Meg Brennan and Tenille Goodspeed Share Why Garrison Brewing and Jazzfest are the Perfect Pairing

40 years of Halifax Jazz Festival and nearly three decades of Garrison Brewing as a partner isn’t just a fun local success story, it’s a blueprint for how a city builds culture people actually want to stick around for. We’re at the Oxford Taproom with Tenille Goodspeed (Executive Director, Halifax Jazz Festival) and Meg Brennan (VP Sales, Marketing and Retail Operations, Garrison Brewing) to talk about how a waterfront festival becomes a true community gathering, not just a ticketed event.

We get into the festival’s move to the boardwalk and how the site is intentionally designed so people can wander through during the day and stumble into world class live music. Accessibility is the heart of it: a huge portion of the programming is free, with the anniversary year pushing that even further, and the all-ages approach helps bring new audiences into the mix. We also talk lineup strategy and discovery, with names like Bahamas, Broken Social Scene, Men I Trust, Rose Cousins, and Tower of Power, plus the local-to-global undercard that makes Halifax summer festivals feel alive.

Then we go behind the scenes on what listeners rarely see: volunteers by the hundreds, the logistics of turning an empty lot into a functional site, and why the least glamorous details (toilets, garbage, and cold beer) can make or break the experience. On the drinks side, Meg breaks down what Garrison brings to the festival, including beer favourites, RTDs, and non-alcoholic options through their Tuesday Brewing partnership, plus the origin of the cult-classic PBJ pour.

If you care about Halifax events, Nova Scotia live music, craft beer culture, or what makes a city feel like home, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a reason to get out of the house, and leave a review with the best show you’ve ever discovered by accident.

Your Dream Home Does Not Have to Be Just A Dream. Today's show is brought to you by Kimia Nejat of Exit Reality Metro. Kimia is the realtor who knows how to get things done. Buying or Selling? Go to afternoonpint.ca/kimia and we will set up an introduction

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:14

Cheers.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Cheers.

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Welcome to the afternoon point. I'm Mike Dolbin. I am Mack Conrad. And who do we have with us today?

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Teneal Goodspeed.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

Teneal Goodspeed and Meg Brennan. Meg Brennan.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

And we are here at the Oxford Taproom.

SPEAKER_04 0:28

And one of these two

Welcome And Meet The Guests

SPEAKER_04 0:29

people I think works for the Oxford. No, it works for Garrison. Oh, works for Garrison. Okay, sorry. Meg?

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Correct. So we should have entered with who we are. We just said our names thinking about the case. I figured people know us well enough.

SPEAKER_04 0:41

We just take our time.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 0:42

Yeah, no, no, Rush.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

So I am with Garrison Brewing. I'm vice president of sales, marketing, and retail operations.

SPEAKER_04 0:51

Amazing. And how long have you been with Garrison?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Ten years. Ten years with Garrison.

SPEAKER_04 0:56

That's a heck of a run. What do you do?

SPEAKER_05 0:58

I'm the executive director of the Halifax Jazz Festival.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Some big titles here. Jazzy. It sounds a lot better than Podcaster.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

Two people with cooler jobs than us.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

We have power suits on right now. I don't know if you noticed our penny. I really thought you were going to be film players.

SPEAKER_04 1:16

Yeah, I know. I'm sorry we lied to you there, guys. Yeah. You guys did all your makeup. You guys look wonderful, by the way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

No one will ever see it, but you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:23

I'm showing up a little a little hungover today, guys. So Matt and I had an event last night. We uh a pod podcast networking event by Echo Summit, and it was really brilliant. We got the it was all about community. It was the entire focus of the event. Cool. And a little hungover from that because it was a great after party. But you know, community, I mean, really, I think this is where Garrison, where you both have such a I mean, have done such an amazing job. So I want to go way back in time about Jazz Fest, about Garrison's relationship with Jazz Fest, and how did this all start where you guys started working together? Take me back to then.

SPEAKER_05 2:01

I mean, that's a little before both of our times, but Halifax Jazz Festival is celebrating 40 years this year. And I believe next year Garrison is 30.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

So this this will be our 29th festival this year.

SPEAKER_05 2:14

Yeah, and I think maybe 28 years ago, Garrison and Halifax Jazz partnered up.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Yeah, it was Moosehead before Garrison got involved. And uh beating out the big dogs. Yeah, and it was kind of the first Garrison had just started, so it was year one, and Brian Titus, I don't a hundred percent know who he got talking to, but ended up basically pitching a reason why, like, hey, we we can do this, this is a great festival. It had been moving around multiple locations, I think, at that time, and uh they figured out a way to, I guess, like weasel Garrison's way into the festival, and it's been year over year since then. So, yeah, this'll this will be our 29th year. And again, I've I've been with Garrison 10 years, so it's a third of Garrison's life.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

A third of it, however, just knowing a bit of the back history and seeing the way that you know Garrison was involved with Halifax jazz and continues to grow with the festival and go through different hoops and you know, hop arounds as as challenges are thrown both of our ways. But I think, yeah, it it year one would have been kind of a really, really cool thing in the world

How The Jazz Fest Partnership Began

SPEAKER_00 3:34

of like craft beer because it it was always with like larger festivals, it was always you know, Labat, Molsen on the East Coast, Moose Ed.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

You don't see that as much anymore. Now I see mo I well, I see Garrison at a ton of events, but we do see a lot more craft brewers and stuff at these events.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

I think that's a really great thing. Yeah, I mean Garrison's actually like kind of a you know tip of the hat to them because Garrison, you know, you started with Jazz Fest, but I mean you guys have involved them well, yeah. Wand the Wanderers, the foot you know, the soccer team, like there's there's Burger Week and there's other festivals we won't mention on this podcast. Well, they're not competitive, you know. But it's all worked together.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

Comedy fest for time in the year. There's not a competing festival while you're running, is there?

SPEAKER_05 4:15

Not at the exact same time, no.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

No, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

No, it it was this is the first year that uh Halifax Jazz and Pride are at the same time. Yeah, it's like two people that are running the festivals talk to each other and figure out the way to run that to make it work.

SPEAKER_04 4:30

Jazz fest start this year.

SPEAKER_05 4:32

July 7th. So it's July 7 to 12.

SPEAKER_04 4:34

Nice, nice, nice. Yeah, and I mean I've been to many of your shows, many. Like I'm a I'm a huge fan of just music in general and the diversity you get at Jazz Fest is second to none, right? Like it used to be jazz. Uh now it's like you have to look for the jazz a little bit, right? Because it's mashed in with all this other stuff. And uh I was I wanted to tell you, one of my favorite concerts I ever saw in my life, and I I used to go to a lot of shows, I don't so much these days, but uh Thundercat performed.

SPEAKER_05 4:59

Oh, amazing.

SPEAKER_04 5:00

And I had like this huge admiration for this person. I never thought I'd get to see them live because they're not a big act. I mean, but never even heard of the cards. And they live in Caleb. Thundercat to me is like the cartoon from the 80s. Oh, yeah. He plays off that. But he has a 10-string guitar, a wonderful voice singer, RB guy, smooth, has kind of like he's a weird guy. He's really funny and kind of strange. But yeah, no, me and my partner, we got to see him live and sat at a table, watched him one night on the waterfront. One of the best concerts I've ever been to.

SPEAKER_05 5:28

Thank you for saying that. That's not one that comes up so often, but I think Thundercat is a real pioneer in what he's doing. So you know so you're a fan, also? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:37

Okay, cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Oh, he was in uh suicidal tendencies, formerly of suicidal tendencies.

SPEAKER_04 5:43

Yeah. Cool. Yeah. No, he's a real he's kind of got like a bit of a doobie brothers vibe. Means uh I don't know if there's jazz there, maybe a little, but he's a little bit of everything. He's a real virtuoso, is that the word? Yeah, that's the word. Surprised I got that out. I'm a little hungover this morning.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

On a non-hungover day, that's a hard word for you. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

Maybe, maybe that's what I need to sound better on this show. Like I'll sound a little less.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

So what you're saying is before and then record.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

So it should start the last night's pint, and we do it like now in the morning. Because what's great about you guys again, I'll say one more nice plug about Garrison, it's like the coffee shops in here now. Yeah, yeah. There's one here, and there's one at that new spot you guys.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

There will be. Yeah, we're working on getting that up and and running. So Seabort's been essentially closed since January, undergoing a huge renovation after 20 years at that site.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

Looks awesome, by the way. Yeah, it's coming together. It's cool seeing what you guys are doing with the place. I love the.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

I heard you weren't allowed to go. I wasn't allowed to go.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

Yeah, it was. It didn't have its makeup on yet, quote unquote.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Yeah, it wasn't fancy enough for Teneal. We will roll out the red carpet for her. What does that say about me? And what does that say about them? Well, I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

I've seen these guys. That's true technically.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

To be honest, they just showed up. I don't even know if they were invited. They just kind of came around.

SPEAKER_04 7:03

Kind of like whenever a new beer place pops up, it's like Batman. We get a do the Batmobile's off. Yeah. Yeah. But uh geez, what was I gonna go with that? You were you were talking. Coffee's great. Yeah, coffee's great. You're hungover. I'm hungover. Yeah. I'm gonna say that a lot today. I'll probably keep saying that.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

You're you can say smart words when you're hungover.

SPEAKER_04 7:21

I can say I can say better words and I'm talking more slowly today, which I've been trying to do for years. I had a hard time with that. But anyways, back to you guys.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

The the so the the location of the show, that's one thing, is like now that it's down on the water, I mean, obviously that's amazing. Like that's I think the place it should be. I remember back in like 2008, it was where the library is right now. Yeah, the central library. Yeah, and it's like in one way it kind of that that was kind of cool because I'll

Why The Waterfront Site Works

SPEAKER_02 7:49

I'll take a hot take. I think Spring Garden was cooler back then.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Agreed for us Dartmouth folks that would come over to Halifax. You would go to Spring Garden if you would go down the route to go to the room.

SPEAKER_02 8:00

So, like, I think Spring Garden really had soul back then, and uh so it was kind of cool that it had it there, but I mean nothing beats down the waterfront, especially now all the renovations and things like that. You can walk from Garrison all the way to you know the casino where where the casino will no longer be. So but it's awesome. Like you can have a lot of do you find that because it's down where it's at now, that you have people who don't know anything about it and they're just kind of stumbling in, they're like, Can we come in? Can we whatever? Like, and can people do that?

