Tracks 1-10 were all recorded in April of 1994, on an 8-track cassette recorder, at home in Toronto. They were all written, played, recorded, and mixed by me. The bonus track (Track 11) was recorded in the spring of 1991, on a 4-track cassette recorder, in my bedroom.

All the tracks were remastered in April of 2021.

The cover photo is of me, on my birthday, in the late 70s. My birthday present was a toy robot, named 2-XL. It played 8-track tapes––in its mouth.

This was not the original cover for this album. It was originally released on cassette only. There was no cover for the album, or any text whatsoever. Just an unmarked cassette, inside a clear plastic case. But everybody knew who recorded it. It wasn't a mystery.

PEDAGOGY MAN was written in 1989. WHAT IF?, LUCY, VELLUM and FEAR were all written in late 1990 or early 1991. I played versions of VELLUM and FEAR in Vine, in 1992. LIPPING THE WAVE was written in 1992, for Vine, but we never played it live. AT THE ECLIPSE, I WILL, CATHARSIS, and NOT HOME were spontaneously written on the spot, in 1994, as I recorded them, for this album.

For those of you who want more detailed information, read on ...

I went into this recording project intending on recording a bunch of songs that I'd recently written. Vine had broken up over a year earlier, but I still hadn't recorded a full album of my own music. I rented some recording equipment at the beginning of April, and immediately began recording some songs, eager to begin the next phase of my "musical journey". However, after only a few days of recording I was shocked to hear of the death of Kurt Cobain. Every night I would turn on the TV and feel increasingly overwhelmed by the all latest news––and speculation about what happened. I was becoming very distracted from the task at hand. I wasn't in the right mood anymore. Instead of recording my new songs, I suddenly retreated into the past, and began to randomly pick old songs of mine to record, often without remembering all the lyrics to the songs, and making up lyrics on the spot. I had spent several hundred dollars to rent microphones and an 8-track recorder, so I forced myself to keep recording. (I ended up recording some of my newer songs only much later, starting in 1997, which was the next time that I rented an 8-track recorder. I recorded some more songs in 1998. I didn't record LIMINAL until 2007. I didn't record THE RAIL and SUSPICIOUS until 2015. In fact, I still haven't properly recorded some of my songs from the early 90s.)

WHAT IF? was written in early 1991. I always played it with a heavily distorted guitar. When I recorded it in 1994, for this album, I changed almost all the lyrics on the spot, and re-imagined the song, giving it an entirely different feel, by playing it with a clean guitar, and singing it in a slightly different way. A solo recording of the original version will soon be available on "Late Twentieth Century Magnetic Tape Archives, Volume 2".

LUCY was also written, and initially recorded, in early 1991. That original recording was a favourite song for many of my friends at the time. I've included it here as a bonus track. One of the reasons my friends like it so much is because I wrote and recorded it in about 20 minutes one night, while hanging out with friends at home. I told them I was feeling inspired and needed to go to my bedroom and record something. I came back 20 minutes later with Lucy. In 2006, the great Canadian singer/songwriter Amy Honey heard the 1991 version of Lucy on my MySpace page, and soon started playing it in her live shows. Inn 2007 she even played it live on college radio (CITR) in British Columbia, from the campus of UBC, as I listened to her performance online, from my home in Toronto. That was the first time that I had ever heard a live concert of anybody's music online. It was kind of surreal for me to hear a woman I'd never met play a song I recorded 15 years earlier, in my bedroom, live on the radio, on a great radio show, as I listened to it all on my recently purchased computer speakers. (FYI: I was the last person I knew, other than my elderly relatives, to get a computer, and go online.) I had reached out to Amy first, on MySpace, to tell her how much I liked her music. She responded by listening to my songs, and then playing Lucy in her live shows. It was all very unexpected. But I don't think she ever heard the 1994 version. I don't think I ever put the 1994 version on MySpace, or on any other online site for that matter. I don't consider the 1994 version to be better or worse than the original version, just different. Most people think of the 1991 version as being the real Lucy. That's fine with me. For the 1994 version I extended the song and added different melodies in the verses, along with more lyrics. But I sometimes change the lyrics of my songs when I sing them, so I'm not attached to the lyrics of the 1994 version. On my Facebook page there's also a link to the full show that Amy played Lucy on, in 2007, on UBC radio. She plays it a bit different than I originally did, but that just makes it all the more interesting for me. Her own songs are all really great as well. And the DJ spins some great tunes, by many other bands, prior to Amy's set. It was a great show all around. The show is actually still on the air today. It's called Live From Radio Thunderbird Hell.

VELLUM and FEAR were also written in late 1990 or early 1991. I played versions of them live many times, in 1992, with my band Vine. The lyrics for both these versions are different than the Vine versions. The vocal melody in the verses, for Fear, is also very different than the original version––which also, by the way, wasn't titled "Fear". That's one song of mine that seems to just keep changing over the years, so there really isn't one standard version or one standard title for it. Different versions over the years have been called "Decide", "Everything" and "Trailer". I sang the melody in the verses differently for each incarnation of the song. (I've written over a thousand songs in my life, out of which only a few keep changing noticeably over the years. I don't intentionally keep changing my songs, to be "undecidable". Some songs just insist on continually changing, regardless of what my personal intentions might be, or seem to be.)

PEDAGOGY MAN was written in 1989. I played it, and recorded it, during the 1989/90 school year with my band at the time, The Grendels. But that was the second incarnation of The Grendels, with some new members. Unlike the first incarnation of The Grendels, we never played live. But we jammed often, and recorded some songs in a studio. PEDAGOGY MAN was one of those songs that we recorded. Unfortunately the tapes for those recordings might be lost forever, so this is the only recording of the song that I currently have. I couldn't remember many of the lyrics when I sang it in 1994, so I just hummed some the parts instead.


LIPPING THE WAVE was written in 1992, when I was in Vine. Vine never played it live.

AT THE ECLIPSE, I WILL, CATHARSIS, and NOT HOME were all written on the spot, as I recorded them, in 1994.