than that, like, to think of who, like, I mean, like, they're not an emerging artist, but like, you know, the OB GMs always deserve a shout out.
• 1:16:24
  Mike: They just got shortlisted for the Polaris Prize.
• 1:16:26
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:16:27
  Mike: just like dudes
• 1:16:28
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 1:16:28
  Mike: who I fucking love them dearly.
• 1:16:30
  Glen Erickson: really good.
• 1:16:31
  Mike: yeah.
• 1:16:31
  Mike: And man, just like there's a lot of great stuff happening.
• 1:16:33
  Mike: You kind of just gotta look under these nooks and crannies
• 1:16:36
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:16:36
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:16:38
  Mike: yeah, and fake Shark just put out Monster, which I think is the song of the summer.
• 1:16:41
  Glen Erickson: Oh, well then we're gonna go and hype that and listen to it.
• 1:16:44
  Glen Erickson: That's awesome.
• 1:16:45
  Mike: good.
• 1:16:45
  Mike: It's really good.
• 1:16:45
  Mike: Kevy co-wrote, uh, six, eight songs off pity party.
• 1:16:51
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:16:51
  Mike: that was kind of like our beginning of our songwriting foray.
• 1:16:55
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 1:16:56
  Mike: now we're just working with a bunch of other artists'cause it worked.
• 1:16:58
  Glen Erickson: I love it.
• 1:16:59
  Glen Erickson: I love it.
• 1:17:00
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:17:00
  Glen Erickson: Actually, I, I have one more question for you, Mike.
• 1:17:03
  Mike: Hit me.
• 1:17:04
  Glen Erickson: So, what do you think of the John Cena heel turn?
• 1:17:07
  Mike: Okay.
• 1:17:08
  Mike: I think, I think it's good.
• 1:17:11
  Mike: Like when it started, like it, it hit the shock value that it needed.
• 1:17:15
  Mike: I'm, yeah.
• 1:17:15
  Mike: So how long do you have?
• 1:17:16
  Mike: No, so it hit the shock value it needed.
• 1:17:19
  Mike: I think it was for his run right now, because he's just not in the physical shape.
• 1:17:27
  Mike: He needs to be, to put like those long on.
• 1:17:31
  Glen Erickson: Yeah,
• 1:17:31
  Mike: My, one problem that I have with it it feels like it's John Cena playing a bad guy.
• 1:17:39
  Mike: know what I mean?
• 1:17:39
  Mike: Like, like it, it feels like he's playing a character.
• 1:17:42
  Mike: Like I think his, like, I think he's killing the promos, I think the content of it, and it's like cool to watch.
• 1:17:47
  Mike: But every now and then there's like a level of like, I don't know if this is authentic, but I think that might be just a symptom of seeing John Cena as not a heel for my entire life, basically.
• 1:17:57
  Mike: You
• 1:17:57
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:17:57
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:17:58
  Glen Erickson: He's so good on the mic and if you wanna make him like a bit of a bastard, he's still so good at it,
• 1:18:04
  Mike: Yeah,
• 1:18:04
  Glen Erickson: like I get what you're saying, like it's still sort of underneath that you're like, ah, okay.
• 1:18:09
  Glen Erickson: But, and we've seen him as an actor.
• 1:18:11
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:18:11
  Glen Erickson: The spinoff question of that then would probably be just your overall feeling about how WW is handling all of these later stage guys.
• 1:18:21
  Glen Erickson: 'cause it feels like, yeah, it feels like a lot of them are later stage, like taking center stage for some reason.
• 1:18:28
  Mike: yeah.
• 1:18:28
  Mike: So I, I do like.
• 1:18:30
  Mike: The average age of like a WWE main inventor is like kind of age, like gone six to seven years older.
• 1:18:37
  Mike: Like Cody Rhodes
• 1:18:37
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:18:38
  Mike: 40
• 1:18:38
  Glen Erickson: Yeah, that's it.
• 1:18:39
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:18:40
  Mike: yeah.
• 1:18:40
  Mike: And like Gunther, who I think is fantastic, but is also like, you know, like he's, he's touted as this like newcomer of source, but he is like 37, you know,
• 1:18:50
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:18:50
  Mike: like, not that there's anything wrong with being 37, like I'm counting on the clock to that.
• 1:18:54
  Mike: But like, I don't know.
• 1:18:55
  Mike: Like, it, it is interesting.
• 1:18:56
  Mike: I think there's like a young crop coming up.
• 1:18:58
  Mike: I, I dunno if you watch a w but all in last, uh, the other day just absolutely blew my
• 1:19:04
  Glen Erickson: Was that the John Moxley getting torn up match?
• 1:19:07
  Glen Erickson: Kinda, yeah.
• 1:19:08
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:19:08
  Mike: Hangman and Paige, Sean Moxley.
• 1:19:09
  Mike: That was unbelievable.
• 1:19:11
  Mike: I think wrestling is like flying pretty high right now.
