Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Good morning, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned in to the Mac city morning show. I am your host, Elliot Pierre, and we're going to start the show off on the same note. We start every show off with a mono moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. So the fact that you're spending with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, Tanner hit him with the intro.
Speaker 1 00:00:24 Oh, she caught me loves you're listening to the next then morning show.
Speaker 0 00:00:33 All right. We're back. Okay. Today banger of an episode, my favorite type of guests, I have no idea who this individual is. Not only do I not know who he is, I don't even know his name. So as per usual, I don't introduce my guests. Couldn't even do it if I want to do today, because they could do a better job at it than I. So on that note, sir, can you please tell everybody at home?
Speaker 2 00:00:55 Yeah. I guess on your average guy, I'm just Nick Kemp, you know, just kinda got here. Uh, definitely not from here, but it seems like a great place so far. Not going a lie.
Speaker 0 00:01:05 There we go. So, Nick, uh, you work at OJS. That's correct. That's how Tanner met you. We were down there having some adult beverages one night and you and Tanner got to talking outside, taking the smoke. I'm assuming exactly how it happened. And now, now you're on the show.
Speaker 2 00:01:20 Yeah, it was very surprising. I must say
Speaker 0 00:01:22 Nice. Now we had a, I'm assuming he's everybody's boss. He might not, might not be your direct supervisor, but we had Gavin on the show a few weeks ago, the general manager, owner, whatever you want to call his title for O'Jays here in Fort Mac. Yep. And you guys have a wager, what is this way?
Speaker 2 00:01:39 So we actually do. Yes, you'd be correct. It's a, the $50 bet on me having more views on him. Okay, cool.
Speaker 0 00:01:47 There you go. So you have people like your younger guys, so you're on Facebook. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:01:52 No, I actually, surprisingly I'm not Instagram, Snapchat all night, but I try to stay away from Facebook.
Speaker 0 00:01:59 Fair enough. Yeah. So what medium. You're trying to get more views on like, cause he, his user primarily Facebook, right? Yeah. So is Facebook gonna be how you judge?
Speaker 2 00:02:09 It could be, I would go any platform really? Cause like I watch a lot of YouTube and a lot of my friends watch YouTube and you're actually asking them about the show and I thanks to Tanner. He told me that it was on YouTube when I found you guys, I followed you. And I suppose to let them all know where to watch it. So.
Speaker 0 00:02:28 Okay. I like it. I like it. I like healthy competition. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'm a, I like to gamble every now and then there's nothing wrong with it. Just friendly. Right? Healthy wager 50 bucks. You can lose that. So you said at the beginning of the show, you're not from Fort McMurray. So how long have you been here for? Since March 1st. Oh, so you're like brand new. Yeah. Oh sweet. Yeah. Completely. Let's hear about it. Why like, why are you here?
Speaker 2 00:02:51 So I came up to help open up the O'Jays and train some of the new staff and uh, you know, I won't even, I won't even lie. I'll be a hundred percent honest. I wanted nothing to do with coming here. Yeah. I, there's a stigma around Fort Mac. Uh, you know, it's a, it's a dirty town and the people are not the best and stuff. And uh, within my first two weeks here, that was completely shattered. I was like, everyone is nothing but nice and generous and super kind. And I was just blown away.
Speaker 0 00:03:20 That's awesome, man. That's great. So where are you from though? So I actually move around a lot, but my town would be provost. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:03:28 It's like on the border Saskatchewan, small town, 2,500.
Speaker 0 00:03:31 I've been provost before I used to be a recruiter back in the day. So like for over a decade, I was in human resources. So early in my career, I worked for a company called Eveready on their clean harbors. Now they do water, truck, dock trucks, stuff like that. So yeah, I used to, uh, fly and drive all around Canada and recruit people. And so I'd spend a lot of time in Saskatchewan, around the provost area, PA Yorkton and I'd get farmers to come up, uh, basically, cause they can operate all different types of vehicles. So they'd come up and do water trucks and back trucks during the winter when they weren't farming. So yeah. I spent a lot of time, uh, in your neck of the woods. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:04:10 Yeah. So I, I that's obviously where I grew up. Mostly. I was about 19 when I left, but I've moved around a lot.
