Founding and former member of Canadian band Barenaked Ladies Steven Page tells Nestor about modern life and music en route to Ramshead On Stage in Annapolis with his trio and all the hits on August 12th.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
barenaked ladies, band, music, oyster, canadian, songs, tragically hip, crabs, love, years, crab cake, place, annapolis, stage, wife, trio, thought, kevin, bryan adams, sctv
SPEAKERS
Nestor J. Aparicio, Steven Page
Nestor J. Aparicio 00:01
8
Come home we are W n s t test Baltimore and Baltimore positive Well, we’re still available out on the am dial. And of course we’ll be bringing the Maryland crab cakes were as well as the oyster towards our 26th anniversary. I gotta get rid of the 25th anniversary cupcake. Oh brought to you by friends at the Maryland lottery, the Gold Rush sevens doublers are out I’ll have these giveaway and fade these when the cheat strokes come in a little later on this month. Also, you know, we’re just gearing up this oyster tour we’re gonna have 26 oysters 26 ways in 26 days for our 26th anniversary that all begins when the Ravens kick off against the chiefs. Many of you know my rock’n’roll heart. You know, I’ve been traveling around with the bad back chasing Sammy Hagar and Loverboy and Bryan Adams and my God, I’ve been all over the place. And then some pants come here. And you know ever since I had Greg hawks from the cars on, I’ve let my rock and roll hair brushing my rock and rollers. I’ve got my rock and roll air out when I have rock stars on. This guy happens to be my wife’s favorite rock star. And he is performing at ramshead on stage where I always have a great time and a great seat. You love coming down to Annapolis. Maybe I’ll see Wes Moore down there. At some point on our oyster tour, Steven page formerly of the Barenaked Ladies, he should always be a bear naked lady. And we always tell her when we say that around here. It is a pleasure to have you on the program. And really great to have you come into a room. That’s one of my favorite rooms and and dare I say the hawk show with these this band he put together on Boston, one of the great nights of my young life. So living long enough to see you come back down and do tunes. Music brings us all together, man. So well. Welcome back to Annapolis, my friend.
Steven Page 01:39
Thank you very much. Nice to Nice to be back. And I love I love playing ramshead on stage and play there a bunch of times over the last few years and it’s really fun, fun venue.
Nestor J. Aparicio 01:46
Well, the show’s Monday, August 12. If you happen to catch this afterward out on the interwebs he’ll be back again soon, please. So it tells me what the show is. i i My wife is a huge fan. And I would always wind up at your shows. We have mutual friends through a friendships through baseball. I haven’t seen your solo gig. I’ve Googled you, you know, but But tell me about your career at this point. Because so many people are familiar and maybe do a flying and say he’s what and where and he’s not with the band. And I know it’s been a while but what is it night with Steve? We’re going to look like that ramside Next Monday.
Steven Page 02:23
Sure. So it’s it’s the Steven page trio, which is kind of my that’s my main gig. I’ve done I do full band gigs. And I do solo gigs. And I have this group called the Trans Canada Highway men but this is not it. This is the Steven page trio. So it’s myself. Craig northie from the band the odds on guitar who’s one of my favorite people of all time, one of my favorite bands of all time. And Kevin Fox on cello and we’ve been playing together as a trio since I think 2006 So quite some time now or sorry, 2009 brother and so 15 years pretty well. And we are kind of best pals and what we do is we play a mix of all the old Barenaked Ladies hits you know, it’s all been done Brian Wilson, old apartment, those kinds of songs, Barenaked Ladies deep cuts for the diehards, and then stuff my solo career because I’ve got five or six solo records, so but the way I look at it is like, it’s like catching up with old friends. Like I’m not going to not reminisce about the old days, but I’m also going to tell you a little bit about where I’m at. And hopefully that way, people feel like I’m not just forcing the new stuff on them either. It’s like, it’s more like it’s just conversation with the audience in a way. And it’s a lot of fun. Lots of laughs and hopefully lots of songs people know. So
8Nestor J. Aparicio 03:37
my wife’s just, you know, she she’s a big fan, and she went and googled you up his stuff sounds just like the old stuff. It sounds like Barenaked Ladies like, well, of course, it probably kind of does, because like it kind of sort of was. And listen. I mean, I’m old enough. I’m 55 I have former employees who work at other radio stations who I started their career, I see him on TV every night, all that and they often wonder I’m like, not all bands are meant for it’s really hard. Don’t to be rush. It’s really hard to hold a band together over a lifetime. And I think I’ve read up on you and I don’t need the life story behind the music. But the notion that you wanted to do something differently anyway. So did I in my career, anybody that’s followed my path over 30 years. I mean, this it’s feels like a joyous place you’re in right now to be able to come out and do this music and do it on your own terms the same way. Steve’s doing things on his own terms, and people don’t ask him about the police every five minutes, you know?
