the Wikkid podcast

An influx of new voices into the podcast is announced, including my elusive sister, my old bandmate Troy, and Jay Semko, singer, songwriter and bass player for The Northern Pikes, and a host of others. Three ways people tend to deal with conflict. Writing songs. A revisiting of what's been asserted by the podcast thus far.

Last episode of Season Two. I've always had a deep and abiding interest in evil. (Not in doing it. In how it's depicted one way in the bible, and a very different way everywhere else). Making self-fulfilling prophecies about other people. Homer, Virgil, Dante, Goethe, Milton and so on. All the guys. Spitting in the eye of despair. Additional Musicians Adam Cavanaugh: saxaphone sample Tyler Irving:...

Cars rusting in fields. Gene Simmons of KISS action figures. Bass players and pretty girls who alike don't show up. Being told you're laid off work. Again. Did I write this song or did Martin Luther, Fanny Crosby or Thom Yorke? Tyler uses whatever he's got lying around the house. Two main kinds of churches selling two main kinds of product. What suited me about my own church, in retrospect. When a...

I get some help to attempt an country song, sung by the Almighty. Life advice for me from an 80s hair metal shredder lead guitarist. Neon pink, bubblegum-flavoured church icing on your steak and mashed potatoes. Why doesn't Michael Sweet age? How much of Stryper is, as he claims, mainly just him? The Christian answer to everything (besides "go to church") is "surrender all to God." (Let go and let...

What if your church took everything, leaving you nothing to "surrender all" to God? If God's real, are we cool with Him being a person with a personality? If so, what kind of personality? What does He want? Some lions are "Born Free" (by Andy Williams) and others aren't. Slipping restraining bolts, dwarf-following and joining Starfleet through the wardrobe. People can make texts appear to have onl...

Drunks who get saved into churchified sobriety have to ensure they don't backslide into the gutter, the misery and the puke. But people like me? We had to ensure we didn't backslide into that grey, bland, paranoid, controlled, muted, competitive piety thing. The "everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here now, thank you." culture, with people dying inside. Why you don't...

What happens when people are "raised on rails," like locomotives on tracks that take them to church and nowhere else, and they jump out of the groove and start heading up the road at speed? How bad can things get? Was the Lord speaking? (If trigger warnings worked, this ep would surely have one.) Additional Musicians backing vocals: Debbie Moore-Michelin keyboards: Harold Satomayor painting on map...

Excommunicated! Shunned for Life! Unintentional fundamentalist outreach porn. (The winner of last week's Retro 90s Trivia Contest is Evan Sauve, who wasn't born yet in the 90s, with Troy Tuttle being disqualified due to having been at most of the same concerts I was at, giving him, I felt, an unfair advantage. ) This week: Failing to meet parental fundamentalist expectations, and trying to maintai...

A Wikkid Contest: There's a 90s pop culture game in this week's podcast! Email me at wikkidperson@gmail.com with your best identification of the many 90s computer and video game sounds, standup comics and live bands in the montage that starts around 20min in. Winners will be mentioned by name (unless they request otherwise) in future podcast episodes. Exploring the idea that The World, rather than...

The giant killer conscience, created in the lab/church, goes on a rampage, stamping on pool halls, arcades, video rental stores, Dungeons & Dragons and other random things. Our church divides in two, and I try my first beer, movie at the theatre, and live musical act, at age 21.

Sick of trying to sharpen iron on jello, our protagonist starts frequenting people who are smarter than he is, and crazier too. Looking for Mr. Miyagi. Poetry intended to cause offense. Too much thinking being done, in the opinion of the old folks at church. Stealth beer. Kids raised too blandly crave intensity. Scottish drinking songs. My best "fit" in a band. I don't sing the lead vocals on this...

As I grew up in Canada with a French-Canadian grandmother and a British one, and as Quebec is a short drive from here, as is America, there's a lot to say about that. Pretty short podcast episode, though. Stuff about all things French, having French Brethren who needed a translation other than the King James Version to read, and who were culturally fairly unBrethren. Les petit phoques suffoque sur...