• 1:19:13
  Mike: Like, like as a whole, like I think it's like, I think it all will always have that like.
• 1:19:18
  Mike: The, you know, the naysayer vibe to it because, you know, like, it's like, it's one of those things where like, if you get it, you get it.
• 1:19:25
  Mike: And if you don't, well like, you
• 1:19:27
  Glen Erickson: Very true,
• 1:19:28
  Mike: good
• 1:19:28
  Glen Erickson: very true.
• 1:19:29
  Mike: But, um, I think, I think it's in a boom period.
• 1:19:32
  Mike: I, I really like Goldberg's Retirement, I think was handled pretty well.
• 1:19:35
  Mike: I think going over or Gunther winning was the right move.
• 1:19:39
  Mike: Slam will be good.
• 1:19:40
  Mike: I'm not too concerned.
• 1:19:41
  Mike: I, I, I watched a, a ton of wrestling this weekend between,
• 1:19:45
  Glen Erickson: Sweet.
• 1:19:46
  Mike: American Bash, Saturday Night's Main Event all in, and it was, it was, it was so funny.
• 1:19:50
  Mike: We, um.
• 1:19:51
  Mike: So our load in for the WildHorse gig.
• 1:19:54
  Mike: So actually this is, this is an unbelievably mundane story that I just have to share.
• 1:20:00
  Mike: all in, I'm looking forward to this AWS All in, it's like a six hour event, uh, on Saturday.
• 1:20:06
  Mike: And because we have the Sheryl Crow show on the Friday, we were flying home on Saturday, and I was like, fuck.
• 1:20:11
  Mike: Like, I'm gonna be, you know, flying home during this show.
• 1:20:14
  Mike: Like, I, I'm gonna miss it.
• 1:20:15
  Mike: Like, what's, what's, what do I do?
• 1:20:17
  Mike: And then basically it's, it was airing, uh, from, it started at 1:00 PM Mountain Time.
• 1:20:24
  Mike: And so, because we got this gig on the Saturday, I was like, okay, perfect.
• 1:20:30
  Mike: Like I gotta find a place in Calgary to watch it and could not find a place in Calgary to watch it.
• 1:20:36
  Mike: Like everyone's just so stampede oriented that it was like, okay, whatever.
• 1:20:40
  Glen Erickson: Mm.
• 1:20:40
  Glen Erickson: Yeah.
• 1:20:40
  Mike: it on my laptop or whatever.
• 1:20:42
  Mike: And then.
• 1:20:43
  Mike: I was like, okay.
• 1:20:44
  Mike: But like, I like, because of how the nature of these gigs worked, we had to check out a one hotel and go into another hotel.
• 1:20:50
  Mike: This next hotel that we went to was like in like right next door to the venue.
• 1:20:54
  Mike: So I was like, okay, cool.
• 1:20:55
  Mike: We have to load in at seven.
• 1:20:57
  Mike: And I'm like, okay, check out at 11.
• 1:20:59
  Mike: Probably can't check into this new hotel till three.
• 1:21:02
  Mike: I called them and I'm like, Hey, what are the ch like, Hey, we're, we're playing the WildHorse Saloon tonight.
• 1:21:07
  Mike: there any chance you have any rooms ready that we can just like get into, like, you know, like it would be, I was like, yeah, it sucks carrying gear around and like all like, not like I want to watch a wrestling event.
• 1:21:17
  Mike: they would've been like, what are you talking about?
• 1:21:18
  Mike: And so they're like, yeah, no problem.
• 1:21:20
  Mike: Like we can get your rooms ready.
• 1:21:21
  Mike: So for when you get here, I'm like, boys, we're going like, we have to get there before one and then, so my laptop open 1:00 PM bell rings.
• 1:21:29
  Mike: I'm watching it.
• 1:21:31
  Mike: event starts at like six 10 and I'm like, damn, I'm getting pretty close to load in here.
• 1:21:36
  Mike: Like hopefully like between entrances match and post match.
• 1:21:41
  Mike: like, we're, we're we're.
• 1:21:43
  Mike: This is a tight like little, uh, little plan I have going, I think like went off the air at like 6 56 and I'm like, perfect.
• 1:21:53
  Mike: Shut the laptop, grab my base, go downstairs, load in soundcheck, play the gig.
• 1:21:57
  Glen Erickson: Perfect.
• 1:21:58
  Mike: And I was like, huh, what a weekend.
• 1:22:00
  Glen Erickson: That's, uh, everything coming up.
• 1:22:02
  Glen Erickson: Mike Noble.
• 1:22:02
  Glen Erickson: That's what that is right there.
• 1:22:04
  Mike: was wearing my flood pants and everything.
• 1:22:06
  Glen Erickson: Well, I love that man.
• 1:22:08
  Glen Erickson: Uh, these are the things I always appreciate about you.
• 1:22:11
  Glen Erickson: Uh, but now I get to add the fact that you came and did the podcast with me.