Steven Page 04:32
Well, I mean, I don’t mind talking about the times in Barenaked Ladies either because I loved it. It was great. I was 20 years of being in that band that I started with Ed Robertson, and it was just it was a dream come true. And we worked our asses off to get to achieve what we did achieve and we have I have amazing memories of it. But when it was time to leave, I mean that was hard. That was a really tough time trying to figure out how to be a person and a musician and whatever else in a place that I’ve I’ve only ever been a bear naked lady my entire adult life. I started when I was 18. So late 30s stepping out on my own, it was confusing time, but it’s been 15 years now. And that I’m having the best time of my life, you know, I’m playing with people I love to play with, I have a really great close relationship with the audience now, like between things like the Patreon that I run, and these live streams that I’ve been doing, since the beginning of the pandemic, I still do them. Basically, just so I can catch up with people with the with, with listeners who want to come and be part of, you know, my world, and I want to be part of their world. And it’s, it’s a really fun place, and I get to do a lot of different kinds of projects, couldn’t ask for better. I mean, I’d be happy to have bigger audiences and more money. But you know, those are, those are shallow things as far as like, my heart and soul goes, I’m doing great.
Nestor J. Aparicio 05:49
But I also think that when you branch out, and you know, Google and you won’t be did a food show, you know, like you are doing different things and meeting different people experiencing life a lot differently. And life on the road can you know, tear bands apart, tear relationships apart, tear people apart all of that. And you find this place, when you get a little bit older to enjoy things, maybe you hate it 20 years ago,
Steven Page 06:12
8that is true. And it’s like stuff that I would have thought, Oh, that’s not for me. Even just ordinary things like, I’ve never, I’ve never been an outdoors person or physical fitness kind of person. My wife, however, loves to hike. Well, I like to be with my wife. So I go hiking with her. And I found that I enjoy it, I enjoy kind of connection with nature enjoy the physical, physical activity, more than I ever thought I would. And it’s because I’m doing it with someone that I want to be around all the time. And sometimes when you’re in a band for 20 years, the last thing you want to do is be around each other 24/7 Because you spend all that time sleeping on people’s floors, and then sharing a bus and then sharing a dressing room. Learning to be adults together when you’re kids. And when you come into into new relationships. As a more fully formed adult, you kind of have some boundaries and some and and it’s easier to kind of say yes to things.
Nestor J. Aparicio 07:04
Well, also your songwriting, right, and the way you write songs, and I was like, I met my wife, 21 and a half years ago, you were her favorite band, and I’m like, they’re a little bit of a novelty band to me, you know, like, they have sing song, like kids would like it, and then I fed you did a kid’s thing. And that part of writing the way I would have written when I was 12. But I mean, there’s a Canadian pneus to you and a sense of humor. And the whole sort of Mike Meyers sort of built into that second city sort of humor that rushed into funny songs, you know, triumphed in do for Bryan Adams. And if they didn’t do funny, you did fun songs. And then I think maybe you get older and experience life a little everything’s don’t have to rhyme and they don’t have to make you say underwear and things like you could you can write differently when you get older.
