ep14 Lyle Bell will shout secrets

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Lyle Bell is a career artistthat's a literal use of the word
artist.
The sum of his creative outputis not restricted to music, to
album cycles, but instead toproducing multiple musical
projects at once.
The music, the art, thecostumes, the videos, some
escaping regional landlock to agreater audience and some that

(00:22):
do not.
But also his painting, andphotography work.
He's an incredible live musicphotographer.
Most careers are tempered with amindless day job to pay bills,
not a blossoming secondaryartistic talent.
Most careers might feature oneband, one project that hits a
peak and crosses over into someversion of measurable success.

(00:45):
Lyle has had three or five,depending on your definition of
such.
Molly's Reach Slow, Fresh Oil.
Whitey Houston.
Shout Out.
Out, Out, Out The Wet Secrets.
I mean, The Wet Secrets producedthree full length albums and an
EP between 2007 and 2017, won ahundred grand in the Peak
Performance project, signed withsix shooter records and became

(01:07):
infamous for their performancesin Bright Red marching Band
uniforms.
Shout Out, Out, Out.
Out was a Juno nominated dance,punk electoral band producing
three full length albums and abunch of singles in collabs.
Between 2006, 2012, showing upon soundtracks like mass effect
three, which was massive.

(01:28):
So the cliche of everything hetouches turns to gold might
actually be true, except for hisown perception that none of
those projects ever quitecrested the wave of enough fame
or enough money or whatever hisown initial admission is.
I am still in the trenches.
This is the life of the indierockstar.

(01:49):
Maybe back when music alwayscame with packaging, an
enthusiast wouldenthusiastically scour the liner
notes of a band's new record,absorbing all the names and the
instruments, and the producersand the equipment.
Sowing the seeds of indie musicsnobs.
Who knew when the bassist ofthis band also plays bass in

(02:10):
that band who play with thelittle sister of the drummer of
the other band that the bass hasstarted with?
That's Lyle Bell.
He's the guy threaded throughthe music snobs, mental
encyclopedia.
Every town has a local hero.
I think every town has a Lyle.
Needs a Lyle.

(02:31):
My name is Glen Erickson.
This is almost famous enough.
Thanks for spending your timewith us.
This is Lyle Bell.

Glen Erickson (02:52):
Live with Lyle Bell

Lyle Bell (02:54):
glad that wasn't, uh, recorded.
Oh,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (02:57):
intro.

Yeah.
Crazy Preambles.
Okay.
Um, thanks for joining me, LyleLyle Bell of, um, so many
different things.
So we're gonna cover all thesedifferent things.
I guess some people might callyou local Edmonton hero of the
music scene.
So I'm gonna ask you somequestions about that.
But right now you look like socomfortably set with, you know,

(03:18):
a nice mic set up, but likeright square in the middle of a
living room, it looks like asyou're set up almost, are you
sitting at home and you'rebeautifully decorated?

Lyle Bell (03:27):
This is, uh, I mean, our whole house is essentially
just one art zone.
so sort of have a little, astudio and a photo studio.
I've got, of course, as everyoneshould have a, uh, a flute that
I'm now learning to play.
So,

A, yeah, a yas flute.
Is that a Yas Flute?
So then you're obviouslypartnered up, with somebody,
Kim, who, uh, shares thetemperament for just letting the
shit sit around everywhere asyou work, because that's the
easy way to work.
Is that a fair assumption?

Lyle Bell (03:58):
I, I think it, both of us go crazy, um, you know, in
our own ways about havingclutter and, uh, and fight back
against that.
She was actually cleaning thismorning.
Um.

Uh, appropriate timing.

Lyle Bell (04:11):
she's, she's obsessed with, so like clothes and also
has a little studio, a studioupstairs here, one of the rooms
Plus, um, has her own studioelsewhere.
That

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (04:22):
uh, where she does lots of costume designs and
stuff like

Yeah.
Well that's great.
I mean, I only ask'cause I'm,yeah.
I'm partnered up with somebodywho would have none of it.
Like, I remember years of comingback at like 3:00 AM after like
playing the last closing time ofgigs and carrying my shit in and
having to take it down to thebasement and put it in its right
place.
And there was almost, anyhow,uh, so, you know, we worked

(04:46):
through what we worked through.
Right.
But that's okay.
so you're right here.
Oh, go ahead.
Go ahead.

Lyle Bell (04:50):
we actually have just one point on that.
We have a, a sort of, uh, spokenrule that we will get.
The shit sort of sorted, but to,we have a little bit of a buffer
zone.
So if either one of us is sortof a bad day and just don't want
to deal with it, then

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (05:07):
we don't get on each other

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (05:10):
so if there's stuff around mine or hers, it will, it
will get dealt with eventually.
But we just sort of have thislike, buffer zone built into the
marriage

You, you gotta, you gotta, right?
Like that's how we keep itgoing.
so I'm excited to have aconversation with you.
I remember when I was firstevolving my idea for this with
Chris Wynters, he actually wasthe first guy who very quickly
said your name, and he's like,Lyle.
He is gonna have some goodstories, good conversation.
And I was like, yeah, of coursehe is.

(05:40):
And uh, I've intersected withyou a number of times in my
life, in history, in the bizaround Edmonton and beyond.
So, this is great.
So you've got like a longhistory bud.
Like you've got one of thelongest histories of people I'm
gonna get to talk to.
You know, your first band, thatwas a real, pretty big takeoff
band.
I mean, that goes all the wayback to 92, I think, when that

(06:02):
takes off with Molly's reach.
Right?
And, and so you've got, like,besides all the other things
that you've done, likemusically, you've got like five
significant projects that have,you know.
Gained traction in their ownway, one way or then or another,
enough to get on the web andsurvive.
if that's fair to say.

Lyle Bell (06:21):
I, I feel like I'm still, uh, a guy in the
trenches.
and I feel like quite often I'm,I'm still sort of an unknown
entity, or at least I don't, uh,assume that anyone would know
who I am.

That's kind of interesting though, right?
Yeah, I,

Lyle Bell (06:34):
are pretty disparate, so, so it pulls from, you know,
fans of one band may not be afan of one of the other bands
that I've been in.
Uh, so you just never know who,which band is resonating with
someone and, yeah.

Well I was gonna ask you about that part too, and
we'll get in there.
'cause like, these aren't justsort of logical progression
steps.
Like, you, you seem to take likebig leaps, right?
Or left.
And, and I.
And sometimes they're with newpeople, which would be
understandable.
And quite often you're takingthe same people with you.
But, so out of these groups,there's a whole bunch of overlap

(07:08):
and like you said, sort ofdisparate stylistic endeavors as
well.
to which, you know, I, I'mcurious sometimes how much your
involvement is in pushing thoseor whether you were brought in.
But maybe we could start with,sometimes I draw people's
timeline out on my conversationslike this, but because there's
this overlap that I'm probablygonna get really wrong, a couple

(07:30):
of times I thought maybe I wouldlet you just give me the high
flying, you know, I was doingthis and then Molly's reach was
the first thing maybe thatstarted to take off.
And now, you know, up to, youknow, where the wet secrets left
off maybe, or if there's otherthings you could sort of give me
that high flying timeline.

Lyle Bell (07:48):
Yeah,

is that cool?

Lyle Bell (07:50):
yeah, absolutely.
yeah, so, I mean, to me it's notthat the projects that I've done
aren't really that, uh, there'sa through line for everything
and, and it makes sense to me.
Um, when I look back at it, itmay be baffling for other people
and just also focusing on a tonof different things, like in the

(08:10):
last, I've always been, I'vealways had a camera.
but just in the last 10 years,just really going down that
rabbit hole and obsessively,

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (08:20):
know, focusing on, on photo and, uh, video work.
So, is kind of one of the mainthings now,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (08:28):
design as well.
So, so back to, we'll back itup.
So, um, the first band thatreally maybe had any impact was
Molly's reach.
I'm, actually about to turntomorrow,

then we're the same age.
Are you at 1970?
You're a 1970 kid then?

Lyle Bell (08:47):
So

71.
Okay.

Lyle Bell (08:49):
Man, I, this is embarrassing that I don't even
know how old I am anyway.
Uh, my, so my birthday isactually tomorrow, which is, uh,
kind of

Oh, holy shit.
Happy birthday, bud.
That's fantastic.

Lyle Bell (08:59):
you.
I'm, I'm spending my, uh, mybirthday with, Chris Wynters.
I'm gonna shoot the CaptainTractor Show with

Oh,

Lyle Bell (09:06):
that's

that's perfect.
That's beautiful.

Lyle Bell (09:08):
so anyway, back to the early nineties.
Met, uh, met these guys.
I went to U of A briefly, andthen got playing in bands and it
was just a magical thing to me.
So the first band, Molly's Reachwas very much in a sort of
teenage fan club, sort of powerpop vibe.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (09:28):
we did that for quite a while, like basically till
about 1999.
there were other bands sort ofgoing at the time, like one
never seemed.
Like enough, there's alwaysother fun things to do, like
something a little heavier.
I also always liked so muchdifferent, styles of music and
like really broad, uh, you know,broad interests musically.
So to

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (09:49):
it wasn't that weird to like both, uh, you know, like
angle and, I don't know, CAAslike that, you know?
So, so there's like, uh, and,and indie rock.
I don't know.
There was, there was tons ofstuff like that.
Um, as I sort of went on, therewere, uh, you know, sort of
expanding it.
There was slow fresh oil, whichwas gravy.
Myself and Brent Oliver kind ofdoing indie rock and that was

(10:11):
almost, it started as aexperiment.
Just we had time at CGSR andwe're just go in and
spontaneously write randomstuff.
So it's like, it's truly allover the map.