Speaker 0 00:04:16 Okay. So why are you moving around? Always for work. Okay. And you primarily worked for OJS? No. Okay. Yeah. I just started. Okay, cool. Okay. Okay. Like less than a year to be honest. Right. Okay. Nice. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:04:31 Uh, no, like I used to work on backtracks too, so I know all about that and the lifestyle that, that brings
Speaker 0 00:04:39 Hard. It's a hard, hard lifestyle, man. Especially when you're working out at rig camps, you're away from your family, your friends,
Speaker 2 00:04:46 Julian eggs are the worst. I remember my very first job on a, on a back truck was Christmas day, Christmas morning. They called me 2:00 AM. I said, pack a lunch. It's going to be a long, long haul is said, okay. I didn't expect it to be 39 hours straight. Like
Speaker 0 00:05:02 Yeah, it's horrible. Yeah. You just get it done.
Speaker 2 00:05:05 Yeah. Yeah. No breaks. You don't get to sleep or anything. You just work in nonstop the whole time. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:05:12 And the, the season for those guys is so short. Right. Cause it's like feast or famine. Yeah. Like you got to put those hours in because during like your summer months, you're not getting any money. So those guys are built different.
Speaker 2 00:05:24 Yeah. I did that for a few years and I don't miss
Speaker 0 00:05:26 It. I won't lie. No, no doubts. I, uh, I was working in the office. I was human resources. Right. So I was just recruited. I was training. Then I moved into recruiting and uh, I was telling the story a few days ago to one of our guests. Um, I stayed in a red camp just for the weekend. Cause I was hiring guys, fly, getting guys to fly here, leave their families. I figure I should see what it's all about. Like, I've seen the pictures, I've heard the stories I've been working for the company for a few years. I was like, I got to go stay in a recap over the weekend. Not the camp that's in town. Yeah. Know the actual camp, the rig camp. Yeah. It's different, man. It's different. Like it's, it's bearable. You can do it, but I don't know how guys do it long. Long-term no, you know what I mean? Like a season maybe. Okay. Sure. But I used to hire guys who literally that was their whole
Speaker 2 00:06:17 And they just loved it. Love it. I don't know.
Speaker 0 00:06:20 I love it. I had one guy who was a truck driver. Um, he was a long haul truck driver that I hired. Um, and so long haul, obviously very different, but he'd been doing it for his whole life. So he used to sleep in a sleeper berth all the time. And so even when he worked with us, he had a camp room. He's like, yeah, I'm way more comfortable if I could just sleep in the truck. I'm like, not like you can't, but like this was a thing for him. And I have no doubt when like management was gone. Yeah. That's where he was. He was sleeping in that truck. He never used his camper.
Speaker 2 00:06:50 Like you used to, you know what I mean? Maybe, maybe not used to it, but you feel safe there, right? Yeah. You spend so much time there. Weird when you're not there.
Speaker 0 00:07:01 How did you get into like, cause it's one of those industries where like there's so many industries, like if you don't know, you don't know. Yeah. So when I usually talk about vac trucks and water trucks, people look at me like I'm a Martian and I'm like, Oh. And I described and like, Oh yeah. So how did you get involved in that industry?
Speaker 2 00:07:17 Uh, so I had a friend of mine who somehow got into the industry and I was working at an Hane w at the time. And I was like, not barely, I was barely surviving. Right. And he's like, well, I'll get you a job. Like you just have to move up to grand Prairie. I said on deal, let's go now. And then I did some, uh, backtrack stuff there for a couple of years. And then I moved up to Beaver lodge, did some more there. And yeah, it was crazy. Like I've worked in the oil field before when I was younger. So I have experienced in the oil field, but never on a backtrack before that day, I had never even seen a vac truck close up. Couldn't believe how big they were. It's loud. Oh, so loud. So loud.