Steven Page 07:54
Sure. I mean, even then they’re like, hey, Geddy Lee did do take off to the great white north with Bob and Doug McKenzie. There’s always room for a little bit of comedy. Hoser take off you Hoser. there that was like one of my favorite I ended up signing with my management is SRO management, same people who’ve managed rush for all those years, right? Yes, that’s right. And so the reason I signed one of the reasons I signed with them, I always told Ray, the reason I was signing was because because they put out the Bob and Doug McKenzie, great white north album, I mean, that SCTV stuff was such a huge part of our growing up, and just our kind of formation of what we thought was, was funny what we thought was relevant. But we always refer to really clever, and that’s clever. But there’s also like, there’s heart to that stuff as well. And that’s, I think, a big part of what the Barenaked Ladies were it was this mix of like, you can take it on whatever level you want, you know, if you just want to come and like, you know, dance and goof around, we’re there for that, if you want to get like, a little more heavy, we can also do that too. And, you know, we always compare it to just kind of a friendship in that way. But when you’re Yes, as you get older, and you’re a solo artist and you’re not bantering with somebody else on stage necessarily, you can get a little more introspective, and and just you know, as a listener, I listened to a lot of music. So I’ve just learned from, the more music I’ve listened to the more musicians I’ve played with, the more confidence I’ve gained as a writer and as a performer. What’s
Nestor J. Aparicio 09:26
different about being Canadian all these years, what could you say about that? Every time I go to Canada and I go often and I almost went this week chasing Bryan Adams up way, way north in Quebec, because he was doing these really crazy festivals and, and in a way, I mean, really places that I would never get to go and I’m I’ve got some wonderlust about me. I love coming to Canada where Canada had. Sometimes you can pretend to be Canadian when you’re away and people don’t ask you about Donald Trump, which I don’t like answering those questions never did from 16 to 20. But the part of being there that I always feel like I’m in a different place and being American, I always feel sort of strangely welcome. Maybe because I have the Geddy Lee thing going on, I’m not sure. But I know I, it there is something about I always feel welcomed. And I’m always looking forward to going to Toronto or to Ottawa or any, and I love hockey as well. But there’s something about Canadians coming to America that always feels like they’re Canadian. They’re a little different.
8Steven Page 10:21
That’s true, I think, you know, Canadians by being a smaller country by being underdogs, for example, like we’re watching, you know, the Olympics are on right now. And I was thinking about this, like how Canadians watch the Olympics versus how Americans watch the Olympics, Americans watch the Olympics, with the assumption that they’re going to win that, you know, we, we are the biggest and best country in the world the most, with the most resources and we better win this thing. And Canadians are like, we used to joke that our champ was go for silver. But it’s not even so much that I think people because Canadians feel so much like underdogs, and unseen by the rest of the world, that they take a lot of extra pride in their achievements. But they’re also good. I think they’re good at listening and watching the rest of the world. And that’s why you have so many great Canadian, Canadian musicians, people think about musicians of the past who were who were synthesizers of American roots music, the band being the best example but Neil Young as well and Gordon Lightfoot. So on, we had people who listened to American music and made it their own by kind of being observers of it. And then you have these comedians, all the SCTV people and Jim Carrey and, and kids in the hall and so on, who are great observers of the human condition and of modern culture and can satirize it from a from afar. You know, where I think, and then you have people like, you want to look at somebody like Bryan Adams, who kind of typifies kind of the classic pneus of rock, a pop rock because you can be a little bit a little bit away from it in order to observe it and mash it all together. Another little fun fact for you. So I was telling you about the the Steven page trio Craig North young guitar from the band the odds the drummer in the odds is also the drummer for Bryan Adams. Pat Stewart is Brian’s drummer. And he plays on a bunch of my solo records as well. So you do get do get a little Brian and Steven page crossover with Pat Stewart.
Nestor J. Aparicio 12:19
He threw me a stick one time. Our guest Steven page formerly the Barenaked Ladies he is performing with his trio as well as Dennis shock and Cliff Hill is a star by Dennis Shaka local folks here. It’s August the 12th at 730 it’s Dan ramshead. On stage you know all about it’s great little room down there. We’re talking about Canadian culture Canadian music, so I own a radio station 26 years am radio station here and when last time I was in Toronto, maybe about two three months ago I was I was at Massey Hall when getting pulled out Alex back at Christmas time. So I was trying to go over to Henderson and grab a rush beer and all that stuff. I when I drive right across the border I hit Niagara Falls even the Peace Bridge and buffalo because I usually fly in there and flash my passport when a habit. And I changed the radio station and radio in Canada plays Canadian music. So I love me some April wine and some honeymoon suite. It’s Barenaked Ladies, and just when I can, I cannot not listen to a to radio when I’m in Canada, and you’re proud you’re featured on there, but also bands like The Tragically Hip that broken America because of things like that, I think, right?