Mm-hmm.

Lyle Bell (10:24):
kind of morphed into the two piece Whitey Houston,
which was way heavier.
That was like turning thedistortion distortion way up.
So that was just a bass and drumproject with Gravy, Uh, so this
is now around 2000.
Whitey actually did fairly well.
We went on, uh, mean, put out arecord, on a, a ton of tours.

(10:44):
This, this actually got meconnected with six shooter.
This is our

Yeah.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (10:49):
to six shooter.
Was meeting Shauna in Toronto inprobably 2004 or so, something
like

Hmm.
Okay.

Lyle Bell (10:56):
they became our managers.
They have man on and off.
I have,

For Whitey

Lyle Bell (11:02):
on.

at the time.

Lyle Bell (11:03):
Whitey, at that, around that time.
It gets a little blurry because,um, the wet secrets also
started, was, in my mind, wewere gonna be sexy.
Divo was the idea.
Maybe like not, although Divo issexy.
Divo is sexy Divo.
So, uh, kind of an art rockband.
It just was Without any, none ofthese, I mean, everything that

(11:27):
I've done, there was nointention of it lasting more
than a few shows, you know, orlike playing locally.
so a lot of this, a lot of thisstuff ended up being, yeah, it
can be obtuse and weird andobscene.
Some of it is fairly obscene.
And you don't, you know, I don'tcare.
'cause I just never thought thatI'd have to explain this to, uh,

(11:47):
to parents or border guard,crossing guards, like what the
band name is and what we do.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (11:53):
and, uh, you know, a thing again, like in the, with
the devo comparison or, or Weenor something like that.
Like, we wanted it to be absurd.
we got, uh, for the Wet Secrets,it was kind of a little bit
disco and a little bit, uh,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (12:08):
I guess an intersection of that.
And then, uh, Trevor's mom, whoactually lived in Red Deer and
Trevor grew up in Red Deer,Trevor being the drummer.

Mm-hmm.

Lyle Bell (12:17):
also filmmaker from Edmonton, who now lives in, uh,
Toronto and Montreal.

Cool.

Lyle Bell (12:22):
yeah, his mom found, uh, the, the Red Deer Royals
were getting rid of their oldoutfits from the seventies.
So she got us this, this insanedeal and I still, we actually
just pulled these out.
Uh, wet Secrets are gonna beplaying again this summer for
the first time in

Yeah, I saw that.

Lyle Bell (12:39):
I think.
So,

Wow.

Lyle Bell (12:40):
yeah.
And,

So the Red Deer Royals being a marching band
back when they would haveorganized marching bands.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (12:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it's the, the, that puresort of seventies look

Yeah.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (12:52):
of, you know, you envision, uh, marching bands of
the seventies and eighties.
It's that, uh, the huge hatsand, and big, uh, sort of ettes
and

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (13:02):
dress.
So, so that, again, it seemedlike slightly absurd, but we, we
rolled with it,

yeah,

Lyle Bell (13:08):
it also takes away.
Like it is a bit of a costume,but we always sort of viewed it,
uh, that we were a bit of agang, know, gang mentality.

yeah,

Lyle Bell (13:17):
it allows you to slip into a persona a little bit.
And,

for sure.

Lyle Bell (13:21):
you also don't have to worry about the age old
question.
Like, uh, what are we wearingtonight?

Exactly.

Lyle Bell (13:27):
unknown,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (13:28):
unknown thing, and was a lot of fun that that band
also, uh, got to travel a tonand, yeah.
Played, uh, a ton of amazingshows sort of around the world.

Yep.

Lyle Bell (13:37):
made, three, four records, I guess.
So, Uh,

uh, in the middle of that.
It was also shout out, out, out,out.

Lyle Bell (13:43):
yes.

I said four of them in there.
So,

Lyle Bell (13:46):
That's,

yeah.
So there was that overlap.

Lyle Bell (13:49):
Yeah.
To, to not, thinking it out inadvance, that, you know, you're
gonna need to explain this nameto your.
parents or grandparents,whatever,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (13:58):
look when you tell'em what your band is called.
yeah.
So that was, that was anotherthing.
We, um, more Edmonton Edmontonsort of classic players and guys
that I had known.
Uh, Nick, I actually knew Nickwhen he was, just a little kid,
like

Baby Nick.

Lyle Bell (14:15):
Yeah.
Baby Nick was, I had mutualfriends.
A guy that I learned to playguitar with I was in high
school, was friends with, withNick's dad Wolf.
So I would see Nick runningaround when he was like seven.
little kid just like bootingaround.

talking about Nick Kozub, by the way, for
listeners who's kind of awell-known Edmonton guy,
especially for his, electronic,maybe dance electronic, I'm not
sure I'll get the genre or subgenres right.
But even normal's welcome andthe label that put a lot of
stuff out for a while, so yeah.

Lyle Bell (14:45):
And, and he's still, I mean, he's still recording.
He works as a, as a producerand, um, leaned largely into
mastering as well.
But he's, right now he is, uh,recording the, home front
record.

Okay.

Lyle Bell (14:59):
home front also has a connection where Clint was,
Clint was one of the drummers,uh, in shout outdo as well.
So

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (15:07):
little full circle there anyway,

Clint Frazier, who is also the older brother of
Emma who is in the Wet Secrets,

Lyle Bell (15:13):
That's right.

all kinds of circles here.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (15:16):
yeah, I mean there are, there are sort of through
lines, uh, with people that.
Ended up being involved.

Mm-hmm.

Lyle Bell (15:22):
it was Emma, Emma had known Kristen.
We were looking for an extra, anextra horn player to originally
just replace Paul.
This is in Wet Secrets again,

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (15:32):
to come out for a few dates on the road, but as soon
as we got him in the band, itwas just like another little
magic moment and convinced himto sort of join full time.
So that was sort of

yeah,

Lyle Bell (15:42):
I think the classic truly jelled lineup when, when
we were, um,

yeah.
I'd agree.
I would agree.
I.

Lyle Bell (15:49):
yeah.
And, and, um, I had been on atour with the band Veal, uh,
where we were opening, and NickKozub was actually the bass
player, the third bass player.
I.
In the, the veal, history.

Yep.

Lyle Bell (16:02):
On the way back, we had discussed, um, just'cause we
were both really intosynthesizers, I had been
collecting synth, uh, and kindof using them in more of a punk
rock way, like six Fingersatellite maybe that sort of,
vibe, with, slow fresh oil.
anyway, Nick was sort of puttingthis new band together.
He had a project and soConscripted Gravy and I to be in

(16:26):
shout out, out, out, out whatbecame Shout Out, out, out, out,
which was sort of a, a dancerock, uh, crazy dance rock band
that, uh, just passed the 20year mark as well last year.
Uh, which seems crazy to me,but, um, it, and originally
Gravy wasn't quite sure that hewanted to do that.
So.
It was not going to be a twodrummer band.
Uh, it was just gonna be gravy.

(16:48):
But he was sort of waffling onit.
And Clint found out about thisproject.
Clint was only 17 at the time,but, uh, excitedly called,
called Nick and said he wantedto play drums in that sort of
like gravy.
Then sort of, uh, you know, herecanted and, and, uh, stayed in
the band.
So we just at that point we'relike, okay, we're gonna have two
drummers, which was a financialdisaster, it was really fit the,

(17:11):
the bombast of that band.

Nobody cares about logistics.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (17:16):
no, it's another, another thing kinda like the
name, the name has grown on me,but, you know, if you're
thinking that you're gonna bemaking a, you know, an
international push.
You might think rethink some ofthese decisions.
But at the

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (17:29):
was again, just gonna be another fun, locked, uh, band
doing something a little bit, alittle bit different.
There's still a through line.
Like the stuff that we werelistening to at the time
would've been like, add in to Xand the Rapture, uh, DFA bands
were all

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (17:46):
of going at that time.
LCD Sound systems, so

Yep.

Lyle Bell (17:49):
kind of stuff right off the hop, which was, um, I
guess d Dance Punk Chick, chickChick and the Juan McLean, kind
of thing.

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (17:57):
Uh, so that was sort of maybe the, where that was
coming from, but it still to mewas punk rock in a way.
You know, like

yeah,

Lyle Bell (18:05):
pretty bombastic, uh, fuzzy get fuzzy bass and a pile
of synthesizers, which I alsoloved.
So, yeah.

I mean, how, how can we tell that story though?
Jumping all over the place,right?
Like there's just, again, theoverlap and trying to find the
through lines.
So I'm gonna.

Lyle Bell (18:19):
yeah,

I'm gonna drag back a bit and then try to pull
some things out.
so let's go all the way back toMolly's reach.
uh, I've had a coupleconversations here with people
whose bands were t taking off inthe nineties and what that
nineties scene was in Canada andeven in the world, and how,
especially I, I mean, it's kindof the rise of indie rock.
I feel kind of right underneathwhat was happening right in with

(18:42):
Seattle and all the shit in thenineties, like underneath that
was essentially creating this, Ithink a real hotbed just for
indie rock and people to feellike we have a place and an
opportunity and let's just keepgoing.
And people are noticing thatscene.
So you said like, you, youdescribed it as like a power pop
kind of band, which, uh, in theSloan vein, which there was

(19:04):
like, that stuff was all over.
Much music in Canada.
Um, I I, I keep thinking like Iused to go see Treble charger
and the Killjoys.
It's like they toured togetherevery year, at least once a
year.
They would show up here and playthe rev or, or play the rebar or
some place.
so it was all over the place andyou guys fit in with that.
And to the point where you evenget the label deal with BMG, who

(19:26):
at that time was, one of thetop.
I think there were fourconsidered major labels back in
at that time in the nineties.
So that would've been one ofthem with their international
reach.
Right.

