December 3, 2024 • 52 mins
One of the main members and principle songwriters of Canadian legends Martha & The Muffins, it's great to have him back! He and Martha have teamed up with Juno award winner John Orpheus for a new project and a brilliant new song, "Buttermilk." We are so fortunate to have an old friend back in the interview chair, and we still tons to talk about.
Martha & The Muffins website:
http://www.marthaandthemuffins.com/
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Martha & The Muffins website:
http://www.marthaandthemuffins.com/
Canadian As Heck is a part of Revolution Radio Canada:
https://revolutionradio.live
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, it's always a pleasure when we get a
chance to say that we have a guest that is
such and such two point zero. It's only happened twice
before this actually, Johnny Dovercourt being one and cal Anthony
from the Obgms being the second person. And now we've
got a third welcome back from Martha and the Muffins,
(00:21):
Mark Gain our friend. Hello, welcome back, my friend, welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And I have to say that I'm in good company
with those aforementioned people. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. We were talking off the air because
Dimitri and Mark are both from the well basically Mark
and is living in the same area where Dimitri grew
up back in the day. And funny story for you guys,
I know this is people are probably going to be like, huh,
I'm just joining the stream now, and this is what
I get. But my parents bought their very first house
(00:59):
back in nineteen seventy four off just off of Glendauer Circle,
Birch Mount and Finch, just south of Finch on a
street called Rainier Square, and the street from Shepherd up
to Finch was still a dirt road when they bought
their first house.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, I can age that Birch.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Mount was still a dirt road when they bought their
first house.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
And you know that. I mean, I know you aren't,
but that makes you sound really old. You're like back
in eighteen seventy, you know, we were it was still
horses and carriages going.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
That's right, exactly, Mark the tails, Tom tail, as we
can tell, as.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Tom Jones would as Tom Jones would say, there are
Holston carts around. So that was that was my That
was me trying to do a Welsh accent. Welcome everybody,
Canadian as Hack episode one zero seven of this our
man Derek Lewis unfortunately is under the weather, so he
will not be joining us this evening. We're going to
look forward to having him back next week. We're gonna
(01:58):
be talking with some new friends next week actually that
our pal Scottie Cohmer has done some work with recently,
so it's gonna be really really cool. And but listen,
we've got all sorts of great stuff to talk with
our old friend Mark about. So Dimitri, let's go, my friend.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Well, I'll just start off by saying like we well,
we're hoping that uh that a collaborator with of Marx
is going to join us UH somewhere along the way
in this interview. Yes, because not only is Mark a
member of Martha and the Muffins, but Martha Johnson and
Mark Gain also have another side project called Chemical Dreams,
(02:39):
and Chemical and Chemical Dreams has done a second collaboration
with funk Master John Orpheus and UH and then and
and we're gonna and we're gonna end the interview with
their new to with their new tune. Buttermilk and Uh,
I just had I just have so many questions, like
(03:01):
about well, first of all, let's talk about Chemical Dreams.
When did you? When did you and Martha get that
idea too? For like another identity for you too?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, it was actually Martha's idea, and she she thought
that there should be a vehicle for things that we like,
an open collaboration process outside of Martha and the Muffins,
because we have very eclectic tastes and as Martha and
the Muffins, we've done a very wide ranging a wide
(03:36):
range of different kinds of styles and things. But but
she felt that it was it would be good if
we had something outside of that that we could be
even freer with who we collaborated with. And there'd be
no set ideas about what was going to happen. And
the name came from basically, as some of you out there, No,
(03:56):
Martha has Parkinson's and I think so she's a lot
of drugs a lot at the time, and she for
years she's been having dreams, which I begged her to
keep a dream journal because I said, we could publish
this because your dreams are so weird that it could
just be called Martha's dream Book, and you know, I
thought people could would buy this from But in any case,
(04:19):
she came up with the name Chemical Dreams, which I
think alluded to all the chemicals that are in her brain,
you know, keeping her going and stuff. So the first
thing we did when David Boie died, we did a
song called Sleep in Peace, and I think that was
the first thing we put out as Chemical Dreams. And
(04:40):
as you mentioned, Dimitri, this song, Buttermilk is the second
collaboration we've done with John Orpheus. The first was Loyal
to the Moon, which we were really happy about too.
It came out really well, and so we wanted to
work with him again and he at some point he
(05:02):
emailed us and said, you know, we haven't done anything
for a while. I think that's how it happened again,
and we said let's do something, so that's how it
came about. But yeah, there's been a few things with
Chemical Dreams we've done. We did another song called The
Living End, which we did with Grand Analog sex player
Aubrey McGee. That turned out. And this is all coming
(05:23):
out on a compilation on pop Guru.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, the International sound System Party Volume two.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
That's right, So that's going to be coming out shortly,
and I think there's three Chemical Dreams cuts on that,
including what I've mentioned.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, I'm just going to point out that the release
party for that collection is on November twenty ninth, which
is this coming Friday at the Rivoli.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's correct. Thank you for mentioning that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, and the label is called The Confidence Emperors. Now
do you know do you have like a are you
very familiar with like how that label is run and
like and what do they have a mission statement that
you're aware of or something like that.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Well that is our manager of Grainstairs has two entities
going on. One's Pop Guru and one is The Confidence Efforts,
And I think it has a list of really great names,
and you know, once in a while he'll I'll go,
where did you get that cool name? And go, yeah,
I have a list. So but they're both, and I
find myself, you know, he should do the explaining. I'm
(06:34):
not sure what the distinction between Pop Guru and the
Confidence Emperors releases are, because I think we've been out
on both and I've never, to be brutally honest, I've
never been fully cognizant of what determines which one we're
going to come out on. Maybe it's like a tax
dodge or something. You know, careful.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Your microphone's on market.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
We're going to be hearing. We're all going to be
hearing from cr now right right, I just wrote, I
just let up a huge blad flag right Sorry, Graham, Graham,
if you're listening to this, I don't know. I had
too much wine for dinner. I don't know what can
I say?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
You know?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
But yeah, so his those labels have been out a
long time, and he I think one of the Grahame's
main interests is bringing various artists and songwriters together, which
was sort of like a chemical dreams goal as well.
So over the course of our long, long association with Grame,
He's introduced us to all sorts of great artists that
(07:45):
we've collaborated with, and John Orpheus is one of them.
I think we met him at the Drake Underground when
Graham was doing some sort of label event quite a
number of years ago.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Oh and what impression did John Orpheus make at that
meeting on you?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Well, he was performing. I thought, this guy is a dynamic,
unbelievably great performer, and I thought he's got the makings
of a star. He just, you know, he just has
a great stage presence, and he's really really intelligent. He's
really smart guy. When he comes over here when we're
taking a break between you know, working on the song,
(08:30):
we'll just sit down and talk about the world situation.
And he's he knows so much about literature and history
and we have such great talks with him. So it's
not like this, oh yeah, we're musicians that we hang out.
He has way more dimensions to him than just being
a great musician and a great performer. And I should
(08:53):
mention that he has a whole other persona as a
writer too.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yes, yeah, and John.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Orthis is sort of his his musicians. I wouldn't necessarily
call it pseudonym, but another persona that he channels into
being a musician. But then he has a whole other
life as a writer as well, which is quite fascinating.
I find that fascinating. You know that he's been able
to divide these two things and create two separate kind
(09:23):
of career streams.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, let me let me ask you about your your
you and Martha, like how you have two different personas
now you also had a third as M plus M
I suppose, But but do you feel that like Chemical
Dreams like frees you from any preconceptions that your audience
(09:46):
might have going into going into listening to the song,
into those songs?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I think so because initially, and it's interesting because part
of the early Chemical Dreams thing was Martha wanted to
remain a nono. She didn't want anyone to know Martha
and the Muffains had anything to do with it. And
so if you go onto Chemical Dreams website, you'll see
this initial PR video where she doesn't say who she is,
or we lowered her voice so you can't probably tell
(10:16):
who it is. And that idea evaporated very quickly because
we thought, well, if nobody knows it's Martha and the Muffins.
Nobody's going to care, probably, or it'll be a lot
harder to kind of take chemical dreams out in the
world without having any kind of connection. So we abandoned
that idea, even though the video is still there because
(10:37):
I really like the video. She's got our our cat,
which is now sadly deceased, but Jack was the best
cat in the world, and he's on her lap and
he's just staring into the camera going, I'm a rock star,
you know. But Craig, don't you have a cat?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
No, I don't have a cat, Dmitri Okay, I have
two dogs. Oh, Derek has two cats.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Well, dogson. We've had both, or I should say I've
had both in my life, and I like both. You know.
I find cats is somehow for me more manageable. But
in any case, so back to chemical dreams, it is
sort of a freeing thing because there were no, you know,
pre conceptions about what it was going to be, and
(11:25):
it wasn't. We didn't have to have any Martha Muffins
connections musically at all, so you know, it's still a
very new thing. So we don't really know it could
be anything. We've only we've only put out four things
under there in as many years, maybe, but but you know,
it could be anything. And I think because we so
(11:45):
much enjoy working with John, they'll probably be other things.