Speaker 0 00:07:57 That's cool. Okay. So now working at a and w saying like, yeah, you know what, this is not for me. Fast food industry. I'm not making the money. I don't like the environment. Yeah. Going, you're working in an oil rig now doing dock trucks. How do you transition? Cause I read, like, I didn't read your name. I gotta be honest. I just saw, I read guest. Um, but it said line cook. So that's all I knew. I was like, Oh, we got a line cook coming in. So how do you transition from, I don't want to be at EDW to, I work in the rigs. And one of the hardest jobs environment wise there is to now being a line cook. How does that transition happen?
Speaker 2 00:08:31 Honestly, a lot easier than you think it's, it comes down to quality of life, you know? Sure. I might've made a lot more money in the oil field, but you have no free time for anything you're outside minus 50. Nobody really appreciates you. And I've known Gavin for a little while and he offered me a position and I was like, yes, please. I'll show you what I can do. And I think I have, I think he's happy with it and I'm happy with it. Yeah. I mean, I feel taken care of. I'm not outside freezing and it's a great investment.
Speaker 0 00:09:03 Yeah. Okay. So you started working, not in the Fort Mac restaurant, firmer where where's the first place you started with them? Sherwood park. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I've been to that, uh, OJS.
Speaker 2 00:09:16 Yeah. So I was already back for a little while, but it was slow. Like the busy days we had, there are nothing compared to what happens here. Yeah. It is ridiculous.
Speaker 0 00:09:26 It blows people's minds when they first come to Fort McMurray, especially when you work in like the service industry and stuff, how busy it actually is. And I can assure you what you're seeing now is nothing into comparison. What it's like when it's not,
Speaker 2 00:09:39 Oh, I, I can only imagine it's nuts. Servers would refer to this as slow.
Speaker 0 00:09:44 Yeah. Extremely slow. Which is nuts. Yeah. Like back in the day, especially during like the boom in the early to mid two thousands, like to get in any restaurant, you'd have to wait like a half of an hour, any restaurant really? And it was packed all the time. You wanted to go for dinner at seven o'clock you better be there at like six
Speaker 2 00:10:05 Really? Yeah. Or make a reservation or
Speaker 0 00:10:07 Something. You couldn't make reservations. No restaurant back in the day we take reservations. You only take reservations. If you need to, if you're going to have a line, they're like, Hey, can I make reservations? Like we got a line. No. Wow. Click. So yeah.
Speaker 2 00:10:20 That's incredible to think about, cause like what makes Fort Mac so much busier than another place? You know what I mean, money, I guess there is a lot of money here.
Speaker 0 00:10:28 That's the thing that people kind of, uh, I think globally don't think about, are people when they're considering moving to different places? Yes. The cost of living here is expensive. Um, not anymore. Like we there's a new stat out there that says, yeah, like things have gone down, but the cost of living here used to be very expensive. Right. But for the most part, like it's still a small community and on average, most people do have a job somewhat connected to the oil sands. Yeah. So they're making a decent wage. And even if you don't work for the oil sands directly, maybe your significant other does. So the amount of liquid cash that you have disposable cash you can spend. Um, then the other component of that is most people are from somewhere else like yourself, like me and Tanner were born and raised here, but uh, most people aren't. And so you want to go out, do you want to be social? You want to meet people. Yeah. And so you've got a little bit of walking around cash. You go into a restaurant or bar.
Speaker 2 00:11:26 Well, and that's what blew me away about how Tana and I met. I remember exactly how it happened. I was outside the side door, having a cigarette, you peaks his head around the front corner. And he like went to Walker and he's like, you know what? I'm going to make friends with you. And that blew me away. I was like, that doesn't happen anywhere. Right. And that comes back to what I was going to bring up is you mentioned like the community, I've noticed that the community here is very strong. I've never really noticed a sense of community. Where in any of the places I've in here, it's been, it's like, it almost slaps you in the face. Yeah. It's incredible.