SPEAKER_05 8:26

Yeah, absolutely. We've actually designed the site so that people kind of haphazardly walk through. Nice. Um, it's actually wide open during the day, so it's totally free during the day while we're while we're up and running. And the way that we've designed it is that the boardwalk goes right through our site. So people sort of just walk in, and then then here's this huge stage where people are performing and lots of your cruise trip, like cruise passengers, the tourism, all that kind of stuff comes out and comes through. And I don't think we would have gotten that much on the Spring Garden site.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

So no, I don't know if people walk up that far with the cruise shit anymore. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

I don't think a lot of people really understand how much free programming the festival puts on. Like it blows my mind the more I've learned over the last like few years how much free programming.

SPEAKER_05 9:14

Yeah, on average, it's about 60% of our festival is free. So all of our daytime programming, we do have one evening show that's free as well. And as I mentioned, this year is our 40th, so we have additional free programming. So we're actually 75% free this year.

SPEAKER_04 9:28

Wow, wow, yeah, that's a pretty cool sell. So anybody can come down and check this thing out in the day, stick around if they want, and there'll be beer there.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

In a day and age, in a day and age when people are talking about affordability, here you are providing free entertainment, which I think is vital for you know a growing city, right?

SPEAKER_05 9:45

Yeah, I mean it's it's one of our biggest mandates, right? World class music should be accessible to everybody. Yeah, and accessible means a whole bunch of things, and and cost is a barrier for folks. So we try to build community in that way, and it's our goal to continue to do that as as much as we can.

SPEAKER_04 10:26

I love when world class is paired up with local artists. I think that's the best compliment, and that's what you guys do year over year. I think that's a really cool thing. Who are some of the uh acts you are super excited for this year?

SPEAKER_05 10:37

We've got a great lineup of headliners. So um we're also 90% Canadian this year, which is a big thing that I'm pretty proud of considering everything in the world these days. Yep. Um, so we've got Bahamas, Broken Social Scene is coming out. Oh man, awesome. Yeah, yeah. Men I Trust out of Montreal. She's sort of up and coming, just was on tour with Billie Eilish, so that'll be a great show. And then our free night is Rose Cousins, so East Coast Darling there. And then our one main headliner from the States is Tower of Power, which is a nearly 60-year-old funk band.

SPEAKER_04 11:09

Oh, they're awesome.

SPEAKER_05 11:10

They're so cool.

SPEAKER_04 11:11

Well, that'll be a show to see for sure. What night are they playing?

SPEAKER_05 11:13

Are they they're on the Wednesday, July 8th.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

Oh man, that'd be cool.

SPEAKER_05 11:17

Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be a great show. And the melatones are opening for them. So I mean local heroes.

SPEAKER_04 11:22

They're always fun, right? Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. Who do you think uh would be maybe someone that's like super slept on that's coming this year that you're like, gotta hear this person? Dark horse. You gotta hear this.

SPEAKER_05 11:31

So Alicia Biro out of BC. Okay. So that would be in the jazz category. It does exist at the jazz festival. She'll be at the Carlton. She's a really, really cool up-and-coming singer-songwriter in the jazz world, so really worth checking out. And then another one is a band we have coming over from Niger called Etrendal. So really cool Nigerian rock band. It's coming into the marquee. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 11:57

Nice. How many, how big is the rock band? How many people? There's four. Okay, cool. Just regular regular size rock band. Yeah, I seen a Nigeria a Nigerian rock band last year, and it was like a massive ensemble, right?

SPEAKER_05 12:07

Was it at our festival? Later.

SPEAKER_04 12:09

It was at Stanfest. Oh, it's Stanfest. It was Stanfest last year. I wonder who that was. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_05 12:12

We had it wasn't, they weren't from Niger, but we had Femi Cootie last year. Oh, okay. And that was a big band. That was a really cool show.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

So I was at that show. I had no idea who they were. And I went to the show, and it was probably one of the funnest nights I've had in a really long time. Awesome. Like sweaty, hot in there. Everybody was there dancing. There was like, there was somebody that was probably 90 years old taking a nap in a wheelchair behind us. And then in front of me, there were like 20-year-olds. And it was just such a like diverse audience. And it was super fun. And and that's, I feel like with jazz, and and again, it's a little bit different because we're a partner and a sponsor of the festival. So we have access to it. But the free shows, people are going and checking out and discovering music that they have no idea existed. And again, it's just kind of like opening the doors, and and you can bring your kids. Yep, it's all right-friendly. And I think that's a really special thing. Just and again, you can't leave the house without spending a hundred dollars. So if you have children, we cost less than bowling.

SPEAKER_04 13:21

Yeah, exactly. Bowling's a luxury now, man. I took kids bowl and I was like, what? $60? I paid $80 to go bowling. I'm like, what happened to this world? Bowling used to be your parents used to send you to go bowling because it was the cheapest thing to do. It cost $5 to bowl. It would cost you nothing to go bowling.

SPEAKER_05 13:39

Actually, they'd pay you to be there.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

All you can bowl in Friday night. Yep. Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

We we actually, there's a really cute story that came out this year, and I actually know the person because he goes out with our babysitter.

SPEAKER_05 13:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Um, for the kids who she was a girl working at the daycare. And Luke is his name. And he he started going with his dad to the festival as a very small child, and they went every single year. And I was really like, I thought it was a beautiful story. And then my the first time I brought my daughter, who's now seven, to an outdoor festival was Halifax Jazz. And she was three years old, and we've gone every single year since. And now she goes, we've got another friend that is in the music industry, brings her daughter, and it's just this like thing that we look forward to every summer. So from a personal level, it's been really cool. But I think like again, in this day and age, with the cost of living, knowing that you can actually go for free, go and see live music, yeah, bring your family. It's just incredible. Like it doesn't, I don't think that's it.

SPEAKER_04 14:46

It's great

Free Programming And Accessibility

SPEAKER_04 14:46

for Halifax, it's great for the economy.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

I'm gonna hire you as my PR person.

SPEAKER_04 14:50

I think I think she's the VP of something. No, but yeah, I mean, and it gets people spending money downtown still because they might stop for ice cream or get a coffee or a beer, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:03

So it makes it it makes it kind of optional, right? Like it's kind of like it's uh almost like a pay what you can type of thing, right? Because it's not if you go down, you know, the baseline is free, but then if you want to have some drinks or coffee or whatever food, blah blah blah blah blah, you can, right?

SPEAKER_05 15:16

Well, and even the festival itself is sort of structured in that way. We have a kid's own, we have a bar, we have food, you know, like it's got everything you need, shade, dance floor, all those kinds of things. So it's got a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Also, reasonable beverage prices available. Here we go. Hellvex jazz, which has always been Hellvex Jazz, it's always supported local, like it's been in your mandate and and so forth. So, you know, you could easily take a paycheck from a bigger company just to be like, here you go, here's here's some money and sell our product that isn't really relevant or made here in the province. But it's always been really, really fantastic. And then, you know, you can go and not have the sticker shock when you're going up to the bar buying a beer. Yeah. Festival pricing is a thing, like it exists, everything's really expensive. It can be very expensive, but it's I Halifax Jazz is very reasonable.

SPEAKER_05 16:08

Well, I think it's important as a you know, we're trying to build a community here, and I think that that's more than just putting musicians on stage, it's hiring industry professionals, it's working with local suppliers, it's it's all of that. I mean, most, if not all of the people who work for us in one way, shape, or form are from Atlantic, Canada, and certainly most of them from Nova Scotia.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

Volunteers. Like that's one of the most impressive things about Jazz Fest is you'll see this super enthusiastic young person usually, and they're just bouncing up and down, happy to be there, and they're uh they're spending their whole weekend dedicated to you guys, supporting all the acts, just and then they're good so they get to kind of sneak and watch the show at the end. And uh that's the part I think that's really cool. How how young are your volunteers? Like, where do they start at?

SPEAKER_05 16:51

And uh because we're an all-ages event, we welcome you know kids with their as long as they're with their parent or legal guardian. So a friend of mine brought her son last year, he's six.

SPEAKER_04 17:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 17:03

And he was on the site.

SPEAKER_04 17:04

He was running the beer tent what's the year?

SPEAKER_05 17:06

No alcohol naming. Um, he was he was working on the site team, so he was running around picking up garbage. He thought it was the most fun thing in the world. That's awesome. We did have a freezy stipend for him, so he could go to the merch tent at any time and get a freezy. So, you know, he was quote unquote paid. Yeah, but you know, anybody can come. We have 400 plus person strong volunteer team. 400? 400 people, 400 people. But that's a small army. It's a small army do like 4,000 hours of work every year. So insane. It's it's an incredible thing. We just had our volunteer orientation the other day, and I'm looking at people who have been coming for 30 years as a volunteer. I started as a volunteer, like way back in the day. I was a bartender. Uh-huh. Cool. Slang the slung the garrison, yeah. The draft. Yeah, like moved away from drafts. We don't do drafts anymore. Like we can't deal with the kicks.

SPEAKER_02 18:01

So I guess like for anyone listening, people are always gonna wonder like, how do you pay for it? Like, how does this thing happen at such a world-class, you know, like event and doing some of it, film watching it for free? How does it get paid for?

SPEAKER_05 18:14

It's a combination of things. My line of late, specifically, because we're all truck passing.

SPEAKER_04 18:21

Yeah, wait, wait, live live audio. It's all right.

SPEAKER_05 18:24

My yeah, my line recently, because of course the cost of everything is is a really big conversation for everyone, is that it it, you know, this is calculus. It's a very complicated equation of how we pay for the things and bring the revenue in. So it's a combination of a whole bunch of different things. We do get government funding, of course, but we most of our funding actually comes from our revenue comes from ticket sales and sponsorship.

SPEAKER_04 18:45

So corporate well, you see like you see TV there often, like again, all the big big banks are usually sponsoring you guys as well, a lot of these other big brands, right? So doing what they should be doing. Yeah, you know, giving some money back, they make so much of it.

SPEAKER_05 18:57

Yeah, trying to make themselves look good.

SPEAKER_04 18:58

Yeah, not everything. Yeah, no, I mean, I think it's such a healthy thing, man. Yeah, like what was one of your favorite uh jazz fest performances of all time?

