Amanda Putz Host of CBC Radio One's Bandwidth Amanda Putz , for those not in the know, has established herself as the champion of the Ontario's indie music scene. Moving first from her hometown of Regina after picking up two Bachelor Degrees first in English and then in Journalism, Amanda moved to Toronto to help in the production of CBC TV's program Newsworld. When an opening for Bandwidth appeared she applied and got the job. Bandwidth, airing every week from 5pm - 6pm on Radio One (91.5 FM) here in the nation's capital (and every where else in Ontario except for Toronto), brings the music of Ontario's greatest indie musicians to the airwaves. With live interviews, CD releases, concert listings and the occasional guest co-hosting, Amanda & Co. have been instrumental in bringing fans all the music from this province that is rarely heard on the private corporate radio stations.

With bands such as the Great Lake Swimmers, The Weekend, The Hidden Cameras, Metric, and artists like Jim Bryson, Kathleen Edwards, K-os, and DJ Serious, Bandwidth is at the head of the class when featuring great home grown talent.

I sat down with Amanda at the coffee shop inside the CBC Radio building on Queen St. to talk about the show and other matters:

Interview

Scott D. Brown: On average, how long does it take to create a show?

Amanda Putz: For an episode of Bandwidth, it's about three full days and that is not including interview time; that's assuming I have done an interview, I have it ready and then I just have to cut it, put it together, and put it on the air. With that and picking the music, every CD that comes through you want to find the best tracks. So, you listen to all the tracks and pick the one that you like. Then I'll write my script. Do research to find out when that band I am playing is coming to town (anywhere in the Ontario cities). So yeah, by the time it's all done, on a good week, three full days.

SB: How many CDs do people send you?

AP: I get a lot of stuff. A lot of interesting stuff [She laughs]. I should have brought some examples without naming names of the really hilarious ones vs. the um... like last week something great came across my desk. It's this London band called Raised by Swans. It's just one of those things where someone just pops it in the mail to you, you open it up like every other CD, this has happened a few times over the course of, you know, doing music journalism, and you judge a book by its cover. I can't help it. I'll pick up the CD and I'll say, "Hmmm, that actually intriguing or interesting, or really pretty..." I'll put it to the top of the six piles that I have and make sure I listen to it sooner rather than later. And this was a perfect example [Raised by Swans]. I popped it in and I think they hired a publicist recently. She had put a one sheet...and I knew who she was and the second she heard it she phoned them up to ask to be their publicist. It was that good. I know her and she usually has a good roster. I threw it in and it was a total gem. It was beautiful, kind of driving guitars, almost ethereal sounding; and this great Japanamation cover on it.

So, you get a pile of stuff but once in a while something will stand out and I'll just gravitate to it because of the artwork or something like that. Or because of one line in a press biography that is written really well or makes me go, "Hmmm that's interesting," and I throw it in. There is just really, literally, not enough time to listen to it all. There is a lot of this really indie stuff that people have these great intentions like, "I wanna get on the radio." So they send me their stuff. But it is so indie that there is nowhere to sell it and they don't have any tour planned outside of Perry Sound or something like that. Yes, I want to give everybody a chance to have their time on the radio. But it has to benefit the people listening. If someone in Thunder Bay can't get access to that CD and can't see [the band] live, then why should I give that person air time vs. somebody else who's got something to sell on their website or, is going to be making a tour through Ontario.

SB: Your basic criterion, to get airtime, is the band must be touring?

AP: If you're not touring, that the album can be bought by people. Even if you printed independently 500 copies, but you've got them on your website and people can mail you a cheque and get that CD. That's all I need. I just don't think it's value added to put something that no one can ever get again.

SB: Yes, I know it would piss me off if I heard a song I liked and I couldn't find the CD anywhere.

AP: Exactly, I think people sometimes don't get that. The ones that are making great music in their basements, then burning it onto a CD. Because everyone can make a CD now, there is software available. I make the stings and the bumpers up for my show with Acid Pro and it's just like I lay some drums, I lay some banjo... and you put it together and you made a song. Its 30 seconds. It has to have some value for the consumer or listener.

SB: You had one of my favourite local artists on your show co-hosting recently, Jim Bryson, and I missed it.

AP: Yeah, Jim is unbelievable! I'm actually going to rerun that show on May 28th. You can listen for that. Right when I moved here in October [of 2004], he was someone I've known for a while through my family. He used to play in my sister-in-law's band and still does now. He used to stay at my house in Toronto when the band would come through there. When I moved here, I decided to get him to take me around Ottawa. He took me to Lynn Miles in studio where Ian Lefeuvre [Miles' producer and guitarist] laying down her record [Love Sweet Love CD, released April 26th, 2005 on MapleMusic] and mixing it. Rolf Klausener who is part of many bands that are on the Kelp Records label [www.kelprecords.com]. We went to his practice studio, had some episodes with that. I had just started [on Bandwidth] and kind of learning the radio ropes. I came from TV and it's very, much less independent on TV, there's a sound person, there's an editor, and there's a camera person. In radio it's me and my microphone and my minidisk player and I go out and get what I need. So I'm learning how to do things. Rolf is our first stop. I do this great interview, it's Jim, Rolf and I all chatting, having this great time, all these laughs, everything's funny and I'm watching the whole time the levels aren't bouncing very high on my minidisk recorder. I'm thinking to myself that this is probably a problem. But I'm such a rookie I don't want to stop the interview; which is the worse thing you could do. Then I realize that the microphone wasn't plugged in at all. It's just kinda dangling.

