Lyle Bell will shout secrets

ep14 – Lyle Bell will shout secrets

[00:00:00] Lyle Bell is a career artist that’s a literal use of the word artist. The sum of his creative output is not restricted to music, to album cycles, but instead to producing multiple musical projects at once. The music, the art, the costumes, the videos, some escaping regional landlock to a greater audience and some that do not.

But also his painting, and photography work. He’s an incredible live music photographer. Most careers are tempered with a mindless day job to pay bills, not a blossoming secondary artistic talent. Most careers might feature one band, one project that hits a peak and crosses over into some version of measurable success.

Lyle has had three or five, depending on your definition of such. Molly’s Reach Slow, Fresh Oil. Whitey Houston. Shout Out. Out, Out, Out The Wet Secrets. I mean, The Wet Secrets produced three full length albums and [00:01:00] an EP between 2007 and 2017, won a hundred grand in the Peak Performance project, signed with six shooter records and became infamous for their performances in Bright Red marching Band uniforms.

Shout Out, Out, Out. Out was a Juno nominated dance, punk electoral band producing three full length albums and a bunch of singles in collabs. Between 2006, 2012, showing up on soundtracks like mass effect three, which was massive. So the cliche of everything he touches turns to gold might actually be true, except for his own perception that none of those projects ever quite crested the wave of enough fame or enough money or whatever his own initial admission is.

I am still in the trenches. This is the life of the indie rockstar. Maybe back when music always came with packaging, an enthusiast would enthusiastically scour the liner notes of a band’s new record, absorbing all the [00:02:00] names and the instruments, and the producers and the equipment. Sowing the seeds of indie music snobs.

Who knew when the bassist of this band also plays bass in that band who play with the little sister of the drummer of the other band that the bass has started with? That’s Lyle Bell. He’s the guy threaded through the music snobs, mental encyclopedia. Every town has a local hero. I think every town has a Lyle.

Needs a Lyle. My name is Glen Erickson. This is almost famous enough. Thanks for spending your time with us. This is Lyle Bell.

 

Glen Erickson: Live with Lyle Bell

Lyle Bell: glad that wasn’t, uh, recorded. Oh,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: intro.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Crazy [00:03:00] Preambles. Okay. Um, thanks for joining me, Lyle Lyle Bell of, um, so many different things. So we’re gonna cover all these different things. I guess some people might call you local Edmonton hero of the music scene.

So I’m gonna ask you some questions about that. But right now you look like so comfortably set with, you know, a nice mic set up, but like right square in the middle of a living room, it looks like as you’re set up almost, are you sitting at home and you’re beautifully decorated?

Lyle Bell: This is, uh, I mean, our whole house is essentially just one art zone.

so sort of have a little, a studio and a photo studio. I’ve got, of course, as everyone should have a, uh, a flute that I’m now learning to play.

So,

Glen Erickson: A, yeah, a yas flute. Is that a Yas Flute? So then you’re obviously partnered up, with somebody, Kim, who, uh, shares the temperament for just letting the shit sit around everywhere as you work, because that’s the easy way to work. Is that a fair assumption?

Lyle Bell: I, I think it, both [00:04:00] of us go crazy, um, you know, in our own ways about having clutter and, uh, and fight back against that. She was actually cleaning this morning. Um.

Glen Erickson: Uh, appropriate timing.

Lyle Bell: she’s, she’s obsessed with, so like clothes and also has a little studio, a studio upstairs here, one of the rooms Plus, um, has her own studio elsewhere.

That

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: uh, where she does lots of costume designs and stuff like

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Well that’s great. I mean, I only ask ’cause I’m, yeah. I’m partnered up with somebody who would have none of it. Like, I remember years of coming back at like 3:00 AM after like playing the last closing time of gigs and carrying my shit in and having to take it down to the basement and put it in its right place.

And there was almost, anyhow, uh, so, you know, we worked through what we worked through. Right. But that’s okay. so you’re right here. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead.

Lyle Bell: we actually have just one point on that. We have a, a sort of, uh, spoken rule that we will get. The shit sort of sorted, but [00:05:00] to, we have a little bit of a buffer zone. So if either one of us is sort of a bad day and just don’t want to deal with it, then

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: we don’t get on each other

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: so if there’s stuff around mine or hers, it will, it will get dealt with eventually. But we just sort of have this like, buffer zone built into the marriage

Glen Erickson: You, you gotta, you gotta, right? Like that’s how we keep it going.

so I’m excited to have a conversation with you. I remember when I was first evolving my idea for this with Chris Wynters, he actually was the first guy who very quickly said your name, and he’s like, Lyle. He is gonna have some good stories, good conversation. And I was like, yeah, of course he is.

And uh, I’ve intersected with you a number of times in my life, in history, in the biz around Edmonton and beyond. So,

this is great. So you’ve got like a long history bud. Like you’ve got one of the longest histories of people I’m gonna get to talk to. You know, your first band, that was a real, pretty big takeoff band. I mean, that goes [00:06:00] all the way back to 92, I think, when that takes off with Molly’s reach. Right? And, and so you’ve got, like, besides all the other things that you’ve done, like musically, you’ve got like five significant projects that have, you know.

Gained traction in their own way, one way or then or another, enough to get on the web and survive. if that’s fair to say.

Lyle Bell: I, I feel like I’m still, uh, a guy in the trenches. and I feel like quite often I’m, I’m still sort of an unknown entity, or at least I don’t, uh, assume that anyone would know who I am.

Glen Erickson: That’s kind of interesting though, right? Yeah, I,

Lyle Bell: are pretty disparate, so, so it pulls from, you know, fans of one band may not be a fan of one of the other bands that I’ve been in. Uh, so you just never know who, which band is resonating with someone and, yeah.

Glen Erickson: Well I was gonna ask you about that part too, and we’ll get in there. ’cause like, these aren’t just sort of logical progression steps. Like, you, you seem to take like big leaps, right? Or left. And, and I. And [00:07:00] sometimes they’re with new people, which would be understandable. And quite often you’re taking the same people with you.

But, so out of these groups, there’s a whole bunch of overlap and like you said, sort of disparate stylistic endeavors as well. to which, you know, I, I’m curious sometimes how much your involvement is in pushing those or whether you were brought in. But maybe we could start with, sometimes I draw people’s timeline out on my conversations like this, but because there’s this overlap that I’m probably gonna get really wrong, a couple of times I thought maybe I would let you just give me the high flying, you know, I was doing this and then Molly’s reach was the first thing maybe that started to take off.

And now, you know, up to, you know, where the wet secrets left off maybe, or if there’s other things you could sort of give me that high flying timeline.

Lyle Bell: Yeah,

Glen Erickson: is that cool?

Lyle Bell: yeah, absolutely.

yeah, so, I mean, to me it’s not that the projects that I’ve done aren’t really that, uh, there’s a through line for [00:08:00] everything and, and it makes sense to me. Um, when I look back at it, it may be baffling for other people and just also focusing on a ton of different things, like in the last, I’ve always been, I’ve always had a camera. but just in the last 10 years, just really going down that rabbit hole and obsessively,

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: know, focusing on, on photo and, uh, video work. So, is kind of one of the main things now,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: design as well. So, so back to, we’ll back it up. So, um, the first band that really maybe had any impact was Molly’s reach. I’m, actually about to turn tomorrow,

Glen Erickson: then we’re the same age. Are you at 1970? You’re a 1970 kid then?

Lyle Bell: So

Glen Erickson: 71. Okay.

Lyle Bell: Man, I, this is embarrassing that I don’t even know how old I am anyway. Uh, my, so my birthday is actually tomorrow, which is, uh, kind of

Glen Erickson: Oh, holy shit. Happy birthday, bud. That’s fantastic.

Lyle Bell: you. [00:09:00] I’m, I’m spending my, uh, my birthday with, Chris Wynters.

I’m gonna shoot the Captain Tractor Show with

Glen Erickson: Oh,

Lyle Bell: that’s

Glen Erickson: that’s perfect. That’s beautiful.

Lyle Bell: so anyway, back to the early nineties. Met, uh, met these guys. I went to U of A briefly, and then got playing in bands and it was just a magical thing to me.

So the first band, Molly’s Reach was very much in a sort of teenage fan club, sort of power pop vibe.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: we did that for quite a while, like basically till about 1999. there were other bands sort of going at the time, like one never seemed. Like enough, there’s always other fun things to do, like something a little heavier.

I also always liked so much different, styles of music and like really broad, uh, you know, broad interests musically. So to

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: it wasn’t that weird to like both, uh, you know, like angle and, I don’t know, CAAs like that, you know? So, so there’s like, uh, and, and indie rock. I don’t know.[00:10:00]

There was, there was tons of stuff like that. Um, as I sort of went on, there were, uh, you know, sort of expanding it. There was slow fresh oil, which was gravy. Myself and Brent Oliver kind of doing indie rock and that was almost, it started as a experiment. Just we had time at CGSR and we’re just go in and spontaneously write random stuff.

