The Old Men
The Old Men—formerly the Old Men Who Yell at Clouds—is a podcast where we ramble, debate, and occasionally make sense of music, health, technology, and whatever is happening in local or global news.
The Old Men
Episode 042: Todd Hancock
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We are joined by Todd Hancock, host of the TODDCast Podcast.
We are pleased to have Todd Hancock join us for this episode. Todd is a well-known radio and podcasting personality, as well as an instructor at BCIT. He talks about being a broadcaster and the move to host of the TODDCast Podcast.
How is he managing the pandemic? The podcast? Who have been his top guests? The best Vancouver band right now? And what other music has he been listening to lately? He answers all of these questions and more!
Visit Todd’s website here.
Recorded on Sunday, November 22, 2020.
Licking your freezer clean might be more productive than this, but at least they both love heavy metal. Here are the old men, Adam and Steven. Yes, welcome out to it, another episode of Old Men Who Yell at Clouds. We are episode number 42. It is November 22nd, 2020, and I am, of course, joined by fellow old man Steven. Hello, Steven. Hey Adam. How's it going today? It's going okay. This is a very important episode for us today. Beyond important. It's the first in our fucking podcast legacy today. We're joined by uh our very, very first guest. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_01I can't believe it. It's finally.
SPEAKER_00It only took 42 episodes. That's almost 42 weeks.
SPEAKER_01We've been we've been going yeah, we've been going since the end of March, and we're at the end of November now, and it's finally gonna happen. And uh we hope you enjoy what we're bringing to you today. This is this is awesome.
SPEAKER_00You know what's the best part about this is is that we have a couple like maybe three or four episodes before we take our Christmas break. So all the momentum we're gonna build up to here is gonna be fucking slapped.
SPEAKER_01Thanks a lot. You just brought me down. I tried to build everybody up, and now you just brought it down. Facts of life, baby. Thanks a lot.
SPEAKER_00It could be my job. You bring it up and slap me around.
SPEAKER_01No Christmas for you. No Christmas for you.
SPEAKER_00It's a happy festivist. We don't want to get sued. Um, so we are joined by um I want to call him a legend. He is a fucking legend. Todd, Todd Hancock has been doing radio forever. Um, you know, I learned my shit from Todd. Uh you weren't talking on the air, so you probably didn't learn anything from him. But he was just a good dude. So uh we have Todd Hancock joining us in a few minutes. We're gonna shoot the shit, we're gonna figure out what the fuck he's been up to. It's gonna be a good time, it's a good conversation, hopefully.
SPEAKER_01Definitely. I hope so too, because um I haven't seen Todd in a long time. Um we, of course, all of us work together at uh at chorus. And uh well, I haven't been at chorus for a few years now. I've been spent four years, and he's been outside of course or uh you know he got laid off or whatever happened there. I think we all did. You know, it's been what six years, four or five, six years for him? Seven.
SPEAKER_00It's been seven for me. Holy shit. Yeah, yeah. His uh ToddCast podcast is uh I think seven years old now. So he's uh he's been kicking ass and taking aims, and he'll explain everything you need to know about how to successfully start a podcast, how to continue to thrive in a Vancouver market, which is bullshit, but he seemed to do it and doing it well. So we're learning from the best. Joining us right now, we have the Godfather of Local Podcast, a living radio legend, host of the Todd Cast Podcast. Could be the best boss ever. I do shoot some video for him at the railway club. Uh yeah, anyways. We have the mighty Todd Hancock joining us. Hello, Todd. How are you doing tonight? Boys, I'm well, thank you. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01Todd, thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, Steve, it's it's been a long time since seeing you. I think it was probably 2014, last uh, you know, besides, of course, on Facebook and shit. But a face-to-face like this, it's been a long time, man. I mean, look at the beard. You're you're looking like Santa. It's 'tis the season to be jolly.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's you didn't see that before, no, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_03It's new.
SPEAKER_01Definitely. It's a it's a work in progress.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's great to see you guys. Like a little mini uh Black Tower reunion going on here.
SPEAKER_01It is. That's kind of nice. We got lots to catch up on here, I think.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think the first question on everyone's mind is Todd, how are you doing with the pandemic? Are you doing okay? Do you feel like the last few months have gone by pretty fast? Have they gone by pretty slow? What's how's your timeline? What's your word looking?
SPEAKER_03What a crazy time. And now to feel like you're right back to March again after all of this hard work that we've put in, yeah, and then all of those selfish pricks partying on Gramble Street for Halloween and everything else, all the gatherings at home at their houses and shit. Like, I it's just so frustrating, man. I'm just so done with COVID. But at the same time, I'm you know, I guess I'm coping as well as anybody. You know, I got a couple little boys, I got an eight-year-old, a 10-year-old, and trying to keep those guys from going completely stir crazy is just a game on its own. Um, you know, I haven't been working, I'm I'm I'm an instructor uh for the radio arts and entertainment course at BCIT. I haven't been working from BCIT in a building since like March. And and have been told that don't expect to go back there until September 21 at the earliest. So I'm working from home for like 16, 18 months, man. Like it's no like it's no different, of course, for me for the podcast and the the ToddCast and everything I do with that because that was obviously all done from my home studio. But you know, to chuck on now, I like I hardly ever like I dude. I I think that I put on like 1800 kilometers on my car last year. Wow, nothing. This year's gonna be 500k. Like it's just you know, it's like go to the grocery store, come home, fucking maybe burn up to Whistler, come back. Like it's pretty, yeah, I don't know. I I'm doing as good as as as I can, I guess. You guys?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, oh yeah, we're doing okay. I'm working on it. I think you pretty much hit it on the head. As long as you're healthy and everybody's safe in the family, that's the main thing, of course.
