INTERVIEW: “After having a stroke, I’m way more optimistic and can take anything” – Mike Edel Opens Up About His Changed Life & Most Challenging Tour Yet

At the risk of sounding overly philosophical, life can be broken up into paradigm shifts; moments in time that forever change the way the world is viewed for better or for worse. These occurrences – whether they’re something seemingly small like finally seeing a new neighbourhood in your city or more monumental, such as getting your heart broken – incrementally shape who you are as a person. 

For Canadian indie folk artist Mike Edel, one such moment came a few months into 2020, and not for the same reason as the rest of the world. 

Yes, the COVID pandemic did make its way to Seattle, Washington and the musician had to adapt, alongside his pregnant wife of five months. But the real obstacle would soon present itself after heading out on a road trip. 

Edel and his wife Alissa started their pandemic off with a sense of optimism and adventure. They purchased a renovated van from a firefighter in Denver with the intent of travelling across the country to do “safe” backyard performances while Alissa would continue to work as a therapist virtually. 

As an added bonus, Mike wanted to make the most of the opportunity by filming a documentary that would focus on the journey and the months leading up to the birth of his first son. 

They started off down the coast in California, but after 3 shows, things changed almost instantly. Mike suffered a debilitating stroke that severely affected the right side of his body, and soon their cozy solar powered van was traded in for bright fluorescent lights and hospital beds. 

As a healthy 35 year old, his sudden health change was a shock and his plans suddenly shifted from bringing music to his community during tough times to re-learning how to walk, move his fingers, and how to play his own songs on guitar.

Over the next five months, Edel dedicated his entire life to getting better, spending six hours every day rehabbing his body, and jumping back into practising guitar as soon as possible. 

And like any musician would do, Mike began writing songs which would eventually evolve into his fourth album casseroles & flowers. Released back in July 2022, the 10 track collection details his recovery and his new perspective on life, family, and music following the life-changing health scare. 

Despite it being the coldest day of the year in Toronto, I agreed to meet Mike at the iconic Lakeview Restaurant before his show to have a bite and to talk about his inspiring comeback story. 

Needless to say Mike Edel is one resilient man. 

Read through our chat below and you can stream casseroles & flowers and check out the documentary here and support Mike through his Patreon.

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Kane: I’m here with singer-songwriter Mike Edel. Are you based in Victoria now, or Seattle; I feel like you’ve been jumping around the West Coast a lot.

Mike: I’ve jumped around, but I currently live in Bellingham, Washington.

Kane: Okay, Bellingham, Washington singer songwriter, folk artist Mike Edel. Your latest album, casseroles & flowers, which came out in 2022, really goes back much further than last year.

But before we dive into that, I wanted to ask about this past week, because literally like two days ago before you headed out on these string of dates across Ontario, your studio was basically ransacked and they took a lot of valuables out of there. What happened? How are you doing now? The worst timing.

Mike: You’re pretty accurate with that; it’s Friday currently, I came out to Toronto on Thursday. I literally woke up and was gonna go into my studio to pack my things and drive to Vancouver, and I had an hour and a half until we were gonna leave. But then I saw the door open in the studio and someone broke in through the one window in the office where my wife works out of, and I just walked in there and realized so much stuff was gone.

And I was like, ‘oh man’. I knew what happened pretty quickly. Not exactly what I wanted because I’m trying to plan a little more these days so I can be a little easier on myself and my brain and my body – I’d say that wasn’t easy on it.

Kane: Has that happened to you before or is this like the first time? Cause I feel like it’s almost a rite of passage – in a very pessimistic way.

Mike: Yeah, I had my pedals stolen one time in Seattle and a detective called me back like four days later and he was like, ‘Hello, is this Mike Edel Canadian musician?’ And I was like, ‘Are you reading from Wikipedia right now? Because no one ever says that’. *chuckles*

And so I got all those pedals back actually; they were found in like a stolen car a couple days later.

Kane: Well, hopefully the same thing happens this time.

Mike: Yeah. I doubt it, but maybe, I dunno.

Kane: It just feels like it’s such a weird time. Like the two days before tour…Do you feel that it’s a bad sign? How do you perceive it?

Mike: Well, I feel like after having a stroke, I’m way more optimistic and can take anything. I’m like, oh, 12 or $14,000 of gear got stolen? It’s like the least important thing.

