I Quit My Job: A Podcast About Songwriting

Since forming in Toronto in July 2009, The Wilderness of Manitoba has worn many hats, with the only throughline being the presence of principal songwriter Will Whitwham. Fresh from playing a show together at the Harrow Legion, Will joined Travis and Derek in the latter's family home to talk about alternative music venues, the post-Nirvana wasteland of the late 90s, quitting your job, and the evolving nature of one's own songwriting and voice. Theme Music: “I Quit My Job” by Old Man Luedecke, courtesy of True North Records www.oldmanluedecke.com www.TrueNorthRecords.com

Windsor-born-and-bred, Tara Watts has always had a restless soul, from travelling the world at a young age, which brought her life to a turning point in a Buddhist temple in Nepal, to her aspirations to take her music on the road full-time. She welcomed Derek and Travis to her Walkerville home to regale them with stories about blowing bubbles in Andy Magoffin’s sink, wearing coasters as shoes, making records, and how writing a new song can often be the silver lining to a difficult or painful experience.

Dave Dubois is known for many things, from being the frontman of The Locusts Have No King and a stalwart of the Windsor music scene to being a lifetime staffer of Taloola Café and an all-around sweet dude. As our first Windsor-based guest, Travis and Derek can’t help but picking his brain about that city’s role in the Canadian music scene as well as what makes Windsor’s scene distinct, while also covering the realities of touring in Canada, the state of the music industry, and the birth and growth of his band and the sound and scene it has formed.

Born in London Ontario, Barzin spent his childhood in Iran and has since lived in Guelph and Ann Arbor, but since moving to downtown Toronto over a decade ago he hasn’t been able to fully escape the city’s gravitational pull. Travis and Derek sat down with Barzin in his writing studio to talk about how all these locales shaped his songwriting, how his lyrics are always the centerpiece of his art, and how he feels like he spent his entire career trying to make his latest record, leaving him at a loss as to what to do next. Theme Music: “I Quit My Job” by Old Man Luedecke, courtesy of True North Records www.oldmanluedecke.com www.TrueNorthRecords.com

Montana-native Rachael Cardiello honed her songwriting chops in the "velvet rut" of Victoria BC, surrounded by some of Canada's finest songwriters. She sat down with Derek & Travis for what turned out to be a very emotional interview, opening up about depression, spending time in a mental hospital, and writing songs as a way of coping, and how from such turmoil she has come to front the soulful and joyous rock band Warm Electric Winter in Toronto and engage in a plethora of side-projects including the James Burrows Band and the Dead Dads Club. Theme Music: “I Quit My Job” by Old Man Luedecke, courtesy of True North Records www.oldmanluedecke.com www.TrueNorthRecords.com

Taylor Ashton comes from the idyllic community of Mayne Island, BC, where he met the other four-fifths of his band Fish & Bird. Just before taking their fourth album to England, Taylor made time to sit down with Travis and Derek for a two-part interview. In this, the second part of the interview, he tells us about about being a self-taught musician, how Fish & Bird became the collaborate five-piece it is today, the challenge of writing songs for multiple projects, and the problems with using the term "folk music" to describe the band, or to describe anybody's music. Theme Music: “I Quit My Job” by Old Man Luedecke, courtesy of True North Records www.oldmanluedecke.com www.TrueNorthRecords.com

Taylor Ashton comes from the idyllic community of Mayne Island, BC, where he met the other four-fifths of his band Fish & Bird. Just before taking their fourth album to England, Taylor made time to sit down with Travis and Derek for a two-part interview. In part 1, they talk about busking, being inspired, striving to live up to your influences, whether songwriting can ever be truly honest, and using music to try to connect with people. Theme Music: “I Quit My Job” by Old Man Luedecke, courtesy of True North Records www.oldmanluedecke.com www.TrueNorthRecords.com

Derek and Travis welcome Kitchener-based singer-songwriter Luke Michielsen into the studio (in this case Travis' kitchen in Windsor, ON) to talk about guilt, testicular cancer, Keswick Ontario, making a record, and songwriter is used to process negative experiences into good art. He tops it all off with with a beautiful performance of the crown jewel of his latest album Oh Surround Me, a song called "Pine Needles". Theme Music: “I Quit My Job” by Old Man Luedecke, courtesy of True North Records www.oldmanluedecke.com www.TrueNorthRecords.com

In this introductory episode of the podcast, Derek and Travis talk about what they want to accomplish with I Quit My Job and about how they perceive the craft of songwriting in their own work and in the work of other songwriters. Theme Music: “I Quit My Job” by Old Man Luedecke, courtesy of True North Records www.oldmanluedecke.com www.TrueNorthRecords.com