So it’s like, it’s truly all over the map.

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.

Lyle Bell: kind of morphed into the two piece Whitey Houston, which was way heavier. That was like turning the distortion distortion way up. So that was just a bass and drum project with Gravy, Uh, so this is now around 2000. Whitey actually did fairly well. We went on, uh, mean, put out a record, on a, a ton of tours. This, this actually got me connected with six shooter. This is our

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: to six shooter. Was meeting Shauna in Toronto in probably 2004 or so, something like

Glen Erickson: Hmm. Okay.

Lyle Bell: they became our managers. They [00:11:00] have man on and off. I have,

Glen Erickson: For Whitey

Lyle Bell: on.

Glen Erickson: at the time.

Lyle Bell: Whitey, at that, around that time. It gets a little blurry because, um, the wet secrets also started, was, in my mind, we were gonna be sexy. Divo was the idea. Maybe like not, although Divo is sexy. Divo is sexy Divo. So, uh, kind of an art rock band.

It just was Without any, none of these, I mean, everything that I’ve done, there was no intention of it lasting more than a few shows, you know, or like playing locally. so a lot of this, a lot of this stuff ended up being, yeah, it can be obtuse and weird and obscene. Some of it is fairly obscene. And you don’t, you know, I don’t care. ’cause I just never thought that I’d have to explain this to, uh, to parents or border guard, crossing guards, like what the band name is and what we do.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: and, uh, you know, a thing again, like in the, with the devo comparison or, or Ween or something like [00:12:00] that.

Like, we wanted it to be absurd. we got, uh, for the Wet Secrets, it was kind of a little bit disco and a little bit, uh,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: I guess an intersection of that. And then, uh, Trevor’s mom, who actually lived in Red Deer and Trevor grew up in Red Deer, Trevor being the drummer.

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.

Lyle Bell: also filmmaker from Edmonton, who now lives in, uh, Toronto and Montreal.

Glen Erickson: Cool.

Lyle Bell: yeah, his mom found, uh, the, the Red Deer Royals were getting rid of their old outfits from the seventies. So she got us this, this insane deal and I still, we actually just pulled these out. Uh, wet Secrets are gonna be playing again this summer for the first time in

Glen Erickson: Yeah, I saw that.

Lyle Bell: I think. So,

Glen Erickson: Wow.

Lyle Bell: yeah.

And,

Glen Erickson: So the Red Deer Royals being a marching band back when they would have organized marching bands. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s the, the, that pure sort of seventies look

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: of, you know, you envision, uh, marching bands of the seventies and eighties. It’s that, uh, the huge hats and, [00:13:00] and big, uh, sort of ettes and

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: dress. So, so that, again, it seemed like slightly absurd, but we, we rolled with it,

Glen Erickson: yeah,

Lyle Bell: it also takes away. Like it is a bit of a costume, but we always sort of viewed it, uh, that we were a bit of a gang, know, gang mentality.

Glen Erickson: yeah,

Lyle Bell: it allows you to slip into a persona a little bit. And,

Glen Erickson: for sure.

Lyle Bell: you also don’t have to worry about the age old question. Like, uh, what are we wearing tonight?

Glen Erickson: Exactly.

Lyle Bell: unknown,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: unknown thing, and was a lot of fun that that band also, uh, got to travel a ton and, yeah.

Played, uh, a ton of amazing shows sort of around the world.

Glen Erickson: Yep.

Lyle Bell: made, three, four records, I guess. So, Uh,

Glen Erickson: uh, in the middle of that. It was also shout out, out, out, out.

Lyle Bell: yes.

Glen Erickson: I said four of them in there. So,

Lyle Bell: That’s,

Glen Erickson: yeah. So there was that overlap.

Lyle Bell: Yeah. To, to not, thinking it out in advance, that, you know, you’re gonna need to explain this name to your. parents or grandparents, whatever,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: look when you tell ’em what your band is [00:14:00] called. yeah. So that was, that was another thing. We, um, more Edmonton Edmonton sort of classic players and guys that I had known. Uh, Nick, I actually knew Nick when he was, just a little kid, like

Glen Erickson: Baby Nick.

Lyle Bell: Yeah. Baby Nick was, I had mutual friends. A guy that I learned to play guitar with I was in high school, was friends with, with Nick’s dad Wolf. So I would see Nick running around when he was like seven. little kid just like booting around.

Glen Erickson: talking about Nick Kozub, by the way, for listeners who’s kind of a well-known Edmonton guy, especially for his, electronic, maybe dance electronic, I’m not sure I’ll get the genre or sub genres right. But even normal’s welcome and the label that put a lot of stuff out for a while, so yeah.

Lyle Bell: And, and he’s still, I mean, he’s still recording. He works as a, as a producer and, um, leaned largely into mastering as well. But he’s, right now he is, uh, recording the, home front record.

Glen Erickson: Okay.

Lyle Bell: home [00:15:00] front also has a connection where Clint was, Clint was one of the drummers, uh, in shout outdo as well.

So

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: little full circle there anyway,

Glen Erickson: Clint Frazier, who is also the older brother of Emma who is in the Wet Secrets,

Lyle Bell: That’s right.

Glen Erickson: all kinds of circles here. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: yeah, I mean there are, there are sort of through lines, uh, with people that. Ended up being involved.

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.

Lyle Bell: it was Emma, Emma had known Kristen. We were looking for an extra, an extra horn player to originally just replace Paul. This is in Wet Secrets again,

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: to come out for a few dates on the road, but as soon as we got him in the band, it was just like another little magic moment and convinced him to sort of join full time.

So that was sort of

Glen Erickson: yeah,

Lyle Bell: I think the classic truly jelled lineup when, when we were, um,

Glen Erickson: yeah. I’d agree. I would agree. I.

Lyle Bell: yeah. And, and, um, I had been on a tour with the band Veal, uh, where we were opening, and Nick Kozub was actually the bass player, the third bass [00:16:00] player. I. In the, the veal, history.

Glen Erickson: Yep.

Lyle Bell: On the way back, we had discussed, um, just ’cause we were both really into synthesizers, I had been collecting synth, uh, and kind of using them in more of a punk rock way, like six Finger satellite maybe that sort of, vibe, with, slow fresh oil. anyway, Nick was sort of putting this new band together. He had a project and so Conscripted Gravy and I to be in shout out, out, out, out what became Shout Out, out, out, out, which was sort of a, a dance rock, uh, crazy dance rock band that, uh, just passed the 20 year mark as well last year. Uh, which seems crazy to me, but, um, it, and originally Gravy wasn’t quite sure that he wanted to do that.

So. It was not going to be a two drummer band. Uh, it was just gonna be gravy. But he was sort of waffling on it. And Clint found out about this project. Clint was only 17 at the time, but, uh, excitedly called, called Nick and said he wanted to play drums in that sort of like gravy. Then [00:17:00] sort of, uh, you know, he recanted and, and, uh, stayed in the band.

So we just at that point we’re like, okay, we’re gonna have two drummers, which was a financial disaster, it was really fit the, the bombast of that band.

Glen Erickson: Nobody cares about logistics. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: no, it’s another, another thing kinda like the name, the name has grown on me, but, you know, if you’re thinking that you’re gonna be making a, you know, an international push. You might think rethink some of these decisions. But at the

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: was again, just gonna be another fun, locked, uh, band doing something a little bit, a little bit different. There’s still a through line. Like the stuff that we were listening to at the time would’ve been like, add in to X and the Rapture, uh, DFA bands were all

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: of going at that time.

LCD Sound systems, so

Glen Erickson: Yep.

Lyle Bell: kind of stuff right off the hop, which was, um, I guess d Dance Punk Chick, chick Chick and the Juan McLean, kind of thing.

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: Uh, so that was sort of maybe [00:18:00] the, where that was coming from, but it still to me was punk rock in a way. You know, like

Glen Erickson: yeah,

Lyle Bell: pretty bombastic, uh, fuzzy get fuzzy bass and a pile of synthesizers, which I also loved.

So, yeah.

Glen Erickson: I mean, how, how can we tell that story though? Jumping all over the place, right? Like there’s just, again, the overlap and trying to find the through lines. So I’m gonna.

Lyle Bell: yeah,

Glen Erickson: I’m gonna drag back a bit and then try to pull some things out. so let’s go all the way back to Molly’s reach. uh, I’ve had a couple conversations here with people whose bands were t taking off in the nineties and what that nineties scene was in Canada and even in the world, and how, especially I, I mean, it’s kind of the rise of indie rock.

I feel kind of right underneath what was happening right in with Seattle and all the shit in the nineties, like underneath that was essentially creating this, I think a real hotbed just for indie rock and people to feel like we have a place and an opportunity and let’s just keep going. And people are noticing that scene.