They've already started talking about what could a third collaboration
be there.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Well, I'm just gonna so I've listened to Buttermilk and
I've listened to You Look to the Moon, and it's
reminded me how funky you guys have always been. Like,
you guys just seem to have this instinct. You guys
seem to have always had this instinct for funk, and
(12:15):
this is just reminding me of that. And it's like
so many years later and you still have it, and
it's like, that's so that's so exciting.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I'm actually literally snapping right now because I'm thinking of
Black Station's why, you know, I'm like, it's like that
really cool groove. Well, like that's one of the wonderful
things I think that that we've I think that Metri's
talking about as well, is just that wonderful knack that
you guys have for backbeat as well.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yes, well, I think we both grew up Martha and
I you know, have often cited our influences, and of
course we grew up in that incredible period of the
sixties into the seventies where everything was coming in, you know,
And and I have the secret I've always had the
secret desire to be a guitarist in a funk band.
(13:07):
You know. I think it would be a great thing
just to be in a funk band and play rhythm.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Exactly like those great Yeah, those great seventh, seventh, and
ninth chords and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Absolutely totally cool and and so I think we come
by it honestly. And you know, as I said, there's
many streams to our our musical history, but definitely that
what we were doing, Black stations and song in my head,
and of course we had that killer rhythm section of
Yogi Horton and Tinker Barfield that from the States that
(13:44):
played with Luther Van Ross and Diana Ross. I mean,
they were the first time we worked with them. My
job was just on the floor because you could solo
any any part of Tinker's drum set and it sounded
like an orchestra. Like I remember we were soloing his
high hat part and it sounded like there were four
(14:05):
arms alone on a high hat. It's all bit, how's
he doing that? You know, And it was just, uh,
it just took us to another level. You know. Their
music musicianship was like way, you know, many levels above us.
So it was it's such it was such a privilege
(14:25):
to be working with musicians of that caliber. But also
like even on the Dance Park album, we sort of
had our punk funk moments there, like on songs like
boys in the Bushes and what people Do for fun
and stuff like that. So yeah, that's a part of
us for sure. And then you know, when we work
(14:48):
with John, he brings in like a whole other element
that we you know, we don't have, which is such
a great you know, mixture of influences and things as well.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Right, he's he's uh he was born and raised in
Trinidad and Tobago. And uh so did you find did
you find that that sort of island island influence like
sort of like he brought that to the track, right,
and then that and that awakens something in you and Martha,
(15:18):
do you feel.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Well, certainly, we love you know, there's we just love
different kinds of music. And when we did look to
the Moon uh he he kind of We kind of
work on ideas, like Martha usually starts with some beats,
so we have something something like a spine to work along,
and then John will start improvising some lyrics and we'll
(15:45):
throw some things in. And when we did Look at
the Moon, he did when we when he figured out
his main vocal track, we put that down. Then he goes, okay,
so what we do now is, you know, in this
kind of tradition is I'll put down just all these
yelling tracks and I wish you were here because he
could actually tell us what I think there was a
name for them, but just kind of just throw off,
(16:07):
you know, like you said, okay to make a like
a go fire, you know, like a yell stuff like that.
And so we did a couple of tracks where you
just did stuff like that, and that was something that
you know, we probably didn't know anything about. So we went, okay,
that's cool. And you know, you never know what's going
to come out of John, right, and so it's always
(16:29):
exciting working with them, this stuff that just comes out.
And with buttermilk, he said, well, you know down in
the Caribbean, you know, when we're talking about food, you
really know what we're really talking about, don't you.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, yeah, So you know.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
There's that running through that song. But he again, he
would improvise, like the yelling and stuff. And I even
now when I hear Buttermilk and at the very and
he goes like that, I can't laughing because I can
remember it was up there doing that and he was
just throwing all this stuff up over recording and I'm
(17:09):
kind of just sitting there like laughing my head off
quietly because it was so you know, I think I
said in the press of Lase, he always like brings
the fire into this, you know, So that aspect is
such a great thing working with him.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
There's there's a song that I adore because I'm a
huge so I like, I think all of us here
at this you know, online table right now, we all
have massive music influences. One thing I'm really influenced by
is I'm a huge fan of disco music. And there
was a great track that I would love to have
(17:50):
talked with John about because listening to Buttermilk, there's kind
of a few elements of this tune by a fellow
named Manu Dubango, and it's a track called Soul Macosa
and there's just like these sound effects and sort of
like you know, things that are I'm just like, I'm
wondering if you know, he listened to this track and
(18:11):
like kind of pulled some sort of ideas out of
the the The famous thing that's in Soul Macosa is
that's what Michael Jackson essentially sampled the Mama say mamasa mamkosa,
right that part that's actually that's actually in that in
that track. And in so anyway, hopefully we'll get to
talk to John about it before the end, before the
(18:34):
end of the show, but I just spoke with our
friend Eric, so hopefully. But he said, oh, thanks, got it,
and then that's you know, classic Eric, classic Eric Alpery
is like, yeah, I'm on it bye, and then you know,
so uh you know, but you.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Were you Mark, he warned us at Johnson transit.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
So it is it is, well, we may.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Have to get the big the big hook out and
get them reel them in.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
You know exactly, or we'll just have to do Mark
gain three point zero with John Orpheus.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Or from John and on his I mean he would
he would definitely have enough to talk about to fill
a show. So you know, if he doesn't show up
or he can't show up tonight, you should get him
because he would have a lot of really really interesting
It was really interesting.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
But one thing I one thing I did notice about
Buttermilk is that you keep adding more and more layers
to the track, you know, and the and because like
it's like you have like, first of all, you have
that guitar hook, and then you have the backup singers,
and then you have the repeat. It it's a fine
(19:45):
line and then and it and it keeps building and
building and building until like and it gets more frantic
and uh and I just think, like that's I I
do think that that's really impressive. It's like and and
I've gone back and noticed that, like you've you've done
that before with the Muffins, But yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
That's a that's a Martha and the Muffins thing for sure,
you know, and it was Martha that came up. I'm
walking a fine line. And I think that's really interesting
because you know, the whole Buttermilk song has sort of
a it's operating on one level like okay, food and
(20:25):
you know, there's a sexual sexual side of it. But
then the whole walking a fine line like if you know,
if you know about John's background and how he was
brought to Canada and how you know, And I'm speaking
for him and he can articulate it a lot better
than me. But how I think he's always been. He's
(20:47):
got his Trinny background and but he was transplanted to
Canada at a very early age, and he's you know,
he's walking a fine line between these two cultures. Martha's
walking a fine line with her health. In essence, we're
all walking a fine line given the events that have
been going on in the world. And so maybe I'm
reading too much into it, you know. I mean, yeah,
(21:10):
I help write the song. But in a way I
thought when she came up with that line, I thought, yeah,
there's something about John. It's about John, it's about her,
and it's about everybody you know, And you can pick
what you can pick what level you want to operate
on with that line. But and we had ideas to
(21:32):
the video. One of the you know, ideas I think
Martha came up as was could instead of going for
the food aspect, you could go with symbolism like a
highway and us walking down the medium, but like being
off balanced or so that was that idea didn't happen,
And we're really happy with the video as it turned
out anyway, but you know, it's.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
A lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, but there were a lot of other ideas percolating
and it could have gone any number of ways in
terms of the video. And yeah, but to go back
to the layering, uh, I think, you know, influences like
George Martin's production of the Beatles, like growing up and
going you know, listening to that and at the end
(22:16):
of the song something would suddenly change and you go, yeah,
keep it. Everything's got to keep Uh. There's got to
be new elements all the time to make interesting, you know. Yeah,
so that's what we try and do.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I want to share Sorry, I just want to share
something here really quickly. Don't need to do no, don't
need to do audio so that we sound like we're
in a tunnel. Okay, So here we go. I want
to share this this picture over here. Do you see
my mouse hovering over that? Can you see that?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Mark Hika? Which which one? Tell me which one you're
looking at?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Can you can you see?
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, that one? I that is possibly one of the
most incredible pictures I've ever seen in my life. Do
you know where that was?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Oh yeah, yeah, that was taken by our first manager,
Jerry Young, in Bath, England when we were living there.
And so we're actually on the one of the hillsides
overlooking the city facing the inner the downtown part of
Bath and that would have been taken probably in eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
So is this around the Peter Gabriel Bath time.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, he would have been worth I think a couple
of years earlier he would have been working on so right,
but you know, his studio was basically six miles one way,
and Heere's for Spears studio was about six miles the
other way. No, and XDC lived in Swindon, which was
(23:58):
the first train stopped towards London, and you know, there
was there was a lot of activity in Bath most
of the time. You know, we were working on the
Modern Lullaby album, which we recorded in our bedroom and
we went for like eight hour walks, so instead of
hobnobbing in London, that's what we were doing.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
But that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
But that's a very evocative photo, Like it was really
wonderful living in Bath for a while.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I just think I just, I just it's for me
that picture. I just I've always loved this picture. I've
seen this in a number of times, but for me,
it's just like the two of you just look content.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
It was a pretty yeah, I mean, it had its
ups and downs there because in some respects we were
quite isolated, but we loved the city. Was is so
beautiful and so dreamlike. And you know, we were basically
working on this album in our bedroom and we met
some really wonderful people that we were hanging out with,
(25:04):
and uh, it was a very very dreamlike, wonderful time.
