When Matthew and I reflected on 2020 we decided we needed a song to bring it all to a close. Cowritten with Matthew Presidente of Vancouver Canada we worked together while apart. “On this Quarantine Christmas” is our tribute to the year we all want to leave behind and forget. This song has also been released on all major platforms. Stay safe, play safe and support independent music! You can also find the release on:
Spotify iTunes Apple Music Amazon SoundCloud
To me there is nothing better than going to a Pride Parade and celebration. I attended my first Pride March and Pride celebration in Winnipeg in the mid 1990’s. The parade was small because, Winnipeg’s out-gay community was pretty small at the time. Back then there was a well established amount of homophobia in the city. Even though Winnipeg had elected Glen Murray (Canada’s first openly-gay Mayor) in 1998 Winnipeg is a city in the Canadian Prairies and that area was somewhat conservative. Everyone knows with time comes with change. The Winnipeg LGBTQ+ community has really grown and has been able to change the hearts and minds of those who were previously intolerant. We’ve come a long way baby!
When I moved to Vancouver a few years later Pride took on a whole new meaning. Vancouver is a much larger city and the gay scene was different. First off there are a lot more gay bars and a lot more alternative night clubs that were gay-friendly. In the mid 2000’s I met Matthew Presidente through a friend I was seeing casually who was a manager at a gay bar called Numbers Cabaret.
Numbers 2007
At the time Matthew was hosting and performing every Tuesday at Numbers and my friend said I should audition for Matthew’s show because he was always looking for new musicians to add to the show. So, I decided to meet Matthew, audition, Matthew scheduled me to perform not too long after that and we have been friends and collaborators ever since.
Victoria Pride 2007
With encouragement and connections within the Vancouver Pride Society Matthew helped me get gigs to perform at the East Side Pride Celebration, New West Pride and the main Vancouver Pride celebration.
Vancouver Pride 2012
I would also back Matthew on guitar and vocals during his MANY Vancouver Pride performance slots over the years.
Performing at Pride with Matthew became an annual tradition and even when I lived in San Francisco I would travel to Vancouver for Pride to support Matthew. I also had the chance to perform with Matthew during the closing ceremony for the Out Games that were held in Vancouver in 2011, that was special! So, over the years I have looked forward to sharing the stage with him at this time of the year.
Out Games 2011
Now it’s 2020 and with the pandemic came the changes to the things that we would previously take for granted….this year’s Pride Parade and celebration.
Matthew reached out to me in early July. The show would go on. Matthew said that he was just given the opportunity to do a pre-recorded set for the Calgary Pride online celebration and he would like for me to join him in a stripped-down performance of our song “Leather & Love”. I told him I would be more than happy to do it.
He also mentioned that he had decided to produce a “World is Watching- Post Pride Episode” and asked if I wanted to record a couple videos for it and I automatically said yes. Matthew and I agreed that the perfect songs would be “Get Into The Smalltown Boy” (a clever Bronski Beat-Madonna mashup we created a few years ago) and “Love Machine” a blues/rock song I had written about picking up people in Bars that I was itching to turn into an electronic song. I must say…this would be exciting!
We had already recorded an arrangement for “Get Into The Small Town Boy” a few years back. The beat for the early version came from a vintage Roland 303 GrooveBox. I took it upon myself to create a fresh arrangement that had an electronic-disco feel to it. The new arrangement took a week to complete. I was happy with the arrangement we recorded a scratch track and sent it to Matthew to track his parts. Perfect! Now I could work on Love Machine.
I began to work on the new arrangement for Love Machine and then the unthinkable happened….we ended up being ordered by the Berlin Health Authority to be quarantined. Why? Because we were at a show at a bar on July 17th and someone at the show ended up testing positive for the Coronavirus 5 days later. We got tested and had to stay in quarantine from July 25th-July 31st so, we had a hell of a lot of time on our hands to finish the “Love Machine” arrangement, record, mix and and film videos for “Leather & Love” plus the “Get Into the Smalltown Boy” mashup.
“Love Machine” was finished on July 26th so, we would be ready to (once again) rearrange the apartment, so we could convert the living room into a mini-film studio to begin filming Monday, July 26th. All of the songs would be shot at night so there would be a “club feel” to each video also, it’s easier to control lighting when the sun isn’t involved. The shooting and editing schedule was as follows:
Once again Don and I could not watch Matthew’s “WIW-Post-Pride” episode when the premier happened on Monday August 3rd at 8:00 p.m. (PST) due to the 9 hour time difference but, we were able to watch it on Tuesday, August 4th and we loved it! Everyone did some fantastic performances (you must watch the Kylie Minogue Medley – Matthew Presidente & Wanting Moi!)
So Happy Pride Everyone where ever in the world you may be!
“What do we want? Cocktails!