I’m not that worried about it. It’s just stuff. As long as my wife and kid and I are safe and healthy and happy and treating each other well. Those are the more important things.

Maybe that’s like towing the party line, but I honestly feel that. I’m grateful for people that like want to lend me their pedals or the people that I will see in like 24 hours. Like my friends who just showed up here, to the Lakeview restaurant, I’m borrowing both of their guitars and one of their cars.

Kane: That’s so awesome.

Mike: And I think that’s just what is of greater value. I was a nice guy before I had a stroke, but I think I feel that more like after.

Kane: That’s good. That’s a great segue too because this last album, casseroles & flowers…Were you ready to make another album or was that, did that only happen because of that situation?

Mike: I think I’ve always been interested in making records because I find that within any limitation, there’s something creative that can come out of it.

And after I could walk again, I just knew what the next thing that I was gonna do. I tried not to let myself work on something for, I remember until like June 15th. So April May, for three months, I was like, ‘I’m not gonna try to do anything except like just rehab for three months’.

So I started shooting this documentary and I was like, oh, now I know what the documentary is – it’s like a personal project. And then I was just gonna start writing songs and write it about this and it was very clear what it was gonna be, but that formed the casseroles & flowers album and documentary.

Kane: For context, you started the van tour and – did you guys kind of renovate the van yourselves too?

Mike: We did not renovate ourselves (laughing). I’m not handy enough and I was like wanting to move too fast to do that, I’d still be finishing it…I just flew to Denver and bought it from a firefighter that lived downtown.

Kane: So then you guys took it a couple stops. Then one of the worst things that could happen happened with your wife being five months pregnant. What was your first instinct or thought when you woke up in the hospital? Like the first day after?

Mike: I remember I was releasing a cover song, The Wallflowers’ “One Headlight”, and I was playing it to the doctors in the hospital. I remember that. And I didn’t exactly know what was going on at first, and I just remember like posting on the internet, I was like, ‘Songs out, I’m in the hospital, go listen or whatever, please’. I’m not like a worried or anxious guy and I was maybe airing on the chill side of things.

Kane: That’s actually probably, in my unprofessional opinion, the best way to react to something.

Mike: It’s like, you know what, it’s gonna be fine. We’re gonna get through it.

Kane: Your wife’s been really supportive and you have a newborn kid now and everything. From that whole experience of months following it, especially while you were filming a documentary, cause obviously your son is gonna hopefully wanna watch it one day (I’m assuming he will or at least force him to), is there something from that experience that you would hope that your kid picks up on and is instilled into him later?

Mike: When I was making this document, one of my friends was like, ‘Do it, make it for like your son or something’. And then another friend was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s been done so many times or whatever’. And I’m not like well versed in film, but I don’t know.

I just think he learns and picks up everything we do every day, like the way we treat each other or talk to each other. And I think that would just be another thing that maybe, if he watches it he won’t be like, ‘Oh, my parents are terrible’. He’ll be like, ‘Oh, my parents are kind of cool’. Or it’ll maybe be cool for him that he was in the womb while this was all happening.

And this was kind of his birth story in a way ’cause in this documentary, part of it is Alyssa giving birth to Julius, so I just think it’s another thing to like glean how to be in this world and how to deal with adversity and how to not be anxious or scared of things or live with a mindset of scarcity, but be like open to things in the world.

Kane: Yeah, that’s totally fair. And not to spoil it – I do really recommend people go check out the documentary. You obviously make the comeback and you play your first show in Calgary and you talk a bit in the documentary about how you’re feeling, but how did it go? What was it like for you and everything?

Mike: One of my favourite scenes from the documentary is when I’m crying to the camera saying it’s really important for me to just play one show to preach myself that I can still do this thing. And I think people with health problems really understand that. Cause you’re like, oh, my body is different than before. And it actually was pretty dramatic playing a couple shows again, because actually the Calgary show was not the very first show, but it was gonna be like the most like homey feeling show.

I played in Edmonton first and I had vertigo right before the sound check. I just remember having to lay down, I was having panic attacks and I’m not like a panic attack-y guy.

I would say I’d never had a panic attack before, and like that was a panic attack. It was actually more dramatic than maybe in the documentary it leads on, but it was crazy in my brain. My brain can handle like more things now and could handle less things from what the documentary shows. I get total blurry vision on one of the shows. We played in Medicine Hat the night after this Calgary show in the documentary and I just remember having blurry vision for two hours straight and I’m like, ‘Holy fuck’ (laughs).

