Who are you?
Tariq Hussain

Where did you grow up?
Hometown: Cowansville, Quebec (a one hour drive from Montreal).

Where do you live now?
As of January 1st Vancouver, BC. Before that, Calgary, AB for 11 years.

What do you do at CBC Radio 3?
Host of the 4am to 9am show on Sirius Satellite Radio.

How did you get into radio?
I got tired of being a barista for caffeine junkies in Calgary and I needed another part time job. So I called up a friend who worked at CBC and asked: is there anything I can do besides making cappuccinos? And there was.

What is your field of expertise?
Singer/songwriter stuff, though I'm trying to learn more about Hindi-rock! It's big in Japan.

Do you make music yourself?
Yes. Check out www.tariqmusiq.com if you want to hear what the most recent album sounds like. It's called "Goodbye Lonely". Oh yeah, and I received a Juno nomination in 1998 - that's kinda cool.

What was the first album you bought with your own hard earned money?
James Taylor's Greatest Hits. I learned to play a lot of JT on the guitar that summer - my mom still requests those songs. She loves the JT.

What was the first concert you attended?
There were these four guys who played in a Beatle-esque band back in my high-school. They called themselves The Word. I went to see them play one night and thought they were the coolest thing ever.

What is your most shameful/glorious musical moment?
I was on tour with my band opening up for Great Big Sea and it was the last night of the tour. We had this crazy idea to walk out on stage during their set…naked. There we stood like a broken piano: ebony and three ivories in front of two-thousand GBS fans. It was both glorious and shameful all at once, but very multicultural.

Is there any particular music that gets under your skin?
A lot of stuff I hear on commercial radio kind of does that.

What are the top 3 Canadian songs of all time?
I've divided this into recent favorites and songs that fall into a "classic" category.

Recent:
1) Joel Plaskett: Non-Believer. I like this song as it describes a person's struggle with faith
2) The Weakerthans: One Great City. A song about 'place' with the perfect combination of humor, pathos, and imagery
3) Jim Bryson: Sleeping In Toronto. I love this whole album, North Side Benches. This is the first track - when you hear it, you'll stay for the rest.

Some Classics:
1) Ian Tyson: Four Strong Winds. I know, it's been done to death, but it's still classic
2) Bruce Of Cockburn: Goin' to the Country. To quote CBC Radio 3 producer Don Pennington: "I worship at the Church of Bruce".
3) Leonard Cohen: Suzanne

Any guilty musical pleasures I should know about?
Men At Work. I liked them when I was in high school so it's like comfort food every once in a while. But not everyday. Really. I'm not kidding.

Why should I trust you?
Tariq actually means "Trusted Friend". No, just kidding. It actually means "Morning Star"…and that sounds pretty trustworthy to me.