So you said like, you, you described it as like a [00:19:00] power pop kind of band, which, uh, in the Sloan vein, which there was like, that stuff was all over. Much music in Canada. Um, I I, I keep thinking like I used to go see Treble charger and the Killjoys. It’s like they toured together every year, at least once a year.

They would show up here and play the rev or, or play the rebar or some place. so it was all over the place and you guys fit in with that. And to the point where you even get the label deal with BMG, who at that time was, one of the top. I think there were four considered major labels back in at that time in the nineties.

So that would’ve been one of them with their international reach. Right.

Lyle Bell: yeah, yeah, yeah.

Glen Erickson: So what does that look like? Like what, what does that, what’s, are you guys, is that the stereo? I guess my big question, Lyle, is like, was all those cliche things happening for you guys? Like, you’re in your twenties, this stuff is happening, it feels like this is it, this is how this whole dream happens.

Lyle Bell: You know, it’s sort of, uh, It sort of felt that way. It was never that [00:20:00] meteoric of a rise. I, I feel like there was more of a, I was, I was more mentally prepared for it. When, when shout out, sort, shout out, took off, that felt more like, okay. This is the

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: let’s go.

Glen Erickson: Okay.

Lyle Bell: already prepped to prepped for disappointment. and then when that, when that began to take off, I was like, okay, um, I’ve been working hard. Let’s let’s roll with this. So

Glen Erickson: Yep.

Lyle Bell: take it for granted the second time around. That’s sure. with Molly’s reach, it was still, I mean this is like proto days,

Glen Erickson: Yep.

Lyle Bell: and it’s sort of the last of the regional bands, like you’re talking about last of the regional scenes.

I sort of look at the smalls being one of the last of the truly

Glen Erickson: Mm.

Lyle Bell: um, you know, phenomenons.

Glen Erickson: Yep.

Lyle Bell: would, I, I remember seeing them in Toronto and, and, and it was nothing like seeing them in Edmonton or Winnipeg or something like that, like up to about Winnipeg. They were enormous and would play these like huge, you know, packed thousand [00:21:00] person. Rager events.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: and uh, and then seeing them in Toronto, it seemed like, not that it was empty, but it was just not

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: fervor that they had out west. Anyway, my point being, uh, we were also sort of that way had had, so there was a definitely a regional scene and we were pretty, um, locked into that kind of music. Like at that point we were sort of living and breathing that, you know, sort of punk,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: I wouldn’t even say punk, like sort of indie rock,

Glen Erickson: Yeah, for sure.

Lyle Bell: the time. And, uh, got to do lots of, lots of fun stuff. The, the label was actually a smaller label with a BMG deal, so it never felt like we got the full,

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Okay.

Lyle Bell: you know, wine and dine from, from, uh, the industry.

I mean, there, there, there were, uh, it was pretty fun to, yeah. To get, to go to, I mean, to get the first taste of that side of the industry. even, even being from Edmonton, it felt, it always [00:22:00] felt like you’re, you’re going uphill you

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: Like Toronto seemed like the,

Glen Erickson: a hundred percent.

Lyle Bell: you know, the. Where you want to be based if you’re, if you’re gonna be doing music in Canada. And prob, and probably still is. I’ve just always loved, I, I never felt the, pole to move away. I’ve always

Glen Erickson: Well, that’s on my list of questions to ask you, Lyle, actually, I’m glad you actually brought that up. I mean, with all of the bands you’ve been in and the in, in, in most of them, sort of really dipping their toes in, what does the next level bumping up to? And the Toronto question, if you’re from Edmonton, always comes in pretty quickly.

And I’ve wondered how often or how strongly that suggestion or that pull, even from within yourself was, and you sort of half answered it there, but if you could explain more.

Lyle Bell: we had, um, we had seriously considered moving. A few times. The one that maybe was most close was, uh, shout out. Spent quite a bit of time and, and by that time we [00:23:00] were, uh, we were also pretty heavily involved with six shooter. the distribution deal for normal Alcom, which we were talking about, which is the label, the little indie label that Jason and Nick ran, who were the main guys in shout out, were distributed through six shooter. So it kind of made sense to move there. We spent a lot of time in Toronto. but that time I think everybody had. Other projects that were still kind of going simultaneously. there was a dip in shout out activity, I would be doing Wet Secrets. Whitey Houston was still touring that whole time.

So it was like one, uh, one still by Southwest that I went to. And I was so excited ’cause it was like, shout out right in the heyday of shout out, like playing Fader Fort and that kind of thing.

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: Wet Secrets also had shows and Whitey head shows, and there might’ve even been a Wizen Days show. It was another band that, uh,

Glen Erickson: Paula Anish started. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: Paul, yeah, one of Paul’s Paul’s bands. But it was too much. It was like, it was insanity. It

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: to not have any fun on [00:24:00] the road trying to juggle like

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: bands and, and all, and like running around. anyway, um, we, we always had, everyone had like multiple reasons to stay in Edmonton at that time. I had a house here, I had bought a house here, I’d had a couple properties. So it just made sense to, to actually get out and truly move to Toronto. Even at that time, it’s, Toronto’s had already seemed, um, prohibitively expensive

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: and now it’s just, it’s gone through the roof. Like to get, uh, house like I have, I’m 10 minutes from downtown in a like a hundred year old house, with, as we were talking about before, the full art zone.

So I

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: do all the, do everything here, you know, I dunno, we, we jam in the basement to get that, in Toronto. Just seems like the impossible dream at this point.

Glen Erickson: And you, you mentioned you have all kinds of reasons to stay. I was, I’m curious what your perspective was on, is moving there actually gonna pay [00:25:00] off? Maybe is the question because my observations, when the question came up for me and for my band and, besides the reasons to stay, I already had a family, that my observations were how many Edmonton and Western Canadian bands had gone out there and kind of.

Disappeared. Like the same way you described the, the live music effect of regional bands and what was happening with Molly’s reach and then they get out to Toronto. You know, I, I observed artists that had already moved and then I felt like they just became like a, you know, an average size fish in a way, bigger ocean.

and things took longer to get traction and I was like, I don’t know if I want that either. Was I’m wondering what your observation on what you saw. ’cause you, you had a lot of friends I’m sure who were going back and forth.

Lyle Bell: Yeah. Oh, oh. I mean, definitely there were waves where in the nineties, um, almost everybody, I mean, not universally, but Vancouver was the big draw for, for quite a while. Uh, tons of Edmonton [00:26:00] bands all moved to Vancouver,

Glen Erickson: Yeah, easier for sure.

Lyle Bell: and most of them sort of dropped off the radar. I, I think quite often the, the move was, you bring your band, you’re excited to move to a new town, you band ends up breaking up, but now you’re, you’re working in this bigger

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: so it would happen in Vancouver and then on in Toronto and Montreal, like by, you know, 2005 everyone’s making the move to Montreal. That was the new,

Glen Erickson: the Arcade Fire.

Lyle Bell: Yeah,

Glen Erickson: The Arcade Fire Secret.

Lyle Bell: yeah, yeah, yeah. I

Glen Erickson: It had a real scene. It had a scene. It was a good scene for sure.

Lyle Bell: it has, it had a, had a scene and, and, uh, and still does. And I love that town.

I mean, I love

Glen Erickson: I.

Lyle Bell: all of these places. I, I really love going to visit and play and we, uh, and shadowed actually spent a lot of time in Toronto and staying there, for extended periods, with maybe the intent of moving. I think Nick was the [00:27:00] closest to actually pulling the trigger and doing it

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: and actually moving there.

And that might’ve changed. Um. How everything, you know, how everything went, it would’ve either fallen apart or everyone follow.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: as it turned out, yeah, I just, I think that by the time we were seriously considering moving as well, we were already, like, shout out, had, uh, a great agent in the, in the States and in Canada. Right off the bat. We had Rob Elli and we were getting offers. I, I remember seeing offers and like, kind of rubbing my eyes ’cause it looked like there was one too many zeros on the end. I’m like, wow, what? Like, no one is gonna, no one’s gonna pay us that amount. And,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: we would get these, like these crazy offers.

So at that time it, it felt like it was viable to just stay in Edmonton and do it. You know, like it was, we were never set either. So there would be humbling shows. We’d go and play Toronto and we did like a two nighter at Lee’s Palace. And like sold out these pals two in a row and we’re like, alright, here we go. And then [00:28:00] go play Buffalo next night to like 10 people

Glen Erickson: It feels like

Lyle Bell: we’re

Glen Erickson: this is, this is the tragically hip curse in Canada. Right? Like same thing like cross the border and nothing

Lyle Bell: it’s

Glen Erickson: I.

Lyle Bell: to me that, that like border, this like fake line in the air, matters. Like you’re so close to Toronto when you’re in Buffalo,

Glen Erickson: Yeah, yeah,

Lyle Bell: you’re, you’re way, you’re way closer to, you know, to Toronto than you are to Edmonton. We did really well in Edmonton and across Canada at that time.

