artist Quest For Fire

You might think that after playing in bands for over a decade and a half, touring constantly in shitty vans to small towns you’ve never heard of, might instill the desire to make your new project, I don’t know, a lucrative one. Molding their creative output to something that sells, for whatever reason, never really crossed the minds of the four members of Quest For Fire, however. The sonic assault that these guys unleash onto unsuspecting listeners in a live setting through their sometimes 10+ minute journeys can either send the faint of heart running, holding onto their hats, or lift their minds and souls to levels normally only achieved by ingesting far too many illegal substances that we here at Storyboard know nothing about. Fortunately for all of us, the majority falls into the latter.

The band, made up of Andrew Moszynski (guitar), Chad Ross (guitar, vocals), Mike Maxymuik (drums), and Josh Bauman (bass), had spent a little over a year holed up in a small practice space near Toronto’s heavily industrialized lakeshore, quietly refining their vision while their other bands toured incessantly and disintegrated slowly. Upon the inevitable demise of Canada’s most beloved garage rock underdogs, The Deadly Snakes, of which Andrew and Chad were core members, Quest For Fire began to prepare for their great unveiling before Toronto’s unwary rock scene. Mike, however, was knee deep in the production of the gargantuan third full length from his band Cursed, of which he’d been a member of since its inception in 2001. They started things off slowly if not loudly. On a hot August night in 2007 the band made their first appearance at ‘the Boat’, one of Toronto’s most cherished dive bars located in Kensington Market. Escorted to and from the show in a friends suped-up 1960’s black hearse, Quest For Fire had simply stated that, like old man Death himself, they were not taking any prisoners. From that point on word spread like, well, wild fire. They quickly became the city's most sought-after and mysterious new bands. Show offers came flooding in to open for high profile acts such as Black Mountain, Ladyhawk, Eric’s Trip, Attack In Black, and Pride Tiger at their Halloween hell-raiser at the Horseshoe Tavern. Their thunderous sonic blitzkrieg was a little much for the Montreal Police Department to handle, however, resulting in their debut at the Pop Festival getting shut down, fortunately not before having already delivered a jaw-dropping and mind altering performance.

With the untimely death of Cursed after a nightmarish European tour in May of 2008, severing Mike from any other musical commitments, and with their new album being released on July 15th, nearly one year following their first performance, Quest For Fire have proven that they are ready and willing to more than fill the shoes of past bands, and forge ahead as one of Canada’s next rock n roll overlords.

Andrew Moszynski Electric and Acoustic Guitars
Mike Maxymuik Drums, Percussion
Josh Bauman Bass
Chad Ross Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Voice, Korg