SPEAKER_03But yeah. Yeah, I mean we're yeah, we're getting on, right? It we're getting on as good as as can be expected. So, you know, I'm I'm just ready for it to for everybody just to kind of get their shit together and like dude, if we just did everything that was being asked of us by the scientists and the doctors that know what they're talking about, you know. We just need three or four weeks of that and we'd fucking kick this. Yeah. But it's just all the selfish people.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. For sure. I mean, I just I keep saying, well, we keep talking here, like just shut it down for 28, uh 28 days. You know, and if you do have to wear uh go out, wear your mask, and you know, don't you know, don't do any dis uh socializing or anything like that. And you know, if we do it now, I mean we're we're so far into it, but if we do it now, it's never too late to start. And and we might have a half decent Christmas if we start now, right? But yeah, there's too many idiots out there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I mean it has been pretty awesome though for uh binge watching and video games and and that kind of shit, right? Like if if that's if that's your world, like fuck the pandemic is like, fuck yeah, baby. Yeah, for sure. But not everybody's 18 years old and you know, smoking an ounce of weed a week, right?
SPEAKER_00During the quarantine time, have you taught yourself any new skills? Are you beating all the PS4 games? Have you taught yourself how to cook banana bread, how to change the oil in the car that you barely drive? What do you do anything like that?
SPEAKER_03Not really. I mean, I guess I you know I've I've learned how to use like uh slightly use the videos that you'll see for the ToddCast on my YouTube page. You know, it has like the name of me, you know, my my Twitter handle, the guest Twitter handle, their website. And I Adam, you sent me because you're my producer for my video stuff for 99.3% of the time. Um so you you sent me the uh the Todd cast, uh, you know, the intros and extros and all that. So I use those. But yeah, you know, I I learned how to use the Prologic on the on the Mac, just basically so I can kind of shoot out all these like it like you guys, you know, doing podcasts and videos and all that. But nothing, you know, I'm nothing really too not really, man. I've been pretty low-key, been pretty focused on, you know, family. And like I I'm just trying to look at that side of things that uh, you know, like this is another time, this is a time where we're hopefully we're never ever going to experience this again. Like maybe our kids, kids will. Yeah. But you know, like this is a time where you know it's just I think that the best thing about COVID that's happened is that you realize just how important family is, you know, and just how unimportant your job is. Your job's important, but like, you know, if you if if if we go back to people Monday to Friday, nine to five, we've learned nothing from COVID. Like you're you're doing your job from home, and now suddenly because there's a vaccination and everything's back to normal, and you go back to the same old, same old, you've learned nothing. Why would you go back to your job if you've just shown them for eight months that you can do it from your home? Why would you do that? Yeah, there needs to be some concessions made, right, within the business world where like, okay, maybe we need you there for like on Thursday and a Friday or whatever. But here's the workload that needs to get done, get her done. Like, that's I think gonna be the silver lining. And then, like I said, and the family, getting hang out with family and stuff, and but yeah, what a crazy time, man. What a crazy time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's it's it's not and you're right. Hopefully, o organizations and uh companies understand that things need to change once we come out of this. And a lot of people can work from home. I've proven I can work from home. You know, so there are some people, like some salespeople, you know, they need to go out and meet clients, and sure you can do some of that online, but it nothing beats meeting face to face. But yeah, like why not come in a couple times a week or you know, who this 40 hour in the office crap, I think. Uh hope hopefully it's over. And it it's too bad it took a a pandemic for maybe people to realize that it's just not the right way to do things.
SPEAKER_03It's so old, it's so antiquated, it's just it needs to be abolished. You know, like there's maybe some jobs where yeah, sure, you need to be there. That's that's the gig. Like, you know, I'm lucky in that I'm able to teach from home, but ideally I should be in that radio environment. You know, there's certain jobs that you might not be able to go to keep at uh working from home, but you know, the majority.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I really hope that bosses and just owners of companies do the right thing and and let people work from home and be near their family more, you know, trust them to get the jobs done that are are expected to be done and and leave it at that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. What was your uh last uh concert before all this came down? I know you're doing your shows at the rail uh at the railway and all that kind of stuff. Did you s were you out seeing many concerts other than that?
SPEAKER_03Uh certainly, I mean, those would have been my last ones, but like uh like a not one of my shows would have been um just trying to think what I saw recently.
SPEAKER_01I know it's such a long time ago already.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I saw a couple shows at the Commodore. In fact, I went with uh uh Baldwin. What did we see at the remember I I took you to a show at the Commodore?
SPEAKER_00Um we saw Theory of a Dead Man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm just trying to think. Like I saw, you know, I've seen like local shows, but like, you know, I saw Dead Quiet play before the the COVID. That wasn't my show. You know, I I do like going to the local shows. I like I you know, personally, I like I like local shows almost more than going to see a band like AC DC. Like, no offense to AC DC, they're fucking awesome. I will go, but I'll go to a an $8, $10, $12, $20 local show way before I'll go to you know, Kings of Leon coming to Vancouver. I, you know, I love the band, you know. I just like that seeing a band where you know there's a potential that you're never gonna see them again because it's a hundred people and they're right on the cusp. They've been signed, or they're about to be signed, or they're being piggybacked by a bigger label or a bigger band within a smaller subdivision of a big label. That's what I like, you know, to be like, yeah, no, man, I saw those guys at uh the Red Room or at the the Railway or at wherever it is, man. There's something about that, right? Like, yeah, man, I saw those guys at whatever place. It's like 70 people were there. That's it. So I'm more of an I'm I'm more of an indie guy. And I have been all like even during my time at Sea Fox. You know, as much as I went to shows, I had to. I had to MC a ton of shows and just kind of be that person for the station. I still went to more indie shows than I did C Fox presenting shows. Like way more. Landslide.
