M.S.G. was born out of necessity.

When I first met Ivan he lived in a small detached house where he could make as much guitar noise as he was able to produce at most any reasonable time of day or evening, then he moved. Now in his new apartment dwelling - he was clearly frustrated that he could no longer get away with turning on even his small amplifier at home without disturbing someone pretty much all of the time. We were fixed on the idea of making some sort of noise right about then, so in sheer desperation we concocted a makeshift solution to the problem.
Alberta has a few things we don't have here on the Canadian east coast (Newfoundland) where I come from and currently reside. Car engine block heater electrical outlets pretty much everywhere happens to be one of those things. Many sizable Calgarian parking facilities have rows of electrical outlets where winter drivers are able to plug in their vehicles to prevent the engines from completely freezing up, and we realized that night we could also use that same electricity to power tiny amplifiers and tape decks easily enough too. Our sonic brother Craig had this huge green GMC 3/4 ton beater work van with no rear windows or rear seats - it was enough space to let us set up three small amps, my 4 track cassette deck plus a couple of mics and our physical selves with guitars (albeit a little hunchbacked) So off we drove in search of a prime location. Soon we ended up at the nearby downtown high school which had plenty of outlets available for use. Right behind Western High on 17th Ave. SW. We turned those tiny boxes as loud as we could get them. Actually I pretty much rendered my tiny Pignose amplifier officially "oink-less" during M.S.G. #2 in the very same place just a few weeks later (fully worth it) At some point maybe 30 or 40 minutes into our journey on M.S.G. #1, we heard a knock at the rear van door and of course we assumed it was probably law enforcement wanting to ask us some complicated questions about strange noises. We cracked open the door to meet the Western High School maintenance man who was working after hours in the closed building. He said he didn't mind whatever we were doing there, and further explained he was just a bit perplexed by the idea of what was making the odd sounds he could hear from inside the building while he inside working.
Clearly he had to investigate further.
He left us...and we laughed and laughed... and kept it going.
By the end of the M.S.G # 2 we were in near darkness in the van. No rear windows, just a little ambient light coming through the front glass... it was getting later in the evening.
Creepy wonderful good times.

We had one more loud night of full mobile action in Craig's van about five weeks later with Clinton St. John squeezed in there too - that's M.S.G. #2. Another night a while after that we rented rehearsal space in Slaughterhouse Studios and set up full sized guitar amps to track there. Our friends Kieran McAuley and Craig's brother Mark McCaul also came along with guitars & amps that night for M.S.G. Confined Live @ the Slaughterhouse(Slaughterhouse Studio - Calgary). Clinton was hosting a late night radio slot at the U. of Calgary's CJSW 90.9 Campus Community Radio Station around this time, and we went on the air live in their broadcast studio one night for more than two hours straight. That's M.S.G. Live @ Apocalypse. We later managed to get the only "real" gig we ever did at the Republik Night Club opening for a band called Storm & Stress (members of Don Caballero) Unfortunately our friend Ian forgot to press record that night, so it goes down as the only M.S.G. experiment never captured to tape. We then recorded "M.S.G. In Space" in late 1998. and we were happy to be in space - as in - in our own new rehearsal space. And speaking of space, upon first playback after many years I do believe we were very much in space in several ways during that particular recording.... I left the blank air (ie: us holding guitars quietly hypnotized, leaving the room & re-entering between sound breaks, minimal conversation, etc.) all for your listening pleasure. I think one of us probably went a little further into space that day than the others as the interlude within the mix nearer the end of "M.S.G. In Space" barely alludes to. (I'm lookin' at you McCaul) Funny thing about M.S.G. is, once we had a location to do this sort of thing regularly - we mostly just stopped doing it completely (go figure) There was one last recording live to digital format during the production of the second "Catch & Release" compilation at our then home in Calgary. It is possibly the most angry sounding of any of these special recordings.

Long live the long lost Mobile Symphonic Guitar.









For Ivan Sellers









Session information for the listener:

M.S.G. # 1 - March 28, 1998
Stereo mics, EQ and compression.
Recorded live to 4-track cassette from inside the van.
Original stereo source recording - no editing.
(No editing means NO editing, so enjoy the uncontrollable track bleed of some previous recording that occurs on MSG # 1 Tape 3 for approximately the first two minutes.)
Guitars: J. Swyers, I. Sellers, C. McCaul

M.S.G. # 2 - May 5, 1998
Stereo mics, EQ and compression.
Recorded live to 4-track cassette from inside the van.
Original stereo source recording - no editing.
Guitars: J. Swyers, I. Sellers, C. McCaul, C. St. John

M.S.G. Live @ Apocalypse - Broadcast: June 4, 1998
Recorded live to stereo cassette at CJSW's production room.
Total recorded session footage approx: 130 mins.
Session footage cut into three sections - then layered together for simultaneous playback - two partial mono channels reversed.
Guitars: J. Swyers, I. Sellers, C. McCaul,
Intermittent background words & samples: C. St. John

M.S.G. Live @ Slaughterhouse - May 24, 1998
Three mics - three tracks - tracks duplicated & effected.
Recorded live to 4-track cassette - no editing.
Guitars: J. Swyers, I. Sellers, C. McCaul, K. McAuley, C..St. John
Bass: M. McCaul

M.S.G. In Space (date unknown 1998)
Stereo mics, EQ and compression.
Recorded live to 4-track cassette in our space - stereo channels duplicated - duplicates reversed and effected for simultaneous playback with original stereo source recording.
Guitars: J.Swyers, I. Sellers, C. McCaul, C. St. John

M.S.G. - Final Session (date unknown 1999)
Recorded live to ADAT - three mics - three tracks - EQ & compression.
Original source recording - no editing.
Guitars J. Swyers, I. Sellers, C. McCaul.



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