But then you know, we're kind of dreamed out all
the time. But so the city worked for us.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah yeah, oh man.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Man, awesome. So it's as we're talking, it's exactly one
month before some holiday called Christmas, and uh, now before
we hit the air, you let something spill, uh huh
that you and Martha are working on a song called
(25:42):
Santa's Been a Bad Boy.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
And you've heard it first on.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Revolution Radio Canadians.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Heck, yeah, yeah, yeah, we a couple of months ago. Martha,
I don't know, things just dropped into our minds, Like
sometime she went and somehow she said Sanda's been a
bad boy and we and we were going, well, that
would be a weird song, but what would be what
would it be about? And what how is he a
(26:12):
bad boy? And interestingly, every time people hear the title,
the general will be the action is still laugh and
I'm going, I wonder what about their idea of it?
Because they're laughing? What are they thinking? Right? So we
had to decide is it going to be like a
dirty song? It's going to have like naughty implications? Is
it going to be clean so that kids can hear it?
(26:34):
So we decided to go for It's not naughty in
the you know it's going down the chimney and you know,
attacking somebody or you know, it's not like that. It's
more like Santa's having some sort of crisis. So basically
the gist of the song is he looked one day.
(26:55):
It was the night before Christmas. He looks in the
mirror and decides it's time for a change. So the
first thing he does is he changes his outfit from
red to black. Then he shaves off his beard. Wow,
he does a bunch of radical things. He puts rockets
(27:15):
on his slate to make it go faster, but then
of course Rudolf can't lead it. So the thing goes
sailing off into the sky with all the toys in
Santa and we got the music from It came about
by I have this thing called a spider k po,
which if you're a guitarist, you know that a cabo
(27:37):
can can change the key, but while maintaining the same teaming,
a spider capo can change individual notes along the capo,
so you can choose what notes are kpod and which
notes aren't. So I discovered I mean, I don't know
if I discovered it, because probably lots of people, but
I basically kpod the bottom four notes and left the
(28:01):
top two and it created all these great chords that
you can You can do normal chord voicings, but suddenly
they sound way cooler.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
So wow.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
So basically Santas In a Bad Boy came about musically
really quite fast. And then we had to kind of
jam all these lyrics I'd written into that and we
are just going, you're doing this again, You're putting too
many words. You expect me to sing this, And I go,
we'll figure it out. But now everybody might be getting
(28:33):
excited about this. This will not be coming out this year.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I was gonna ask, yeah, it's too like we.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Should have been doing this in July, right, this is
when you got to Yeah, so Christmas twenty five, if
we're still around, that's when the song is going to
come out. But we're really quite I think it's it's
pretty I don't know every artist says, oh, it's great.
You know what I'm doing is great, But I think
it's actually pretty good and we may not sing it.
(29:02):
That's the other thing. I've always had this irritating habit
of writing melodies that neither of us can sing. It's
got a pretty high register. So when we were demoing
the vocal and Martha was singing it, she had to
go down to a lower harmony and I go, yeah,
but that upper one still. So we're thinking, like, maybe
(29:24):
somebody else will sing it, So it might not come
out as a Martha and the Muffins sing. It might
be a Chemical Dreams release or right whatever. But we're looking.
You know, we're a year ahead here, but you know,
you guys heard it first, and your audience heard it first,
So okay, there you go.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
There's a scoop wicked love it. That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
So so the International sound System Party Volume two contains
the new Chemical dream song with John Orpheus called Buttermilk
and what's the name of the other the other Chemical
Dreams collaboration.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I believe what the other song on there is the
Living End Okay, they did a while ago, and that
was done with Aubrey McGee from Grand Analog.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Uh and then what's the oh what else is there? Then?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Is it the Goldfrap cover that you were talking about?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Uh jeez, I'm having like brain fog here. I'm not
sure if that's on that or not. Okay, why isn't
John here? He remember all this? But I think if
you look the moon and look, yes, thank you, yes,
look to the moon is on there too. So there
(30:46):
are three Chemical Dreams tracks on there. So you know,
if anybody hasn't heard any of this, so they listen
to that and they'll get a good overview of what
we've been doing in that that aspect.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Okay, and uh yeah, and so thank you so much
for joining us, Mark again, like once again, it was
really great to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
It's you.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah, well we appreciate that, thank you. Honestly, this is
it's so much fun and we're so lucky and fortunate
to be able to talk to wonderful Canadians like yourself. So,
you know, the last time we were on here, I
played a little snippet of of a cfn Y documentary
that you were in and you were talking about, you know,
(31:36):
the history of essentially getting played for the first time
and like kind of pulling over to the side of
the road and you know, oh my god, our song
is on cf and why you know, so it's it's
it's amazing, you know too, Like I mean, look, my friend,
it's it must be pretty amazing to kind of you know,
sort of like look in the rear view mirror and
(31:57):
be like, wow, this is a career. You know.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
We I kid you not like there are It happens
quite often where we're sitting in the kitchen and we
and we go how did this ever happen? And how
is it still happening? And I think one of the
most remarkable things is is that, you know, just after
working on these vocals with Martha, like how you know
(32:21):
her voice isn't as strong as it used to be,
but she can still it's still Martha, Like it's completely
recognizable when we're doing, you know, when she's singing sad
has been a bed but you know, and we're going, yeah,
she still got it. Sounds great, you know. So we're
we feel really lucky, you know, we do because we
(32:42):
had no long term ideas about how this is ever
going to last. I don't and in that early band,
nobody expected it to last beyond about two years. And yeah,
here we are, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Right, and now you've got Chemical Dreams, which is like
opened up like an entire an entire new avenue.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
For you absolutely and who knows that can just that
can keep going? Right?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Oh yeah, I think it will for sure.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, good for you. Well, markin as always my friend,
it's just wonderful to see you. What it really is,
We're we're so lucky, you know, to have people like
you that are just willing to say, you know what,
I like these guys, let's have a chat, you know,
and it's it's so we're we're so lucky. So again,
thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you know.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Do you know if people can just can just show
up at the Rivoli on November twenty.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, yeah, just show up, just show up, really.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah, just show up for the release of the International
Census and Party Volume two off of the Confidence Emperor's label.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Yeah, and it's going to be this Friday at the
Rivally So great venue.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Great, yeah, great venue.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
So is there anything? Is there any one last thing
you want to say about Buttermilk before we we throw
to it?
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Uh, I think it stands on its own, you know,
as you said, it's a funky tune. I'm really happy
with the way it turned out. I don't think that
we could have done any better with it. So enjoy listening.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
After we finished that, we're also going to play Look
to the Moon. So both of these wonderful, wonderful, okay,
and so thank you again, my friend, so much. We
appreciate it. If you want to hang out listen to
the tunes with us, you're more than welcome. If you've
got to bounce, no problem.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
So we'll think I'll hang out and listen.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Perfect, all right, excellent. So what we're gonna do is,
so we're gonna play these two tracks here and this
is Canadian as heck. One to seven all right, and uh,
you're in for a treat. Here we go Buttermilk on
Revolution Radio Canada.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
Oh yeah, you hung me, babe.
Speaker 7 (34:55):
You know we cooking, got a name, got a.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Flower that I.
Speaker 6 (35:08):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 7 (35:10):
Let me tell you about If you supend, don't beat,
then where we defend on be mission.
Speaker 8 (35:26):
We be cooking in the kitchen. No fishion me be titius,
be stepping with the kittens. Don't be prepping what you're wishing.
Don't be messing with the recipe. Read it how it's
written in an anision.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Get them fixing. Everybody pitching. Stop your bitching and your stitching.
Speaker 9 (35:45):
Why you pitching?
Speaker 6 (35:46):
Why you switching that whiskey in the sirrup, sir, I
get to fix it.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
If we pitch and watch your addiction, keep it filled.
Speaker 6 (35:55):
It not your fiction. If you cooking, if.
Speaker 7 (35:57):
You grow, then my partner, you sire, listen and you're
looking for the stuff. We've got that food off Donald
pitson all.
Speaker 10 (36:14):
Yeah, up, were all the we got here?
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Looking back, it's by the side. We stay up being.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I'm proud.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
I want all my last.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Out.
Speaker 11 (37:42):
That's that father, any day, chip lifting away, just chip,
just living.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
I love this young man. You don't even walking now.
Speaker 9 (38:15):
Callelujah.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
That's a James Brown guitar right there. Catfish Collins, Bootsy Collins. Brother,
it sounds that's what it sounds like, right there.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
You gotta slow down.
Speaker 6 (38:59):
Be ashamed loves the life of the speed with the fame.
Let me ride, Let's try, let me ride, Let's try.
Speaker 12 (39:05):
Let's right, let me ride, Let's rin let's ride, let
me ride, Let's try, let me ride, let me ride,
Let's ride, let me ride, let me go.
Speaker 6 (39:13):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I'm gonna stay
flat to the day I die. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 12 (39:20):
Look just then then you're about this gay yea yeah
yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I'm gonna stay plant
the day that what love double clash and I just
(39:40):
wear swimming with the shrivel love love double clash. Who
that young man?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
That'sy?
