Pilot Speed
(formerly known as Pilate
) is a Canadian rock band that formed in 1999 in Toronto, Ontario. The quartet's debut EP, For All That's Given, Wasted
, was released in 2001 which gathered attention from MapleMusic Recordings who later signed them. Their three full length albums Caught by the Window
, Sell Control for Life's Speed
and Wooden Bones
have since been released on MapleMusic Recordings in 2003, 2006 and 2009 respectively.
On June 26, 2006, the band posted a message on their site stating that, due to legal restrictions, they decided to change their band name before it incited lawsuits from companies outside Canada. As a result, they altered their name to Pilot Speed. [1] [2] Their second album was then re-released in the United States by Wind-up Records with a new name, Into the West
.
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PILOT SPEED TICKETS
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Band members
- Todd Clark
- lead vocals/piano/lyricist
- Chris Greenough
- guitar
- Ruby Bumrah
- bass
- Bill Keeley
- drums
History
Todd Clark, upon completing university, became overwhelmed by his desire to create music and, accordingly, posted an ad for a bassist on the internet. In this fashion, Clark and Bumrah met, with Bumrah later introducing Chris Greenough and Bill Keeley to Clark, all three of which were art school classmates at the time. Together they began to create music and eventually released an independent
EP titled
For All That's Given, Wasted
in order to establish their presence on the Toronto music scene. Their unique sound consisting of fervent falsetto and quiet depth eventually developed a small fan base, but Todd Clark insisted that the members of Pilot Speed were just four normal guys lucky enough to have found the same musical vision.
Pilate soon became a popular draw on the Toronto club scene. After the band played a show opening for the
British band
Alfie,
NOW
reviewer Sarah Liss wrote that "It's not too often that you catch a show where more of the audience is there to see the opening act than the main attraction." Attention on Pilate grew further when, at the
2002 NXNE festival in Toronto, Pilate was named "Best Unsigned Band." In the following year, they finally released, on
MapleMusic Recordings, their first full-length album,
Caught by the Window
, which was recorded at Toronto’s Umbrella Sound studio with Carvalho, and eventually spawned the hit singles "Into Your Hideout" and "Melt into the Walls." It also spawned a third single, "Overrated".
Caught by the Window
is often compared in sound to a mellow, hazy Brit-rock. During this period the band toured and performed with many notable Canadian talents such as
Lesley Pike.
With their new album,
Sell Control for Life's Speed
, released in Canada on
April 25,
2006, and on
May 2, 2006 in the
US, the band developed a harder sound when compared to their dulcet previous release. The first single from their second album is "Barely Listening." The single also appears on the video game
NHL 07. They re-released the record through Wind-up Records on September 19, 2006 and renamed it "Into the West." "Into the West" does NOT include the extremely up-beat, tongue-in-cheek - "For Canadians Only" song, "Lover Come In".
Their song "Alright" is heard during two scenes and closing credits of the movie
Death Sentence.
A blog posted July 30, 2008 on the Pilot Speed MySpace stated that the band is currently in the process of recording their next album with producer Dennis Herring
[3], who has previously worked with Modest Mouse.
On
April 28th, 2009, Pilot Speed released their third album,
Wooden Bones
.
[4]
Discography
Albums
- Caught by the Window
(2003)
- Sell Control for Life's Speed
(2006)
- Into The West
(2006) (US Version of Sell Control For Life's Speed)
- Wooden Bones
(2009)
EPs
- For All That's Given, Wasted
(2001)
Singles
- "Into Your Hideout"
- "Alright"
- "Melt into the Walls"
- "Overrated"
- "Barely Listening"
- "Lover Come In"
- "Ambulance"
- "Put the Phone Down"
Other contributions
- Northern Songs: Canada's Best and Brightest
(2008, Hear Music) - "Knife-Gray Sea"
References
- Pilate Homepage, ''pilate.com'', retrieved 19 April, 2008 (domain name is no longer valid)
- Pilot Speed Homepage, ''pilotspeed.net/'', retrieved 19 April, 2008
- Pilot Speed's New Album, "myspace.com/pilotspeed", retrieved 29 September, 2008
- http://indiependentmusic.blogspot.com/2009/03/pilot-speed-wooden-bones-out-apr-28.html