SPEAKER_05 19:08

The one that comes to mind when anybody asks me that question is Lauren Hill. Wow, cheers to Lauren. That's it.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

Cheers to Lauren Hill. That's a flex. She actually has like one of the best albums of all time. Well, really. I mean, I think there was really only that album, wasn't there? Or was there one album after? I can't remember.

SPEAKER_05 19:30

I think there was one after, and obviously like her time with the Fuji's. But yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was a it was a really cool concert for a number of reasons. Obviously, just the fact that it was Lauren Hill, but there was also a lightning storm during the concert, so that it got called off for half an hour while the lightning concerned. But then she came back on and it was like it's like you almost got two concerts out of it, right? Because she was kind of building up and then this this break happened because of nature, and then she came back on and was just on fire. So it was it was really cool.

SPEAKER_04 20:03

I'm like, I can't honestly recall if I saw that or not.

SPEAKER_05 20:08

No, it was 2016.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

2015, 16. I was I mark it as it was before kids for me, and I was there, and it was wicked.

SPEAKER_05 20:18

It was just before, and I know this because I had moved to Toronto and worked festivals out there for a little while, and it was just before I left for Toronto, so I think it was 2016. It was the first year I missed it.

SPEAKER_04 20:27

Was it before or after Anderson Pack?

SPEAKER_05 20:28

Anderson Pack was 2017. That was a wicked show, which was also a wicked show. I did not see it. I've seen Anderson Pac in in other concerts, but yeah, I heard great things about that. That was right before he blew up. Which is just like my favorite.

SPEAKER_04 20:42

I knew who he was really well because he was like affiliated with Kendrick Lamar a lot at the time in the whole hip hop scene. So like I knew who he was very well. You knew his tapes, right? Oh, yeah, I knew all his stuff. And so I was super like jazzed that he was kind of but but uh but now are there any hip-hop acts this year? I looked through and I didn't notice any because you guys always had like hip hop, and I've always like last year you had Killer Mike here. Yeah, it was two years ago. We had Big Boy Big Boy, Big Boy About Cast. I mean, yeah, again, I missed that one. I wish I could have I wasn't in the province, I don't think, at the time, but I would have been there to see him. Are you trying to get in a gig? Or is that what it's like? Well, no, no, no, no. No, no, yeah, I'm not gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Are you a hip-hop artist?

SPEAKER_04 21:19

And you don't know what that's no, no, I I just love hip hop music. Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

No, no. He he he does.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

Oh, okay. I I had a time my time in the sun. Now it's all buried. Can you grab it in the earth? He had a song he had a song played on the radio. Especially not today.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

You had a song on the radio?

SPEAKER_00 21:34

What was your performance name?

SPEAKER_04 21:35

T-O-B. Because my last name is Tobin. I'm very unoriginal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:39

T-O-B.

SPEAKER_04 21:40

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_05 21:41

But uh we're gonna have to please freestyle for us. We'll dig. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 21:46

He won't do it. He won't even make eye contact with me. This is cool. You should see it soon. There you go. That's all you got today. But I am hungover, so maybe I'll I'll work on some material.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Do you want to do a show at the new Seaport Hall? Well, that would be a dream. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 22:01

Uh

Headliners And Hidden Gems

SPEAKER_04 22:01

do the after party. We talked about something after that somebody came to me about last night. Yes, seriously. Uh a friend's recording of mine actually at the podcast convention. I could tell you about it later, but uh, I won't throw that on the show here. No. But yeah, I got an idea. Maybe down the road. Cool. Cool. I'm all ears. But uh, yeah, anyways, yeah. What were we talking about? Now I'm all embarrassed. I'm all embarrassed now. Yeah, I know. You were asking.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Any hip hop shows this year?

SPEAKER_05 22:23

Not this year. I mean, there's some in the undercard, so that would be the the daytime shows. There's some hip hop artists coming through, like local folks. It's really it comes down to the Jake Saw puzzle of trying to get artists out here. So scheduling and do you find it harder to have like hip hop as a headliner?

SPEAKER_04 22:38

Is it where did they do really? Well last year, or just like were they tickets?

SPEAKER_05 22:41

It really depends. I mean, I th ticket sales in general are are a tough thing regardless of genre these days for all the things that we've sort of already talked about. But yeah, hip hop tends to be a bit of a slower burn here in Halifax. Um we've had some really, really great people, like you said Killer, Dilla Sol, Common, you know, lots of lots of great artists, but it really comes down to like, are they available at the time that we need them? Where are they? What are they trying to do? How much do they cost? All this kind of stuff. So it's a bit of a puzzle in that way.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

No, that's cool.

SPEAKER_05 23:12

Yeah. Who who would you want us to have? And don't say Kendrick Lemrier or J. Cole. We can't afford them.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

No, you would probably go deep roster anyway.

SPEAKER_04 23:21

Pardon me? You would probably go deep roster anyway. I would, I mean, there's so many people I'd love to see. Uh I mean, uh, I mean, I I would love to see like a marriage of like some local artists. I also like folk music quite a bit and country. Like, I'm really all over the place. So I I mean I I'm a big fan of uh uh local Ben Kaplan lately. I've been listening to his latest record quite a bit. And hopefully we're getting him on our show here soon.

SPEAKER_05 23:41

And he just announced a big tour.

SPEAKER_04 23:43

Yeah, I know. Yeah, he's just counting off one. And we were actually going to get him on the show before he was leaving. We couldn't find up to Ty. We were gonna meet him here actually at the at uh the Oxford. But he said he'd come on. I just gotta try to get him nailed down, right? Well, it takes takes a little bit of effort sometimes to get these uh nailed down artists, right?

SPEAKER_05 23:58

I would know, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:59

Yeah, yeah, you would know. Definitely. Um I don't know, hip hop artists you would think for down there, that'd be great recently that's out now. I mean, hip hop's changed so much. I'd probably go back into someone that like I really loved, like Ice Cube. Oh my god, can you imagine? I would rather see like my favorites from when I grew up than like see some of the guys.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

Did Ice Cube play in like Toro? Yes, he's gonna be like. Yes, he did.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

Yes, he did. Yeah, I didn't go, but I heard it was a great you said it, not me.

SPEAKER_05 24:27

No, he said that. Did he really?

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Like back in the day when people were calling him, because you know, ice cube was pretty hard back in the day, and then he did like daddy's home or daddy daycare or something like that. Oh my god, the most important. And they were like, and yeah, and they were like, you know, why would you do that? You're like this, you know, hard guy, and he's like, paycheck. Yeah. Pay me, I'll do whatever you want. I mean, at least he's honest.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

I guess ice cube is really cool, but I would like to see probably someone also like Q-tip, maybe more contemporary. Tribal Quest was probably one of my favorite groups of all time. And uh I wish uh I wish uh Fife Dog was still alive. Back to Ice Cube, though, where he did a song with Quake Matthews. Hey, if here from Halifax, did you know that?

SPEAKER_00 24:59

I don't think I knew that. Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:01

So there was a competition to get on an Ice Cube remix. Oh, yes, yes, yes, you could submit your bars and you could submit your verse, and he submitted his verse. Yeah, Quake's great too. And 15 years ago, I was on a rap song with Mims.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

With who?

SPEAKER_04 25:13

Do you know who Mims is? No. So Mims, no, nobody probably knows Mims is. So Mims did a similar contest, but Mims had a popular song, I'm sure you both know. It's like this is why I'm hot. I ain't holding back. I can make a million. So he did that song. Everybody loved it. It was a super M-I-M-S.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 25:30

And he had like one of the first open bar contests that I've ever seen where you could record. And I live, I was living in the corner of North and Roby with my buddy at the time. Yeah. I put it up as TOB, and I was talking hard gangster stuff, but they can't see me, they don't know. Right. So I was having a great time with it. I put it in the verse, like me and my buddy Joel at the time, where he had a little recording studio in the kitchen, yeah, right, like that we lived in, uh, at the house we lived in. And uh yeah, we recorded the song, sent it, and I got on as a finalist of all these like like tear raptors. This guy's down in Florida now, right? And all these other guys, and I was probably the only Canadian, right? Did really well. So I was like sending my song to people with like super polite emails, like, hi, please listen to my new song. And it's like you listen to it as a story, boom. So that was probably the most confusing like thing ever, though. Like the little nice guy that looks like he should look at a wave show is a local. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

So uh Newfoundlander who can't say Tuesday is gotta be quite articulated.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

If it's in rhyming pattern, I'm I'm okay, right? If I rhyme the whole show, it might I might be a little better. But anyways, enough about that. We gotta we gotta leave this. This is the most I've ever talked about.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

Can I can I just say that Mims sounds like a nine-year-old lady's name? Mims.

SPEAKER_05 26:42

Okay, do you know the Sword and the Stone? Like animated? Right. See, I've already thought of the Sword and the Stone. Oh, that old cartoon animated cartoon. Yeah, there's like Miss Mim in the case. Yeah, right on. That's what I thought.

SPEAKER_04 26:55

So now I have to ask you guys you guys have any secret music careers or weird things you've done in your past that you really didn't want to talk about today? Because please share.

SPEAKER_05 27:03

I mean, I started as a performer.

SPEAKER_04 27:05

Oh my gosh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 27:06

Yeah, so I actually performed on the Jazz Fest stage when I was like 15. Uh-huh. Yeah, back in the day. And I actually sang jazz. That is true. But I uh I'm a trained classical singer. So yeah, and I started and ran a choir for 10 years.

SPEAKER_04 27:19

Do you sing now, Dave? Do you still practice? I don't have time.

SPEAKER_05 27:21

I have a three-year-old and I run a festival and building homes.

SPEAKER_04 27:25

Building a house, not building it, but that's still paying a lot of work, right?

SPEAKER_05 27:29

Yes, it's a lot of effort, so I don't have time, but hopefully I'll go back to it.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

And how about you? I don't have any secret music background. No.

SPEAKER_04 27:38

No, no, no, Rap Elias?

SPEAKER_00 27:40

No, I have like friends that are musicians and stuff like that. But you mean like me? Like you. My husband actually used to play in some bands. So he's from Ottawa area. We met when I was living in Ottawa from here.

SPEAKER_04 27:53

And what kind of music style was he into?