Speaker 6 (39:48):
And you see Abby the fresh day, Oh one of
the fresh scening me.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
You visit me here every.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Time the game.
Speaker 6 (39:57):
Everything't exchange your vermin.
Speaker 12 (39:59):
You say, I don't like listening a gang like you
go up with the name, act like you know, like
you you know what his name?
Speaker 6 (40:05):
If you go up the range like you know what's
the mame? You don't have a range, and on the game,
act like I can act like I can.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
Up with the name you get the wrong get.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Wrong day, Yeah school mystage for let's say hey yeah
yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah. You do the moon.
You might spot this guy hi, uh yeah, the spot
this game.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Ye.
Speaker 6 (40:32):
Mistake.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
But the Day I die.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Lift up, Up, Up, Up, Up.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Up, just so freaking cool. Man Revolution Radio Canada, uh
(41:13):
Canadian as heck with our friend Mark Gain, who's just
just so freaking brilliant, Like I adore that song. It's
just it's our friend. Actually here see Herman in the
chat is saying very groove Armada, absolutely groove Armada. Of course,
(41:33):
you know an awesome electronic duo that really pulls a
lot from massive amounts of dub and you know, reggaeton
and and of course funky music, and that is just
so cool. Like there's I can think of a bazillion
(41:53):
amazing you know guitar players that that you sound like
on that track. And I'm like, I mentioned Catfish Collins obviously,
who was unfortunately is no longer with us as Bootsy
Collins late brother that played with James Brown. But of
course there's Nile Rodgers. There's a little bit of Steve
Cropper in there. There's like I just hear Freddy Stone.
(42:18):
There's just so many amazing guitar players that I hear
in that so like, dude, like, so first off, I'm
gonna let you know right now, both of those songs
were adding to Revolution Radio. Oh those are fricking awesome,
Like they are so good, done done, they are so
freaking good.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
So another thing that see Herman mentioned was this has
Jamaican sound clash all over it. And I was just
wondering because Toronto, by the time that Martha and the
Muffins shot up in the late seventies and into the
early eighties, Toronto's Jamaican community was very, very well established,
(42:59):
to the point that Blaku Huru had a song called
Young and Englington so.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
So and I was just wondering if if, like even
back then, like is that did that Did Martha and
the Muffins feel that energy coming from Toronto?
Speaker 2 (43:19):
I think it's more definitely, but it wasn't never that
specific for us. I think we've just absorbed. You know,
we're older people, and I think throughout our whole lives
we've just absorbed stuff. And I mean, and I don't
I've never been all that conscious of where it's coming
(43:43):
from within me, at least speaking for myself. It's just
that I think I've absorbed all this and when I
look back on my life, I do remember, even being
a really young kid listening very carefully the things, you know,
like not only music, but sounds and just the sound
(44:06):
of the world. And I can think of, you know,
like things that had a big influence even later on,
like you know, even like Don't Go Lose a Baby
by Hugh Massechela. You know, I just thought, and you know,
that was such a groovy song and like all the parts,
the harmonies, everything in that song just worked so well,
and like a lot of Bob Marley stuff and somehow
(44:29):
it just all came in and and then of course
John has comes in and does like the vocals and
stuff and just sends it over the top. Right, So
with that kind of with the whole groove, you know,
and that kind of that influence from black music.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
And all that that entails.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
So but yeah, I mean Toronto was really taking what
it was shedding its kind of provincial, provincial Anglo you know,
clothing at that point in the world. These I mean,
if anything, it's a great advertisement for why immigration, you know,
(45:10):
is a good thing. That's one of them, you know,
Like think of all the amazing music and culture that
came into Canada at that time, the food, everything, you know,
different clothes, different ideas. But I think I've just absorbed
without thinking too much about. I just felt it, you know,
I felt it. And Martha's got a bit of that
(45:34):
in her blood because she's actually had Jamaican grandparents or
grandparents emigrated from Jamaica. So you know, I don't know,
like who knows. It's her too, and probably more in
a genetic way than it is me, because I'm you know,
I'm just English Scottish.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
You're like me, you know.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
But I mean, in truth, we're all from Africa. You
just have to go back far enough, you know.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, true, true, exactly.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
So that's our mother continent, you know, for all of us.
So yeah, yeah, And I you know, when I remember
when Strawberry Fields Forever came out, like even that end
tone that I thought was the sound of an amplifier,
just like the sixty cycle hummer. But that fascinated me,
you know, and I think I just all that dis
(46:26):
goot stored in my head. So I think arrangement you
know it's important.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
I can remember my friend hearing the Beatles I feel
fine for the first time, oh yeah, eight years old
and that yeah, and I was like, what is that?
Speaker 4 (46:46):
Hell?
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Is that right? In fact that my mind was blown,
like at that point in time, you know, this is
the Beatles are my all time favorite band.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Oh yeah, I had that. I had that song on
forty five when I was a kid.
Speaker 7 (46:56):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
And you hear that for the first time and John
I remember hearing John Lennon talk about it where he
just took like his his Gibson acoustic and kind of
leaned it up against an amplifier and it just went real.
And they're like and they're like, can we record that?
Towards Martin's like, well, of course you can record it,
like just you know, just do it again and we'll
record it, you know. Like it's so amazing because we
(47:18):
we had one of our other besties. Aside from our
bestie Mark Gained from Martha and the Muffins, another one
of our besties Chris Tate from Chalk Show. Chris and
we we had a wonderful conversation with Chris as well,
and like hearing him talk about all of his influences,
and it's it's awesome to hear you talk about yours
(47:39):
and and hearing and I remember Chris talking about his
I think we need to do you know what I
think we need to do, Dimitri. I think we need
to do a Canadian retro round table.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
Oh that would be amazing, Like like.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
Seriously, like just just get you and I and Derek
and get as many of these killer freaking musicians and
now friends that we possibly can, because honestly, I think
I think we could literally say, so Mark, what was
it like in nineteen eighty three? And just let Mark
go off for last time, and Derek and I Demitrio
(48:17):
grab our drinks and we'll be like, yeah, this is
called content, my friends. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (48:22):
Like, but.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
You in an hour, you know what we're gonna go wait.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Exactly right. But it's just there's so many amazing musicians
that I really think this is something that has to happen.
I think a Canadian retro round table would be amazing
because you know, so for me, I think I don't
know if I got a chance to tell you this, Mark,
to say thank you, I know I did to Chris
Tate when I was a DJ for one or two
(48:50):
point when the Edge, when I used to DJ The
Spirit of the Edge Sunday Nights with Martin Streak for
CF and why the M and ms were a staple.
So it's like every time I would play you guys,
it's like you could literally just like like you could
literally watch everybody run to the dance floor. You know,
(49:10):
didn't matter what I played. So, you know, I just
want to say again thank you. You know, we really
can't wait to talk to our our hopeful new friend
John Orpheus, but we just I just want to make
sure that we say properly thank you for the music,
and thank.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
You for the met congratulations for what you're doing with
Chemical Dreams. It's like it's just this brand new energy
that I'm so happy.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
That you guys have, you know right now.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
You know you're amazing, you're doing amazing things.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Well, thank you, and you know we're just going to
keep going. Like the idea of retirement doesn't really exist
I think for artists or you know it does. No,
We're just gonna drop dead one day and that'll be it.
But it's like it's not like, oh, well, you know,
I mean, the music industry can be quite dispiriting. But
(50:00):
that but that, but that's not what we were ever about.
Like the spirit of the of the era that we
came in on. It was like, hey, let's form a band.
It will be fun and that that's still the main thing.
So we're going to keep having fun until we dropped it.
That's that's how it's gonna work, you know. That's how
it's planning on it.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
That's it, friend, Good for you, that's it. Absolutely brother again,
Mark Gain two point zero. Thank you so much. We
really appreciate you being here, my friend, and thank you
for all the support to our pleasure where we and
you can come back next week if you want, right,
(50:45):
So it's all good, no, honestly, my friend, anytime you know.
And and to be honest, one thing we I'd really
like to start doing in the new year is to
get some great classic Canadian artists. Uh, sit down and
I we would love to sit down and say, hey, Mark,
for the next hour and a half two hours, whatever
(51:06):
the radio station is yours, we'd love to know what
your top ten favorite all time Canadian songs or artists
or what have you would be because I'm sure You've
got a million stories, a million things you'd love to say.
So if that's something that might interest you, we'd love
to have you for that.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
So oh yeah, well that that would be very interesting.
I'd have to think very hard of it because there's
so many things in ten. Might be a challenge you
could do.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Twenty, No problem twenty if you like Mark, that's that's
that's your homework. Okay to me Tree stop a signing teacher,
you know, yeah, right, exactly, Well, listen again, Mark, thank
you so much. We really appreciate you man. Thank you
(51:52):
so m guys give uh.
