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Speaker 1: Crash Test Dummies are playing three sold out shows at

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Speaker 1: the Rose Mountain next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and the

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Speaker 1: singer and guitarist Brad Roberts is joining us. Now, good morning.

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Speaker 2: Welcome Brad, Oh, thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Now this is You're coming to town as part of

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Speaker 1: the God Shuffled his Feet thirtieth anniversary world tour. Amazing album.

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Speaker 1: I think I've already famed enough over it This morning,

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Speaker 1: produced by Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads.

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Speaker 2: Wasn't it?

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Speaker 1: It was amazing? So how do you get someone like

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Speaker 1: that on board back in nineteen ninety three.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's kind of a funny story. We couldn't get

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Speaker 3: anyone to produce our second record, and I had a

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Speaker 3: soft spot for Talking Heads when I was growing up.

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Speaker 3: This is one song in particular where the keyboard part

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Speaker 3: is so exquisite that I thought to myself, you know,

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Speaker 3: if Jerry Harrison can.

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Speaker 2: Write that, then he can do My album got him

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Speaker 2: and he.

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Speaker 3: Was into it, And then I told him that story

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Speaker 3: and he said, well, I hate you know. He said

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Speaker 3: that he actually didn't play that keyboard.

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Speaker 4: Which song?

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Speaker 3: Was it?

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Speaker 4: So long since the last time it's been every thirty

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Speaker 4: years and we can't waite to see you.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, we've been, uh, we've been touring for the

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Speaker 3: last five years, with the exception of COVID of course,

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Speaker 3: pretty steadily. We we had not played for the longest time,

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Speaker 3: and then the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra asked us to do

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Speaker 3: a show with them in Winnipeg. We thought, well, you

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Speaker 3: know from there, we've got to do that. So we

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Speaker 3: got together for that one gig and it went so

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Speaker 3: well that we just decided to keep touring. And that

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Speaker 3: was that was just going to last for but a

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Speaker 3: year or something, and it's just it just keeps going on.

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Speaker 4: That's wonderful.

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Speaker 1: We we did which I never know you made it

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Speaker 1: hard for radio, but you know, it did very It

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Speaker 1: was a huge hit here in Australia in the early nineties.

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Speaker 1: It peaked at number one, but it was fourteen in

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Speaker 1: your native Canada. Why do you think it was did

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Speaker 1: so much better here?

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Speaker 2: Oh, I can tell you exactly what. Oh, okay, tell

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Speaker 2: interesting story.

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Speaker 3: We put out our first record in Canada with Superman

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Speaker 3: song on it, Yeah, and it did extremely well in

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Speaker 3: Canada and we went to number one with that song.

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Speaker 2: We got a Juneral Award.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a stalar first record, but it did

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Speaker 3: nothing in international markets, not to speak of anyways. And

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Speaker 3: then we put out our second record and the Canadian

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Speaker 3: music industry just it was we experienced severe backlash. It

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Speaker 3: was almost as though we had just been too success

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Speaker 3: successful on our first record for our own good really,

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Speaker 3: and the Canadian music industry just totally shit on us.

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Speaker 3: They wouldn't play our song on the radio, they wouldn't

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Speaker 3: play our videos.

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Speaker 4: How biz.

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Speaker 3: And it wasn't until the song got picked up by

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Speaker 3: a radio station in the United States and started getting

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Speaker 3: all kinds of airplay and then say it was following

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Speaker 3: at the stores. Suddenly our American record label was like,

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Speaker 3: we're going to be on this band, and they were honest,

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Speaker 3: it was they were at every show and you know,

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Speaker 3: they got us.

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Speaker 2: On Saturday Live and David h yeah, yes that stuff.

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Speaker 2: So in the end, you know.

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Speaker 3: What happened was they only went to number fourteen and

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Speaker 3: then sunk back down into oblivion. But then It's Skyrock

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Speaker 3: did in America, and so Canadian radio suddenly wanted to

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Speaker 3: play Crash systemmies because now we were cool elsewhere, and

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Speaker 3: so they asked us to record a Difference to make

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Speaker 3: a video for a different single, and so we did that,

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Speaker 3: and we made a video for the song called Swimming

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Speaker 3: in Your Ocean, and that became our single in Canada.

