Our Recap Of Mike Haggith's Dual Interviews On The Borderline!!

Today's post is 100% devoted to local alternative/hard rock musician Mike Haggith, but not his live-streamed concert on Saturday night, which will be hitting the site in the near future. While that live-stream was a great way to promote his new album "Bridges", some big time exposure for him & the CD preceded it on local internet radio station The Borderline earlier this month, as Mike was interviewed twice on two different programs on November 6th! In both cases, these are return appearances following Mike's 2020 interviews to promote the "If Ever Comes The Day" release. Both of the new episodes are now available to stream on demand on The Borderline's website, and we'll start chronologically with Mike's appearance on Across The Tracks with Adrian Vilaca (also the station's founder), which aired first that day. If you're curious to hear this one, strap in, as it's a 96 minute episode broken into two halves, and on the website player, part 1 is the second (lower) file, so keep that in mind.

Unlike his first Across The Tracks episode from August 2020 (which ran for a paltry 84 minutes), this was conducted in person rather than by phone, specifically when Mike was in the Soo visiting in September. If you were wondering why his advertised interview that month never went online at the time, now you know! Not unlike his 2020 episode for "If Ever Comes The Day", each song is played on air, with discussion about each one bookending throughout, which will come easy to Mike given how personal the lyrics and themes are, though they do not stick to the running order of the album. Beyond the discussion about individual songs, Mike also tells Adrian about the delayed release, the album's overarching concept, how it was recorded & produced, what he has learned culturally and personally through living in Thompson, his musical evolution, the potential for these songs being played live, ...

... what he misses about the Soo, his day job, the launch of his official website (more on that soon), and where you can hear/buy "Bridges". If you're curious about specific tracks, part 1 features songs #2-3, 7-8, and 10, with the rest being covered in part 2 (the higher of the two files). Entertaining listen that gives fans more information than you may ever need about the new album, and it's a nice casual interview while also showcasing Mike's real feelings and emotions that led to this album coming together. Click here or above to hear the whole thing!

The second Borderline interview Mike had on November 6th was a return engagement with Sev's Cellar, the musician interview series hosted by Mike "Sev Micron" Severin, who previously featured Mike Haggith in an episode that aired last spring, not long after the pandemic began (click here to hear that episode). Like last year and the Across the Tracks episode, this is broken into two files (good thing too, as this runs for over 2 hours!), but at least the higher file is part #1 here. Conducted by phone like last year, this interview obviously covers a lot of the same ground as Across The Tracks did earlier that same day, complete with every song on the album being played, so casual fans should be advised about redundant ground being covered when hearing both in short succession. On Sev's Cellar, Mike discusses the album's themes, the recording process, the potential for playing these songs live, ...

..., his musical maturity, his feelings on the pandemic, his surprise website launch, his cats, his ideal backing band, while also dipping into some of the standard weekly questions that recur in every episode. Yes, you will have heard Sev ask Mike many of these last year, but these still do lead some surprising paths, even playing a couple of non-"Bridges" songs on air, like "75" from the upcoming Din live album, and even "Sun Perfume" from Mike's first Sault-era solo album "Suspended Animation"! Songs #2, 5, and 7-10 from "Bridges" all get played in part 2 this time, so that half is more weighted as the album is concerned. While there is a lot of obvious crossover in the subject matter from both Across The Tracks and last year's Sev's Cellar episode, fans of Mike's will find a lot to like here from both the album discussion and the lighter personal questions, and despite a few flubs early, Sev is clearly a fan of Mike's music and The Din, which helps a lot!

There is a lot to hear between these two interviews, even taking out the songs, so click here or above to hear the Sev's Cellar episode, let alone the Across The Tracks interview, and of course, we have a lot more from Mike coming on the SMS in the next two weeks, like our recap of Sunday's live-stream, plus our own review of "Bridges", so stay tuned for all of that, and for more news and notes on the site this week! Thanks everyone!

The Full Rundown On Mikey Hawdon's Interview On Sev's Cellar On The Borderline!!

Back on April 8th, Mike "Sev Micron" Severin from local internet radio station The Borderline interviewed prolific local punk musician Mikey Hawdon for an episode of his interview series Sev's Cellar, which you can hear on demand at this link, so what should you know here? Like the Mike Haggith episode we last talked about, this is a 2+ hour interview broken up into two halves, but here, the first half is in the first (higher) file on the website. After briefly talking about his old local band Old Hat (a.k.a. The Roll-Ons) and playing a song of theirs, he plays the cover of The Replacements' "Favourite Things" from the Mikey & His Uke series, so if you actually want to skip ahead to just the interview, that starts about 6:30 into the first 78 minute file. In order, Sev talks with Mikey about how he's managing in Toronto during the pandemic, his local upbringing (The Fairmounts' band name actually comes from the street he grew up on) ...