Speaker 3 (51:54):
And uh sterling one says thank you for representing Canada,
and give Martha our love.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Yes, and she says hello to you guys too.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Yeah, excellent and good and we hope everything goes well
for you on Friday.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Thank you so much,
You know, it's always a pleasure when we get a
chance to say that we have a guest that is
such and such two point zero. It's only happened twice
before this actually, Johnny Dovercourt being one and cal Anthony
from the Obgms being the second person. And now we've
got a third welcome back from Martha and the Muffins,
(00:21):
Mark Gain our friend. Hello, welcome back, my friend, welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And I have to say that I'm in good company
with those aforementioned people. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely. We were talking off the air because
Dimitri and Mark are both from the well basically Mark
and is living in the same area where Dimitri grew
up back in the day. And funny story for you guys,
I know this is people are probably going to be like, huh,
I'm just joining the stream now, and this is what
I get. But my parents bought their very first house
(00:59):
back in nineteen seventy four off just off of Glendauer Circle,
Birch Mount and Finch, just south of Finch on a
street called Rainier Square, and the street from Shepherd up
to Finch was still a dirt road when they bought
their first house.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, I can age that Birch.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Mount was still a dirt road when they bought their
first house.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
And you know that. I mean, I know you aren't,
but that makes you sound really old. You're like back
in eighteen seventy, you know, we were it was still
horses and carriages going.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
That's right, exactly, Mark the tails, Tom tail, as we
can tell, as.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Tom Jones would as Tom Jones would say, there are
Holston carts around. So that was that was my That
was me trying to do a Welsh accent. Welcome everybody,
Canadian as Hack episode one zero seven of this our
man Derek Lewis unfortunately is under the weather, so he
will not be joining us this evening. We're going to
look forward to having him back next week. We're gonna
(01:58):
be talking with some new friends next week actually that
our pal Scottie Cohmer has done some work with recently,
so it's gonna be really really cool. And but listen,
we've got all sorts of great stuff to talk with
our old friend Mark about. So Dimitri, let's go, my friend.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Well, I'll just start off by saying like we well,
we're hoping that uh that a collaborator with of Marx
is going to join us UH somewhere along the way
in this interview. Yes, because not only is Mark a
member of Martha and the Muffins, but Martha Johnson and
Mark Gain also have another side project called Chemical Dreams,
(02:39):
and Chemical and Chemical Dreams has done a second collaboration
with funk Master John Orpheus and UH and then and
and we're gonna and we're gonna end the interview with
their new to with their new tune. Buttermilk and Uh,
I just had I just have so many questions, like
(03:01):
about well, first of all, let's talk about Chemical Dreams.
When did you? When did you and Martha get that
idea too? For like another identity for you too?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, it was actually Martha's idea, and she she thought
that there should be a vehicle for things that we like,
an open collaboration process outside of Martha and the Muffins,
because we have very eclectic tastes and as Martha and
the Muffins, we've done a very wide ranging a wide
(03:36):
range of different kinds of styles and things. But but
she felt that it was it would be good if
we had something outside of that that we could be
even freer with who we collaborated with. And there'd be
no set ideas about what was going to happen. And
the name came from basically, as some of you out there, No,
(03:56):
Martha has Parkinson's and I think so she's a lot
of drugs a lot at the time, and she for
years she's been having dreams, which I begged her to
keep a dream journal because I said, we could publish
this because your dreams are so weird that it could
just be called Martha's dream Book, and you know, I
thought people could would buy this from But in any case,
(04:19):
she came up with the name Chemical Dreams, which I
think alluded to all the chemicals that are in her brain,
you know, keeping her going and stuff. So the first
thing we did when David Boie died, we did a
song called Sleep in Peace, and I think that was
the first thing we put out as Chemical Dreams. And
(04:40):
as you mentioned, Dimitri, this song, Buttermilk is the second
collaboration we've done with John Orpheus. The first was Loyal
to the Moon, which we were really happy about too.
It came out really well, and so we wanted to
work with him again and he at some point he
(05:02):
emailed us and said, you know, we haven't done anything
for a while. I think that's how it happened again,
and we said let's do something, so that's how it
came about. But yeah, there's been a few things with
Chemical Dreams we've done. We did another song called The
Living End, which we did with Grand Analog sex player
Aubrey McGee. That turned out. And this is all coming
(05:23):
out on a compilation on pop Guru.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Yeah, the International sound System Party Volume two.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
That's right, So that's going to be coming out shortly,
and I think there's three Chemical Dreams cuts on that,
including what I've mentioned.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Yeah, I'm just going to point out that the release
party for that collection is on November twenty ninth, which
is this coming Friday at the Rivoli.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's correct. Thank you for mentioning that. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, and the label is called The Confidence Emperors. Now
do you know do you have like a are you
very familiar with like how that label is run and
like and what do they have a mission statement that
you're aware of or something like that.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Well that is our manager of Grainstairs has two entities
going on. One's Pop Guru and one is The Confidence Efforts,
And I think it has a list of really great names,
and you know, once in a while he'll I'll go,
where did you get that cool name? And go, yeah,
I have a list. So but they're both, and I
find myself, you know, he should do the explaining. I'm
(06:34):
not sure what the distinction between Pop Guru and the
Confidence Emperors releases are, because I think we've been out
on both and I've never, to be brutally honest, I've
never been fully cognizant of what determines which one we're
going to come out on. Maybe it's like a tax
dodge or something. You know, careful.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Your microphone's on market.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
We're going to be hearing. We're all going to be
hearing from cr now right right, I just wrote, I
just let up a huge blad flag right Sorry, Graham, Graham,
if you're listening to this, I don't know. I had
too much wine for dinner. I don't know what can
I say?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
You know?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
But yeah, so his those labels have been out a
long time, and he I think one of the Grahame's
main interests is bringing various artists and songwriters together, which
was sort of like a chemical dreams goal as well.
So over the course of our long, long association with Grame,
He's introduced us to all sorts of great artists that
(07:45):
we've collaborated with, and John Orpheus is one of them.
I think we met him at the Drake Underground when
Graham was doing some sort of label event quite a
number of years ago.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Oh and what impression did John Orpheus make at that
meeting on you?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Well, he was performing. I thought, this guy is a dynamic,
unbelievably great performer, and I thought he's got the makings
of a star. He just, you know, he just has
a great stage presence, and he's really really intelligent. He's
really smart guy. When he comes over here when we're
taking a break between you know, working on the song,
(08:30):
we'll just sit down and talk about the world situation.
And he's he knows so much about literature and history
and we have such great talks with him. So it's
not like this, oh yeah, we're musicians that we hang out.
He has way more dimensions to him than just being
a great musician and a great performer. And I should
(08:53):
mention that he has a whole other persona as a
writer too.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yes, yeah, and John.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Orthis is sort of his his musicians. I wouldn't necessarily
call it pseudonym, but another persona that he channels into
being a musician. But then he has a whole other
life as a writer as well, which is quite fascinating.
I find that fascinating. You know that he's been able
to divide these two things and create two separate kind
(09:23):
of career streams.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Well, let me let me ask you about your your
you and Martha, like how you have two different personas
now you also had a third as M plus M
I suppose, But but do you feel that like Chemical
Dreams like frees you from any preconceptions that your audience
(09:46):
might have going into going into listening to the song,
into those songs?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I think so because initially, and it's interesting because part
of the early Chemical Dreams thing was Martha wanted to
remain a nono. She didn't want anyone to know Martha
and the Muffains had anything to do with it. And
so if you go onto Chemical Dreams website, you'll see
this initial PR video where she doesn't say who she is,
or we lowered her voice so you can't probably tell
(10:16):
who it is. And that idea evaporated very quickly because
we thought, well, if nobody knows it's Martha and the Muffins.
Nobody's going to care, probably, or it'll be a lot
harder to kind of take chemical dreams out in the
world without having any kind of connection. So we abandoned
that idea, even though the video is still there because
(10:37):
I really like the video. She's got our our cat,
which is now sadly deceased, but Jack was the best
cat in the world, and he's on her lap and
he's just staring into the camera going, I'm a rock star,
you know. But Craig, don't you have a cat?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
No, I don't have a cat, Dmitri Okay, I have
two dogs. Oh, Derek has two cats.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Well, dogson. We've had both, or I should say I've
had both in my life, and I like both. You know.
I find cats is somehow for me more manageable. But
in any case, so back to chemical dreams, it is
sort of a freeing thing because there were no, you know,
pre conceptions about what it was going to be, and
(11:25):
it wasn't. We didn't have to have any Martha Muffins
connections musically at all, so you know, it's still a
very new thing. So we don't really know it could
be anything. We've only we've only put out four things
under there in as many years, maybe, but but you know,
it could be anything. And I think because we so
(11:45):
much enjoy working with John, they'll probably be other things.
They've already started talking about what could a third collaboration
be there.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Well, I'm just gonna so I've listened to Buttermilk and
I've listened to You Look to the Moon, and it's
reminded me how funky you guys have always been. Like,
you guys just seem to have this instinct. You guys
seem to have always had this instinct for funk, and
(12:15):
this is just reminding me of that. And it's like
so many years later and you still have it, and
it's like, that's so that's so exciting.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I'm actually literally snapping right now because I'm thinking of
Black Station's why, you know, I'm like, it's like that
really cool groove. Well, like that's one of the wonderful
things I think that that we've I think that Metri's
talking about as well, is just that wonderful knack that
you guys have for backbeat as well.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Yes, well, I think we both grew up Martha and
I you know, have often cited our influences, and of
course we grew up in that incredible period of the
sixties into the seventies where everything was coming in, you know,
And and I have the secret I've always had the
secret desire to be a guitarist in a funk band.