Speaker 0 00:11:59 The only other place I've been that is this friendly is Newfoundland. If you ever have a chance to go to the East coast, I've worked at a few people and that's all they say, Oh man, like Fort Mac is super friendly, but a lot of it has to do with, um, a lot of the population here, especially like in the seventies and eighties were East coasters. So even now there's a lot East coast. So, but we at format really strong. Love it. That's everybody's from somewhere else basically. So they know what you're going through because they went through it, you know? So it's like, Oh new person, probably having a rough time meeting people, let me approach him and bring him in. You know? So, but yeah, when you go to these coast, men who they'll, they'll literally take the shirt off their back for you. That's it's crazy. So outside of East coast, I'll say Fort McMurray is one of the most friendliest places.
Speaker 3 00:12:52 And uh, if you were having maybe having trouble making friends before you won't, after this comes out.
Speaker 2 00:12:57 Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 0 00:12:59 That you got blown up. All right. Uh, we have a segment of the show. It's Tanner segment. It's called the Mac CD minute. He's going to ask you a few quick questions. I have no idea what he's going to ask. So best of luck to you. Tanner hit him with the Mac CD minute
Speaker 3 00:13:13 Question. Number one. What has been the biggest shock coming to Fort McMurray?
Speaker 2 00:13:18 Honestly, the, the kindness of the people. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:13:23 Question number two. What's your favorite O'Jays order
Speaker 2 00:13:26 To the dynamite? 10 period is, is incredible. And you drink the blonde, the house lager blonde. Fantastic
Speaker 3 00:13:34 Question. Number three. Uh, other than O'Jays what's your favorite Fort Mac food establishment. I honestly don't know.
Speaker 2 00:13:43 I've eaten at the bar. That's not my hotel. Didn't compare. So sadly, I guess I'd have to say, Oh geez. It's still number one. That's not sadly. That's good.
Speaker 3 00:13:50 I would agree. So question number four. Why do you think you can get more views than Gavin?
Speaker 2 00:13:56 Well, look at me compared to him. Come on guys.
Speaker 3 00:14:01 Question number, question number five. What is one interaction that stood out for you? That changed how you see format?
Speaker 2 00:14:09 That's an easy answer. Meeting. Tanner. Simple, not stood out right away. Yeah. Thank
Speaker 3 00:14:15 You very much. Those have been your five questions.
Speaker 0 00:14:17 There you go. That's funny. Now Tanner started the question. Some guests bring it up some don't we have alcohol on the set. I see that. What's your drink of choice? Outside of like the lager at work. Like if you're just drinking, what are you drinking?
Speaker 2 00:14:31 I like beer. I like like, uh, Canadian beer is really good, but I'm going hard. Liquor. I do enjoy Jaeger and vodka. I'm a, I'm a vodka guy. Vodka, water, lime vodka, water MEO.
