Combine on Fiona Forbes' show Onstage (basement tapes live)

Combine the Victorious appeared on Fiona Forbes' show Onstage this week. They duo had a great conversation with Fiona from the Isabelle Dunlop Clothing store to talk about the shutdown, setting private appointments, and of course music. After the interview Combine performed five songs that were previously recorded in the basement of their house. Included here for the first time is their song "What's Going On In Your Head" as well as favorites "Smoke and Choke" and an acoustic piano version of "Embrace."

Combine - Embrace (piano version)

Isabelle and I have been self isolating for the past month just like everyone else. One thing that has been a true benefit to this extra time is going back over some of our older songs and figuring out how to play them again. This song, Embrace, was originally written and recorded for the debut Combine the Victorious album The World Over back in 2007. While the album version is rather epic with a long crescendo build from the beginning to the end, this piano version is much simpler, with only an upright piano for accompaniment.  We recorded this last night as part of our Friday night music rehearsals. Have a look, we are both rather pleased with it!

Peach Pit - Records In My LIfe

As the quarantine continues in Vancouver we have been recording more interviews via teleconferencing. This week we caught up with Chris and Neil from the band Peach Pit. Peach Pit has just released their new album and were all set to tour for the rest of the year in support of it when the Covid19 outbreak occurred. So instead of catching up with them when they were set to play a sold out show at the Commodore we chatting about their new album, working with John Congleton as a producer, and all sorts of other music in out interview. Great guys, such a pleasure to hang with and talk music!

Archive: Blisterene - Broadcast Nationwide video

Blisterene had a busy year in 1997. We'd recorded our debut album, a ten song collection titled "So I Have Them" and already made one video. Broadcast Nationwide was a follow up to Gratitude and directed by Shawn Carnegie. We made this one on 16mm film and shot some of the footage in my brother's former business office on Marine Drive in Vancouver,

This was a fun video to shoot, thanks to Shawn and Tod Van Dyk who master minded the affair. This was a great underground video with many hours in an elevator and then even more running around the stairwells of the Pacific Centre mall. I have fond memories of this one, probably the easiest set I've ever been on. We all had fun, though worked a couple long days to create this!

The yellow walled rehearsal footage was shot at Les's place, (aka Malcolm Tente) where we actually recorded our album. Interesting times back then.


Band: Blisterene
Song: Broadcast Nationwide
Album: So I Have Them
Released: 1997

Archive: Blisterene - Gratitude video

Blisterene was a power pop band from Vancouver, Canada. I formed this band after I departed from Pure and thought to make an exciting three piece. We played every venue in Vancouver and then managed a full Canadian and a follow up Western Canadian tour before we put the band on ice.

This video was filmed and edited by none other than Blair Dobson, Blair had made two videos for Pure so it just seemed natural to approach him to make one for my new band. This video was played a couple times on Much Music and helped secure us a spot at CMW as well as our cross country tour.



Band: Blisterene
Song: Gratitude
Album: So I Have Them
released: 1997

Art During COVID19: Zombie Roof - Automatic Lyric Video

This weekend I cut together a video for the band Zombie Roof. Earlier this year we made a full length album at the wonderful Hipposonic Studio here in Vancouver. Hipposonic is essentially the reincarnation of Little Mountain Sound Studios, in the former studio B. A fantastic spot with incredible rock and roll history (Bruce Fairburn and Bob Rock made several platinum selling albums in the studio) we recorded and mixed 10 songs in a week (yes I like to work quickly).

Just ahead a couple months and we are all in isolation and life has all but stopped for most of us. The band members have been proactive though and set about releasing video singles to share their music. Singer Trent sent me some footage that had a very cool "comic book" filter set on it, turning it to an almost rotoscoped looking black and white image. He also cut in some old archival footage in between his lip sync and I thought he had something cool. I requested everybody in the band do a similar thing and then transfer me their footage. I'd then cut together a lyric video from their stuff.

So on Saturday I received four different performances, all made in various spots around the province, all separately but of course all playing to the same song. I placed them on a timeline and within a couple minutes I knew instantly that it should look good. An evening of editing and tweaking and voila, a new video for Zombie Roof: Automatic.

Records In My Life in the time of Covid 19: twst on RIML

So, along with most of the world, have been in a shutdown to slow the spread of the corona virus. Due to the shutdown, all tours have been cancelled and nobody is coming to Vancouver for shows so we have begun conducting interviews via video conferencing. This is our first interview with Welsh singer songwriter Chloe Davis known as twst. Chloe joined us from her parents house where she is in isolation to talk about her new EP, twst0001, and the music that shaped her along the way.

Archive: Pure performs Anna on CMVA 1993

Back in 1993 Pure was invited to perform live on Much Music as part of the Canadian Music Video Awards (following picking up an award for best Alternative Video). This was in the autumn and following a summer writing session for the second album. In this clip the band is performing a brand new song Anna Is A Speed Freak, one of the first of the new batch of songs that would become Generation 6 Pack.