VaporLoQ

Gather around ye inquisitive minds as I impart a tale of yore.

I am of Irish descent and was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. After being raised in Catholic orphanages by nuns that I apparently was very fussy with and greatly disliked (though I was too young to remember that), I was adopted at almost 4 years old with clubbed feet into a stern upper-middle-class Irish Catholic family with four other adopted siblings. My new parents could easily afford to pay for the decade-long reconstruction of my feet. My Dad was a Civil Engineer who owned an oil & gas pipeline and oil rig surveying company (still in operation today) with 12 branches throughout several provinces in western Canada. The pressures of the business always put Dad in a bad mood and Mom on edge.

During months-long hospital surgery recoveries for years at the Calgary Children's Hospital, I rarely had any visitors and subsequently developed a petrifying fear of abandonment. Parents of other children in the hospital began noticing and bringing me little gifts when they visited their children. I felt embarrassed and uncomfortable receiving these offerings. It felt like tokenism to me. To this day, I still struggle with accepting presents.

My parents were impatient, rigid and harsh disciplinarians, and I kept acting out. So, I didn't foster a close relationship with my brother and sisters. Siblings and relatives noted I was never around. My childhood and teen years revolved around orphanages, hospital residencies and boarding schools. Until I was 11, most childhood pictures showed me in a leg cast. Other students and kids often made fun of me, and I found social situations to be stressful and difficult. I had trouble fitting in, wore weird, clunky, heavy, and oversized orthopedic moon shoes, walked with a funny gait, and didn't have many friends while growing up. Nobody would dare be seen near me — many humbling moments. I didn't feel confident enough to make friends easily. Indeed, I had my share of school brawls to defend myself. I was always viewed as an "acquired taste" by acquaintances and relatives. Everyone in my family agreed that things were much quieter and more peaceful when I wasn't around.

On my 12-block walks to and from school each day, for years, I would compose complex and ever-changing melodic musical compositions in my head, much like I do today with my music recordings. Besides playing cover songs, I would also write dance songs with my band when we played at gigs. They went over very well.

As a rebellious, loud, obnoxious, and unruly teenager, my parents sent me to two out-of-province private boys' hockey boarding schools (not being particularly sports-inclined) run by Franciscan and Salesian monks to complete my high school education far away from them. I didn't get the feeling I was their favourite child. For years, I wondered what kind of discount my parents must have gotten on me. They would always take family trips out of the country when I was in the hospital or at the boarding schools. Vacations, they said, were much more enjoyable without me. I learned about these surreptitious family holidays when someone eventually let something slip.

Growing up, I was often oppositional towards authority figures (parents, priests, nuns, landlords, employers, supervisors, educators, and creditors) and tried to eliminate them from my life whenever possible.

After an extremely medically challenged, isolated and very misunderstood childhood, and constantly hounding my parents daily for months, I got my first set of drums at 13, which my podiatrist enthusiastically approved. I formed a band with a few school friends and practiced in my family's detached cement garage, cohabitated with my brother's lab experiments and aquariums. We also backed up a large singing group. Over the years, we performed at many dances, weddings, special events, television programs, music recordings, radio station broadcasts, fashion shows, and various other public occasions. At the time, my parents forced me to study piano, which I didn't like; now, it's a blessing in disguise. I studied piano and jazz drumming at the Toronto Conservatory of Music in Calgary for several years, and I self-taught on the flute. Bombarded and submerged in music theory, it became apparent that this would be a critical ingredient to composing and playing music.