Lyle Bell (19:36):
yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what does that look like?
Like what, what does that,what's, are you guys, is that
the stereo?
I guess my big question, Lyle,is like, was all those cliche
things happening for you guys?
Like, you're in your twenties,this stuff is happening, it
feels like this is it, this ishow this whole dream happens.

Lyle Bell (19:55):
You know, it's sort of, uh, It sort of felt that
way.
It was never that meteoric of arise.
I, I feel like there was more ofa, I was, I was more mentally
prepared for it.
When, when shout out, sort,shout out, took off, that felt
more like, okay.
This is the

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (20:11):
let's go.

Okay.

Lyle Bell (20:13):
already prepped to prepped for disappointment.
and then when that, when thatbegan to take off, I was like,
okay, um, I've been workinghard.
Let's let's roll with this.
So

Yep.

Lyle Bell (20:24):
take it for granted the second time around.
That's sure.
with Molly's reach, it wasstill, I mean this is like proto
days,

Yep.

Lyle Bell (20:35):
and it's sort of the last of the regional bands, like
you're talking about last of theregional scenes.
I sort of look at the smallsbeing one of the last of the
truly

Mm.

Lyle Bell (20:44):
um, you know, phenomenons.

Yep.

Lyle Bell (20:46):
would, I, I remember seeing them in Toronto and, and,
and it was nothing like seeingthem in Edmonton or Winnipeg or
something like that, like up toabout Winnipeg.
They were enormous and wouldplay these like huge, you know,
packed thousand person.
Rager events.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (21:02):
and uh, and then seeing them in Toronto, it
seemed like, not that it wasempty, but it was just not

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (21:08):
fervor that they had out west.
Anyway, my point being, uh, wewere also sort of that way had
had, so there was a definitely aregional scene and we were
pretty, um, locked into thatkind of music.
Like at that point we were sortof living and breathing that,
you know, sort of punk,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (21:26):
I wouldn't even say punk, like sort of indie rock,

Yeah, for sure.

Lyle Bell (21:30):
the time.
And, uh, got to do lots of, lotsof fun stuff.
The, the label was actually asmaller label with a BMG deal,
so it never felt like we got thefull,

Yeah.
Okay.

Lyle Bell (21:42):
you know, wine and dine from, from, uh, the
industry.
I mean, there, there, therewere, uh, it was pretty fun to,
yeah.
To get, to go to, I mean, to getthe first taste of that side of
the industry.
even, even being from Edmonton,it felt, it always felt like
you're, you're going uphill you

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (22:03):
Like Toronto seemed like the,

a hundred percent.

Lyle Bell (22:05):
you know, the.
Where you want to be based ifyou're, if you're gonna be doing
music in Canada.
And prob, and probably still is.
I've just always loved, I, Inever felt the, pole to move
away.
I've always

Well, that's on my list of questions to ask you,
Lyle, actually, I'm glad youactually brought that up.
I mean, with all of the bandsyou've been in and the in, in,
in most of them, sort of reallydipping their toes in, what does
the next level bumping up to?
And the Toronto question, ifyou're from Edmonton, always
comes in pretty quickly.

(22:38):
And I've wondered how often orhow strongly that suggestion or
that pull, even from withinyourself was, and you sort of
half answered it there, but ifyou could explain more.

Lyle Bell (22:48):
we had, um, we had seriously considered moving.
A few times.
The one that maybe was mostclose was, uh, shout out.
Spent quite a bit of time and,and by that time we were, uh, we
were also pretty heavilyinvolved with six shooter.
the distribution deal for normalAlcom, which we were talking
about, which is the label, thelittle indie label that Jason

(23:10):
and Nick ran, who were the mainguys in shout out, were
distributed through six shooter.
So it kind of made sense to movethere.
We spent a lot of time inToronto.
but that time I think everybodyhad.
Other projects that were stillkind of going simultaneously.
there was a dip in shout outactivity, I would be doing Wet
Secrets.

(23:30):
Whitey Houston was still touringthat whole time.
So it was like one, uh, onestill by Southwest that I went
to.
And I was so excited'cause itwas like, shout out right in the
heyday of shout out, likeplaying Fader Fort and that kind
of thing.

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (23:44):
Wet Secrets also had shows and Whitey head shows, and
there might've even been a WizenDays show.
It was another band that, uh,

Paula Anish started.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (23:52):
Paul, yeah, one of Paul's Paul's bands.
But it was too much.
It was like, it was insanity.
It

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (23:58):
to not have any fun on the road trying to juggle
like

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (24:02):
bands and, and all, and like running around.
anyway, um, we, we always had,everyone had like multiple
reasons to stay in Edmonton atthat time.
I had a house here, I had boughta house here, I'd had a couple
properties.
So it just made sense to, toactually get out and truly move
to Toronto.

(24:22):
Even at that time, it's,Toronto's had already seemed,
um, prohibitively expensive

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (24:28):
and now it's just, it's gone through the roof.
Like to get, uh, house like Ihave, I'm 10 minutes from
downtown in a like a hundredyear old house, with, as we were
talking about before, the fullart zone.
So I

Yeah.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (24:42):
do all the, do everything here, you know, I
dunno, we, we jam in thebasement to get that, in
Toronto.
Just seems like the impossibledream at this point.

And you, you mentioned you have all kinds of
reasons to stay.
I was, I'm curious what yourperspective was on, is moving
there actually gonna pay off?
Maybe is the question because myobservations, when the question
came up for me and for my bandand, besides the reasons to
stay, I already had a family,that my observations were how

(25:11):
many Edmonton and WesternCanadian bands had gone out
there and kind of.
Disappeared.
Like the same way you describedthe, the live music effect of
regional bands and what washappening with Molly's reach and
then they get out to Toronto.
You know, I, I observed artiststhat had already moved and then
I felt like they just becamelike a, you know, an average

(25:32):
size fish in a way, biggerocean.
and things took longer to gettraction and I was like, I don't
know if I want that either.
Was I'm wondering what yourobservation on what you saw.
'cause you, you had a lot offriends I'm sure who were going
back and forth.

Lyle Bell (25:45):
Yeah.
Oh, oh.
I mean, definitely there werewaves where in the nineties, um,
almost everybody, I mean, notuniversally, but Vancouver was
the big draw for, for quite awhile.
Uh, tons of Edmonton bands allmoved to Vancouver,

Yeah, easier for sure.

Lyle Bell (26:03):
and most of them sort of dropped off the radar.
I, I think quite often the, themove was, you bring your band,
you're excited to move to a newtown, you band ends up breaking
up, but now you're, you'reworking in this bigger

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (26:19):
so it would happen in Vancouver and then on in Toronto
and Montreal, like by, you know,2005 everyone's making the move
to Montreal.
That was the new,

the Arcade Fire.

Lyle Bell (26:31):
Yeah,

The Arcade Fire Secret.

Lyle Bell (26:34):
yeah, yeah, yeah.
I

It had a real scene.
It had a scene.
It was a good scene for sure.

Lyle Bell (26:40):
it has, it had a, had a scene and, and, uh, and still
does.
And I love that town.
I mean, I love

I.

Lyle Bell (26:46):
all of these places.
I, I really love going to visitand play and we, uh, and
shadowed actually spent a lot oftime in Toronto and staying
there, for extended periods,with maybe the intent of moving.
I think Nick was the closest toactually pulling the trigger and
doing it

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (27:03):
and actually moving there.
And that might've changed.
Um.
How everything, you know, howeverything went, it would've
either fallen apart or everyonefollow.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (27:12):
as it turned out, yeah, I just, I think that by
the time we were seriouslyconsidering moving as well, we
were already, like, shout out,had, uh, a great agent in the,
in the States and in Canada.
Right off the bat.
We had Rob Elli and we weregetting offers.
I, I remember seeing offers andlike, kind of rubbing my eyes
'cause it looked like there wasone too many zeros on the end.

(27:34):
I'm like, wow, what?
Like, no one is gonna, no one'sgonna pay us that amount.
And,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (27:39):
we would get these, like these crazy offers.
So at that time it, it felt likeit was viable to just stay in
Edmonton and do it.
You know, like it was, we werenever set either.
So there would be humblingshows.
We'd go and play Toronto and wedid like a two nighter at Lee's
Palace.
And like sold out these pals twoin a row and we're like,
alright, here we go.
And then go play Buffalo nextnight to like 10 people

It feels like

Lyle Bell (28:06):
we're

this is, this is the tragically hip curse in
Canada.
Right?
Like same thing like cross theborder and nothing

Lyle Bell (28:14):
it's

I.

Lyle Bell (28:14):
to me that, that like border, this like fake line in
the air, matters.
Like you're so close to Torontowhen you're in Buffalo,

Yeah, yeah,

Lyle Bell (28:22):
you're, you're way, you're way closer to, you know,
to Toronto than you are toEdmonton.
We did really well in Edmontonand across Canada at that time.
Shout out was doing great inCanada and even Buffalo,
something like right across theborder, just sort of, No dice.

yeah.