SPEAKER_01I I'm probably this I'm probably the same way though. I love these $20 shows, and a lot of them do feature local bands and smaller indie acts and stuff like that. So that's really cool.
SPEAKER_03What was your what was your last show, Steven?
SPEAKER_01Well, it wasn't Dead Quiet, but I just want to mention them because they are one of my favorite local bands right now. Like Dead Quiet is so good. I've seen them two or three times. Such an amazing band. I I love it.
SPEAKER_03That's uh I did the world album premiere with uh with their singer. And uh, if you haven't heard that, he came into studio and we kind of just talked about all the songs, mashed them all up, you know, for the for the premiere. I'm fucking really proud of that, right? Like, that's the stuff for that I'm putting out on the podcast that's like straight up, you know, major major market radio uh quality. Yeah, there's some swear words and stuff, but like, ooh, who doesn't swear? So, but yeah, Dead Quiet right now is the best band in Vancouver. Uh, their album, Truth and Ruin, has got to be the best rock album of the year from a from a band that people are like, who the fuck is Dead Quiet? Like, you listen to that record and you don't r respect and admire them. Uh you didn't really listen to it.
SPEAKER_01For sure. And I've they're just that kind of knows I've brought them up here a couple times, right? So uh I've I've plugged them a little bit. Yeah, they're really good. So my last show, well, my last two shows, I guess, before things locked down. I saw uh Black Halos, they did a couple shows at the Rickshaw in February.
SPEAKER_03And really good band. And you know, that's that's I was talking to Billy Hopeless and saying like like that would be cool to get you guys to play a smaller, you know, rickshaw's fairly small, 700, 800,000 seat or whatever it is, jammed. Yeah, but if that's like that, yeah. Yeah, but I was like, dude, like like play the railway for me, which is like 200.
SPEAKER_01No kidding. That would be awesome to see him there.
SPEAKER_03And he was like, Yeah, well, you know, we need to play a show that kind of is gonna make us money, but not saying no, but if we did, we'd need to like we'd need to have another show.
SPEAKER_01Nice to see them back together again. I think it was just a couple one-offs. I'm not sure if they're they've done anything else, but uh the other band I saw was uh well, I saw Ross the Boss. Uh he did a Rickshaw show as well in February just before the lockdown. So that was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_03And you can't go wrong with Rickshaw, right? Like if that venue was in a different part of the city, it would be fucking like it would rival the Commodore Ballroom. Yeah. It's a really cool room to be. Like you're seeing a show in an old theater.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it does scare some people off because of where it is, but that's I mean, that's too bad because it's it's a great place, and uh Mo over there is bringing in some good stuff. It's it's really cool. I love going there.
SPEAKER_03And how about you, Baldwin? What was your last show? Can you remember?
SPEAKER_00Uh well, I saw a Black Label Society at the Vogue, and then I saw the Glorious Suns at either the day before or the day after at uh PE. And then we your last Todd Cast podcast show at the um the railway was Sean, Sean Varraux was probably that was pretty much as the cut. I think that was the night that everything got all shut down.
SPEAKER_03I think Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like it was uh we we were like, should we even do this show? Um yeah, and we did you know, we did it. We were like, Well, we're not fucked, we're not expecting more than 20, 30 people to show up. Where where normally a show like that would be 100 plus easy.
SPEAKER_00Oh, not even break without even breaking a sweat. But like that was it was a super weird time because I remember there's a show at the Commodore that night that got cancelled that night. I think we were talking about that. And it was just like, well, fuck, do we go? Do we go? And what if no one knew what the hell was going on? It was just it's still a crazy time. I I just who knows what the fuck to do or what to say, but as we talked about earlier, you gotta listen to the professionals and not listen to the dumbasses who seem to have a louder voice on Twitter than the three of us using our own platforms. Like, how the fuck does that even work?
SPEAKER_03Well, yeah, and what's what's hilarious is you know, the people that are actually respectful and like trying to save other people by wearing a mask and being you know respectful of being too close to people and all that, like we're the ones being called sheep. Are you fucking kidding me? The people that are actually following science and following medical professionals who have dedicated their lives to this. You're a keyboard warrior, and I need to fucking listen to you, you fucking tool. No, it doesn't work like that. That's a sound bike.
SPEAKER_00Okay, well, let's switch gears. Fuck COVID. We are talking to Toddcast Podcast or Todd Hancock. You can follow him at Todcast Podcast on Twitter and at his website, Toddhancock.ca. We mentioned before that we all worked at uh Seafox, uh, from radio to podcasting and working from an army of people to just doing everything by yourself. What's the best piece of advice you could give someone just starting out making podcasts here in Vancouver? Or for themselves, anywhere else?
