Q with Tom Power

About a decade ago, Anjulie found huge success writing catchy pop songs that were all over Canadian radio and MuchMusic. She won a Juno Award, she was writing songs for the likes of Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson, and there was a bidding war between some of the biggest labels in the world who were desperate to sign her. But then, at the height of her success, Anjulie walked away from music to focus...

The Toronto-based DJ and producer BAMBII melds electronic music with her Caribbean roots — but the path to making her own songs hasn’t been clear cut. First, she started her own rave series as a way of getting better at DJing while also hearing the music she wanted to dance to. From there, she learned how to produce her own music. In 2023, she released her debut EP, "Infinity Club,” which won elec...

Tired of her blindness being seen as tragedy, Toronto theatre maker Devon Healey designed an immersive stage show to take audiences into her experience. The production, “Rainbow on Mars,” is based on her own journey into blindness at age 21, and it features a cast of performers with varying levels of vision. Devon sits down with guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about reframing blindness as an invi...

The hit series “Severance” managed to knock “Ted Lasso” out of its place as the most-watched show on Apple TV+. That’s partly due to its unique premise, which explores a nightmarish experiment to enforce work-life balance by splitting a person’s consciousness into two. There’s the you that goes into work (your “innie”) and the you that lives outside of work (your “outie”). A few months ago, actors...

You never know who you might meet at a Canadian gas station. Back in March, AHI sat down with Tom Power to tell us how a chance encounter at a truck stop in Thunder Bay inspired him to pursue music full-time. He also sets up a song off his new album, “The Light Behind the Sun.”

Back in 2023, Debby Friday won the prestigious Polaris Music Prize for her debut album, “Good Luck.” When she sat down to write her next record, it would’ve been easy to stick with what worked the first time, but instead, Debby made a conscious decision to do things differently. The result is her most ambitious album yet, “The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life.” From dance floor bangers to intimate ball...

Amar Wala is a Canadian film director and writer whose debut film, “Shook,” follows a South Asian man named Ash who’s navigating issues of love, family and identity in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. Amar joins guest host Garvia Bailey to talk about the challenges of transitioning from documentary to narrative film, the personal parallels between the main character’s journey and his own, and wh...

Abraham Anghik Ruben is a world-renowned sculptor who’s been creating groundbreaking and genre-defining work for the last five decades. The Inuk artist is best known for his multidimensional sculptures, which he carves out of stone, ivory, bronze and bone, but more recently, he’s also taken up painting. With an ongoing solo show at the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq, Abraham joins guest host Garvia...

When Canadian musician Charlie Houston was a student at NYU a few years ago, she took a weed edible that gave her a really bad trip. It was so bad that she quit music, dropped out of school and moved back in with her parents in Toronto. Earlier this year, Charlie released her debut album, “Big After I Die,” which explores the precarious and often surreal experience of transitioning between phases...

World-renowned fashion designer Prabal Gurung grew up in a turbulent household, with an abusive father at home and bullies at school who teased him for being too feminine. It was only when he moved to New York City to work with designers like Donna Karan and Cynthia Rowley that Prabal began to embrace the things that made him different. His new memoir, “Walk Like a Girl,” is a tribute to the women...

Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth, The Aviator, Tár) is one of the most respected actors of our time. She's an on-screen chameleon who transforms into whatever role she plays, taking on whatever accent is required of her — so much so that she says it’s easy to forget what she actually sounds like. At last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Cate sat down with Tom Power for a thoughtful conversatio...

Heather and Arizona O'Neill are more than just mother and daughter — they're creative partners, storytellers and travel companions. Their latest collaboration, a novel called “Valentine in Montreal,” is already an instant bestseller. Heather wrote the book, which was first published in weekly installments in the Montreal Gazette, and Arizona illustrated it. The mother-daughter duo join Tom Power t...

Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta, Causeway, The Book of Mormon) has become one of Hollywood's busiest actors. On the new series “Dope Thief,” he plays Ray Driscoll — a complex character who’s dealing with generational trauma, addiction and grief. Back in April, Brian joined Tom Power to talk about the role, the epiphany he had that reframed the way he looks at his career, and how he put his imposter syn...

