0:01

My name is John Cullen and

0:03

I want to tell you a

0:05

story. It's a story about a

0:08

scandal, broken relationships, gossip, rumors, money,

0:10

corporate rivalry, and... curling.

0:13

It's the story of Broomgate, how

0:15

a single broom, yes, a broom,

0:17

turned friends into foes and almost

0:20

killed the 500-year-old sport of curling.

0:22

It was a year I'd like

0:24

to forget. Broomgate.

0:27

Available now. This

0:31

is a CBC Podcast. Hey,

0:37

I'm Tom Power. You're listening to Q. I'm sure

0:39

you might have had a job when you were

0:41

a teenager. Maybe you worked at McDonald's, maybe you

0:44

delivered papers, maybe you stocked shelves at Mark's Work

0:46

Warehouse. The Canadian twin

0:48

siblings Mercedes and Phoenix Arnhorn,

0:51

their first serious job when they

0:53

were teenagers was a pretty successful

0:55

Canadian emo band called Courage My

0:57

Love. Pretty

1:08

good. Unlike you and I, who get

1:10

to move on from McDonald's or the paper route and

1:12

the very privacy of our own lives,

1:15

Mercedes and Phoenix found themselves tied to the job

1:17

they had as teenagers to the sound of that

1:20

band you're hearing right now. Mind you,

1:22

that band Courage My Love did really well, you know, millions

1:24

of views in their videos and a bunch of big tours.

1:27

So when they decided to move on from that and do

1:29

something else, it was a big deal. After

1:31

they disbanded Courage My Love, the siblings

1:34

stayed together, created a new band on

1:36

their own terms. The band's called Soft Cult

1:39

and we've been listening to their music here on Q

1:41

over the past couple weeks and it's really, really

1:44

beautiful, powerful music.

1:47

It's not quite pop punk though, it kind of

1:49

sounds like this. It's

1:57

not quite pop punk. The

2:05

weepy heaven is that May Twenty fourth

2:07

Phoenix The Mercedes came into the studio

2:09

to talk about it. I asked them

2:11

what it was like being teenage twins

2:14

grown up in the super hyper masculine

2:16

seen. Phoenix

2:20

now. We're always like kind of the

2:23

odd band out on the Dell and

2:25

back in those days when leave her

2:27

only like thirteen fourteen, we really didn't

2:30

see a lot of people that looks

2:32

like us. Represented. On your.

2:34

Age your even hot the so as he

2:36

was a dude. Heavy punk scene? Yeah yeah,

2:38

we. Know like even ten years ago I'd

2:41

say yes and that is a lot different

2:43

than how it is now so it is

2:45

really inspiring to see how that has evolved

2:48

and scenes in there is a lot more

2:50

represents his and nowadays but it is. It

2:52

taught us alive and I think said. The.

2:55

Evolution for us was sort of like we learned

2:57

early on that we would have to become really.

3:00

Persistent at our craft and you know if

3:02

we're going to step on stage and I'm

3:04

going play guitar and Phoenix is gonna play

3:06

drums. Were gonna have to really know what

3:08

we're doing and sort of. Prove.

3:11

ourselves in away and so now.

3:13

We're. Very confident in our abilities

3:15

and you know, as musicians and

3:17

songwriters. A Phoenix let's let's talk a little bit

3:20

of occurs. Memo does for a second sit at the ban

3:22

starts when when you're hold. Of in

3:24

were so I did. They get started. Like

3:26

relax and fourteen. As a

3:28

way yes we're at. yeah So here's think

3:30

I like local. A bottle of the bands

3:32

and stuff and then that been ended up

3:35

going for like ten years. Before it which

3:37

is pretty wild yeah what what what What

3:39

was the experience like only so much as

3:41

you probably can say hear what was experience

3:43

of like of taking this thing that was

3:45

born out of the pumpkin be i was

3:47

seen him to wh kitchener and and. Go

3:49

into that major label thing missing signed me to

3:51

label that was going. Ah it I

3:54

mean it is Cowlick the classic where

3:56

you know we were really and then

3:58

we got signed were really excited and

4:00

it's like ah you know on this

4:02

is so exciting so the gray and

4:04

then it. Being. On a major

4:06

label? Obviously over time it's it's you're

4:08

expected to start paying back these costs

4:10

and the recouping this money is that

4:12

these sunken to. Usurp the money to bail

4:15

put in for promotion the money they earn for

4:17

a studio time to monumental put in her producer.

