'I think getting some great responses to our music from around the world has been a real high.

The internet has really opened up the world, and when you get an email from someone thousands of miles away, across an ocean, telling you that they loved something you have created, it doesn't get much better.'

I guess it all started back in elementary school playing the recorder, and learning rhythm with the ta-ta-ti-ti-ta method. I grew up surrounded by music, listening to everything from classical, to Johnny Cash, to The Beatles, to instrumental stuff. I always wanted to be a drummer, but when I joined a band in school, there were too many drummers, so I ended up playing trumpet!

One day I picked up my brother's acoustic guitar, and many bleeding fingers later, actually could play a few chords! It wasn't a great guitar and the steel strings were like a half inch off of the neck! My parents always had a piano in the house too, so I would plunk away on that as well.

I can pick things up quite quickly, which is a blessing as well as a curse. It meant that I could get bored easily, and rather than stick with an instrument and learn it really well, I would move on to different instruments all the time.

Tom and I met through Scott, a mutual friend who always had a band happening. I started off as drummer I think, then bass guitar. Not sure, it's a bit of a blur. Anyways, that eventually progressed into an original band and Tom and I began writing songs together. After the band split Tom and I continued to write stuff, always saying we'd eventually record it one day. That day finally arrived, which is another great story, and Tom and I started recording a track called Lonely Fool. As we recorded we initially used synthesized drums, then thought we'd like to have a real kit on it. As it happened, Mike was in the studio at the same time working on another project and Tom asked him if he would mind laying down the drum track for this song of ours. Mike, great guy that he is, said sure. Then we realized that we wanted a guitar solo, and Tom asked Bruce, who Tom knew from previous studio work. While Bruce was recording guitar tracks, Mike happened to drop by the studio unexpectedly, ended up putting the tambourine part on, and with the four of us in a room together for the first time, you could feel that a band had just been born.

We really just write and record whatever sounds good to us. We're all on the same page pretty much musically, so it's very easy. Our sound is fairly retro I think, because of our influences, which do show through we're often told, but we do strive to sound like ourselves, whatever that may be, haha. Like most musicians we were influenced by The Beatles. I think we also were influenced production-wise by Sir George Martin (yes, there's The Beatles again), as well as bands like Queen, Pink Floyd, E.L.O., Supertramp, and the like.

I think getting some great response from around the world to our music has been a real high. The internet has really opened up the world, and when you get an email from someone thousands of miles away, across an ocean, telling you that they loved something you have created, it doesn't get much better.

Symphony in DeMeanor is me (Rob Vermeulen), Tom Carter, Bruce Carrick and Mike Michalkow. Our debut CD has just been manufactured, and we're in the process of releasing it.

As soon as we get the shopping cart thing working on our website it will be available there. Seriously, that PayPal shopping cart icon is starting to drive us nuts. It isn't working the way it is supposed to, or we're not doing something right. Waiting for that email from their support department, haha.

We really are proud of the CD… I think it turned out the way we heard it in our minds. Those songs are finally their own entity and can survive on their own. I imagine it's like having kids move out of the house. You've done what you can for them, and given them as much of yourself as you can, but now it's up to them to face the world on their own. They might do well, they might not, but they're still yours and you're proud of them regardless.

We're also starting to track ideas and get some pre-production work done on the next release, so that's very refreshing. We learned a lot in the making of this one, which should help us tremendously in this next release. (See, turn a positive into something good. We could tell you horror stories about recording the first one, haha)

Actually I am pleased with how each and every one of them turned out. If not, we wouldn't have released them. We're fairly picky, so if we don't like something it gets fixed, or deleted. Sometimes that's a curse, as things can take forever that shouldn't, but it's always worth it in the long run.

If I had to single one out I'd have to say I am really proud of Another Birthday, as I think it's a beautiful song that says so much. It's very sad, and when we first started playing it, it was difficult to get through. Now we've played it so much we became immune, haha. It does make a good statement though, about society, and how we seem to have forgotten about our seniors.

WAY too much to mention, haha. Plus we like to have a few secrets, wink wink, nudge nudge.

I've always fancied the Kazoo. In that previous band (10PM) I actually put a kazoo solo in one my tracks. It was a lot of fun!

First studio trip was horrible! (but yes, a learning experience, haha). It was a long time ago. Tom, myself, and our friend Scott went to a studio in Kelowna , BC to record a song called Lost Their Way. It's the song that we later re-recorded and was played in West Germany on Radio C. At the time, I was the drummer, Tom was keyboards including a bass line on keys, and Scott was guitar and lead vocals.

I intended to use the drum kit at the studio rather than travel with my own kit (which was lousy anyways). Turns out the studio didn't have a kit available so we ended up using a Dr. Rhythm drum synthesizer. Scott's guitar developed a buzz, so it ended up with a match between the string and nut. Those are just a few of the fun things that happened that day. It was embarrassing at the time, and extremely funny now, haha. The guys working in the studio thought it was funny at the time, despite trying to hide their laughter, haha. Good times…

That I could have a hundred wishes.

That I could have a thousand wishes.