ON PAYBACK... Most of the songs were written in a spider-infested, rodent-ridden utility room near High Park. Temperatures ran from sub-zero to sub-tropical, it flooded twice, and bricks fell from the ceiling. I had a recorder, two guitars, a cheap mic, and a monster amp, wrapped around me like the cockpit of a plane. One night I moved a box and thousands of baby spiders scattered into the darkness. I’d heard of black widows in that area, and that’s the only time I didn’t record. I couldn’t sit in the half-light with headphones on and my back turned to all those little bloodsuckers. Steve Kosub/Bell Hollow

 

ON RANDY...First and foremost, Randy is a craftsman. If there were no guitars he’d make one. Then he’d make a stage, a chair and houselights to play under. Over the years, he’s made some interesting things for me. After he made me a guitarist, he made a monogrammed “Strat” pickguard for my ten-dollar ukulele. Then he made me learn “Layla on it” during grade eleven geography. 

 

ON STEVE...I was born in Halifax, raised on the Trans-Canada. In Nova Scotia, Quebec, Alberta and Ontario. I’ve lived in a car, a boys’ home, my uncle’s hotel. I’ve lived with relatives, strangers, a house full of Chinese engineers, a TV star and a hillbilly killer. A middle-aged peroxide nympho and a Krusty lookalike. When I was seventeen, I argued with my dad about drumming. After he left, I packed my Habs duffel, and carried my kit through the snow to a rec center where I ran the rink. I slept on a beat-up couch for six weeks, played the drums, and lived on jelly-roll. I founded Bell Hollow, wrote, recorded and co-produced PAYBACK, did the promos and packaging, and named the Ottawa studio - Etched In Sound. I’ve run the back woods of Algonquin, scrambled a Chinatown market in my kung-fu uniform with a pig on a platter, been plucked from an Alberta riverbed just as the rush from the dam lifted me. Most of all? I remember waking up in a ‘62 Dodge Pheonix with the doors open and the ocean lapping at our wheels. Somewhere off in the mist, there were stories, and I had to find them first. Then I’d wake everybody up.