Witchpolice Radio

After years of changes, local alt-rock/dream-pop outfit Ozconscious is set to release a new full-length, ‘Nostalgia for the Moment’, at the Pyramid Cabaret on June 20 (that's tomorrow if you're listening the day this episode drops!) 

I sat down with frontman Tate Hiebert to talk about the record, different songwriting vunes, learning from busking and playing cover tunes (via Tater and the Tots), and much more!

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a couple bucks a month if you like the show and want t...

Technical difficulties meant this one comes out a few days later than anticipated, but thanks for your patience. 

Here's a fun conversation with singer-songwriter Masak about her 15-years-in-the-making, genre-diverse album ('Masak's Unassorted Flavors'), getting inspiration from her late friend and collaborator Kelly Fraser, coming back to Winnipeg after a few years in (very) rural Manitoba, and much more!

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a couple bucks a month if you like the show and want to throw some change in the g...

Long-running emo punks Screaming at Traffic recently dropped a new EP with the excellent title ‘Songs to Steal Copper Wire To’. 

I sat down with (co-) frontman Jacques Richer to talk about the record, the band not taking itself too seriously, regrouping after some time off, and a whole lot more!

Need more SAT? Check out episodes #243 (Aug. 2017) and #416 (Sept. 2019), plus you can hear Jacques' previous appearances on the show as a member of Greek Riots on episodes #099 (Nov. 2014) and #132 (June 2015).

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help o...

This one's jumping the queue because it's time sensitive. It’s the end of an era! Frequent Witchpolice interviewee (this will be his sixth appearance in the past decade) Ed Durocher and his merry psychedelic fusion big band Apollo Suns are calling it quits. 

Here's our conversation about the band’s last show (May 29 at the Park Theatre, see you all there), the realities of the music industry as an independent touring act, reclaiming time with family and community, and much more!

Apollo Suns are (almost) dead. Long live Apollo Suns!

Need more Apollo...

Winnipeg’s Strawberry Punch is a self-proclaimed 'all-femme queer indie/pop/twee/punk rock band' who just released a deadly debut record and has all kinds of cool shit on the horizon. 

Tune in for our chat about the origins of their (don’t call it a) supergroup, bouncing around swapping instruments from song to song, appealing to a very diverse crowd, and much more!

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a couple bucks a month if you like the show and want to thr...

What the hell is going on here? It’s guest hosts Sean and Todd McGinity (of SeanGeek and Fastfret Podcast) giving me a bit of a break and interviewing two-thirds of alt-rawkers Crooked Ice for Witchpolice Radio! 

Tune in for their chat about the soon-to-be-released ‘DarkStars’ full-length (which was actually the previous name of their band) and much more!

Fun fact: Crooked Ice's bassist (who doesn't appear on this episode) is also a local podcaster, hosting the show Head Full of Radio. He guest-hosted an episode of Witchpolice in 2024, featuring his bandmate James Debrecen talking about hi...

The man, the myth, the legend… Greg Rekus is back on the show for his seventh appearance over the years!

Tune in for my chat with the hardest-working man in folk-punk about playing a show with his heroes The Bonaduces (May 8, at the West End Cultural Centre, also feat. Mise en Scene), U.S. touring challenges, reintroducing ‘The Dude Abides’, and much more!

Greg is a true Winnipeg original and one of a handful of local artists with carte blanche to appear on the podcast anytime he wants.

Need more Rekus in your life? Check...

In the most Winnipeg series of events ever, I randomly bumped into sax player/singer-songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Serge Paul downtown recently, which led directly to us doing a podcast interview about his new record, ‘Gut Love’.

Tune in for a conversation about saxophone, Franglais, resurrecting old songs, and much more, in Serge’s first appearance on the show in a literal decade!

Need more Serge in your life? Check him out on a very early episode of the podcast as a (then-) member of Jeremie and the Delicious Hounds, episode #174 (April 2016).

Huge thanks to ever...

Long-running indie rock duo Mise en Scene are back with a new record (and back on the podcast after a few years)! 

Check out our conversation about ‘Drive-Thru Confessional’, putting out the album *before* the April 18 release show, why they work so well together creatively, defining — or, rather, not wanting to define — the Mise en Scene sound (Mise en Sound?) and much more!

Need more Mise en Scene in your life? Check out their appearance on episode #636 (Nov. 2021).

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little...

I’ve been doing this podcast for eleventy trillion years and somehow — despite enjoying many of their various projects for the past three decades — I’ve never had either member of Poison Suckers on the show. 

