A Human Being In Conversation

I’ve been a music fan for most of my life but I didn’t really get into rock music until the mid seventies and the seventies were a great time to be a rock fan.  You not only had your favourite bands but you also had your favourite magazine and there were so many to choose from. There was Circus and Creem and Hit Parader and Rock Scene and Rolling Stone, of course. And, if you were a little more in...

In part two of my interview with Ira Robbins, we talk about the creation of his latest book, Marc Bolan Killed In Crash. Good fiction is like an abstract painting. The story is born out of the imagination of the writer, and I'm always curious about the inspiration behind that story. Marc Bolan Killed In Crash is the coming of age story of teenager Laila Russell, and her discovery of rock and...

Honey Jam began its life as a concert to celebrate the launch of a magazine issue. Now, 25 years later, Honey Jam provides opportunities for female artists to get invaluable access to mentors and performance coaches, as well as the chance to showcase their talents for industry insiders. In the beginning, though, there was no way that Ebonnie Rowe could have dreamed that Honey Jam would still be ar...

Wide Mouth Mason singer and guitarist Shaun Verreault has long been recognized as one of Canada’s finest blues rock guitarists. His long spidery fingers allow him to play incredible fiery riffs with casual ease.  The exploration of the guitar’s possibilities has been his lifelong pursuit but even his closest friends weren’t prepared for Shaun putting aside everything he knew about playing guitar a...

When Steve Jordan first introduced the concept of the Polaris Prize to the Canadian music industry, the idea was generally welcomed, though the artistic community was still a little sceptical going into the first show in 2006. Despite the scepticism, the Polaris Music Prize has flourished into and internationally recognized award. Steve Jordan is what they call a music man.  He started his career...

When Shauna de Cartier wanted to start Six Shooter Records, she found that it was going to be difficult to secure funding from outside sources. She didn’t have the track record to secure government grants and banks weren’t interested in lending her the money. And, when she approached the major labels, she found very little interest there too. So she had to find another way to get her artists in th...

In 2002 Darryl Hurs created Indie Week Canada, which has since become an annual event held each Fall in Toronto filled with music showcases by and a conference for independent artists. In the years since its inception Darryl has also helped mount similar events internationally. When Indie Week was first established though, Darryl needed to be able to articulate to sponsors what set his event apart...

Over the past 40 years, Ron Mann has produced and directed a dozen films focused on Canadian and American culture. His wide ranging subjects include comic books, jazz, beat poets, the war on marijuana, environmental activism and film director Robert Altman.  In 2018 he turned the camera lens on Carmine Street Guitars, Rick Kelly’s cramped music shop  in Greenwich Village. The result is a criticall...

Prince fans will instantly recognize the name Susan Rogers.  She is the stalwart engineer that worked beside Prince during the commercial peak of his career from Purple Rain through to Sign O’ The Times .  By the time Susan had come to work with Prince he was already being referred to as a musical wunderkind thanks to five critically acclaimed albums including 1999 , which had just become his firs...

Pretty much anyone who’s ever had a conversation with me about my favourite bands knows that my Mount Rushmore of seventies rock are KISS, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and Starz. So imagine my surprise when I discovered a new book called They Just Seem A Little Weird that discusses the influence these four bands have had on rock and roll. I mean KISS, Aerosmith and Cheap Trick, okay, but I didn’t think...

Rush's Geddy Lee called Gordon Lightfoot a timeless songwriter. Robbie Robertson of The band calls Gordon Canada’s national treasure. His longtime friend, Bob Dylan, inducted Lightfoot into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame calling him one of his favourite songwriters and has often been quoted saying that when he hears a Gordon Lightfoot song, he wishes it would go on forever. Early Morning Rai...

Some of the artwork discussed in this episode can be seen on The Creationists Podcast on Facebook and Instagram.   Hugh Syme is easily Canada’s most successful and recognizable album cover designer.  If, for some reason, you don’t know the name, you will definitely know the work he’s created for some of the world’s biggest artists including The Band, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Earth, Wind and Fire and...

