SPILL NEW MUSIC: KEVIN HEARN OF BARENAKED LADIES SHARES REMIXED, REMASTERED, AND NEVER BEFORE HEARD MUSICAL ORIGINS WITH HIGH SCHOOL BAND THE GLACIALS

KEVIN HEARN OF BARENAKED LADIES SHARES REMIXED, REMASTERED, AND NEVER BEFORE HEARD MUSICAL ORIGINS WITH HIGH SCHOOL BAND THE GLACIALS

“BUS BUS OR NO BUS” OUT NOW (SPECIAL SEASONING INC./CELERY MUSIC)

Acclaimed pianist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Hearn is excited to share his musical origins with never-before-heard track “BUS BUS OR NO BUS”. Before his work with Look People, Rheostatics, Barenaked Ladies and The Lou Reed Band, Hearn was in a high school band called The Glacials – eclectic, whimsical, and delightfully weird.

Originally recorded in 1988 to four track tape, this previously unreleased gem has been lovingly restored, renewed, and remixed with friends new and old. The new single arrives accompanied by a delightful music video, an eclectic visual collage sourced from the band’s high school yearbooks. A fitting tribute, and nostalgic homage to the vibrant spirit of the 80s.

In 2015, multi-instrumentalist Kevin Hearn unearthed a master archive (in this case, a now-vintage Mr. Sub bag) containing well over 100 tapes from a myriad of past musical projects – all in various stages of completion. There were solo recordings, material with Look People, Rheostatics, The Cousins – even with his current comrades in the iconic Barenaked Ladies. But most appealing to Hearn were the 20-some tapes cut with his first-ever band, The Glacials.

“We were really close friends, and it was our mutual interest in music that brought us together,” Hearn reminisces. Anthony Brown, Rich Brown Dave Szanto, Anthony Zarb, and Hearn were almost inseparable through their teen years in the 80s.

By day, they were classmates, classically trained and identically clad in the unmistakable uniform of St. Michael’s Choir School in Toronto. But in their downtime, they were fully immersed in musical experimentation.

Listening back nearly 40 years later, Hearn couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to what he was hearing than simple nostalgia; than fledgling voices shakily finding their way into multi-part harmonies. “I think it’s a reconnection to memories of a time when I was falling in love with music, and still exploring and learning about it – before I knew anything about the music business,” he laughs. “It’s just so joyous and innocent to me in that way.”

And so, slowly but surely, Hearn began digitizing the recordings, then encouraged Anthony Brown and some of his more current musical collaborators to help flesh them out with new and recut contributions alike. Years later, the forced downtime of the global pandemic gave him ample time to turn it all into something tangible.

“I think about some other young group of kids hearing this and connecting to this music, and that they might use it to set off on their own path,” Hearn shares candidly about his hopes for the music. “There is something so alluring about revisiting a fatefully captured, creative spark.”

The Glacials
[Single] (Special Seasoning Inc./Celery Music)
Release Date: February 2, 2024

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