Shout out was doing great in Canada and even Buffalo, something like right across the border, just sort of, No dice.

Glen Erickson: yeah.

Lyle Bell: I mean, I shouldn’t say no dice, but it was like, we would, uh, yeah. It was always a hit and miss in the States. Sometimes we’d have like absolutely dynamite shows and go to the next town and it’d be like a Yeah.

Graveyard.

Glen Erickson: But I, I mean, at least the big difference is the next town is an hour and a half drive, not eight hours. Uh, which is the, the thing that kills you in Canada, [00:29:00] right.

Lyle Bell: yeah, yeah.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: it’s a bit of a, to me it’s like a Canadian, um, badge of honor

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: to do that, uh, drive around the,

Glen Erickson: Around the Great Lakes,

Lyle Bell: Yep.

Glen Erickson: thunder base,

Lyle Bell: through,

Glen Erickson: the Sioux in Sudbury stay at the townhouse. Yeah,

Lyle Bell: Stay at the townhouse, eat at the, eat at the Hodo. Uh, then go to, uh, you know, go through Wawa, stay at the little, uh,

Glen Erickson: yeah.

Lyle Bell: in

Glen Erickson: these, all these venues closing down do, does it feel, ’cause we’re the same age, so we can talk like grumpy old men on our lawn, but does it feel like the kids right now are missing something by not getting that rite of passage anymore?

Lyle Bell: Well, I, I mean, everything has shifted. I mean, at, at that time, especially in the nineties when we first started, started going, kind of pre-internet or proto internet anyway, you’re, you really had to, the, the whole touring plan was to go out, hit a market, and then come back and build on that draw. And it was

Glen Erickson: [00:30:00] Yeah.

Lyle Bell: by continually hitting this, you

Glen Erickson: Had to keep going back and keep going back.

Lyle Bell: yeah,

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: gonna build a draw that way.

Now nobody looks at it that way as a viable

Glen Erickson: yeah,

Lyle Bell: strategy to build a, a career. You’re online. You build a presence online first, and I mean, this is,

Glen Erickson: And I’m being nostalgic about something that we all fucking hated, like if I’m being honest, right? Like it killed us to make those drives quite often.

Lyle Bell: of loved it. I’m a, I’m

Glen Erickson: Did you? I.

Lyle Bell: I did most of the driving. I was also the, the main driver, so did gravy. So it was mostly gravy and me

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: But I, I actually liked doing the driving and I loved the scenery and all of those drives. I, I mean, later on we would, we would do the shortcut, so we’d go over to Winnipeg and then

Glen Erickson: Down Minneapolis, Chicago,

Lyle Bell: uh, yeah,

Glen Erickson: and up.

Lyle Bell: that sort of all the way over to New York shout out and with wet secrets a bunch of times. That was sort of the,

Glen Erickson: That’s the beauty. [00:31:00] Yeah.

Lyle Bell: yeah. And that, that was really good. But I’ve, I’ve still always liked, uh. drive around the the Great Lakes. It wasn’t that long ago that we did that. I have done that drive.

It’s maybe been five years, but

Glen Erickson: Okay.

Lyle Bell: long ago. Yeah.

Glen Erickson: and I think it’s great you referenced, you know, a couple of the bands had the same thing going, but, and, and so I’m gonna be sort of like, I’m gonna break it down real quick for anybody who’s listening. ’cause you and I might just be comfortable jumping between all of these things.

But, so, you know, Molly’s reach very much I think in the pocket of things that were getting attention, which is, you know, especially out east and it was much music was kind of king. Um, so that was also part of Toronto and you, you’re in that pocket of that pop indie rock stuff. So that has that obviously that pull and that draw and it overlaps with you doing sore oil, which was sort of just a local regional experiment.

But then you clearly were getting a lot of attention, or at least opening [00:32:00] slots with bands were a bit heavier. and starting to get pulled around to that. Like you said, you start Whitey Houston, that two, two man. Band thing, which, and there’s been a few iterations in Canada for some reason. I feel like that is always just, just the presence of a loud two person band has always done pretty well, right up to Japan’s and, and, um, I mean, even look at Misha and the Spanx right now down in Calgary, Misha’s killing it and keeping her career growing and it’s awesome.

they have that two person sound, bit heavier, you know, and then the 2000 rolls around and you start the wet secrets. And like you said, it was this Divo disco, indie, uh, blender of performance rock even. Uh, and then you have this complete sidestep with your friends who love just, you know, the same intersection of these synthesizer heavy, dance electro shout out outs.

there’s through lines in your relationships with all of them. Clearly there’s, there’s. And the people that were involved that would pull you in. And there’s [00:33:00] through lines with some of the larger opportunities and the places that you were going and the people that you met along the way in the business.

I’m just curious of for you, Lyle, the through line stylistically, you know, the way that you play, you know, most of the time it feels that I’ve seen you playing a bass. Sometimes it’s a guitar, sometimes your bass just sounds like a guitar. the way that you sing and even produce your vocal very specifically in those choices that you’ve obviously developed, what’s, what was your personal through line, stylistically all these choices?

Lyle Bell: Well, every, every, uh, one of the bands that I’ve been in, especially if I’m playing bass, which is mostly, you know, what I’ve been, what I’ve been doing, what I’ve been certainly known for in Molly’s Reach, I actually played guitar.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: sort of would switch back and forth and then basically to bass.

But it’s like that skunky sort of, uh, post-punk bass tone, a pase into a cranked trainer amp [00:34:00] is essentially it, with or without a, a SoftTech, big muff on there. but every band that I was in is sort of revolves around that tonally to some

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: shout out you know, a bunch of bass players.

I was sort of like, I would do if Will was playing like more of a, Lower kind of disco e base thing. I would be doing something up high, adding something again, using that tonally kind of really crispy tone. Um, obviously I didn’t sing in shout out, but this is why I say to me, there was like a very much a through line. It was still coming from the same place, sort of in my mind. It’s just what surrounds, all that thing. So in the case of shout out, there’s like lush synthesizers as well as we got, as we got, uh, better at ourselves too, and, and got more, more gear and familiar with it more from a, an electronic point of view. It was, it was actually great for my brain because Nick opened me up to so much music. Like I was pretty insular in the nineties, like wanting just like [00:35:00] sort of that, uh, pop and like punk rock to some degree, but indie rock. Uh, and then going with Nick would play all kinds of stuff on, on, uh, he would make mix, mix tapes for the road that would be like remix to Ignition and, you know, there’d be like booty bass tracks and we listen to aqua all the time and Clinton and I of would listen to a while while we’re driving.

Much said gravy, chagrin, you know, I dunno, Giorgio Rotor and, this sort of thing. So it was all over the map and, and uh, yeah, it really opened my mind as well. Like, I like to try other, to really dig into other, other forms of music and go at these festivals to, uh, to all kinds of stuff like music that I probably normally wouldn’t go to and just really lean in. anyway. Yeah, this is, that was a bit of an aside.

Glen Erickson: no, that wasn’t totally an aside. I was asking about your stylistic through lines to the choices. I mean,

Lyle Bell: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so it’s sort of at the core, there’s still this like fuzzy crispy [00:36:00] bass,

Glen Erickson: yeah.

Lyle Bell: sound, and then we’re beginning to drape it in other things. It was like, you know, 3 0 3 bought a 3 0 3 and like getting, getting into like programming acid baselines and stuff like that.

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: And, uh,

Glen Erickson: Were you always

Lyle Bell: to the mix. It’s like,

Glen Erickson: were, were you always starting these bands or were there some of them that you were brought into? Or is, you know, I think there’s a real difference. I’m curious about, you know, how you end up in a band. I,

Lyle Bell: well, the ones that, the main ones that we’re talking about here right now, I, I. Started in a way, I guess shout out was definitely Nick and Jason’s sort of main thing. But Nick and I had had already talked about, uh, while we were on that

Glen Erickson: yeah. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: about he wanted to start this new thing that was all synthesizers.

And I even at that point, I had a pile of vintage synths. we were actually just talking about this. The, the beginning of that band was actually getting together to try and make a, a soundtrack for a video, a climbing [00:37:00] video that his sister brother-in-law were making. They, they have a company that makes like climbing holds and stuff like that.

So

Glen Erickson: Okay.

Lyle Bell: very first thing that we did, what, what started shout out was making, um. tracks, like kind of proto shoutout tracks for this video, a corporate video for their company

Glen Erickson: Okay.

Lyle Bell: uh, I don’t think I had actually forgotten about this. We were just talking about this a month ago. it never, that never got completed as far as I know, that was the, the songs I do remember

Glen Erickson: Huh?

Lyle Bell: having done that, made these songs in

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: in the early two thousands.

So, yeah.

Glen Erickson: Oh, that’s pretty fun.