When do we want them?Now!
Why do we want them? Because it’s 5 O’clock somewhere!”
-Anonymous
Cheers!
TCT
Happy Canada Day!
To all of my international followers July 1st, Canada Day, is the celebration of my birth nation’s birthday. It’s a day that is full of music, fun, friends and fireworks. In Berlin the Canadian Embassy and an organization called the DKG (Deutsch-Kanadische Gesellschaft/German-Canadian Society) have put together large Canada Day 
celebrations over the years. There are usually a few thousand people that attend. You can find Canadian favourites like Poutine (care of The Poutine Kitchen), Montreal Style Smoked Meat Sandwiches and you can wash the food down with a spicy caesar or Canadian beers like Molson, Labatt and Mousehead. There will also be Canadian comics and musicians that would entertain the audience to fill the afternoon. This year’s Canada Day celebration in Berlin would be different because of the Corona Virus…this year’s celebration would be online.
In early June I was approached by the DKG to do a video for the online Canada Day celebration. The song had to be family friendly (gulp) with some French lyrics if possible. I thought to myself that my song “Le Louvre” would be perfect! As an extra special feature I wanted to have Matthew Presidente from Vancouver play keys and backing vocals on the song 🙂
I reached out to Matthew to let him know about the Canada-Day in Germany gig and wanted to know if he would be able to record his performance so I can add it to the ‘Le Louvre” video. He said; “Yes” right away and then asked me if I could do a Canadian cover song for his “World is Watching – Canada Day” Youtube episode and I said; “I would love to record Ahead By A Century by the Tragically Hip”. Now Don and I would have to shoot two videos which wasn’t a terrible task for us for we had shot so many concert videos for the “World is Watching” YouTube series. Piece of cake!
On Sunday June 14th we prepared and sent a scratch track to Matthew. His turn around is the stuff of legend! He recorded the vocal and keys tracks, shot the video and sent the files back to us the next day. 
On the afternoon of Tuesday, June 16th (my birthday) we proceed to rearrange our 60 square meter (600 square feet) apartment to make room for lighting, 2 stationary cameras and a Candian themed backdrop with a bottle of red wine as a prop. I wore a hometown black “Winnipeg” t-shirt and a Beret on my head. As soon as we finished shooting a few off-the-floor takes that we felt good about we shut our film set down and we departed to the pub to celebrate my birthday. The rest of the week Don would concentrate on mixing the vocals, instruments and then editing the video.
The next song/video to be recorded and shot is a cover of the Tragically Hip’s 1996 song “Ahead by a Century”. I must admit that I have never been big fan of “The Hip” (it wasn’t my type of music at that time). I began to gain appreciation for them when living in San Francisco I watched “The Hip’s” final farewell concert at an Irish bar in Noe Valley (a district in San Francisco) that hosted a special Canada night for the global CBC broadcast.
The concert was on August 20th, 2016. The crowd in the bar was so emotional during the show and I admit I cried with the audience. During the show I looked forward to watching The Hip play two songs for the last time: “New Orleans is Sinking” and “Ahead by a Century”. It was a truly Canadian moment for us while living in the United States.
The original song is a very simple stripped-down song so, I decided this time I would build an arrangement on my own from scratch. I didn’t want my arrangement for this song to be a “copy” of the original but, close enough and to add something of my own to it. My arrangement had to honour Gord Downie and respect the original. Rest in peace Gord. I sent the arrangement with a scratch vocal to Matthew and once again he had sent his vocal, piano and video files to us in less than twenty-four hours.
Next we proceeded to tear apart our apartment to make room for lighting, two stationary cameras and this time we did a Pride themed backdrop. We shot my off-the-floor vocal and guitar and next Don worked feverishly to mix the track and edit the video. We had the final cut ready and sent to Matthew within days.
Matthew’s “WIW-Canada Day Episode” (link below) would premier on Monday, June 29th at 8:00 p.m. (PDT) meant that it would air in Central European Time (CET) Tuesday, July 30th at 5:00 a.m. so, needles to day Don and I could not watch the show and participate in the live chat in real time. We watched it the afternoon of Tuesday the 30th and we loved it! It was so wonderful to see all our of our singer/songwriter friends doing their covers/interpretations of famous Candian songs. 🙂
On July 1st we watched my first musical contribution to a Canada day in Germany
(online) celebration! The video for “Le Louvre” was one of the last performances before the online feed went to the “United we Stream” DJ set. I must say Ben McLean was a wonderful online host and I was so very happy to be a part of the celebration.
As a side note…in July the DKG reached out to me in regards to doing an interview for their online/email publication and I gladly agreed to participate. You can see the interview on the DKG Website
It’s time for a cocktail.
Cheers!
TCT
Click below to see the latest videos posted on YouTube
