Life in the Ice Age

Life In The Ice Age
I got a new manager, Ted Burly, the editor of Canadian Musician magazine at the time. He saw I needed gear, so he got me to write about it. While I had it, I could use it. My first product report on the Fostex Model 80 eight-track reel-to-reel took a very LONG time to write. I recorded some tunes on it, and eventually got a used eight-track of my own when the review model had to go back.

I fought with some songs to get them to work the way I wanted. In particular, "When the Bubble Breaks", went through about 10 completely different recorded versions before it finally ended up on this album. Some cool people helped me out with tracks: Jose Sierra on backing vocals and bass co-wrote "Everything You Need", Frank Raposo and Jamie Hebert contributed lead guitar, and Harold Fisher (from the band, Tchukon) played bass. People who helped, but didn't end up on the final versions of the tunes included: James Green (bass & cello), Rick Barruco (guitar & drums), and Bruce Murphy (who was playing keyboards for Men Without Hats at the time, but who played guitar for me). Andy Horka, who would finally appear on my next project, blew some terrific sax on some unreleased tunes.

Somewhere in the middle of all this creative activity, I became a father, moved to Toronto and back, wrote more and more for magazines, including cover stories, feature articles, and product reports. I had fun interviewing people like Colin James, Luba, and Tchukon. I became friends with Tchukon's guitarist, Kat Dyson. We collaborated on a song, "The Principal of Emotion" which was released on Tchukon's debut album for Aquarius. (Kat later went on to play for Prince, and a whole raft of big names in the States.)

After a year of staying home with my son, Alex, teaching him how to sit up, walk, throw stones in the water, and having him keep me company in my little studio, I got a regular job. The shipper, Bob, introduced me to his neighbor who also did music. Danny brought Gerry over to talk about music at my house. We hit it off, and the next thing you know, we made a single, "I'm Not Dreamin", that got national airplay. We started working on an album...

Elyce co-wrote some of the songs on this album.