I Mother Earth

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I Mother Earth
Also known as IME
Origin Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genre(s) Alternative rock, progressive rock
Years active 1991–2003
Label(s) Universal, Capitol
Former members
Jagori Tanna
Christian Tanna
Edwin
Franz Masini
Bruce Gordon
Daniel Mansilla
Brian Byrne

I Mother Earth, or IME, was a Canadian alternative rock band. The band was at the peak of its popularity in the mid-to-late 1990s; its members have moved on to other projects.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early years

Brothers Christian and Jagori Tanna (a stage name adopted through their admiration for Carlos Santana) met vocalist Edwin at their shared rehearsal space in Toronto around 1990. Edwin asked the brothers to form a band with him, and the three came together in 1991, taking on Franz Masini as a bass player. The band came up with the name IME, as in "I Am Me", but later decided the letters should stand for something. Jag Tanna plucked I Mother Earth out of the air and has always insisted it has no special meaning. The band, represented by a professionally-recorded five-song demo, played a mere thirteen shows over the next year. These were noted for their jam sessions, poetry readings, and murals painted in the background during the songs. At the end of the year, the band was in the middle of a bidding war between labels. IME ended up being signed to EMI in Canada, and Capitol for the U.S. and internationally.

[edit] Success

I Mother Earth headed to Los Angeles in 1992 to record its debut album under former Guns N' Roses producer Mike Clink. During these sessions, Franz Masini was fired, leaving Jag Tanna to re-record the bass parts by himself. Masini was eventually replaced by Bruce Gordon, whose band Rocktopus was breaking up at that time. With the lineup solidified, the band hit the road in an intensive international tour to support its debut, Dig, in mid-1993. Considered an anomaly in the "alternative" era and often mistaken for heavy metal, the album combined traditional hard rock with grooves, extended jams, psychedelic lyrics, and the Latin-based percussion of Luis Conte and Armando Borg. Dig spawned four singles, the first three of which actually originated from IME's demo tape and were later included on the proper album. "Rain Will Fall" and "Not Quite Sonic" were released in the summer of 1993, and "So Gently We Go" and "Levitate" were released the following summer. All four garnered respectable radio and video airplay in Canada, as well as rotations in the U.S. and Europe. The latter two singles in particular charted well on Canadian rock radio. The album itself won a Juno Award in 1994 for Best Hard Rock Album, beating out IME's childhood idols Rush for the award. This cemented a long relationship between the two bands, which started with IME opening for Rush the night after the Junos. By the end of the album's run, Dig was a Gold record in Canada.

After the exhaustive touring ended, IME ended up in different studios in Toronto and Morin Heights, Quebec in 1995. In these studios, the band worked on its second album, co-produced by Jag Tanna and Paul Northfield, who was most noted for producing Rush. Daniel Mansilla replaced Borg on percussion, and became the band's permanent touring percussionist. Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson also made a guest appearance on the song "Like a Girl". However, signs of dissension in the band were already showing. For the first time, Edwin revealed to the music press that he had no creative control in the band and that such a situation gave him "no reason to be (t)here". He had also spent a great deal of the sessions away from the band, recording the album Victor with Lifeson. Still, he remained with IME as the group recorded Scenery and Fish, released in mid-1996. The album, which combined IME's trademark sounds with a slightly softer, radio-friendly approach, was a critical and commercial success. In particular, the singles "One More Astronaut" and "Another Sunday" pushed the band into the commercial elite in Canada, the former cracking the Top 20 on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart. "Used to Be Alright" and "Raspberry" also made solid showings on radio and video. IME was nominated for a 1997 Juno Award for Group of the Year. The album was nominated for the Best Rock Album Juno, and was a double Platinum record in Canada. The band's new found fame also pushed sales of Dig over the Platinum record mark.

[edit] Transition period

Around the end of the tour schedule for Scenery and Fish, IME shocked many fans and reporters when it announced that Edwin would be leaving. From that point on, the band mentioned that Jag Tanna wrote the majority of its music (during jams with his brother and Gordon), that Chris Tanna wrote all of the lyrics, and that Edwin was merely there to sing. This and the usual "musical differences" prompted the vocalist to leave. Citing unmanageable tension, the band "mutually" agreed to part ways with Edwin. The remaining members insisted that they would carry on under the I Mother Earth name, and announced they would be searching for a new lead singer. IME also publicly criticized a show by Franz Masini's new band, which was advertised as "featuring members of I Mother Earth", as a blow to its own name and image. Edwin fulfilled all his contractual obligations with the band, including the Edgefest '97 tour, and left in mid-1997. IME itself ended up in bitter disputes with both EMI and the band's management (Capitol had inexplicably dropped the band prior), and subsequently broke ties with both.

