Owen - The Long Bio

Owen - The Long Bio

 

 Owen - June 7th 1996 - Polish Hall - Woodstock

The golden age of Owen reigned from January to September 1996; the flame burned hot but for a short time. Even though the hit Slacker Anthem was from a previous line-up of the band, the song became a staple of their repertoire and it became better and tighter, Tom's voice and confidence had grown much from the days of the Beehive Studio back in Ingersoll in January 1995, when the song had originally been recorded.

The band's life ended after their final gig at Crabby Joe's in Woodstock on Tom's 32nd birthday. They had been living the Rock and Roll life of excess for nine months, and everything seemed to collide at once. A hiatus turned into the end. For now at least. If Slacker Anthem bursts back to life, who knows what may happen. 

But we are starting at the end, aren't we? The end of a new beginning perhaps. Tom Ryerson has been involved in music since 1982, and Owen was a slice of that very long climb up from 1994 to 1996. After Owen lay dormant Tom kept going, first in new bands, and then releasing all the music he recorded, first on CD, and then digitally. Which brings us to Slacker Anthem on i-Tunes.

The groundwork for Owen began in May of 1994, when the second line-up of Ingersoll/Woodstock band Saint Judy was formed. In the picture above, left to right is drummer Chris Daminato (From A Date With Judy), Singer/Lyricist Tom Ryerson (From A Date With Judy), bass player Jeremy Chambers, and guitarist Stu Jefferies (From Euphoria).  Saint Judy never laid down any finalized tracks, but did record their August 1994 concert at the Woodstock Fair. This cassette was issued in Sept 1994 and was cleverly titled "In Concert." 

The band drew their material from A Date With Judy, and the first incarnation of Saint Judy, plus a wealth of new material which was high-lighted at the Woodstock Concert. The concert was produced by Stan V. Antone, who had played in both A Date With Judy and Saint Judy Mach 1. In September 1994 the four musicians had their practice room broken into, and every scrap of equipment was stolen. Although everything was returned within two weeks, both Stu and Chris saw this as a sign that it was time to move on, Chris returned to Guelph, and Stu to St.Marys.

In November 1994 Tom met drummer Adam Arsenault and invited him into Saint Judy. Within weeks guitarist Stan V. Antone returned to the fold, and then Rob Hoyland, who had played with both Tom and Stu in Euphoria (back in 1992) came on board as well. Stan switched to bass, and Jeremy to rhythm, and just like that, Saint Judy was a five piece.

Over the ensuing weeks the band got tighter and tighter, and began to write new material. The plans were to debut with a 7" record, the Antone penned "Rock Star." But then something began to happen, Adam wanted to change the direction of the band from rock to punk, and began to challenge Tom. It wasn't long after that the band split into two, Jeremy and Tom going in one direction, and the other three in thiers. In essence Tom and Jeremy were kicked out of thier own band. 

Adam, Stan and Rob became the punk band 'Almosthere,' which evolved into 'Inside Out,' and then finally D.O.T. 

Tom had the idea of Owen as a band name from a book his children owned, called 'Owen the Mouse.' Jeremy liked the idea and the acoustic duo of Owen was born in January 1995. They began to write all brand new material, and the song Slacker Anthem, which Tom had written the lyrics for the previous December, became the center-piece of their set. 

At the end of January Tom bought studio time at The Beehive in Ingersoll, owned and operated by the leader of 'The Strange Phases,' Bob Brown. Slacker Anthem was still quite fresh, and Tom hadn't found his perfect voice yet, but that didn't stop them from recording the song, as well as two others, "Oh God" and "Has to Be," which were originals by Jeremy.

Bob added keyboards and a second guitar, and in March session drummer Rob Varro came down from Toronto to record drum tracks for all three songs. The songs were mixed and committed to a DAT tape, and then sent to Cincinnati to be pressed into a yellow vinyl 7" record. Tom designed the label layout using a BTO 45 for the template. He had created Mouton Music Canada in 1991 and had drawn Ivor the Mouton Ram for the label in '93. Tom's daughter Jeanette drew the character 'Little Guy' for the record sleeve. The sleeve included lyrics for both Slacker Anthem and the B-side Oh God, and then Tom added a poem called 'Journey to Infinity,' which he hoped to be included on an upcoming collection of poetry. (The poetry book Carnal Wreckage finally came out in June 2010.) Tom advertised in the National Chart and MEAT magazine, as well as locally too. 

On May 5th 1995 the Slacker Anthem 7" was issued on both vinyl and cassette single. The band sent the debut single out to every campus station in Canada, select stations in the US, and also many trade magazines including Billboard and Maximum Rockandroll. On May 27th Billboard published a favorable review and the rock and roll ride began.

The above picture was from June 1995 when the band was covered by the Woodstock paper, the Sentinel-Review. Tom on the left sports a new brush-cut, and Jeremy strums on the right. The band hounded campus radio stations and found themselves on three charts over the summer of 1995, getting to #8 in Sudbury, #18 in Halifax, and #48 in Toronto. (The 8's seemed to have it!)

An American promoter wanted to take the band on at $500 a week, and TVT Records asked for a demo. Tom secured two gigs at two stations in the Kitchener-Waterloo area.  The band‘s second single appeared in July of ’95 and was an ‘in the studio’ live version of “Guilty,” which was a regional hit in the K-W region. 