Lyle Bell (28:39):
I mean, I shouldn't say no dice, but it was like, we
would, uh, yeah.
It was always a hit and miss inthe States.
Sometimes we'd have likeabsolutely dynamite shows and go
to the next town and it'd belike a Yeah.
Graveyard.

But I, I mean, at least the big difference is the
next town is an hour and a halfdrive, not eight hours.
Uh, which is the, the thing thatkills you in Canada, right.

Lyle Bell (29:00):
yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (29:02):
it's a bit of a, to me it's like a Canadian, um,
badge of honor

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (29:07):
to do that, uh, drive around the,

Around the Great Lakes,

Lyle Bell (29:10):
Yep.

thunder base,

Lyle Bell (29:12):
through,

the Sioux in Sudbury stay at the townhouse.
Yeah,

Lyle Bell (29:15):
Stay at the townhouse, eat at the, eat at
the Hodo.
Uh, then go to, uh, you know, gothrough Wawa, stay at the
little, uh,

yeah.

Lyle Bell (29:25):
in

these, all these venues closing down do, does it
feel,'cause we're the same age,so we can talk like grumpy old
men on our lawn, but does itfeel like the kids right now are
missing something by not gettingthat rite of passage anymore?

Lyle Bell (29:39):
Well, I, I mean, everything has shifted.
I mean, at, at that time,especially in the nineties when
we first started, started going,kind of pre-internet or proto
internet anyway, you're, youreally had to, the, the whole
touring plan was to go out, hita market, and then come back and
build on that draw.
And it was

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (30:00):
by continually hitting this, you

Had to keep going back and keep going back.

Lyle Bell (30:05):
yeah,

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (30:05):
gonna build a draw that way.
Now nobody looks at it that wayas a viable

yeah,

Lyle Bell (30:10):
strategy to build a, a career.
You're online.
You build a presence onlinefirst, and I mean, this is,

And I'm being nostalgic about something that
we all fucking hated, like ifI'm being honest, right?
Like it killed us to make thosedrives quite often.

Lyle Bell (30:26):
of loved it.
I'm a, I'm

Did you?
I.

Lyle Bell (30:28):
I did most of the driving.
I was also the, the main driver,so did gravy.
So it was mostly gravy and me

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (30:35):
But I, I actually liked doing the driving and I
loved the scenery and all ofthose drives.
I, I mean, later on we would, wewould do the shortcut, so we'd
go over to Winnipeg and then

Down Minneapolis, Chicago,

Lyle Bell (30:49):
uh, yeah,

and up.

Lyle Bell (30:51):
that sort of all the way over to New York shout out
and with wet secrets a bunch oftimes.
That was sort of the,

That's the beauty.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (31:01):
yeah.
And that, that was really good.
But I've, I've still alwaysliked, uh.
drive around the the GreatLakes.
It wasn't that long ago that wedid that.
I have done that drive.
It's maybe been five years, but

Okay.

Lyle Bell (31:13):
long ago.
Yeah.

and I think it's great you referenced, you know,
a couple of the bands had thesame thing going, but, and, and
so I'm gonna be sort of like,I'm gonna break it down real
quick for anybody who'slistening.
'cause you and I might just becomfortable jumping between all
of these things.
But, so, you know, Molly's reachvery much I think in the pocket
of things that were gettingattention, which is, you know,

(31:36):
especially out east and it wasmuch music was kind of king.
Um, so that was also part ofToronto and you, you're in that
pocket of that pop indie rockstuff.
So that has that obviously thatpull and that draw and it
overlaps with you doing soreoil, which was sort of just a
local regional experiment.
But then you clearly weregetting a lot of attention, or

(31:59):
at least opening slots withbands were a bit heavier.
and starting to get pulledaround to that.
Like you said, you start WhiteyHouston, that two, two man.
Band thing, which, and there'sbeen a few iterations in Canada
for some reason.
I feel like that is always just,just the presence of a loud two
person band has always donepretty well, right up to Japan's

(32:20):
and, and, um, I mean, even lookat Misha and the Spanx right now
down in Calgary, Misha's killingit and keeping her career
growing and it's awesome.
they have that two person sound,bit heavier, you know, and then
the 2000 rolls around and youstart the wet secrets.
And like you said, it was thisDivo disco, indie, uh, blender
of performance rock even.

(32:41):
Uh, and then you have thiscomplete sidestep with your
friends who love just, you know,the same intersection of these
synthesizer heavy, dance electroshout out outs.
there's through lines in yourrelationships with all of them.
Clearly there's, there's.
And the people that wereinvolved that would pull you in.
And there's through lines withsome of the larger opportunities

(33:03):
and the places that you weregoing and the people that you
met along the way in thebusiness.
I'm just curious of for you,Lyle, the through line
stylistically, you know, the waythat you play, you know, most of
the time it feels that I've seenyou playing a bass.
Sometimes it's a guitar,sometimes your bass just sounds
like a guitar.
the way that you sing and evenproduce your vocal very

(33:24):
specifically in those choicesthat you've obviously developed,
what's, what was your personalthrough line, stylistically all
these choices?

Lyle Bell (33:33):
Well, every, every, uh, one of the bands that I've
been in, especially if I'mplaying bass, which is mostly,
you know, what I've been, whatI've been doing, what I've been
certainly known for in Molly'sReach, I actually played guitar.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (33:48):
sort of would switch back and forth and then
basically to bass.
But it's like that skunky sortof, uh, post-punk bass tone, a
pase into a cranked trainer ampis essentially it, with or
without a, a SoftTech, big muffon there.
but every band that I was in issort of revolves around that

(34:10):
tonally to some

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (34:11):
shout out you know, a bunch of bass players.
I was sort of like, I would doif Will was playing like more of
a, Lower kind of disco e basething.
I would be doing something uphigh, adding something again,
using that tonally kind ofreally crispy tone.
Um, obviously I didn't sing inshout out, but this is why I say
to me, there was like a verymuch a through line.

(34:32):
It was still coming from thesame place, sort of in my mind.
It's just what surrounds, allthat thing.
So in the case of shout out,there's like lush synthesizers
as well as we got, as we got,uh, better at ourselves too,
and, and got more, more gear andfamiliar with it more from a, an
electronic point of view.
It was, it was actually greatfor my brain because Nick opened

(34:55):
me up to so much music.
Like I was pretty insular in thenineties, like wanting just like
sort of that, uh, pop and likepunk rock to some degree, but
indie rock.
Uh, and then going with Nickwould play all kinds of stuff
on, on, uh, he would make mix,mix tapes for the road that
would be like remix to Ignitionand, you know, there'd be like
booty bass tracks and we listento aqua all the time and Clinton

(35:19):
and I of would listen to a whilewhile we're driving.
Much said gravy, chagrin, youknow, I dunno, Giorgio Rotor
and, this sort of thing.
So it was all over the map and,and uh, yeah, it really opened
my mind as well.
Like, I like to try other, toreally dig into other, other
forms of music and go at thesefestivals to, uh, to all kinds

(35:41):
of stuff like music that Iprobably normally wouldn't go to
and just really lean in.
anyway.
Yeah, this is, that was a bit ofan aside.

no, that wasn't totally an aside.
I was asking about yourstylistic through lines to the
choices.
I mean,

Lyle Bell (35:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, so it's sort of at the core,there's still this like fuzzy
crispy bass,

yeah.

Lyle Bell (36:00):
sound, and then we're beginning to drape it in other
things.
It was like, you know, 3 0 3bought a 3 0 3 and like getting,
getting into like programmingacid baselines and stuff like
that.

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (36:11):
And, uh,

Were you always

Lyle Bell (36:13):
to the mix.
It's like,

were, were you always starting these bands or
were there some of them that youwere brought into?
Or is, you know, I think there'sa real difference.
I'm curious about, you know, howyou end up in a band.
I,

Lyle Bell (36:26):
well, the ones that, the main ones that we're talking
about here right now, I, I.
Started in a way, I guess shoutout was definitely Nick and
Jason's sort of main thing.
But Nick and I had had alreadytalked about, uh, while we were
on that

yeah.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (36:43):
about he wanted to start this new thing that was
all synthesizers.
And I even at that point, I hada pile of vintage synths.
we were actually just talkingabout this.
The, the beginning of that bandwas actually getting together to
try and make a, a soundtrack fora video, a climbing video that
his sister brother-in-law weremaking.
They, they have a company thatmakes like climbing holds and

(37:06):
stuff like that.
So

Okay.

Lyle Bell (37:07):
very first thing that we did, what, what started shout
out was making, um.
tracks, like kind of protoshoutout tracks for this video,
a corporate video for theircompany

Okay.

Lyle Bell (37:20):
uh, I don't think I had actually forgotten about
this.
We were just talking about thisa month ago.
it never, that never gotcompleted as far as I know, that
was the, the songs I do remember

Huh?

Lyle Bell (37:32):
having done that, made these songs in

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (37:34):
in the early two thousands.
So, yeah.

Oh, that's pretty fun.

Lyle Bell (37:37):
uh, I mean.

well, you know what, the other interesting,
shout out sidebar for me, one ofmy favorite moments for you guys
around here, and I had to do abunch of digging to go and dig
it back up, was when you werecontacted by this group from
Vancouver that had this TELUSfunding to do this playground
series.
And, and I mean that was back inthe, the day when a lot of these

(38:00):
like video sort of productioncompanies were creating the, the
series of the live, differentlive versions of artists coming
in.
And so they were, had that TELUSfunding called playground.
one of my best friends or bestfriend Greg, was one of the
video directors.
There was two Gregs, and, andsome other people anyhow, and
they came here to put on thatlive thing and connected with

(38:20):
you and you in that.
I don't even remember somewherein.
White Ave Strathcona area andthat crazy video that you wrote
the song for, I had to reallydig to go and find it'cause I
couldn't remember.
But

Lyle Bell (38:31):
Planet

an incredible experience.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (38:34):
that,

Yeah.
That was pretty wild.