SB: I was interviewing a band and I forgot to watch the tape's progress. I missed like 15 minutes of the interview before I noticed...

AP: And when you have someone you really want to get those quotes from, it's terrible. Rolf was amazing. He was pretty new at giving interviews as well. He was sympathetic. I plugged it in. The levels bounced a little higher, but not much. We did the interview again. Tried to repeat some of the jokes, and I listened back. I don't understand, it's still not that good. Jim looked and he said, "Oh, you've plugged it into the line-in not the mic-in!" Rolf had run out of time. We made an arrangement to go back [Amanda laughs exasperatedly] for a third time later that day. Those are some of the kinks you work through when you are starting out in any business. But there are still deadlines. I still had to get that to air. Jim Bryson is so patient and so wonderful and was hilarious to work with. If you met him you know that he just a personality.

SB: There is a connection between him and Kathleen Edwards isn't there?

AP: He plays in her band now. She credits him with being extremely influential to her music. Hearing him and the way he writes songs was how she decided that she needed to write. She wanted to make songs like that.

SB: They did two songs that were the same on both their CDs [Bryson's The North Side Benches and Edwards' Back to Me].

AP: He wrote it and she covered it on her new CD.

SB: What was it called, I can't remember?

AP: "Somewhere else"

SB: That's it... I like the first song on it better though ["Sleeping in Toronto" off The North Side Benches]. Whenever they say they don't like to live in Toronto, it's good with me [I smile].

AP: [Laughing at the joke] Yeah, "got tired of sleeping in Toronto" [lyric from the song].

SB: The bands get interviewed here [at CBC on Queen St.] or do you have to go get them?

AP: Actually, I've done a lot of interviews at the Press Cafe [where we are sitting]. They are amazing. They turn down the music [on the intercom] whenever we ask. They are really awesome. So, sometimes I get them [the bands] to come here when they roll into town early. But other than that, I almost always go to the venue before they play; like at sound check or something. The interview I have on this week is Caribou, formerly known as Manitoba. I went to Babylon and caught up with him just before Junior Boys went on. We sat at the grimy little couch at the front there and did an interview.

SB: So you have been in all the venues now?

AP: There was couple I remember hearing that I still hadn't been to. I haven't been to the Roxy.

SB: It's new; it was another club and switched over in the last few months.

AP: That's the one I see a lot of gigs come to. I just haven't made it out there yet. I live downtown and between the ones in, is it called centretown? Barrymores, yeah I've been around those ones there and in the market.

SB: What's you're favorite place to listen to music so far?

AP: In Ottawa, The Black Sheep Inn.

SB: in Wakefield.

AP: Yeah.

SB: You like folk music, they play a lot of folk there.

AP: They do play some, but they play a lot of acoustic music there which is different than folk. You know, like Plaskett [Joel Plaskett of Joel Plaskett Emergency fame] solo or Kathleen [Edwards] was there for three night stands, when Bryson is there; those people especially that are the hometown favourites. They just warm the room, Danny Michel, unbelievable when he plays there. It's just wrapped. Everyone just sits and you can see them leaning forward in their chairs and it's such a warm feeling. Danny, when he was here, December I think, he did maybe even a couple nights there. The place was sold out beyond capacity. It was so tight. It was cold and snowing outside. It was so beautiful in that room. It has wood floors and a wood atmosphere. It's kind of a community feeling in there. There are candles on the tables. There's this window that goes behind the stage... and he [Danny] started to play the song "Snowglobe" [off of the 2001 CD, In the Belly of a Whale]; that is my favourite song of his. You look outside and there's the lake behind, it's night time and the snows falling. He's playing the "Snowglobe" song. I'm like, "Could anything be more perfect than right now?" This is what live music is all about. It's an experience beyond just hearing a song, it's hearing the person onstage banter and feeling like you get to know them. It's the whole thing. It's the smell of the wood. It's the feeling of being cozy when you're in a bubble and it's freezing in December outside.

AP: There are other venues. I love, Barrymore's. I think it's an amazing club. It's got such stature and opulence. It looks like shit from the outside. But it's beautiful on the inside still. I've been in with the lights on and it's not an illusion. It still does look good. I guess they are putting all the money on the inside.

SB: They need to do something about the bathrooms.