SPEAKER_03Oh, just do whatever you like. Do whatever floats your boat, do stuff that drives you because it's that it's just easiest to do that stuff. You know, don't be too concerned about how many people are listening and you know, that none of that shit matters, right? Like do stuff that that you like to do and you know, don't fake it, right? And that's that's just like radio too. You need to do stuff that that you can tell that that's what that person likes to do. Because it'll come through and it's just it's really it's really infectious and it's really hard to to not want to follow somebody and to know what they're doing when they're doing stuff that they love. So that's the main thing is like just do stuff that floats your boat and don't worry about how many people are following, how many listens and shit. I still don't fucking couldn't tell you, man, what the how many spins I've had. No idea. I never look unless I have to. I'm doing it because I I like to do it. I don't care about the the spins, I don't care how many people are following me. The only thing I don't like about social media and the and that side of shit is like when people that I know and I respect and I've had a really long relationship with, when they unfollow me, it fucking bugs me, man. That shit bugs me. But if it's a rant if it's a rando that's followed and they're following or whatever, and they chirp me off a few times, I chirp back and suddenly I see that they're not following me and I am still following them. I don't care. See you later, buddy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. They're not really.
SPEAKER_03But if one of you guys fucking unfollowed me on fucking social media, I'd be like, really? I'd probably shoot you a text and be like, really? You unfollowed me? Like, what the fuck is that?
SPEAKER_01I was off social media for a little bit. I don't know if you noticed that, but I'm back, at least on Twitter. So, and we are following each other, so that's nice. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Back to making money and stuff like that. Like, did it take a number of a certain number of downloads or listens or something before some of your sponsors kind of got brought on board? Or no, I mean I I was gonna say you're an exception because you you're you you know you're a well-known personality here in Vancouver and people know who you are, so that obviously made a big difference.
SPEAKER_03But dude, right out of the gate, uh I had like I want to say seven or eight sponsors right away, like even before I launched the podcast. I I was making more money on episode one than I ever made at Sea Fox.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_03Because I went and I talked to all these places, it was the Hard Rock Casino, Vancouver, as the title sponsor, right? Like the fucking Hard Rock was my my title sponsor, right? And they reverse pitched me. They were like, hey, we want to pay you this much money. And I was like, holy fucking what? All right. They paid me four months up front. Boom, I had all this cash. I was just like, holy shit.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And then as soon as I got those guys on, it was like, you know, I got the Roxy on, I got Red Truck on, I got the Penthouse on. All these other places started to fall in line. The lamp lighter and so so for me, it's like, you know, it's it's tough, tough for me to talk about that stuff in in a way that like somebody could pull information from. Because, like you say, I you know, I I was a DJ for 15 years in Vancouver, of which you know, 10 or 11 years doing a key position. So I just knew so many businesses, right? And and I literally I pitched them like, hey, I'm gonna start a podcast, it's gonna be fucking rat. And they're like, sweet, well, okay, cool. How much do you need? I don't know, 500 a month. Great. What what do we get for that? Yeah, no idea. And they're like, Great, sounds good. You know, it's a little more, it's a little more refined now. If I was to, you know, if you were to jump on, I could tell you exactly, you know, how many mentions you get and position within the podcast and how many, you know, all this kind of shit. But yeah, when I first started, I was literally like, I'm gonna start something that's gonna be badass. Do you want to be involved? If not, I'll just move on to the next beer company. And they're like, Yep, sounds good. We're in.
SPEAKER_01Right on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Pretty close. Pretty lucky like that. I I don't make anywhere near the amount today as I did in year one. Not even close. Yeah. Like a third. But enough that I'm still, you know.
SPEAKER_01Cool.
SPEAKER_03Enough that it's helping.
SPEAKER_01Um obviously you've you've met a lot of people and you've interviewed a lot of great people, uh, certainly in your radio days. Looking to your to your podcast now, like who if somebody wanted to know uh who Todd was and um some of the people that he spoke with over your five or six years that you've been doing this, uh what are the three episodes that you would point them to?
SPEAKER_03Like, so which guests would you I would say listen to uh the Devin Townsend podcast. That was fucking awesome. I would say listen to the uh Kim Coates, the guy from Sons of Anarchy. Uh yeah Bad was it Bad Blood? Yeah, Bad Blood. Chad Krueger, Nickelback, would be another really good one. He and our, you know, we've known each other since like '95. Um I was like, hey, let's do a let's do a zoom. And he was like, fuck that, dude. Come out to my house, let's get shitty drunk, play some pool, and you know, we'll bang out a podcast. And so that was that's pretty good. Um, I don't know, you know, like most um most of these interviews. Um I think you could probably really truly listen to any of them. But I mean, as far as like standouts, that's those three for sure. I had a really good talk with a guy named uh Lou Temple, who is uh an actor that uh you've seen him in tons of shit, man. Like he was he played Axel in The Walking Dead. He's been in like all of the Rob Zombie movies. Did a couple voices in uh, you know, have you seen that uh animated Rango with uh Johnny Depp? That's an awesome movie, man. But yeah, uh, I think you could probably get away with truly any any of the interviews. They're all generally pretty good. Like, that's the thing about this, too, right? Like, sometimes, not that I ever felt that I was doing stuff on radio that I, you know, didn't want to do, but sometimes there was stuff where like, holy man, this is a bit of a stretch. Where, you know, the podcast, like, I'm not talking to you unless I want to talk to you. It's not like somebody's going, Hey, you know, here's a gun to your head. Yeah, or you know, maybe if a sponsor was like, Hey, you know, we're gonna give you an extra five hundred bucks this month, can you interview this person instead of whoever you had planned that week? All right, I'd probably do that. But it you know. I I I just don't want to do that too often, right? I you know I do really sometimes feel like I'm pandering to the people that follow me, and I don't want to fucking be a sellout on top of, you know, spare a little change today, please watch a podcast today. Because it becomes very like, you know, it's tough, man. It took like that's a thing, guys, is like that's the toughest thing I found is like how do you cut through all of the nonsense that everybody is bombarded with and get your message out? I read that it took 26 times, two six before anybody will react to what they're seeing. So it takes 26 times really before they push a button. It's fucking insane. How do you cut through that?