• 1:22:16
  Glen Erickson: I've been trying to get you on here all through my season one, but like you indicated, you're very busy.
• 1:22:21
  Glen Erickson: but the fact that you hung in there with me, I'm super appreciative, man.
• 1:22:25
  Glen Erickson: Thank you.
• 1:22:26
  Mike: Like if you ever, like, I'm down to run this back.
• 1:22:28
  Mike: If you ever need to, if you ever want me to get a hold of anyone for an interview, I can do that too.
• 1:22:33
  Mike: It's
• 1:22:33
  Glen Erickson: Uh, that's the sweetest.
• 1:22:35
  Glen Erickson: Uh, I really appreciate it and I probably will'cause I learning how much I have to go back to, uh, the relational side of this industry to make this thing happen.
• 1:22:43
  Glen Erickson: So,
• 1:22:44
  Mike: Oh yeah.
• 1:22:45
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:22:45
  Glen Erickson: Well I appreciate all this time that you gave me and, uh, I wish you all the best and I look forward to seeing you when you come through Edmonton for sure.
• 1:22:51
  Mike: I'll see you in nine days, eight
• 1:22:53
  Glen Erickson: that would be, that would be fantastic.
• 1:22:55
  Glen Erickson: So, okay.
• 1:22:56
  Glen Erickson: Well enjoy, uh, whatever little break that you have coming up here before the whole machine rolls again.
• 1:23:01
  Glen Erickson: And all the best to you and the band.
• 1:23:03
  Mike: Sounds good.
• 1:23:04
  Mike: Thanks so much,
• 1:23:04
  Glen Erickson: Okay.
• 1:23:05
  Glen Erickson: Thanks Mike.
• 1:23:05
  Mike: Take it easy.
• 1:23:13
  Glen: Maybe technology will be our friend.
• 1:23:15
  Glen: Hi, how are you?
• 1:23:17
  alexi: I'm good.
• 1:23:17
  alexi: How are you?
• 1:23:18
  Glen: I am fine.
• 1:23:18
  Glen: I feel like I haven't really seen you other than maybe a couple of car trips back and forth in the last number of days,
• 1:23:25
  alexi: days.
• 1:23:25
  alexi: Yeah.
• 1:23:26
  Glen: days and days.
• 1:23:27
  Glen: Nobody likes that.
• 1:23:28
  alexi: Nope.
• 1:23:28
  alexi: Rude.
• 1:23:29
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:23:29
  Glen: Okay.
• 1:23:30
  Glen: Well, it is what it is, but here we are.
• 1:23:32
  Glen: We get to do this.
• 1:23:33
  Glen: Together.
• 1:23:34
  Glen: so I, we are gonna talk about, uh, second episode back in season two
• 1:23:40
  alexi: Yeah.
• 1:23:41
  Glen: uh, Hotel Mira, represented in this case by my friend Mike Noble, um, who took the call with me to talk about the band and his life and our shared love of wrestling and, um, all kinds of.
• 1:23:56
  Glen: Uh, I felt like there were a lot of tangents.
• 1:23:58
  Glen: Would you, was that accurate to you?
• 1:24:01
  Glen: Would you suggest that maybe we did a number of tangents?
• 1:24:05
  alexi: There was a couple, but none of them had me feeling like I needed to go in and hit, go
• 1:24:10
  Glen: Oh,
• 1:24:11
  alexi: seconds, you
• 1:24:12
  Glen: just, that's just so kind of you to say,
• 1:24:14
  alexi: they were good tangents.
• 1:24:16
  Glen: okay, boy, you sure know how to put my mind at ease.
• 1:24:19
  Glen: I appreciate it so much.
• 1:24:20
  alexi: Yeah.
• 1:24:21
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:24:21
  Glen: Uh, I mean, yeah, that was obviously, I've said this, uh, on quite a number of.
• 1:24:26
  Glen: Podcast before, but it's fun for me.
• 1:24:28
  Glen: Like just he has an energy and there was a couple of these in season one, right, where there are people that I really like but also haven't seen for 10 years in person type thing or talked to in a long time.
• 1:24:43
  Glen: And so that energy makes its way into the podcast.
• 1:24:46
  Glen: The start of the podcast at least.
• 1:24:48
  Glen: I'm always afraid that that's the tangent.
• 1:24:50
  Glen: I'll go down.
• 1:24:50
  Glen: It's just I want to catch up with people.
• 1:24:53
  alexi: is only seen by you.
• 1:24:55
  alexi: 'cause if you hadn't told me that, I wouldn't have known.
• 1:24:57
  Glen: Oh, really?
• 1:24:58
  Glen: Okay.
• 1:24:58
  alexi: Like, just seemed like you guys were like, you knew each other, but you weren't like, you know, besties,
• 1:25:04
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:25:04
  Glen: Okay.
• 1:25:05
  alexi: so like
• 1:25:06
  Glen: No, we aren't.
• 1:25:07
  Glen: Yeah, that's fair enough.
