This album captures a crazy time in my life and the world we live in. I was surfing and thought of the title, not knowing that soon, I too would be a victim of trial and error. When we began writing after our first album Sinking Ships, Josh Boudreau, a fellow music student and friend was playing fantastic lead guitar for the group and wrote Vampires as well as co-wrote Curtains with Rich. However this lineup was not meant to be, and without a "lead" guitarist, the band continued on as a trio. The rest of the trio's tracks were written together, respecting the songwriting origins between Rich and myself. Aaron always worked with us on song arrangements and the songs always fell in to place between us. In 2009 we decided we were going to cut another record in Nelson, BC with Serpico Audio Productions. Scratch tracks were laid and bit by bit Aaron and Rich recorded their bass and drum parts. Things were looking great to me, touring was looking more profitable, the CD was going to be awesome, but in September the bomb dropped. I was hit in the head with a brick (not literally) when the boys decided they were finished working with me. It was a conflct of interest and priority and they made the decision to drop the entire project. It would be months before I sat back down to the recordings. Throughout the year, previous to the disbandment, I had been working on a little tune written about a man (not so unlike myself) on trial for crimes against humanity. Religion, Revolutionary Technology and Love have always amazed and concerned me and I dreamt of a scenario in which someone might propose his own guilt to a courtroom and take what responsibility he could for his actions. Trial would become a very big statement for me in a lot of ways over the next year and a half, I was eager to see for myself that I could continue and create on my own. So, the album of course had to be finished. After months of "dwelling" we will call it, my drive got the best of me and I recorded the guitar and vocals to the trio tracks with Serpico Audio and began work on Trial. Though Trial was introduced to Rich and Aaron, no recorded tracks were usable and I had to find a new band, which, wound up being the best team for the job. Lee Campese played drums, Ohan Vandermeer bass and Sean Davies second guitar and it was so. Over the next year I had violin, sax, trumpet, choral and dialogue parts all recorded locally by great people by my own means, in my own way. Stacked with layers of vocals and background effects, dynamic changes and contemplative lyrics, Trial is the first piece of music that actually lived up to sounding the way I heard it in my head. The rest of the album wasn`t any less of a process however, I wanted this CD to stand up to the best. I was on my own for the boys` sounds and takes and putting such honest, raw hard music into the popular context I desired was a stretch to begin with. I added some great acoustic guitar tracks to some songs, choral arrangements and a few production tricks here and there, and today, I`m pretty stoked. But after a lot of work, blood, sweat and tears its here, and I`m grateful. It wouldn`t sound like this if it had turned out any other way and I guess thats my reward. Turn it up loud and feast your ears on something genuinely new, fresh and exciting, Trial and Terror is my art for you.