SPEAKER_00That is for sure. That's yeah, that's mind-boggling. Like the amount of work you put in and 20 seconds. That's 26 separate posts for someone just to click on it once, and it plays in the background that's just doing anything.
SPEAKER_03Right, they're not really even listening to it anyway.
SPEAKER_01Last week, uh November 13th, Friday the 13th, uh, of all things, that marked the five-year anniversary of the Paris terrorist attacks. Of course, 130 people were killed. Most of them were at the death uh Eagles of Death Metal show at the Bataclan Theater. Last night we watched uh the documentary uh Eagles of Death Battle uh Nosome. Have you seen that uh have you seen that film?
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_01It's a really good film. So it kind of covers Eagles of Death Battle and kind of how they got their start and how Jesse Hughes and uh Joshua Hami are such good pals. They grew up together and went to high school together and stuff like that. And Josh really took uh Jesse under his wing and really kind of took care of him and stood up for him and and uh so it's a really cool start to the movie. Of course, then it gets into what happened that evening during the concert and uh so it leads up to that and it also it also gets into how the uh follow-up concert came about three months later at uh I think it's the Olympia or something like that, another another theater in uh in Paris. Uh so it was kind of a reunion for the band and some of the fans who uh survived the attack and and that sort of thing. So it's scary, scary time for sure. I was just wondering though if you had spoken uh with Jesse Hughes at all uh over the years.
SPEAKER_03I haven't talked to Josh from Queens or Jesse from from Eagles. Uh yeah, I mean uh I I've spoken to Josh a couple times, uh, you know, my time during uh Seafox, but yeah. Uh I don't think I talked to Jesse ever. But I do I I like both of those bands though, for sure. Love them. Like Queens is for me one of my favorite bands. I mean Jesse present day for sure.
SPEAKER_01I mean Jesse's been a little controversial, I think, after that, after the you know the terrorist attacks, and he said a couple things about guns that people didn't necessarily agree with, but hey, hey, it's a crazy, crazy experience, and I couldn't imagine going through anything like that myself. I'm sure all of us couldn't imagine going to a show here and just we we don't think about that stuff, right? And after that event though, did you ever think at about were you ever scared go to go to a show? Were you ever looking over your shoulder and what you know what's going on and who's here and do I need to be worried?
SPEAKER_03No, not really. Just because you know it's such a I mean, I don't know, it's such a odd thing, right? It's not like that's prevalent in that scene. It's not like holy fuck, man, you have a 20% chance of going to a show that you know what I mean. It's like that's that that's like that's an anomaly. So to be concerned about that stuff, like, yeah, man, that fucking sucks, dude. That sucks in the worst possible way that people lost their lives on a night out where they should be enjoying their time and like it's the worst, man. But uh no, I never nah never that that stuff wouldn't even if it were to happen here in Vancouver, knock wood, it still wouldn't concern me.
SPEAKER_01I mean, obviously, uh hey, we went to shows afterward, that's for sure. I've been to a lot of shows since that happened, and and you're right, Canada doesn't fortunately experience a lot of these uh terrorist attacks here, so yeah, hopefully it gets you thinking, but uh hopefully we're gonna be okay here and hopefully none of that shit happens uh ever again anywhere. Never mind here in Canada. It's pretty sad what what happened and just to just in that film again, just to watch Jesse or listen to Jesse and and um you know the other members of the band talk about that and talk about the experience. And they actually interviewed some fans and stuff like that too, and I just couldn't imagine that happening. It's just so so tragic, so scary.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think I I did see a couple clips of that just on on YouTube and stuff. I think they were sitting on a couch and Josh was with them and stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, man, it's pretty messed up, right? Like, and I think that they did that video within you know the the a week or so of that of that happening.
SPEAKER_01And the film came out in 20 2017, because they the attack happened in 2015. Yeah, the film came out in 2017. Worth watching though. Check it out if you haven't seen it yet.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, it's yeah, definitely gonna definitely need to do that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh if you're just joining us, we are talking to Toddcast Podcast or Todd Hancock. You can follow him at Toddcast Podcast on Twitter and at his website, Toddhancock.ca. Todd, you are a teacher at PCIT now. You're teaching the art of radio to students. Yeah, I want to know what the coolest new slang is you have learned from the kids.