Steven Page 13:29
Sure. Yeah, the fact that like, I think Canadian radio, if they didn’t have to play Canadian Music wouldn’t. And the Canadian church would look exactly like the American church. And right now now that we have, there are tons of pop acts. Everybody from from, you know, Drake and the weekend to Shawn Mondays, they’re you know, they’re all over the places Canadian Acts who are in the, in the top of the charts, but look back in the 80s. And there weren’t, there were very few. And so back in the 70s, the Canadian government came up with a plan to kind of bolster the Canadian music industry. And it really helped to created this sense of like, where you have this Canadian star system and many of them crossover into international success, but others are really, they make their living at home. And that should be an issue everybody should be able to make a living in their home country. You know, Tragically Hip being the best example of that they did pretty well in the US but they were God tear in Canada, they were, you know, the biggest band in the country. And, and people speak and think of them with a lot of reverence.
Nestor J. Aparicio 14:33
8Steve, I gotta tell you, if I don’t talk to you about Kevin Hearne in my mid my wife’s had leukemia twice. You know, he was part of your she was looking for people who had survived like, quite frankly, because we didn’t know a lot of people. Chuck Pagano, that was the Colts coach that is a friend of ours has always been a friend of ours. He gave some life advice, but what would you say? Two decades removed from that and everything that happened with Gordon The Tragically Hip and Kevin’s role in that and if people haven’t read about it, please. There’s this Google it and you can read up on it. But there’s a level of courage that you saw every single night around you, you know, in the middle of a rock and roll act and trying to hold together things that weren’t all tight. It never comes at the right time. But it’s an amazing story of perseverance right in front of you. And I know you, you keep a friendship with him. Yeah,
Steven Page 15:22
Kevin. I mean, he got sick, when we were making stunt which would then go on to become our biggest album in 1998, and was diagnosed with leukemia right before the album came out. And it was, it was really dire. And he had a stem cell transplant, which was, you know, fairly new science at that time. And, and it took a long time for that to actually, you know, kind of kick in and for him to get better he his body fought against that transplant really hard. And he was very weakened and couldn’t do most of that tour with us. We had a good friend of ours, Chris Brown filled in for most of that tour. And then Greg, Kirsten, the great producer came in, filled in for cabinet, another section, and Kevin would come back and basically do what he could, which was early on, not much, you know, a few songs, and then he’d be too exhausted. But, you know, we waited waited it out. And thankfully, he had an amazing team of doctors and, and overcame, but that was a good long journey of recovery for him and, and every time he come out on stage, you know, the amount of energy and strength that it took for him to do that was astounding, but also music is that’s where he lives. You know, he’s such an incredibly musical person that it would have been cruelty to not encourage him to come out and and at least express himself musically, when he could see that
Nestor J. Aparicio 16:48
he is our guest, formerly the Barenaked Ladies, he’ll be down to ramshead on stage over when he goes down and checks that out. So at this point in your life, how many shows do you want to play? What’s what’s the ideal range, because as I went through this, and so he had an 80 show, and he’s doing this and he’s done that he’s got awards, he’s living a happy life. We all like to make more money play stadiums, as you said, but there is a point where like, you get to pick the life that you want at this point, and go out and play. And after COVID, I’ve talked to so many musicians that COVID really changed a lot of different things for folks, either an appreciation for this, or hey, I’m done with it, that to some degree, right.