During this time, the band went through hundreds of demo tapes, all the while maintaining the tour schedule and dealing with the aforementioned business issues. One tape, sent in by Brian Byrne, was instantly thrown in the trash until IME's drum tech Neil Busby, who was in a band called Klaven with Byrne, recommended the singer. IME finally listened to the tape, and after auditioning Byrne, immediately agreed that he was their new vocalist. However, the band members waited several months to tell him before finally putting an I Mother Earth t-shirt on him in late 1997, symbolizing his having "made the team". David Usher leaked the word publicly, introducing Byrne to the crowd at a Moist concert in November that year. The "new" IME made its first public performances on Our Lady Peace's Summersault tour in mid-1998, and was well-received by the crowds through both old and new material. IME was signed to Universal in 1998.

[edit] Byrne years

In late 1998, IME returned to Toronto and reunited with Paul Northfield, who again shared production duties with Jag Tanna on the new sessions. These sessions were chronicled on the internet by Bruce Gordon, long considered the most fan-friendly member of the band. Armando Borg returned in the place of Conte on percussion, though Mansilla remained IME's main percussionist. Rush frontman Geddy Lee was also brought in to provide bass for the album track "Good for Sule". While the Tannas were still in charge, they described the creative process as more "open". The result was Blue Green Orange, released in mid-1999. It was somewhat of a departure from earlier work, opting for more textured, spacier sounds and less of an emphasis on the band's hard-rock reputation. Still, the lead single, "Summertime in the Void", was a major rock hit in Canada and proved that the band was still commercially viable with a different singer and a change in sound. Subsequent singles "All Awake" and "When Did You Get Back from Mars?" also received solid radio and video airplay, but it was apparent that the band's commercial prime was over. The album's Gold status was seen as a disappointment by many compared to the previous albums. Tanna and Northfield won a Juno in 2000 for Best Recording Engineer, and the album was nominated for Best Album Design, but it received no musical nods.

IME came off the road and in 2001 the band members settled into their own Toronto studio, The Mother's Hip. However, this period was plagued with problems. Brian Byrne had ruptured his vocal cords and required surgery. Christian Tanna broke his forearm and was unable to play drums. After those injuries healed the band decided to scrap the entire session, which was reportedly filled with radio-friendly material, and start from the beginning. This occurred after a false story circulated in the media that the album was finished and tentatively titled Save the Last Disco. Furthermore, the band also dealt with the EMI release of Earth, Sky, and Everything in Between, an album of B-Sides and live recordings from the EMI years. The Tannas and Gordon issued a statement insisting the record was unauthorized and was nothing more than a "cash grab". Edwin offered no comment on the album.

IME then went to work on the proper new album in 2002 under David Bottrill (alongside Jag Tanna), taking only a short break to headline the Canadian MTV Campus Invasion Tour, and then releasing a song as a preview. The song "Juicy" was pressed as a promo single for the Vin Diesel movie xXx, and despite no push from the label and no video, it received rock radio airplay on its own. It was later included on The Quicksilver Meat Dream, released in early 2003. The album was an even larger departure from past works, with industrial elements replacing the Latin percussion (but not Mansilla, who still toured with the band), and a heavier, more progressive sound than ever before. However, the label was unimpressed with the nearly-finished product and demanded radio-friendly singles, so the frustrated band provided some after the fact. "Like the Sun" was another Canadian rock hit, but despite its popularity, it failed to sell the record. Due to dismal sales and arguments with the Tannas over the direction of IME, Universal withdrew all support from the band, leaving it to fund small tours and second single "No Coma" on its own. The song failed to be officially added to rock radio, the video received very limited play, and with that the band decided to end the album's run. The band provided the theme songs for the MuchMusic TV shows Much on Demand and MuchLOUD, but otherwise went unheard in the media for the rest of the year. Universal officially dropped IME at the end of 2003.

[edit] Breakup

In November of 2003, I Mother Earth performed a special show in Barrie, Ontario, entitled "Live off the Floor". Largely considered by those present as their greatest live performance, the intimate, nearly four-hour show featured the band performing in the round of the Georgian College venue, with the crowd on all sides. IME played most of its back catalogue at the show, and it was the band's final performance.

Following the band's breakup, Brian Byrne started a solo career. Bruce Gordon joined the Blue Man Group lineup. He is also playing with both the funk band Hot Fo' Gandhi and the garage jazz band The Tiny Specks. Jagori Tanna is a record producer, working with bands such as Dodger and Clarknova at The Mother's Hip studio in Toronto with his new label, UpperLeftSide music. Christian Tanna has been organizing local Toronto rock and jazz events, and is in a management role with UpperLeftSide music. He is also currently playing drums in Byrne's backing band.

[edit] Band members

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

  • "Rain Will Fall", 1993
  • "Not Quite Sonic", 1993
  • "So Gently We Go", 1994
  • "Levitate", 1994
  • "One More Astronaut", 1996
  • "Another Sunday", 1996
  • "Used to Be Alright", 1997
  • "Raspberry", 1997
  • "Summertime in the Void", 1999
  • "All Awake", 1999
  • "When Did You Get Back from Mars?", 2000
  • "Juicy" (promo), 2002
  • "Like the Sun", 2003
  • "No Coma", 2003

[edit] See also

[edit] External links