Band History
The Rebel Wheel originally branched out of a studio project David was involved with back in Toronto in 1991.
He was asked to join a loose collabaration of players who were associated with Toronto band, Larry Stanley and the Family Jewels. It consisted of Gerry Fielding on drums and persussion, Ken Miskov on bass, Ed Campbell on bass, Ed Majkut on keyboards, David Campbell on guitar and bass and Larry Stanley on keyboards and voice. Any combination of these players would truck to Scarborough weekly, set-up in Gerry's garage, don headphones, and jam. While a lot of the music was improvised, the players also arranged parts for Larry's band, as well as songs for their various projects. In 1993 Christopher Plock joined on alto, tenor, soprano, and bari saxes. The unit was named "The Jewels".
After awhile, various members of the larger collective would end up backing other bands, or forming their own. For example; Larry, David and Chris all played for The Barbara Lynch Band. David and Chris played for "Crazy in the City", Larry, David, Gerry and Ed, all played for the touring version of "The Family Jewels", Ken and Gerry played for Latin ensemble, "The Chilli Peppers", and all of them worked on TV projects for David and corporate projects for Ed.
As midi became more and more usable on instruments other than keyboards, the band gradually became viable for a long-standing idea of David's. The idea was to play a jagged form of jazz fusion and free-form (like Zappa meets Earthworks by way of Henry Threadgill), and have each performer play their typical instrument as well as a midi counterpart. While reading William Kotzwinkle's novel "Dr. Rat", David came upon the phrase "The Rebel Wheel Broadcasts" (lab animals in a collective physic communication transmitting to all other animals about a world-wide animal rebellion ) and the band was officially born. The original line-up was; Gerry on midi drums, David on midi guitar, Larry on midi keyboards and Ed on midi bass. Chris Plock also loaned his awesome talents to the fray.
Some of the material on the first release was taken from that period, like "Thunderherd" and "Moebius Strip" . The band went through various incarnations, and had the same basic policy as the Jewels, wherein each member of a larger collective might consort using the same name.
Chris and David did a lot of recording under those auspices, and came up with most of the material for the band's very first limited release, "Hippity Hop Godzilla" which featured jamming over a series of drum loops and midi sequences.
About that time, David started working with Pelle Vadim, who originally was his bass student, but later became another collaborator. They shared a love for Bruford, Gentle Giant and jazz and Pelle was enthusiastic to form a similar ensemble. He brought his friends, (brothers and percussionists extrordinaire) Per and Cab Lind into the fray, and the second version of The Rebel Wheel was born. This time the music featured less improvising and more composed statements, many in the neo-Progressive vein. From this period songs like "One Ounce" and "Organ Grinder" and the epic "Crystal Rain Suite" were written. This line-up was featured on the official first release "The Rebel Wheel".
Since moving to Ottawa in 1997, David and the other members weren't able to maintain their weekly jams and it became increasingly difficult to pursue gigs and write collectively. After the 2003 release of the first album, the band did some support gigs in Toronto and with the exception of some recording dates, basically went into hiatus.
In 2005 David started another local Progressive Rock band "Casse-Tete" with drummer Chuck Ho and bassist Gary Lauzon. With the addition of Gregory Kampf on second guitar, the band started doing gigs, but the line-up never panned out the way David had hoped. After talking to Pelle and Per, it was decided that David would form a new ensemble using the Rebel Wheel name, and that made it possible for him to draft Gary Lauzon on bass, multi-instrumentalist Paul Joannis on guitars, keyboards, bass and drums and drum virtuoso Alain Bergeron on drums, keys and vocals, and Angie MacIvor on saxes, keys and vocals.
This lineup recorded the critically acclaimed CD Diagramma. In early 2008 however, both Paul and Alain had too many other commitments outside of the band. Alain was juggling his time between another Ottawa Prog band Nathan Mahl , who he had played with years earlier and was drafted back in the fold shortly after he joined The Rebel Wheel. Paul was the leader of the Rush tribute act Permanent Waves and his time was being divided by both bands. Eventually it was was mutually decided that both would leave and this paved the way for Aaron Clark to join on drums. The band then had a new energy, direction and ultimately functioned better as a leaner four-piece than it had with more members.
Just as the band was about to record their latest CD "We Are In The Time Of Evil Clocks" bassist Gary Lauzon decided to quit the band. It was a hard decision and one that both he and the band were loathe to make, but Gary had other projects in mind and the sessions weren't going smoothly. The band continued recording as a three-piece and david did double duty until ex-Nathan Mahl bassist Claude Prince stepped up to bat and helped the band finish the album. The sessions wently smoothly after that, but even at that, the album took thirteen months to finish.
Shortly after the CD was in the can Claude announced that he was leaving and the band was again on the look-out for more players. as it turned out ANOTHER ex-Nathan Mahl bassist Guy Dagenais became available. At first he was asked to fill-in for Claude for some gigs they had planned, but after one session, it became obvious that the band had the bassist that they had wanted for a long-time. David and Guy both played together in Nathan Mahl and Guy had also played on "Evil Clocks part 1" laying down the 5 string groove and a series of eloquent fretless solos.
In the spring of 2010, concurrent with Guy joining Ange took a hiatus to have her first child. The band then focused on a stripped-down leaner "sweaty prog style" and began intensive rehearsals. They did a series of popular gigs in that format and Mark Keill ,who has long been a fan of the band gave his informed opinion of their new sound in this review .
As is the band's wont, after six months of rehearsals and two months of gigging, they again imploded, this time bassist Guy Dagenais, throwing in the towel. Left with only Aaron and David they decided to take a wee hiatus and explore their options. For several months the two got together in various warehouses, garages and basements around Ottawa and jammed a high-energy, high volume "shreddy-jazz" free-form style of music. While it was totally gratifying, it left them unprepared to do gigs that would require them to cover the band's existing repertoire. Of course they soon got a call to do just that. This time it was the auspicious Progday festival organizers asking them if they'd appear at the 2011 show. They accepted and quickly drafted bassist Andrew Burns and keyboardist Guy LeBlanc for the show. They undertook a six week intensive rehearsal/learning schedule and in Sept, drove the 1600 kilometers to North Carolina and did their show.
Guitarist David Campbell was recovering from an ear-infection and all the band was overcome by the sheer heat (being "frost-bitten Canadian boys" after all), but they show was great and the band had a blast. As a unit, they had great energy and communal feel. Two weeks later, they opened for fellow Canadians Mahogany Frog at Ottawa's current hopping bar, The Elmdale Tavern, and ripped through a high-energy, infection free set. The band had found its legs and blew the doors off the bar!
It was decided that they would keep this line-up together, explore some more jazzier tunes and record an album, their first on their own label. That is where they are today, with a solid road-worthy line-up, a renewed energy and a fresh batch of new tunes.