(13:07):
You know. I think it would be a great thing
just to be in a funk band and play rhythm.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Exactly like those great Yeah, those great seventh, seventh, and
ninth chords and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Absolutely totally cool and and so I think we come
by it honestly. And you know, as I said, there's
many streams to our our musical history, but definitely that
what we were doing, Black stations and song in my head,
and of course we had that killer rhythm section of
Yogi Horton and Tinker Barfield that from the States that
(13:44):
played with Luther Van Ross and Diana Ross. I mean,
they were the first time we worked with them. My
job was just on the floor because you could solo
any any part of Tinker's drum set and it sounded
like an orchestra. Like I remember we were soloing his
high hat part and it sounded like there were four
(14:05):
arms alone on a high hat. It's all bit, how's
he doing that? You know, And it was just, uh,
it just took us to another level. You know. Their
music musicianship was like way, you know, many levels above us.
So it was it's such it was such a privilege
(14:25):
to be working with musicians of that caliber. But also
like even on the Dance Park album, we sort of
had our punk funk moments there, like on songs like
boys in the Bushes and what people Do for fun
and stuff like that. So yeah, that's a part of
us for sure. And then you know, when we work
(14:48):
with John, he brings in like a whole other element
that we you know, we don't have, which is such
a great you know, mixture of influences and things as well.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Right, he's he's uh he was born and raised in
Trinidad and Tobago. And uh so did you find did
you find that that sort of island island influence like
sort of like he brought that to the track, right,
and then that and that awakens something in you and Martha,
(15:18):
do you feel.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Well, certainly, we love you know, there's we just love
different kinds of music. And when we did look to
the Moon uh he he kind of We kind of
work on ideas, like Martha usually starts with some beats,
so we have something something like a spine to work along,
and then John will start improvising some lyrics and we'll
(15:45):
throw some things in. And when we did Look at
the Moon, he did when we when he figured out
his main vocal track, we put that down. Then he goes, okay,
so what we do now is, you know, in this
kind of tradition is I'll put down just all these
yelling tracks and I wish you were here because he
could actually tell us what I think there was a
name for them, but just kind of just throw off,
(16:07):
you know, like you said, okay to make a like
a go fire, you know, like a yell stuff like that.
And so we did a couple of tracks where you
just did stuff like that, and that was something that
you know, we probably didn't know anything about. So we went, okay,
that's cool. And you know, you never know what's going
to come out of John, right, and so it's always
(16:29):
exciting working with them, this stuff that just comes out.
And with buttermilk, he said, well, you know down in
the Caribbean, you know, when we're talking about food, you
really know what we're really talking about, don't you.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Yeah, yeah, So you know.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
There's that running through that song. But he again, he
would improvise, like the yelling and stuff. And I even
now when I hear Buttermilk and at the very and
he goes like that, I can't laughing because I can
remember it was up there doing that and he was
just throwing all this stuff up over recording and I'm
(17:09):
kind of just sitting there like laughing my head off
quietly because it was so you know, I think I
said in the press of Lase, he always like brings
the fire into this, you know, So that aspect is
such a great thing working with him.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
There's there's a song that I adore because I'm a
huge so I like, I think all of us here
at this you know, online table right now, we all
have massive music influences. One thing I'm really influenced by
is I'm a huge fan of disco music. And there
was a great track that I would love to have
(17:50):
talked with John about because listening to Buttermilk, there's kind
of a few elements of this tune by a fellow
named Manu Dubango, and it's a track called Soul Macosa
and there's just like these sound effects and sort of
like you know, things that are I'm just like, I'm
wondering if you know, he listened to this track and
(18:11):
like kind of pulled some sort of ideas out of
the the The famous thing that's in Soul Macosa is
that's what Michael Jackson essentially sampled the Mama say mamasa mamkosa,
right that part that's actually that's actually in that in
that track. And in so anyway, hopefully we'll get to
talk to John about it before the end, before the
(18:34):
end of the show, but I just spoke with our
friend Eric, so hopefully. But he said, oh, thanks, got it,
and then that's you know, classic Eric, classic Eric Alpery
is like, yeah, I'm on it bye, and then you know,
so uh you know, but you.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Were you Mark, he warned us at Johnson transit.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
So it is it is, well, we may.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Have to get the big the big hook out and
get them reel them in.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
You know exactly, or we'll just have to do Mark
gain three point zero with John Orpheus.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Or from John and on his I mean he would
he would definitely have enough to talk about to fill
a show. So you know, if he doesn't show up
or he can't show up tonight, you should get him
because he would have a lot of really really interesting
It was really interesting.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
But one thing I one thing I did notice about
Buttermilk is that you keep adding more and more layers
to the track, you know, and the and because like
it's like you have like, first of all, you have
that guitar hook, and then you have the backup singers,
and then you have the repeat. It it's a fine
(19:45):
line and then and it and it keeps building and
building and building until like and it gets more frantic
and uh and I just think, like that's I I
do think that that's really impressive. It's like and and
I've gone back and noticed that, like you've you've done
that before with the Muffins, But yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
That's a that's a Martha and the Muffins thing for sure,
you know, and it was Martha that came up. I'm
walking a fine line. And I think that's really interesting
because you know, the whole Buttermilk song has sort of
a it's operating on one level like okay, food and
(20:25):
you know, there's a sexual sexual side of it. But
then the whole walking a fine line like if you know,
if you know about John's background and how he was
brought to Canada and how you know, And I'm speaking
for him and he can articulate it a lot better
than me. But how I think he's always been. He's
(20:47):
got his Trinny background and but he was transplanted to
Canada at a very early age, and he's you know,
he's walking a fine line between these two cultures. Martha's
walking a fine line with her health. In essence, we're
all walking a fine line given the events that have
been going on in the world. And so maybe I'm
reading too much into it, you know. I mean, yeah,
(21:10):
I help write the song. But in a way I
thought when she came up with that line, I thought, yeah,
there's something about John. It's about John, it's about her,
and it's about everybody you know, And you can pick
what you can pick what level you want to operate
on with that line. But and we had ideas to
(21:32):
the video. One of the you know, ideas I think
Martha came up as was could instead of going for
the food aspect, you could go with symbolism like a
highway and us walking down the medium, but like being
off balanced or so that was that idea didn't happen,
And we're really happy with the video as it turned
out anyway, but you know, it's.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
A lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Yeah, but there were a lot of other ideas percolating
and it could have gone any number of ways in
terms of the video. And yeah, but to go back
to the layering, uh, I think, you know, influences like
George Martin's production of the Beatles, like growing up and
going you know, listening to that and at the end
(22:16):
of the song something would suddenly change and you go, yeah,
keep it. Everything's got to keep Uh. There's got to
be new elements all the time to make interesting, you know. Yeah,
so that's what we try and do.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I want to share Sorry, I just want to share
something here really quickly. Don't need to do no, don't
need to do audio so that we sound like we're
in a tunnel. Okay, So here we go. I want
to share this this picture over here. Do you see
my mouse hovering over that? Can you see that?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Mark Hika? Which which one? Tell me which one you're
looking at?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Can you can you see?
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, that one? I that is possibly one of the
most incredible pictures I've ever seen in my life. Do
you know where that was?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Oh yeah, yeah, that was taken by our first manager,
Jerry Young, in Bath, England when we were living there.
And so we're actually on the one of the hillsides
overlooking the city facing the inner the downtown part of
Bath and that would have been taken probably in eighty nine.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
So is this around the Peter Gabriel Bath time.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, he would have been worth I think a couple
of years earlier he would have been working on so right,
but you know, his studio was basically six miles one way,
and Heere's for Spears studio was about six miles the
other way. No, and XDC lived in Swindon, which was
(23:58):
the first train stopped towards London, and you know, there
was there was a lot of activity in Bath most
of the time. You know, we were working on the
Modern Lullaby album, which we recorded in our bedroom and
we went for like eight hour walks, so instead of
hobnobbing in London, that's what we were doing.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
But that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
But that's a very evocative photo, Like it was really
wonderful living in Bath for a while.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I just think I just, I just it's for me
that picture. I just I've always loved this picture. I've
seen this in a number of times, but for me,
it's just like the two of you just look content.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
It was a pretty yeah, I mean, it had its
ups and downs there because in some respects we were
quite isolated, but we loved the city. Was is so
beautiful and so dreamlike. And you know, we were basically
working on this album in our bedroom and we met
some really wonderful people that we were hanging out with,
(25:04):
and uh, it was a very very dreamlike, wonderful time.