Guitarist John Speechley was looking for a place to jam, and agreed to share the rent on Tom and Jeremy's practice room if he could set up his P.A. there. On July 14th 1995 using the P.A. Tom and Jeremy recorded in demo form all of their current original songs, to which there were about 15. It was a whirl-wind recording session. Most of these demos have ended up on Fancy Dancer CD's. In the autumn of 1995 John was added on as a full member of the band, and wrote a great tune that was planned to be a third single. John's friend Bill Maryisen was added on as rhythm guitar.  

While advertising for a side project band called Cholera, Tom met guitarist Doug Hainer, and he joined the band as Bill exited. The four musicians wrote a stack of new songs and hit the studio in Mid-October, hoping to have the song "Implode" as the third Owen single. Session drummer Steve Doughty met the band at J.W. Sound, but the band was poorly rehearsed and the sessions were an atrocity. Tom's lack of confidence was over-whelming, and Jeremy didn't help with matters. Within weeks Tom asked Jeremy to leave the band, and drummer Steve Wright replaced Steve Doughty. Owen was back to a four-piece.

The above picture shows Owen in November 1995, drummer Steve Wright, guitarist Doug Hainer, singer Tom Ryerson, and bassist/guitarist John Speechley. It was decided by Tom, Doug and Steve that John's playing owed a little too much to the seventies, and was asked to leave the band on Dec 31st '95. Early in the new year Doug's brother Andrew 'Munchie' Hainer joined in on bass, and the golden line-up was set. Tom had learned the hard way that songs needed to be played and fleshed out before they were recorded, and when the band went back to J.W. Sound in February, they were recharged. 

The Owen 'zine, "This is Owen & Friends" premiered in the middle of February 1996, one thousand free copies distributed in Ontario and beyond, featuring a comic strip written by Molly Kiely. The second issue came out in June 1996. A third issue set for the fall of '96 never transpired, even though Molly did do up a comic strip, which will be published on this blog somewhere.   

Speechley found his musical feet when he formed Alchemy Chance, who issued a full length CD before Owen ever did. Jeremy Chambers retired from music, and Steve Doughty found religion.

On March 29th Owen issued their third single, “The Prophecy,” EP, which featured three new songs and got limited airplay in London, ON.  The band got gigs as well, the first was Tom's housewarming party in February 1996, and then the Woodstock bar 'Bros.' in March. In April they played the 'Embassy' in London, and appeared on the campus radio station for an interview. 

In June they played the 'Polish Hall' in Woodstock and 'Lee's Palace' in Toronto. The Lee's show was taped and several of these songs have crept up on Fancy Dancer CD's as well.  They secured a studio in Waterloo, ON, and recorded four songs, two on June 28th and two in July. The songs were Surreal, Small-Town, I'm Not Your Toy, and That Power Over Me. With the two latter songs Owen were getting heavier.

In conjunction with Jeff Lamers and his band Angerkain, Owen participated in the Country Camping weekend on August 4th '96. The weekend also featured the release of the compilation CD,  "Hard Rock Indie Comp," which is still for sale on Amazon. 

Later in August '96 Owen issued their fourth single, “Surreal,” which was drawn from the previously mentioned CD compilation. The second song from the CD,  "Small-Town,” was issued as a fifth and final single after the band went their separate ways. 

Both Surreal and Small-Town were ignored by radio, but to be fair the marketing plan expenditure was next to nil. 

The 7th and final Owen gig was at Good Time Charlies in Woodstock on Tom's 32nd birthday (Sept 24 1996). It was a fantastic show and the band went out with a bang.
On Nov 14th 1996 Tom wrote the article "Death of a Rawk Band; Owen 1994-1996," for Scott Stringle's 'zine. There was also a full page spread for Mouton Music commemorating 5 years in the business.Over a year later Tom issued the commemorative singles release, the cassette only "Hit Factory 1993-1996," and this remained to be the sole full-lengther released under the Owen moniker until 2014.

The band's official picture at the extremely big American website, Allmusic.com.  Left to right, Doug, Steve, Tom and Munchie. 

Owen went on hiatus after September 1996 and for the next following twelve years Tom Ryerson worked with Stan V. Antone in several bands; Cholera, Living in Fear, Fancy Dancers, Two Evils, Absolute Beginners and Witness for the Prosecution.  Tom has also released solo singles under the pseudonyms Thos. Christian, Thom C. Stage, and Thomas Thomas.  

On March 27th 2000 Mouton Music Canada and Owen got an internet presence with a website, and ever since then they have been on the web in one form or another. On November 2nd 2000 Owen and Thomas Ryerson were listed at AllMusic.com and UBL.com. 

On April 23rd 2002 Tom Ryerson decided to follow a path in stand-up comedy, and actually made more money in comedy ($725.00) over the next eleven months than he ever did in music. The peak was opening for Greg Morton on March 28th 2003, and getting a nice paycheck. Unfortunately Tom lost his focus in comedy and came back to music over the next couple of years. Comedy is always something he could fall back on though. He continues to keep notes on shit he finds funny. 

Owen reunited for a one-off practice in October 2014, which resulted in a live version of "Chain Saw" and a new photo session. They also issued two CD's, 2014's "Choose Life" and 2018's "Everything." 

2014 Owen line-up - Rob, Steve, Thom and Stan

Thom and Stan's new band is called 'Flesh Under Skin,' and they continue to play new stuff as well as all the old Owen classics.