Girls. Chickadees. Depression helped along by a double-barrelled romantic failure to launch. Meeting Brethren creatives? Trying to sing like Robert Smith? A very silly song. Addtional Musicians: Ukelele: Mindy Amelotte Tuba: Paul Norris Michael Vedder vocals: Michael Vedder Mastering: Ty Tabor

By listener request, I break down the contradictory basic theology spoon fed to use as Christian kids. Also, I talk about vows made while drunk on the mountaintop experience of youth camp and bible conferences. A case against repression and denial of flaming youth. Sometimes you need more cowbell but you don't have one. It might get loud.

In order to grow out of things, you need to change, and change is hard and can be scary. I get my first multitrack recorder and explore various things that could be done with it. Home-made smurfs. Backwards guitar solos. Does Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" really say "it's fun to smoke marijuana" when played backwards? Meeting non-Meeting musicians. Why recording a band is hard. Why working...

The last episode of season one, about the last song on The Story of Peter Grey . It's about words helping, but not being enough. It has humpback whales. Additional Musicians Original Drums: Tim Searles New Drums: Chris Metcalfe RotoVibe Bass, electric guitar and backing vocals: Bill Ranger Featured Guitar solo and Edge-work: Troy Tuttle Choir: Debbie Moore-Michelin, Andrew "Mish" Michelin, Michael...

This Wikkid Wednesday, it might get loud. Why were loud music, loud clothing and other intense experiences, somehow threatening to our fundamentalist upbringing? Why did exuberance make the other folks uncomfortable? How did I find my way from Neil Diamond to White Zombie? A sad tracing of the attempts of a man with a smooth baritone voice to shred or otherwise do metal. Is it possible to do all o...

An attempt at something more akin to cinematic score, commemorating the worst place I ever lived. I get a violinist and a bass singer in. Stories of trying to connect with Christians outside the church I grew up in. Additional Musicians Violins: Tanya Onysko Bass vocal: Julian Kolbaiev Featured Bridge vocal: Debbie Moore-Michelin Blood-curdling scream: Bill Ranger

That special feeling when a relationship you were counting on fizzles out. Do hardships make depression worse? Layering things over a two-chord symphony. Mr. Wizard plays with dry ice into a microphone. Additional Musicians: Backing vocals: Debbie Moore-Michelin, Mindy Amelotte Drums: Chris Metcalfe Harmony: Chris Pasely Additional electric guitar textures: Troy Tuttle Playing the part of "Syd" Ba...

This week's episode goes into the lifelong, fruitless quest to bear fruit, to be someone who doesn't accept yourself, yet find someone who accepts you. Also, endlessly, obsessively messing around with songs that sound too much like other songs. In fact, this week's episode is very music heavy. Additional Artists: Featured Female Vocal: Mindy Amelotte Female Backing Vocals: Debbie Moore-Michelin Sp...

Trying to start something with a woman seemed on a level with attempting a trip to the moon. John Brereton holds forth on the evils of teaching contraception in sex ed class at school, all without uttering the words “sex” or “contraception.” Paul Washer insists that it’s definitely not poetry. Kris Priestap sings in 1989. I discover that theremins are the most fretless instruments I have attempted...

Bitterness: like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die? A serious look at suicidal ideation, youthful resentment and a mania for bladed weapons. A church culture in which there were few worse sins than being resentful if they mistreated you, and "forgiveness" was your job, not theirs. I was delighted to score a session player who could do Spanish guitar. Had to play conga drums mys...

A bit of an irate response to cheery folks who don't want the rest of us to bring them down. "Don't Worry Be Happy" was not my favourite song in the 80s. Personnel: Replacement Drums: Chris Metcalfe Bass: Adam Fogo Slide Guitar: Trevor Finlay Johnny Rotten stand-in: Bill Ranger Sean Connery stand-in: Dave Whelen ...with Mike Dubue and Suki Akemi Wellman playing the parts of "Ken" and "Jen."

What was adolescent depression like? How did school and youth group make it much worse? How to turn abject misery into something rhythmic and melodic. Learning about vintage tube amps, doubled tracks and odd percussion choices. (Note, although seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is certainly a huge problem at Christmas time because it's December, many mental health professionals do not believe that...

This episode is the "church background" one, making it the longest of this whole podcast series. I'm trying out the "chapters" function so people can skip bits if they like. This one has to go into it all: Church intrigue. Weaponized bible. Personal and family sacrifice. Tradition vs. change. Competitive piety pageants. Does God really hate fun as much as we were led to believe? Additional musicia...