Album Notes

We were just kids that grew up on Punk & Grunge when we started The Soles in 2001 The songs contained here span a period of ten years starting at about that point. I was into activism and really angry about the rise of global fear and war at the time. These songs, from Trodden On (track 2) to All The Destroyed Things (track 4) to the visceral rant of the live Detainee Song (never released as an album recording), contain the thoughts and passion I had towards the world as a young musician and activist. The songs from The Soles LP 2004 contained here, are a testament to my inner struggle as a young man as it relates to the outer struggle I saw in a world gone mad with violence and hate. Looking back, the songs are maybe sometimes not subtle enough, but they are true to where I was.
There are also some early high school and 4-Track home recordings which I think are worth a listen. I thought they were good at the time, indeed, my first high-school recorded song is here, Crack In The Armour (track 17), and to be honest, I don’t think I could ever achieve the spirit of true raw, teenage, ADD, Rock & Roll energy that’s contained in that track. I’m in awe of it and who I was then, there is such a youthful honesty and the lyrics are pretty intense for a 16 year old (the age I wrote it).

There are a couple of other live tracks; one is F.A.S.C. (track 16), which is an acronym for ‘fetal alcohol syndrome child’. I guess I had way of finding tasteless or disturbing lyrics and titles, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing but it certainly does make its point poignantly. I had spent two weeks on a First Nations blocked in Kenora Ontario in 2005 and I became aware of how Native people were forced off their land, had their children taken from home and were given alcohol by colonists to sedate their will. They had no invention of alcohol before the ‘White Man’ came. This song, never recorded, was a surprise to me when I found it in my old live show files. An engineer I know, ‘Spark’, would attend many of our shows and capture them with good microphones strategically placed in the venue. These sound pretty good and are a great testament to the live energy and connectivity with a crowd that The Soles always had. You can also hear how good The Soles were at an early stage at connecting with a crowd on Trodden On Live (track 14).

Finally, there are some remixes of later Soles songs like ‘Hey Old Man (Turtkneck Remix) and Broken Ghost (D.R Remix) which I really like listening to and wanted people to have access to. This collection is really a great reflection of everything we were as a young band and it’s great to finally get it out there!

- Din, Singer of The Soles. February 2012