Simu Liu is the star of the new Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Prior to earning worldwide fame for this role Simu was one of the stars of the hit Canadian comedy, Kim's Convenience. Listen to this episode from 2017 to learn the back story of Marvel's newest superhero!

Welcome with Karim Kanji

NEW: Simu Liu: Star of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Brad Bradford is a City Councillor of the Beaches – East York ward in Toronto. Among his many duties he is currently the chair of the Toronto Music Advisory Council. In this episode Brad discusses with hosts Gregg Tilston and Karim Kanji the initiatives the city of Toronto is taking to bring back live music to the city in a post-pandemic scenario.

NEW: Brad Bradford | Toronto Music Advisory Council | Welcome To The Music

Jason Wilson is a two-time Juno-Awards nominee, Canadian Reggae Music Award winner, four-time Reggae Music Achievements Award nominee and Best-Selling Canadian historian from Downsview, Ontario. In 2007, Wilson became the first recipient of the Karl Mullings Memorial Award for commitment to reggae in Canada. The protégé of Studio One keyboardist Jackie Mittoo, Jason has performed and recorded with UB40, Alanis Morissette, Sly & Robbie, Ron Sexsmith, Ernest Ranglin, Brinsley Forde, Pee Wee Ellis, Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick. Wilson is a multi-instrumentalist though is perhaps best known for piano and voice. An Adjunct-Professor of history at the University of Guelph, Dr. Wilson has six books to his name, including the Toronto Maple Leafs’ official centenary book. – jasonwilsonmusic.com/

NEW: Jason Wilson | Reggae Artist and Historian | Welcome To The Music

Ari Shapiro returns to the podcast. Instead of talking about baseball we chat about politics and world events. Specifically, Islamophobia; the role of governments in addressing Islamophobia; the conflict between Palestine and Israel; Ari's view on the situation in the Middle East as a Jewish person born in Israel and now living in Canada; and finally how the West has it all wrong about Russia.

NEW: Ari Shapiro | Let's Start Thinking About The Children

Welcome To The Music hosts Gregg Tilston and Karim Kanji take a look back at the 50th JUNO Awards. Gregg and Karim also celebrate past guests of the podcast who were nominated and even some who won! In other words, WTTM is a path to either a nomination or a statue! Congrats to all the nominees, winners and Canadian music!

NEW: 2021 JUNO Awards | Welcome To The Music

Art Bergmann is Canada's Prince of Punk. Just don't call him that. In pure punk fashion, Art recently received the Order Of Canada but has yet to give an acceptance speech or even wear the "coveted" OoC pin. In this timely interview, Gregg Tilston and Karim Kanji talk to Art about music and the role of being a shit disturber by holding those in power to account. We end of the interview with a powerful performace of his song The Legend Of Bobby Bird. Bobby was a 10 year old boy who ran away from residential school in Saskatchewan never to be seen again. Years later his remains were found. For more information please visit www.irsss.ca/ (Indian Residential School Survivors Society)

NEW: Art Bergmann | Welcome To The Music

Zaki Ibrahim recently released her album, The Secret Life Of Planets and joined both Gregg Tilston and Karim Kanji on the show to talk about it. We also explore Zaki's musical inspirations and how growing up in South Africa, Nanaimo and Toronto shaped her identity and music. Stay until the end for a wonderful performance of her song, Gemini Moon.

NEW: Zaki Ibrahim | Welcome To The Music

Karim Awad's family is originally from historic Palestine prior to it being taken over by Israel. In this conversation, Karim gives me his family's history in Israel/Palestine. We also hear stories of the many times Karim went back to visit Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. We also take a deep dive into the ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel and look at things from both sides to better understand the motivations of everyone. In the end, Karim leaves us with what a solution for peace could look like in the future.

NEW: Road To Peace: Karim Awad on Israel and Palestine

The Cabana Room, the upstairs venue of The Spadina Hotel, was the centre of the Queen West music scene back in the 60s and 70s and flourished as a place to watch indie acts before being turned into a youth hostel in 1997. In this episode, hosts Gregg Tilston and Karim Kanji debate which Canadian act should join The Band, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Rush and Leonard Cohen in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Then we get around to reminisce about The Cabada Room which Gregg played in many times.