I’m sort of learning my body and sort of testing my capacities and so there was a lot of things that were dramatic in a way.

Kane: I’m glad you’re saying that all with a smile and the laugh now because I’m sure at the time it was pretty stressful, asking can I still do this? And can there be a future for you still as a musician? Did you ever have doubts like, maybe this isn’t gonna be a thing for me anymore? That must have come by at least once or twice.

Mike: I always have doubt. I literally had a doubt of this, like probably on Tuesday when I was rehearsing my songs because one thing is I’ve been playing guitar just with my thumb because it’s difficult to hold onto a pick for a long period of time or just strum the guitar. I’m a way worse guitar player and when I’ve rehearsed or practiced, it’s kind of a bummer sometimes when I realize I’m not as good of a guitarist, I get sad. I literally felt that feeling like four days ago but I’m here in Toronto. I’m a little scared. I’m a little scared all the time when I play a show now, but doing them in a row, doing them in succession – I’m glad I’m doing like four shows the next five days or something it makes it easier. The second, third and the fourth come easier.

Kane: So low expectations for this Toronto show is what you’re saying?

Mike: Think I have a good thing worked out, it’s just a bit different and a bit mellower.

Kane: That’s understandable. And you started up a Patreon: has your community behind you been really warm and supportive of everything? Has that been a big support foundation for you?

Mike: I think so. I’ve never done anything in a vacuum. I’ve always been pretty social and just try to be very entrenched in whatever community presents itself. And yeah, I think when there’s really good things or hard things, that’s what kind of helps or is a support system, whether it’s like family or friends or fans, people who don’t know you very well or like whatever.

Kane: One point that you brought up in the documentary too was you were talking about that show in Calgary, where in the grand scheme of things, it’s not important but it is important that to do this one show. Have you always felt that way about music where it’s not that important?

Mike: No, I’m like ‘This show tonight is the most important thing’. I think also having a kid and I’m 37 now, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m like the fucking old guy now’. It’s very un TikTok of me (laughs).

Kane: Wow, that sounds old (laughs).

Mike: It’s a very boring, mature, old guy thing. But I feel like I’m enjoying that. When you’re 37 years old, you’re not gonna be like the buzzy artist or maybe you’ve missed the boat in certain ways, but I think you can totally have a career by working hard and keeping the community and people that like your music, and continuing to make interesting work. I think that’s a little bit more where my focus has gone over the past two years. It’s a little less on a big album that does well commercially, and a little more like, who are the thousand true fans and having career out of that and those people.

Kane: That’s sweet. That was actually gonna be my next question: how has this last two years really shifted your mentality and perspective as a person? But it sounds like it has in a good way.

Mike: I think both as a person and career wise. I’m not like, ‘Oh, I’m going to quit music or something’, because I think that could be one response to having a stroke, and my response is just how can I do this within my career limitations.

Maybe that’s perseverance or maybe it’s just like keeping on. I read a book; the author is Austin Kleon and it’s called Keep Going. He’s like an illustrator – it’s a popular creative book. And it’s just kind of about any creative or like any artist, whether it be visual or music or something, just to like keep doing what you’re doing, focus on like your craft, your art, and the other stuff will figure itself out in some capacity.

Kane: I like that. Honestly, that’s a good ending note too, is just keep on keeping on and obviously just persevering.

I was gonna ask what was the first day where you felt well…actually that’s a bit of a leading question. Do you feel like you’re kind of back to normal at all? Like, was there that first day that you felt like yourself again?

Mike: No. I think every day I’m sort of faced with honestly a limitation. Whether it be in like tripping up the stairs of the subway in Toronto or not being able to like play guitar with a pick. I’m like, ‘Why can’t I do this?’ Or just like my brain getting tired and a little bit foggy or something.

I would just say it’s like a new normal and that everybody goes through a lot of that in life, whether it’s like relationships or like health or like, you know, your country’s being invaded and your house is being bombed out.

You just have to keep going with time, and life is never set it’s always dynamic. It’s always changing and just how you deal with the dynamic aspects of how your individual experience is, I think, what life is. It’s how you’re just dealing with all the things and it just doesn’t really end, or doesn’t stop.

And so you can choose to be bummed or scared, or whatever. But everyone has the choice on how they react to whatever is happening to them now or will happen to them next.

Kane: New normal. I like that. Thanks Mike.