SPEAKER_00 27:55

Oh God. He was playing in like heavy metal bands and the Yeah, but actually when we met, he was playing in this like kind of indie band. And I wasn't into that at the time. Like I was more into I grew up in Dartmouth, had a huge love for hip hop. Right. Um, and then kind of moved into not emo years, but I went more into like punk and hardcore. I was in a hardcore for a little bit. And Slipknot? No, no, not in the slipknot. More. I'm wearing a cancer batch shirt right now. So that kind of gives you a bit of an idea. But anyways, he was playing in an indie band, and I was just like, oh, it's so snoozy and kind of boring. And anyways, they they did well. They did like a Canadian tour and they were touring with some good bands at the time. But anyways, the realities of it were it wasn't paying the bills. And I know that is a struggle. It's a real thing in the music industry. And just kind of going back to like where again Garrison's stance on it and supporting, you know, culture and arts and community, like w without music, there is no community. And that's like you would recall, and I don't know if you've had any focus on podcasts about all the finding cuts to our team here and there sector, but I know like that has impacted a lot of our partners, you know, Halifax Jazz being one.

SPEAKER_04 29:19

Yeah, we we've talked about it a few times, and yeah, I've I totally echo that sentiment. Like, you know, we can't, we have to value our and especially in the fact that you're now in a place where, like, if you think back 20 years ago when my friend and I had our little recording

Volunteers And The People Powering It

SPEAKER_04 29:31

studio in the basement, our rent was 500 bucks. We we could afford to do that. Like, we could afford to explore music and have fun and do all these things. I wouldn't have that like luxury now, right? I if I was a young person trying to you know start is start their career, I wouldn't have enough money. And so these arts programs were needed, they were the really the only thing keeping art here because you can't have art with incubation, it needs somewhere to go, it needs somewhere to start the spark, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:58

But you guys are kind of helping in that way because I mean you guys remodeled down at the uh the waterfront there and you put stage in there.

SPEAKER_04 30:04

So you're gonna there'll be a permanent stage and respectfully to you as a small business though. I mean you're not small, but you know what I mean on a grand scale. You are like you still think of uh of like that shouldn't be your responsibility. I like like it's kind of a crazy thing to think that an arts community is getting reliance on small microbreweries, right? You know, you guys are a massively successful one, but it still doesn't change the fact that, like, what? Right? Like, you guys should be able to be a successful business. It's amazing that you do that, but like they need more help.

SPEAKER_05 30:37

It's just really unfortunate and a bit short-sighted, right? Because you know, a lot of talk is about job creation and bringing people to work here. We need more doctors, we need more this, we need more that. And people don't want to live in a dead city.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

No, I've been saying this. This is the theme that I've been saying is that you know we need as much as we need all these uh jobs, and we do.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

That is true.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

But people stay when they have things to do when they're not working. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

And look look at the amount of universities that we have, even in Halifax, like the province as its whole, but students will graduate, and if there's nothing here that is going to keep them here and the city's not cool anymore, they're gone. They're gonna go to Montreal, Toronto, they're gonna go to the street.

SPEAKER_04 31:19

Especially if the cost of living's high. If the cost of living's cheap, you at least have a like you give them the ability to build that little that little uh community, right? So if it's super cheap to live there, then I mean the music starts to make itself. Yeah, right. But or you know, art or anything else.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

It brings it brings people here too. So like if you have if you have talented artists that are living in the province, that's gonna, you know, balance more opportunities to bring people here because they see it and they they see like Halifax is it, that's it's the place to be, and we're gonna there people are gonna start talking about it, and it's gonna put it internationally on the map. And I think we're gone, we've gone through waves, and you see there's a lot of like big events. I mean, we're going into the weekend where Sale GP is happening. That's a big event. But the more that you know the government loses focus on that, uh it's a slippery slope because things will start happening, and then you can't correct it. You can't bring it up.

SPEAKER_04 32:19

It takes years to rebuild it, like you know, the film tax credit. Uh you know, we watched like a bunch of media institutes close here. Like we had so many colleges for the arts and stuff 15 years back that don't exist anymore. Yeah, it's it's a quite a few. Like we had a boom here, but we also had video games being designed here. Yeah, we had a tremendous different artistic avenue. So people would come here, love the city, yeah, after their little degree or whatever, stay here and get involved in something. And drink jobs and drink good beer. Well, right.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Here's the other thing like people move back. Teneal and I are both from here. We both lived away. We're both in Ontario.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Same.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

We both moved back because we're like, okay, I think like Halifax is it. I want to be back there. There's things to do. Affordable. I mean, this was 10 years ago. It was affordable to live and you know, to buy a house, start a family kind of thing. But as that kind of like is de-escalating, it's uh it's almost you know concerning. And if if it's like, hey, let's pull away funding from arts and culture and what actually makes a city what a city is, then it's like you know, you've lost the plot at that point.

SPEAKER_04 33:24

And even when we talk beer, right? I mean, you're in the beer business. It's like this, it's the cost of alcohol now is almost like a prohibition era in itself because when we were younger, we could have $20 in our pocket. We're sounding like old people here. You go down the dome. No, no, not dollar drinks. You'd go down the dome, and you could you could get quite inebriated, and you know, you might not have enough for a cab to you could still get a taxi home. I remember nice where we didn't have enough, and we'd walk across the bridge over to Diramuth. That was risky. But we didn't Dollar Drinks at the Dome was a fun time. But yeah, but yeah, like we had those experiences, and I think and I'm not I'm not saying like getting inebriated is a great experience. I I like it every year. I call it the reset button. I hit it every now and then. Um but but I mean at the same time, I think for young people to have those experiences where they're drinking together, yeah, partying together, having fun together. I mean, alcohol, I mean, is not the best thing for your body, but it's better than a street truck, right? Yeah. I mean, and it's in and if it's in a secure place, like a pub or a bar where it's being administered, right? And that bar pub is responsible, it's better than anywhere else. Right?

SPEAKER_00 34:30

It it comes down to occasions. And I I think like we have this conversation a lot in terms of you know the brands and the beer that we're making, uh, who we're marketing it to. It's all about occasions. So I think like at the core, craft brewing was really focused on like how can we make special occasions better? How can we like increase the quality and and you know, have people talking about local and ingredients and stuff like that? So I think that's like where it all kind of began. And then you look at music festivals, you look at, you know, going to the wanderers, that kind of stuff. That's an occasion. You're going, you're enjoying it. Beer, beverage alcohol, RTDs, whatever you're having is being enjoyed at that occasion. So I think like at the forefront, we're we're looking at Halifax Jazz. How can we make that the most memorable experience for people going?

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

Having the right products there, being mindful of like alcohol content and and so forth, and just really like kind of making it a fun experience because there's a lot of rules and stipulations around, you know, service and and alcohol in in general. But when you're going to something like a live concert and you have access

Funding A World Class Festival

SPEAKER_00 35:46

to amplify that occasion, that's that's what we're here for. That's like why we yeah, why we make good beer.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

Well, and I think the thing too, and is I know there's lots of talk, and I've been sending you some stuff too, is like we're seeing the people in their 20s not drinking as much and in their teens and stuff like that. I mean, that's not technically legal, but whatever, you know.

SPEAKER_05 36:04

Yeah, still we all know what happens. We all know.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

Exactly, exactly. So it's but we're seeing like the the the drinking age or the drinking amount, like the people who are drinking going down. And it's funny, I've maybe it's just my algorithm, but it's been like I've seen people who are actually like uh accredited people talking about this and and saying that yes, we know studies are coming out about all these things, but like literally like everything causes cancer of some sorts or whatever if you have enough of it, right? Yeah, but the what they're missing is what these young people are missing by not drinking. And it it sounds like I'm like go drink, but it's like there's a social element to it, there's a relaxation to element to it, where it's like I'm not saying oh go and get hammered all the time, but they're staying home, playing video games by themselves, not being social. Their best friends are like in Utah, right? And it's one I just picked that's first of Utah. It's far enough away, right? Where you're not gonna go visit them. Yeah, but it's like it's it's and they're not having this like camaraderie where you know maybe you can make like you know, some couple stupid decisions, not you know, bad ones, but you know, whatever. And you're missing out on this thing, and I've had like like psychological doctors and medical doctors like who are saying this is that what we're seeing is this what might be worse. Yeah, right. Loneliness. Loneliness and all that stuff that's increasing, the ability to not be able to cope, isolation, all this stuff. Anxiety, increasing. And I'll even go so far as there's a Toronto-based creator who is a like he's an alc recovered alcoholic or recovering, or however you want to uh phrase it, whatever. He doesn't drink anymore, but he had a problem, he had a problem before, yeah. And even he said, as someone who's an alcoholic, kids need to start drinking more.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

He even said it, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Like, yeah, it was it's it's it's one of those things where it's like but like again, do it responsibly, yeah. And I would say do it with the you know, with craft local beer. Because I mean it's something that should be enjoyed. And I was saying this to you last night. I like beer actually makes me happy. I like making me happy this morning. But it's like I like a beer. Like I like beer, like I don't get as excited about just drinking in general, but beer I do. It's like it's a nice day. First thing I want to do is have a beer on a patio.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

It's and like think back to we all grew up here, like sociables and that whole kind of thing. In, you know, it's so rooted in our culture as East Coasters. Like you go anywhere else in Canada and you tell them you're from the East Coast, they're like, oh, you guys like your party, yeah. We do, we do.

SPEAKER_04 38:44

And it's still popular in Ireland, it's still popular in so many other countries, right? You go to your Europe, it's it's like, you know, you go to Ireland, it's you're expecting it.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Beer is huge. We forget that that there are cultures that do drink more than you know, East Coasters, Canadians typically do. And it's just Russians are tough.

SPEAKER_04 39:02

Like, man, they're you can't out drink, like drink a Russian. So I was in Cuba one time trying it and I failed. Yeah, I failed back to it.

SPEAKER_05 39:09

You're actually still hungover from that.

SPEAKER_04 39:11

We still have uh flashbacks.

SPEAKER_05 39:13

Just in I just want to point out the you know, we're sort of talking about the younger generation, and and we at the festival, we think about that a lot because if we're not introducing kids and youth to these environments in a safe, secure way, then we don't have audiences in 10 years. And I think that that's something we're so cognizant of. Good point. It is, you know, we want to create an environment where where kids and youth feel comfortable coming in so that they have that experience, so that they know they can imbibe or not imbibe safely, and that there's an environment for them to see live music, maybe have a beer, maybe not. We have non-alcoholic options as well. Yeah, yeah. Um, you know, I think those are great too.

