It’s your friend when you have no friend at the bar, it’s the local arts and culture magazine you find at every cool place in town… it’s Beatroute Magazine, and this episode we talk with the magazine’s Associate Editor and Founder Brad Simm about the publication’s scrappy beginnings and exciting future.

Beatroute was founded by Brad and a former student of his at MRU, Glenn. At the time it first started popping up in cool venues and spaces across Calgary the now defunct FFWD was still a staple in the world of free arts & culture magazines. Jonathan wants to get to the bottom of what Brad and Glenn did right to not only survive when FFWD could not but continue to thrive today. This was likely because of their difference in business model - FFWD followed what Brad describes as “the old model,” which meant a full writing team where-as Beatroute had simply started out as a DIY rock n roll magazine they were all doing for beer money.

Today Beatroute’s reach is wider than ever. Brad explains the process of being approached by a company based out of Toronto that wanted to take the magazine national, and his selling of the assets to the paper, which basically just means he got to sell them his printer debt! This also meant that Brad would take on a new role as Associate Editor, and his cofounder Glenn now holds the title of Editor in Chief. The format of the magazine has changed a little, with the first half the same Canada wide and the back half filled with content specific to where in the country you’r reading it.

Beatroute has also adopted an editorial approach he describes as “less editorial is more”, making it a very graphic focused paper. This is in many ways a result of how print media has changed, and reflective of the effect that Twitter has had on the way that they write. Brad explains that the purpose of print itself has changed too, where in the past the magazine was the main event the purpose today is to drive traffic to their website. While many people have mixed feelings about the decline of print as a medium Brad is quick to point out the strengths of an internet publication, in particular the fact that the lack of a page count to justify allows you to tell stories that would have never been written about before.

After the break Nick and Jonathan have a paranormal conversation with Mama T. She shares a personal ghost story, and then Nick and T reveal the extra-terrestrial nature of some of the patrons at the taproom...

Join us at the Wild Rose Taproom for 20oz of your own

Have a question for Mama T? A story from the bottom of a beer can? Send it in to [email protected]

Beatroute Magazine: website | instagram | twitter