Speaker 0 00:14:44 Are you drinking with Jaeger? You just drinking a straight you're shooting it straight. Okay. Like you'll sip on Jaeger. Oh yeah, sure. Oh, interesting. I've never met a sipper of Jaeger before. It's mostly
Speaker 2 00:14:54 Shots, but I will just sit on
Speaker 0 00:14:57 It. It's nice. Yeah. Like me and tequila. Like I can't, I don't like to shoot tequila if I don't have to. I can, I can suck it up. I can be a big boy if I need to. Um, but I would much rather somebody just pours me some tequila on the rocks and just sip on that. Oh man, that's called a good night. You're relaxing. Yeah. That's exactly it. I'm not sure
Speaker 2 00:15:16 They take, like when you have a long day and you come home, you just sip on that. That's how you unwind. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:15:22 And so Tanner is a young pop. He likes the shots. So we go to the bar and he's like, Oh, let's do shots. I'm like, how about I just like drank on this? And he's like, no, man do a shot. So I learned about
Speaker 2 00:15:33 Shots. I'm a boat efficiency,
Speaker 0 00:15:36 Efficiency. You can't argue with that one. I think about shots is like, when I drink, I stick to one, one what I'm drinking. I drink Jamison's 90% of the time. The last time me and Tanner were at the bar, um, drinking Jamison's and uh, he's like, let's do a shot. And I was just like, well, okay, I can do shot, but make a Jameson's right. Cause I want to remain consistent with what I'm shooting. And so Tanner's just like,
Speaker 2 00:16:06 I thought people end up sick too. Right. They're drinking beer. And then they do a shot of this and they do another drink or something else. Like, no, just stick with one thing. That's right,
Speaker 0 00:16:14 Right. That's exactly it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:16:16 It's, it's a pretty common thing. I at least I thought people needed that. Right? Right. That's how you get sick is by mixing. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:16:23 Just don't mix all the kids at home. Yeah. For all the kids drink responsibly. Of course. You'll mix. Yeah. So I think that's it, man. Tanner, we hit the 20 minute Mark. Nope. No, we got more time. More time. Sweet. Okay. Let's talk about music. I love music. Okay, good. What kind of music do you like?
Speaker 2 00:16:40 Everything except country. Sorry, country fans.
Speaker 0 00:16:43 I used to be like that as well. However, it's just something that I said, and I didn't know why I said it over the last few years. I've given country a bit of a try and there is some good country out there. I'm not saying I bang dude all the time.
Speaker 2 00:16:59 I can deal with the old school country that my mom used to listen to. Who's this? Oh God. I can like maybe old school, Tim McGraw and whoever did that song called Mr. Mom, like, and big and rich, I guess I can deal with. Okay. But like the new poppy stuff you want to know and I'll never, it's not on my phone. I have a bunch of music. I would never play it by choice. But if some of those older songs come on, I can deal with it. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:17:22 I, I, uh, just saw a documentary on Dolly Parton just a few weeks ago on Netflix. So I started listening to some Dolly Parton stuff from like, it was all bad. This is not bad. I could, I could sit down with this. Like, it's just nice subject matter that you're like, okay, this is chill. But yeah, I'm for years I was like yourself. I was like
Speaker 2 00:17:42 That. You brought up subject matter because I listened to a lot of metal and have your music. And people think it's all just about like violence and all this stuff. I would strongly disagree. Most of my music is lyrically driven and a lot of my metal has very important messages.
Speaker 4 00:17:56 I would argue that metal and punk music is, has a more positive message than country.
Speaker 2 00:18:01 I would agree without a doubt. Did you know, most people who commit suicide, listening to music, listened to country before they do it,
Speaker 0 00:18:08 I would say that's a legitimate SAS,
Speaker 4 00:18:10 Also suicide rates. Um, they did a study with, uh, radio stations and suicide rates were higher with con uh, in, within cities with more country radio stations than
Speaker 0 00:18:23 With a lot of country. Songs are sad,
Speaker 2 00:18:25 Depressing. You know what I mean? Super depressing.
Speaker 4 00:18:28 My wife left me and my trucks bro.
Speaker 0 00:18:30 Right. That's right. That's what it is with a nice melody. I have to be honest. Like I haven't listened to lots of rock and or heavy metal. Like if it's in the background, I have no beef with it. It's just not something I've listened to. So you have to have an ear for it in regards to like, when I listen to it, I can't hear what they're saying.
Speaker 2 00:18:49 Don't get me wrong. I was that way for a few years too. I liked the music, but the vocals were hard to get, like to enjoy. But as I listened to it, yeah. Now I can understand them. And it's yeah.