...how he grew to love music, his fandom of Back To The Future, his beginnings in actually playing music, his inspirations, how he acquired and started playing the ukelele, and how the Mikey & His Uke series began and evolved into it's current form, before playing the cover of The Ramones' "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg" from that series. Afterwards, Mikey discusses songs he loves, some of the concerts he's played that Sev has seen both locally and in Toronto, Mikey's plans to move back home, some of the trademark personal/free-form questions that Sev asks in every episode, and the best concert Mikey ever played, which segues into audio of his defunct Toronto-based Green Day tribute band The Dookies covering Green Day's "Welcome To Paradise" at the Montebello Rockfest in 2015, before Mikey talks about the two people he'd love to have dinner with.

After playing the Mikey & His Uke cover of The Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen In Love", Sev told an anecdote about discovering The Sex Pistols thanks to Monk from The Rad Zone, before diving back into some of the personal (and sometimes silly) questions, and his front line work in his day job, before playing "American Jesus" from the Mikey & His Uke series. Next, they talk about Mikey's appearance on Global News last year, plus more of Sev's trademark questions, and then play The Fairmounts' "Kicked Off Queen" (which Mikey explains the backstory of, and it references Toronto's Queen Street, not ours). The first half concludes with how Mikey got Harry Waters Jr. (Marvin Berry from Back To The Future) to sing his rendition of "Earth Angel" from the movie for an early installment of Mikey & His Uke, which is played in full. Now, what should you know about the interview's 57 minutes-long second half?

Part two also begins with another Sev's Vault feature about his old Toronto punk band The Throbbin' Hoods, before segueing into "Send You Back To Lithuania" from The Fairmounts' newest album. There is a longer wait for the continuation of the interview proper, which picks back up around 17:30 with a lot more of the fun personal questions, his hockey fandom and celebrity autograph collection, and a Rising Tide song even gets played to reference the topic of discussion at one point! The proper musical discussion picks back up with the inspiration behind the name of The Fairmounts' new album "Eik Namo" and the experiences he had drumming with The Inner City Surfers, before playing the Mikey & His Uke cover of The Pogues' "Streams of Whiskey" (this is the one from St. Patrick's Day that his Surfers bandmate Dustin Jones appears on). After thanking Mikey for coming on and plugging his upcoming plans, ...

...Sev plays Mikey & His Uke's version of Joan Jett & The Black Hearts' "Bad Reputation", before suggesting future plans for the series and playing The Fairmounts' "Never Gonna Be Me". With a musician like Mikey, there is a lot of ground to cover, so bands like Lion Ride and Detroit don't get mentioned, and only The Fairmounts and Mikey & His Uke get played on air in full, but this is a great interview featuring fun topics of discussion from a local musician who has seen and done so much here and in Toronto over the years! This is a long listen, but click here or above to hear this Sev's Cellar episode in full, and stay tuned for a new news post of some kind by Sunday! Thanks everyone!

Mike Haggith's Complete 2 Hour Interview on Sev's Cellar From Last Year!!

Back in January, I briefly noted in this post that Mike "Sev Micron" Severin interviewed local/Thompson, Manitoba alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith on The Borderline Radio last year for his radio show Sev's Cellar, but I opted not to give it a full write-up at that time because only the second half was posted for on-demand streaming as of that post's publication. At some point since then, the first half was finally uploaded onto the internet radio station's website, and you can now hear the full 2 hour+ interview at this link! Just be sure to listen to the second (lower) file first, as that is the opening half. This interview was originally conducted last year in advance of the release of Mike's most recent studio album "If Ever Comes The Day", whose songs premiered in The Borderline's rotation before the album's on-sale date. Conducted by phone, this was apparently the first Sev's Cellar episode after the pandemic began, and they do discuss it's impact on Mike's day job early.

Musically, the first half begins with Mike talking about his original discovery of music, the pandemic's effect on his day job, the origins of The Din's modern three-piece incarnation (the end of both The Revolution and Leaked come up), and The Din's breakup & farewell shows (featuring a clip of them playing "75" from the "Suburban Sendoff" gig/live album), before discussing the origin of his new album's closer "2145", which is played in full. Next, Mike talks about his hometown of Windsor, his early influences in music, his experiences as a pilot, what Mike was listening to at the time, his favourite song, his appreciation of local music, his cats, his favourite concerts that he ever saw and played at (Gianni Gagoots get some nice belated props here), the ideal celebrity he'd like to have a beer with, Mike's yet-to-be-realized dream band for his cancelled CD release party at LopLops, ...

