Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Good morning, Fort McMurry, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the Mac city morning show. I am your host Elliot Pierre, and we started off the same way every show by saying thank you. And, uh, given a little bit of gratitude to you. I know that you could be doing a million other things with your time. So from the bottom of my heart, it does mean the world to me that you've tuned in and have decided to spend it with us on that note, Tanner.
Speaker 1 00:00:24 Oh, she caught me loves you're listening to the next <inaudible>.
Speaker 0 00:00:33 All right. So I'm excited about today's episode. This guest has been an early adopter of the max Sydney morning show from day one. I think message me maybe. Well, not maybe definitely before the show even went out. So I'm glad that we got them on the show, as everybody knows at this point, I do not introduce my guests because they can do a better job at that than I, so on that note, sir, can you please introduce yourself and tell everybody who you are?
Speaker 2 00:00:57 Uh, hi. Yeah, I'm Willie. Uh, I'm a producer at Shaw spotlight and they also, uh, uh, I'm a youth pastor and, uh, and I do some stuff with, uh, district recording studio and Lionheart camp kids, art stuff, uh, in the city. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:01:11 All right. Well, Willie, thank you very much for showing up today, man. Really do appreciate it. Oh yeah. Thanks for having me. So you and I have definitely met once or twice. Um, we filmed the video for the Arctic winter games that are coming up. Yeah. I think it turned out pretty good. Yeah. But we've never actually had a chance to chat. So the amount of questions I have for you is endless and I know we're not going to get to all of them. So let's start off first and foremost. What brought you to Fort McMurray? How did you start? How long have you been?
Speaker 2 00:01:37 Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I came to form your furry for a job, I think like everyone does. Yeah. So I'm trying to remember when we came. Uh, and I think we've been here three and a half or almost four close to the former. So I'm like pretty new to Fort McMurray, but yeah, I came for a job that was the weirdest job ever. It was, um, it was one job, but it was for one charity and two churches all wrapped up into one style youth pastoring job, which I still do. And then I was, uh, it was helping to start the district recording studio at Compton high school.
Speaker 0 00:02:10 Okay, sweet. So, uh, what, uh, what church?
Speaker 2 00:02:14 Uh, and the Anglican churches. Yeah, so I, uh, I, uh, I work with, we have our youth group uptown at, uh, in liquid red cross, some save on foods and also downtown right across from the carwash is all saints church. So you're busy then. Yeah, just kind of a little bit everywhere, but it's fun.
Speaker 0 00:02:33 Awesome. That is great. So when you went to school, like, like this is the thing about being a pastor, like you can potentially go to certain educational institutes to study certain things like media and whatnot. So how did you get into this world?
Speaker 2 00:02:50 Yeah, I, uh, my, my Bible college, um, experience Bible college Bible college yet, uh, was a, it was a creative arts. So it was, it was really unique. It was, um, purposely, um, like hands-on experiential. So we actually, it was awesome. We had the college campus was on an old dude ranch. And so the oldest building on campus was this like cabin, like real log cabin with animals and stuff in it and his recording studio. So that was our classroom. So like, we were literally like doing, making videos, learning how to do recording. We made an EAP as part of our thing. And that was, that was my college experience. So. Awesome.
Speaker 0 00:03:27 Yeah. You guys are crushing it in regards to when you go on social media now and you're learning how to like do this. Yeah. Most of the videos are from people who've gone to Bible college and they're like, Hey, I'm doing this for my church and this is what we're we're doing. So yeah. You guys, you guys learn a lot at Bible college for sure. Yeah. That are like mainstream skills.
Speaker 2 00:03:52 Yeah. It was, it was amazing what a unique experience it was to have. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, definitely handy now. Like churches are just like, like doing this. This is like, bam, like so fast on high level. Yeah. On high level switch. So,
Speaker 0 00:04:06 Or not shout out, but put a little bit of shade on the Catholic faith because I'm a Catholic and a, they're not as good at it. They're not as good at it. They're just not so, but yeah. You guys, like I watched some of the live broadcasting that you guys do and some of the stuff that you guys are putting out high quality stuff, man. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So there's something other high quality that you did and you brought us a gift today for the maxi morning show. This is a canoe. Now I was fanboying fanboying out on you. When you first came here, you and your partner in crime put together an unbelievable short film about a canoe. So please for the people at home who maybe haven't seen it yet, tell them about what the short films about, tell them where they can find it. It is. It's unbelievable, man. It's really good.
