Matt Mays on Strange Times, 'Dog City' and the State of Rock n Roll
My conversation with Matt Mays on CHEZ106 ahead of his live album, ‘From Burnside With Love’, release next Friday, February 12th. A livestreamed concert event to follow on Saturday, February 13th. Get your tickets at MattMays.com/tour.
Matt Mays and his band are keeping fans very entertained during these strange times with the release of their live 'From Burnside With Love' album out Friday, February 12th. The semi-unplugged set was recorded from his hometown of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It's release is followed by a livestreamed concert event, happening Saturday, February 13th.
You can grab tickets to the show, a perfect Valentine's date night thing if you ask me, online here.
Matt released his 8th studio album 'Dog City' last September with a whopping 484 dogs on the cover, although over 700 photos were submitted. Written from the perspective of a rescue dog, it delivers his (and his bands') signature folk-rock vibes with wonderful moments of Marc Bolan (T. Rex), Elliott Smith and the Velvet Underground. Check out that Stooges cover, too!
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Here's my full conversation with Matt about pandemic life, the need to perform and the future of live shows. I mean, we talked for near 13 minutes, so we covered a log of ground but I won't type it all out here when you could just click the play button (below).
‘From Burnside With Love' is out next Friday and the livestream concert event follows on Saturday.
After the premiere, you have until Monday, Feb. 15 at 10 p.m. EST to watch the video. Tickets cost only $20.00 all in (or at least that's what option I chose to purchase). The other option costs from $70.00 to $90.00 CAD and includes your ticket PLUS an autographed copy of 'From Burnside With Love' on vinyl (3 LP set)..
#DryFeb
Going dry for the entire 28 days of February to raise money for the Cancer Society of Canada and also, partly, to see if I can do it!
I don’t believe in “absolutes” and I typically don’t care much for rules but I don’t see the harm in challenging myself to live a healthier life. If only temporarily!
If you’ve been thinking about going dry this February, consider joining my online team by Clicking Here.
It’s free to sign up and I have no expectations from you other than to try and abstain from alcohol for 28 days.
I’ll be sharing my experience online, so follow me on social media for updates. This won’t be easy. Wish me luck!
Flare Ups are Unpleasant
It’s been ages since I’ve felt a flare up in my Rheumatoid Arthritis but, I guess they serve as a reminder that this disease never really goes away.
Got up out of my chair last night after finishing Good Omens (a fun show!) and noticed my ankle was giving out. It’s painful and I liken that pain to the feeling you get trying to walk when you just rolled your ankle. It feels like a sprain. You kinda have to test different angles in foot placement to learn how you can bare weight with the least amount of pain because if you hit that pain spike, your joints can completely give out, causing a fall.
I was able to make it to bed, still aching but nothing major. I have a habit of spinning my ring before I go to sleep to make sure I can remove it from my knuckle… and it’s a good thing I did, because my fingers had swollen and I could barely get it off. So it’s on my nightstand until this goes away, which it will.
My RA is pretty well in drug controlled remission and I trust in the medicine. So this flare up could be indicative of something else:
Infection; a virus gets in and triggers and immune response. This can send RA into hyperactivity (auto-immune diseases treat healthy tissue as a foreign intruder and attack).
Overexertion or Exhaustion; I’ve been having some trouble sleeping over the past few weeks, so my money is on this reason.
Stress; I mean *gestures wildly at everything*… this also makes sense.
This is a Predictable Flare because it came from one of the above. I will be laying low (even lower than I have all week, which has been Lazytown, IMO). As for the potential of viral infection, I really haven’t left my house! None of us have. If flu like symptoms show up within the next 12-24 hours, I will get swabbed.
The Unpredictable Flares are more damaging and don’t always get better. Sometimes, hospitalization is needed to intervene before your immune system kills itself.
I recently did a quick video explaining autoimmune diseases in simple terms. I encourage you to watch it.
Life, Death and Everything in Between: My Autoimmune Perspective
The anniversary of Glenn Frey's death from Rheumatoid Arthritis complications is mildly triggering to me. RA is serious and the drugs to treat is are equally serious. It's a high-wire act to stay healthy while knowing your life will likely be shorter than it should be.
It's paramount to do your best to take care of your body; in sickness and health. Make decisions that work for you. I'm on the CRAZIEST drugs ever after failing: methotrexate, leflunomide, sulfasalazine, Plaquenil, naproxen, ketoprofen, cortisone, hydrocortisone, Imuran, prednisone, ciclosporin & the fringe drugs to treat reflux, anemia, various deficiencies, nausea from chemo, insomnia, headaches. My internal organs (+blood) are at risk to damage the way my physical bones and joints are. I had my first joint replacement surgery at 17 which is why I missed my final high school exams and flunked out (graduated college no problem though).
I'm now on Enbrel and you can google how wild *that* is. I'm accepting that risk to live a 'normal life'. I've been on it for 20 years this spring. I've got two healthy kids with my college crush and work as a rock n roll DJ in Ottawa, Canada.
Life is good. It's been hard but the hardships have shaped me. They've allowed me to have a perspective on life, death and everything in between that most people do not get (at least at such a young age).
To summarize: your life and experiences are unique. Maybe you'll live to 100... 120, maybe! Maybe you won't. What matters is how you approach your life and how you treat others along the way. Never, ever, ever take any of this for granted because tomorrow isn't guaranteed.