Lessee…
Me
Scorpio chocolate junkie born in the year of the dog. Some folks'll say that sums it up right there. First song I ever fell in love was Heart Of Gold by Neil Young. It was featured in an old CBC TV special of the same name, about the Canadian music scene. I remember a grainy black and white image of Neil with his guitar under a lone spotlight. I was mesmerized. A while later I discovered my dad had Harvest so I played the shit outa that for a few years. Used to wake the whole house up with it in the mornings before school. Did the same thing with Zeppelin 4. That and Sergeant Pepper's were the first records of my own. Gifts from an uncle I think. The first one I bought with my own money might've been I Love Rock N Roll by Joan Jett. I listened to a lot of other stuff like The Guess Who, Midnight Oil, Figgy Duff, The Who, even Iron Maiden. Plenty more since. The Jayhawks' Rainy Day Music, Springsteen's The Rising and Ron Sexsmith's Retriever are a few things that stand out in my mind at the moment.
I started out trying to play bass, but that didn't work so well. So I stuck with singing for a while. Came up with some crazy band names along the way. Mumbo Jumbo, Julius Seizure, The Extraordinary Mrs. Wicks (though I inherited that one). Fast forward... When I moved to Toronto, I was homesick and too broke to afford a decent anniversary gift for my folks. So I sat down with the guitar and This Old House came out. Turned out to be a great gift, and I used it to get a FACTOR grant to record a demo EP. That process created a band called Freshwater, named after the town where I was born. Crashed and burned after a year and a half. We all sucked it up to play the CD launch party, but that was it. So I hunkered down and started writing again. Fast forward…
The people and the music
I met Alex Mine on a local community website. We went for a pint and hit it off pretty well. Jammed a week later and the musical chemistry was obvious. He finds nice natural grooves for my songs and makes 'em pop at just the right spots. Alex grew up in New Jersey. As a kid, he'd spend Saturdays tearing around Manhattan with his friends, so we were from different planets, that's for sure.
Alex and I started Out Of Order when we first met, but hit some speed bumps so put it on the back burner for a while. Then I met Jamie Coulson and her carousel photo got things rolling again. Alex had two computer melt-downs in that time but still managed to have the drum tracks in tact. So I loaded them up on my old PC and got to work.
Alex introduced me to Dave Buland who was fresh of a plane from France. Said he was the best bassist he'd ever seen. And Alex has played from here to Timbuktu, so he'd know. After my guitar and vocals were done, Dave came over and did all the bass lines in first takes. I think I made him do a second take for one tune, just cuz.
I met David Celia at an improv class. We were in different classes but were both doing a make-up session this one night – the only time either of us would've been in that particular room. I was still madly searching for a guitarist and overheard him talking about music. So we exchanged numbers and played a couple of gigs together. He's a busy guy, writing, recording and gigging overseas. But he found time to help me out. We did two electric sessions and one acoustic. The results were perfect.
When John Showman first rolled into town from Montreal, he spent the night jamming with my old band Freshwater, and we've stayed in touch ever since. He's laid down Toronto roots with Skraeling, The Creaking Tree String Quartet and Foggy Hogtown Boys. Amazing fiddle player. Blow your socks off and knit 'em into a scarf. He came up with a really smokin' riff for One Good Kick and sweet simple lines to follow David's guitar in Fade.
Stephen Stanley and I met in true Canadian fashion – playing hockey. He's in Lowest of the Low and doing some cool solo stuff now with Carla MacNeil on fiddle. So I was a bit shy about asking him to sing on the record, but he was pretty cool about it. Came over one night and recorded for the low-low price of two beers.
Jess Graham is another Toronto singer-songwriter. After crossing paths at a few open stages, we headed out for a burger and decided to help each other out. She came up with some beautiful harmonies for the CD and I recorded demos for her tunes. I love what she sang on the record. Sometimes when we're gigging, I'll get distracted from my own parts just cuz hers are so pretty.
When recording was done, Dave Tedesco took it all into his studio to mix and master. He’s got a great ear and is a whiz at the console. We met on the Freshwater EP project about six years before and both thought it’d be great to work together again. So this is it.
There's a lot of meaning behind the songs on Out Of Order. I could write down what they're all about, but what'd be the fun in that? Better to know what they make you think of.
Thanks for listening.
m.