• 1:25:08
  Glen: Then I know that like in season one, like there was a, a few of them, like I know when I got on the call with Tamara Beatty, there was just a lot of like, oh, I'm just, I'm, I love to see your face.
• 1:25:20
  Glen: It's so great.
• 1:25:21
  Glen: You know, it's been too long.
• 1:25:23
  Glen: And my friend Shauna, Adeline, uh, was very similar.
• 1:25:27
  Glen: Uh, in that case, I think, um, yeah, there's just some of that, but Okay.
• 1:25:31
  Glen: That's cool.
• 1:25:31
  Glen: That's cool.
• 1:25:32
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:25:33
  Glen: But, uh, it's, it's one of those weird ones, uh, where like, I'm, I'm sort of broadcasting the band'cause that's essentially, I want to talk to him about his life in the band.
• 1:25:44
  Glen: Uh, but I'm not talking to the whole band.
• 1:25:46
  Glen: I kinda, I kind of talk to one person in a band.
• 1:25:50
  Glen: but.
• 1:25:50
  Glen: Yeah, it's just, I thought having his perspective was a really cool one because he, I mean, besides being in the band, he's just really tight with the lead singer who has a big influence on what, obviously what that band has become.
• 1:26:03
  Glen: Um, and he, he does a lot of, I think of the business side.
• 1:26:07
  Glen: I mean, obviously they have people now and, and teams and agents and managers, that kind of stuff, but.
• 1:26:13
  Glen: You know, he's very well versed in the business side, so he is kind of had his hands and vision of how that's worked out.
• 1:26:20
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:26:21
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:26:22
  alexi: You know what I like though is'cause you've mentioned that he's so close to, um, like Charlie is I went and like read a couple.
• 1:26:29
  alexi: Like interviews that the band had taken with different, like people, you know, et cetera.
• 1:26:37
  alexi: And so many of, um, his answers, like Mike's answers were like, related to the band being so close.
• 1:26:47
  alexi: Like there was one about like why they were asked, like why they that.
• 1:26:53
  alexi: They're being successful basically.
• 1:26:55
  Glen: Mm-hmm.
• 1:26:56
  alexi: put it shortly, and Charlie's answer was like, just this number of different things, including like, and focusing on like dedication and hard work.
• 1:27:05
  alexi: And, and then Mike's answer was like, yeah, we just love each other so much.
• 1:27:09
  alexi: Basically like his entire answer was like, yeah, we just, you know, we all like each other, like we're a chosen family.
• 1:27:15
  alexi: And it kept coming back to that and I just loved that and I thought it was really sweet.
• 1:27:20
  alexi: And I also just.
• 1:27:21
  alexi: Like that.
• 1:27:23
  alexi: 'cause I kind of heard the same with like you in like your band
• 1:27:26
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:27:27
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:27:27
  alexi: and like, it was kinda like the same energy of just like the Oh yeah.
• 1:27:30
  alexi: Like we work really hard, you know, da dah dah, dah.
• 1:27:33
  alexi: We also just like really love each other as people and I'm like, that's so, that's so sweet.
• 1:27:38
  alexi: And like, I'm sure that is why there's so much like good happening for them, you know?
• 1:27:44
  alexi: Because I'm like.
• 1:27:44
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:27:44
  alexi: If people can tell that you guys really all like each other like it, it is gonna portray you like
• 1:27:50
  Glen: Yeah, I mean like, don't get me wrong, there's the versions out there of like Oasis, since they're in the news with their reunion shows finally of a band that can also be really, really successful and work hard, but like not get along or like each other and even be mean to each other in public.
• 1:28:09
  Glen: Um, but there is a different version.
• 1:28:12
  Glen: When you can noticeably tell, you know, just the, the way a, like the band is more than just four or five X number of people that play music together.
• 1:28:23
  Glen: And yeah, when he was talking about that, I was obviously having those moments of like, I know exactly.
• 1:28:30
  Glen: What you're talking about.
• 1:28:31
  Glen: I know exactly what that feels like.
• 1:28:33
  Glen: I had never experienced anything like what I experienced with, you know, being in the, in the band, in, in, that I was in, and, and those guys being people like I would actually choose these guys over anyone.
• 1:28:47
  Glen: At, at some point you realize that like, oh, that's, I got really, really lucky to, to have the kind of people that I would want to be friends with in any.
• 1:28:58
  Glen: Segment of my life, let alone being in a band and, and being forced to be forced in air quotes, um, to be in close quarters and in long, you know, kinda things together.
• 1:29:11
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:29:11
  Glen: I think also related to what you were saying there.
• 1:29:16
  Glen: Similarly was the thing that struck me, which just the way I gave him an opportunity to tell me what he thinks about Charlie and I, and I guess the reason I chose to ask that question that way was because like Charlie's very iconic.
• 1:29:33
  Glen: I don't think he gets enough credit as there's not a lot of flamboyant, iconic.
• 1:29:39
  Glen: Lead singers anymore in a more older, traditional, you know what I mean?