NEW: The Cabana Room | Lost Venues | Welcome To The Music

Prior to the release of her new album, SET THE FIRE, Kandle joined Gregg Tilston and Karim Kanji from her home in BC to chat about music, her career, videos, her new music and her love of dogs and the comedy, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Kandle’s mastery of music comes as no surprise, having collaborated with some of Canada’s finest songwriters, including Sam Roberts, Coeur de pirate, Peter Dremanis (July Talk) and Devon Portielje (Half Moon Run), in her impressive career to date — which also includes a Video of the Year JUNO nomination, a Prism Prize award for her Not Up To Me music video, and a Canadian Independent Video Award nomination for 2020 single, Lock and Load. Kandle also starred in Jack White’s 2018 video for Corporation, and her music was recently featured in Netflix's, Tiny Pretty Things. Growing up in the music industry as the daughter of Canadian rock royalty Neil Osborne of 54-40 has provided Kandle’s artistry with a unique insight. She brings a seasoned performance to every line and every word, channeling over a decade of touring the globe into music that’s familiar yet undeniably her own.

NEW: KANDLE | Welcome To The Music

Farhan Lalji is the Vancouver Bureau Reporter for SPORTSCENTRE, Canada’s #1 sports news and information program. Lalji, who joined TSN in 1997, covers the Canucks, Lions, and Whitecaps FC, as well as other sports stories from around the Vancouver area. Along with covering the Vancouver sports scene, Lalji has reported from many of the biggest sporting events in North America, including the Stanley Cup Final, NBA Finals, Grey Cup, MLB and NBA All-Star Games, golf’s U.S. Open and PGA Championship, and the 2004, 2006, and 2010 Olympic Games.

NEW: Farhan Lalji | TSN Reporter

Jeff Burrows is the drummer and percussionist for Canadian rock bands Crash Karma, and The Tea Party. Jeff Burrows begun drumming at eleven years of age and professionally since 1990 when he joined childhood friends Jeff Martin and Stuart Chatwood in forming The Tea Party which is celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2021.

NEW: Jeff Burrows | The Tea Party | Welcome To The Music

Nothin' But a Good Time is the definitive, no-holds-barred oral history of 1980s hard rock and hair metal, told by the musicians and industry insiders who lived it. Hard rock in the 1980s was a hedonistic and often intensely creative wellspring of escapism that perfectly encapsulated—and maybe even helped to define—a spectacularly over-the-top decade. Indeed, fist-pumping hits like Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” Mötley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” are as inextricably linked to the era as Reaganomics, Pac-Man, and E.T. From the do-or-die early days of self-financed recordings and D.I.Y. concert productions that were as flashy as they were foolhardy, to the multi-Platinum, MTV-powered glory years of stadium-shaking anthems and chart-topping power ballads, to the ultimate crash when grunge bands like Nirvana forever altered the entire climate of the business, Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock's Nothin' But a Good Time captures the energy and excess of the hair metal years in the words of the musicians, managers, producers, engineers, label executives, publicists, stylists, costume designers, photographers, journalists, magazine publishers, video directors, club bookers, roadies, groupies, and hangers-on who lived it. Featuring an impassioned foreword by Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist and avowed glam metal fanatic Corey Taylor, and drawn from over 200 new interviews with members of Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Winger, Warrant, Cinderella, Quiet Riot and others, as well as Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford and many more, this is the ultimate, uncensored, and often unhinged chronicle of a time where excess and success walked hand in hand, told by the men and women who created a sound and style that came to define a musical era—one in which the bands and their fans went looking for nothin’ but a good time…and found it.

NEW: Nöthin' But a Good Time | Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour | Welcome To The Music

Erica Ehm is a good friend of the podcast. She was kind enough to sit down with hosts Gregg Tilston and Karim Kanji a few months ago to help us think about our podcast differently. Out of that brainstorming session came a segment called, Lost Venues. Lost Venues is a celebration of music venues from our past that no longer exist. Sometimes Gregg and Karim will chat about venues that Gregg has played at. This episode features some past guests who shared with us some of their favourite Lost Venues. Guests: Justine Giles Jonny Dovercourt Zenesoul Greg Godovitz Danny Miles

NEW: Lost Venues with Special Guests | Welcome To The Music

Welcome is a series of in depth conversations with interesting people doing interesting things.