But then you know, we're kind of dreamed out all
the time. But so the city worked for us.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah yeah, oh man.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Man, awesome. So it's as we're talking, it's exactly one
month before some holiday called Christmas, and uh, now before
we hit the air, you let something spill, uh huh
that you and Martha are working on a song called
(25:42):
Santa's Been a Bad Boy.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
And you've heard it first on.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Revolution Radio Canadians.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Heck, yeah, yeah, yeah, we a couple of months ago. Martha,
I don't know, things just dropped into our minds, Like
sometime she went and somehow she said Sanda's been a
bad boy and we and we were going, well, that
would be a weird song, but what would be what
would it be about? And what how is he a
(26:12):
bad boy? And interestingly, every time people hear the title,
the general will be the action is still laugh and
I'm going, I wonder what about their idea of it?
Because they're laughing? What are they thinking? Right? So we
had to decide is it going to be like a
dirty song? It's going to have like naughty implications? Is
it going to be clean so that kids can hear it?
(26:34):
So we decided to go for It's not naughty in
the you know it's going down the chimney and you know,
attacking somebody or you know, it's not like that. It's
more like Santa's having some sort of crisis. So basically
the gist of the song is he looked one day.
(26:55):
It was the night before Christmas. He looks in the
mirror and decides it's time for a change. So the
first thing he does is he changes his outfit from
red to black. Then he shaves off his beard. Wow,
he does a bunch of radical things. He puts rockets
(27:15):
on his slate to make it go faster, but then
of course Rudolf can't lead it. So the thing goes
sailing off into the sky with all the toys in
Santa and we got the music from It came about
by I have this thing called a spider k po,
which if you're a guitarist, you know that a cabo
(27:37):
can can change the key, but while maintaining the same teaming,
a spider capo can change individual notes along the capo,
so you can choose what notes are kpod and which
notes aren't. So I discovered I mean, I don't know
if I discovered it, because probably lots of people, but
I basically kpod the bottom four notes and left the
(28:01):
top two and it created all these great chords that
you can You can do normal chord voicings, but suddenly
they sound way cooler.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
So wow.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
So basically Santas In a Bad Boy came about musically
really quite fast. And then we had to kind of
jam all these lyrics I'd written into that and we
are just going, you're doing this again, You're putting too
many words. You expect me to sing this, And I go,
we'll figure it out. But now everybody might be getting
(28:33):
excited about this. This will not be coming out this year.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
I was gonna ask, yeah, it's too like we.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Should have been doing this in July, right, this is
when you got to Yeah, so Christmas twenty five, if
we're still around, that's when the song is going to
come out. But we're really quite I think it's it's
pretty I don't know every artist says, oh, it's great.
You know what I'm doing is great, But I think
it's actually pretty good and we may not sing it.
(29:02):
That's the other thing. I've always had this irritating habit
of writing melodies that neither of us can sing. It's
got a pretty high register. So when we were demoing
the vocal and Martha was singing it, she had to
go down to a lower harmony and I go, yeah,
but that upper one still. So we're thinking, like, maybe
(29:24):
somebody else will sing it, So it might not come
out as a Martha and the Muffins sing. It might
be a Chemical Dreams release or right whatever. But we're looking.
You know, we're a year ahead here, but you know,
you guys heard it first, and your audience heard it first,
So okay, there you go.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
There's a scoop wicked love it. That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
So so the International sound System Party Volume two contains
the new Chemical dream song with John Orpheus called Buttermilk
and what's the name of the other the other Chemical
Dreams collaboration.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
I believe what the other song on there is the
Living End Okay, they did a while ago, and that
was done with Aubrey McGee from Grand Analog.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Uh and then what's the oh what else is there? Then?
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Is it the Goldfrap cover that you were talking about?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Uh jeez, I'm having like brain fog here. I'm not
sure if that's on that or not. Okay, why isn't
John here? He remember all this? But I think if
you look the moon and look, yes, thank you, yes,
look to the moon is on there too. So there
(30:46):
are three Chemical Dreams tracks on there. So you know,
if anybody hasn't heard any of this, so they listen
to that and they'll get a good overview of what
we've been doing in that that aspect.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Okay, and uh yeah, and so thank you so much
for joining us, Mark again, like once again, it was
really great to talk with you.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
It's you.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah, well we appreciate that, thank you. Honestly, this is
it's so much fun and we're so lucky and fortunate
to be able to talk to wonderful Canadians like yourself. So,
you know, the last time we were on here, I
played a little snippet of of a cfn Y documentary
that you were in and you were talking about, you know,
(31:36):
the history of essentially getting played for the first time
and like kind of pulling over to the side of
the road and you know, oh my god, our song
is on cf and why you know, so it's it's
it's amazing, you know too, Like I mean, look, my friend,
it's it must be pretty amazing to kind of you know,
sort of like look in the rear view mirror and
(31:57):
be like, wow, this is a career. You know.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
We I kid you not like there are It happens
quite often where we're sitting in the kitchen and we
and we go how did this ever happen? And how
is it still happening? And I think one of the
most remarkable things is is that, you know, just after
working on these vocals with Martha, like how you know
(32:21):
her voice isn't as strong as it used to be,
but she can still it's still Martha, Like it's completely
recognizable when we're doing, you know, when she's singing sad
has been a bed but you know, and we're going, yeah,
she still got it. Sounds great, you know. So we're
we feel really lucky, you know, we do because we
(32:42):
had no long term ideas about how this is ever
going to last. I don't and in that early band,
nobody expected it to last beyond about two years. And yeah,
here we are, you know.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Right, and now you've got Chemical Dreams, which is like
opened up like an entire an entire new avenue.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
For you absolutely and who knows that can just that
can keep going? Right?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Oh yeah, I think it will for sure.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, good for you. Well, markin as always my friend,
it's just wonderful to see you. What it really is,
We're we're so lucky, you know, to have people like
you that are just willing to say, you know what,
I like these guys, let's have a chat, you know,
and it's it's so we're we're so lucky. So again,
thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you know.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Do you know if people can just can just show
up at the Rivoli on November twenty.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah, yeah, just show up, just show up, really.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah, just show up for the release of the International
Census and Party Volume two off of the Confidence Emperor's label.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Yeah, and it's going to be this Friday at the
Rivally So great venue.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
Great, yeah, great venue.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
So is there anything? Is there any one last thing
you want to say about Buttermilk before we we throw
to it?
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Uh, I think it stands on its own, you know,
as you said, it's a funky tune. I'm really happy
with the way it turned out. I don't think that
we could have done any better with it. So enjoy listening.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
After we finished that, we're also going to play Look
to the Moon. So both of these wonderful, wonderful, okay,
and so thank you again, my friend, so much. We
appreciate it. If you want to hang out listen to
the tunes with us, you're more than welcome. If you've
got to bounce, no problem.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
So we'll think I'll hang out and listen.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Perfect, all right, excellent. So what we're gonna do is,
so we're gonna play these two tracks here and this
is Canadian as heck. One to seven all right, and uh,
you're in for a treat. Here we go Buttermilk on
Revolution Radio Canada.
Speaker 6 (34:49):
Oh yeah, you hung me, babe.
Speaker 7 (34:55):
You know we cooking, got a name, got a.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Flower that I.
Speaker 6 (35:08):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 7 (35:10):
Let me tell you about If you supend, don't beat,
then where we defend on be mission.
Speaker 8 (35:26):
We be cooking in the kitchen. No fishion me be titius,
be stepping with the kittens. Don't be prepping what you're wishing.
Don't be messing with the recipe. Read it how it's
written in an anision.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Get them fixing. Everybody pitching. Stop your bitching and your stitching.
Speaker 9 (35:45):
Why you pitching?
Speaker 6 (35:46):
Why you switching that whiskey in the sirrup, sir, I
get to fix it.
Speaker 4 (35:52):
If we pitch and watch your addiction, keep it filled.
Speaker 6 (35:55):
It not your fiction. If you cooking, if.
Speaker 7 (35:57):
You grow, then my partner, you sire, listen and you're
looking for the stuff. We've got that food off Donald
pitson all.
Speaker 10 (36:14):
Yeah, up, were all the we got here?
Speaker 6 (36:26):
Looking back, it's by the side. We stay up being.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I'm proud.
Speaker 5 (36:31):
I want all my last.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Out.
Speaker 11 (37:42):
That's that father, any day, chip lifting away, just chip,
just living.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
I love this young man. You don't even walking now.
Speaker 9 (38:15):
Callelujah.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
That's a James Brown guitar right there. Catfish Collins, Bootsy Collins. Brother,
it sounds that's what it sounds like, right there.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
You gotta slow down.
Speaker 6 (38:59):
Be ashamed loves the life of the speed with the fame.
Let me ride, Let's try, let me ride, Let's try.
Speaker 12 (39:05):
Let's right, let me ride, Let's rin let's ride, let
me ride, Let's try, let me ride, let me ride,
Let's ride, let me ride, let me go.
Speaker 6 (39:13):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I'm gonna stay
flat to the day I die. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 12 (39:20):
Look just then then you're about this gay yea yeah
yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I'm gonna stay plant
the day that what love double clash and I just
(39:40):
wear swimming with the shrivel love love double clash. Who
that young man?
Speaker 1 (39:47):
That'sy?
Speaker 6 (39:48):
And you see Abby the fresh day, Oh one of
the fresh scening me.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
You visit me here every.
Speaker 4 (39:54):
Time the game.