Lyle Bell (38:35):
yeah.
Yeah.
I, I mean, I remember that.
yeah, that was great.
We wanted it again to be, uh,the thing we keep coming back to
is bombastic.
So, so shout out was alreadysomewhat of a bombastic band
where the gear was almost.
of the show, like big toweringpiles of synthesizers and two
drummers.
So we just thought, like, whatwould be make it even more the

(38:56):
next level was having like awhole, orchestra of people
playing Toms and,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (39:02):
another, like I brought in all my like, um,
modular synth racks.
So it's actually, Jamie andWolf.
So Nick's dad, Wolf,

Yep.

Lyle Bell (39:11):
are Wilford Dan and the grown men, they're in the
back.
They're playing all the, allthe, the buring synths in the
back and yeah, we had

He became,

Lyle Bell (39:20):
so,

he became the face of it.
I think with that, uh, you guysbrought in that super vintage,
um, one that looks like, youknow, like that standing thing
with all the knobs and the wiresmoving around.
I can't remember the name of it,but, um, they had him on that
and it looked like the crazy oldmad scientist'cause he had the
long white hair.
It was pretty awesome.
quick summary for

Lyle Bell (39:40):
It's

o do you, oh, that's a beauty.
Yeah.
So I mean, people should googlethis.
I think I found it byremembering the name of the
production company.
Art a band, A-R-T-A-B-A-N andthen playground and they can
find this thing'cause it's stillon their Vimeo.
It was an incredible endeavor.
That was probably one of themost creative things I had been
around in the last 25 years totry in two days to pull off this

(40:03):
live, audience involvement.
You guys went and rented andfound 60 floor toms from around
the city, and then people weregonna somehow be taught how to
play them in sync together

Lyle Bell (40:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

and clap wood blocks and sing and the whole
crap.
It was wild.

Lyle Bell (40:20):
took me, I, I made those, I like cut and sanded all
the wood blocks

What?

Lyle Bell (40:25):
take me, you know, an hour.

Oh,

Lyle Bell (40:27):
it, it ended up taking me like all day to make
whatever it was, 60.

my God.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (40:32):
to

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (40:33):
Yeah.
Uh, yeah, it took me a long timeand painting them all, I was
like, yeah.
But, but I mean, it was kind ofa, a labor of love and this is
part of the thing we wanted todo, stuff like that here.
Not that it necessarily reallymatters that it was done in
Edmonton, but,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (40:48):
I like the fact that there's something that I, I like
about the idea that you don'thave to move away to do stuff.
Uh, I mean, by the time that wasgoing

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (40:55):
too, it's, it's, you know, that's in essentially
modern times where, you don'tneed to be, you can be from
anywhere and your music can beout anywhere, there's no reason
you don't really have to move,

Well, Lyle, I,

Lyle Bell (41:07):
a community here.

I mean I've spent a lot of the last 15 years of my
life with that moniker title.
being involved in different artsboards and different things and
trying to be such a strongadvocate for, you don't have to
move away, which is why I lovetalking to people with careers
outta Western Canada about thepull to Toronto or not.
I love hearing you say that.
I mean, you should know.

(41:28):
You were a, a huge influence onme at that time as well for two
reasons.
One, one was for that reason.
the, the fact that you seem socommitted to just staying and
building success regionally orhowever, however, but I mean,
the other part was, I mean,you've referenced a couple times
of how bombastic a bunch ofthese things that you've done,

(41:50):
they're hard to explain namesand song titles and all the shit
to border guards or grandparentsand all these things.
But that ambition, I think hasso much influence and I, and I
think, I have this deep desirefor artists currently and people
still trying to build theircareer or keep a career going to

(42:11):
just hear things like that andbe reminded that I.
It is too easy, especially onthe internet right now.
I think you can tell me if youagree, but, uh, to just think
it's just like, I just need towrite a song and then that song
just has to go viral.
Or there's something about itthat people will love or that
it's so much more that theuniforms and the performance art
with the wet secrets that I sawand I even felt like, I remember

(42:35):
after you guys won the PeakPerformance Project and then you
released the EP with, I CanSwing a Hammer, and I just
remember watching you guys andthinking, it sounded like you
were writing songs that wouldperform well in these personas.
In this, this whole it wasbigger, right?
It was bigger.
Like the shout out out thing isjust so much bigger.
You're taking bigger swings.

(42:56):
It's not just about I'm gonnawrite a really good song, I'm
gonna build this entire packageor brand, or whatever you wanna
call it.
Was that like that's part ofyour heartbeat and all of these
things.

Lyle Bell (43:07):
you totally nailed it to me.
To me, the song, I mean, you,you obviously have to have
compelling music, I always feltthat that's like one part a
main, uh, definitely the mainthing.
You can't really necessarilypolish a turd, although I also
somewhat argue I've had a careertur as a turd polisher.

(43:29):
but the, the idea of like howyou're gonna present it and in a
way it's better to bepolarizing.
Like doing something that if youbuy into it, you're all in, you
can get behind it.
that is not cool to you, you'regonna like hate it.
Like,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (43:44):
have that re reaction, like, um, trying to
always think of it from anartistic point of view and how
it will stand out.
how you can have an edge otherthan just from the musical point
of view.

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (43:57):
so yeah, that, that sort of bombastic thing always
played into the, the equation.

and I'm always wondering how many people aren't
doing it just because it's somuch fucking work.
Like you said, I spent a wholeday cutting wood blocks so we
could try to pull off this wildidea of crowd participation,
music, video.
I mean, I just know so manypeople it feels like I might be
prejudging.
It just feels like a lot ofpeople just wouldn't think it's

(44:23):
worth it.
Right.
It's like there's no value in itunless you see the value in it.

Lyle Bell (44:29):
Yeah.
Oh, oh man.
So there are, there are more,more examples of this kind of
thing, like, um, the, the videofor coming home.
Uh, this is shout out, uh, shoutout video with, uh, cadence
Weapon as well.

Yeah.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (44:44):
song called Coming Home, but if you look in it,
we're, we're on fire and thesynthesizers are burning.
But I had, I stayed up, it tookme a week to make exact replicas
of our synths.
And, and like a thousand dollarsbuying like fake, like knobs
from, uh, from like small bearglue hot gluing it.
Like, uh, Kim also helped mebecause we were desperate.

(45:07):
We, we pulled basically anall-nighter, all these knobs,
and I silk

Oh my.

Lyle Bell (45:12):
So when you see those, those synthesizers
burning, they look reallyauthentic.
Like they're, they're modularsynths, all patched in and
they're on fire.
And, uh, I mean we did that.
We burned those, those were upsince.
So that's the kinda, that's thekind of thing like in my mind,
that'll look super cool.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (45:31):
and that, that like almost destroyed my mind that
that week, same thing, the wetsecrets video of, um, floating
in the sky.
It's sort of buried towards theend, but the end half of the
video were on a giant tennisracket.
The first half were actually

Oh yeah.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (45:47):
metaphysical tennis as it was.
This was sort of the concept.
so the whole thing is ametaphor, but in the end, we're
actually on this, an exactreplica of the tennis racket
that I had.

You built a giant.

Lyle Bell (46:00):
that in my living room halves and then took it
outside and, uh, know, strung itup with, with rope, that's
another thing.
Or, or building like a 30 foothigh marching band outfit for
Golden West Music Fest that gotlit on fire on

Oh yeah.

Lyle Bell (46:17):
we were done playing.
So that's in the, in the Hammervideo.

That's incredible too.

Lyle Bell (46:22):
And that was, that was Kristen and I going out
there with Kevin Bowman to wherethey held the festival.
And

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (46:29):
also helped us build this thing.
Took like a couple days, uh, Inearly dod falling off the top.
I'd had a couple beers and, uh,I actually don't, I.
don't really like pot, but I wasconvinced to have like one
little toot with Bowman beforewe started this thing.
And

before you started

Lyle Bell (46:47):
I,

the thing.

Lyle Bell (46:48):
before I had to go up and put the final cladding on
the roof, and that was the worstmistake.
I almost fell off, um, just sortof a miracle.
The, this is like 30 feet up andI had a circ saw and as I was
cutting ladder slipped off thetop, but it caught on a nail.
It somehow caught on a nail

Oh,

Lyle Bell (47:09):
like,

that's like

Lyle Bell (47:10):
and it,

Chevy Chase,

Lyle Bell (47:12):
It was like,

national Lampoon kind of a coincidence.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (47:16):
it was one of those moments I came down, I was like,
I had to take like a 20 minutebreak.
I was like, so shaky.
I was like, oh.
Sort of saw, saw

Uh, yeah, a couple, a couple beers and a
toot.
And I'm gonna take a saw threestories up and have at her.

Lyle Bell (47:30):
Even before I was doing that, I'm like, this is
dumb.
What am I doing?
So I knew better.
Again,

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (47:36):
older, I think like your mortality sort of, uh,
looms larger

yeah,

Lyle Bell (47:41):
I don't think I would do that again.
But, uh, but anyway, going that,that kind of distance, like, uh,
also building the, the lightslike shout out.
we have this, this, the shoutlights.

yeah, yeah.