Lyle Bell: uh,

I mean.

Glen Erickson: well, you know what, the other interesting, shout out sidebar for me, one of my favorite moments for you guys around here, and I had to do a bunch of digging to go and dig it back up, was when you were contacted by this group from Vancouver that had this TELUS funding to do this playground series.

And, and I mean that was back in the, the day when a lot of [00:38:00] these like video sort of production companies were creating the, the series of the live, different live versions of artists coming in. And so they were, had that TELUS funding called playground. one of my best friends or best friend Greg, was one of the video directors.

There was two Gregs, and, and some other people anyhow, and they came here to put on that live thing and connected with you and you in that. I don’t even remember somewhere in. White Ave Strathcona area and that crazy video that you wrote the song for, I had to really dig to go and find it ’cause I couldn’t remember.

But

Lyle Bell: Planet

Glen Erickson: an incredible experience. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: that,

Glen Erickson: Yeah. That was pretty wild.

Lyle Bell: yeah. Yeah. I, I mean, I remember that. yeah, that was great. We wanted it again to be, uh, the thing we keep coming back to is bombastic. So, so shout out was already somewhat of a bombastic band where the gear was almost. of the show, like big towering piles of synthesizers and two drummers. So we just thought, like, what would be make it even more the next level was having like a whole, orchestra [00:39:00] of people playing Toms and,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: another, like I brought in all my like, um, modular synth racks. So it’s actually, Jamie and Wolf. So Nick’s dad, Wolf,

Glen Erickson: Yep.

Lyle Bell: are Wilford Dan and the grown men, they’re in the back.

They’re playing all the, all the, the buring synths in the back and yeah, we had

Glen Erickson: He became,

Lyle Bell: so,

Glen Erickson: he became the face of it. I think with that, uh, you guys brought in that super vintage, um, one that looks like, you know, like that standing thing with all the knobs and the wires moving around. I can’t remember the name of it, but, um, they had him on that and it looked like the crazy old mad scientist ’cause he had the long white hair.

It was pretty awesome. quick summary for

Lyle Bell: It’s

Glen Erickson: o do you, oh, that’s a beauty. Yeah. So I mean, people should google this. I think I found it by remembering the name of the production company. Art a band, A-R-T-A-B-A-N and then playground and they can find this thing ’cause it’s still on their Vimeo. It was an incredible endeavor. That was probably one of the most creative things I had been around in the last [00:40:00] 25 years to try in two days to pull off this live, audience involvement. You guys went and rented and found 60 floor toms from around the city, and then people were gonna somehow be taught how to play them in sync together

Lyle Bell: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Glen Erickson: and clap wood blocks and sing and the whole crap.

It was wild.

Lyle Bell: took me, I, I made those, I like cut and sanded all the wood blocks

Glen Erickson: What?

Lyle Bell: take me, you know, an hour.

Glen Erickson: Oh,

Lyle Bell: it, it ended up taking me like all day to make whatever it was, 60.

Glen Erickson: my God. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: to

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: Yeah. Uh, yeah, it took me a long time and painting them all, I was like, yeah. But, but I mean, it was kind of a, a labor of love and this is part of the thing we wanted to do, stuff like that here. Not that it necessarily really matters that it was done in Edmonton, but,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: I like the fact that there’s something that I, I like about the idea that you don’t have to move away to do stuff.

Uh, I mean, by the time that was going

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: too, it’s, it’s, you know, that’s in essentially modern times where, you don’t [00:41:00] need to be, you can be from anywhere and your music can be out anywhere, there’s no reason you don’t really have to move,

Glen Erickson: Well, Lyle, I,

Lyle Bell: a community here.

Glen Erickson: I mean I’ve spent a lot of the last 15 years of my life with that moniker title. being involved in different arts boards and different things and trying to be such a strong advocate for, you don’t have to move away, which is why I love talking to people with careers outta Western Canada about the pull to Toronto or not.

I love hearing you say that. I mean, you should know. You were a, a huge influence on me at that time as well for two reasons. One, one was for that reason. the, the fact that you seem so committed to just staying and building success regionally or however, however, but I mean, the other part was, I mean, you’ve referenced a couple times of how bombastic a bunch of these things that you’ve done, they’re hard to explain names and song titles and all the shit to border guards or grandparents and all these things.

But that ambition, I think [00:42:00] has so much influence and I, and I think, I have this deep desire for artists currently and people still trying to build their career or keep a career going to just hear things like that and be reminded that I. It is too easy, especially on the internet right now. I think you can tell me if you agree, but, uh, to just think it’s just like, I just need to write a song and then that song just has to go viral.

Or there’s something about it that people will love or that it’s so much more that the uniforms and the performance art with the wet secrets that I saw and I even felt like, I remember after you guys won the Peak Performance Project and then you released the EP with, I Can Swing a Hammer, and I just remember watching you guys and thinking, it sounded like you were writing songs that would perform well in these personas.

In this, this whole it was bigger, right? It was bigger. Like the shout out out thing is just so much bigger. You’re taking bigger swings. It’s not just about I’m gonna write a really good song, I’m gonna build [00:43:00] this entire package or brand, or whatever you wanna call it. Was that like that’s part of your heartbeat and all of these things.

Lyle Bell: you totally nailed it to me. To me, the song, I mean, you, you obviously have to have compelling music, I always felt that that’s like one part a main, uh, definitely the main thing. You can’t really necessarily polish a turd, although I also somewhat argue I’ve had a career tur as a turd polisher. but the, the idea of like how you’re gonna present it and in a way it’s better to be polarizing. Like doing something that if you buy into it, you’re all in, you can get behind it. that is not cool to you, you’re gonna like hate it. Like,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: have that re reaction, like, um, trying to always think of it from an artistic point of view and how it will stand out. how you can have an edge other than just from the musical point of view.

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: so yeah, that, that sort of bombastic thing [00:44:00] always played into the, the equation.

Glen Erickson: and I’m always wondering how many people aren’t doing it just because it’s so much fucking work. Like you said, I spent a whole day cutting wood blocks so we could try to pull off this wild idea of crowd participation, music, video. I mean, I just know so many people it feels like I might be prejudging.

It just feels like a lot of people just wouldn’t think it’s worth it. Right. It’s like there’s no value in it unless you see the value in it.

Lyle Bell: Yeah. Oh, oh man. So there are, there are more, more examples of this kind of thing, like, um, the, the video for coming home. Uh, this is shout out, uh, shout out video with, uh, cadence Weapon as well.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: song called Coming Home, but if you look in it, we’re, we’re on fire and the synthesizers are burning. But I had, I stayed up, it took me a week to make exact replicas of our synths. And, and like a thousand dollars buying like fake, like knobs [00:45:00] from, uh, from like small bear glue hot gluing it. Like, uh, Kim also helped me because we were desperate. We, we pulled basically an all-nighter, all these knobs, and I silk

Glen Erickson: Oh my.

Lyle Bell: So when you see those, those synthesizers burning, they look really authentic.

Like they’re, they’re modular synths, all patched in and they’re on fire. And, uh, I mean we did that. We burned those, those were up since. So that’s the kinda, that’s the kind of thing like in my mind, that’ll look super cool.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: and that, that like almost destroyed my mind that that week, same thing, the wet secrets video of, um, floating in the sky. It’s sort of buried towards the end, but the end half of the video were on a giant tennis racket. The first half were actually

Glen Erickson: Oh yeah. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: metaphysical tennis as it was. This was sort of the concept. so the whole thing is a metaphor, but in the end, we’re actually on this, an exact replica of the tennis racket that I had.

Glen Erickson: You built a giant.[00:46:00]

Lyle Bell: that in my living room halves and then took it outside and, uh, know, strung it up with, with rope, that’s another thing. Or, or building like a 30 foot high marching band outfit for Golden West Music Fest that got lit on fire on

Glen Erickson: Oh yeah.

Lyle Bell: we were done playing. So that’s in the, in the Hammer video.

Glen Erickson: That’s incredible too.

Lyle Bell: And that was, that was Kristen and I going out there with Kevin Bowman to where they held the festival. And

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: also helped us build this thing. Took like a couple days, uh, I nearly dod falling off the top. I’d had a couple beers and, uh, I actually don’t, I. don’t really like pot, but I was convinced to have like one little toot with Bowman before we started this thing. And

Glen Erickson: before you started

Lyle Bell: I,

Glen Erickson: the thing.

Lyle Bell: before I had to go up and put the final cladding on the roof, and that was the worst mistake. I almost fell off, um, just sort of a miracle. The, this is like 30 feet up and I [00:47:00] had a circ saw and as I was cutting ladder slipped off the top, but it caught on a nail. It somehow caught on a nail

Glen Erickson: Oh,

Lyle Bell: like,

Glen Erickson: that’s like

Lyle Bell: and it,

Glen Erickson: Chevy Chase,

Lyle Bell: It was like,

Glen Erickson: national Lampoon kind of a coincidence. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: it was one of those moments I came down, I was like, I had to take like a 20 minute break. I was like, so shaky. I was like, oh. Sort of saw, saw

Glen Erickson: Uh, yeah, a couple, a couple beers and a toot. And I’m gonna take a saw three stories up and have at her.

