Channeldrive

“More to the Story” (EP) Part 2 of our 90s EP series is almost there. We’ve delayed it… a few times 😂 Truth is, combining old cassette recordings with new versions isn’t as simple as it sounds if you want to sound half decent. Would’ve been easier to just re-record it all from scratch.

We’re picky. Hang tight.

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More Channeldrive history: The infamous “Joygasm” was definitely our most popular song back in the early days 1994-1996. Again, like many of our songs back then, we played the song different almost everytime. Small changes. Minor melody changes, etc. This version recorded sometime around 1996 on a Tascam is the most consistent way we played it after Mark replaced Gary on bass. Our go to opener at most live shows. Fully Remastered from the original recording. A key song in our roots, and big part of our journey and how our sound has evolved over the years.

“Joygasm” will be on the 4th part of the “Ninety-Five” EPs.

More Channeldrive History: One of our earliest recordings ever, we were 14/15 years old when we tracked this version of “So Good.” The cassette didn’t age well. Recovered from an old MixTape that must’ve been recorded over again and again. If you know tape, you know. Either way Time wasn’t kind to Mr Cassette. There is tape degradation all over adding its own special character 😂 good or bad depending how you look at it, but we’re leaving it. No re-record, at least for now, like we did with some of the others.

This is that original recording, remastered the best we could. The only change, a ska-style acoustic interlude we dropped in to cover a section where the tape completely bleeps out. Everything else is untouched, just balanced levels and cleaning. Unfortunately, no clean version of this song exists or survived the years.

“So good” always felt different. Back around 1994–1995, it didn’t sound like anything else. Written in the same stretch as the earliest versions of Be My Friend, Joygasm, How Much, Everything I Am, and the first iteration of April Fresh (released on Almost half the story).

This will be included on the 4th part of Ninety-Five EPs, covering the absolute start.

More Channeldrive history: Going back to almost the very beginning, this song had a multiple names. “1234,” “Ender,” “Sitting Over There,” “Surf Riff Song”… still no official name, but this closed every show as the prelude to “Combing my hair” and like many of our older songs, it was never played the same. There was always something new and better to try every time we played it.

What you’re hearing is a fully remastered live Tascam practice recording from 1996. Wait until you hear “So Good”, the cassette tape degradation definitely adds a little extra charm to it 😂 Especially with the old ungrounded Traynor Tube amp we sang though that never failed to shock you if you got too close. It’ll land on our 4th EP from Ninety-Five. Two EP releases out. But we’re getting close.

“More to the Story” coming soon - The final chapter of our 90s era music. And yes brand new music is also inbound.

Thanks for listening and following so far. It’s been a fun, exciting, and nostalgic process bringing these Ninety-Five back to life. And a very time consuming process. But it’s worth it for us to hear our roots again. Where it all started and getting to share it🤘

So happy we’re finally getting these wrapped up! It’s been years in the making!!!

“More to the Story” Drops April 7

7 more tracks. Specifically From 1998–1999.

These are the last recordings and songs written before we disbanded and moved onto other projects.

“More to the Story” is Part two of our Ninety-Five series, covering our earliest music.

Preview: “Friends We Keep.”

New music also coming at some point 😉

The wait’s finally over.

Our first Channeldrive EP in 26 years goes out to distributors tonight and should start landing on streaming over the next couple days. Some tomorrow.

Getting this first batch of our old material onto streaming for the first time ever is a huge milestone for us. These songs were part of our later-years setlist, with the full Ninety-Five album digging further back into the earlier material.

After setting out on this journey a few years ago, it’s taken some time to get here. But bringing these songs back to life and finally getting them onto streaming feels pretty damn good.

We wrote “Elle” in early 1997. It brought back the urgency of Be My Friend, but with more intention behind it. We were starting to experiment, tighter stops, different rhythms, bigger melodic breakdowns. Small shifts that felt big to us then.

We were 80s kids exposed to all kinds of music. Back then you had to go digging for punk. It wasn’t sitting in every mall store. Internet streaming wasn’t a thing. We’d head downtown Toronto to indie shops like Rotate This or Kops, to find the bands we were into. HMV caught up later.

Our core influences came from a small group of bands, Lagwagon, Face to Face, Goldfinger, Pennywise, NOFX, Green Day, with the rest inspired from older records and 80s new wave.

A big spark for “Elle” came from watching Bio-Dome and hearing Wax’s cover of “He’s a Whore.” That stuck.

Pop punk also didn’t really have a name yet. It was still the early days. Back then it was just melodic punk.

This isn’t mixed or mastered, just a rough board bootleg from the process. It’ll be included on Ninety-Five.

If this had dropped properly in ’97, would it hit… or fade?

“Do You Realize”

This one was always middle of the set. So much fun to play live, it always sped up, always got a little out of control.

We wrote it when we were 15. Revisiting that headspace now is wild. Definitely one of our more straight-ahead punk tracks. Gets crazy at the end, but you gotta wait for the album to hear that.

“Do You Realize” will be on Ninety-Five.

1996. Opera House. Toronto. We were 15. Middle of the bill with an early lineup, Special Ed, Serial Joe and Kaspir on the bill.

We found the tape. Should we drop it?

Our set only. The rest isn’t ours to share.

#1995

It’s been a while since we released new music. We’ve promised things over the years: ’95, Boomers V1, House of Cards, Drive. Sometimes we get excited and share ideas before the songs are even finished. Sometimes we rethink them, rewrite them, or decide they’re not ready yet. And sometimes life just gets busy. That’s just the reality of how we create.

But the music is coming.
’95 (Ninety-Five) is finally coming, and new material is right behind it. Maybe some Shows finally?

Be My Friend (95 single)
Strangers (Self-titled single)
Both drop Friday. Maybe with a few surprises? 😉 others following soon.

Thanks for sticking with us while we figure it out, messy organized chaos.

Your listening to - Billiam (on Ninety-Five)

— Channeldrive