Speaker 2 00:04:54 Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah. So it's just a, it's just a video of me making a canoe paddle. I never made a canoe paddle before. And, uh, and part of the challenge with the pandemic is that we can't, um, for sure we can't film with people like we normally would. So we're like, what are creative things we can do at home? So, uh, yeah. I made a canoe paddle for the first time, made a video about it and uh, you can find it on, on Shaw spotlight, Facebook, YouTube, whatever, but I'm sure we'll link it.
Speaker 0 00:05:18 Yeah. We'll definitely link it in there. It's it's really good. Yeah. And like I was telling you before the show started, my thing about it is, I mean, I fall into this category of an amateur videographer, definitely something I do for fun. I have a passion for it. People watch the stuff I put out. Thank you very much. Um, but amateur, um, the video that you guys put out it is the cinematography is unbelievable. The storyline is phenomenal. Like it is a real piece of art man. So congratulations to you guys. I was thoroughly impressed.
Speaker 2 00:05:49 Oh, I appreciate that so much. And I do have to say shout out to my wife, sheltered me from a lot of it and big shout out to a Harvey, talk a guy, my church did the voiceover exceptional jobs. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:06:00 Yeah, no, it is really good. It is really good. So how did you link up with Shaw? How did that all?
Speaker 2 00:06:06 Um, well Shaw helped. I first met the wonderful people at Shaw, um, with the work at the studio, they came in and filmed a couple of the, uh, like the youth music events we did. And so I met Matt at the time and, uh, and so I volunteered with them on and off a little bit. And, and our paths crossed a lot. Um, Matt became a great friend and then, uh, when, uh, when a spot opened up, I took a chance and I was lucky enough to in Atlanta. So it's, it's like a dream job. It's so fun. We just, uh, we're making videos, we're meeting cool people. We're trying to feature their stories and, and show off for McMurray, uh, in, in a wonderful way to people.
Speaker 0 00:06:45 Yeah. It's a cool challenge. You guys have like cha channel nine, right? Is it channel lunch
Speaker 2 00:06:50 Channel, channel 10 on the old boxes and channel 105 on blue sky. What's blue sky. It's like, if you have a newer shot TV box.
Speaker 0 00:07:00 Okay. So what's channel 10 what's channel nine then
Speaker 2 00:07:03 I think channel nine is the French channel. Oh no. That's channel 11 might be the multicultural channel. Maybe, maybe, maybe some news channel, like CTV or something like that.
Speaker 0 00:07:12 Just the one channel, whatever channel it is. Like I put it on, cause like in the background have like random stuff playing, so yeah. I see a bunch of your stuff, so yeah. It's cool. But yeah, that canoe one, man, I'm telling you that was a banger that was banger. So I know it's not open now, but I do want to talk a little bit about, uh, the district recording studio, uh, because I was in at one time and I was just blown away. Um, what, how did that start? What it's about? Like, I don't understand how that level of equipment was put into that. Like what a great opportunity for, I don't know who can use it, but it's amazing. So let's talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 2 00:07:48 Yeah. Um, it was, it was sort of a dreamed up thing by, uh, Rick Kirschner and, and some people at the school board, like a long time ago and, uh, and came, came to be, um, because of some grants. So, um, part, part, some of the money actually came from an Anglican foundation, um, in, uh, all the way across the ocean, uh, from, from England. Uh, and then, but a big part of it was funded by the red cross as well. This is just, uh, building some infrastructure and, and, uh, may mostly as a tool for recovery for young people. So we we've done a couple of youth recording projects and, uh, we do Lionheart camp, um, which is all centered around hands-on arts-based experiences for kids to, um, explore who they are and give them a voice. So, um,
Speaker 0 00:08:39 It's a crazy recording studio. Like it's, it's, uh, as official as official can get,
Speaker 2 00:08:44 We have some sweet, sweet gear. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:08:46 Yeah. It is really cool. So how many people usually kind of work out of that area and who can book it? Is it for children or if you're recording artists in town, can you rent out that space or how does that all work? And I know COVID is making everything weird. So nothing's like,
Speaker 2 00:09:02 Yeah, kind of on an indefinite pause because of COVID right now, just with the way things are. So, uh, we're sad about that, but, uh, but it is for, it is for anyone. Yeah. So, um, yeah, anyone can come and come and make music
Speaker 0 00:09:16 For cool. So now I gotta be honest with you. I thought you lived in Fort McMurray way longer than three and a half to four years. You definitely got yourself out there, like a part of Fort McMurray now. Oh, so where are you from originally?