That changes now! Tune in for a chat about their brand new 7" EP ('Charmer') on Transistor 66, Winnipeg trash, pro wrestling, watermelons, the power of the train whistle, and more!

Plus you get to hear me prattling on (again) about how much I love the Quiffs, in light of the upcoming reunion show with the Suckers on the bill. It’s a hoot.

Singer-songwriter Jacob Brodovsky is set to release ‘Tell the Kids We Tried’, his new LP, later this year. He came back for an interview on the podcast to talk about the record, changing artistic (and life!) priorities, and much more.

Need more Jacob in your life? Check out episodes #371 (April 2019), #687 (May 2022), and an even earlier appearance on episode #314 (Sept. 2018) as a member of the band Kakagi.

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a couple bucks a month if you like the show and want...

Dogs and Winnipeg Beach and writing folk songs, oh my! 

It has somehow been five whole-ass years (!) since the fantastic Two Crows for Comfort were on the podcast, so we caught up about their touring adventures, new (and old) music, and much more.

Need more Crows in your life? Check out episodes #330 (Oct. 2018), #573 (March 2021), and a live performance they did in my backyard for #404 (July 2019).

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for...

Trying something new on this one: you're probably used to my show's titles starting with the episode number (this one is #1026), but apparently that hampers a show's ability to be found be potential new listeners on certain platforms, so this time we're testing the guest's name alone.

Here's my chat with local indie-pop artist Chandler Pretty about getting into the music scene backwards, the cinematic sound of her debut EP ('Act V: Bloom'), bringing dark motifs to an otherwise bright genre, and much more!

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Co...

When Dog Pops were last on the podcast, they were a brand new band. Fast-forward to today, and they have the excellent ‘Good Pudding’ long-player out in the world and are playing their jangly little songs about animals and food all over town.

Tune in for my conversation with Top Pop Marshall Birch, right here and ready for your earholes!

Need more Dog Pops in your life? Check out episode #713 (Aug. 2022). Marshall was also on the show way back on episode #59 (Jan. 2014) as a member of the Unbelievable Bargains.

This episode brought to you...

February is Black History Month, and among the many events happening across Winnipeg is Adele M. Wilding's ‘Steal Away: Songs of Hope and Resilience’, a concert focused around the tradition and history of African-American spirituals. 

Tune in for my conversation with Adele about honouring her West Indian roots, the way traditional Black music continues to show up in unexpected places even into the 21st Century, the importance of accurately preserving music history, and much more!

‘Steal Away’ takes place Feb. 21 at Crescent Arts Centre and includes a star-studded cast of local players.

Need more from...

Great conversation on this episode with Neville Hamilton from Steinbach reggae outfit Yaadies! 

We talk about coming to Canada and bringing Jamaican music to a very unlikely location, getting his kids involved in the family band, spreading Caribbean culture across Manitoba through IRAL Music & Arts Festival and much more!

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a couple bucks a month if you like the show and want to throw some...

Now with repaired audio! 

Veteran Winnipeg MC Len Bowen has been steadily releasing inspired hip-hop since his early days as a member of local icons Shadez. 

In our latest (of many over the years) interview, we talk about his new record ('If You Don't See Me, You Saw Me'), representing Winnipeg on a larger stage, getting recognition for his efforts, his songwriting process, and much more!

(Note: there was some weird echo/distortion on one half of of the conversation, so if you downloaded this when it first came out and haven't listened ye...

I listen to a pretty wide variety of music, so it’s rare that I get stumped on a genre, but J-Rock was a new one on me!

Tune in for my conversation with locals Solaire about anime and video game music, Paramore tribute sets, their upcoming EP release (Feb. 7 at the Handsome Daughter), and much more!

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a couple bucks a month if you...

This episode features an interview with singer-songwriter Kris Rendina, who you may recognize from previous projects like Gold Mountain! 

We talk about his imminent solo full-length, The Moonflower Express (which will be released Feb. 5 at Sidestage), as well as peaks and valleys in songwriting, deciding to come back to music in an uncertain time, and much more.

Need more from Kris? Check out his appearances on the podcast with Gold Mountain: WR104 (Dec. 2014), WR264 (Jan. 2018), and WR498 (June 2020).

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.

Huge thank...

If you've been listening to this podcast for any length of time, you're probably familiar with my year-end rundowns of my favourite local (and local-adjacent) releases of the year. Usually it's this big, lengthy thing over multiple episodes, but this time I tried to keep it nice and concise.  