Photos and video of the project discussed in this episode can be found at The Creationists podcast on Facebook and Instagram. When Canadian-born-San Francisco-based Gisela Schmoll shifted career paths from industrial design to architecture she knew that there would be challenges but she never anticipated that finding a contractor to bring her unique designs to life would be one of them. Do you rem...

One of the things I wanted to explore in this series of interviews was how to create a TEDx Talk.  Coincidently, one day I got an email pitch from Greg Hemmings, a filmmaker in Saint John New Brunswick. As I researched Greg I discovered that not only does he weave social consciousness into his work but he’s also created not one, but three TEDx Talks. *** Greg Hemmings: It’s interesting because I n...

Photos and other content related to this episode can be seen on The Creationists podcast on Facebook and Instagram. Are you one of those people who have fantasized about changing the course of your life? Of taking control and spending each day doing the one thing that you love the most? If so, then this is the episode for you. Pauline Loctin was a computer programmer in Montreal building and maint...

When I first reached out to Toronto based artist Alice Zilberberg, I thought that this would be a conversation about photography. I soon learned that what Alice does is so much more. The list of awards Alice Zilberberg has received for her artwork is remarkable for someone so young. She most recently received first place in the International Photography Awards for her surreal portraits of wild ani...

Thanks to his massively popular CBC program, Under The Influence, Terry O’Reilly has become one of Canada's most recognizable ad men. He has been a director and copywriter and has run his own multi award-winning agency as well as having written the books The Age of Persuasion and This I Know. And, his Under The Influence podcast has over 30 million downloads. What I’m trying to tell you is th...

For close to 40 years, Toronto’s Now Magazine has been one of North America's preeminent and successful cultural guides. But it  wasn't always that way. 18 months after launching Now Magazine was struggling and founders Michael Hollett and Alice Klein were hoping to find new investors to keep the doors open. One of the potential investors was City TV’s Moses Znaimer who pulled Michael as...

In 2017, the McMichael Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario debuted a unique exhibition.  Known as the home of Canada’s renown Group of Seven paintings, the McMichael gallery hosted the first showing of The Group of Seven Guitar project featuring seven early Canadian guitar builders paying tribute to the original Group of Seven painters.  The project was originally conceived and initiated by Linda...

When I first reached out to Toronto based designer Hillary MacMillan, my plan was to ask her how she went about creating a fashion line, which we eventually did talk about. But what impressed me even more was how important it was for Hillary to weave her own social consciousness into her work.

Welcome to the Creationist, a podcast about people who create. I think it's safe to say that we've all had a tendency to ignore the public art that is all around us in our daily lives. But as soon as we travel, our social feeds become cluttered with selfies in front of works of art that locals in that town otherwise ignore themselves. Glass artist David Pearl has been creating stunning w...

Linda Manzer is a Canadian luthier who has built custom instruments for hundreds of musicians around the world including Carlos Santana, Bruce Cockburn and Gordon Lightfoot. Her most notable association though is with Pat Metheny who has commissioned over 20 guitars from Linda including the unique (bizarre) 42 string Pikasso guitar. 

You know that old saying that we all have a book inside of us?  Well, it turns out that hockey historian Kevin Shea has has twenty books inside of him with  more on the way. In this episode, Kevin reveals how a story about Bozo the Clown helped to turn his passion for hockey into an unexpected second career as an author.

As a kid, Ian Andrew saw golf course design as an artform. He has since become world renown not only as a design but as a restoration specialist bringing classic courses back to their former glory.

The Creationists is a podcast about people who create.  Each episode features an interview with a different creator talking about their creative process and the adversity they face in achieving their goals. To see more materials related to each episode of The Creationists, follow @thecreationistspodcast on Instagram or "Like" The Creation podcast on Facebook.