4:19

All that stuff like you know at music videos.

4:21

All that stuff that you know. They.

4:23

Just costs money and then ah,

4:26

then the creative choices. you know,

4:28

like. They. Searched say

4:30

kind of want to have ahead and not be

4:32

like well I think if you do this and

4:34

you do that then you'll be able to recoup

4:36

that money and will the all this and it's

4:39

like it starts to get a little bit murky

4:41

and it it's a it's You know? It's kinda

4:43

like taught us a lot about lake labels I

4:45

think so I I look back on it fondly.

4:47

There's a lot of good times, but I'm definitely

4:49

glad that we're not so much and that major

4:51

label space anymore. But movement Mercedes or must

4:53

have been a to be able to go to that

4:55

which siblings are most most been able to move to

4:57

be able to go through all that strangeness we have

5:00

family member you know. Yeah. I feel

5:02

lucky to go through my life with

5:04

Scenic Ruinously and to go on tour

5:06

and travel the world and have all

5:09

these experiences together. It is like having.

5:11

My. Buddy with me How times has

5:13

hit us. Up Simic talk me through the

5:16

the evolution of the South has got. I remembered

5:18

my love. I remember I remember your band and

5:20

it was. It was. Him

5:22

always yeah yeah I think that's a good

5:24

way to put on a moment. I would

5:26

even say may blow up on the most

5:29

ask. Me:

5:39

What the evolution have you go from that? Santa doesn't.

5:41

Want you know I like we

5:43

said before, I like that. Then

5:45

we started. when are teenagers So

5:47

ah now that were like thirty

5:49

obviously were inspired by lot of

5:51

different muzak. And is that an end to that?

5:54

does up an end at some point? Yeah. We kind

5:56

of called it in twenty funny and

5:58

then that's kind of when we started

6:00

this new project and it was the

6:02

right time. And it was. Cook has

6:04

like that Bends through the years had

6:07

strayed away from guitar music which we

6:09

weren't really. if we kinda like lost

6:11

the plot loader and then now like

6:13

when we called that bends or when

6:15

we have called that been quests then.

6:18

We. Kind of came back to roots with

6:20

and yeah, Mercedes especially was really inspired by

6:22

Riot Girl and a lot of Shoe Days

6:24

artists and then that was a cool time

6:26

just finding out how to like merge those

6:29

two passions. I guess we're receiving. Talk

6:31

to me about that cause I also

6:33

mentioned you when you set and we're

6:35

Kathleen Hanna talking about right girl. Your

6:37

area study was pretty exciting. But

6:40

I think is a boot. What? What was? what? are

6:43

you listening to? The biggest can Kill. Yes,

6:45

definitely bikini kill and. On

6:48

I was exposed to Bikini Kill

6:50

for the. First time the through the

6:52

punk. Singer documents. On

7:02

What really drew me to them was the.

7:06

And their feminism and the empowerment on

7:08

and it honestly felt like a switch

7:10

was just turned on in me like

7:12

I just felt a. Spark. And.

7:16

I wanted to be a part of that. And

7:18

I wanted to bring that. Spark.

7:21

To other people. So that's why

7:23

I want to infuse semitism and

7:25

riot girl he says in sea

7:27

sauce called and it's kind of

7:29

cool I feel like we are

7:31

bringing that salmon is punk vibe

7:33

see the shoe days. Yelled here in

7:35

our own way. yeah I'm I'm What's interesting

7:37

is that Kathleen a sort of like a

7:39

distance herself another for my girls because he

7:41

feels like that move that movement as the

7:44

time was sort of a street says blade

7:46

Woman movement. So I find really interesting in

7:48

the way that you talk about your music.

