Jeff Mathers Vocals and Guitar Aaron Cyr Bass Steve Manning Drums
Channel Eight started in October 2007, a reunion of two longtime friends and collaborators.
Drummer Steve Manning and Singer / Songwriter Jeff Mathers first shared the stage in1996.
Jeff had just joined Steve's band, which was set to play a Battle Of The Bands in Vernon, BC.
Walking away with the cash prize, they quickly gained local recognition, and before long relocated to Vancouver to claim a spot on the city's thriving scene.
Moving eventually split their partership, each going his own way to get some field experience;
Manning played with CFOX SEEDS alumni Pleasure, and singer - songwriter Mani Khara.
With Mani Khara; opening for Grammy Winner John Mayer
Mathers fronted hard rock bands Soma City Ward and Goya; opening for the likes of Puddle Of Mudd and Big Wreck before ditching the 'rock bar' scene for acoustic nights at Backstage Lounge and Media Club.
Jeff released a solo EP of mostly acoustic material, enlisting his friends Toby Hulse (Retrograde/ Run The Red Light), Dave Benedict (Default) and Michael Johnston (KILL RHYTHM) as additional musicians.
While living on the West Coast gave our heroes experience, the hustle of city life began draining their spirits. Individually, each moved back to Okanagan Valley and soon Steve found himself sitting in on Jeff's acoustic sets.
As a duo, they playing anywhere and everywhere.The acoustic material was well received, but they found themselves missing the rock element.
They decided to "plug in" again, add bass player Aaron Cyr, and settle on a name.
Channel Eight entered into the studio with local producer Bob Gablehouse at Big Audio Productions and recorded 'Point Of No Return'.
Amped up and uptempo, the single generated over 100,000 Reverbnation widget hits, was included in a video game by VASTstudio.com, and distributed in bags of HevyD Kettle Korn across North America (hevyd.ca).
The band began playing clubs, opening for Art Of Dying, Gob, Cold Driven while fine tuning new material. They returned to the studio in early 2009 with producer Travis Saunders (Stutterfly, Secret and Whisper, Kookshow) to record 3 new tracks.
"Lights Out", "Getting Nowhere" and "Suffocating" showcase the band's attention to writing melodic hooks and infectious grooves.
With these new songs recorded Channel Eight found themselves in the Vancouver SEEDS radio contest top 20 for 2009 with the song “Lights Out”
2009 will see the band commercially release an EP while they continue to win over audiences on the live front.
Hey, How's it going? If you need any design work, please let me know. I can design t-shirts(for your class or band), or any other t-shirt or poster you may need. I also like to talk, so just comment me back if you enjoy talking I will talk back.(in a good way) (: oh, and please please please comment the pictures, your opinion means so much. <3grayson
Interview with Channel Eight this Thursday June 11th 9pm est on Indie Music Station Dragon's Lair with DJ WildWagon at www.blogtalkradio.com/WildWagon. Thank you for your time and Channel Eight Rawks !!!
hey Channel Eight the new stuff sounds great! Congrats on being a SEEDS finalist... you guys were killing it when you opened for GOB! Can't wait to see you play again. really. ~sam~