Canadian Musician September / October 2019

FIRST TAKE Audio About Music... By Andrew King, Editor-in-Chief Have you checked out the Canadian Musician Podcast yet? Yes, we’re one of the 750,000-plus active podcasts out there for your listening pleasure, and the fact that you’re reading this leads me to believe it could be right up your alley. Every week, we have different guests tackling different topics re- lated to the Canadian music business, from well-known and emerging artists to marketing experts, entertainment lawyers, label execs, and a lot more. As we do in the mag, we strive to balance the entertain- ing, the insightful, and the informative in each episode, all with the goal of expanding your knowledge base and helping you propel your career forward. But enough about us. (If you want more, check out the Canadian Musician Podcast page in this or any other issue, or better yet, just subscribe on your platform of choice.) I’ve admittedly and increasingly been cutting into my daily music- listening time with a growing pile of podcasts. A lot of them aren’t related to music, but some are, and each does for me what I hope ours does for others in terms of broadening horizons and, most importantly, making it feel like time well-spent – especially when that’s coupled with mundane tasks like cutting grass or cleaning the kitchen. Here are a few recommendations (and note that I’m omitting some staples like q and An Ongoing History of New Music both for their relative ubiquity and the fact that they’re better known as radio programs): Kreative Kontrol Hosted by Canadian entertainment media mainstay Vish Khanna, Kreative Kontrol is basically just an interesting guy talking to inter- esting people – mostly musicians, but also comedians, writers, and others – about interesting things. He’s coming up on 500 episodes, which is an impressive feat by any standard, and has only been get- ting better at eliciting exciting, compelling, and even controversial musings from his guests in that time. He’s had more than his share of great CanCon figures – Lido Pimienta (at least a couple of times), Shad, Hubert Lenoir, the Baroness Von Sketch ladies – but also some big international names like Kathy Griffin, John Mulaney, and Billy Bragg. Plus, his Drive Like Jehu audio doc is beyond reproach. The Imposter The only (and tragically) defunct show on the list, The Imposter was Canadaland’s arts and culture show hosted by the truly brilliant Aliya Pabani – one of the best interviewers I’ve ever heard and whose ap- proach to disarming-yet-frank conversation I hope has rubbed off on me. While the show wasn’t limited to music (far from it, in fact) it had some engulfing, entertaining, and sometimes enraging content with the likes of Tanya Tagaq, Jeremy Dutcher, PUP, Cadence Weapon… I could go on. Bottom line, it’s fantastic, and I especially encourage you to check out the episodes that don’t sound like they’d be in your wheelhouse (which was many of them for me). Points from a ‘90s- loving, rural-raised white kid on the Fubar episode, too. Music Industry Blueprint Podcast This is Rick Barker’s podcast, and if you’re even a casual reader of Ca- nadian Musician, you likely know a thing or two about Rick’s pedigree: music industry consultant, manager of American Idol winner Trent Harmon and former manager of Taylor Swift, veteran label exec, and social media mentor for Idol and The Launch. Rick’s podcast is a vital resource for anyone forging a career in music, with gamut-running topics like “Amazing Tools to Help You Run Your Music Business,” “Spotify Gave You a Gift, Don’t Screw It Up!,” “The Truth About Music Licensing” and a lot more. Song Exploder Song Exploder’s own tagline says it best: “A podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.” That’s pretty literal, too, with episodes featuring isolated tracks from the actual studio sessions. The guest list is as impressive as it is diverse, with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Sleater-Kinney, Big Boi, Con- verge, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, and Sheryl Crow, to name just a few. And (okay, maybe not entirely) coincidentally, some of my faves have Canadian subjects, like Arcade Fire, Grimes, and Carly Rae Jepsen. Switched on Pop I’ve got to credit Mike Raine, our senior editor, for switching me onto this one, which, like Song Exploder, is a total pop music geekfest. Hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter/producer Charlie Hard- ing, the show dissects popular songs to their barest elements and discusses what’s special, noteworthy, or just plain weird about them. They point out similarities between modern hits and classical com- positions, explain concepts like text painting and modulation with well-known examples, and a whole lot more. Check out the episode on the commonalities between Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and Adele’s “Hello” or the special “Breaking Down Alanis Morrissette (and Our Own Preconceptions)” for a good taste of what this one has to offer. CANADIAN MUSICIAN 9

Canadian Musician September / October 2019 | Page 9