Sharp Edges

Websites:  No
Origin: Lethbridge, Alberta - Vancouver, British Columbia, 🇨🇦
Biography:

SHARP EDGES was a Canadian AOR band that sadly only released this miniLP “Slice Of Life” in 1983. Only 6 tracks but all good, contagious tunes with the unmistakable ’80s sound. Mixing commercial radio friendly choruses with rockin’ AOR riffs, these guys were really, really good.
-melodic-hardrock.com

Time flies and 40 years after the original EP was released, we thought it was appropriate to release a remastered version of the album and included as a retrospective, some demo tracks of other songs that we were working on, performing at the time as a bit of an insight into our other material. The quality is definitely “demo” quality but we have done our best to make them , at the very least, enjoyable.

This is 80’s rock for sure but it was good, it was fun and we were there. We hope you enjoy!

How did Sharp Edges form?

Well, when I moved to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada, I was just gigging around the lower mainland and Vancouver Island. Blues, country, rock …. whatever gig was available. It just so happened that I had met the bass player from Charity Brown (an artist from Montreal) back in Alberta where I was doing a live radio broadcast for a local radio station. Turns out, he ended up in Vancouver and had hooked up with the old drummer from a band called Fosterchild and the bass player/guitar player from a great Edmonton band called Willie and the Walkers. They were putting together a rock band and were looking for another guitar player. Dan Zimmerman, the bass player, recalled that I had moved to the city, found out where I was gigging and they came out to see me play. Funny story though, I was playing with an R&B act at the time and we were at a club called Rohan’s. Small stage and I was playing a big old Barney Kessel jazz guitar, stuck entirely behind a big pole at one end of the stage. Not sure how they even saw or heard me but apparently, I was good enough. Joined up with these really great players and named the band 44.

After Sharp Edges, I played around British Columbia and metropolitan Vancouver for a couple of years but then decided to move to Toronto. When I arrived there, I stayed with the bass player from Sharp Edges, Dan Zimmerman. He happened to be working at Steve’s Music Store, which was an iconic old school music store. He got me a job there and I ended up being the assistant manager (can’t help taking control I guess) and stayed until I suffered a serious knee injury and was off work for over a year. When I finally went back, I decided it just was not for me anymore. But, during my time at Steve’s, I partnered up with the guitar player from Mashmakhan, a well-known band out of Montreal in the 70’s. His name was Rayburn Blake. We opened a recording studio and did various artists from around Ontario. I was writing quite a bit at that time as well and have released a number of tracks from that time period. I also began programming multimedia kiosks and building web sites, network programming, and live streaming media. Keeping busy for sure, you know, paying the bills. Then in 2004, a colleague of mine whom I had worked off and on with for several years talked me into coming to teach at Seneca College. I ended up teaching there until 2016. I really did enjoy teaching. That kind of surprised me.

Added John Webster on keyboards (ex Stonebolt) and away we went. Eventually, the original drummer had to leave for personal reasons and Webster left to pursue other interests. So, we added George Klimow on drums, who was a drummer I was playing with back in Alberta before coming west and Tom Lang on guitar. We signed with Aquarius Records, which was April Wine’s label and they changed the name to Sharp Edges."

Circa 1978-79 we also formed a band called Oddio. Members were Dan Dubé on piano and vocals, Wayne Cropley on bass, Tom Callaghan on drums and vocals and me on guitar and vocals.

My old and dear friend, Dan Dubé and I started a duo The Magnets using backing tracks and Dan on keys and myself on guitar. Both singing. We were a good duo and we managed to play quite a bit around the lower mainland of Vancouver and of course, on the island.