Fortunately, studying music and performing in bands at the boarding schools became my refuge, providing solace and a sense of purpose, improving my self-image, and making me feel more confident. It also gave me a sense of finally belonging somewhere with like-minded musical friends. At one of the boarding schools, the principal assigned me to my private music room, the only one with a piano, which instantly made my studio the go-to spot to come and jam. My music room was one of 12 on the school's top floor, where I would hide away, study, and practice piano, drums, and music theory for a couple of years. Ultimately, I could proficiently read and play piano and drum music. I jammed and performed in school events and music competitions with other like-minded, eager and aspiring musicians. In some ways, studying music at the boarding schools was another hidden blessing. I've always strived to create positive outcomes in the face of adversity. Ah, yes, the principal still frequently called my parents to complain about my insubordinate and disruptive behaviour, and Mom wrote me scolding letters. Still, I was never expelled, to my parents' relief. Music provided me with motivational challenges, restored my self-worth, and became a reliable lifeline, even to this day. Writing music is where I can express my feelings and bury my sadness. It's an escape, for sure. Music has become a big, warm security blanket I can hide under or wrap around when necessary. Music self-therapy; it's how I cope.

I no longer harbour disparaging feelings, malice or resentment towards my parents and appreciate all their sacrifices for me. We were never very close, but they were my best advocates. I now see the reasons for the spiralling cycle and abyss we created and fell into.

I formed and played in several bands and musical troupes throughout my twenties and thirties. My live drumming performance experience has also become a crucial learning component in creating music today.

In my early twenties, I received diplomas in Radio & Television Broadcasting and Journalism Arts from SAIT. For five years, I was a Radio DJ with a weekly 3-hour Saturday evening show (Notes on Vision) on a local not-for-profit cable community radio station in Calgary.

Through my twenties and thirties, I was a single parent. I worked in Calgary at a wholesale A&M Records distributor as a record promoter, and then for several years as a live-broadcast engineer at CBC Radio, where I learned the art of sound production, editing, mixing, and collaborating with a diverse range of personalities, including arrogant celebrities, ego-maniacs, narcissists, and difficult people. Working within a Union or for an employer wasn't for me, so I launched into self-employment as a freelance sound engineer, providing sound engineering services to local radio and television stations, as well as production studios. At that time, I also started and managed two retail record stores, one of which is still in operation to this day. Owning a collection of over 10,000 record albums and a few thousand CDs in most musical genres as an avid audiophile and being submerged for decades listening to all types of music (except rap, hip hop, soul, reggae, goth, and heavy metal), including engineering live radio shows and sound productions at CBC Radio and performing live music, I knew how a good production and mix should sound.

In 1985, I founded Wordscapes® Productions and worked part-time at a Web printing shop for a couple of years, serving as a 4-colour stripper of print film to keep Wordscapes® afloat in its early years. I then spent the last 40 years as a self-employed copywriter. Wordscapes® has since branched out into music production, where we are today.

I always hated the Catholic doctrine (vacillating between atheism and theism) and attending church as a child. But, to some degree, I was always in awe of the choirs during high mass. Some of the choral aspects of my music became marinated into the VaporLoQ sound. My arpeggiated piano and progressive jazz-infused drumming on upbeats permeate throughout the VaporLoQ productions.

Some of my musical influences include the early Rolling Stones (with Brian Jones and Mick Taylor, not with Ronnie Wood), The Kinks, The Beatles, Eels, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, The Cars, early Jethro Tull (with the group's earlier drummers Clive Bunker and Barriemore Barlow), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Tom Petty solo, The Bonzo Dog Band, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The Pogues, Sparks, Talking Heads, The Byrds, Tangerine Dream, Led Zeppelin, Little Feat, Transiberian Orchestra, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Bebop Deluxe, City Boy, The Rutles, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, XTC, NRBQ, Green Day, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, The Doors, John Prine, Willie Nile, Leo Kottke, Dave Edmunds, Floggin' Molly, They Might Be Giants, The Guess Who, Boomtown Rats, Status Quo, The Monkees, and The Turtles to name a few. (Editor: Is this list growing?!) (Me: ...What?)

My drummer influences are Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull), Barriemore Barlow (Jethro Tull), John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), BJ Wilson (Procol Harum), Bill Bruford (Yes/King Crimson), Garry Peterson (The Guess Who), John Densmore (The Doors), and Neil Peart (Rush).

My other interests include stock market day trading, photography and navigating my air and underwater drones through uncharted territories.

Oh, and my favourite colour is red.

There You Go - This Was.

David Turner, VaporLoQ