...how Mike recorded "If Ever Comes The Day", his hope to record more live albums, and the origin of "This Page Intentionally Left Blank" from "If Ever Comes The Day", which was the intro to "Back Away Slowly", which was played in full to end part 1 of the interview. As for the second half, the interview includes Mike discussing his early on-stage memories in Windsor (complete with audio from one of his first high school gigs), along with some of Sev's trademark personal/humorous questions that you'll have heard in his other episodes, with the album's title track and "The Best You Never Had" both interspersed in this segment of the interview. Next, Mike elaborates on the inspiration of the latter song, and gives more details of the background from the new album's concept, preceding his song "Communique" being played in full. Follow-up discussion includes the moods and feelings of his songs, ...

...his songwriting inspirations, the rescheduled November date for his CD release concert (obviously since cancelled), his then-thoughts about where he wants to be in life, and the origin of The Din's "A Drive Through The Peninsula", before he and Sev discuss some local trivia and wrap things up, closing with Mike's song "Take Back The Moon". Of course, other songs from Mike's solo and Din work are played as background music during the actual interview, plus some unrelated tracks related to the topic of discussion. These can get loud at points (especially when Sev played Bob Seger in part 1), but that is par for the course for Sev's Cellar episodes. This interview is very long, but nice and informative about Mike's music and personality, and it's definitely worth listening for fans! Extra notes within include extra insight into The Din's breakup in 2017 and a surprise film credit of Sev's from the 1990s, though Mike's pre-Din local bands are largely sidelined.

Aside from teasers and his Shaw Spotlight host gigs in Thompson, Mike's been fairly quiet since the fall (his fans-only Facebook group aside), but hopefully 2021 proves to be busier for him, and this interview covers most of his pre-#LockdownLive activity well and with good humour! Give it a listen at this link or above, and be sure to check out The Borderline for lots of quality local music and hosted programs! Yes, there is more from The Borderline coming on the SMS in the near future, but that's all for today, and look for a new post of some kind on the site by Friday! Thanks everyone!

More New Interviews From Sev's Cellar On The Borderline Radio!!

Let's continue our look at radio show episodes from new local internet station The Borderline today, starting with more episodes of Mike "Sev Micron" Severin's musician interview series Sev's Cellar! Two weeks ago, an hour-long episode was posted where Mike interviewed Rising Tide guitarist Liam Seymour, and it actually starts with a solo performance of "Malaise" by Liam's blues/country rock band The Barn Board Trio. Effective unplugged rendition, especially for genre fans! The interview proper begins about 6 minutes in, and as best as I can gather, this was recorded before the pandemic lockdowns began. Here, Liam discusses his current band projects (including his live work with Jay Case), his musical inspirations, memorable concerts he's played at and seen (even Gianni Gagoots come up!), his favourite original songs, and his future plans, among other topics.

Songs played mid-interview include The Barn Board Trio's "Home" & "Chase You", and his solo original track "A Minute". Entertaining listen for fans of Liam's prolific local work, and you get to know him better with all of the light personal questions (which appear to be a Sev's Cellar staple), though the backing incidental music could get a little loud. The insights about Gianni Gagoots were fun to hear, especially knowing how strange their live shows could get (I don't think they ever fully let on to that on social media!) Liam didn't go into great detail about his work with Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide, but never fear, as Mike also interviewed frontman Dustin Jones for another hour-long Sev's Cellar episode last summer, which should fill your punk quotas! Like with Liam's episode, this interview is preceded with a song, in this case, Dustin and The Rising Tide's own "Molly Malloy".

The interview proper begins about 5½ minutes in, and you can hear Dustin talk about his beginnings as a musician, the videos he posted of him performing with his children, his favourite songs in the past & present, his original run with The Inner City Surfers, the sounds incorporated in his bands, memories of touring, the effects of the pandemic on concert venues (as of June 2020), future goals, his work with Tidal Records and Mission Control Studios, The Rising Tide's new album recording sessions, and more. As well, The Surfers' "Never Ender Bender" and The Tide's "Sorry Sunday" & "Lost & Found" are played in full during the runtime. This is another solid interview, helped by Mike clearly knowing Dustin for a while before this, and you get a lot of good personal insights along the way, despite occasionally loud backing incidental music (including, oddly enough, a Brian Wilson interview layered with this interview!)

Dustin doesn't give away too many scoops regarding his current local bands, but he did confirm that the pandemic did slow down progress on The Tide's new album, which may go without saying. Still, you will learn a lot about him and his past local music work here, so be sure to give it a listen above! Finally for now, I wanted to briefly note that Mike also interviewed former Papa Fogals Chair guitarist and Soo native Andy Chillman in this episode from last year. While P.F.C. weren't a local band (their hometown of Thessalon is outside of our coverage range), and most of the musical discussion is regarding his folk/indie rock solo work in London, Andy does discuss Sault Ste. Marie a bit regarding his upbringing, gigs Papa Fogals Chair played here, and his continuing regional connections, plus his continued love of metal music also comes up, even if his current music is very far away sonically.