Lyle Bell (47:53):
what would be another bombastic thing that we could do
is like, build these lights andthen have a, the lighting
controller guy have control overeach of the, of the thing.
So it's like shout and then out,out, out

I was running those lights during that, that
video for playground.
That was my job.

Lyle Bell (48:09):
Right.

Yeah.
Yeah.
It's pretty sweet, sweet setup.

Lyle Bell (48:12):
of pulsing them.
Uh, yeah, those are, those aredownstairs in my basement, uh,
awaiting we have the, the 20thanniversary show, which was, uh,
in, in very typical shout outfashion.
We are late for our 20thanniversary show as well.
It was supposed to happen in thefall.
And, uh, and then Clint was alsobusy.

(48:33):
He's in the band home

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (48:35):
They're recording with Nick, as we were talking
about.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (48:38):
um, they're often we'll get to it at some point,
I'm sure.

Yeah.
Well, I mean.

Lyle Bell (48:43):
is, is like all of these bands I've been, I've been
in, I've been lucky, I think somany bands end up breaking up.
Like there's un asshole ormultiple assholes that are like,
you know, fractions that breakoff.
I've been really fortunate that,all the bands that I've been in,
I'm still friends with.
With everybody that was in allof these bands.
So shout out, uh, yeah, we'reall still pals.

(49:05):
All the wet secrets.
yeah, it's sort of a, it's beencool.
I don't wanna say it's been acool ride.
I just watched walk

That's pre Oh yeah.
There you go.
Well, I mean, that's, that'sreally, that's a fantastic
statement though, because Imean, that happens a lot and
that makes it hard to sustain acareer with one band, let alone
you know, a few to five topeople that you can play in
multiple.
Acts like this over time.
I mean, I, I thought at onepoint it would be funny, but

(49:35):
it's not funny.
I thought about it afterwards tojust try to make you, like, ask
you on the spot, like, which onewas your favorite.
But I pretty sure you won'tanswer like, which one's your
favorite.
But maybe the better question islike,'cause I don't like,
sometimes these stay open-ended.
This is kind of the curse ofEdmonton.
It feels like none of the bandsofficially break up.
They just sort of disappear andthen come back and play a

(49:57):
reunion show.
But, which one, instead ofasking which is your favorite,
which, which ones felt thehardest to step away from?

Lyle Bell (50:05):
Oh boy.
Um, each one has bothmonumental, like top 10 moments,
life moments for me, and alsoheartbreak moments.
So it's sort of hard to, hard toknow which is which again, out,
um, was maybe one where I, bythe time shout out, really took

(50:26):
off.
I had already been through,through the ringer a couple
times, like with Molly's Reachand touring with Whitey a bunch.
And, and uh, it just seemed likewe were getting up to that next
level and we of did it toourselves.
I feel like we had it in thepalm of our hands and didn't
maybe work hard enough.

(50:47):
Uh, there were other factorstoo, but there were, there were
definitely heartbreak momentswith,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (50:53):
uh, with shout out and, and also some of the, my
favorite, just most monumental,monumental shows that I've
played, looking out and justkind of being, you know, tickled
personally to

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (51:05):
what I'm witnessing.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (51:08):
yeah, I don't know.
It's, uh,

Well the heartbreaks especially,

Lyle Bell (51:11):
yeah,

mean

Lyle Bell (51:12):
mean,

like that's the thing is like the heartbreak,
this is different than askingwhich is your favorite.
Because I feel like when youthink about like the
heartbreaks,'cause you're notsolely responsible for those
like you just alluded to.
Like there's real factors thatare coming from within and then
there's outside factors thatmight also be playing into it.
'cause the way you describedthat just made me think of, you

(51:34):
know, my band, the wheat pool ineverybody's perception, you
know, two and a half records outwhere the trajectory was still
like clearly going up.
Hill and yet we're sitting,we're sitting around, uh, Royal
Pizza, doing this kind of soulsucking charity gig and, and
asking ourselves like, are we,are we going back into the next

(51:56):
cycle?
'cause Right.
We were talking'cause we knowwhat the cycle, it's not just,
are we gonna keep going as aband?
It's like the literal, like, Iknow how much work.
This is an 18 month grind again,at least.
And are, you know, does anybodyreally care?
You're asking yourself thosequestions.
Right.
Um, is the next level reallythere?

(52:17):
I just kind of heard that in theway you answered that question.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (52:20):
of course.
I mean, everyone always wantsthe trajectory to be up.
and you're always looking, Iknow that I've always been, you
know, like eyeballing the nextrung up on the ladder, not being
thankful that I'm not at thewrong below.
Like, I'm always like, why arewe not getting those shows?
You know, like

Yeah, yeah,

Lyle Bell (52:39):
we'd get that.
later on I've, I've been able tosort of be more appreciative for
what we did accomplish

yeah.

Lyle Bell (52:45):
all of these things.
I was actually gonna ask you,but you had alluded to earlier
about, uh.
Making that Toronto jump, likedid you and Rob almost move?
Like did we pool

We talked about it.

Lyle Bell (52:57):
Toronto?

Yeah, we did.
I mean, obviously I, I had afamily and I didn't know how
that was really gonna bepossible, but at the same time,
it was so important that Iwasn't shutting the conversation
off.
because this was all I everwanted, right?
This is all I ever wanted.
And, you know, Rob and Mike weresingle guys.
They had way more flexibility toconsider those things for sure.

(53:19):
The brothers, uh, Stefan ordrummer maybe had a little more,
uh, set of other considerationswith, uh, his partner and his
career and stuff like that.
But, um, yeah, we've, we hadthose conversations and we felt
that pull and, I was trying toget, you know, Shauna's
attention at six shooter.
all these things were happening,but I, I, I went through it

(53:41):
once.
I guess the reason I wanted toask you is like, you've gone
through it four or five times.
You must be an incredibleoptimist

Lyle Bell (53:48):
I guess I've always felt that, um, I love the, the
process of making music andplaying music sort of almost
equally, and all the rigamarolebullshit in between.
I enjoy it.
Even like, like we were talkingabout the, the drive, the long
drive, all of that stuff.
weirdly appealing to me.

(54:09):
So I never, I never really hadthat.
Uh, I think a lot of people getto a point where they're like,
you know, fuck this.
Like,

I'm too old for this shit, but

Lyle Bell (54:18):
too

yeah.

Lyle Bell (54:18):
shit.
But I, I am like, I don't, uh, Ifeel like I'm still like 21
inside.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (54:26):
will, my knee will tell me differently every
morning.
um, you know, I don't know.
I, still, I still have like, Iwake up with tons of musical
ideas.
I have tons of,

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (54:37):
write tons of songs still.
I'm, I'm like obsessive, with,uh, with like as well.
Like these things I

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (54:46):
never looking back with.
Uh, and, uh, and regrettingthings that there's so much more
stuff on the horizon and otherlittle projects that are, that
are.
and things that I've done thatare, you know, still need

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (55:01):
don't know.

Well, I mean, that sounds, I mean, I love
hearing that, it's so easy tojust do the retrospective and
like high fly and overlap all ofthese things, and that's how
most people, you even referencedit early when you said, you
know, I've been involved in allthese things and a lot of them
have done really well and peoplemight not actually know me
personally because you've beenattached to these other things.

(55:24):
But, so it's really easy to justlook at a music career just
based on all of those events andall those things and stuff.
And I've tried, you know, you'vebeen really gracious talking a
little more about your ownpersonal experience though, of
like trying to sustain thecareer and the ups and the
downs.
I think a big part of it is likehow people keep themself afloat

(55:46):
if you haven't hit that place.
Where it's quote unquote, whateverybody says is like, I'd love
to do music as a career.
And what they always mean is, Iwould love this to pay my bills
and be my job.
And, and that is such a smallpercentage of people that if
they are at it for 30 years likeyou have been, that that's gonna

(56:07):
be the case now because I didwant to talk to you about, you
have such an incredible careeras a photographer, like your
specific art with photographyand video.
Uh, I love it.
I find it inspiring.
You get a lot of, I know a lotof people like use you almost
exclusively.
and I'm sure you were doing thathobbyist into finding now you
could charge for it.

(56:28):
but you've probably had otherjobs along the way to try and
keep all this ambition afloat.
I, I just, I'm curious whatthat.
Process of your career has beenlike, what kind of things have
you had to do to keep all theambition going?

Lyle Bell (56:42):
I guess there.
There have been other side sidejobs that I have done and still
do.
I have painted, I've, I, I havealways done like, uh, lots of
painting, like industrial,painting.
I act actually also worked with,um, a, a guy here in town,
Dallas Whitley, who's now livesin Vancouver.

(57:03):
But we did, um, we did, uh, youknow, wallpaper and vinyl wall
coverings hanging those, uh, sowe did like casinos and that
kind of thing, but I, I alsolike that work weirdly, like,
that wasn't, wasn't like mehating that job.
So I still, actually still take,uh.
An occasional painting jobbecause I like it.

(57:25):
it's usually, so my wife worksfor Sabor, the restaurant Sabor,
if they're opening up a newrestaurant, I will often be the
one painting the in and,

Mm-hmm.

