Our Recap Of Mike Haggith's April 2023 Live-Stream!!

I profusely apologize for this being so late to make the SMS, but with his "Face To Face" concert also getting live-streamed last month (a normal live-streamed hangout last month did not occur), I really had to get this on the site soon before things got even more backed up! Yes, local/Barrie alt-hard rock musician Mike Haggith hosted his (usually) monthly live-stream on April 25th, but like in March, the planned Facebook simulcast of the live-stream was not posted for on-demand viewing, just via his YouTube channel. As you may remember, Mike's planned guest for his March live-stream was supposed to be Ryan Jensen of the Denver, Colorado alt-rock solo project Surrender The Tides (surprisingly not someone Mike met through You Rock! episodes), but scheduling conflicts led to Ryan's appearance being pushed ahead one month. So, what went down with Mike and Ryan in this 2+ hour live-stream?

The proceedings begin with Mike acknowledging that the audio quality is lower than usual on his end due to technical issues that he hopes will be worked out for next time (Ryan sounds better on his setup), while also noting that his Facebook live-stream was also simulcast on his personal Facebook page due to his own issues with Facebook as of late. I won't get into that here, but he has complained about engagement and promotion there before, even planning to move his primary online presence elsewhere. In any event, the personal live-stream isn't up for on-demand viewing either. The main program begins with Ryan talking about himself, Surrender The Tides, and his musical inspirations, and his at-home recording setup, while also asking about Mike's location, leading to discussion about his moves over the years. Mike also compares to his own experiences and promoting deserving musicians.

After plugging a possible contest for an extant vinyl test pressing of his newest (so far) album "Bridges", he acknowledged that there isn't a winner for last month's share contest due to (according to Mike) Facebook shares being "choked out" by the site's algorithms, though no word on if this is why his prior live-stream from before the 2022-2023 hiatus didn't have a winner. He did try the share contest (whoever has the most engaged share of the live-stream gets to pick a mandatory cover for net time) again, though time will tell if we hear another cover next time. Unlike with The Lillypillies in March, Ryan/Surrender The Tides did perform songs on last month's live-stream, starting with his original "Birthmark", after which Ryan talks about how that song came together (it's the one Mike first discovered). If you're waiting for Mike himself to perform, his first song ("The Best You Never Had") comes almost 35 minutes in.

Unfortunately, the technical issues that Mike warned us about rear their ugly head when he tried to actually perform, with the audio often dropping entirely despite his normal talking sequences sounding fine, if still worse than in March. This leaves Mike to pause his own performances for the rest of the episode, alas, but he did acknowledge that he plans to broadcast his next live-stream from a computer rather than a cell phone, which should be an improvement for the production quality. After Mike addresses the back story of "The Best You Never Had", he asks about what Ryan did musically after he completed "Birthmark", leading to him playing another original song of his named "Scars In The Sky". Style comparisons and personal messages come up next, as well Surrender The Tides' plans for a debut album and the challenges of the modern music industry and how people consume music.

In this stretch, Mike does talk about his upcoming album "All The Best In All You Do", and among the scoops, it will be 37 minutes long (presumably not including the teased Bandcamp bonus tracks) and was "not quite done" as of this live-stream. He noted that "a couple (of) really, really cool concert dates" are being locked down for the summer, one presumably being Rotaryfest, and he was tentatively planning for one to be the album launch event, but details on that front are forthcoming. He also noted that "at least a couple of these shows will have a full band", implying that he has at least three summer concerts planned (whether last month's Face To Face was considered one of them, I can't say). The second half of the live-stream starts with MIke & Ryan discussing printing albums on physical media, with Mike touting his print-on-demand work with Kunaki.

After criticizing Facebook again due to the low live-stream viewership on this platform, Mike passes over to Ryan again for his next song, preceded by some discussion about experiences in Florida, where Ryan wrote "Birthmark". The next song was briefly titled earlier in the live-stream, but not surrounding when Ryan performed it, but it is brand new. This is followed by more venting about the ills of Facebook and Mike's proposed overhaul of his social media focus for his music career, as well as talk about what social media services nowadays may be worth using. Ryan next performs his song "Into My Arms", before Mike experiments with trying to see if he can repair his own audio setup to allow him to play a song in full (this was in vain, and Mike was even quieter after his attempted fix!) Mike next asks Ryan about his future plans for Surrender The Tides, before asking if he has any favourite cover songs to perform.

Ryan breaks out a loose cover of The Brilliance's "Brother" next, while Mike tries one more time to get an audio workaround on his end, to no avail. The final song performed in the live-stream is Ryan's original "I'm Not Running", and the last nine minutes feature wrap-up talk, promotion of both Mike and Surrender The Tides' upcoming work, and reminders about technical fixes for next time. Honestly, I don't think that this was Mike's best live-stream, thanks primarily due to the technical difficulties and a bit too much Facebook bashing, but the casual conversations still worked well, and while not a hard rock/metal artist, Ryan shows strong aptitude as a singer/guitarist, so don't bypass Surrender The Tides if you like acoustic singer/songwriter music! You will also get some good details about Mike's summer plans, if still largely teasers of what's to come, so give April's live-stream a watch for yourself below!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for a new news post on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!