In 1995, Trey and his band, SHAFT, were looking for a front-man to finalize the line-up and take it to the stage. Lyle was considering his creative options and, with an open-mind, met with SHAFT. Little did anyone know at the time that a 16-year + songwriting relationship was beginning.
After a year-and-a-half of closing down clubs with searing tunes and outrageous stage shows in Tulsa and OKC, Trey and Lyle moved to California, formulated a new rhythm section and set about re-working the nucleus of SHAFT: Tightening the screws, focusing on elevating the tunes & hitting venues in Los Angeles, Orange & Riverside Counties. The beat of this re-vamped band was Yash,.. who, upon joining SHAFT, was also adding himself into the long-term equation as a 14-year + member to the songwriting team.
After another year-and-a-half cycle, SHAFT imploded. Only a few live recordings, one long-lost video & HOT BOX, a 4-song EP recorded by Marty Beal, were left in the aftermath. It looked like it was the end of the road…
…until Lyle, in a self-imposed exile, received a call from Trey & Yash. They had recruited another bass player and were sending a tape of new songs. SHAFT became MUZZLELOADER and, with a wealth of new material, continued its assault on CA anew in 1999.
MUZZLELOADER released a debut album in 2001, The Not So Secret Lies of Bobby Scorpio, engineered and mixed by Marty Beal & mastered by John Vestman. A sonic journey through the drug-addled/enlightened/schizophrenic mind of Bobby Scorpio, this album wandered from idealistic hippie values to violent outbursts and back into sedate psychedelia… and back again. The live shows, though lacking the theatrics of earlier SHAFT shows, rivaled them in sheer musical intensity. Several hours of several practices a week tightened this band to a level of intuition that doesn’t often exist without a price… which, after a 5-song EP MZZL (also engineered/mixed by Marty Beal), was paid in full with the destructive force of another pressurized implosion.
Trey and Yasha continued working together and quickly recruited Kentaro to take up the bass-end of the Phoenix from MUZZLELOADER’s flame: BLAUDO . The trio set out auditioning vocals and working on new material. After a few false starts and no luck in finding a new voice, BLAUDO reached out to Lyle, who at the time was living a semi-retired, domestic life in Chicago. Agreeing to work together on the songwriting, a new batch of CDs was mailed out and a fresh perspective of lyrics begin to unfold on slow, Fall drives up the Lake Michigan Coast and in the dark bars of Chicago. Over a series of flights between Chicago and Los Angeles, BLAUDO set in motion the creation of their debut album: b l a u d i o
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