"The Story So Far"

When I tell stories I tell them around the fireplace, so pull up a chair, for I am about to plot the story.

At first there was four of us, cramped into the laundry room of a TINY suburban bungalow - a real dwarf among houses. There was a fairly giant drumkit, three amplifiers, and four people sharing a room with a washing machine and a drier - a sort of homage to Rush, though unintentional. Well, we defied the three spatial dimensions even further when we gained our fifth member and stuffed a giant Roland Phantom keyboard (and amplifier) into it all. Forget vocal mics and PA speakers; even in retrospect, the only way I can re-imagine the old set-up is with Tim suspended off a stunt wire from the ceiling, the keyboard protruding from the drier, and Steven not even being there at all -- I mean, how the hell did we Tetris all of that together? Gary Kasparov couldn't solve that if he wanted.

(Musicians: share your early-days horror stories over Comments!)

We've moved the operation over to a bigger house since, into a room not dominated by machines pre-occupied with lathering clothes.

We played a couple of shows which landed us a deal at Homestead Recorders; an experience I

could literally drone on about for hours. The owner/engineer, Barry Allen (not of Flash fame, sadly) has a hell of an operation going there. Let me tell you, there is a thick atmosphere of comfort and creativity that you penetrate when you walk through those doors. We learned a lot sitting there under those dim, dreamy lights. And of course, thus came Closer to the Truth, our only studio-quality recording so far. (Besides a self produced version of "To The God Within," our very first song from way back.)

Steven and Tomas' First Draft of the Rhythm Section at Homestead.

We've managed to do an independent show since, and even visit the studio at MacEwan, the result of which is sadly somewhat swept under the rug at the moment.

But ever since we invested in a PA system, our practices have become exponentially more productive, and our main focus has become writing. It has only recently occurred to me just how much material we've accumulated in the last while. At the moment, we have more material than a South African fish pond has mercury. Yes, I'm saying our material is deadly. But seriously, if money permit us, we'd be in the studio faster than Barry Allen can change into his Flash costume.

Though for the next while, it'll all boil down to live shows; that's no problem at all, we love 'em.

And on this I'll keep you posted, as well as any photos, videos, or perhaps audio samples that we might come up with.

But before I close this, I want to offer this aside:

The last bar we played at was hilarious - it featured an excellent combination of halloween decorations, creepy bulldog bust statue, a gothic mirror reminiscent of every Bloody Mary tale you've ever heard, and the greatest pin-ball machine ever. Well played.

I'll rest it for now though.

- Tomas

Introductions

Picture this.

Conrad - a colorful character with an enigmatic sense of humor. Eccentric rather than creative, but creative nonetheless. Fancies a keyboard or a grand piano. Once blew his entire college fund as an entry fee for a Pinball tournament. Hasn't been the same since.

Mahad - the father figure; scolds younger band members when they don't wash their hands before they play, and drives the boys to soccer practice. Hasn't been the same since his van broke down. Plays a mean guitar and likes to stomp on pedals yelling "Mahad smash!" But that's just a metaphor. In reality, Mahad enjoys toying with new sounds with his guitars and effects pedals.

Tim - physically unable to stop his fingers from moving, Tim has devoted his life to turning a physical disability into a form of entertainment. Once made a deal with Dave Mustaine to be given Dave Mustaine-like guitar capabilities in exchange for his soul. Also hasn't been the same since.

Steven - the quirky face of Fringe. Often mistaken for a young Kevin Bacon. Prefers the feeling of thick strings and loud noises. Gone commando 7/8ths of the time - co-incidentally, his favorite time signature! Once discovered that he shares 85% of his genetic code with Tim Curry. Hasn't been the same since.

And me?

I'm Tomas, and I am a small, European boy who traded his love for juice boxes for the love of percussion. And I have an accent that comes out when I yell!

The lowest common denominator between us all is our music. Maybe "lowest" doesn't have the most proper connotation here; in fact, its hardly been two years, but we've felt the sort of natural high that only musicians in agreement with one another truly can. Many times. And when we're done playing our music, we go in the back of a van to eat pizza and pretend we're the Ninja Turtles.

But when we are serious, it easily comes out that we are 5 people who have spent their (absolutely) entire life infatuated with music. That we are friends and our musical experiments often carry us in similar directions is just luck smiling.

And the story is familiar; from the basement to the highschool. From the basement to a bigger basement. From highschool to local battle of the bands. The rest of the story you're familiar with. Our story as it stands is that of an independent band - the long flat line on the graph between battle of the band shows and those "real" gigs. The raw beginnings. I want to tell you that story in this blog.

I've been thinking lately.

Its hard to find someone when you don't know what they look like. So then, I reason; you can look for us, but that's not enough - we have to look for you, too. We want to make friends.

Let me try something here:

Ever heard of Last.fm? Its this wonderful site that you can sign up for. You download a plug-in for your choice of media player, and it logs what you listen to. It makes charts about top artists, top songs, and even calculates closest matches with other users.

Here's mine:

http://www.last.fm/user/Halpeart

(Conrad submits his: http://www.last.fm/user/Wrath_of_Con

And I recon'd Steven's too: http://www.last.fm/user/stevenboehm)

I realize I'm openning myself up for embarrasment, but how else do you make friends? Sign up, make a Last.fm profile! Share it here! If nothing else, it'll recommend great music to you.

And if you like our kind of music, I want to know you. Even if you don't, I still want to know you.

We're Fringe, who are you?