SPEAKER_03You're fucking reaching there, bud. Uh no sl no slang there, man. Uh no, it's same old, same old man. Yeah, no, no, we're not spinning the platters that matter or anything like that. So, you know, it's the same, man. Like be yourself and you should be. Talk about the uh the shit that gets you off and make sure it makes sense to the people that you're broadcasting to. And it's pretty straightforward, right? Like you you can start to really tweak with certain students, the ones that get it and the ones that follow and they take advice and all that, but you know, some are just okay to get by. And and uh, you know, uh I worked in that industry long enough, as did you guys, to know that if you want to advance your career, you need to go beyond just getting by. So it, you know, you as an on-air performer, you have this blank canvas in front of you. And how do you fill it? How do you make people listen for longer periods of time? You need to engage your audience and speak one-on-one, and you need to use hooks and teases creatively and cryptically to grab your audience and pull them along to create forward momentum. It's no slogan sl slogans or you know, any uh it's just like show me what you got, man, be creative and fucking knock me out. I've learned over the years because I I'm I'm five years in now, and for the first couple of years, you know, I was kind of critiquing everybody in the same style. And some kids would leave my office fucking kicking the sand. I'm like, whoa, hold up, hold up. That's the way you're at your body language is not the way I want you to leave feeling that you're ready to go. Like, I've given you all these different avenues, I've told you what you did right and what you did wrong. And like, so I've learned over the years that some people need to kick in the ass, guys like me. Some people need a s a little pat on the back. Nice job. I've started to notice that dynamics, I guess, of people's personalities, and you know, you need to work with people that uh, you know, find out how they tick, right? You need to find out like how are they thinking and what makes them motivated to do better and stuff, right? So it's been an interesting um, you know, five years there. So it certainly it's beyond anything I would have ever imagined from from my job. Like if you had told me when I was at Seafox and like, you know, I got let go in 2014 in the summer of 2014. If you had told me in the summer of 2013 that I'd be uh an instructor at BCIT and have a podcast and a marketing company, I would have been like, you're on fucking glue, bud. Not a chance, man. I'm gonna be a I'm gonna be a rock DJ until I'm fucking gray balls. But now, you know, I'll I'll take today as fucking almost almost what? What did what did you say, Wallin?
SPEAKER_00It's almost like you're teaching psychology instead of radio. It's a little bit certainly in certainly in like your energy here and yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, certainly in the marking aspect and like the creative side of things, it's really made me a way better broadcaster. Like it's just made me more of a critical thinker. Oh, really? To to rip people apart and like do it create you know, creatively and constructively. Like you can say to somebody that sucks. That's fucking terrible to say to somebody. If you say that sucks because of this, and you did this, you could have done that instead, and you opened up all these doors that you didn't go through. It's really made me a way better, just just a way better person.
SPEAKER_01That's that's uh that's really cool. Like I know it's fucking sounds crazy. It's cool you're still learning like that. Um, after being a broadcaster yourself for so many years, and now you're you're teaching and you're able to do these things and pass on your knowledge to you know to students and stuff, of course. So that's really cool. That was gonna be kind of one of my questions, though, is obviously being a broadcaster, especially on air in a big market, is it's so tough to break in. You know, and I was gonna ask, you know, what do what do these students need to do to kind of put them in that upper one percent or whatever that percentage is where they can kind of break it big.
SPEAKER_03And I know it may take some time, it's not gonna happen overnight, but but you I mean you answered some of that uh you answered some of that to their um that's simply you know, just network, be good at what you do and and like let people know that you're available and ready to kick some ass for them, right? As much as it takes talent, it takes people knowing that you exist. Like if you're not sending tapes out, tapes out um to a program director, or if you're trying to get a production job, or you're trying to get us you're trying to write some scripts and you're not sending scripts out to you know creative uh directors, well then how are they gonna know that you exist when the jobs come up? Were you just gonna apply when the jobs come up? You have no relationship with these people? Like, who would you rather hire? Somebody that's been kind of keeping you up to date every three, four months, sending you an air check, sending you their latest production pieces, or this rando that sends stuff in that's pretty good, but like networking is is just as important as skill. Uh certainly at the start.
SPEAKER_01The same could certainly be said with any job, really, but probably more so in in something like this where you do have to where you do have to create, you know, your content and and stuff in order to market yourself like that. Uh and as opposed to just firing a resume off, you have to do this extra work and and uh get your name out there for sure. So that's really cool.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. Yeah, they all you know all program directors uh they're all gonna look at your social media too, right? Like, how are you interacting with people? What are you doing on there? Does it make sense? Are you complete fucking crazed maniac on weekends posting pictures of you shotgunning fucking beers and blasting spray paint on a wall, like you know, stupid shit like that. That's not gonna get you hired, right? When I first started uh teaching at BCIT, you know, on the first day I came back and you know, my wife's like, How was that? And I was like, Yeah, that's all right. She's like, What do you mean? That's not the reaction I thought it was gonna be, right? And I was like, uh just fucking feels weird, man. It feels weird to give away all of my knowledge, you know. Like, yeah, I could potentially be, you know, going for a job against these students. And and my wife was like, You can't be like that. Like, you have your certain set skills, and you've succeeded because you're Todd Hancock. You have drive and determination, and you know, all these skill sets are yours. You can give them to somebody, it doesn't mean they're gonna do anything with them, right? And from that conversation, thankfully, my wife Jessica is just a you know, you guys know her, she's just such a kind soul, and you know, that conversation made it like the next day. I was like, you know what, fuck it. Here's a nugget of gold, here's some coal, here's some gold, here's something that took me three years to understand how to, you know, doing radio and just like fucking bah. So I just dump all my uh as much as I possibly can on these students and and hopefully some of it sticks.
SPEAKER_00I just want to know what's next for the Togtast podcast. What do you what's going on with you over there? Are you still planning to do this for a couple more years, or is it is you know what still drives you to be the best in town?