Lyle Bell (57:35):
uh, masking off and painting the, spraying their
big, like feature walls andwhatnot.
So there are things like thatthat I've done all the way
along, for extra money thispoint.
Uh, like currently I am, I'vebeen on the road, um, I, I have
on and off worked for SixShooter, either as a staffer or
so six shooter records, uh, andwith all of the bands, maybe not

(57:59):
all the bands, but a number ofartists on that label doing
video work and photo work anddesign work.
Um, I have been out in the lastlittle while and with, uh, the
band of the Dead South.
And I've also

Okay.
Chris Wynters band.
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (58:13):
yeah.
He is their, their manager.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (58:15):
that is currently the thing that, uh, like again, I
get, I get obsessive about this.
Like I want it to be, Idefinitely, in anything that I
do, I try not to like phone itin.
Like I, I don't wanna workanything that is like, uh, if I

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (58:28):
doing it, I'm not gonna do it.
So this

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (58:30):
still continue to do the occasional painting job.
I actually painted my mom'scondo when we were selling it
just'cause instead of hiringsomeone, which would've been
smart at the time, I was like,ah, I can do that.
but uh, yeah, I don't know, likeleaning in and, and trying to
take the best photos, trying tobe the best live photographer
ever, you know,

Yeah.
I mean that overlaps with whatyou said though, like, uh, going
on the road with the band to be,to be in that role.
'cause they want to capture allthat.
you know, a lot of people mightstill be the place where they're
like, I'm too old for that shitbecause that's still being on
the road.
Um.
And you're clearly not.

Lyle Bell (59:07):
I, I had one little, uh, one little silver tear roll
down my cheek when, wheneveryone realized that I'm the,
I'm the oldest guy on the tour.
Yeah.
Outside of the driver.
The, the bus driver is,

Oh, yeah,

Lyle Bell (59:21):
was older than me, but yeah, I'm like of the crew.
I'm the old, I'm the old guy.
Old man of the crew.
But

yeah,

Lyle Bell (59:27):
saying before, I really don't feel, I don't know,
I don't feel, uh, I still feellike a, like a tweenage

yeah.

Lyle Bell (59:36):
and I'm still, as long as I'm, as long as I can, I
still want to like.
Role.
Like I, I was getting up andrunning, with those guys, like
everyone in is training to likerun a half marathon now, or a 10
K.
So,

Hmm.

Lyle Bell (59:50):
I was like running shooting all day and editing,
like staying up all nightediting

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (59:55):
on a couple of o of occasions.
'cause we were out with, uh, kb,KB l and the Hurt and Albertans
in the UK as well.
So staying up, like doing allthat and then staying up till
like three in the morning withthose guys, a, having a beer at
a pub or something to I meanagain, this is why it's
certainly not, some people wouldsee that as work as like
absolutely exhausting work, butall

Glen Erickson (01:00:17):
Yeah.

Lyle Bell (01:00:17):
fun.

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (01:00:18):
is fun to me.
And so it is work.
It's a lot of work, but I don'tever view it as like, oh, I hate
this

yeah,

Lyle Bell (01:00:26):
I don't know.
There, there are other jobs thatwould be hell to me that other
people I think would love.
So for me that's like a, acomfortable spot to be in.

yeah.
Uh, that's really cool.
I mean, I find, relatable atthis point, especially, I, I
mean, I've been asked a fewtimes, you know, how's your new
podcast going with thisendeavor?
And is it a lot of work?
And I'm like.
Yeah, I have a job with like,that's like real big boy pants
and uh, a family still.
And then this takes way moretime than I thought it would,

(01:00:55):
and I haven't regretted a secondof creating something that you
really love and staying up toall hours editing, like you
said, and all those things.
It's very relatable for me, but,um, inspiring to hear someone
else say it for sure.

Lyle Bell (01:01:11):
a, a creative endeavor.

Yeah, absolutely.

Lyle Bell (01:01:15):
it.
Yeah.
I mean, you get going on thesekind of things.
Like starting a podcast isn'teasy.
It's the same thing as startinga band.
if you have any ambition to makeit bigger than just taking the
occasional show, it takes a tonof work.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (01:01:29):
I mean even like that whole thing how to, how to carve
out a,

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (01:01:33):
like right at the beginning I was saying that I'm
still a guy in the trench, in,in

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (01:01:39):
you know, like I'm still, uh, still like, I
wouldn't say I, I have, uh, ithas ever been easy.
Like, I'm still, I'm, you know,ups and downs the whole way.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (01:01:50):
bands and many different things like, um, many
creative endeavors, but havebeen able to carve out a little
niche anyway

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (01:01:58):
that works for me that I'm comfortable in.
And, uh, I have talents.
I, I also, as I get older, Icertainly, I recognize what my
talents are, what my gifts are,and what I'm terrible at.

yeah,

Lyle Bell (01:02:11):
yeah, there are, I try and do things that are
appropriate for my set oftalents, you know, and my lane.

yeah.
Well, I think it's,

Lyle Bell (01:02:20):
as much as possible.
Yeah.

yeah, I mean, that's really the thing.
I mean, I guess what I loveabout hearing that from you is,
A, I I already said it.
Your optimism just in yourexpression is refreshing.
And that having been at it solong on the road, and for you to
still feel that way, I find veryimpressive and inspiring as

(01:02:43):
well.
anyhow, I, I appreciate all ofthis and I appreciate the story,
but

Lyle Bell (01:02:48):
glad you say it because to other people, it, it
seems like madness where you'redoing the same thing, like
you're still, you're still onthe road.
Like what the hell?

yeah, I can get that.
Like, I can, you know, somepeople, I mean, almost like a
diss, it might almost make youfeel shitty or something like,
um, you know, I guess there'sdifferent ways to take it,
whether it's a backhandedcompliment or a observation or I
don't know.
But I dunno, I don't know howyou, you, you seem to not take
that personally.

Lyle Bell (01:03:18):
I

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (01:03:19):
I don't at all.

yeah,

Lyle Bell (01:03:20):
It's a comfortable, I feel like it's a comfortable
spot for me.
Uh, so, and I, and I love itagain, like leaning in and just
never trying to just phone itin, like always trying to learn.
I've also, I mean, every day Ifeel like I'm learning stuff
every day.
And there's always somethingmore to know, especially like

(01:03:41):
you dig deeper into photographyand photography techniques,
editing techniques, video, uh,how to use the software more
efficiently.

I.

Lyle Bell (01:03:51):
um, yeah, it's like always something new to learn.
And, and same thing withmusically, I've been practicing
guitar again, like I was 14,like kind of learning to shred,
trying to, trying to sweep pickLike as a 50-year-old, I'm like,
oh, I can't do this.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (01:04:06):
uh, but it's, it's fun.
I mean, it's fun.
It's

Yeah,

Lyle Bell (01:04:09):
continuing to try and learn the entire way,

yeah.

Lyle Bell (01:04:13):
Yeah,

agree.
It's super fun.
Um, I appreciate you taking thetime outta your day to chat with
me about your, career and life.
the inspiration.
I know this city has reallybenefited.
I don't know if anybody'sbothered to say it to you that
way, so I will, I really thinkEdmonton has really benefited
from having you as a primarycitizen all this time in the

(01:04:34):
arts, but so

Lyle Bell (01:04:36):
Well, thank you.

Yeah.

Lyle Bell (01:04:38):
uh, I don't know that I have ever heard that.
I mean, you, you always seethese like, uh, under 40 lists

Oh yeah.

Lyle Bell (01:04:50):
I

Magazine.
Yeah.
Edify.

Lyle Bell (01:04:53):
a, uh, 90, over 90 list, so I'm just waiting,
hoping I make it to, to 90 be onthe 90, over 90 list.

Yeah, well, we'll see.
We'll see if we get it together,but, okay.
Well thanks for your time.
Uh, I really appreciate you andtaking the time and everything
about it, so,

Lyle Bell (01:05:09):
of course.
My pleasure.
My pleasure.
Yeah, it's

okay.

Lyle Bell (01:05:12):
Great to electronically see you again

Absolutely.
Absolutely.

Lyle Bell (01:05:16):
Okay,

thanks la.
I really appreciate it, bud.
Okay,

Lyle Bell (01:05:18):
Talk to you

take care.
You bet.
Hi, good evening.
Have you noticed bright it isnow?
The seasons change as we do ourpodcast, and it used to be in
the dark whenever we did this,but not,

alexi (01:05:38):
Yeah.

tonight.

alexi (01:05:39):
First episodes were my LED lights and my big light in
my room, and now it's just mywindow.

Yeah.
And as we plan for whatever weplan for in a second season that
we want to do, who knows whatit'll be.
Right.

alexi (01:05:54):
Yeah, it'll be nice to have late though.

It will be nice.
Okay.
You have, you have one examleft.
I'm gonna keep

alexi (01:06:00):
Cool.

for you.
I am like so for you, stillchoosing to take the time to do
this.
So, before we start talkingabout Lyle Bell and the episode,
because I was really, happy withthis conversation.
I, I think I told you I wanna dosome local heroes, some people
in my backyard, so to speak, whoreally I feel have had inspiring

(01:06:22):
versions of careers.
Yeah.
So before I do that, I wannajust tell you one quick story,
which was awesome.
So, at work, I'm, I think I'mthe oldest guy, and, it's, you
know, it's in digital marketingwebsites, all that stuff.
So, but one of the youngest guyswho was an intern and I think
now not an.
anyhow, now he's like gonna befull-time, but he's this young

(01:06:43):
guy, he is really cool guy namedJosh.
and we, he likes talking aboutmusic sometimes.
He showed up once with a cratefull of vinyl that he had bought
from a, a guy's garage saleacross the street from

alexi (01:06:53):
Love that.

of like gems and he didn't know any of them.
So we're introducing him to someof these.
Uh, but he is so great.
He is got an open mind.
he, when I got there, I couldhear the chatter at the other
end of the hall that he wasgonna take over the Sonos and
play music.
And I think that's the firsttime.
So at first of course, I thinkof some joke about, you know,
not trusting him with the Sonos.