7:50

Yeah it's about bringing right girl to two

7:52

and a new generation but also make sure

7:54

it's it's It's a tough free space for

7:56

my girl and. He said it yeah because

7:58

it is right. Girl is not slot. Like

8:01

clearly, it wasn't intersectional

8:03

enough. And what

8:05

it did do was bring women

8:07

into these spaces where women typically

8:09

aren't very welcome, were made to

8:11

feel powerful or equal, but

8:14

clearly it needs to evolve. Just

8:16

like we as human beings evolve. So

8:20

we're trying to bring Riot Girl

8:22

into a modern age where it's

8:24

more intersectional movement and just more

8:26

inclusive in general. So put

8:29

me into the room because I want to, for

8:31

what Phoenix is talking about there Mercedes, so like

8:33

you're listening to Courage My Love Breaks Up, you're

8:36

listening to Bikini Kill, listening to, I don't

8:38

know, my shoegaze knowledge is not great. Like

8:42

my bloody Valentine's flow dive.

8:56

And even modern bands, you know, like

8:59

Dive and Blow Crush. I

9:02

just really love the dichotomy of

9:04

shoegaze. There's like this wall of

9:07

sound, like massive,

9:10

heavy guitars. But

9:13

then it's like macerated in this ambience

9:16

of reverb and softness and

9:18

ethereal. Like I just

9:20

feel like it's a really great metaphor

9:22

almost for femininity in a way. You

9:24

have this duality of rage and power,

9:27

but then also a nurturing soft side.

9:29

That's powerful. So are you in with a

9:31

guitar writing this or are you? Yeah,

9:35

guitar is like probably my first love as

9:37

an instrument, but I also record the bass

9:39

and keys and stuff.

9:41

And then Phoenix is the drummer

9:44

and producer and engineer when

9:46

we're in the studio. So Phoenix, is

9:48

there a moment where after years of being in

9:50

Courage My Love, does Mercedes come to you and

9:52

say like, hey, I'm trying something different. I'm working

9:55

on something different. Does that moment exist? Yeah,

9:57

it kind of happened that way where we

9:59

were just like, you know, in the pandemic,

10:01

like writing some new songs, and it's like,

10:03

damn, yeah, this really doesn't sound like our

10:05

old band. And we're realizing like, we probably

10:08

should just make a new project, you know.

10:10

And then yeah, it

10:12

just kind of took shape, like, you know, the

10:14

more that we would write and especially the more

10:17

Sades would kind of show me some music. It's

10:19

like, yeah, okay, I can really like get this

10:21

vibe. And it was kind of cool having that

10:23

time, because I got to learn a lot. I

10:26

watched like 5000 million trillion YouTube

10:29

tutorial videos on record. Oh my god,

10:31

home recording. You were doing any home recording before

10:33

2020. A little here and there,

10:35

but it was demoing. We're demoing. We're doing at

10:37

home. But then now, like, in

10:39

2020, obviously, it was like, okay, we're stuck at

10:42

home for a while now, we can't really go

10:44

to a studio and do stuff. So it's like,

10:46

let's just do it to the best of our

10:48

ability at home. And now it's like, yeah, we

10:50

just love doing it that way. And I think

10:52

now that we could go to a studio, we

10:54

actually prefer just recording at home now. So I'm

11:00

Tom Power. You're listening to cue coming up

11:02

more of my conversation with the band soft cult.

11:05

Hi, I'm Jesse Crookshank. I'll

11:11

host the number one comedy podcast called Phone

11:14

a Friend. Not

11:17

only do I break down the biggest stories

11:20

in pop culture with guests like Dan Levy

11:22

and members of NSYNC, I do it with

11:24

my own personal boy band singing jingles throughout

11:26

because it's my show. It's your show,

11:28

girl. New episodes of Phone

11:30

a Friend. Yes. Drop Thursdays

11:32

wherever you get your podcast.

11:35

Okay, that's enough. Phoenix,

11:43

I want to stay with you before we go to Mercedes

11:45

for the song, but but it's been really amazing to see

11:48

soft cult really take off. I mean, just before I came

11:50

in, I was looking at your streaming numbers and it's massive.