SPEAKER_04 39:53

I'm I I have knob beers even doing this show all the time. Yeah. I love those guys.

SPEAKER_05 39:58

Yeah, but it's it, you know, it's something that we think about a lot because our our main audience is older, and that's a thing that we can't continue to focus on that group. We have to focus on the next one. And you know, it's part of the reason why we programmed Men I Trust this year, which is a you know, that's what's that one? That's I think that's a hand dryer from the bathroom. Wow. That is impressive. So I can't lean six inches back, but you can pick up the hand dryer.

SPEAKER_04 40:27

You're not full of hot air. I won't be able to enter that in either. That's the funny part. So everyone's gonna hear that hand dryer. That's funny. Yeah. That's staying in. Yeah. That's that's the hand dryer's gonna make the show. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

I I do I do agree with what you're both saying that you know, the younger generation, there's been a lot of focus on, you know, mindfulness and which is huge. T trying to, you know, do all the healthy things. I've I've been seeing all these funny my algorithms messed up these days. But I'm agree. I can't some of the stuff I agree and she sends like smoking's back. You guys know that? Yeah, smokes are back. Yeah. So and again, it ties into that social thing where it's like you can go and actually like have a smoke, relax, chat with somebody else, and it's that connection piece. It's the same idea as like when you're you know having a beer with somebody, uh it's Friday after work, sitting down, having a chat. That whole smoking piece is back too. So I it's it's like maybe we're

Booking Puzzles And Hip Hop Talk

SPEAKER_00 41:26

about to hit this like turnover because the world's on fire. Yeah, we're going back to the rolling thirties.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:34

If bell bottoms can come back, so I can smoking, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

It's funny, like I'm always kind of like it's just because I I've never smoked. So I'm always a little bit taken back when I see someone like actually smoking sometimes. I'm like, well, people still do that. Oh, yeah, people still hackdars.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

Yeah, give me like two juices and I'm looking for a Belmont. Swear to God. Don't actually, my kids will hear this someday. That's all right. Those juices pack a punch, though. They do. They're great. That's there'd be no juicy at Jazz Fest.

SPEAKER_04 42:05

I wanted to do a fun ranking of your beers actually before I I wanted your like list of your favorite beers at Garrison. I won't want to get back to that, but since the only thing I wanted to say about alcohol is is you do have to realize in love that people that drink alcohol also realize that for some of them that it ha creates an underlying anxiety in their lives. And I mean, if you don't feel you should drink, you shouldn't, right? I mean, you know, trust your intuition. Very respectful. And I know, and I'm just saying this as a I I mean, you we have uh in our day, we had a whole different pressure. The pressure was to drink, it was to drink a lot, right? And uh, we were ingrained in that. Like our our I mean, that's and if we look back on that, maybe that wasn't we we we didn't take maybe as much agency over ourselves as we should have in our generation as we grew up. We're all relatively the same age, I think very close in age. So I mean I really respect We're all 27.

SPEAKER_00 42:59

Yeah, I mean exactly, yeah. We're turning 28.

SPEAKER_04 43:02

Yeah, yeah. I I feel I feel 97 today. But but but uh why is that? Yeah, uh yeah. Well I was I'm trying to do my professor lecture here now. Why, you know, you gotta stay safe, kids. But uh you can come over like you yeah, I think yeah, sometimes I call it the reset, but usually when I have m too much to drink, it's like a set like plan. I do it with my friends like Matt, and I'll we'll go to a cabin and like you know, it won't be too public.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

The last time we got really like pretty good, like a good buzz on well before that. So we we were at a the comedy festival in Dartmouth. Oh my gosh. And we end up staying at his parents' place because they're not far.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

Sorry, what comedy fest in Dartmouth? Halifax Comedy Fest?

SPEAKER_02 43:42

No, no, no. You almost spit your water out. No, it was uh Kathy Jones was there.

SPEAKER_04 43:45

Kathy Jones was there, so it was a funny fundraiser in Dartmouth at Funk Lakes. Okay. All right, so it was a small, pretty small event, but it was a it was a friend of ours, and the a gentleman who's been on the show, Mark Sove. He was hosting it at the time, so he invited us after we did his podcast. So we went. We agreed to stay at my parents who live in Dartmouth. Far from but dad picked us up. Ended up having a little too much to drink, and it ended up turning into a stepbrothers episode because Matt and I were stoned when he came up. And I'm like, I'm like, Dad, take us to McDonald's. I want a picnic, you know, like super excited. And mainstream home.

SPEAKER_02 44:17

Then we go home, and I'm like, Your dad has a drum set. So I get him the drum set and I'm playing the drums, and he starts rapping.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

What time of day is this?

SPEAKER_04 44:25

It was two in the morning, one or two in the morning. So we are just yelling. We're having Did we just become best friends?

SPEAKER_05 44:31

Y'all, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:31

We were having the good time of our lives. You know, passed out, woke up in the morning, we're like, oh, my parents were like, they weren't even mad, they were actually quite enamored. They were like, Oh.

SPEAKER_05 44:42

They didn't know they wanted those ears back.

SPEAKER_04 44:45

You gave it to them when you went to the 1 a.m. and then. Drum set. Oh yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I think it's fine to let loose every once in a while, let your soul out.

SPEAKER_05 44:55

But maybe don't do it at 2 a.m. at your parents' house. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 45:00

And I mean, you know, maybe you're in a safe.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 45:03

Oh. So I think with that the uh the alcohol lecture is over. And uh we should go to like uh some of the best beers that Garrison has to offer. Just a quick fun kind of like my favorite's a little juicy.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

I I have to you before we go there, okay.

SPEAKER_04 45:15

What beers are available at the festival?

SPEAKER_05 45:17

Oh my god. Yeah, I think you actually know better than me. Georgia Peach, Little Juicy, Tall Ship, Tall Ship Light. Well, you hit a little thing for everybody. Hobby Boy. Hobby Boy. I think those are the beers, and then the RTDs.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

And that was again just going back to having a broader range of products, because you know, not everybody drinks beer. Not everybody likes beer. So we started making RTDs ready to drink, like pre-made cocktails, basically, uh three years ago to serve purposes like festivals, essentially, and just have another option. So we do like a lemon lime vodka soda, we do a non-carbonated peach iced tea, which is really popular.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 45:57

And then we have a brand called Dirty Shirley. So essentially it's like a Shirley Temple. It's an alcoholic Shirley Temple. Cool. So it's like a grown-up, nostalgic. It was popular last year. Super popular.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

So I want to get drunk, but feel like I'm 10.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Yeah, well, and I mean it's it's one of those things where it's hitting the trend because we had years of this, and maybe this is all tying back to like, you know, maybe drinking is coming back and smokes are back and stuff. We went through this like no calorie, zero sugar phase with RTDs, and now it's actually the opposite. You're seeing a lot of full flavor, more sugary, again, higher alcohol kind of pre-made cocktails. So Dirty Shirley is one of those. We actually make it in a smaller format for the festival. We we do we try, but it's uh we do 355 mil cans because it's 7% instead of the big tall voice of it. So so yeah, there's there's a range. And then again, just with some of the non-alcoholic stuff, we don't make non-alcoholic beer.

SPEAKER_02 46:55

No, we have a partner that does it though, right?

SPEAKER_00 46:57

We we do. So we uh we're a partner with Tuesday Brewing, which is out of Calgary, Alberta. They only make non-alcoholic beer and they do it really well. It's pasteurized and you know, shelf stable.

SPEAKER_04 47:08

How did you guys forge that relationship with the spot out in Calgary?

SPEAKER_00 47:10

It's kind of random. So it's a newer relationship. So they're they've been in business coming up on two years and the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival, actually. So they because they're based out of Alberta, like that's where the tricks are and their head office is.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

The guy who started Tuesday runs beer festivals and out west, and it's really interesting because Brian Titus, who started Garrison, used to run beer festivals, Seaport Beer Festival. He was a partner of that for many, many years. So we got a call from this guy named Bill Robinson, and he goes, Hey, like we're coming out to Halifax. We're wondering if we can like chat with you about, you know, kind of tying into your activation at the festival and all of this. And I go, I'm sorry, who are you? And anyways, he started telling me about this brand, Tuesday, and and all of this. And I was like, I pulled up the website, I really like the branding, and I was like, this is cool. Why don't you fire some samples our way? Because that that was two years ago. There's a lot of you know, craft breweries starting to make non-alcoholic beer.

SPEAKER_04 48:18

I've heard it's very expensive to make.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

Well, it's it costs the same as regular beer, however, it's the equipment like you need to pasteurize non-alcoholic beer for it to be you know safe for consumption, shelf stable and and so forth. So pasteurization is an expensive investment to make. We see that the rise of non-alcoholic beer is you know rising, but it's a very small subcategory of beer. Anyway,

Arts Funding And A City’s Soul

SPEAKER_00 48:46

so we we chose not to make it. They were partnering with the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival, which we've been, you know, a partner of this is year four.

SPEAKER_04 48:55

It's an amazing comedy event. It's wicked, it's wicked. World-class acts here to Halifax. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:01

Yeah, for sure. And anyway, so we got talking with them and they sent some samples and we cracked them open in the boardroom, and we were like, this is really good. This is really, really good non-alcoholic beer. And anyway, so we decided because they were looking at potentially expanding to the East Coast, that we would come on as a partner and distributor for Tuesday brewing. So, long story short, they're into the same kind of shit that we are. So we were like, hey, we've got you know a long-standing partnership with Halifax Jazz. You should talk to them and to Neil and we did, yeah, yeah. So they're they're actually uh partnering and sponsoring a lot of you know of the same stuff that Garrison is involved in too because their their views and their like drive is very aligned with. Nice.

SPEAKER_04 49:49

Are you guys getting the garrison out to Alberta?

SPEAKER_00 49:51

Or is that oh we've had Garrison in Alberta for years. Oh, nice. Forever. So not forever, but for a long time. So we go through, we have an agent out in Alberta. So you can actually get our beer. It's the wild, wild west, so it's in Alberta, yes, yeah. Um, so Alberta is Saskatchewan, Manitoba.

SPEAKER_03 50:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

So we are we're on the West Coast. There's just a big gap called Quebec and Ontario that you need to hop over.

SPEAKER_04 50:18

But actually I think Rob Ford and Tim would buddy up and make a solution there for beer. Oh my god. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:24

Thank you. No comment.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

Ford had the whole I'm gonna make beer cheap again thing for a while there.