• 1:29:44
  Glen: Kind of like it.
• 1:29:45
  Glen: It used to be a very like motif, like stereotype almost of like, but he fits that bill.
• 1:29:52
  Glen: He's got things you can see from people in the seventies, eighties, nineties, all that.
• 1:29:57
  Glen: A little bit in him and.
• 1:30:00
  Glen: And I guess my, because that was an instance where I was speaking from experience as a guitar player in a band where the people who heavily write the songs are the ones out front singing and sort of the face of things on stage.
• 1:30:17
  Glen: And you have a moment, whether it's really early or through some big thing that might happen to you as a band where you will have to.
• 1:30:28
  Glen: Choose and feel like, oh yeah, like these guys are going to do their thing and I'm gonna get associated with that even though I might not be the one doing it.
• 1:30:42
  Glen: It might not be my political opinion.
• 1:30:44
  Glen: It might not be, you know, specifically any of that stuff.
• 1:30:48
  Glen: And it could give you mixed feelings.
• 1:30:50
  Glen: And I guess I just was really curious having somebody who.
• 1:30:54
  Glen: It was that iconic, I think as a front man, uh, what his take and for him to be so wholeheartedly endorsing everything that Charlie does and says, and who he is as a person, more importantly was, yeah, it, that felt really good.
• 1:31:12
  Glen: Like that really kind of hit home to me of,
• 1:31:15
  alexi: there
• 1:31:16
  Glen: yeah.
• 1:31:16
  alexi: like so much trust'cause when he was saying like.
• 1:31:19
  alexi: He said like two or three times where he was like doing his own thing and then either like he'd hear about it after or just catch a glimpse or like see a
• 1:31:26
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:31:27
  alexi: whatever.
• 1:31:27
  alexi: I'm just like, oh, when did, when did Charlie do that?
• 1:31:30
  alexi: Oh, okay.
• 1:31:31
  alexi: It's just like you've gotta really trust someone to be so in your own zone and let your guard down that much to just like trust that whatever
• 1:31:38
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:31:39
  alexi: like
• 1:31:39
  Glen: also funny to miss.
• 1:31:43
  Glen: To actually realize that like he misses so much
• 1:31:46
  alexi: Yeah.
• 1:31:47
  Glen: show from where he stands on his part in the band playing,
• 1:31:51
  alexi: Mm-hmm.
• 1:31:52
  Glen: miss, you can miss a lot of things going on.
• 1:31:54
  Glen: Like you can turn around in a split second and be like, oh, the lead singer's in the middle of, you know, the crowd right now, I guess.
• 1:32:02
  Glen: Or, or something like that.
• 1:32:04
  Glen: And I thought those were just kind of fun, cool insights.
• 1:32:07
  Glen: Um.
• 1:32:09
  Glen: And just a really refreshing take on life in a band and how you feel about your band mate.
• 1:32:15
  Glen: And like you said, like, yeah, I guess I hadn't given it as much thought, but that's a really good point of how much that actually affects the quality of your output, right?
• 1:32:27
  Glen: Like how much does that, like how much does that level up your band to have that kind of like love and commitment to one another?
• 1:32:36
  Glen: So,
• 1:32:36
  alexi: Right.
• 1:32:37
  Glen: yeah.
• 1:32:37
  alexi: when me think of it is, um, like quite a few shifts to go at work now, but um, there was a day where like the lineup of servers at my work just happened to be like me and my girls, like all of us like hanging.
• 1:32:50
  alexi: And um, it's just so funny'cause like when we're all working together, like we're evidently still like.
• 1:32:56
  alexi: Uh, acting like friends as much as coworkers.
• 1:32:59
  alexi: 'cause you know, it's like casual, it's like a serving job.
• 1:33:01
  alexi: But of my tables was like, oh, like, like, I forget what the exact was.
• 1:33:07
  alexi: It was basically like, oh, like you and all the coworkers like get along so well.
• 1:33:11
  alexi: Like, it's so cute to see.
• 1:33:13
  alexi: And it like, the energy in here is just like so good.
• 1:33:16
  alexi: Like you just walk in and
• 1:33:17
  Glen: Mm-hmm.
• 1:33:18
  alexi: like happy and like, it seems like all of you are like, happy to be working and like super happy to be here and like it's your job.
• 1:33:26
  alexi: And it just like makes me feel like, you know, now I'm happy to be in here with you guys.
• 1:33:30
  alexi: And I'm like, like, know, them witnessing like us just be like girls who really like each other and our friends and like be in the same workplace.
• 1:33:41
  alexi: improves that, like their experience, you know?
• 1:33:44
  alexi: So I was like, oh, like as a band, like there's gotta have the same effect like, you know.
• 1:33:49
  alexi: You see these people really like each other and put out music and like they, there's like really good energy coming from them.