Here are just a few of the 2025 releases I really dug last year. Some are full-length albums, some are EPs, one, I guess, is technically a two-song single, and one is even a collection of songs recorded years earlier, but it's all really good stuff.

Of co...

Banjo-slingin’ death-song enthusiast Uncle Sinner is back with his first album in five years, the excellent ‘Everybody Wants to Know How I Die’. 

Listen up for a great chat about the record, taking cover photos the old-fashioned way, Manitoba’s influence on musical bleakness (and rebirth), and much more!
Need more Uncle Sinner in your life? Check out episode #483 (May 2020) and episode #600 (June 2021), which is about his Star Thistle side project.

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. Yo...

Folk artist Ben Stopfel spent the majority of his musical career here in Winnipeg, before decamping to Nashville a couple of years ago and plying his trade as a songwriter in Music City. 

He’s back home for a show at Public Domain on Dec. 28 (which means this one is time-sensitive and jumped the queue).

Here's our conversation about the two cities, coming back to Winnipeg, the differences between being a songwriter and a performer, and much more.

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.

Huge than...

Just over a year ago, folk singer Fernanda appeared on the podcast for the first time. 

We caught up to talk about her newly-released concept album, ‘Deer Trails’, the name change from her previous Julie Fern identity, working with field recordings, experimenting with new genres, and much more!

Need more Fernanda? Check out episode #953 (November 2024).

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a couple bucks a month if you like...

It's another 'Manitoba-adjacent' episode! Shoegaze-inspired singer-songwriter Kevin MKAI may be based in Toronto these days, but he cut his teeth in Winnipeg’s music scene of the early ‘90s. 

Here's our conversation about his new music, his early experiences here in his hometown, poetry open-mics, having to change the spelling of his own name due to a DJ issuing a cease and desist, and much more!

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as littl...

For various technical reasons, no new interview episode this week... but I'm not gonna leave you hangin'. 

Instead, here's a bonus episode that was originally released exclusively on the Patreon page back in 2022: it's, essentially, the full discography of my old punk/noise/space music trio The Mouth-Boat, complete with my rambling recollections about the songs and recordings, etc.

The Mouth-Boat was definitely not a successful band, per se, but it was a lot of fun. This Patreon bonus episode initially came out around the time of the Happy Days tape -- a collection of son...

The new record by rapper/producer/singer/songwriter/Winnipeg expat Rob Crooks is a layered, cinematic meditation on grief. 

Here's our conversation about the four-song ‘Unhomely’, taking creative liberties with deeply personal stories, sonic experimentation, Winnipeg from an outside perspective, and much more.

Need more Rob Crooks in your life? He was an original co-host of this podcast way back in 2012-13, but he has appeared on the show as an interviewee more than pretty much anyone else as well.

Check out episodes #968 (Feb. 2025), #916 (July 2024 with Epic), #853 (Dec. 2023 with Kitz Willman), #773 (March 2023), #657 (Jan. 2022 with Yy and G...

This is a bit of a different episode than you're used to on the podcast. As many of you know, in addition to releasing new interviews every week, I also have a Patreon page. 

Basically, that exists as a way for people who want to support the show, throw me a buck a month or whatever they want to donate, and they get to help out the podcast, keep the lights on, keep things afloat, but they also get access to a bunch of bonus content. 

The type of bonus content I post there changes no...

Last time Show Pony was on the podcast, they were juuuust starting out, and in those early days, they were playing alt-country… but times have changed.

I sat down with the band’s core members to talk about the shift to high-octane rawk sounds, harnessing their live energy in the studio, their excellent merch designs, and much more.

Need more Show Pony in your life? Check out episode #560 (Feb. 2021).

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You ca...

Really interesting conversation on this episode with Good + Plenty Arts Collective's Amber Neufeld and Mckye Hildebrand, all about the upcoming ‘Music Cocoon’ show at the West End Cultural Centre (Nov. 16)!

The event, which features performances by local artists (and past Witchpolice guests) Ila Barker and Two Crows for Comfort, is a family- and sensory-friendly matinee.

We talk about the show, creating inclusive, all-ages opportunities within the local music scene, some of Good + Plenty’s other initiatives, and much more!

Because of the time-sensitivity of the upcoming show, this episode jumped the queue and is comi...

Country singer-songwriter Chris Micheal was on a path to success a few years ago, until the momentum he had built was suddenly derailed and he all but disappeared from the music scene. 

Tune in to our conversation about the way back from health problems and addiction, and his newfound vulnerability as a songwriter and a human being. This is the first in-person interview I've recorded for the podcast in quite some time, and it it includes a couple of live performances!