Lyle Bell: Even before I was doing that, I’m like, this is dumb. What am I doing? So I knew better. Again,

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: older, I think like your mortality sort of, uh, looms larger

Glen Erickson: yeah,

Lyle Bell: I don’t think I would do that again. But, uh, but anyway, going that, that kind of distance, like, uh, also building the, the lights like shout out. we have this, this, the shout lights.

Glen Erickson: yeah, yeah.

Lyle Bell: what would be another bombastic thing that we could do is like, build these lights and then have a, the lighting controller guy [00:48:00] have control over each of the, of the thing. So it’s like shout and then out, out, out

Glen Erickson: I was running those lights during that, that video for playground. That was my job.

Lyle Bell: Right.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Yeah. It’s pretty sweet, sweet setup.

Lyle Bell: of pulsing them. Uh, yeah, those are, those are downstairs in my basement, uh, awaiting we have the, the 20th anniversary show, which was, uh, in, in very typical shout out fashion. We are late for our 20th anniversary show as well. It was supposed to happen in the fall.

And, uh, and then Clint was also busy. He’s in the band home

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: They’re recording with Nick, as we were talking about.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: um, they’re often we’ll get to it at some point, I’m sure.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Well, I mean.

Lyle Bell: is, is like all of these bands I’ve been, I’ve been in, I’ve been lucky, I think so many bands end up breaking up.

Like there’s un asshole or multiple assholes that are like, you know, fractions that break off. I’ve been really fortunate that, all the bands that I’ve been in, I’m still friends with. With [00:49:00] everybody that was in all of these bands. So shout out, uh, yeah, we’re all still pals. All the wet secrets. yeah, it’s sort of a, it’s been cool. I don’t wanna say it’s been a cool ride. I just watched walk

Glen Erickson: That’s pre Oh yeah. There you go. Well, I mean, that’s, that’s really, that’s a fantastic statement though, because I mean, that happens a lot and that makes it hard to sustain a career with one band, let alone you know, a few to five to people that you can play in multiple. Acts like this over time. I mean, I, I thought at one point it would be funny, but it’s not funny.

I thought about it afterwards to just try to make you, like, ask you on the spot, like, which one was your favorite. But I pretty sure you won’t answer like, which one’s your favorite. But maybe the better question is like, ’cause I don’t like, sometimes these stay open-ended. This is kind of the curse of Edmonton.

It feels like none of the bands officially break up. They just sort of disappear and then come back and play a reunion show. But, which one, instead of asking which is your [00:50:00] favorite, which, which ones felt the hardest to step away from?

Lyle Bell: Oh boy. Um, each one has both monumental, like top 10 moments, life moments for me, and also heartbreak moments. So it’s sort of hard to, hard to know which is which again, out, um, was maybe one where I, by the time shout out, really took off. I had already been through, through the ringer a couple times, like with Molly’s Reach and touring with Whitey a bunch.

And, and uh, it just seemed like we were getting up to that next level and we of did it to ourselves. I feel like we had it in the palm of our hands and didn’t maybe work hard enough. Uh, there were other factors too, but there were, there were definitely heartbreak moments with,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: uh, with shout out and, and also some of the, my favorite, just most monumental, monumental shows that [00:51:00] I’ve played, looking out and just kind of being, you know, tickled personally to

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: what I’m witnessing.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: yeah, I don’t know. It’s, uh,

Glen Erickson: Well the heartbreaks especially,

Lyle Bell: yeah,

Glen Erickson: mean

Lyle Bell: mean,

Glen Erickson: like that’s the thing is like the heartbreak, this is different than asking which is your favorite. Because I feel like when you think about like the heartbreaks, ’cause you’re not solely responsible for those like you just alluded to. Like there’s real factors that are coming from within and then there’s outside factors that might also be playing into it.

’cause the way you described that just made me think of, you know, my band, the wheat pool in everybody’s perception, you know, two and a half records out where the trajectory was still like clearly going up. Hill and yet we’re sitting, we’re sitting around, uh, Royal Pizza, doing this kind of soul sucking charity gig and, and asking ourselves like, are we, are we going back into the next cycle?

’cause Right. We were talking ’cause we know what the [00:52:00] cycle, it’s not just, are we gonna keep going as a band? It’s like the literal, like, I know how much work. This is an 18 month grind again, at least. And are, you know, does anybody really care? You’re asking yourself those questions. Right. Um, is the next level really there?

I just kind of heard that in the way you answered that question. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: of course. I mean, everyone always wants the trajectory to be up. and you’re always looking, I know that I’ve always been, you know, like eyeballing the next rung up on the ladder, not being thankful that I’m not at the wrong below. Like, I’m always like, why are we not getting those shows? You know, like

Glen Erickson: Yeah, yeah,

Lyle Bell: we’d get that. later on I’ve, I’ve been able to sort of be more appreciative for what we did accomplish

Glen Erickson: yeah.

Lyle Bell: all of these things. I was actually gonna ask you, but you had alluded to earlier about, uh. Making that Toronto jump, like did you and Rob almost move? Like did we pool

Glen Erickson: We talked about it.

Lyle Bell: Toronto?

Glen Erickson: Yeah, we did. I mean, obviously [00:53:00] I, I had a family and I didn’t know how that was really gonna be possible, but at the same time, it was so important that I wasn’t shutting the conversation off. because this was all I ever wanted, right? This is all I ever wanted. And, you know, Rob and Mike were single guys.

They had way more flexibility to consider those things for sure. The brothers, uh, Stefan or drummer maybe had a little more, uh, set of other considerations with, uh, his partner and his career and stuff like that. But, um, yeah, we’ve, we had those conversations and we felt that pull and, I was trying to get, you know, Shauna’s attention at six shooter.

all these things were happening, but I, I, I went through it once. I guess the reason I wanted to ask you is like, you’ve gone through it four or five times. You must be an incredible optimist

Lyle Bell: I guess I’ve always felt that, um, I love the, the process of making music and playing music sort of almost equally, and all the [00:54:00] rigamarole bullshit in between. I enjoy it. Even like, like we were talking about the, the drive, the long drive, all of that stuff. weirdly appealing to me. So I never, I never really had that. Uh, I think a lot of people get to a point where they’re like, you know, fuck this. Like,

Glen Erickson: I’m too old for this shit, but

Lyle Bell: too

Glen Erickson: yeah.

Lyle Bell: shit. But I, I am like, I don’t, uh, I feel like I’m still like 21 inside.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: will, my knee will tell me differently every morning. um, you know, I don’t know. I, still, I still have like, I wake up with tons of musical ideas. I have tons of,

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: write tons of songs still. I’m, I’m like obsessive, with, uh, with like as well. Like these things I

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: never looking back with. Uh, and, uh, and regretting things that there’s so much more stuff on the horizon and other little projects that are, that are. and things that I’ve done that are, [00:55:00] you know, still need

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: don’t know.

Glen Erickson: Well, I mean, that sounds, I mean, I love hearing that,

Lyle Bell: it’s so easy to just do the retrospective and like high fly and overlap all of these things, and that’s how most people, you even referenced it early when you said, you know, I’ve been involved in all these things and a lot of them have done really well and people might not actually know me personally because you’ve been attached to these other things.

Glen Erickson: But, so it’s really easy to just look at a music career just based on all of those events and all those things and stuff. And I’ve tried, you know, you’ve been really gracious talking a little more about your own personal experience though, of like trying to sustain the career and the ups and the downs.

I think a big part of it is like how people keep themself afloat if you haven’t hit that place. Where it’s quote unquote, what everybody says is like, I’d love to do music as a career. And what they always mean is, I would love this to pay my bills and be my job. And, and that [00:56:00] is such a small percentage of people that if they are at it for 30 years like you have been, that that’s gonna be the case now because I did want to talk to you about, you have such an incredible career as a photographer, like your specific art with photography and video.

Uh, I love it. I find it inspiring. You get a lot of, I know a lot of people like use you almost exclusively. and I’m sure you were doing that hobbyist into finding now you could charge for it. but you’ve probably had other jobs along the way to try and keep all this ambition afloat. I, I just, I’m curious what that.

Process of your career has been like, what kind of things have you had to do to keep all the ambition going?

Lyle Bell: I guess there. There have been other side side jobs that I have done and still do. I have painted, I’ve, I, I have always done like, uh, lots of painting, like industrial, painting. I act actually also worked with, um, a, a guy here in [00:57:00] town, Dallas Whitley, who’s now lives in Vancouver. But we did, um, we did, uh, you know, wallpaper and vinyl wall coverings hanging those, uh, so we did like casinos and that kind of thing, but I, I also like that work weirdly, like, that wasn’t, wasn’t like me hating that job.