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Speaker 2: Well, the rest of the world was listening.

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Speaker 1: To right, well, it was a huge, huge hit here.

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Speaker 1: But the whole album is just full of I think

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Speaker 1: brilliant lyrics. I reckon. One of my favorites is you know,

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Speaker 1: how does a duck know how to tell his wife

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Speaker 1: from all the other ducks? Is it because of your

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Speaker 1: degree in English literature and your and your degree in

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Speaker 1: philosophy as well? It's the combination of the two that

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Speaker 1: made for such amazing lyrics.

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Speaker 3: Yes, well, thank you and certainly thank you. My degree

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Speaker 3: did indeed affect the way I wrote. But how does

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Speaker 3: a duck know? I was, I was watching this nature

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Speaker 3: program and yeah, and it turns out that these ducks

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Speaker 3: that they were focused on were made it for life.

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Speaker 2: I say, how do they even know who? You know?

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Speaker 2: Their wife is?

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Speaker 3: Like? How would they recognize their their partner? That's what

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Speaker 3: longs that lyric?

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Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I want to talk about influences, Brad. I

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Speaker 4: think Andy Patricks from Mixtaye say, he's a bit of

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Speaker 4: a genius. He's one of the they say someone that

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Speaker 4: you read somewhere that you you loved his work and

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Speaker 4: they work.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think he's a genius.

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Speaker 3: June and I grew up listening to x TC just

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Speaker 3: love them, and and we ended up covering one of

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Speaker 3: their songs for Peter Pumpkinhead. I wanted, we wanted Ellen

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Speaker 3: to have a song to sing in a live show.

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Speaker 3: So we learned that song and then then the next

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Speaker 3: thing we knew, we were getting invited to record it

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Speaker 3: for this movie Dumb and Dumb.

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Speaker 2: So that's all ended up in that movie that way.

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Speaker 1: Crash Test, that's okay, Crash Test Dummies is a great

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Speaker 1: bad name, but it was Brad Bad Brad robertson the side.

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Speaker 4: James for the Pigs.

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Speaker 3: Oh my god, someone put them into a press release.

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Speaker 2: Into a press release yep. Yeah, well you know what happened.

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Speaker 3: There was my the drummer in our band owned this

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Speaker 3: little cafe that we played in as the house band. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: and the first week that he advertised for us, he

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Speaker 3: did not consult me, and he made up that name

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Speaker 3: and put it.

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Speaker 2: In the paper. It was at the newspaper for one week. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: one week.

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Speaker 3: Its whole life, and I put a stop to it,

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Speaker 3: and yet here we are thirty years later.

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Speaker 4: That was before the internet. Do you think we could

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Speaker 4: lose some things from back then? Holding you.

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Speaker 1: Exactly before we let you go. Brad, There is one

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Speaker 1: thing that we do love to ask. Do you remember

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Speaker 1: the first time you heard yourself on the radio?

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Speaker 2: I do.

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Speaker 3: I was sitting in a greasy little cafe in Toronto, Ontario, and.

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Speaker 2: I was by myself, and I was having a donut.

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Speaker 3: Oh oh, Superman song came on the radio in restaurants

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Speaker 3: and I wanted to jump up and yell to everyone,

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Speaker 3: that's me, that's me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: We want to just sit there with your donut quietly.

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Speaker 3: Yes, And I sat silently with my donut and that

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Speaker 3: was the first time I ever heard my own and

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Speaker 3: it was a very striking moment.

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Speaker 4: Even record what you're reading, that's so cool. You're gotta

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Speaker 4: love these.

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Speaker 1: And when you play Superman song, I'll be I'll be

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Speaker 1: thinking about that story now. It was lovely to have

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Speaker 1: you joined us this morning. We look forward to having

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Speaker 1: you in town next week.

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Speaker 2: I look forward to being there.

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Speaker 4: Thank you. Thanks for the great music and the passion.

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Speaker 2: Thanks, Thank you so much for a good interview,