Our Recap Of Mike Haggith's Newest Live-Stream!!

After a one year hiatus for his Facebook live-streamed concerts, local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith held his newest one on his Facebook page on Tuesday, March 28th! Now explicitly called a "live hangout", it marks his first such live-stream since he moved from Thompson, Manitoba last fall, and it runs for over two & a half hours, so there's lots to take in here! At the start of the video, Mike addressed what he's been up to in the past year (personally & professionally) before addressing his initially planned guest for the show, namely Ryan Jensen of the Denver, Colorado alt-rock solo project Surrender The Tides. Due to a scheduling conflict on Ryan's part, he's been pushed back to Mike's planned April live-stream, with Mike's replacement guest being Manny Attanasio, the frontman of the Australian indie/electronic rock duo The Lillypillies, who was originally planned to be the guest(s) this month.

No doubt their wires crossed when both The Lillypillies and Mike were featured on episodes of Your Music Live with Pete Johns and the community that arose through that series. The discussion begins about 3 minutes in with Manny asking about Mike's wedding and how Tianna's handling his musician/pilot life, before Mike acknowledges that technical issues on Facebook's part curtailed his April 2022 live-stream there (that one was only on YouTube). Mike next acknowledges the return of the share contest to determine a fan-decided cover that Mike has to cover the next time out (whoever gets the most engaged share of the live-stream wins). Manny gets to talk about himself and The Lillypillies proper next, including his recording setup and musical background, which Mike does connect to some of his past catalog (like how he loves his "Neighbourhood Watch" material but not the recording quality).

Mike & Manny talk about their musical abilities and such next, with Mike even talking down his own guitar abilities and noting that he had asked guitarist friends if they could guest on a guitar solo on his upcoming album. If you're in this for the actual performances, Mike is up first at the 24:10 mark when he covers The Lillypillies' own song "We'll Be Together", after which Manny praised Mike's rendition and talked about the inspiration of the song, including how the pandemic influenced it. Mike performs again next via his own original "If Ever Comes The Day" 36:15 into the video. After Mike criticized Facebook changes and social media in general, perhaps with a rebrand of some sort to follow, he asked Manny about his musical influences and his Lillypillies song "I'm Hypnotized", which Mike plays 55 minutes in, followed by him addressing his next album "All The Best In All You Do", which will have ten songs.

We move quickly to another song next, namely another of Mike's songs from the album "If Ever Comes The Day", namely his label namesake "MorningStar", which you can hear at the 1:04:10 mark. Mike next discusses the feedback that he's gotten from that song and his higher profile concerts that he took part in last year (particularly Rotaryfest, where he hopes to return this year), while also praising the talent of musicians in Sault Ste. Marie and how connected the community here is. He then asks Manny about The Lillypillies' future plans and upcoming material, before Mike tackles the first two planned songs from "All The Best In All You Do", namely "All You Do" and "Twist of Fate", which run into each other from 1:20:40 onward to end the first half, before Mike engages with commenters, especially ones that he's working with behind the scenes as a producer or collaborator.

The second half of the hangout continues with Mike asking Manny about his/The Lillypillies' planned return to Italy for some upcoming work, which links into Mike giving some insights into his Steeltown Sessions jam video with his live Rotaryfest band from last year, with Manny also talking up the advantages and drawbacks of technology towards his music, among other related topics. Mike tries another Lillypillies song next, namely "When We Were Young", which kicks in at 1:46:50, though Manny forgot to mute his video as he's singing along with Mike as he's playing and it doesn't sound great on a technical basis (too many halts and pops on Manny's end). If only the technical side of it was more level! Some casual discussion leads to Mike doing a brief new original song named "Love Will Light The Way" at 1:59:00, though he teased playing a song named "All For You" prior that was not performed on air.

The studio version sounds very lush compared to the acoustic guitar version heard here! When Manny asked about the release date for the new album, Mike didn't have a firm date in mind, but he did throw ideas out about possibly having five bonus tracks on physical copies only, with Manny offering his input on the idea and the creative process. After asking about what Manny does for fun and in his spare time, they discuss physical albums (Mike shows off a framed copy of "Bridges" on vinyl) and Mike's label MorningStar Records, of which American musician Tobias H. Reese has already signed on to release material through. The live-stream gets to thank yous, acknowledgements, and plugs before Manny signs off, with Mike hosting solo for the last 10 minutes, where he performs one more new song ("I've Seen It Before") at the 2:23:15 mark, complete with abrupt breaks to talk about the song's themes... very personal ones, at that!

Things end here (including a plug for the return of his YouTube album review series), but Mike did not play the winning song of his share contest from the March 2022 live-stream. That month's winner was not available to watch the April 2022 live-stream, so Mike postponed it to the next one, which was this installment, and there was no sign of it. Did it vanish into the ether? In any event, this was an entertaining live-stream with a good casual feeling, and while it was unfortunate that Manny didn't perform any songs himself like we saw in prior live-streams with guests, he is a talented musician and Mike did his songs justice! Check out all of the festivities for yourself below, and look for his next live-stream soon!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for much more from Mike (including his recent radio interview) and more on the site this week, including this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!