SPEAKER_03Oh man. Yeah, I'm definitely gonna be doing it. I you know, I would think that it's gonna be at least another year or two. What drives me is just, you know, just for doing it for so long and knowing what a good product is, I guess, is what kind of drives me. And and you know, I do get some like it's not that I need it, but it's nice to get back slaps here and there and you know, to put together events that are just super cool and you know, people are talking about them a year later, two years later, oh fucking remember that Todd Todd Kearns one you did was crazy. Or the what was that one where the guy was singing a cappella right out of the start and had the whole audience was clapping along right away, and you know, it's that kind of shit, I guess, kind of that drives me. Um, I don't know. I'm I hate to say it, but you know, monetarily, that's one of the key things that drives me. Like if suddenly tomorrow all of my sponsors stopped, I probably would stop the podcast. Yeah, you know, yeah like I I just you know I make enough money thankfully at BCIT that the podcast is just kind of gravy. It's the icing on the cake. And but if I wasn't making money just because of the sheer number of hours that I put into it, I'm probably 25 hours a week minimum, including like writing for my website, all the social media marketing, interviews, editing those, spending time to find interviews, find sponsors, keep in touch with sponsors. I'm 25 hours a week at least. So if I, you know, I'm a hundred hours a month, and if I'm getting nothing from that, I could think of a hundred other things that I'd rather do. Like, you know, again, I have an eight-year-old kid, I have a 10-year-old kid. I'd love to be able to just not do the podcast and focus more on family, but you know, uh for me right now, the thing is I do focus on family. And and at nighttime is when I I really bust ass and do podcast stuff. I'm five nights a week, four or five nights a week, a couple two, three nights a week for my wife, of course, but like four or five nights a week. I'm I'm seven to midnight, seven to one, those other nights, right? Go go outside, smoke a bit of a joint, fucking come in, blast off, do some production, maybe do an interview, edit something. Like something's happening every, you know, every every time I've got a free moment, I I try to make sure that the podcast is being taken care of. But yeah, I'll keep doing it.
SPEAKER_01I mean, as far as like it's a big, it's a commitment for sure.
SPEAKER_03It's fucking huge, man. You know, and and so like for me, it's like what the next step for me is like just to continue to do it and hopefully get a bigger and broader audience. You know, I've been pulled into two different networks in the last uh year, the Blundell network out of Toronto, and then this uh Boot Crew Media Network out of um New Orleans. So if I can keep getting pulled into into networks where I'm getting a little bit broader audience and stuff, and you know, that's another thing that kind of drives me, right? Like when I reach a thousand plays on a podcast, I'm like, fuck yeah. You know, when I reach two, I'm like, fucking yes. Yeah, so yeah, all that shit drives me, I guess.
SPEAKER_01Adam and I are we're new to the game, of course, and but just and we have full-time jobs, which is obviously awesome during these hard times, but just the commitment and the amount of time that him and I put into this for maybe one show a week. I mean, I mean, we know ourselves too how much work it takes, and obviously you're putting in a lot more, so you've got to be getting some uh something out of it for for it to be worth the worth the time. So that's it's good, it's going well, that's for sure. So hopefully uh good good luck good luck going forward. Hopefully things continue to go well.
SPEAKER_03The reason why it takes so long for me is because of the social media stuff, right? But that's how I'm getting paid. Um you know, I'm saying to a company I'm gonna mention you five times a day or whatever. Well, that's 150 posts I gotta suddenly come up with for the month. Um, and and and when I and when I have I have like 12 sponsors. And if I just even if it's five of each, well suddenly fuck, that's 1200 posts I need to do in the month. Wow, yeah. That takes that takes some time, man.
SPEAKER_01You know, that's a shitload of time for sure.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and not only that, it can't be just posts about that because then it'll be like and and it's you know, so whenever there's a post about a business that I that I'm marketing, there also needs to be a a content post beside that. So now we're talking 2,400 posts a month.
SPEAKER_01That's incredible. I couldn't imagine doing that.
SPEAKER_03It's fucking and and it's way more than that, too, guys. I'm 200 posts a day. So 200 times 30, I'm like I'm 6,000 posts a month. Just Twitter. Wow.
SPEAKER_01And you thought working at Sea Fox was bad, uh, doing all the all that posting that Jake had to do there for a while.
SPEAKER_03But but that's just because I didn't know what the fuck I was talking about. Again, just dumb rock jock. At that point, I was like, fuck that. I'm not good. Like, if people want to know what I'm doing, they can turn on 99.3, man. They want to hear what I'm doing, that's where they'll hear me. I'm a I'm a DJ. Well, that was just a stupid way of thinking. Like, if I ever went back to radio, I would incorporate everything that I'm doing with the podcast. I would do the same thing with the radio show. Reintroducing things again. I had don't forget, I had this rad guest on, I had this really funny bit. I just keep fucking programming it in my into my feed. What's content? Content, content is king. I knew I knew content was king before getting into podcasting. Content is king, fucking caps locked, font size 48, underlined, italic. It's fucking massive.
SPEAKER_00Massive. But have you breached into the world of TikTok yet?
SPEAKER_03No, and I won't. I'm I'm fucking 47 years old, man. I'm not getting into TikTok. No.
SPEAKER_00Hey, you just said yourself, content is king. You can make all the content you want on TikTok. Yeah, well, that's the thing.
SPEAKER_03Like, if you know, if if I if I was making enough money and I could maybe hire somebody that was 18 years old to fuck around on TikTok, sure. Okay. Then yeah, probably. But uh but me personally, you're not gonna be seeing me fucking doing any sort of TikTok fucking wiggity dances and shit. Like ain't fucking that ain't happened.
SPEAKER_00We have that on tape. Yeah, no doubt.
SPEAKER_03Like, I think I just made a I think I just made a meme for you guys.
SPEAKER_00Right, on. That's good stuff. We can call it the podcast. Yeah. We're wrapping up here, Todd. Um, what's uh I I just want to know, uh, what are you doing to be the person you want to be? Are you still, you know, talking to the people you want to be talking to? Like obviously you are, but is at the end of the day, do you go to bed and do you still wake up to kick ass? Like, is it is it something like you wake up in the morning, you piss excellence, or are you like, oh fuck, I have to do fucking 600 posts today, or do you have to like does that shit bring you down, or do you still are you still driven and motivated to do what you do on a daily basis?