Mo Amer's comedy career couldn't be going any better right now. His semi-autobiographical TV show “Mo” is a big success and he’s currently on a massive stand-up tour. But even though his professional life is thriving, certain things in his personal life are a bit more complicated. Mo joins Tom Power to talk about the pressure he’s feeling as a Palestinian American comedian, the emotional conversat...

Multi-Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo is now the first Black African performer to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This past March, she joined Tom Power from our Montreal studio to talk about her incredible career in music. Angélique reflected on her childhood in Benin, how she fled to France to escape her home country’s strict military dictatorship, and what that exp...

Bestselling author Ruth Ware doesn’t do sequels, or so she’s said. After nine standalone psychological thrillers, the British novelist has released “The Woman in Suite 11,” which is a follow-up to her hit 2016 book, “The Woman in Cabin 10.” Ruth sits down with guest host Ali Hassan to tell us how her readers persuaded her to take another look at her character Lo Blacklock — a travel journalist who...

Comedian Robby Hoffman is having a big year. She was just nominated for an Emmy for her role in the hit HBO show “Hacks,” where she plays a character based on her own experiences. Plus, her Just For Laughs show in Montreal this summer is sold out. But Robby hasn’t had a conventional path into comedy. From leaving an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic community in Brooklyn as a kid to living in Montreal with h...

The Montreal musician Yves Jarvis spent a year listening only to Frank Sinatra when he wrote his sixth and latest album, “All Cylinders.” He says it’s the least contrived thing he’s ever done. Not only did he produce the record, but he also plays every instrument on it, blending genres like bluegrass, jazz, folk and even yacht-rock in unexpected ways. Back in March, Yves joined Tom Power to tell u...

Yesterday, Ozzy Osbourne passed away at age 76. The Black Sabbath frontman will be remembered for his music, his antics on stage and his family’s reality television show, “The Osbournes.” In 2022, Tom Power sat down with the Prince of Darkness himself to discuss his new album at the time, “Patient Number 9.” But they also spoke about the legacy that Osbourne hopes to leave behind, his love for his...

Acclaimed music video director Joseph Kahn has worked with everyone from the Backstreet Boys to Taylor Swift, but in 2004, he expanded into feature films. His latest creature feature “Ick” is a horror-comedy that just had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Back in September, Joseph joined Tom to talk about the movie, what inspired it, and his prolific career directing m...

Blake Shelton is back with his first new album in nearly four years, “For Recreational Use Only.” The country star joins Tom Power to talk about retiring from the hit TV show “The Voice” after 23 seasons, feeling burned out, and being unsure about whether he would ever release a new record. Plus, Blake shares how an unexpected collaboration with Post Malone helped him fall back in love with music....

Saya Gray might have just released her debut album earlier this year, but it’s far from her first foray into music. She’s been gigging since she was a teen, performing alongside much older musicians at Toronto jazz clubs where she had to use a fake ID to get in. Eventually, she started touring with the likes of Daniel Caesar and Willow Smith. Now, her debut album, “Saya,” has just been shortlisted...

When Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords, Our Flag Means Death) started to notice the way AI had sunk its teeth into Hollywood, he decided to speak up. In his new stand-up show, “The Legend Returns,” the New Zealand actor and comedian sets out to prove that robots could never do what he’s doing live on stage. Rhys joins Tom Power to tell us what’s been on his mind when it comes to AI in the arts,...

When Jessica B. Hill was a kid, she saw a play at the Stratford Festival that she found so inspirational she wrote the word “Stratford” on a piece of paper and put it on her ceiling. Now, she’s an award-winning actor and playwright who’s appearing in three plays at Stratford this season: “As You Like It,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “Dangerous Liaisons.” Jessica sits down with Tom Power to talk ab...

After 16 years as a stay-at-home mom, Zarna Garg felt like she needed to reinvent herself. She tried a few different business ventures (disposable toothbrushes, vegan chilli and matchmaking), but none of them stuck. Then she decided to give comedy a go and everything changed. Now, Zarna has released a new stand-up special, "Practical People Win,” which highlights her unlikely journey into comedy....