Speaker 0 00:19:01 It's like my mom, for example, like with rap music, I love rap. And my mom for years, like I listened to it. All she's hearing is the curse words every once in a while. And she's like, this music's filthy this, that and the other. And I'm like, no, it's actually really good if you listen to the lyrics mom, but she couldn't. So like one day, like one of my buddies is a rapper and she's like, Oh my God, little Marty. Look at him. And then like, he's rapping. She's like, Oh my God, this is horrendous. I'm like, no, listen to it. And so like I wrote down the lyrics for it and I said, okay, this is what he's saying. And she's like, Oh, that's so nice. Like once you take out the MFS. Yeah. Right. It's like, it's tolerable mom. Uh, but it blew my mind. She couldn't hear it. I'm like, you're not hearing what he's saying. Like certain music.
Speaker 2 00:19:44 I think a lot of people go through something like that with music that they don't prefer to listen to. They only hear the stuff that they don't
Speaker 0 00:19:50 That's right. You just hear the swears and stuff. Yeah. Another guy that recently, and I'm an old man. So this guy was popping when I was young is Marilyn Manson. Oh, I still listen to him. So I never messed with Marilyn Manson at the time. Like, especially when he was like in a big, there was like, rappers were like hot rap music was hot back then. That was like the genre, even Eminem Eminem was out at the same time as hard to compete. So it was a no brainer not to listen to Marilyn Manson and the shock value I wasn't into. I've been listening to Marilyn Manson lately. Like it's really good. Really good. It's really, really good.
Speaker 2 00:20:28 He's got like the ideals that made like the lyrics that he writes about and that the points and subject matter is right. Once you know what they're saying is it's not that bad. No, exactly.
Speaker 0 00:20:38 Kind of like the show South park. Yeah. Oh man. It's one of my favorite shows to watch. And most people are like, Oh, it's so gross. It's so vulgar. I'm just like, no, it actually is messaged, driven, politically driven as well. Yeah. And that's how they stay so relevant is because every episode that airs, they create one week before, it's still up to date with that. So on point, that is why it's so roughly designed. That's why it looks like how it look. Right. It's literally one draft. They just do it. Right. They're incredible. And like, they're smart. Very, if you just get over Carmen's voice and like the swearing, like it's a very smart show. Have either of you guys seen baseball? Oh yeah. Yeah. He's fantastic. That's a cult classic. I want to, I want to create a team and actually play it.
Speaker 0 00:21:26 It looks fun. That is I, uh, that has a Charlie sheen in it. Isn't it? I honestly can't remember. Anyways, I have the DVD. Uh, I have the DVD Tanner. I'll bring it in. That's how old I have that I have the DVD to be on is a great movie. Another one is, um, in the same kind of genre. Newer is a, have you seen c'mon it's the guys who made super troopers, beer Fest, beer Fest, beer Fest, beer Fest is a great guy. Really is good. Yeah. But yeah, baseball. That's a classic, very smart movie. Like his, I mean the boys used to try to play. The rules are pretty hard. What did you try to play? Like it gets kind of complicated. It's definitely like murky. The rules are hard to understand them. Good. Show another one. Which like you gotta be in the mood for it.
Speaker 0 00:22:14 The same guys made it is, um, team America. Yeah. That's pretty vulgar. That one. That one that was in your face. Yeah. They don't mess around, but from a political satire, just like, Hey, but that's what they're, they're good at that. Yeah. They're good at it. So they call them out, they call the politicians and somebody needs to do it. There we go. And they do it with humor. So you pay attention to exactly. Exactly. So a man, that's it. I know we went over 20 minutes now, 20 to 22. There we go. So before we cut you loose, everybody gets the shameless shout out. So you can shout yourself out, uh, where you work, what you do, who you are. You want to make some friends, whatever you want. I got one shout out as to my cat bubbles. He's the best of my cat. There we go. All right. Well for McMurray wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world, thank you for tuning in today. This has been one of my favorite episodes, so I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope the numbers are better than Gavin's and you bet have a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 1 00:23:13 <inaudible> talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
