Studio Update — Two Hours Traffic

It was great to see many of you out at our shows in June. We had some big nights in the Maritimes before heading to Ontario to meet up with the mighty Zeus for the conclusion of their Canadian tour. Following the finale at the Phoenix in Toronto, we made our way north to Mono, Ontario to start recording our new album with producer Darryl Neudorf. Darryl was once the drummer in 54-40, and as a studio wizard he has worked with such excellent artists as Neko Case, the Sadies and By Divine Right.

The fact that we were in the studio at all was a kind of victory for us. We spent most of this past winter working on new material and looking for a new bandmate, wondering if the band would even survive. When the dust settled, Andy had moved from bass over to lead guitar and we had a new bass player in Nathan Gill. Nathan is the lead singer and guitar player in a great band called North Lakes. He had never played the bass before joining our band, but he picked it up awfully quick.

We started playing live with the new lineup in February and right off the bat we were throwing a lot of the new songs into our set. (Probably too many). We couldn’t help it though – we like the new stuff and it’s fun to play. By the time we got to the studio we were beyond ready to lay these tunes down.

There was a heatwave raging through Southern Ontario for most of the recording session and so we were forced to crank up the AC and to drink as many cold beer as possible (Bavaria bargain brand). Luckily, we had great chemistry with our producer and things rolled along smoothly. Special shout-out to our kindred musical spirits, some of whom came to hang out and others who lent us their fine equipment. We were even lucky enough to have Dan Griffin of the Arkells out to smash some keys, and through the wonders of technology, Dale Murray dropped in from Pugwash, Nova Scotia. Also in attendance was Theo the Cat, who was difficult to read at times, but a fine companion nonetheless.

It took 13 days, 12 pizzas, 3 Blue Jays games, and 1 magic tambourine but we finished the record. We can’t wait to show you all this new music. It’s not pure pop, it’s not completely rock ‘n’ roll, it’s more like Pop ‘n’ Roll. It’s exactly what the teenagers are looking for, although they don’t know it yet. We should have some tunes to show you in the fall, with a full-length album to follow in the new year. Thank you for sticking it out with us.

-THT