Describing any concept, art work or song as a ten second epic is an oxymoron, and makes one ask exactly what the hell a ten second epic is? Patrick Birtles, drummer for Canada's TEN SECOND EPIC has a quick and straightforward answer, "You don't need to wait years for something epic to happen in your life, you can make it happen in the next 10 seconds. You can start to make anything you want to happen right now".
You can? Yes you can, as proven by a group of young guys from varying musical backgrounds coming together in their teens and starting their epic just like that.
The desire to play came very young to guitarist Craig Spelliscy and drummer Pat Birtles who were already making music together as early as grade 5. Fast forward several years and you'd find the two at different high schools but still great friends with an even greater desire to play. Craig brought in classmate and bassist Sandy MacKinnon to the fold who then introduced a pinch hitter in classically trained jazz guitarist Daniel Carriere. Finally, and somewhat surprisingly, the epic would round out and begin with a vocal addition in singer/music class dropout Andrew Usenik. As Andrew recalls, "I failed out of grade 7 music class because I was forced to play the bassoon... the bassoon! Let's just say it wasn't exactly where I saw my love of music going". But with no love lost, if anything it pushed Andrew to search out his true musical roots, the boys came together and knew they had a dream to start.
After selling nearly 4,000 units of their independent disc One More for the Road, playing every single date of the Canadian leg of the 2005 Warped Tour, selling out 1800 capacity venues, and being voted "Best Band In Edmonton" by SEE Magazine, TEN SECOND EPIC were planning to head in to the studio last December when the fates conspired and their producer dropped out of the project. A blow to the band but a blessing in disguise as it prompted TSE's management to send the disc to Canadian super producer GGGarth Richardson (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, Mudvayne, Hedley) and while touring in Toronto early in 2006 they got a call that would change them forever, "GGGarth Richardson called and said he wanted to record with us and he needed us in the studio ASAP... like tomorrow ". The guys immediately jumped in the van, headed west, and ended up spending the next several weeks, save one week to play Taste Of Chaos, recording at GGGarth's Farm Studios in Gibsons, British Columbia. When remembering TEN SECOND EPIC's time at The Farm Usenik describes the mentorship the band received under GGGarth as pivotal in helping them realize themselves and their sound on the new record Count Yourself In, "GGGarth taught us so much. He taught us the difference between a song and a great song. He taught us that everything in the song has to matter, every single part has to have a reason for being, and nothing is filler". Andrew mentions one of his favourite tracks on Count Yourself In being Old Habits Die Hard for just those reasons, "It's such a dynamic song. The verse sets the tone and the chorus blows you up! Every part of the song has been built to intensify every other part. It's like a perfect balance for me between chaos and control". In fact, Usenik states that is the goal of Count Yourself In as a whole to achieve that fine balance between technical and simple, that tightrope of pure enjoyment and pure skill, "You don't have to be experienced musicians to understand what we are trying to do... you just have to want to be involved".
TEN SECOND EPIC want to give fans something different with Count Yourself In to add to their musical repertoire but not too different, just different enough to make it interesting enough to check out again and again,"We hope people who listen to this record will want to go back and notice the subtleties because the music makes them curious enough to do so. We want to leave question marks... and answers".