Johnny Zhivago emerged from Winnipeg’s postpunk scene, which also produced such bands as Ruggedy Annes, Monuments Galore, and Personality Crisis. Reportedly, they were scouted by former Spiders from Mars guitarist and producer Mick Ronson in the days before they split up for good. Before they spilt, they produced a “Microalbum” EP as well as a limited edition cassette release. In recent years, they reformed in after signing a contract with a company to promote sync rights for their 80s catalogue.

Hey everyone,
Many thanks to Suite Sound Labs’ Greg Mindorff, mastering engineer extraordinaire, for his work on our old songs and our upcoming releases! Greg is a Grammy-nominated and Juno Award Winning engineer who has worked with some of the top bands in Canada and the U.S. I think he has done fantastic work on our music!

Here’s a shout out to Dan at Shook Sound (shooksound.ca), who is addressing tuning issues and rebuilding the keybed on my 1970s Micromoog. This is not the same Micromoog we had in Johnny Zhivago, but one I was able to find recently. I am not sure how this unit will fit with my workflow, but it is a great sounding monosynth! I have also recently ordered an Erica Synths Steampipe, which looks like a very interesting physical modeling synth and might make some suitably horrible and spooky noises as well as lovely violin, cello, bell tones, and woodwind sounds. Sonic mayhem will ensue!

I have commissioned a video for one of our old Johnny Zhivago songs. This one will not be released unless our publisher agrees on the timing. However, I continue to make progress on our cover of Zero by Second Layer and I am hoping that there will be a video made for this song as well! Stay tuned for updates!

We did a reunion recording session of Zero by Second Layer. Scott Malcolm and Rob Filep from the old lineup were there, and also Scott Nolan on bass! We will be releasing it once we get a few backup vocals recorded! Hope people will be interested in hearing what we did with it. Sounds pretty dark wave! If there is some (any) interest, we will do a video for it!