So I still, actually still take, uh. An occasional painting job because I like it. it’s usually, so my wife works for Sabor, the restaurant Sabor, if they’re opening up a new restaurant, I will often be the one painting the in and,

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.

Lyle Bell: uh, masking off and painting the, spraying their big, like feature walls and whatnot.

So there are things like that that I’ve done all the way along, for extra money this point. Uh, like currently I am, I’ve been on the road, um, I, I have on and off worked for Six Shooter, either as a staffer or so six shooter records, uh, and with all of the bands, maybe not all the bands, but [00:58:00] a number of artists on that label doing video work and photo work and design work.

Um, I have been out in the last little while and with, uh, the band of the Dead South. And I’ve also

Glen Erickson: Okay. Chris Wynters band. Yeah.

Lyle Bell: yeah. He is their, their manager.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: that is currently the thing that, uh, like again, I get, I get obsessive about this. Like I want it to be, I definitely, in anything that I do, I try not to like phone it in. Like I, I don’t wanna work anything that is like, uh, if I

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: doing it, I’m not gonna do it. So this

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: still continue to do the occasional painting job. I actually painted my mom’s condo when we were selling it just ’cause instead of hiring someone, which would’ve been smart at the time, I was like, ah, I can do that. but uh, yeah, I don’t know, like leaning in and, and trying to take the best photos, trying to be the best live photographer ever, you know,

Glen Erickson: Yeah. I mean that overlaps with what you said though, like, uh, going on the road with the band to be, to be in that role. ’cause they want to capture all that. you know, a lot of people might [00:59:00] still be the place where they’re like, I’m too old for that shit because that’s still being on the road. Um. And you’re clearly not.

Lyle Bell: I, I had one little, uh, one little silver tear roll down my cheek when, when everyone realized that I’m the, I’m the oldest guy on the tour. Yeah. Outside of the driver. The, the bus driver is,

Glen Erickson: Oh, yeah,

Lyle Bell: was older than me, but yeah, I’m like of the crew. I’m the old, I’m the old guy. Old man of the crew. But

Glen Erickson: yeah,

Lyle Bell: saying before, I really don’t feel, I don’t know, I don’t feel, uh, I still feel like a, like a tweenage

Glen Erickson: yeah.

Lyle Bell: and I’m still, as long as I’m, as long as I can, I still want to like. Role. Like I, I was getting up and running, with those guys, like everyone in is training to like run a half marathon now, or a 10 K. So,

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

Lyle Bell: I was like running shooting all day and editing, like staying up all night editing

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: on a couple of o of occasions. ’cause we were out with, uh, kb, KB l [01:00:00] and the Hurt and Albertans in the UK as well.

So staying up, like doing all that and then staying up till like three in the morning with those guys, a, having a beer at a pub or something to I mean again, this is why it’s certainly not, some people would see that as work as like absolutely exhausting work, but all

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: fun.

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: is fun to me.

And so it is work. It’s a lot of work, but I don’t ever view it as like, oh, I hate this

Glen Erickson: yeah,

Lyle Bell: I don’t know. There, there are other jobs that would be hell to me that other people I think would love. So for me that’s like a, a comfortable spot to be in.

Glen Erickson: yeah. Uh, that’s really cool. I mean, I find, relatable at this point, especially, I, I mean, I’ve been asked a few times, you know, how’s your new podcast going with this endeavor? And is it a lot of work? And I’m like. Yeah, I have a job with like, that’s like real big boy pants and uh, a family still. And then this takes way more time than I thought it would, and I haven’t regretted a second of creating something that you really [01:01:00] love and staying up to all hours editing, like you said, and all those things.

It’s very relatable for me, but, um, inspiring to hear someone else say it for sure.

Lyle Bell: a, a creative endeavor.

Glen Erickson: Yeah, absolutely.

Lyle Bell: it. Yeah. I mean, you get going on these kind of things. Like starting a podcast isn’t easy. It’s the same thing as starting a band. if you have any ambition to make it bigger than just taking the occasional show, it takes a ton of work.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: I mean even like that whole thing how to, how to carve out a,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: like right at the beginning I was saying that I’m still a guy in the trench, in, in

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: you know, like I’m still, uh, still like, I wouldn’t say I, I have, uh, it has ever been easy. Like, I’m still, I’m, you know, ups and downs the whole way.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: bands and many different things like, um, many creative endeavors, but have been able to carve out a little niche anyway

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: that works for me that [01:02:00] I’m comfortable in. And, uh, I have talents. I, I also, as I get older, I certainly, I recognize what my talents are, what my gifts are, and what I’m terrible at.

Glen Erickson: yeah,

Lyle Bell: yeah, there are, I try and do things that are appropriate for my set of talents, you know, and my lane.

Glen Erickson: yeah. Well, I think it’s,

Lyle Bell: as much as possible. Yeah.

Glen Erickson: yeah, I mean, that’s really the thing. I mean, I guess what I love about hearing that from you is, A, I I already said it. Your optimism just in your expression is refreshing. And that having been at it so long on the road, and for you to still feel that way, I find very impressive and inspiring as well.

anyhow, I, I appreciate all of this and I appreciate the story, but

Lyle Bell: glad you say it because to other people, it, it seems like madness where you’re doing the same thing, like you’re still, you’re still on the road. Like what the hell?

Glen Erickson: yeah, I can get [01:03:00] that. Like, I can, you know, some people, I mean, almost like a diss, it might almost make you feel shitty or something like, um, you know, I guess there’s different ways to take it, whether it’s a backhanded compliment or a observation or I don’t know. But I dunno, I don’t know how you, you, you seem to not take that personally.

Lyle Bell: I

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: I don’t at all.

Glen Erickson: yeah,

Lyle Bell: It’s a comfortable, I feel like it’s a comfortable spot for me. Uh, so, and I, and I love it again, like leaning in and just never trying to just phone it in, like always trying to learn. I’ve also, I mean, every day I feel like I’m learning stuff every day.

And there’s always something more to know, especially like you dig deeper into photography and photography techniques, editing techniques, video, uh, how to use the software more efficiently.

Glen Erickson: I.

Lyle Bell: um, yeah, it’s like always something new to learn. And, and same thing with musically, I’ve been practicing guitar again, like I was 14, like [01:04:00] kind of learning to shred, trying to, trying to sweep pick Like as a 50-year-old, I’m like, oh, I can’t do this.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: uh, but it’s, it’s fun. I mean, it’s fun. It’s

Glen Erickson: Yeah,

Lyle Bell: continuing to try and learn the entire way,

Glen Erickson: yeah.

Lyle Bell: Yeah,

Glen Erickson: agree. It’s super fun. Um, I appreciate you taking the time outta your day to chat with me about your, career and life.

the inspiration. I know this city has really benefited. I don’t know if anybody’s bothered to say it to you that way, so I will, I really think Edmonton has really benefited from having you as a primary citizen all this time in the arts, but so

Lyle Bell: Well, thank you.

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

Lyle Bell: uh, I don’t know that I have ever heard that. I mean, you, you always see these like, uh, under 40 lists

Glen Erickson: Oh yeah.

Lyle Bell: I

Glen Erickson: Magazine. Yeah. Edify.

Lyle Bell: a, uh, 90, over 90 list, so I’m just waiting, hoping I make it to, to 90 be on the 90, [01:05:00] over 90 list.

Glen Erickson: Yeah, well, we’ll see. We’ll see if we get it together, but, okay. Well thanks for your time. Uh, I really appreciate you and taking the time and everything about it, so,

Lyle Bell: of course. My pleasure. My pleasure. Yeah, it’s

Glen Erickson: okay.

Lyle Bell: Great to electronically see you again

Glen Erickson: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Lyle Bell: Okay,

Glen Erickson: thanks la. I really appreciate it, bud. Okay,

Lyle Bell: Talk to you

Glen Erickson: take care. You bet. Hi, good evening. Have you noticed bright it is now? The seasons change as we do our podcast, and it used to be in the dark whenever we did this, but not,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: tonight.

alexi: First episodes were my LED lights and my big light in my room, and now it’s just my window.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. And as we plan for whatever we plan for in a second season that we want to do, who knows what it’ll be. Right.

alexi: Yeah, it’ll be nice to have late though.

Glen Erickson: It will be nice. Okay. You have, you have one exam left. I’m [01:06:00] gonna keep

alexi: Cool.

Glen Erickson: for you. I am like so for you, still choosing to take the time to do this.