SPEAKER_03I come ready to fucking destroy. Period. Always have and and always will. As much as it's like, you know, yeah, I kind of gotta get those things done, though. That's just the mundane part of of what I do. And if I that means I gotta be in front of a computer for two or three hours to make a couple, two, three grand a month from sponsors, so be it. That's that's that's nothing in the grand scheme of things. It takes two hours to to make some dough. Like, there's people that make, you know, what I make with the podcast for fucking nine to five jobs. So yeah, I mean, that's just that's just I just chalk that up to like, uh, that just sucks. For the most part, yeah, dude. I come prepared, man. I come ready for the fight. You know, I think I personally probably market my podcast more aggressively than any podcast in North America, probably. I wish I just had a bigger audience so I didn't need to post it quite so much. You know, if I had an audience like Joe Rogan, okay, well, suddenly, you know, fucking I could probably get away with posting an interview with, you know, the porn chick I just talked to, Romy Rain, who was rad. I could probably post that a couple times and we get thousands of views. Uh, you know, same for the guys in Shinedown, yeah, one of the fucking biggest rock bands ever. You know, I I gotta plow that into my again, takes 26 times for people to click it once.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So, you know, I just talked to like a NHRA drag race champion, top fuel funny car champ, guy named Del Warsham. You know, I would love for people to hear that interview because it's fucking awesome. So, yeah, man, I come prepared, dude. I do not fuck around, son. No time for that. That was that's with everything, that's pretty much what everything is. Like I I I approach life, and I'm sure you guys do as well, because you're, you know, Adam, maybe you're not up there like Steven and I, but you know, once you get to 40 plus years, there's no fucking around anymore, right? Like if you're gonna do it, you might as well do it good. You know, if you're gonna take the time, it takes you an hour to do something. If it takes you an hour and 30 to get it done right, I'll take the hour 30. So yeah, there's there's zero fucking around in my world, man. No messing around. It's great. Oh, by the way, I have a uh you told me to be prepared. I've got a list of uh songs and stuff that I'm showing me to get through that real quick.
SPEAKER_00I don't know what you're listening to.
SPEAKER_03What's what are you pimping out for us? Well, Dead Quiet, right? Steven and I already talked about that. If you don't know Dead Quiet and you like heavy stoner rock, they will be your next favorite band. Uh the record's called Truth and Ruin. Dead Quiet, yep. I was getting into Kyle McKierney, who is the singer in a band originally when I started listening to a stuff called Hard Honey. And whenever anybody says, like, who's the best unknown band? I'm always like Hard Honey or a band called Injected. So Kyle's now, he's just put out uh a covers album over quarantine, but he just holed himself into studio and he and he's calling it Americana. So I'm thinking it's probably gonna be something like the Black Crows meets the Eagles meets Tom Petty, something like that, just from what he's kind of throwing around online. Kyle McKierney, great singer. Uh Sadie Campbell. Do you guys know Sadie? Remember Sadie used to work at Sea Fox uh in the promo department? I think it was promo.
SPEAKER_00Kinda? Rings a bell.
SPEAKER_03Super super good voice. So Sadie sent me a song, I guess a couple three weeks back now, called You Can't Take It With You. And it's very uh it's a tough one to nail down her voice. Um she's got a really strong do you remember Amanda Marshall? Something like that. Yeah, like a I don't want to say Bonnie Raitt, uh Cheryl Crow. Like I it's hard to nail down people's voices, I guess. But she's got a really strong voice, and I think she's you know, she she moved to Nashville and has just been absolutely fucking crushing it uh since moving there. So that's uh that's one I think that people will like. Did you guys know a band called Johnny Wrath?
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Johnny Johnny Johnny Wrath is a local Vancouver band, and they might as well be Nirvana.
SPEAKER_02Wow. They're never heard of them, so they're just that good.
SPEAKER_03Really good singer, really hooky, memorable riffs, like very 90s driven, and they're they're you know, they'll be the first to say, yeah, fuck yeah, we're 90s rock. Johnny Rath is awesome. And then another project called uh Good Is Gone, and that is the new project from Matt Wood, the drummer singer of Pride Tiger. Remember Pride Tiger? Fuck yeah. Yeah, Pride Tiger's awesome. Yeah, so so that's another uh I think it's a five-song EP, five or six-song EP, but that's another uh that's kind of flown under the radar for you know whatever the case is in Vancouver, you know, not supporting local bands, surprise, surprise. But yeah, that's uh that's another project for me that's just like when he released it, he was texting me, he's like, Hey Hancock, I got this fucking project. I'm like, yeah, dude, let's do it. You know, and prior to COVID, we'd kind of said, hey, let's, you know, why don't you like your debut in the live scene, make it a make it a Todd Cast show. And then you know, COVID fucked everything. But but yeah, really good band. Good, good is gone. Yeah, and that's out right now too. Uh so that's that's my five pick.
SPEAKER_00Well, fuck yeah, fuck yeah, Todd. Thank you for being our actual fish first official guest on Old Men Who Yell at Clouds. No way, really.
SPEAKER_01Thanks very much, Todd.
SPEAKER_03It's good to see you guys, man.
SPEAKER_01Maybe under better circumstances we can all catch up in person someday.
SPEAKER_00Love that. If you enjoyed anything you just heard and want to fact check it, check out old man who yell at clouds.com.
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