Album Notes

Charlie Redstar is a UFO. No, seriously. The thing was spotted
flying over the small town of Carmen, Manitoba in 1975. The
sighting came decades before Charlie Redstar would dawn upon
an impressionable young man as the perfect name for his latest
musical project.

Jason Charney returned to Winnipeg from Grant MacEwan
College in Edmonton in 1997 with a performance degree in jazz
in his pocket and a doubtful outlook on his future in music.

"Coming to the conclusion that I would never be a heavy jazz
cat," he says, "I thought my future would consist of a 7-11 and a
trailer park." Instead, he narrowed his scope and rediscovered
his love for simplistic three-chord melodies. Charney pooled
resources to form Not Quite Lucy, a trio that fermented itself in
straight up indie rock melodies and a love for Britpop.

It was through friend (and former Crash Test Dummies touring
guitarist) Murray Pulver that Charney was introduced to Joe
Curtis. The accomplished player was just who Charney was
looking for to fill out the guitars in NQL's live show, and he
quickly signed Curtis on as the newest addition to the band.

After being granted a slot to play alongside some hefty talents
(Mix Master Mike, Nickelback, Bif Naked) at a major Canadian
music conference and festival, Charney found himself in a bind
when his drummer opted out of the trip, and the band, in favour
of a career opportunity beyond city limits.

Once again turning to Pulver, Charney found himself
contemplating a call to Dummies drummer Mitch Dorge.

"You never know how these 'I've sold eight million records'
guys will be," he said of his hesitancy. "Just my luck, he was an
asshole. Kidding!"

Immediately taken with Charney's charismatic nature and
originative songwriting style, Dorge was eager to come on board
as a creative force. As audiences grew, dynamics shifted within
the band and Not Quite Lucy called it a day in 2001.

More an elimination of dead weight than anything else, the split
allowed Charney to refocus his efforts and develop a new outlet
for his songwriting. Keeping Curtis and Dorge close by, Charney
adopted the moniker Charlie Redstar and began to direct his
creative energies to the trio.

"I think the core of Charlie Redstar is and has always been Joe,
Mitch and I," Charney says. "I've worked with them enough and
I trust them enough that I can bring ideas that aren't completed
and ideas that are completed to the table and see what happens.
From there we work them out arrangement wise, and fine tune
and polish. Then we get together in a band."

Fueled by Charney's songwriting but processed with a group
mentality, Charlie Redstar expanded to include renowned bassist
Gilles Fournier and New York based keyboardist Mike Bratland
in time for the collective to record their debut full length in early
2002.

Released December 2002, Charlie Redstar's eponymous album
fuses Charney's impressive pop sensibilities with Dorge's
ambient-tinged production techniques. The result is a collection
of songs as difficult to classify as they are to digest on the first
listen. Charlie Redstar masterfully carves a new path in the
ridiculously worn landscape of popular music, challenging its
listener with innovative twists and modern panoramas.

Contact:
www.charlieredstar.com