Andy has expanded his range and talents very well in the past two decades, and he's a game interviewee with good answers, so be sure to hear his episode and much more from Sev's Cellar above! That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's YouTube Channel Profile next and more news when it rolls in! Thanks everyone!

New Musician Interviews From The Borderline Radio, And More!!

Before we begin today's post, I wanted to offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of veteran local radio personality, program director, and sports announcer John Bell, who recently passed away, as per an announcement on 1230 WSOO's Facebook page yesterday morning. Stay tuned to relevant Sault Michigan news outlets for information on services when it becomes available. A Minnesota native, John would become a fixture of local radio over the past 35 years across multiple stations and companies. SMS readers may best recognize John as the long-time news anchor for Rock 101 and their sister stations, but his on-air and behind-the-scenes roles on the Sault Ste. Marie airwaves go well beyond that, including lengthy runs as a DJ and/or morning host with WSOO, 99.5 Yes FM, and the former Know AM/Talk Radio 1400, as well as doing play-by-play for the Sault High Blue Devils hockey team and local junior hockey clubs like the Soo Eagles and the Soo Indians.

John had dealt with major health issues in the last couple of years that I won't get into here, but a fundraiser burger bash was held in his honour in October 2019 at The Elks Lodge, and that seemed to go over pretty well. I never met John, but his familiar voice and on-air talents were ever present when listening to local radio, and he will be missed by all that knew and respected him, if social media testimonials are any indication. R.I.P. John!

Now, today's post continues in the realm of radio, specifically Sault Ontario internet station The Borderline, which we covered shortly after it's launch last fall, and one missing aspect for me at the time was the ability to listen to episodes online after the fact if you weren't able to catch them live. Well, they have done just that on their redesigned website, and 10 of The Borderline's shows have streamable-on-demand episodes at this link! As such, let's at least start to spotlight the series that have episodes dealing with local metal, hard rock, or punk music, and we'll first look at Across The Tracks, where host & station founder Adrian Vilaca talks to local musicians about the story behind their original music. Most aren't hard rock artists, but back in August, Adrian did interview local/Thompson, Manitoba alt/hard rock musician Mike Haggith about the background of his newest CD "If Ever Comes The Day", so what should you know behind that episode?

An 84 minute listen, it features Mike discussing the lyrical inspirations and real life feelings that enveloped the album and it's individual songs, including how his day job in aviation puts things in another perspective, the reason behind the two blank tracks. Every full song from "If Ever Comes The Day" is included after the interview segments, though they aren't discussed in their running order on the actual album. This is an entertaining listen that will likely be the most context you'll ever hear from Mike re: the album's concept, and Adrian gives Mike lots of room to go into lots of details therein, so fans will want to hear the whole episode at this link! While we're on the subject, fellow Borderline staffer Mike "Sev Micron" Severin interviewed Mike Haggith himself on Friday for an episode of his own interview series Sev's Cellar, which has interviewed multiple hard rock performers so far.

Honestly, I'll hold a full write-up on Sev's interview with Mike Haggith for now, because only the second half of the interview is available to stream on demand. It's not labelled as such in the description, but Sev clearly notes that it's part 2 about three minutes into the 68 minute file, before jumping into the interview in progress. Hopefully the first half is posted at some point!

We'll close by looking at a full episode of Sev's Cellar from early last year, where he interviewed Jack Spades/Frightlight frontman and local concert promoter J.D. Pearce (a.k.a. Johnny Pints)! However, be advised that this was recorded before the pandemic, hence why J.D. promotes the local First Jason and Anti-Queens concerts and Jack Spades' annual July tour run, all obviously being cancelled. He also alludes to the lineup changes in Jack Spades, including an apparent new guitarist & drummer, but again, the pandemic may have delayed a further public reveal. The interview afterwards features J.D. discussing his inspiration as a songwriter, his favourite lyrics, songs he's listening to now, info about his personal life, why his concert output was decreasing, memorable local concerts of his, and advice for young musicians, among other topics. "Fright Night" and "C.H.U.D." by Frightlight are also played in full.

Mike revealed in the episode that J.D. would be hosting a punk/metal show on The Borderline, but as best as I can gather, that series never premiered. A lot of the context of the interview is very much dated now (this was only posted for on-demand listening last month), and the background music seems out of place despite reflecting the interview discussion, but this is a fun listen that has some interesting insights from a performing and promotional viewpoint! Give it and more a listen above, and stay tuned for more from Sev's Cellar and beyond in the coming days! Thanks everyone!