SPEAKER_04 50:31

Yeah, he was uh he was trying to bring dollar beers back. Like a personal red of theirs. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:36

We gotta skip over this conversation because it'll I it's like rage bait for me. I can see that I'll start being off.

SPEAKER_04 50:43

I've got my garrison hat on.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

Let's go back to Joy. No, let's go back to her ranking. Ranking of the beers.

SPEAKER_04 50:48

I think that's a good time to do that. We're after, yeah, we're almost getting to the hour, so I have to now we might uh do our fun questions, our dumb questions, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:54

Yeah, we'll do the ranking first.

SPEAKER_00 50:55

It's hard for me to rank it because again, I it's it's occasion-based for me. So it really, really depends on where I'm at, what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_02 51:05

Okay, what's your number one right now? Yeah, what's a beer number? No matter the occasion, what's the one that you're tall ship all day. You're a tall ship. All day, every day, tall ship. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 51:15

And you have to understand, like, I my first job when I turned 19 was working at the Kelty Corner over in Dartmouth. Right on. And shout out to them. They were supporters of local and craft beer early on. So I remember we had Garrison, we had propeller on tap there, and it was not tall ship at the time. I want to say it was nut brown and raspberry wheat that was on, and you know, the whole PBJ little half and half.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:42

But eventually down the line, I worked there for, I don't know, four or five years, three, maybe three or four years, we got tall ship and it was tall ship amber at the time. So it was a different beer than tall ship has evolved to today.

SPEAKER_04 51:54

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 51:55

So when I when we moved back to Halifax in 2016 and I started working with the brewery at that point, I had to basically train myself to be like, okay, it's not uh it's not Tall Ship Amber, it's not Tall Ship Amber, it's Tall Ship East Coast Ale. So the beer became a lot cleaner, the beer became a lot, I guess, more uh accessible for any wider palate.

SPEAKER_04 52:21

Yeah, yeah. An easier drink, I think, it is now. It's is a very if you were accustomed to kind of more of a generic beer, it's kind of a healthy first step into craft beer, I would say. Is that a safe?

SPEAKER_00 52:31

It is it is, and I think it's like a very consistent beer as well. So and it's it kind of like uh again, there's that nostalgic feel when I'm drinking it, like it's similar. I feel like Tall Ship is in the same class as like a schooner or an Ollins, but obviously better.

SPEAKER_04 52:50

You mentioned PB and J, and I wanted to go back to that just for people who don't know or not familiar with Garrison, because it's kind of a funny story how you guys have a PBJ beer. Do you want to kind of quickly tell us like how you guys got there with that one?

SPEAKER_00 53:01

Yeah, so out of the tap room down at Seaport, Nut Brown and Raspberry Wheat are two like original OG brands of Garrison.

SPEAKER_02 53:11

So Nut Brown like might be my favorite beer you guys ever made because I just loved it so much back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 53:18

It's and again, it's it it is a fantastic beer, and you know, you have to remember these beers are almost 30 years old.

SPEAKER_05 53:25

I tested them out at Jazz Fest.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

Yeah. So is it I I don't exactly know who started doing it, but uh all of a sudden people were pouring half nut brown, half raspberry wheat into a pine glass and drinking it and calling it peanut butter and jelly, PBJ. So this became kind of like a bespoke secret, if you know, you know, kind of secret. So if you're like sliding into a place that had both, it's like, hey, I'll take a PBJ. And the word kind of got out and around town. So we we had never combined the two together and put it in a can. So we did that last year for the first time. So PBJ became a product that we sent to the NSLC and it was gangbusters.

SPEAKER_02 54:09

It was just so I think it was awesome that you guys leaned into it because, like you said, it was kind of this thing that was out there, so why not lean into it? The other thing is here at the Oxford Tap Room, we we recorded our Christmas episode last year. We recorded it here. And with a bunch of people we had people coming in and like doing voice acting and stuff like that for our stuff. Anyway, I had a beer that Elijah made for me. I was like, man, I don't care. Like everything you like, just bring me something, right? Bring me whatever. And he's like, You like to try something new? I was like, sure, whatever you have, new, whatever. And he brought me up and I took a drink, and I was like, Willy wonka shit going on. Like, what? But it was a fuzzy peach beer, and it was like, it was Georgia peach, little juicy, topped with the dragon fruit sour. Yep. Wow, so it's the throwing. On the menu now, is it actually on the menu now?

SPEAKER_00 55:02

Okay, yeah, yeah. It is who comes up with that? Insanely when you drink it. People working here, the creative. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 55:08

I'm not telling you, I took a drink and I was like, it tastes like liquid fuzzy peach. Is it like how much, how much, how much like of the IPA is in it? I thought it was half and half because I was gonna try to make this for Andrea tonight with the summer pack, like, because we have one of the summer packs at home right now.

SPEAKER_00 55:22

Yeah, so you got little juicies in your phone.

SPEAKER_02 55:24

Yeah, I think it's mostly the peach. I think it's like like honestly, I think it's like 60% peach. 60% peach. Think something like that, 60, 70% peach with a little, like then like little juicy, and then you obviously have to put a little bit of the dragon fruit, like we'll call it five or ten percent.

SPEAKER_00 55:38

I think it's dealer's choice, too. It's uh it's kind of like you know, however you you feel on it. And and if it's you know a Friday and you want to kind of get things going, maybe a little bit more little juicy goes anyway.

SPEAKER_04 55:51

There you go. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:52

Little Juicy actually will be at Halifax Jazz Fest. That's that's my top beer for you guys. First year, first year.

SPEAKER_04 55:59

It's one of my favorite IPAs in the province. Like

Drinking Culture And Social Connection

SPEAKER_04 56:01

it'll be top three for sure.

SPEAKER_05 56:02

So that's what you'll be drinking when you're down at the store.

SPEAKER_04 56:03

I think so, yeah. Yeah. Or or no, I'll probably be driving and I'll probably be having I'll probably be having the Tuesday beer because I'll be taking my 14-year-old and she'll be like, You can't, you know, she they they they're very straight and narrow. She's a very smart kid, right?

SPEAKER_00 56:15

You know, so she would where do you guys live? Are you over in Dartmouth still?

SPEAKER_04 56:18

No, no, no. I I live in uh uh I don't really want to say far away place. No, I I live out towards Ambro End. Okay. Right? Yeah, but uh but yeah, no, I love where I live now. It's uh I kind of left civilization like 20 minutes away. Like it's just quiet. Yeah. You're open prospect.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

You're in prospect.

SPEAKER_04 56:35

Yeah, but we're both in quiet spots.

SPEAKER_00 56:36

We're we're in Dartmouth, so it's you typically with Jazz Fest, we take the ferry over and the ferry back. Oh, that's beautiful. If we uh choose to do so, there's been, I'm not gonna lie, there's been a time or two where we've left the car parked at the ferry terminal. Yeah, properly. You're always very happy at the festival. Um I am. She likes music, that's why she's happy.

SPEAKER_04 56:57

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 56:59

Yeah, it's uh it's uh the the place to be in July. Thank you. I look forward to it.

SPEAKER_04 57:06

Gotta ask you one question before we get into 10 questions. I know we're going long here, sorry. But we've asked, we ranked a few beers. Give us some of your favorite jazz fests. We got Lauren Hill. Okay, that's a goat, right? What was a couple other like super memorable jazz fests or or even a couple ones that you're super jazzed up for this year?

SPEAKER_05 57:22

You really just needed to get that jazz.

SPEAKER_04 57:24

I said it as many times as I could, even more times than I mentioned I was talking about.

SPEAKER_02 57:27

I didn't want to ruin the moment earlier because when you said Lauren Hill, I was like, everyone was like, oh, I was this close to going being like the lady from the lady from Sister Act. I kind of want to throw that in there. But yes. Yes. Yes, she was. Great, so I want to go in there like so like firmly and like make people think that that was the only person.

SPEAKER_00 57:44

Like that that's something I need to watch. I haven't watched the movie forever. Whoopi Goldberg, right? Yes, yeah, yes. Great movie. Both more in a long time ago. I can't remember. Both of them.

SPEAKER_04 57:52

I probably watched it, but I just remember dancing in that movie. That's the only thing I could think of when I look back on it. Yeah. Such a good movie.

SPEAKER_05 57:59

Um, who else? Bad, bad, not good, has always been really, really great. They've come a couple of times. Dr. John back in the day. Uh St. Vincent's been there twice. She's awesome, yeah. She's great. Last year was excellent, but in 2014 she was here as well when that when her like big album had just come out.

SPEAKER_04 58:16

And that was an amazing album. I I played a song for song. So I forget what it was called. Was it called V or something? Oh my god, it's escaping me.

SPEAKER_05 58:22

I don't know how people were gonna ask me, but yeah, it's escaping me right now. But that that show itself, like we almost had to stop it so many times because the fire marshal was you know telling us it's too many times.

SPEAKER_04 58:32

Super theatrical, too. Yeah, like she was awesome.

SPEAKER_05 58:34

Yeah, on and off stage. Oh my gosh, who else? Any number of people, but this year specifically, really, really looking forward to uh Men I Trust, as I mentioned. I think that's gonna be a really cool show, very different for us. We don't generally go into pop, so that's gonna be a great one. And again, Tower of Power, like really to start off our 40th year at the main site with this like huge funk band, have our local funk band there as well. I think that's gonna be yeah, that's gonna be a really fun one.

SPEAKER_04 59:02

Cool, awesome. Yeah, okay, so and I'm taking the 14-year-old. What's a good rock band? So she's in 90s alternative, weirdly enough. She took the colour. Broken social scene, number one choice for her. Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_05 59:13

Well, and the the person opening up for broken social scene, her name is Loviet. Oh my god, she's amazing. She's goddess from Halifax.

SPEAKER_00 59:20

Yeah, okay, so it's just a good one. If you if you haven't listened to her, yeah, like she is about to blow up. She's amazing. I know she is.

SPEAKER_04 59:25

Yeah, I've seen her on uh the uh the gram. That's the gram. That's what the kids call these days, the gram, right? You know? Oh boy.

SPEAKER_05 59:33

You're just a oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:37

You should hear me off the mic. Okay, let's 10 questions. Let's go. We'll just go back and forth with them. They should be awkward and weird. And if they're not weird enough, Matt, I'm gonna make them weirder.

