"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