FREEPHONIC

freephonic

Steve Gaw - vocals, guitar

Aedan Helmer - guitar, vocals

Justin Purvis - drums

Robyn Stewart - bass

occasional appearances

Craig Woodcock - saxophone

Tyson Schallman - percussion

Brian Asselin - saxophone

Graham Lonsdale - trombone

1993 - 2002

Freephonic played many a show around the Ottawa area (The Whipping Post, Perfect Strangers, Barrymore’s, Zaphod's, Zaphod's 2, Oliver’s, Elephant & Castle, The Gluepot Pub, Molly McGuire’s and many others).  Also ventured to shows in Kingston, Brockville, Montreal (Le Swimming) and St. Andrews N.B (The Tidal Pool) as well as other shows here, there and between, including their hometown of Kemptville, On.  

Various recordings were made to tape from live shows and some "proper" recordings occurred at various stages during the band's time together.  Two songs recorded at Raven Street Studios were chosen to be included on a promotional cd of various Ottawa bands entitled 'Dusty Has Left The Building'.

From another session at Raven Street, a self-titled three song EP was crafted, with two of those songs eventually ending up on their debut LP 'Dual Exhaust' (2001).

Most of the full-length's 11 tracks were recorded for 300 bucks in one exhaustive, ginseng-fuelled all-night session at the long-defunct Distortion Studios. 

Zain Rahman designed the cover, and Paul Mahar co-created the found sound tape trickery of 'Pipebender.'

In the early years the band went through numerous name changes (Jupiter's Hollow and Afternoon's Highway), eventually settling on 'Freephonic' around 1997.  

Band members continue to play in various configurations, with all four currently playing alongside singer/songwriter Ben Mullin in the band Barn.

• produced by freephonic and Tom Brown

recorded at Raven St., Distortion and Sound of One Hand Studios - Ottawa

mixed at the Rogue, Toronto

cover by Zain Rahman

other photography by Paul Mahar and Erin Feeney

cd release poster

Pics from the making of Dual Exhaust....click for full view

Portrait Painter and Post War Pandas recorded at Raven with Tom Brown and produced by Jason Jaknunas.  The other track on the cd was a live version of Trial by Fire.

   Some various street posters all designed by Paul Mahar.

click for full view

Here are some live tracks from various shows at The Whipping Post.  Freephonic played many shows at this jam friendly venue sometimes with guest appearances by friends or musicians from other local bands. These were recorded by Lance the owner with his in house room mics or sometimes off the soundboard.  All were recorded to 2 track cassettes.

 A lot of our existing live show cassettes are incomplete, have sound problems, cut songs off or are just generally pretty gnarly.  These are from different dates and years...various performances of what was found and it is what it is. This will be updated as we find other live recordings.

with Craig Woodcock on sax

Some pics from the Whipping Post...click for full view

Here are two tracks from a live set at Barrymore's, Ottawa, 2001.  This photo with Craig Woodcock on sax is from the previous year when freephonic were the CKDJ Eastern new music winners.  Freephonic then opened the show the following year as heard here.  Both these songs feature Brian Asselin on sax and Graham Lonsdale on trombone.

Hush now my love is turning violent

This was a demo that was never used on any release, recorded at Raven Street Studio, Ottawa.  The 'master' of this recording had to be spliced together because of a two inch tape mishap and a big chunk of the song was lost...The mishap was that the entire soundboard fell backwards off it's mount crushing a zillion wires and knocking over anything around it.... we all presumed that many thousands of dollars damage had been caused (by weird gravity).  It was repositioned and Raven Street resumed as though nothing had ever happened.  thank heavens.  This is the unfinished mix but full version of the song that was copied to a cassette the night before the incident.

Pipebender

This soundscape is crafted form various elements- a backwards piano track from Steve's old tapes, newly recorded street sounds and voices with Paul,  Robyn humming a completely unrelated song of his own and a portion of a live freephonic recording.  Paul helped instigate the project and Aedan crafted the final mix of the track as it appears on Dual Exhaust.  It was heard as the pre and post show music before freephonic began their cd release show at Zaphod's.  

Boxcar Graffiti

This was recorded at Raven St.  Studio and was included on a cd released by the studio entitled "Dusty Has Left The Building".  1999

click for full view