My History in Music

I’ve been thinking about doing a lot of things lately, one was to have a history of music for the Grimsby, Beamsville and Smithville area in the 90’s.  There were a lot of bands around and I thought it would be fun to have that documented.  The problem is, I have very little material from all these bands.  So I decided to make a timeline of my own history of music:

1992

  • Started learning the bass.
  • Started working with Dean W and Paul “Sch” (guitarist) in my parent’s garage.  Learned some covers: Surrender – Cheap Trick, Come As You Are – Nirvana, Nothing Else Matters – Metallica
  • Wrote my first song, Picture Window.

1993

  • A Paul “St” joined the band as the drummer
  • Chris N joined the band as singer
  • Formed Hollow Spirit
  • Did our first show, 14 songs in total; 7 originals; 7 covers

1994

  • Paul “Sch” (guitarist) left
  • Started working with a producer / engineer Brent C
  • Recorded the drum tracks for our first CD
  • Chris N left the band, I took over as singer
  • Bought my TASCAM 464 cassette 4-track, wanted to try my hand at recording.
  • Started recording a friend’s band, Killer Instinct using the 4-track.  Paul S, from Hollow Spirit, did the drums for them.
  • Recorded the Christmas show at Place Polanaise.

1995

  • Continued to record with Brent, had some difficulties because I was not Brent’s choice for a singer.
  • Chris W joined the band as a second guitarist
  • Did an environmental festival in St. Catharines
  • Played at the battle of the bands in St. Catharines
  • Played at “Starvathon” at Dennis Morris High School, St. Catharines, Ontario.
  • Chris W left the band
  • Finished the 2 song cassette EP (I Don’t Care / How Much I Love You)

1996

  • Band relationships started getting strained, we ended up breaking up and going our separate ways.
  • Started working with Don D (guitarist)
  • Was the opening act at a show at the new defunct Lincoln County Fairgrounds in Beamsville, Ontario.
  • Started work on a new CD project for us using a TR-707 drum machine, we named Bob, for the drum tracks.
  • Worked with a drummer, for about 2 months, until it fell through.  Can’t recall her name.
  • Recorded / Produced Dane’s band.

1997

  • Dane started working with Don and I in ArmsLength.
  • Recorded Dane’s drum tracks for 10 songs and worked with Don on completing the recordings.
  • Released a 4 song EP called Class Picture Day featuring Premonition, I Don’t Care, Just for a Kiss and Zumba Freedom Fighters
  • Continued record Killer Instinct.

1998

  • Continued to work on the ArmsLength recordings, anywhere possible.  Recorded in apartments, my parents house, my apartment.
  • Continued to record Killer Instinct as well.
  • Got married
  • Killer Instinct broke up; those recording stopped.

1999

  • Recordings for ArmsLength started to come to a halt.
  • Played Mohawk College
  • Started to be an opener for Animate!
  • Moved into a house; this was a large part of why the recordings stopped; there was really no place to record anymore.
  • Quit music for a while.

2000

  • Returned back to playing because I was miserable at not doing it.
  • Hollow Spirit broke up at some point here.

2001

  • My son was born.
  • Became the bass player for PnchMnky.
  • Changed jobs.

2003

  • My daughter was born.
  • I was dropped from PnchMnky.

2005

  • Moved to where I live now.
  • Became the bass player for a cover band called Impact.

2006

  • Impact broke up.
  • Sold a lot of my music equipment, kept my 4-track, two rack effects, my first bass and my amp, and my acoustic guitar.

2008

  • Changed jobs
  • Played bass for the children’s choir at church.

2009

  • Played bass with the senior choir at church and anyone else who wanted me to play at church.

2010

  • Continued to play bass at church

2011

  • Became the bass player for a country band
  • Stopped playing bass at church, personal reasons
  • Dropped from the country band.
  • Don passed away suddenly.
  • Retired the ArmsLength webpage, but didn’t remove.
  • Separated from my, now ex-wife.
  • Did a tribute show for Don
  • Met Tammy

2012

  • Asked to write lyrics, play bass and sing for an unfinished song that Don wrote; I got out my old 4-track that was hidden up in the attic since before we moved here and set it up.
  • Finished the second installment of the Don Dorey tribute CD.
  • It was at this point that I wanted to finish the recordings that Don, Dane & I started so many years ago.

2013

  • Started purchasing equipment for the recording studio.
  • Started to re-learn the songs and also re-learn the bass.  I was extremely rusty.
  • My father passed away.
  • Started the For My Dear Friend blog
  • Re-opened the ArmsLength facebook page.
  • Changed the name of the band from ArmsLength to For My Dear Friend.
  • Started working on my rack system that I had wanted since 1995, bought an actual rack frame and started purchasing items for the rack.
  • Started to finish any areas of the music that I could; bass, keyboard and vocals.

2014

  • Asked Dean to help finish the guitar work on two of the songs, Cold Black Sky and Standing in the Rain. These also happened to be either written or co-written by Dean.
  • Released, Full Circle…
  • Dean wanted to finish the original Hollow Spirit recordings which we had on an 8-track real to real.  Luckily, I had the original 4-track cassettes of the drums and possible guitar work.  I agreed that we should finish these recordings, but I wanted to purchase a newer recorder.

2015

  • Tammy bought my Rocksmith 2014 for the PS3 so that I could work on my bass playing.  I ended up also getting better at guitar with it.
  • Bought a TASCAM portastudio 32sd; a 32 track digital studio system and transferred the 4-track mixes over to the 32 track.
  • Got divorced.
  • Purchased more rack equipment in the process
  • Started working again with Dean W on the original Hollow Spirit versions of the songs.  Asked Paul S if he wanted to join, but he declined.
  • Recorded Remembering the Past and Smiling
  • Started The MPF Project website to talk about what I’ve been doing since finishing the FMDF recordings.
  • Asked Tammy to marry me
  • Bought a drum set
  • Changed my job to where I work now
  • Released Christmas (at our House) under my name.

2016

  • Started taking drum lessons.
  • Started working my Adam V on drums with Dean W.
  • Continuing to record the Hollow Spirit music, not taking on any other recordings.
  • Did my first live performance since 2000 and my first solo performance ever at an open mic night.
  • I got married

2017

  • Finishing off the recordings for the newly name band, The MPF Project.
  • Still jamming with Adam and Dean and hopefully will do something live with them.
  • Still playing at open mic nights, whenever I can.

2 comments

  1. Captin here : in 1997 “Dane joined and worked worked with Don and you in Arms length.” Not Hollow spirit. And in 2000 Arms length broke up. HS broke up on 1996.

    Captin Flys away!!

    Other than that good historical break down.

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