Speaker 2 00:09:29 Uh, Edmonton area. Yeah. My parents built a house about 30 minutes East of Sherwood park and I was born and raised there. My whole life went away for college, uh, with, with my wife, actually, we met in high school,
Speaker 0 00:09:43 Bunch of high school sweethearts coming on the show lately here
Speaker 2 00:09:46 And she, she followed me around and then we, yeah, we moved over to forming Marie straight out of college and in our homes.
Speaker 0 00:09:51 Wow. Okay. So let's hear the story. We got to get your wife on. We're going to get your wife on now. Cause you're gonna tell the story. How do you guys meet? How did the courtships?
Speaker 2 00:10:02 Yeah, I met her on the first day of grade 12. My wife was actually homeschooled all the way from like grade one to 11. We moved to, um, sure park. Okay. She went to public school for, that was her first and last year public school. And I met her on the first day. She was, she was with her dad and she was trying to find her room and I was like, Oh, that's really cute girl. But, uh, they asked me, so I was like, Oh, I was happy to show it. And uh, and anyways, but later, like I was, I was a huge band nerd. I lived in the music room. Okay. But I heard her singing for an audition. Uh, it was a Christian school. So we, we, uh, she was doing audition for like our music worship band stuff. I was like, that is an amazing voice.
Speaker 2 00:10:43 I was just blown away. So I was doing like a little, uh, um, putting it together, a band for a group for like a younger grade. And uh, and I had to go ask her. I was like, will you come sing with us? It was just like, amazing. And, uh, and then, so she walked over and I, like, I looked straight into her eyes and I was like, bam. I was so blown away. I was totally embarrassed, turned red. And I looked down and I still like vividly. Remember she had like a silicone owl case around her iPhone and it's just like ingrained in my mind. Cause I was just looking straight at her iPhone. I could not look her in the face any longer. I was like head over heels instantly. And I played it cool for like a, for a year. I tried to just like, I was like, and, but we became really good friends. We had like, she, she lived on an acreage close to us. So we're like close, like 15 minutes away. But that's neighbors when you're on an acreage. And so we carpooled all the time. We were like, anyways became amazing friends. And we went on our first date a week before.
Speaker 0 00:11:41 Oh, okay. Wow. You played the long game there. You liked this lady a lot. Obviously you shouldn't like it's on camera now you beamed up. You're getting major brownie points. Your wife sees this man. That is awesome. That is so cool. Okay. Now you lived in the Bay. What instruments do you play? You're living your band geek. He said, so yeah,
Speaker 2 00:12:02 Trombone was, was my instrument. Yeah. I actually start on the tuba. It was like boring and like, not fun. Like they might, we, because it was so big. They gave us two, two bus. You got one at school and went home because they didn't want you bringing it back and forth at home. Tuba sucked. It had like holes in it. Like, you know how you got to empty a spit valve. Well, when, when there's holes in your instrument, you know where that split ends up on your
Speaker 0 00:12:24 Way road.
Speaker 2 00:12:26 So anyways, uh, I saw someone playing the trombone that look way cooler and I switched and then like,
Speaker 0 00:12:31 Yeah. Okay. So that's the main instrument or are you able to dabble with other answers?
Speaker 2 00:12:36 Yeah, like I play a little bit of guitar and uh, I can, I can like voice chords on a piano. Um, but, uh, but trombone is my thing. I took private lessons. I even played a, you've probably never heard of this a sec, but sack, but is like the predecessor to the trombone, like a early music instrument. Um, like I played in, uh, like extracurricular swing bands and we played like dances, like swing dances were fun. So yeah, it was my, like, I was sure that I was gonna spend my whole life playing trombone, but what happened? Um, went to Bible college and moved to Fort McMurray. Like,
Speaker 0 00:13:12 Is there an industry in trombone? Like, like what do you do? Because I love for the kids, younger generations watching this, like there are different careers out there. So like how could you make a living off playing the trombone?
Speaker 2 00:13:26 Yeah. Like in bigger centers, like you can, you can, uh, like you can literally get like a salaried orchestra job, uh, or you can like, like a lot of people freelance, they play gigs. There's trombone, especially in the jazz circles is big. And, uh, you can teach. And like, my, my master plan was to do a music degree education after degree and teach, teach band actually. And, but, uh, so now you just make cool films instead. So now we do something totally different. And so we, would've never pictured ourselves here doing it's amazing.