• 1:33:55
  alexi: Like there's no way people are like having any kind of like negative effect by seeing
• 1:34:00
  Glen: It's true it, I'll say the one weird part about it though is when you notice people noticing things that for you aren't technically part of the performance, if I can put it that way, like it feels weird, like I remember.
• 1:34:21
  Glen: Specifically like we, there came a point and it didn't happen every show at all, but.
• 1:34:27
  Glen: Uh, it became a little more common that sometimes we just would love the show and we'd finish and we would hug each other on stage before walking off.
• 1:34:36
  Glen: And then I would, people would like, people really noticed that, and then people would make comment about that, and then that's the part that would feel off-put because you're, you're sitting there and you want them to tell you how good a show you had and how good your performance was or how good you sounded that night, or any of that kind of stuff.
• 1:34:55
  Glen: Um, but that the feedback you're not ready to get is like, I like how you guys hang out, or Isn't it so cool that you guys love each other?
• 1:35:04
  Glen: And, and I, and don't get me wrong, it's great feedback.
• 1:35:06
  Glen: It's just not the feedback you expect sometimes and
• 1:35:09
  alexi: just like, oh yeah, like you forget that people can like
• 1:35:11
  Glen: they're watching you, right?
• 1:35:13
  Glen: And I forget that they might be watching me from the moment I leave the stage and then walk over to the bar or go out to the front to interact with some fans or, um, and.
• 1:35:25
  Glen: And yeah, and, and, and guys like the guys in Hotel Mirror are living that on a much grander scale.
• 1:35:32
  Glen: You know, it reminds you how difficult it is to be watched all the time and so often and uh, and stuff like that.
• 1:35:42
  Glen: But, um, yeah, so I was really happy that we got to have that chat.
• 1:35:48
  Glen: I actually, just so you know, I don't know if I had told you I had reached out to him in December of.
• 1:35:54
  Glen: 2024.
• 1:35:56
  alexi: He was on tour.
• 1:35:57
  Glen: No, they weren't even on tour just yet, but we were gonna try to line it up and book a date.
• 1:36:02
  Glen: And then they started to have a lot of things happen for them right at that time.
• 1:36:07
  Glen: And he got busy.
• 1:36:07
  Glen: And then in the new year, they started booking some tours or they had some tours lined up, but they got maybe extended or I can't remember the details.
• 1:36:15
  Glen: Uh, some good things happened for them, so I just kind of took the foot off the gas on that one.
• 1:36:19
  Glen: So I was really happy when we reconnected and were able to make it happen.
• 1:36:23
  Glen: Um, so just teaching me that sometimes podcast guest booking is the long game, not a short game.
• 1:36:32
  Glen: Um, and that's okay too, right?
• 1:36:34
  Glen: But, okay, so, so really quickly, um.
• 1:36:40
  Glen: We've, we've chatted about this a little bit, I think already, but um, our folk fest came and went.
• 1:36:46
  Glen: And we always are excited because, uh, particularly this time'cause we've made such a big deal on the podcast about me, uh, missing so many great songs and artists and performances in past years.
• 1:36:58
  Glen: 'cause I didn't know they were great and I was, yeah, I just didn't do a good job of researching.
• 1:37:05
  Glen: So I tried to do a better job this year and then also not flaking out on.
• 1:37:10
  Glen: Going to see the performance, which I think, I think there's only one performance I missed, and that's because I chose to see one of my highlights, which was Juliana Rio or RiNo.
• 1:37:23
  Glen: I think I say it wrong every time I think it's RiNo, I'll feel terrible if I.
• 1:37:27
  alexi: who got me the tarp run,
• 1:37:29
  Glen: Oh, the name on their little thing, the way they do it at the folk fest for tarps.
• 1:37:33
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:37:34
  Glen: So on Sunday they ran three cool shows at once.
• 1:37:38
  Glen: Two of them being her, and a guy named Jesse Wells, who
• 1:37:43
  alexi: Right.
• 1:37:44
  Glen: a very, and everybody will say he has a very cool, like modern Bob diy, young Bob DIY vibe.
• 1:37:50
  Glen: And um, and so I made the call to go see her and I was happy I did, except that.
• 1:37:57
  Glen: That day the rains were a curse and they just opened up three songs in and, and then Big Wind and made everybody stop playing for a while, which sucked.
• 1:38:07
  Glen: But so it cut that short.
• 1:38:09
  Glen: But I, the things I wanted to see were my highlights for sure, like the big, big performances.
• 1:38:17
  Glen: Well, I wanted to see her and she was cool, like, she just was really cool.
• 1:38:20
  Glen: But I don't really listen.
• 1:38:22
  Glen: Like her, a lot of hers is instrumental.
• 1:38:25
  alexi: Yeah.
• 1:38:25
  Glen: have a lot of respect as a guitar player, but it's not like what I'd listen to.
• 1:38:29
  Glen: But I was there for Steven Wilson Jr.
• 1:38:32
  Glen: Like a hundred percent, and I was there for Richie, Mitch, and the coal miners.
