There’s no doubt that Patrick Krief has “made it.” Guitar player in Canadian indie-rock legends The Dears, Patrick also has a prominent solo career under the name ‘Krief.’ Derek and Patrick sit down to have a chat about his upcoming double-album release Automanic and the perils of putting economic gain over the creation of good art. Theme Music: “I…

Toronto songwriter Jay Pollock is a man of balance. He loves playing and performing music, but it is far from the only important thing in his life. In a refreshing turn from a lot of our conversations, Jay took issue with the myth that one has to quit their job in order to be a true artist and talked a lot about how his mindset for songwriting has …

Toronto singer-songwriter Erika Werry can pump you up with an anthemic rock hit or induce goosebumps with a heartfelt folk song. She has made a name for herself by consistently writing great songs and putting on an honest and energetic live show with her band Erika Werry & The Alphabet. Her introduction to music came through classical and modern da…

Stage fright nearly grounded Kira May’s music career before it even got underway. Now her stage presence is a big part of her appeal. Kira sat down with Derek and Travis to talk about overcoming her fears, discovering how to use her voice as her instrument, and the inherent risks in live performing with intricate looping. Theme Music: “I Quit My Jo…

For a man who finds himself a member of one of the most established and successful rock bands in Canada, Big Sugar’s Kelly “Mr. Chill” Hoppe is eminently humble. Not only is he one of the country’s best harmonica players, he’s got some real songwriting chops and is steeped in the country and gospel tradition. The Windsor native sat down with Travis…

With Delta Will’s new record Weathering, hot off the press, Derek and Travis sat down with its front man Charles Tilden in the living room of the Toronto home he shares with future guest Kira May. In one of the podcast’s more emotional conversations, Charles opens up about the tragedy that struck his former band Parks and Rec, about how that event …

Corinna Rose started in folk music as part of a unique ensemble band in an all-girls private school, but didn’t start making a true go of it until she was in her early twenties. She has since quit her job and is a rare full-time musician. She sat down with Derek and special guest co-host Rachael Cardiello to talk about the role of academia in songw…

Brendt Thomas Diabo is both an established actor and an established singer-songwriter steeped in the country and blues tradition. By way of the Kahnawake Reservation on Montréal’s south shore, Diabo now resides in Toronto where Derek and Travis caught with him to talk about, among other things, the songwriting process, what makes a good character-d…

Max Marshall has undergone no small transition over the last few years. From trying to make a go of songwriting in Toronto, to studying folklore at Memorial University in Newfoundland, to becoming a father and moving back to the Windsor area, he’s grown as a person and a musician. Derek sat down with Max in his quaint Essex County home after a meal…

The first time we sat down with Ron to record an interview over a year ago, we caught him between construction shifts, exhausted, and frustrated with balancing those things and a music career all at once. The interview never aired and we promised we’d come back to it when the time was right. That time is now as Travis sat down with the consummate c…

Chances are, you’ve never heard of Kevin Head, but there are few songwriters in Canada who’ve accomplished what “The Original Salt Cod Cowboy” has. The Nova Scotia native been writing and recording music for nearly forty years and has performed alongside some of the best musicians in the country. Derek sat down with Kevin at The Tranzac Club in Tor…

Award-winning songwriter Graydon James finally made it to the IQMJ studio after a long courtship. The front-man and songwriter for The Young Novelists talked to Travis and Derek about the unlikely circumstance of being a full-time musician who owns his own home, spending 12 years as a mail carrier, and playing in a band with his wife Laura Spink. I…

David Bowie’s impact on songwriting and performance is nearly unparalleled. His death, although tragic, has allowed us to review his life’s work and soak in his legacy. Derek and Travis sit down with Will Whitwham, Skye Wallace, and Shawn William Clarke for a discussion about Bowie’s significance to them as songwriters, the presence of death in art…

Welcome to Season Two! Derek and Travis return from their break and start 2016 off with a guestless episode. Just as they did for the very first episode, our hosts sit down with one another and get meta by discussing the podcast itself and how it has changed them as songwriters and where they think it’s headed in the coming year. Then for the very …

The first time Derek and Travis ever toured together they were opening up for Megan Hamilton. Now based in Kingston with her young family and supporting a new record with parent-friendly matinee shows across Ontario, our hosts caught up with her at Phog Lounge in Windsor. Recorded on location in the same place they met all those years ago, this epi…

The youngest of six, Andrew MacLeod is one of only two among his siblings born in his late father Alistair’s homeland of Cape Breton. Inviting Travis and Derek to the West Windsor family home still inhabited by his mother, Andrew spoke to them of the angst of being the youngest, the ties he feels to Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, and the pressures of…

All of David Newberry’s friends are folk musicians, but he can’t stand folk music. Still, fans and music critics have aligned him with the Canadian folk scene, perhaps because of his voice and lyric-driven, often political songs. David visited Travis and Derek to talk about his new record Replacement Things (which has barely an acoustic instrument …

Bryce Jardine has been pursuing a career in music since playing in a high school rock band in London Ontario. Now living in Toronto and fresh from quitting his job, Bryce visited Travis and Derek at their Bloor St. studio to talk about making records, overcoming nerves, touring in the Canadian winter and the good, the bad and the ugly of working wi…

James Oltean-Lepp grew up in Harrow, the same diminutive town as Derek. His band, James OL & The Villains have been at the centre of a revitalized music scene in Windsor and are the purveyors of what Derek calls “Colch-wave,” a cobbling together of various genres into a unique musical blend emblematic of the sound James has crafted over many years.…

Bowen Island native Sarah Jane Scouten proves that Canadian folk music isn't lame. Via Vancouver and Wales, Sarah ended up meeting Derek and Travis while living in Montreal and joined our hosts in Toronto before embarking on her second tour of the UK. After lunch they sat down for on a long chat about folk traditions, the transmission of songs for …

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…

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 An…

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 a…

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 …

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…

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…

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, whe…

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 jew…

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.TrueNorthRec…