Esses

Stephen and Mackenzie were in Thundrah (www.myspace.com/thundrah). Thundrah imploded like a supernova soon after recording what was to be their sophomore release at the legendary Hotel2Tango studio in Montreal and opening for for uber legends Pere Ubu. It took a couple of years to get back on track and to step back into the musical realm (a phd and bike shop career nearly sidetracking them forever.) The two continued to play together and collaborated under various titles (Disco Fuerte and Hooray Henry) but were only able to set what was to become Esses in motion after recruiting Andrew who's former band, Medium Mood, Thundah had done a short tour a few years back. Finally the addition of Patrick on drums gave the trio the much needed push to start writing and recording. Till now band were none too eager to play live, preferring rather to hone their sound in the studio over a year and a half, and gel their relationship as friends first, collaborators second in order to avoid the pitfalls that Thundrah (and many other former bands) fell into. It also allowed them get so comfortable together musically that their first live performance (at the opening party for the Bicycle Film Festival) in Montreal was punctuated by an explosive and unselfconscious energy which presented the illusion that the band had been playing live together for years. Comparisons were made to everything from The Cure to My Bloody Valentine to Fugazi to Kraut-rockers Can and those disparate observations reflected the musical split personality within the band.