• 1:38:36
  Glen: Um.
• 1:38:37
  Glen: And so those were kind of top of my list.
• 1:38:39
  Glen: And then, uh, rainbow Kitten Surprise, which also had an incredible show.
• 1:38:43
  Glen: And so everybody that I thought would have an incredible show had an incredible show.
• 1:38:47
  Glen: So, but I didn't wanna miss those side stage, small stage ones this year again.
• 1:38:52
  Glen: And so.
• 1:38:53
  Glen: I really liked the Juliana Rio, I think, um, was maybe my favorite of those.
• 1:38:59
  Glen: And then my other favorite moment,'cause I missed Jesse Wells.
• 1:39:02
  Glen: And if people are listening, they should go listen to, um, Jesse Wells.
• 1:39:07
  Glen: Um.
• 1:39:09
  Glen: And it was that Richie, Mitch and the coal miners brought him out for a song, and they, and they did, Neil Young's old man, and they did a very, uh, like kudos, like a very good version.
• 1:39:21
  Glen: That felt very,
• 1:39:23
  alexi: Yeah.
• 1:39:24
  Glen: yeah, it was very good.
• 1:39:25
  Glen: Like, and so I was impressed and I was really glad they did that.
• 1:39:29
  Glen: But that was like the big thing for me, and I wasn't as familiar.
• 1:39:35
  Glen: No, Steven Wilson Jr.
• 1:39:38
  Glen: I will say this to anybody who's like, heard a little bit about him or thought maybe I should listen or, um, it is, he is one of those guys.
• 1:39:47
  Glen: His songs are great, but if you get a chance to see him play live, uh, you really feel the songs.
• 1:39:55
  Glen: 'cause he is, and I use the word earnest.
• 1:39:58
  Glen: As earnest as any singer songwriter guy like it was awesome, felt great.
• 1:40:04
  Glen: But tell me about, tell me about the things that you were like, oh, I'm so glad I didn't miss this this year.
• 1:40:10
  Glen: Or if you know that you did miss one.
• 1:40:12
  Glen: I don't know.
• 1:40:13
  alexi: Lemme pull up my playlist.
• 1:40:14
  alexi: I think I hit, I mean, you mentioned most of them there was a side stage and it had Steph Strings.
• 1:40:22
  alexi: Richie, Mitch,
• 1:40:24
  Glen: Like a workshop.
• 1:40:25
  alexi: yeah.
• 1:40:25
  alexi: Workshop, and then a third guy, and it was really.
• 1:40:30
  alexi: Cool.
• 1:40:30
  alexi: I wanted to see it'cause I thought it would be a good combo.
• 1:40:33
  alexi: It was probably my favorite performance other than
• 1:40:36
  Glen: Oh,
• 1:40:37
  alexi: big main stages.
• 1:40:38
  alexi: Like
• 1:40:38
  Glen: it was the older blues guy, right?
• 1:40:40
  alexi: Yeah.
• 1:40:41
  Glen: I can't remember which one that was.
• 1:40:43
  Glen: There was a couple this year.
• 1:40:44
  alexi: 'cause all three of them were taking turns and a lot of workshops you kind of hear everyone play and then come with each other or like ask a question and then move on.
• 1:40:53
  alexi: But Steph Strings surprised I think everyone and just took over completely and was like.
• 1:40:59
  alexi: Okay, I'm gonna play this now, but both of you have to join in.
• 1:41:02
  alexi: so like, this is what it's gonna be.
• 1:41:03
  alexi: And like made them kind of workshop it and then it was like, Hey, I have a question actually.
• 1:41:06
  alexi: And like, they were all like actually workshopping, which I think sometimes in the like later latest years have been like pretty lost at folk sometimes with the workshops, you know?
• 1:41:17
  alexi: And then the guy who we cannot remember the name of had mentioned prefers being on the drums and how he hasn't
• 1:41:26
  Glen: Well, isn't that because Richie, Mitch asked the two of them'cause they were so good at the guitar.
• 1:41:32
  alexi: Yeah.
• 1:41:33
  Glen: was like, what do you guys love about the guitar?
• 1:41:35
  Glen: And then he's like, actually drums was my, my first instrument.
• 1:41:40
  alexi: yeah.
• 1:41:40
  alexi: And so when, so when he hopped on the drums and then they all started playing, I'm like, that's cool.
• 1:41:45
  alexi: Like,
• 1:41:46
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:41:46
  alexi: didn't miss that.
• 1:41:48
  alexi: Okay.
• 1:41:48
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:41:48
  alexi: fault.
• 1:41:50
  alexi: Um, yeah, I don't know.
• 1:41:54
  alexi: I think I hit.
• 1:41:57
  alexi: Everyone, nice.
• 1:41:59
  alexi: Oh, Kim Churchill, I got to see again, which made me
• 1:42:02
  Glen: Oh yeah.
• 1:42:02
  Glen: You wanted to see that?
• 1:42:03
  Glen: I remember.
