About

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 Fast forward to early 2020 and the start of Project Cipher: 

The Wring is in hiatus. Covid is attacking the world.

I had a lot of songs written and demo’d and really wanted to get them recorded. I decided to get back in touch with Jason Henrie – the original bass player for The Wring – I asked if he wanted to do a recording project. He did.  In addition, through his session work with Jason Sadites and Marco Minneman he had some contacts in the world of pro musicians…

I connected with Thomas Lang through Jason’s network. Thomas is a world class drummer, producer and music educator. He also turned out to be an amazing person. He was featured on the cover of Modern Drummer magazine in August 2020 – during the same timeframe he was working on my songs!! 

Thomas recorded drums for 7 songs that would become ‘Project Cipher’. This guy has a musical resume that would stretch to the moon… but he took the time to learn my songs, playing them through in single takes so that – in his words – “it would sound like a band not a session”. He also did video for two of the tracks, so you can watch him and catch that vibe. What a great experience.

Thomas also took the time to connect me with Marc Bonilla. Marc is a pro musician, vocalist and producer who worked with Keith Emerson, Ronnie Montrose and Glenn Hughes, to name just a few. His soothing vocal style offers a great contrast and complement to the songs.  Marc is a great singer and an even better human.

Next came the bass... Jason Henrie intended on tracking all of the bass parts but life commitments precluded that.  He didn't leave me stranded though, connecting me with Bryan Beller.  Bryan has an incredible list of credits (Vai, Satriani, Dethklok and of course, The Aristocrats).  He is also an awesome dude.  He really brought the songs to life.

Jason Henrie tracked bass on four songs and, as always, did an impeccable job.  That Wal has a voice and life-force all its own.  Jason also has an incredible flair for graphics & video.  He created the videos for The Light and Cipher.  He also came up with a lot of the graphic content for web and social media.

I also have to mention a cameo guitar solo on 'Dissension' performed by Jason Sadites.  His Chris Poland meets Paul Gilbert effort really elevated that track!

Finally, I needed someone to put this all together so I enlisted Forrester Savell for the mixing and mastering of the songs.  Forrester is super pro and really understood what I was trying to do, capturing the essence of each song.

For a regular guy from Northern Ontario, it's been a great experience and, I think, a pretty good record.  I only hope that some version of The Wring will play live again someday.

DD