About Friends of Steve "Back in the day", I couldn't go out to a bar without running into two or three ex-girlfriends in a night, sometimes more. Such are the joys of the insular Ottawa music scene. One night at the venerable old institution known as The Duke Of Somerset, where many of us spent much of our time (and money), two such ex-girlfriends (I believe it was Suzi Fraser and Karen LaRocca) were discussing the fact that they should start a self-help group for people who have been "affected" by me. The group would of course be called "Friends of Steve". I never asked whether this support group was needed because of the effect I had on people while they were with me, or because the effects of breaking up with me. And I don't think I want to know. Regardless, the name stuck and I figured I would use it for something at some point, and now I have. About The Players Over the years I've met and played with many great musicians, so originally Friends of Steve was going to be just that: an album with various friends playing various parts. I had asked a few people at times to contribute, but it never quite worked out, and with my busy schedule it was easier to just record parts when I had a few minutes here and there. So the ultimate irony is that Friends of Steve is just me. Every instrument, all the writing, all the recording, the artwork... everything. While I am proud of this fact, I readily admit that many of the instruments are played with a level of virtuosity bordering on pre-school. For example, anyone who plays bowed upright bass, pedal steel, fiddle or drums well may cringe at some of the songs. But the fact is, 99.9% of people don't play any of those instruments; so as long as I could play something that I was happy with and which I felt served the song, it made the cut. I tried to edit and fix as little as possible, especially the drums, so what you hear is pretty much what I played, for better or for worse. I could have put together computer-generated sampled drums that are virtually indistinguishable from the real thing but chose to "keep it real". So rather than credits being given to players on each song, credit is given to the instruments which allowed me to create whatever sound I was looking for on that particular song. I could credit the inventors of the instruments I suppose... but no. About Steve We always had guitars lying around the house as a kid, and once my brother started taking lessons, I picked up a cheap steel-string acoustic (I believe it was red and black sunburst and had a logo of a spider on it) and started playing on my own, learning the songs that he was learning in his lessons. From there I started making home recordings on a jury-rigged multi-track setup involving a Radio Shack "ghetto blaster", our home stereo tape deck, a cheap dictaphone microphone and a bunch of cables and adapters. From there I formed a short-lived band called Ten Miles High which played a few shows before disbanding. Then I spent a few years after that playing "lead" guitar and doing some vocals and writing in Ottawa indie rockers Mystic Zealots, releasing a cassette, a CD and a 7" single before they kicked me out by announcing my departure in the local entertainment paper. Before that unceremonious departure, I had already joined somewhat renowned celtic rock band Jimmy George, playing bass, mandolin, eventually guitar, and doing some singing and writing. This led to two national tours, two videos on MuchMusic, and a host of television appearances including Rita and Friends on the CBC. While Jimmy George continues to play occasional shows, I have also played in a variety of short-lived and/or recurring bands including Dude Ranch, The A-Tease, The Lowbellies and Laguna, sit in with Eric Eggleston, Lynne Hanson and Ray Harris, and currently play, write and record in rockabilly band The Kingmakers and lewd-country band Ninety Pounds of Ugly. The Ultimate Music Fail? So... despite involvement in all the bands you undoubtedly read about in the previous paragraph, there were always songs that "didn't fit" for whatever reason, didn't work in the particular band I was focusing on at the time, got overshadowed by bigger egos, or whatever. So I've been accumulating these songs for years, recording demos, gradually adding instruments, re-doing vocals, and otherwise polishing them. It got to the point where I asked myself what the point is of writing and recording all of this stuff just to have it dwell in solitude on hard drives in my basement. So despite my fears of releasing the ultimate music fail, I decided to put it out there and see what happens. About The Title An obvious take on Dave Eggers' book of similar title. I hear it's good; I hope to read it some day. I thought it was amusing to switch the words around. I am easily amused. No nothing about this project is "genius", but some heartbreak may have been involved. In Summary It's a fine line between pride and self-importance, I've tried not to cross it. Please enjoy. If you don't, please let me know why and I will endeavour to incorporate this feedback into the next Friends of Steve album. Because yes, there will be another. Like it or not. Hopefully the next one will have some actual friends on it. You know who you are. Influences Brian Wilson, Neil Young, Wilco, Sub Pop, Cobain, Dave Grohl, Bob Mould, Pixies, Pavement, Weezer, Westerberg, Strummer, Berry, Buck, Mills & Stipe, Jim Bryson, Andrew Vincent, Kathleen Edwards, Danny Michel <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Friends+of+Steve">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.