So, before we start talking about Lyle Bell and the episode, because I was really, happy with this conversation. I, I think I told you I wanna do some local heroes, some people in my backyard, so to speak, who really I feel have had inspiring versions of careers. Yeah. So before I do that, I wanna just tell you one quick story, which was awesome. So, at work, I’m, I think I’m the oldest guy, and, it’s, you know, it’s in digital marketing websites, all that stuff. So, but one of the youngest guys who was an intern and I think now not an. anyhow, now he’s like gonna be full-time, but he’s this young guy, he is really cool guy named Josh. and we, he likes talking about music sometimes. He showed up once with a crate full of vinyl that he had bought from a, a guy’s garage sale across the street from

alexi: Love that.

Glen Erickson: of like gems and he didn’t know any of them. So we’re introducing him to some of these. Uh, but he is so great. [01:07:00] He is got an open mind. he, when I got there, I could hear the chatter at the other end of the hall that he was gonna take over the Sonos and play music. And I think that’s the first time. So at first of course, I think of some joke about, you know, not trusting him with the Sonos. He, you have to a certain number of years or something.

Anyhow, um, I didn’t make the joke. song he cues up was California Stars by Wilco, was off the

alexi: Oh

Glen Erickson: Wilco and Billy Bragg record called Mermaid Avenue Volume One, which was one of my favorite Wilco songs ever, which was a song that the wheat pool used to play in our enco, or any time that we had to, you know, fill extra time, do

alexi: yeah.

Glen Erickson: It was one of our favorite songs as a group to cover

alexi: It’s so fun.

Glen Erickson: Yeah, so right off the bat I was like, okay, star for Josh today. But what a pleasant surprise that

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: Anyhow, it was fun. Fun, fun Fun music day at work for me. That’s my story, yeah. So, [01:08:00] so Lyle Bell. There’s all kinds of things I loved in, in that conversation. He’s a funny guy. He’s got a fun energy. He always has. He has always amazed me to have so much success with every band that he was in. just to hear him sort of just tell. Talk through that whole thing.

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: but you know, he said these little golden statements of like, there was lots of reasons to stay here whenever we talked about Toronto or trying to move and that big pull for a, you know, ’cause think I said in there, like, I went through that once, most people will go through it once where you’re, where you’re banned. Your one band that you’re in, out of all the bands you’re in finally hits that groove

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: cus you’re on the cusp of what do we have to do to hit the next level? Is it in Canada? Is it moving to Toronto to be around the industry closer? he’s done it like three times,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: you know, four times. I dunno. I found that and the [01:09:00] way he talked about that he didn’t. Really need to leave

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: Anyhow, I loved that. I loved that part

alexi: You just answered my first question, so that was perfect.

Glen Erickson: What

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: Shoot,

alexi: Well, listen, no, not sorry, because that’s like the perfect answer. I was gonna say like, I have them written, I’m, I’m not being distracted. Um, but I was gonna ask like out of, because I listened to the episode and there’s been other episodes previously where, you know, there’s the one or two things that stand out.

Then you or I bring them up and we chat about them. But I listened to the episode and I was just like, I finished the episode and I didn’t have any like specific point drawn out. And I was like, oh, that was just like a good episode. Like that was just like fun to listen to. And then you were talking about it and you’re like, oh, that was just like a fun conversation.

And you came out and you were just talking about like the overall conversation and I’m like, that’s so accurate. But then I was gonna ask like. If there was like a one thing part of like the conversation [01:10:00] that, like stuck with you after the conversation or like something you kept thinking about? yeah, kind of like if there was like one thing that stood out.

But I think for you, from what I’ve gathered from our conversations is kind of that, that point is like that he’s a, been so successful in all these different realms. So impressive, but also that, yeah, like he three times over. I didn’t feel the need to move, and was content, but that does go into my second question if you’re up to answering it.

Glen Erickson: I’m so up to answering it. Yep.

alexi: Oh, love it. Okay. Um, I wrote down, I listening, um, and listening to you and i’s chat and you calling him kind of like a hometown hero and that kind of theme. he has. So much art and music that’s been produced here. Um, so how does that art music reflect the spirit or vibe of Edmonton? Is what I was gonna ask you.

Like, do you think he reflects kind of the art music scene here, or do you think he’s just kind of like a good representation to come out of Edmonton or.

Glen Erickson: Yeah, that’s a really, really good [01:11:00] question. So I think there’s really two levels of answers. ’cause you sort of alluded to the vibe. So I think there’s a vibe or a. Spirit or an ethos kind of version of that answer, which is a little different than maybe specifically his art. Like how does his art reflect Edmonton?

So, have a harder time answering how his art reflects Edmonton, other than I think the fact that it was always being made with his friends and that it was. Definitely, you know, he was creating things that he, uh, that he just really wanted to do or that him

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: just really wanted to create. this, uh, this goes to the vibe too. So specifically the art. I don’t know, like he, his photography, I was telling you, his live music photography, he’s created a style,

alexi: Yeah, I was looking at it.

Glen Erickson: Um, it’s very, it is just like, it’s when somebody. Decides that instead of just [01:12:00] being, trying to know how to do all of the tricks

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: some version of a discipline, they decide I’m just gonna be really good at this one

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: I don’t have to be all the other versions of a photographer. that’s, that’s definitely him. And, and it’s paying off for him. so I guess, I guess the only way I could probably answer is his vibe is so Edmonton to me, and I’ll, I’ll

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: this way. remember, and I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this story, but, uh, I’ve told other people, I sort of never forget, there was one tour in particular where our band was doing the typical Ontario tour where we would fly in to Toronto, we would backtrack, drive all the way to Windsor, which is on the border with Detroit, across the river, and we would just start going down the 4 0 1 highway and make ourselves and try to go all the way to Ottawa. And, um, and play as many shows in those cities as we could.

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: ’cause there was way more we could do in a two week span than we ever could in Western Canada. And, and it was one of those, and I had [01:13:00] lined up a whole bunch of like, press promo, like stopping at the college radio stations and we

alexi: Oh yeah.

Glen Erickson: I remember being in Toronto, I remember being in Guelph, I remember in University of Toronto I should say. But then there was also like this Ryerson, I think, and a another guy who was a radio guy. I remember being asked the question multiple times, for some reason on that one tour of, what is your scene like in Edmonton? ’cause they had no idea, right? And they wanted to get a sense of like, what, represents the scene in Edmonton?

What makes it cool? And I answered the same thing every single time, which was. That blue collar ness of Edmonton compared to places like I felt and this, and my Calgary friends are gonna hate this ’cause it’s gonna sound like I dissed them, but like, I feel like Calgary wants to be Vancouver often in our music scene.

Or Vancouver wants to be Toronto. Like there’s just that little bit of envy of the bigger. Center that attracts more [01:14:00] things and, and, and rightfully so, like in those cultures that they just kind of want more, they want to be known for what makes them great

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: as a great city the same way. So there’s always that step up, envy. And I just felt Edmonton never had a step up envy. I felt like we were used to being the northern isolated, potentially even ignored like community. And that people here make their art like it was their way out. People made their art for art’s sake out of their love, their passion. Some people have joked it’s our way to endure the winter. you know, like, yeah. And I feel like his vibe is that he kept making great art for art’s sake

alexi: Mm.

Glen Erickson: and. You know, and it just sort of proved an ethos, proved the vibe true with every single band he was in, which is, the way he talked about it, he’s like, they would work on every [01:15:00] little aspect. It had to be more than just writing a song.

He wanted

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: to do all of it. And, and yeah, that’s the vibe that I feel like he

alexi: I love that.

Glen Erickson: makes sense. Yeah,

alexi: Yeah,

Glen Erickson: that’s a great question.

alexi: thanks.

Glen Erickson: Lexi.

alexi: Love it.

Glen Erickson: I, it’s a good question because to me, the summary of that conversation was me feeling really inspired, I guess since you asked me what I take away afterwards.

I felt very inspired because we’re the same age. that he just keeps, like he said at the start and at the end, you know, I’m a guy in the trenches. I’m still in the trenches, but then he would also say, I still feel like I’m inside this body, like

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: with the same energy and aspirations and obviously consistent creative energy coming out of him

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: and all that kind of stuff just really and speaks to me personally.

So. You know, I don’t know about anybody else who will listen, but I know for me it was a [01:16:00] cathartic, uh, valuable conversation. So I loved it.

alexi: I like that.

Glen Erickson: I like it too. Well, thank you for listening and coming up with some good questions. I like

alexi: Oh, it’s easy when the podcasts are good.

Glen Erickson: you’re sweet. Uh, I’m not gonna belabor anything. I’m gonna let you get back to studying.

alexi: Yeah. And then we’re done. And then

Glen Erickson: and then when we come

alexi: summer.

Glen Erickson: yeah, when we come back, then you won’t have any of these pressures and it’ll be so wonderful,

alexi: Yeah. I’ll have life back in my eyes. Maybe be a little bit more interesting again.

Glen Erickson: The light will return to your eyes. That’s

alexi: Yep,

Glen Erickson: Okay. Okay. Thanks for your time. Appreciate you. Love you. Okay. Bye.