Port Noise

In December of 2008, Chris Johnston and Kevin Schmalenberg (former rhythm guitarist) talked of forming a band. Soon, Angus Livingstone was added and the trio began to jam regularly and write some songs. After only a handful of practices, Angus invited Andrew Strilchuk to join the band as well. Over the upcoming months, the band went on to create several songs, Meltdown and Crimson being two of the first renditions. They played a couple of times at Mcnally's for the Wednesday night jam and in the early summer, the band got their first taste at recording. Four songs were recorded by Kevin Crossman, who was asked by Chris' father Jim if he'd be interested in recording some songs for the band. Meltdown, Crimson, The Truth and Here came out in two recording sessions. The band was beginning to make baby steps forward.

In July of 2009, due to musical differences, Kevin parted ways with the band. Andrew and Angus already talked about adding another guitarist into the mix earlier anyway, so it was easy going to bring aboard Matthew Garthson. The new face of the band was harder and more powerful than before. Life of me came out of the first couple of jam sessions with Matt, and it was apparent that the band would be heading in a different direction now that Kevin's softer rhythmic guitar was gone.

By Early 2010, talk of recording the first album was already going on. After playing some shows and gaining some confidence, it was time to look into getting serious. At the time (and basically still to this day), Chris' father was acting as a temporary band manager. Setting up gigs and helping with hauling gear were a couple of the things Jim helped a lot with. Jim got a hold of John Bidochka, who he had known for a long time when John worked at B Sharp Music. John is a sound engineer, and Jim knew he'd be the right guy to talk to about recording an album. By early May, the band would be recording their first album. After a lot of tweaks and edits over the upcoming months, it was finally completed.

Now that it is 2011, Port Noise is hoping to make it their year. April 2nd was a big day for the band, when they had their CD release party at the Exchange. It was a great success despite the awful weather. Looking forward now, Port Noise is anxious to do more shows and possibly travel outside of Regina to other cities in Saskatchewan. The sky is the limit, and Port Noise does not intend on coming back down.