(01:07:14):
He, you have to a certain numberof years or something.
Anyhow, um, I didn't make thejoke.
song he cues up was CaliforniaStars by Wilco, was off the

alexi (01:07:25):
Oh

Wilco and Billy Bragg record called Mermaid
Avenue Volume One, which was oneof my favorite Wilco songs ever,
which was a song that the wheatpool used to play in our enco,
or any time that we had to, youknow, fill extra time, do

alexi (01:07:41):
yeah.

It was one of our favorite songs as a group to
cover

alexi (01:07:44):
It's so fun.

Yeah, so right off the bat I was like, okay,
star for Josh today.
But what a pleasant surprisethat

alexi (01:07:52):
Yeah.

Anyhow, it was fun.
Fun, fun Fun music day at workfor me.
That's my story, yeah.
So, so Lyle Bell.
There's all kinds of things Iloved in, in that conversation.
He's a funny guy.
He's got a fun energy.
He always has.
He has always amazed me to haveso much success with every band
that he was in.

(01:08:14):
just to hear him sort of justtell.
Talk through that whole thing.

alexi (01:08:17):
Mm-hmm.

but you know, he said these little golden
statements of like, there waslots of reasons to stay here
whenever we talked about Torontoor trying to move and that big
pull for a, you know,'causethink I said in there, like, I
went through that once, mostpeople will go through it once
where you're, where you'rebanned.
Your one band that you're in,out of all the bands you're in

(01:08:40):
finally hits that groove

alexi (01:08:43):
Yeah.

cus you're on the cusp of what do we have to do to
hit the next level?
Is it in Canada?
Is it moving to Toronto to bearound the industry closer?
he's done it like three times,

alexi (01:08:55):
Yeah.

you know, four times.
I dunno.
I found that and the way hetalked about that he didn't.
Really need to leave

alexi (01:09:03):
Mm-hmm.

Anyhow, I loved that.
I loved that part

alexi (01:09:06):
You just answered my first question, so that was
perfect.

What

alexi (01:09:09):
Mm-hmm.

Shoot,

alexi (01:09:10):
Well, listen, no, not sorry, because that's like the
perfect answer.
I was gonna say like, I havethem written, I'm, I'm not being
distracted.
Um, but I was gonna ask like outof, because I listened to the
episode and there's been otherepisodes previously where, you
know, there's the one or twothings that stand out.

(01:09:31):
Then you or I bring them up andwe chat about them.
But I listened to the episodeand I was just like, I finished
the episode and I didn't haveany like specific point drawn
out.
And I was like, oh, that wasjust like a good episode.
Like that was just like fun tolisten to.
And then you were talking aboutit and you're like, oh, that was
just like a fun conversation.
And you came out and you werejust talking about like the

(01:09:52):
overall conversation and I'mlike, that's so accurate.
But then I was gonna ask like.
If there was like a one thingpart of like the conversation
that, like stuck with you afterthe conversation or like
something you kept thinkingabout?
yeah, kind of like if there waslike one thing that stood out.
But I think for you, from whatI've gathered from our
conversations is kind of that,that point is like that he's a,
been so successful in all thesedifferent realms.

(01:10:15):
So impressive, but also that,yeah, like he three times over.
I didn't feel the need to move,and was content, but that does
go into my second question ifyou're up to answering it.

I'm so up to answering it.
Yep.

alexi (01:10:27):
Oh, love it.
Okay.
Um, I wrote down, I listening,um, and listening to you and i's
chat and you calling him kind oflike a hometown hero and that
kind of theme.
he has.
So much art and music that'sbeen produced here.
Um, so how does that art musicreflect the spirit or vibe of
Edmonton?

(01:10:47):
Is what I was gonna ask you.
Like, do you think he reflectskind of the art music scene
here, or do you think he's justkind of like a good
representation to come out ofEdmonton or.

Yeah, that's a really, really good question.
So I think there's really twolevels of answers.
'cause you sort of alluded tothe vibe.
So I think there's a vibe or a.
Spirit or an ethos kind ofversion of that answer, which is
a little different than maybespecifically his art.
Like how does his art reflectEdmonton?

(01:11:18):
So, have a harder time answeringhow his art reflects Edmonton,
other than I think the fact thatit was always being made with
his friends and that it was.
Definitely, you know, he wascreating things that he, uh,
that he just really wanted to door that him

alexi (01:11:38):
Yeah.

just really wanted to create.
this, uh, this goes to the vibetoo.
So specifically the art.
I don't know, like he, hisphotography, I was telling you,
his live music photography, he'screated a style,

alexi (01:11:52):
Yeah, I was looking at it.

Um, it's very, it is just like, it's when
somebody.
Decides that instead of justbeing, trying to know how to do
all of the tricks

alexi (01:12:03):
Mm-hmm.

some version of a discipline, they decide I'm just
gonna be really good at this one

alexi (01:12:09):
Yeah.

I don't have to be all the other versions of a
photographer.
that's, that's definitely him.
And, and it's paying off forhim.
so I guess, I guess the only wayI could probably answer is his
vibe is so Edmonton to me, andI'll, I'll

alexi (01:12:23):
Mm-hmm.

this way.
remember, and I don't know ifI've ever told you this story,
but, uh, I've told other people,I sort of never forget, there
was one tour in particular whereour band was doing the typical
Ontario tour where we would flyin to Toronto, we would
backtrack, drive all the way toWindsor, which is on the border
with Detroit, across the river,and we would just start going

(01:12:45):
down the 4 0 1 highway and makeourselves and try to go all the
way to Ottawa.
And, um, and play as many showsin those cities as we could.

alexi (01:12:52):
Yeah.

'cause there was way more we could do in a two
week span than we ever could inWestern Canada.
And, and it was one of those,and I had lined up a whole bunch
of like, press promo, likestopping at the college radio
stations and we

alexi (01:13:05):
Oh yeah.

I remember being in Toronto, I remember being in
Guelph, I remember in Universityof Toronto I should say.
But then there was also likethis Ryerson, I think, and a
another guy who was a radio guy.
I remember being asked thequestion multiple times, for
some reason on that one tour of,what is your scene like in

(01:13:26):
Edmonton?
'cause they had no idea, right?
And they wanted to get a senseof like, what, represents the
scene in Edmonton?
What makes it cool?
And I answered the same thingevery single time, which was.
That blue collar ness ofEdmonton compared to places like
I felt and this, and my Calgaryfriends are gonna hate this
'cause it's gonna sound like Idissed them, but like, I feel

(01:13:48):
like Calgary wants to beVancouver often in our music
scene.
Or Vancouver wants to beToronto.
Like there's just that littlebit of envy of the bigger.
Center that attracts more thingsand, and, and rightfully so,
like in those cultures that theyjust kind of want more, they
want to be known for what makesthem great

alexi (01:14:08):
Mm-hmm.

as a great city the same way.
So there's always that step up,envy.
And I just felt Edmonton neverhad a step up envy.
I felt like we were used tobeing the northern isolated,
potentially even ignored likecommunity.
And that people here make theirart like it was their way out.

(01:14:30):
People made their art for art'ssake out of their love, their
passion.
Some people have joked it's ourway to endure the winter.
you know, like, yeah.
And I feel like his vibe is thathe kept making great art for
art's sake

alexi (01:14:46):
Mm.

and.
You know, and it just sort ofproved an ethos, proved the vibe
true with every single band hewas in, which is, the way he
talked about it, he's like, theywould work on every little
aspect.
It had to be more than justwriting a song.
He wanted

alexi (01:15:04):
Yeah.

to do all of it.
And, and yeah, that's the vibethat I feel like he

alexi (01:15:08):
I love that.

makes sense.
Yeah,

alexi (01:15:10):
Yeah,

that's a great question.

alexi (01:15:12):
thanks.

Lexi.

alexi (01:15:14):
Love it.

I, it's a good question because to me, the
summary of that conversation wasme feeling really inspired, I
guess since you asked me what Itake away afterwards.
I felt very inspired becausewe're the same age.
that he just keeps, like he saidat the start and at the end, you
know, I'm a guy in the trenches.
I'm still in the trenches, butthen he would also say, I still

(01:15:37):
feel like I'm inside this body,like

alexi (01:15:41):
Mm-hmm.

with the same energy and aspirations and
obviously consistent creativeenergy coming out of him

alexi (01:15:50):
Yeah.

and all that kind of stuff just really and speaks
to me personally.
So.
You know, I don't know aboutanybody else who will listen,
but I know for me it was acathartic, uh, valuable
conversation.
So I loved it.

alexi (01:16:03):
I like that.

I like it too.
Well, thank you for listeningand coming up with some good
questions.
I like

alexi (01:16:09):
Oh, it's easy when the podcasts are good.

you're sweet.
Uh, I'm not gonna belaboranything.
I'm gonna let you get back tostudying.

alexi (01:16:18):
Yeah.
And then we're done.
And then

and then when we come

alexi (01:16:20):
summer.

yeah, when we come back, then you won't have
any of these pressures and it'llbe so wonderful,

alexi (01:16:26):
Yeah.
I'll have life back in my eyes.
Maybe be a little bit moreinteresting again.

The light will return to your eyes.
That's

alexi (01:16:33):
Yep,

Okay.
Okay.
Thanks for your time.
Appreciate you.
Love you.
Okay.
Bye.

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