11:52

And a lot of people are talking

11:54

about your band right now. And it's, and also it's

11:56

just stunning music. I can imagine not to lead you

11:58

here, but I can imagine that's meaningful after everything

12:01

you've gone through giving control to somebody else.

12:04

What happens when you took it took it yourself? Yeah, that

12:06

I mean, you kind of put it in a

12:08

way that I feel like we it's like hard

12:10

for us to say. But yeah, it does feel

12:13

good to be like, okay, all

12:15

those years where we maybe didn't have as

12:17

much creative control as we would have liked.

12:19

Now it's like, oh, we get to do

12:21

it all ourselves, our own vision. And it

12:23

is still like we would have done it

12:25

regardless. But it's it's reaching those cool milestones

12:27

that we weren't really expecting it to. So

12:29

that's a cool it is validating to have

12:32

that proof that you can do it yourself.

12:34

Like soft cult has been an empowering experience

12:36

even just for us, because

12:38

it's taught us new skills like Phoenix

12:41

learned how to be a producer. I've

12:43

learned how to be a cinematographer. Phoenix

12:46

is a really talented visual artist

12:48

as well as like mixed media

12:50

and stuff and designer and yeah,

12:54

betting on yourself without a major label

12:56

backing you and then still reaching the

12:58

success that you always hoped for and

13:00

reaching those milestones. Like Phoenix said, it's

13:03

proof that you should always just bet on yourself

13:05

and believe in yourself. It's a beautiful thing.

13:07

Mercedes, can you tell me about the song we're gonna hear

13:10

today? I think it's one of the pack. Yeah.

13:12

So we just put this one out.

13:14

It's brand new. Great song. Thank

13:16

you. I'd love to hear what it's about.

13:19

It's about sort of what we were

13:22

talking about before, like the world can be

13:24

a very unwelcoming

13:27

place in a lot of spaces

13:29

where women are made to feel

13:32

unwelcome, but especially transgender women, women

13:34

of color, non-binary people.

13:37

And so this song, instead of

13:40

writing, we have a

13:42

lot of songs that call

13:44

out that sort of mindset

13:46

and behavior, but

13:48

we wanted to write one

13:51

that celebrates women supporting women

13:53

and including all women in

13:55

that statement. And

13:57

we wanted to write an anthem that's

13:59

like... Hey, I've got your back

14:01

if you need me like you're welcome in my

14:03

space. You're welcome in my circle You're part of

14:05

my girl gang. You're one of the

14:07

pack one of the pack meaning. Hey, we're up. We're

14:09

all in this Yeah, we're on this. Well, I mean

14:11

it's great. Thanks for coming in. Thank

14:13

you How much who wants to do the hey,

14:16

we're soft cult. You're listening to cue here's you

14:18

want to do it We do this together

14:20

and you got to do and you got to do at the

14:22

end. Here's our song one of the pack Okay, so

14:25

I'm excited about this. Okay, it's meant

14:27

they're holding hands, which is great. I

14:29

love that you're holding hands Very very

14:31

sweet. Hey, we're soft call and you're listening

14:33

to cue. Here's one of the pack Music

15:21

From their upcoming EP heaven that was soft

15:24

called with one of the pack They really

15:26

did and hold hands when they do that.

15:28

It was very sweet before that you heard

15:30

my conversation with Phoenix and Mercedes Arn horn

15:32

from the band soft cult Alright,

15:35

that's it for us today. The other conversation we have of

15:37

today is my chat with Jerry Seinfeld Cool

15:40

to talk to Jerry cool. Did whenever I you know

15:42

cool to say his first name to be honest We

15:45

talked about his new movie unfrosted, which is the story

15:47

of pop charts We talked about and we played

15:49

for him and he said it was the first time he had ever heard

15:51

it One of his

15:54

first ever appearances on the tonight show with Johnny

15:56

Carson Talk a little bit about that and

15:59

we talked a little bit about his tendency

16:01

to, or like maybe the story of his

16:03

comedy, is taking

16:05

really silly things and taking them very... Okay,

16:07

good job guys. See you soon. Yeah,

16:30

sure.