• 1:42:04
  Glen: That's good.
• 1:42:05
  alexi: him.
• 1:42:05
  alexi: He was just as good.
• 1:42:06
  alexi: Um, Lindsay like my friend, for people listening who has not really gone to focus before, um, or like one time I brought her anyways, um, she was.
• 1:42:18
  alexi: Especially like by Kim Churchill.
• 1:42:19
  alexi: I hadn't heard of him before.
• 1:42:20
  Glen: Oh, okay.
• 1:42:21
  alexi: him and I love, that's my favorite thing is like when you're with other people at Folk Fest and someone starts playing and like you know them or whatever, and then someone's like, oh wait, like this is so good.
• 1:42:30
  alexi: And you're
• 1:42:31
  Glen: And, and he's a very engaging performer, right?
• 1:42:35
  Glen: And I said, I'm gonna make it my mission to really tell people to go watch live music this year.
• 1:42:41
  Glen: And he's a great example of, of like, it's the people who have learned how to be good performers, that that is just such a.
• 1:42:51
  Glen: A sweet spot when you go and watch it, you'll never get that feeling that, you know, people who don't just sit there and play their songs and then leave, but are actually engaging.
• 1:43:00
  alexi: and he's performing in Edmonton too in April, maybe.
• 1:43:04
  Glen: Oh, well maybe
• 1:43:05
  alexi: mentioned, he had mentioned something like that.
• 1:43:07
  alexi: I
• 1:43:07
  Glen: is he Australian or New Zealand?
• 1:43:09
  Glen: Like
• 1:43:10
  alexi: Australian, I
• 1:43:12
  Glen: Mean?
• 1:43:12
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:43:12
  Glen: So it's not like he can just pick up and get over here all the time.
• 1:43:16
  alexi: No,
• 1:43:16
  Glen: Yeah.
• 1:43:17
  alexi: sure that was a conversation we'd had anyways.
• 1:43:20
  alexi: from Folk Fest playing anywhere in Edmonton, people should go see.
• 1:43:23
  alexi: Period.
• 1:43:24
  Glen: Well, I will, I will put the plug in is that, um, we've had some past folk festers come in and play, um, or have some shows coming up.
• 1:43:35
  Glen: So, boy Golden has a show at a, at a new upstart folk fest in, um, in September, early September, I think, or mid, and I think mid later September.
• 1:43:47
  Glen: Dan Mangan, our old friend is back
• 1:43:49
  alexi: Yeah.
• 1:43:50
  Glen: in our, but he's on tour and I think that people should check that out.
• 1:43:53
  Glen: And Hotel Mira, who we just had this episode about, just announced and released a whole extended set.
• 1:44:02
  Glen: They had to wait for the summer shows to be done.
• 1:44:04
  Glen: Before they could say they were coming back to cities because like when they're doing the festival circuit, they, people don't want them to broadcast that they're coming back later.
• 1:44:15
  Glen: Um, but so they'll be coming through a good chunk of Canada towards the last couple months of the year.
• 1:44:23
  Glen: So people can watch for that.
• 1:44:25
  Glen: And they should, because like as far as like a good old rock and roll show.
• 1:44:30
  Glen: I wanna fully endorse the guys in Hotel Mirror.
• 1:44:33
  Glen: They do a great show.
• 1:44:35
  Glen: They always sound really good.
• 1:44:37
  Glen: Like they sound, they play, they're not one of these bands that won't play the hits.
• 1:44:42
  Glen: Like they've had a lot of great like, radio success on alt radio.
• 1:44:46
  Glen: And they'll, they'll get up and they'll play the hits, right?
• 1:44:49
  Glen: Like they'll, they know what people know and wanna sing along to.
• 1:44:53
  Glen: And um, yeah.
• 1:44:55
  Glen: So I wanna endorse that as well.
• 1:44:57
  Glen: That's all.
• 1:44:57
  Glen: That's it.
• 1:44:58
  Glen: Okay.
• 1:44:59
  alexi: Well, we're 22, so we need to wrap it up
• 1:45:01
  Glen: Yeah, we gotta wrap it up.
• 1:45:04
  Glen: Something.
• 1:45:04
  Glen: There's, isn't there like an improv like hand signal for wrap it up?
• 1:45:09
  Glen: That's,
• 1:45:10
  alexi: and
• 1:45:11
  Glen: And seen is that what we're just gonna do?
• 1:45:13
  Glen: Okay.
• 1:45:13
  alexi: everyone just goes and.
• 1:45:16
  Glen: And try to hope the person, I know that they hope that the person on lights is watching and, and hits it fast enough.
• 1:45:24
  Glen: I get it.
• 1:45:25
  Glen: Okay.
• 1:45:25
  Glen: Um, thank you.
• 1:45:27
  Glen: Love you.
• 1:45:28
  alexi: Love you.
• 1:45:29
  alexi: I'll see
• 1:45:29
  Glen: Next time.
• 1:45:30
  Glen: You bet.