SPEAKER_02 59:48

These are pretty weird. I I was I was my uh my wife uh ran over a nail in the car. So I had to get the tires like fixed. Like two new tires, the both the back ones, right? This morning. No, no, no. I just when you when you have an all-wheel vehicle, you should have the same tires and stuff. So anyway, I was getting tires put on. Anyway, I was writing these questions this morning while waiting at getting the car tires cheap. So these are bizarre, but you know, it is what I mean. Bring it on. Yeah, they go a little further as they go, but get weird. Yeah, do you the first one's not that weird? So, like, do you want to start? Do you want me to start? Yeah, go ahead. All right, cool. This one's not that weird. So if you could book one musician, dead or alive, who would you want to perform at Jazz Fest?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:34

That's mean. Do you have an answer while I think about it? Little Sims out of the UK.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:43

Little Sims. Damn, impressive. How about you?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:47

Dead or alive, who would I want to go and see? I would go with somebody like Jewel. Oh man. Hands down.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:58

I would be first in line. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

Now my brain is like, okay, Jewel. Well, and I think of it because like Steve Poltz, like that whole Steve Poltz kind of combo. Because I'm pretty sure he wrote some songs for Jewel.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:10

Who's the one you keep telling me to book? They opened up for Mufford and Sons when you saw them in the.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:14

Oh my god, Steven Sanchez. Steven Sanchez. Nice, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:17

So I think you send me that once every three weeks.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:19

I know, and you don't listen to me, and I'm just like, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:23

Oh yeah, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:24

Gotta start listening to the case. Great picks. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:27

Oh, sorry. Question two. I closed my stopped looking at the list. What's the most bizarre thing you ever found left behind at the Halibanks Jazz Festival? If you legally can't say it, that's okay. But if you can, tell us.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:39

It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:39

I think you can go up to our rating.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:43

A lot of drugs. The one that comes to mind, which is just funny, is we had an artist last year who threw chicken wings all over the artist trailer. So when they left the site, and I won't say who it is, but when they left the site, we walked into the artist trailer and all of the walls were covered in barbecue sauce.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:00

No way. Were they angry about something?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:03

Yeah, the Jazz. Yeah, clearly. If you remember where maybe they weren't spicy enough. Yeah. They if they were mad about something, it wasn't something the Jazz Fest does. It was definitely something that was in their personal life happening. Which they actually messed up. Which they actually talked about on stage. But that's awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:20

Wow. Okay. Cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:21

All the hints.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:23

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:23

All right.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:24

If you were there, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:27

Anything weird at a festival?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:28

Or anything weird at the bar afternoon? Well, actually, yeah. So in the reefer coolers last year, actually, there was a box of water bottles, and they were really pretty. They're Guinness. And I'm like, Oh my god, what are these doing here? Anyways, I use that water bottle like almost every day now. And a friend of mine was working for uh the distributor of Guinness at the time, and I was like, this is so random. And he goes, I have no idea how those ended up there. But anyways, I took them. And now everyone has a beautiful Guinness water bottle now. It's gorilla marketing and it's fine.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:59

Seriously.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:00

Shout out to Guinness, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:01

They

Festival Drinks RTDs And Non Alcoholic Beer

SPEAKER_02 1:03:01

saw you guys make it an impact, they just dropped off a box. They're like, yeah. Yeah. All right, question number three. So if the Jazz Fest, and this is actually something you guys can work on together because it's the marketing question in a way, if the Jazz Fest had a mascot, what would it be?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:15

Oh my god, my safety manager would be so stoked that you just asked that. She wants to be the mascot so bad. I don't want to go with the obvious choice, so I'm not gonna say saxophone. I picture like a glowing giant star.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:29

Like a big star walking around. I don't know why. I don't I don't know. I just picture like a big light up, big star.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:37

That'd be kind of confusing. I'd be like, what is a star there for?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:40

What was it? HMV had the record. Yeah. Yeah. Can we steal that?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:45

I mean, they don't exist anymore. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:47

Who's got that costume sitting in a storage room somewhere? We'll take it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:51

It's somewhere.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:52

It's somewhere.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:53

Put it out of the universe. Well, Sensor Batman's making it a comeback. Maybe a nice like a cigarette as a mascot.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:59

We used to be the Demorian Jazz Festival. So we were your title sponsor. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:03

That's all that's hilarious. Okay, question number four, Derek. Okay. Okay, when the festival is over, is it like tear down sad, or do you feel like a sense of like accomplishment and relief?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:16

My favorite time is when the festival is over. It's such a marathon. I imagine. It's such a marathon. And then you go into the actual festival thing, and I had someone ask me last year what it feels like, and I and I said it feels like socializing for a hundred days and seven days. So it's just a really, really intense time. So there's definitely a lot of relief. There's a lot of joy in it, too. I mean, you know, we've been talking a lot about occasions and all that kind of stuff. So creating joy is what we do, and that's a really awesome thing. And then there's a lot of exhaustion. I bet. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:49

Yeah. You you and your team work really hard to pull it off. And again, going back to the volunteer side of it, like that's that's wild that you have that many volunteers that come, they show up every single year. They're always happy.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:01

They're always we try to take care of them. Like that's a beautiful gift that they're giving us. And our festival isn't over until we have the volunteer party as well. So it goes on for a couple extra days when nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:12

All right, question number five. So speaking of like, you know, getting all this ready in the planning and stuff like that, what's one hidden detail that comes to mind that the crowd like generally misses that you guys obsess about?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:31

Toilet.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:34

Honestly, it's all the unglamorous sides of it. You know, I almost never worry about the performances because we we book great acts, so I know that they're always going to be great. It's all the infrastructure. We take an empty parking lot and turn it into a festival site. So fencing.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:51

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:52

Toilets, number of chairs.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:55

And for you, event planning, like what's one some of the things that you're just like meticulous about?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:59

I obsess about the beer being cold. Cold storage is like Cheers to you. Cheers cold beer.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:07

Nothing's better better than cold beer at a good festival.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:09

Well, and it's it's one of those things that sometimes gets overlooked, and it's like you you need to have cold storage, you need to have enough cold storage, and you need to make sure that you know the beer is sitting cold for a period of time before it gets put on. And again, that was one of the challenges of us doing draft there for so long because middle of July, sometimes there's thirty thirty two degrees. Yeah, so much ice. So much ice, and just like you know, beer, beer needs to be cold, it needs to be served cold. It's great answer.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:36

That's good. I'd say the beer is more important than fences. It's just my

SPEAKER_05 1:06:40

I would say most people would agree. That's why I do what I do and you do what you do.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:44

Do you know what it's not necessarily more important than?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:46

Toilets.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:48

Also, garbage. Garbage is a big one.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:51

Actually, garbage and toilets are top tier as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:53

You would notice if it was dirty and there were shit everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:59

Do you remember the woodstock when they recreated that?

SPEAKER_04 1:07:03

That was me with his hangover at 5 a.m. this morning. That just joke. That was a terrible terrible thing. I should probably take that out.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:17

No, you should leave it in now. Question number six to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:20

Question number six to you. Okay. This is the dad question. What's this now? The dad question. Oh, yeah. This question. Okay. If you had. Oh yeah, so you actually answered this for a team, which was awesome. So if you had to do a music festival for elementary aged kids, what acts would you book?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:35

The same ones.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:36

They deserve to hear the same music that we're listening to.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:39

You answer that question like a gangster. Congratulations. That was really you made that smooth. Good job.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:43

And I fully agree with that. We made a conscious decision when our kids were born that we were not going to like go down the wiggles route or anything like that. So our kids listen to real music and they actually like they've discovered what they really like. And it's not necessarily what we've pushed on them, but they they do not listen to the kid.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:07

I do have to just tell a story because my three-year-old discovered uh what does the fox say the other day? Speaking of our dome days. Oh my god. I've listened to that more in the last three days than I ever did in my whole life.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:19

Oh my god. Okay, so I gotta tell you this because my wife hates me for this, but it's also hilarious. So my four-year-old, a song that is very obscure that my wife hates, but he asks for, is In a Gata de Vita.

unknown 1:08:33

What?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:34

I'm not even kidding. He says, Can can we listen to Iron Butterfly? And my wife's like, no.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:43

That's that's so cool. I think that's like less than 17 minutes of this song.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:52

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:53

Yeah, I love that you said you wouldn't change a thing. I and I agree with that.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:56

I think it's like introducing kids to real music talent is uh not that you know the other musicians for kids don't have talent.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:05

We know your three-year-old Snoop Dogg did a kid's record. Did you see that? Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:09

Maestro Fresh West also has a children's book for that matter. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:14

Um isn't there isn't there something to be said about like you know you've really made it as an artist when you're on Sesame Street? Yeah, I think so, yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:23

But I think Sesame Street has the same attitude. It's not like they're booking you know, that's what's music only.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:29

For next year, like if you want to like book like Rafi, I think all of us our age can be like I wouldn't be able to do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:34

I remember seeing Fred Penner as an adult, and it was amazing. Yeah, but that that's a different breed.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:39

Yeah, it was weird and cool though. Yeah, yeah, it was really cool.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:42

I I'd I'd rock out to baby beluga for sure. Exactly, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:45

Jackie and Mac. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:48

All right, next question. All right, is it is oh it's me. Yeah. So what's a more like kind of recent either recent to you or even just a newer on the scenes group that just can't leave your ear right now?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:09

Newer on the scene.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:13

I I think to Music Nova Scotia and that kind of like group of of artists that I've seen at like Nova Scotia Music Week, there's definitely some performers that come out of that that I can't get out of my my head. And what is the name? So like KO and there's a few million vibes. Yes, yeah, yeah, million vibes. What's the vibe? Million vibes.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:38

Oh my god, they're gonna be so pleased. Who else is in that Basil? Oh Basil. Oh my god, he's the sick.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:45

Who's performing this year in the world? Oh, very cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:47

Okay the guy from Hall of Famous was telling us about him. Yeah, yeah, great.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:50

Basil and brain dead.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:54

Oh my gosh, a Renier? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:56

Also very, very sweet. And they have other people that kind of pop in and out, but

Favourite Garrison Beers And PBJ Origin

SPEAKER_00 1:11:01

like millions of people.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:01

Yeah, that whole crew is great. Uh one of the standouts last year, who I've still been sort of following, is Bill Ricky. Oh my gosh, they're so great. More on a bit of a country twang to them, but really, really cool. Yes up and coming for sure. And again, I'll shout out Loviat. Very, very cool stuff happening there.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:20

