Steve wildesmith

CD Warehouse in Ottawa, Canada

www.mymusic.com (coming soon...)

iTunes (available NOW!!!!!!!)

History
I shared a house with a bass player named Ronnie Gendron who was rehearsing in the basement, one day they (the band) asked me to fill in on vocals for them as their singer had not shown up. I did. Then they asked me to join the band. I declined because the music was not to my liking but it lit a little fuse.
I played my 1st gig, due to the prodding of Ronnie (the bass player roomate of mine), at a Hallowèn Party dressed as Alex from A Clockwork Orange. We played 2 originals I had penned in the weeks before after another roomate in the house Jerry St Denis from Windsor (biggest fan of the PUNK BAND the DRY HEAVES) gave me beat up 1964 Fender Duo-Sonic and Ronnie introduced me to Open A tuning. I have never bothered to learn how to play ever since and play several different open tunings both live and to write. The night was mentioned on the early Section 8 single "Hollywood Hallowe'en"
Section 8 started in fall of 1979 covering the likes of Television, the Stooges, the Pistols, The Stranglers, Eddie and the Hot Rods, etc. You can hear covers of Friction from Television and Pablo Picasso from The Modern Lovers are on the jukebox on the Section8live.com site.
We played Barrymores and The Roxy mostly. They were our favourites. Barrymores because the stage was so great and we got to open for name acts, and The Roxy on Elgin because it was a true night club environment. and because of Paul Symes who sought out acts from Mary Margaret O'Hara to the Secret V's and everything inbetween and we got to open for our fair share. My personal favoutites were opening for Mary Margaret because she was such an amazing artist.
We are grateful to Paul for those days. BTW, he now runs the Blacksheep Inn in Wakefield go there anytime and you will hear and see great music being played.
By the time we were playing The Roxy in 1980 it had become very clear that I had songs of my own I wanted to play and so Section 8 became an almost all original act and played till December 1989 with thier last gig opening for BTO at Barrymores.
After that gig I went to Jamaica and when I got back I found that the band had blown up.
By this time I was tired and I withdrew into the wildes of parenthood to raise a family.
Anyone interested in "then" can hear some songs and see some shots from the Roxy and Barrymores at the www.Section8live.com site.
Present
Resurfacing after this period of domestic hibernation, with a roster of vibrant and talented new players, I attempted to play as Steve Wildesmith hoping to make music once again. I came to the party with a bag full of NEW songs that were somewhat political, the music melodic, and the arrangements reminisent of the multitude of musical influences I have experienced.
Comments at early open stage gigs were almost non existant as hardly anyone showed up beyond a few of our friends.
The result was we didn't get any offers to play for the popular bands or the good opening slots. This is fair and understood and as it turned out was very good as it will allowed me to simply work on the songs from the perspective of making them as good as I can for me and me alone.
Now there is a disc under the title broKN sLeEP. It is a mix of a few styles developed while working with the very talented Blair Hogan, Mike St Jean and Alex Mastronardi. Currently the focus is on writing for other artists and soundtracks although bRoKN sLeEP will likely do a live show an dVisdeo shoot in October 2009.
i could not speak of writing and creating without mentioning the string of jammers from the beginning of the process in 2002 to 2006 while I was resurfacing. The list is long, but the main participants were Dave Wong, Ken Lucus and Greg Ward on bass, Karl Reznick and Preston Tombaugh on guitars, and Steve Graham and Ross Williamson on Drums.
Recording was chipped away at thru 2007 and 2008 with a day here a day there in order to get the songs to where I would like them to be. Time and money made it take awhile but that's OK. Since it's completly "indie"I get to take as long as was needed.
With luck the disc will see some play.
Trivia
Under the name Steve Bent (moniker while with Section 8) I was the recipient of the honour of allegedly writing an obscure song that a band named THE FALL covered on the Album The Infotainment Scan, released in 1993 on Permanent Records in the UK and by Matador Records in the US. It was noted at the time of its release as the band's most accessible album, and came when the band were experiencing unprecedented recognition in the media. It entered the UK album charts at number 9.
The album features covers of the Sister Sledge disco hit "Lost in Music", and of Steve Bent's "I'm Going to Spain".
The only recolection I ever have had of this being a song I may have written was when I met a band while in Morocco and we jammed and made up some songs which they recorded on a cassette player. I wrote to the band and said it's not my song but they (thier publisher) insisted it was. Hmmm well the chords are chords I'd write and the song is so bad it just might be one of mine from the jumbles of my meanderings through Morocco.