Speaker 0 00:13:56 It's funny where life takes you. Sometimes, man, it's all fun. It's a journey. But yeah, if you, sometimes it goes off track a little bit, but once it's, it's all fun. It's all fun. Cause like, you obviously love what you're doing now, so yeah. It's all good. So on that note, Tanner, it's his segment. You watch the show. So you know, what's about to hit you at the Mac city minute. Best of luck to you. Tanner hit him with the Mac CD mint
Speaker 3 00:14:17 Question. Number one. What was your draw to the max city morning show before we ever filmed?
Speaker 2 00:14:23 Oh man. You know what? I was just so excited. Like, like nobody knows how awesome Fort McMurray is. Like, like it doesn't, it doesn't seem to me. So I was like, come on like a commitment to every day telling Fort McMurray stories. Like that is awesome. I was on board. I was like, I don't know what it looks like, but I'm I'm I'm stoked. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:14:44 Question number two. What is your favorite part of being a pastor specifically for youth?
Speaker 2 00:14:50 Uh, like, you know what, just like specifically for youth, like youth are more curious, more passionate. Like they just like, and, and know like there's stigmas and structures that develop, um, as you grow up, but those are still like fresh. Like you can like ask anything like anything's on the table. Like can imagine a, a spiritual environment where anything's on the table. Is God real or is he not? I don't know. Let's talk about it. That that is a conversation you can have in youth ministry that you harder to have in like Sunday morning,
Speaker 3 00:15:26 Question number three. What is your favorite part of filming? All of the different things you film?
Speaker 2 00:15:33 Oh man. I, I don't know. It's there's comradery in the filming. There's uh, I meet all sorts of people that like, you just someone's cool. And then you go to do an interview with them and they're even cooler after. That's probably my favorite part.
Speaker 3 00:15:48 Question number four. What is one way you use music in your everyday work life?
Speaker 2 00:15:54 Oh man, that's a good question. You know what? I probably actually the most common thing is, is when I need a break, I go over to the piano and I I'm really bad at it, but I really try to sort of like play out how I'm feeling. I find that's really therapeutic and uh, yeah, like for little breaks. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:16:11 And your final question, what was your favorite part of your mission overseas?
Speaker 2 00:16:16 Oh yeah. Yeah. We, uh, um, when went to Mexico a few years ago with, uh, King's kids, which was the charity that was our first year here, it was amazing. We got to do some fun stuff, but, uh, that, that was my first time I went with a camera to make a film all by myself. And so that was, that was pretty significant in telling a kind of a story that bridge different people from different places and having to figure it out. Yeah. That was fun.
Speaker 3 00:16:42 Those have been your five questions.
Speaker 0 00:16:45 I know I wasn't on camera for that, but my face was pure bewilderment. I don't know how you come up with these questions. I know people like how did, how did you know we went on a mission? I know him. Wow. Tanner with the questions, man.
Speaker 2 00:17:00 Tanner was, uh, was a, was a good friend at photo source. When, uh, when we moved here, he was always excited when Tanner was there to have,
Speaker 3 00:17:09 Oh, he's excited to help anybody. Who's willing to have a chat with me too.
Speaker 0 00:17:13 That's how I met Tanner as well, photo source. And he hooked me up. I, uh, I was making videos with my phone. Okay. And I pinched the microphone. Uh, Jack. Yeah. So I needed to buy a new phone to make videos. Okay. And I went in to buy the new iPhone. It was like two grand. I was like, I'm not buying a two grand. I try to barter with them at Shaw. They're like, Hey, that's not how this works. And I was like, I'm going to go buy a camera. And they're like, yeah, you should, you should totally do that. I'm like, I'm not joking. Like I'm either away. So I went to photo source and I, a Tanner was there. I was like, Hey man, this is what I'm trying to do. And I wanted to go in one direction and he's just like, yeah, yeah, that's a horrible direction to go in. I'll hook you up with what you need. And from that moment on, it was like instant froze. We're on. And every time I saw him, he was just like, Elliot might not spend money today, but he's going to spend money eventually. And so we had a lot of fun binds of some pretty unique year, which I still utilize. So Tanner killing it.
