Two Worlds - The Aftermath!

I wish I could remember for sure when Two Worlds was recorded and/or completed! I seem to recall that it was recorded during the summer of 1986, because I'm pretty sure I was basically unemployed, and thus "available to work for free" during that time. My fabulous year at University was behind me (!), so I have to assume it was during this time frame.

By the way... yesterday, I listened to the Two Worlds album again after a long time, and I noticed a few things that might be worth noting. One... my vocals were pretty weak! I realize looking back, that I didn't have what you'd call "Road Pipes" yet. My voice was far stronger and more aggressive when we next entered the studio to do our 2nd album, in early 1998. Don't get me wrong... the performances on the album are basically in tune (long before pitch correction!), but they sound sort of small and gutless at times.

The other thing I remembered was about the song "The Forest." I recall writing that song while I was in University. It was another one of those "turn the tape recorder on and see what happens" events that often established new material for me in those days. This would explain why the verses and structure are a little off, because I was obviously improvising and changing things up on the fly.

Ok... anyway... I digress!

So about the cover and artwork.

We used Andy's brother Steve to do our photography. He was a really great picture-taking-type-fella, and because he was family... he was affordable! He later moved to Germany to pursue his career as a photographer, and eventually got married over there and had children over there. Andy and I got to see Steve and his Germanic family when we played in The Netherlands in 1995. Anyway... that's for another chapter!

We shot the cover photo in downtown Kitchener, in some scummy back alley. I remember not feeling too safe, except for the fact that Al was with us, and you always felt safe with Al around.

The concept of the torn page was not really a creative idea, as much as it was a cover-up. The shoes I wore were really awful, so we needed some way of getting them out of the shot, so somebody came up with the idea of tearing the photo creatively! Thus, with some "live shots" of the guys, we had our debut album on glorious vinyl and cassette!

Andy and our manager Glenn Koehler always had the idea that this album would be our calling card to get a record deal in the US and A's. I have to assume that once the album was done, we did as many concert dates as we could, not only to sell product but to prepare new material for a 2nd album, and of course raise interests in us as a signable commodity.

I have no idea how many months went by before there was interest from a US company, but I assume it was early 1987, when Reunion Records out of Nashville expressed interest in signing us. This was a cool label to associate with back then because they had Michael W. Smith on their roster and were famous for having been the management company for Amy Grant, who was just becoming massive at this time.

An A&R guy from Reunion named Jeff Moseley began negotiations with us through our manager Glenn. Reunion expressed interest in re-packing our debut LP and working on a couple of new songs as radio singles. There were 2 songs on the original album that they felt didn't work - "Lift Your Heart" and "When The Crying Stops." We had 2 other songs on the go, which Reunion felt much stronger about, one being "My Only Hope" and the other not yet having a title but what would soon become known as "Distant Light."

The offer that came from Reunion was not surprisingly weighed heavily in THEIR favour, but that's the way it goes when you're a young band with nothing asking a million-dollar corporation to loan you money for a follow up album!! Reunion was including some extra money for us to go into the studio to produce My Only Hope and Distant Light, and they were ok with allowing us creative control over our work, which is not a typical thing in the music business. As long as we continued to use Rick Hutt as a producer, they would pretty much leave us alone.

Well... here's a funny story.

When negotiations were reaching their most important stage - ie. when we were trying to play hard ball and ask for more money (!), we arranged a band meeting to make an important phone call to Jeff about our concerns. We met at Andy's apartment in Kitchener, and we all got on separate phones around the apartment and listened in as Glenn left a message on Jeff's answering machine. Glenn diplomatically stated that we were really excited about the possibility of being associated with their label, but that there were some financial issues that still needed addressing. We all listened in as Glenn sounded lawyer-like and fought for our better interests.

At the end of the call, Glenn said that we'd look forward to hearing back from him as soon as possible. He then hung up the phone. At this very moment, I jokingly said something to the effect of "Yeah, well take a hike you Jerk!" and then hung up the phone!

Of course, at this moment, it never occurred to me that the phone line might have STILL BEEN OPEN after Glenn hung up his phone!!! Panic and yelling ensued!!

The guys were all convinced that my stellar sense of humour just cost us our future with any American Christian label. They took shots at me like crazy, and I fully deserved them. After about 40 minutes, we decided the only proper course of events would be for me to call Jeff Moseley myself and deeply apologize for my immature and unnecessary statements, in hopes that he would know I was just kidding and meant no disrespect.

About 4 days later, I was at work at the music store I worked at in Stratford. The phone rang and somebody answered it, and then I heard on the store PA,

"Ian - Line 1. Ian - Line 1. It's the jerk." Oh God, here it was!!

I answered the phone, "Hello?"

The voice said..."Ian..... Jeff Mosely here...... Let me tell you something... (infinite pause)...

I'm laughing brother, I'm laughing!"

I had escaped a painful death at the hands of Mike Powell and his recently acquired blow pipe!!

Anyway... somewhere in this time, we agreed to terms with Reunion Records. Jeff flew to Canada, and we met him at a swanky hotel in Toronto, where we signed the contracts and became Reunion Records artists.

At some point soon after, we went into the studio to record My Only Hope and Distant Light. Both songs were huge productions, and although they both had an over abundance of keyboard trickery (as was the custom of the times!), they were better sounding than our previous work on Two Worlds. Reunion allowed us to re-mix a few songs off the original album, and thus the album had a more cohesive sound. The album was re-named "Sanctified" and was released on vinyl and cassette. The mastering job was done in the US (I believe, or else I just don't remember anymore.)

The album artwork and photography were done by someone in Canada who had produced videos for the band Rush. Sorry, but I totally forget her name, but she was an A-List person in the industry.

More on the Sanctified album coming up next...

Ian - June 6/09