Welcome with Karim Kanji

Any Night Of The Week – A DIY History of Toronto Music 1957-2001 just might be one of the most important books about the Toronto live music scene ever written. In this episode Karim Kanji speaks with author, musician and co-founder of Wavelength Music, Jonny Dovercourt.

Anuk Karunaratne is the Executive Vice President of Business Operations for the Toronto Blue Jays. Before the start of the 2021 regular season we sat down for a look back at the 2020 season as well as a look forward to the 2021 season and beyond.

Born in Toronto in 1951, Greg Godovitz has been an active member of the Canadian music industry since 1964. The year 2021 marks his 57th anniversary as a musician. His recorded works with Toronto based group Fludd produced eight top ten hits including the SOCAN Hall Of Fame inductees Cousin Mary, Brother and Me and Turned 21 which have reached the amazing milestone of over 100,000 airplays. Greg w...

Justine Giles is a folk singer songwriter based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Originally from Sudbury, Ontario, Canada Justine was the 2020 Jim Beam Talent Search National Finalist, Calgary Region Winner.

Toronto-based Bad Breed started out as a hard-edged combination of punk rock and 60s R&B. Inspired by the sounds of Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Betty Davis and Led Zeppelin, the muscular funk, lightning-sharp guitar riffs and soulful songs of love and despair from their latest album are a testament to the transformative and ferocious power of love.

Danny Miles is best known as the drummer of Juno Award-winning alternative band July Talk. Danny is also drummer and co-producer of the Alternative Hip Hop group Tongue Helmet and an avid bird photographer.

Zulekha Nathoo is an award-winning Canadian multimedia journalist currently based in Atlanta, Georgia. After almost two full decades with CBC she is currently a contributor for BBC Worklife. In this episode we talk about her career, sacrificing for her career, living in the US as a Canadian, her past ball hockey career, her short stint as a world class air guitarist, and what it's like to raise a...

Dubbed “Hip Hops kid sister”, Keysha Freshh blends everything you love about the 90’s with everything you appreciate about Hip Hop. Born in Toronto, Keysha found a love for hip hop spending summers in NYC. She was exposed to the culture at an early age, listening to mixtapes her cousins would have. Keysha had her first song published when she was 5 years old, the song was titled “Summers coming” a...

Hotel Isabella was built in the 1890s in Toronto. During it’s first heyday it was a fancy hotel that people went to for weddings and anniversaries. In the 1970s and 80s it was known as a jazz bar. In the 1980s and 90s Gregg’s band, International Boundaries, played the basement bar of Hotel Isabella, Under The Izzy. There was also a main floor venue called Cameo Lounge. Besides Gregg, the Hotel Isa...

Paul Chin is a Polaris Music Prize-nominated producer that has risen from a pedigree of classical training, to discovering bedroom production; then years of releasing music as a beatmaker's beatmaker; followed by almost a half-decade of inwardly-focused musical exploration, practice, and collaboration. The Toronto artist's return to the market – while easy to be apprehensive about – begins a new c...

Here's the first episode in a series we're doing called Lost Venues. We'll explore lost concert venues through the eyes of former musician Gregg Tilston. Gregg was 16 when he started playing live gigs with Plastic Dollz from Whitby/Ajax, Ontario. The first gig in Toronto was at Larry's Hideaway.

Half fable, half manifesto, this brilliant new take on the ancient concept of cash lays bare its unparalleled capacity to empower and enthrall us. The Money Plot: A HISTORY OF CURRENCY'S POWER TO ENCHANT, CONTROL, AND MANIPULATE. Frederick Kaufman tackles the complex history of money, beginning with the earliest myths and wrapping up with Wall Street’s byzantine present-day doings. Along the way,...

In the spring of 1965, Bill Cosgrave was smuggled across the border into the United States after receiving an irresistible invitation from his captivating friend Mary Werbelow. When he made it to her apartment in Los Angeles, Mary introduced Bill to her boyfriend, Jim Morrison. The two young men quickly bonded. When Jim and Mary’s relationship faltered, Jim headed for Venice beach with his noteboo...

Ian Keteku is a poet, musician author and artist. Ian Keteku earned the title of World Slam Poetry champion in France in the summer of 2010 and is also a two-time Canadian poetry slam champion.

Meg Warren is our first guest of 2021. After starting the multiple award-winning band Repartee in 2009, they criss-crossed Canada for 8 years, driving the van to hundreds of shows across the country. A high point in her career came in 2016 when what started as a little song idea about fighting for the people you love called ‘Dukes’ became the most added song across all radio formats across Canada...

Nick Kypreos is a retired hockey player who won the Stanley Cup while a member of the New York Rangers. Nick also played for the Hartford Whalers, Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs. Most recently he spend over two decades with Sportsnet as a hockey analyst and insider. Today he is host of the Real Kyper at Noon show on YouTube and part owner of the Little Buddha Cocktail Company.

During the last year of school, Chin Injeti recorded an indie album of the band in a home studio built by his father & brother. That CD ended up selling 70,000 copies and served as his introduction to the music industry! The band (by then known as Bass is Base) went on to gain fans all over the world and garnered a deal with Universal Music and Island records in the United States. Fronted by Injet...

Twin Flames: The husband and wife duo of Chelsey June, Métis (Algonquin Cree) from Ottawa, and Jaaji, Inuk and Mohawk from Nunavik, are long celebrated for their sonic soundscapes spanning Canada and the Arctic, and honouring their ancestors through song in English, Inuttitut and French.

Al Strachan is a member of the media section of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Al is a best selling author of 6 books as well as a former sports writer with The Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail and Montreal Gazette. His latest book is Hockey's Hot Stove - The Untold Stories of the Original Insiders.

Bob McKenzie is the original TSN Hockey Insider. Bob has covered hockey for 40 years. He was the editor in chief of The Hockey News as well as a hockey columnist for the Toronto Star. His latest book (co-authored by Jim Lang) is called Everyday Hockey Heroes, Volume II.

Originally from the Cree community of Mistissini, Quebec, and now based in Montreal, Angel Baribeau first started through the formation of her early indie folk outfit, Simple Human Tribe. For Those I Love(d) is her first EP which earned a Top 3 spot on Apple Music Pop Canada’s charts soon after its Summer 2020 release.

James Duthie is an award-winning sports broadcaster with Canada's TSN. He is also the author of many books including Beauties: Hockey's Greatest Untold Stories. James was/is also an aspiring musician and songwriter. Near the end of our conversation you will discover a quirk about James that he shares (kinda) with recent guest Harnarayan Singh. This is Episode #248 of the Welcome! podcast.

velours is a bilingual alternative pop singer songwriter currently based in Saskatoon Saskatchewan, Canada.

In between recording sessions, GRAMMY Award winning producer and musician, Chin Injeti, popped by for a quick hello with hosts Gregg Tilston and Karim Kanji.

Ken Hall is one half of the award-winning 2-MAN NO-SHOW improv duo and has starred in the TBS show People of Earth as well as the Netflix movie, Polar. Currently, he can be seen in the hit Netflix series, The Umbrella Academy as Herb as well as the body for Pogo. Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy starts filming in early 2021.