Steven Page 17:22
And then also post COVID, things got a lot harder, like things got more expensive. Renting things like buses and vans were harder to do and more expensive and harder to come by a lot of like bus drivers retired. All those kinds of like little kind of nitty gritty infrastructure stuff change, airlines became less, we’re not reliable, which means you got to fly in the day before your gig rather than on the day of your gig, which means you have to pay for hotels the day before everything’s more expensive, except in my case, except for concert tickets. So I’m kind of making the same money I was making, but paying a lot more to do the shows. So the idea of going out and doing like a three week tour or a six week tour ends up becoming less cost effective than just going in and doing one or two or three nights in a row and then going home, which means you spent a lot of time in airports and cars and vans. Luckily, I love being around the people I work with. But you know, and I still do probably 150 gigs a year. So it’s a lot. It’s a lot of traveling. But right now, for example, I’m kind of working my way up until September, and we’re going to my wife and I are gonna take a vacation for a few weeks and in September. And I’m really looking forward to that. But I keep thinking about every time I go to work, I’m thinking I’m gonna pack in all the work before I go on vacation. How much how lucky I am to have a job that I love doing. You know, no, I don’t love saying going away from home. But I do also love playing to fresh audiences every night. So that’s the trade off. Well,
8Nestor J. Aparicio 18:52
the other part is you could eat good places. So come on mister eating show guy. You know, once an eating show guy, always an eating show guy. And as you said, Take care of your health and trying to eat the right way. I’m doing this oyster toward these people at the Oyster recovery partnership. I’m trying to educate folks, because I do a crab cake tour and I’ve been doing this talk about branching out. I was the sports guy during COVID Trying to hold business together and thought crab cakes sort of like ping pong democracy sort of like anybody can sit and have a crab cake and a beer Republicans Democrats, athletes, whomever, local people, but this oyster thing without oysters oxygenating the bay we don’t have crabs, right and we have all these invasive creatures. So they think I want to eat like it doesn’t oysters a day every day for 26 days and I’m like, can’t do that. But I am looking for like a new way to make an oyster that I haven’t eaten it or some way that it’s famous in some stew and I’m going around doing this so I’ve had a really good time with my crab cake tour. Do you miss your your eating show?
Steven Page 19:48
I had a great time doing that show is a lot of fun. We are we you know that that show was called the illegal eater and it was about eating like either foods that were illegal or or or Things like moonshine and stuff like that, that are in gray areas are illegal. But sometimes there were just restaurants or pop up restaurants in the, in places you would least expect them, you know, places in the back of a bar or the back of a store, or, you know, at someone’s house or those kinds of things. And it’s the greatest way to get to know a city when you travel anywhere is through its food. I mean, Baltimore is by far no exception. And so you know, what a great, a great, distinctive food town especially if I might have wasted his time at crabcakes. Like that’s like, it’s you’re talking my language and, and I love that I love the fact that there’s a
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:33
fork let’s go brother, you know? Yeah, we’re gonna eat crabs. You just bring your hands I mean, I know you work with your hands. But you know, you gotta get dirty to have crabs you know that?
Steven Page 20:42
8I don’t mind. I don’t I mean, whether whether I want to have crabs or not my dad we might have to go into a different conversation but but as far as like eating crabs, sure I’m I’m up for it.
Nestor J. Aparicio 20:53
All right, well, come on in and we’ll see you at the show. Not before the show. We got to make sure we keep you. You know it but after the show craps for everybody. Thank you for your time. Really appreciate it. You. You’ve been such a source tonight. Whenever I see a rock star that’s meant so much to me. I always say Do you know how like I’ve recovered from triathlon. I’ve been to try and fan forever, and I fanboy out and he’s a baseball guy and I’m like, Do you know what your music like songs like hold on and songs like magic power, like get people through tough times. Seeing my wife anytime she’s listening to your music. She’s so happy. So you bring that to her.
Steven Page 21:32
Thank cruciate thank thanks to her.
Nestor J. Aparicio 21:34
Well, that she’ll be bebop and with you on the 12 I trust me. Now that I’ve had you on the show. She’s coming to the show. The show is one of the 12 that ramshead on stage David Paige formerly the Barenaked Ladies always the Barenaked Ladies, he’ll be performing Dennis shocky Cliff Phyllis storability will be there as well. Ram said on stage do a great job down there Annapolis. Make a day of it leave early, go down to the capital of the Free State and have some fun and say a little Westmore while you’re down there. I’m Nestor mixing some music in with some sports. Luke is at a training camp we got baseball on the brain and all election have we got all sorts of things happen. We are wn st am 1570, Towson Baltimore and we never stop talking Baltimore positive