And not new to the scene, but new album coming out, which I'm very excited for, is Jungle's new album. Okay. Yeah. I don't know if you know Jungle.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:29

Okay. You must be into funk a little bit, are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:32

I love a little funk. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:33

I had a I had a minute with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:36

You should check them out.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:37

All right, cool. Yeah. Um, I want to ask you a quick question there. Well, this will be this kind of my question. Uh okay. Garrison Grounds. I'm I'm really excited about this comedy festival. And since, you know, we might not get another chance to do the show before then. What comedy acts are you most excited for that's coming to that? There's some incredible names. Yeah. Is there like an act in particular you're you're you're you're fond of?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:57

Well, I'm looking forward to Nikki Glazer. Yeah, I'm just gonna be able to do that. I think like, you know, certainly like females in comedy are a little under female females on stage. Females on stage, but I think that's gonna be a really, really great show.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:11

And it's an all-lady lineup that night, is it not? Is that the one with Fenn? Yeah, yeah. Uh and uh the who else was there that night? I was uh I can't I mean I don't want to say Fortune Fortune, yeah, yeah. Fortune fimster. She was great.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:23

She's fun in Mindy. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:25

The Mindy Project. Oh, she's awesome. It's a great show. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think Nikki is one of the best comedians going right now. I think top, top, top five. Like, honest to God. She's she's like, I mean, she's always been pretty good. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:40

But like I think the the the roast has propelled her not really rose really. That was huge.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:47

Steph Toliv is performance. Yeah, cool. Yeah, super, super funny.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:51

I'm also a big fan of Taylor Tomlinson. I like her. I like her stuff. I like I like what she talks about and things like that. Yeah. She's not coming, but I just like her comedian.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:03

I'm not gonna be here that week, of course, is I'm gonna miss it, but I'm sad, I'm gonna miss it.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:06

I I know the Matt Reif shows are like probably gonna be some of the busier ones just because he's super fun of all of that. But like I find Andrew Schultz really funny. Um Schultz is awesome. Yeah, yeah. So Andrew Schultz looking forward to that, which is where, yeah, Cam Patterson, I just said yeah, right, who's on that show. He's great too.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:23

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:23

But I find like the best acts are when there's somebody up on stage that I'm unfamiliar with, and you're just like discovering new beauty of a festival, music, comedy, otherwise, discoveries.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:38

Absolutely. Like the Jazz Fest, you go down there, you're guaranteed you're gonna walk and hear something that you like and kind of blows your mind. And it's it's it's so cool. I went to Stan Fest last year for the first time, never been in my whole life. They're also such a cool festival.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:50

They're just 40 years, yeah, 35 years.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:52

40 years, so I'm going back to this year. Nice, and uh like really well running totally chill festival, very well run. Big spruce. Shout out to those guys up there, and they they do a great job with the beer at that event, right? I uh I loved it last year, and uh, we're going back.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:04

Nice, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:05

So all right. So now question number nine. This one is like philosophical.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:10

I don't even understand what you're this is when you've you've been at the tire shop for an hour and you're just losing the floor. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:17

I don't know what's happening in this one. Okay so if you were you're gonna be offered an unlimited budget to put on the festival next year.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:28

But is the government listening?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:30

Yeah, but for but for the entire year, Tim just turned off. You have to be cancelled. That's right. But for the entire year, you are going to be chased by a particular animal, and you can only get that unlimited budget if you don't get caught. And you have to pick between a cheetah, a bear, a monkey, or a crow. What animal are you gonna pick to avoid, evade for an entire year to get that unlimited budget?

SPEAKER_05 1:14:59

Say the animals I guess.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:00

So it's a cheetah, bear, monkey, and a crow.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:04

Like which animal are you the most fearful of? Is that kind of a just if they even catches you? It's like tag of it like tag. What do you mean you're gonna do that? What kind of bear?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:12

Like if it's like it's a big thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:13

If it catches you, you don't get the unlimited budget. Exactly. But I don't die. No, you don't die. Okay, but what kind of bear?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:19

Which bear is best?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:22

Bears, the beats, the battlestar dog. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:24

That was the right response. You know what? I just understood this question now, finally. It took me that long. Okay, well, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:30

Yeah, exactly. So you're being chased for an entire year. And one of these animals would get your ass.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:36

Oh my god. They will I mean you or me. I mean, I'm not I'm not not saying just you. I think the the you'd have like.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:42

Is a crow really gonna get you?

SPEAKER_05 1:15:44

Like, can I just stay inside all year?

SPEAKER_02 1:15:47

You could. That's what you pick your animal and you taught you tell us your strategy.

SPEAKER_05 1:15:51

I mean, honestly, it's gonna have to be the crow. I mean, they're the thing is with crows is that they will hold a grudge. They do, they're highly intelligent. They're one of the most intelligent animals. So and it passes down through generations. Did you know that?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:02

Yes, they teach their young to hate you. Crazy. Oh, yeah. Seriously, and they teach you to like you. They teach their young if a human is friendly and they'll bring you with your own. We have crows that don't ever give the house because the Android kids are not like you.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:13

See, this is the thing. So if I pick a crow, it that that's a lifelong grudge.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:19

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a generation.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:20

Whereas if I I don't know, I feel like the other ones, maybe they'd give up after a little while. Oh my god, I don't know. What's the lifespan of a crow?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:26

I don't know. Good question. Good question. I have no idea. Long enough. What's the average wind speed velocity of a swallow?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:33

Are you asking that because you actually know?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:35

He probably does. No. Oh, okay. That's a question because it's a question from Monty Python. Holy crap. Okay. Okay. All right. Are you teeing yourself up? Are we done with this question? No, no. So you pick Crow.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:47

I pick Crow.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:49

I don't know. I'm not putting the festival on. So I that's an irrelevant question.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:53

You can take a take a pass on that. Good for you. That's

Weird Questions Halifax Love And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_04 1:16:56

fair. I understand.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:58

Tell us in the comments if I chose right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:00

This last was too long. I would just like to say, I mean, you know, again, last time to say that. This question's too long. I'm not doing that one. So so to like be in the ones. No, stop, stop, stop. But but just like to be in Halifax, I mean, you both left, you both came back. What's your favorite thing about Halifax? You know, in your heart, what's your favorite thing about being in this city?

SPEAKER_05 1:17:22

I'm I'm gonna oh well now you have to ask the question. They're over here laughing at it. Is it funny? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:27

It wasn't funny to me. I didn't know. Yeah, I think it's okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:31

Okay, ask that question, then come back to your this.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:33

Okay, okay. I'll do my sentimental question as a last one. Yeah, exactly. That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:37

So if you had to pick four non-musicians to form a band, who would you pick and what would the name be?

SPEAKER_05 1:17:41

Right here at this table under the moniker TOB, obviously.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:45

There you go. Oh, all right. TOB stands for taking over, bitches. I'd tell you that, did I? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:51

So uh that's after my name, actually. Those three letters.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:57

That's your degree.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:59

I'm not CEO, I'm T O B.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:01

Sorry, I just didn't want that to go on too long. Okay, we're done with that? Okay, yeah, we're good. All right, good. All right, let's let's do that last bit. So, favorite thing about Halifax, just something endearing that you really love about this city. We've talked a lot about it. You guys all you guys we all left and came back, I think. Right? Not me. I stayed. You were you're solid. You never left. You're loyal. Faith was always there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:20

You first, Mike.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:22

Sorry, can you repeat the question? We've gone on too long. Meg's gone.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:27

I know I'm tabby out too. I'm sorry, get tired. Um favorite thing about Halifax?

SPEAKER_00 1:18:32

Favorite thing about Halifax. Yeah. Other than me. Hmm.

unknown 1:18:39

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:40

It's the people. It's the it's the people. And I I said this when I moved to Ontario, like I went to school in Ottawa, and then I was bartending, but I had been working at the Celtic Corner and then started another job. And my the one thing I could describe is like, okay, the I I felt this sense and no shade to like people from Ontario, but it's like people sitting at the bar weren't really engaging with each other. They kind of sit there unless they were being engaged with. And what I would notice in Halifax is two random people could be sitting side by side at the bar on a Friday night. Next day, buddy's going to their family barbecue with them. Fast friends, where you know, other places of the world don't have that. People are a little bit more guarded and and not standoff is just not the right word, but they're just not as like, you know, welcoming and like zero filter. So I find with Halifax, it's more people notice it and people say it all the time. We have a lot of people that, you know, associate with East Coasters with being really, really friendly and everything. But I just find Halifax, you can get to know people a lot quicker than other parts of the world.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:51

There's a certain kindness.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:51

Well, and just think like when you're it's kind of unique. When you guys were down at the brewery the other week there, just with chatting, it's like I I know more about you guys in five minutes than we've got.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:00

Yeah, we vibed immediately, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I think it was awesome meeting you as well. But what's your uh favorite thing about Halifax?

SPEAKER_05 1:20:06

I'll say the same thing as the people, but I'll say it in a very specific example. I've been working festivals for over 15 years. Big, big, big festivals, big Rolling Stones, tours, all this kind of stuff. I've done a lot of that kind of stuff. One of my favorite things to do at festivals is to stand at the very back of the crowd and see what's happening. You know, that it that is an exercise in community joy. And when I do it here in Halifax, there is such a special quality to that crowd, which is what the people bring. There is a kindness, there's a lot of love, there's just an extra sparkle to that joy. And I think that that is a really amazing thing to witness. It's a really amazing thing to be able to build here in the city. And, you know, it it's why I came back, and it's certainly why we do what we do at the Halifax Jazz Festival.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:56

So the people to again, you guys, thank you guys both so much. I uh thanks, Garrison, for hosting the show or this episode. And uh thanks. Please go check out the Halifax Jazz Fest, right? You got nothing to lose. It's free. You know, get out of the house, go have some fun.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:12

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:12

And also, you know, buy the paid tickets to support the festival the festival needs people to buy tickets so that it can continue on. It's so important. That's a really good point. And it's accessible. Like it's not, it's not crazy expensive. You see some ticket prices for shows in and around Halifax. Halifax Jazz is, you know, very, very affordable.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:34

Yes, box of tickets, follow our please follow our podcast. This is your first time listening. We really appreciate you guys sticking it out with us. Have a great day. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers, guys.