AP: Yeah, that's true, they're pretty shitty. No pun intended. But, the place is just great. When you have a big band there that can fill it up, like The Hidden Cameras, The Weakerthans... those were big nights and it was awesome there. It was full...and those are the bands I love to see at Barrymore's. The other bands I mentioned are the kind I love to see at the Black Sheep Inn. Babylon's is a good club too. Everything has its place. You see these different acts in the different places. I just saw Caribou when I was at Babylon; that was a great show. Even Zaphod's, I just wish they wouldn't end so early.

SB: It's the post that is on stage that is so irritating. I saw Uncut there, the Toronto band. They have a different stage set up where their bass player is in the centre and you got the two guitars on the left and right with the microphones; because they have two lead singers. So one will sing a song, then the other; I guess they're too lazy to go to the middle. So they put the bass player in the middle, which is a stupid stage show. But anyway, the music is good. The guy on the right ends up having to watch out for the pole. If he's moving around or jumping he might knock himself out.

AP: You got the pole in your vision at Capital [Music Hall] too. It's not on the stage but if you are in the back of the room, you got that pole smack dab in the middle.

SB: I always have a criticism for everything, but that one they gotta do something about that main beam that runs out in the centre near the ceiling. At the Comfortably Numb show I went to this crazy guy gets out and walks along the beam and starts balancing...

AP: Oh, no! You have people do anything, stupid!

SB: So do you like the city better than Regina?

AP: I miss Regina all the time!

SB: Your family is there?

AP: Yeah, my family, my really close friends are in other places than Regina so it's not, it's about family, but it's also about being from the prairies. People from Halifax, the Maritimes will tell you the same thing; people from Newfoundland... It's just in you, there's no way to describe it unless you are from there. I just had a tearful moment with my girlfriend in Toronto the other day. She's from Moose Jaw originally and lived in Regina a few years. She hadn't been back in a year and a half...and we were both holding hands saying, "Wow, that's so hard." It feeds the soul. It's a certain kind of people. It's the beauty of the place. People can say, it's always people who haven't been, they say, "How boring must that be, the highways of the prairies..." I drive through Ontario and it's all the same; rocks and trees, rocks and trees. But in the prairies, you have this beautiful undulating landscape of which the fields are always a different colour; there's blue, yellow, brown, green. Then the sky is always changing and there is so much sky. It never looks the same twice. It's never boring to me. It's absolutely breathtaking and I miss it all the time. But I will probably never go back. I will probably always live here but it's still amazing and I would recommend it to anyone.

SB: So you have this part on your show, it comes about three quarters the way through called the, the... 90 second sound bite... is that it?

AP: 90 second egg.

SB: Egg, that's it. [The 90 second egg is where Grant Lawrence interviews a band or musical artist in a rapid fire exchange of questions and answers for 90 seconds. It can be quite revealing and humorous since the interviewees must try to answer quickly without thinking about their responses.]

SB: So, I want to do a 90 second egg on you. Reverse the tables, so to speak.

AP: [begins laughing] that's a smart idea Scott, I like that... Okay I will try to answer as fast as I can.

SB: Okay, you're favourite band?

AP: Soul Coughing, not Canadian ooops.

SB: What's the best place to watch a show?

AP: The Horseshoe in Toronto.

SB: Most embarrassing moment, within 15 seconds?

AP: Puking after my 21st birthday in front of my professor's house.

SB: What's your biggest pet peeve when it comes to radio?

AP: People who stammer and stutter and say "Aww" a lot.

SB: Worse thing about your job?

AP: Not enough time.

SB: Farthest place you ever traveled?

AP: Tokyo

SB: Worse job you ever had?

AP: Hot dog vendor for the Riders.

SB: Best decade in music?

AP: Right now.

SB: Favourite toy as a child?

AP: My doll Mandy.

SB: First album you bought?

AP: Janet Jackson's Control.

SB: Greatest Canadian band?

AP: Great Lake Swimmers.

SB: Canada should have joined the war in Iraq?

AP: No.

SB: Subject you sucked most at in high school?

AP: Chemistry.

SB: Marriage or living together?

AP: Living together, but getting married finally.

SB: Best restaurant in the city?

AP: Kinki, anything with sushi.

SB: The worse band in history?

AP: Killer Dwarfs

SB: The nicest musician?

AP: Tony Dekker, Great Lake Swimmers.

SB: Long or short hair on men?

AP: Short, pony tails are the new mullet, out, out, out.

SB: Gay marriage is a right?

AP: It's a right, for sure.

SB: The sexiest man on the planet?

AP: Tim Edwards. I can't believe I said that [laughing], he owes me! It's funny having the tables turned on you and know how hard it is.

SB: Ice cream or sherbet?

AP: Ice cream all the way.

SB: I'll end it there.

AP: Okay, that's great [still laughing]

Bandwidth airs Saturdays at 5 pm EST on CBC Radio One. Amanda also wanted me to mention that she will be hosting a new show at the station called Fuse. Fuse will be a national show featuring Canadian independent artists (two at a time) playing each others music live in studio (aired both on Radio One and Two). Her first guests will be Gentleman Reg and Danny Michel.