True Myth was a Canadian

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

musical group from in

London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

. The group is noted for having created the first digitally recorded album in Canada.

History

True Myth formed in 1977 at London's

Fanshawe College Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Technology, commonly shortened to Fanshawe College, is a public college in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is partnered with private ILAC International College. One of the largest colleges in Canada, it ha ...

, where the members were students. They began the group for a class project. The band was signed to

A & R Recording A & R Recording Inc. was a major American independent studio recording company founded in 1958 by Jack Arnold and Phil Ramone. History Before founding A & R Recording in 1958, Arnold and Ramone had been working at JAC Recording, Inc.; Arnold ...

by Gary Muth, and released their self-titled

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

album in 1979. The album was recorded live in Toronto at Sound Stage Studios, produced by Jack Richardson using a leased two-track

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

Soundstream Soundstream Inc. was the first United States audiophile digital audio recording company, providing commercial services for recording and computer-based editing.Robert Easton, ''Soundstream, the first Digital Studio'', Recording Engineer/Producer, ...

recorder brought in for the purpose. This was the first digitally-recorded album in Canada, and was recorded in four days live with no overdubs. The music contained elements of

and

jazz rock Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music Music genre, genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, a ...

. The band members at that time were guitarist Tony Cook, drummer Brian Bolliger, Steve McKenna on bass and slide guitar, singer Bruce Cumming and keyboardist Tom Treumuth."Photograph of True Myth Band"
photograph by Spremo, Boris, ''Toronto Star'', 1979. Ian Thomas and Marek Norman musicians contributed backup vocals, Matt McKenna provided additional guitar and organ work, and Erik Cadeski's percussion and wind-up fish in a tank can also be heard. Not long after that, Treumuth and Gary Furniss formed their own independent label,

Hypnotic A hypnotic (from Ancient Greek, Greek ''Hypnos'', sleep), also known as a somnifacient or soporific, and commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to sleep induction, induce sleep and to trea ...

. True Myth's second (and last) album ''Telegram'' was released through that company. Some of this album was recorded with

Daniel Lanois Daniel Roland Lanois ( , ; born September 19, 1951) is a Canadian record producer and musician. He has produced albums by artists including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, and Harold Budd ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

at Grant Avenue Studios in Hamilton, Ontario. The band had made some line-up changes before and during the making of ''Telegram''. Original members Treumuth, McKenna, Cook and Bolliger were joined by drummer Kirk Devereux, singer Malcolm McGuigan, and guitarist Bob Stirajs. Singer David Roberts, guitarist

Domenic Troiano Domenic Michele Antonio Troiano (January 17, 1946 – May 25, 2005) was an Italian–Canadian guitarist and songwriter, best known as a member of Mandala, Bush, James Gang, and The Guess Who. He also recorded music for film and television, oft ...

and clarinet player Jim Gilmour contributed to the album as well.

Discography

Singles

* 1981: "Give It Up" (Hypnotic)

Albums

* 1979: ''True Myth'' (Warner Bros. Records) * 1981: ''Telegram'' (Hypnotic)

References

External links

* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1977 Musical groups from London, Ontario Canadian rock music groups 1977 establishments in Ontario