Need more of Chris? Hear his previous appearances on the podcast on episode #388 (June 2019) a...

Gettin' spooky on this one (just in time for Halloween) with Trevor and Mike from Omens!

Check out our interview about the (deliberately) slow roll-out to their second album, navigating the world of streaming and weird Google censorship, emerging from the Jet Set Satellite shadow, Halloween songs, and much more!

Need more Omens in your life? Hear Trevor on episode #904 (June 2024).

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.    

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a cou...

One of the coolest things about doing the show for eleventy trillion years is I get to watch interviewees’ careers grow and develop, and in some cases — like with JayWood — I get to see that hard work pay off with well-deserved critical acclaim and success. 

JayWood sat down for a fifth Witchpolice interview (six if you count his appearance at a 2017 live event) and we talked about his new ‘Leo Negro’ LP, musical nebulousness, all roads leading back to Winnipeg -- where the album will be released Oct. 20 at the WECC -- and much more.

Note: A batt...

It's a return appearance on the podcast by singer-songwriter Doug McArthur! Tune in for a great conversation about collaborating with other writers, shifting his sound away from the alt-rock thing, unconventional ways to promote his new single, and much more! 

Note: early on in the episode there are a couple of weird artifacts -- sounds almost like a weird computer voice muttering some gibberish. No idea why that's there, but it doesn't take away from the conversation and is very brief. 

Need more Doug? Check out episode #830 (Sept. 2023) 

This episode brought to you by our...

Caught up with the fellas in Car287 to talk all about the new record, ‘Through the Lens’, the band’s recent upward trajectory, navigating acoustic versions of their songs, and much more!

Note: this was recorded a couple of weeks back, so some of the things they mention have already happened... like the new record, which has already been released. Get it now!

Need more Car287? Check out their previous appearances on episodes #757 (Jan. 2023) and #931 (Sept. 2024).

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.   

Huge thanks to everyone w...

Great sitdown on this episode with the big homie Jeff Darichuk of new Portage la Prairie folk-punk outfit Chucky and the Cheapskates! 

Tune in for a chat about getting back into the game in your 40s, the imminent new Cheapskates record, three chords and the truth, his old band the Naked Midgets, and much more!

Need more Chucky? He was on episode #561 (Feb. 2021) with the Naked Midgets!

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.   

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help...

I sat down with BreakOut West executive director Michael Dawson to talk about the festival/awards show/music industry conference, which will take over Winnipeg beginning later this week!

Tune in for all the details!

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.   

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a couple bucks a month if you like the show and want to throw some change in the guitar case!

As always, if you like the podca...

I caught up with all-Ha(i)ley classic rock/pop/alt-rock trio The Haileys to talk about the band’s upward trajectory, collaborating with outside writers, the dad crowd, their first time at the Royal Albert, and much more! 

Need more Haileys in your life? Check out their appearances on episode #796 (May 2023) and episode #590 (May 2021)! 

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.   

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a couple bucks a month if you like the show a...

Andrew Ritchot, a/k/a Lifte, is back on the show to talk all about 'How Strength Creates Tolerance', his new and deeply personal record that closes out a series based on his experiences as a caregiver for his late wife. 

Tune in for our conversation about music as catharsis, the future of this project (if there is one), and much more! 

Need more from Andrew? Check out his appearance on episode #760 (Jan. 2023), as a member of Boss Logan on episode #345 (Dec. 2018), and his spot as a guest host on episode #939 (Oct. 2024). Also give a list...

It's here! Episode 1,000! Who knew this silly podcast would have lasted so long?

This, probably unsurprisingly, isn't a regular episode of Witchpolice Radio. It's a conversation -- led by my friends and fellow podcasters Sean and Todd McGinity (and shoutout to Ron Moore for his contributions as well) -- about the show's history, podcasting in general, the local music scene... and much more!

On this episode, I respond to questions from listeners, friends, family and general well-wishers -- all of which I'm hearing for the first time. Some of them are serious, some of them...

Great chat with award-winning singer-songwriter Stephanie Westdal, all about balancing bold, vulnerable lyrics about serious issues with danceable pop songs, the upcoming Goddess Series of events celebrating creative women, and much more! 

This one is jumping the queue because it’s a little time sensitive and I’m working around the big 1,000th episode coming soon... 

This episode brought to you by our pals at Devine Shirt Company.   

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the podcast on Patreon. You can help out for as little as a couple bucks a month if you like the sh...