Speaker 6 (39:57):
Everything't exchange your vermin.
Speaker 12 (39:59):
You say, I don't like listening a gang like you
go up with the name, act like you know, like
you you know what his name?
Speaker 6 (40:05):
If you go up the range like you know what's
the mame? You don't have a range, and on the game,
act like I can act like I can.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
Up with the name you get the wrong get.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Wrong day, Yeah school mystage for let's say hey yeah
yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah. You do the moon.
You might spot this guy hi, uh yeah, the spot
this game.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Ye.
Speaker 6 (40:32):
Mistake.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
But the Day I die.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
Lift up, Up, Up, Up, Up.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Up, just so freaking cool. Man Revolution Radio Canada, uh
(41:13):
Canadian as heck with our friend Mark Gain, who's just
just so freaking brilliant, Like I adore that song. It's
just it's our friend. Actually here see Herman in the
chat is saying very groove Armada, absolutely groove Armada. Of course,
(41:33):
you know an awesome electronic duo that really pulls a
lot from massive amounts of dub and you know, reggaeton
and and of course funky music, and that is just
so cool. Like there's I can think of a bazillion
(41:53):
amazing you know guitar players that that you sound like
on that track. And I'm like, I mentioned Catfish Collins obviously,
who was unfortunately is no longer with us as Bootsy
Collins late brother that played with James Brown. But of
course there's Nile Rodgers. There's a little bit of Steve
Cropper in there. There's like I just hear Freddy Stone.
(42:18):
There's just so many amazing guitar players that I hear
in that so like, dude, like, so first off, I'm
gonna let you know right now, both of those songs
were adding to Revolution Radio. Oh those are fricking awesome,
Like they are so good, done done, they are so
freaking good.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
So another thing that see Herman mentioned was this has
Jamaican sound clash all over it. And I was just
wondering because Toronto, by the time that Martha and the
Muffins shot up in the late seventies and into the
early eighties, Toronto's Jamaican community was very, very well established,
(42:59):
to the point that Blaku Huru had a song called
Young and Englington so.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Amazing.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
So and I was just wondering if if, like even
back then, like is that did that Did Martha and
the Muffins feel that energy coming from Toronto?
Speaker 2 (43:19):
I think it's more definitely, but it wasn't never that
specific for us. I think we've just absorbed. You know,
we're older people, and I think throughout our whole lives
we've just absorbed stuff. And I mean, and I don't
I've never been all that conscious of where it's coming
(43:43):
from within me, at least speaking for myself. It's just
that I think I've absorbed all this and when I
look back on my life, I do remember, even being
a really young kid listening very carefully the things, you know,
like not only music, but sounds and just the sound
(44:06):
of the world. And I can think of, you know,
like things that had a big influence even later on,
like you know, even like Don't Go Lose a Baby
by Hugh Massechela. You know, I just thought, and you know,
that was such a groovy song and like all the parts,
the harmonies, everything in that song just worked so well,
and like a lot of Bob Marley stuff and somehow
(44:29):
it just all came in and and then of course
John has comes in and does like the vocals and
stuff and just sends it over the top. Right, So
with that kind of with the whole groove, you know,
and that kind of that influence from black music.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
And all that that entails.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
So but yeah, I mean Toronto was really taking what
it was shedding its kind of provincial, provincial Anglo you know,
clothing at that point in the world. These I mean,
if anything, it's a great advertisement for why immigration, you know,
(45:10):
is a good thing. That's one of them, you know,
Like think of all the amazing music and culture that
came into Canada at that time, the food, everything, you know,
different clothes, different ideas. But I think I've just absorbed
without thinking too much about. I just felt it, you know,
I felt it. And Martha's got a bit of that
(45:34):
in her blood because she's actually had Jamaican grandparents or
grandparents emigrated from Jamaica. So you know, I don't know,
like who knows. It's her too, and probably more in
a genetic way than it is me, because I'm you know,
I'm just English Scottish.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
You're like me, you know.
Speaker 2 (45:58):
But I mean, in truth, we're all from Africa. You
just have to go back far enough, you know.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, true, true, exactly.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
So that's our mother continent, you know, for all of us.
So yeah, yeah, And I you know, when I remember
when Strawberry Fields Forever came out, like even that end
tone that I thought was the sound of an amplifier,
just like the sixty cycle hummer. But that fascinated me,
you know, and I think I just all that dis
(46:26):
goot stored in my head. So I think arrangement you
know it's important.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
I can remember my friend hearing the Beatles I feel
fine for the first time, oh yeah, eight years old
and that yeah, and I was like, what is that?
Speaker 4 (46:46):
Hell?
Speaker 1 (46:47):
Is that right? In fact that my mind was blown,
like at that point in time, you know, this is
the Beatles are my all time favorite band.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Oh yeah, I had that. I had that song on
forty five when I was a kid.
Speaker 7 (46:56):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (46:56):
And you hear that for the first time and John
I remember hearing John Lennon talk about it where he
just took like his his Gibson acoustic and kind of
leaned it up against an amplifier and it just went real.
And they're like and they're like, can we record that?
Towards Martin's like, well, of course you can record it,
like just you know, just do it again and we'll
record it, you know. Like it's so amazing because we
(47:18):
we had one of our other besties. Aside from our
bestie Mark Gained from Martha and the Muffins, another one
of our besties Chris Tate from Chalk Show. Chris and
we we had a wonderful conversation with Chris as well,
and like hearing him talk about all of his influences,
and it's it's awesome to hear you talk about yours
(47:39):
and and hearing and I remember Chris talking about his
I think we need to do you know what I
think we need to do, Dimitri. I think we need
to do a Canadian retro round table.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
Oh that would be amazing, Like like.
Speaker 1 (47:55):
Seriously, like just just get you and I and Derek
and get as many of these killer freaking musicians and
now friends that we possibly can, because honestly, I think
I think we could literally say, so Mark, what was
it like in nineteen eighty three? And just let Mark
go off for last time, and Derek and I Demitrio
(48:17):
grab our drinks and we'll be like, yeah, this is
called content, my friends. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (48:22):
Like, but.
Speaker 2 (48:24):
You in an hour, you know what we're gonna go wait.
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Exactly right. But it's just there's so many amazing musicians
that I really think this is something that has to happen.
I think a Canadian retro round table would be amazing
because you know, so for me, I think I don't
know if I got a chance to tell you this, Mark,
to say thank you, I know I did to Chris
Tate when I was a DJ for one or two
(48:50):
point when the Edge, when I used to DJ The
Spirit of the Edge Sunday Nights with Martin Streak for
CF and why the M and ms were a staple.
So it's like every time I would play you guys,
it's like you could literally just like like you could
literally watch everybody run to the dance floor. You know,
(49:10):
didn't matter what I played. So, you know, I just
want to say again thank you. You know, we really
can't wait to talk to our our hopeful new friend
John Orpheus, but we just I just want to make
sure that we say properly thank you for the music,
and thank.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
You for the met congratulations for what you're doing with
Chemical Dreams. It's like it's just this brand new energy
that I'm so happy.
Speaker 1 (49:33):
That you guys have, you know right now.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
You know you're amazing, you're doing amazing things.
Speaker 2 (49:39):
Well, thank you, and you know we're just going to
keep going. Like the idea of retirement doesn't really exist
I think for artists or you know it does. No,
We're just gonna drop dead one day and that'll be it.
But it's like it's not like, oh, well, you know,
I mean, the music industry can be quite dispiriting. But
(50:00):
that but that, but that's not what we were ever about.
Like the spirit of the of the era that we
came in on. It was like, hey, let's form a band.
It will be fun and that that's still the main thing.
So we're going to keep having fun until we dropped it.
That's that's how it's gonna work, you know. That's how
it's planning on it.
Speaker 1 (50:20):
That's it, friend, Good for you, that's it. Absolutely brother again,
Mark Gain two point zero. Thank you so much. We
really appreciate you being here, my friend, and thank you
for all the support to our pleasure where we and
you can come back next week if you want, right,
(50:45):
So it's all good, no, honestly, my friend, anytime you know.
And and to be honest, one thing we I'd really
like to start doing in the new year is to
get some great classic Canadian artists. Uh, sit down and
I we would love to sit down and say, hey, Mark,
for the next hour and a half two hours, whatever
(51:06):
the radio station is yours, we'd love to know what
your top ten favorite all time Canadian songs or artists
or what have you would be because I'm sure You've
got a million stories, a million things you'd love to say.
So if that's something that might interest you, we'd love
to have you for that.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
So oh yeah, well that that would be very interesting.
I'd have to think very hard of it because there's
so many things in ten. Might be a challenge you
could do.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
Twenty, No problem twenty if you like Mark, that's that's
that's your homework. Okay to me Tree stop a signing teacher,
you know, yeah, right, exactly, Well, listen again, Mark, thank
you so much. We really appreciate you man. Thank you
(51:52):
so m guys give uh.
Speaker 3 (51:54):
And uh sterling one says thank you for representing Canada,
and give Martha our love.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Yes, and she says hello to you guys too.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Yeah, excellent and good and we hope everything goes well
for you on Friday.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
Thank you so much,
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