Speaker 3 00:18:13 I'm a great salesman. And I'm still teaching you how to use all that stuff.
Speaker 0 00:18:17 Well, let's see. Did you actually listen to any talks about how to use the gear? Oh yeah. See you you're better than me. I'm not even gonna lie and say, sometimes I just take it back to Tanner. He's just like, okay, you do this, this, this and this. And I'm honest with him, like, yeah. So if I need to fix this, I can just come back and find you. Right. And he's just like, yeah. And so that's what I would do. I just be like, Hey man, can you, uh, I just go down to photos or say, I don't know what I did. Can you please fix this?
Speaker 3 00:18:41 Yeah. And I'd take it and fix it without saying anything and we'd have a conversation. Well, I fixed it and I go there, it's fixed. And you'd be like, Kate, thank you. See you next time you need something. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:18:49 Yeah. That's it. All right. We, uh, I gotta ask you because Tanner is a Baker and he bakes cookies and now scones and they're delicious. You, you saw, you got two already, so I'll have, I'll have a second one when we're done filming. But uh, what is a snack of yours outside of Tanner's awesome snacks at the greenhouse. What do you like to eat snack wise at home when you're, you're not eating Tanner scones,
Speaker 2 00:19:18 You know what? My go-to snack, I'm trying to make this, like I know I need rhythms in my life, you know, schedules. And I was thinking about like, what are rhythms and schedules I could really adopt? Well, my, my own and Oprah are Dutch and they have a solid afternoon coffee. Like you sit down and that's all you do is you have a coffee and you have cookies and all sorts of wonderful things with that. So my new go-to snack that I'm trying to do everyday is around three o'clock and make myself a pour over coffee. I really try to be intentional about it. Make a moment. And then I take a strobi waffle. We're having one of these. Okay. You need to have one of these they're they're like a, a waffle, like kind of like a, um, like a waffle cone material, like a delicious slowly like honey sweet, um, syrup in between. And it's like a sandwich. And then you set that on your coffee. You let, it just gets nice and soft and warm and delicious. I like melts in your mouth and you wash. It sounds like a waffle crepe. Yeah. Wow. No, I use my that's. My go-to.
Speaker 0 00:20:13 Okay, nice. I like that three o'clock thing. I have a, um, an alarm that goes off every day at three o'clock. Yeah. And I read somewhere and you can fact check me at home if you want to, but it comes up in a bunch of different Bibles. And when I say Bibles, I mean like, you know, a bunch of different scriptures, that three o'clock is the time where gods are more in tune to listen to, um, your thoughts and your prayers. So at three o'clock every day, I, uh, my alarm goes off and I send positive vibes into the universe. I don't necessarily ask for anything. I'm just like grateful, positivity, gratitude. Just throw it out there. Hopefully somebody else gets it and I get some back. Yeah. Three o'clock. So that's cool that you've got a routine at three. Yeah. Very nice. Tanner. We gotta get, uh, how do you pronounce it?
Speaker 2 00:21:05 Robby waffles. I'll get some for you. Like, can you give me a Tayvon? But they're like, they'd been there awhile. I get mine from, uh, from a place in BC. I'll bring some next time.
Speaker 0 00:21:16 Okay, good. I like it. There you go. Okay, man. That's it. That's 20 minutes. I know. We're we, might've gone over a little bit. Thank you for coming. Thanks. Thank you for supporting the show. Um, I think you've heard the shows obviously come back again and again and again, this is not a one-time thing. Anytime your neighborhood now, you know where we live, just come hang out. We can record shows. It's it'll be a lot of fun, but before I let you leave, please, uh, shameless plug. What's your, where, where do you work? What are your, about how people can contact? How can we support, uh, Shaw and what'd you guys do?
Speaker 2 00:21:49 Yeah, just look for a shot spotlight on Facebook. And there's lots of great videos, not just from us all across the country, but uh, and then if you, if you want to volunteer or you want to make a show or you want to put anything on TV, uh, please just send us a message. Yeah, just a, and if you go to shop spotlight.ca, there's a email that goes straight to us instead of to the national bank, but
Speaker 0 00:22:09 There we go. Very cool. Awesome. Well, on that note for McMurry wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world, that's another episode of the Mac city morning show completed. Thank you very much for tuning in. I've been your host, Elliot, Pierre, and I really do appreciate your time. Hopefully you're having a great day and we'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 00:22:31 <inaudible> talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
