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.