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Do Make Say Think started in January 1996 when three Toronto roommates, Justin Small, James Payment (friends since childhood) and Charles Spearin began performing shows loosely based on their experimental 8-track home recordings. The performances, like the recordings, were instrumental, largely improvised and steered away from traditional song structuring in favour of a more open-ended ambient style which drew from influences like
Gastr del Sol, Flying Saucer Attack, Brise Glace, Muslimgauze and Scorn.
For the first year the band included guitarist Robert Braz who left to be replaced by keyboardist/second drummer Jason MacKenzie. During the recording of their first full length album Ohad Benchetrit joined the band soon bringing with him drummer David Mitchell. (Spearin, Benchetrit and Mitchell had been friends for many years and played music together since high school).
In 1997 the band independently released their first cd Do Make Say Think which was quickley picked up by Montréal based label Constellation Records (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fly Pan Am, A Silver Mt. Zion...) and released worldwide. By the summer of 1999 the band had finished recording their second album Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead - a title taken from an anonymous art installation erected in the alleyway behind the home of the three roommates in Chinatown - and were preparing for their first European tour that Fall.
The recording approach to Goodbye Enemy Airship... became a kind of template for the records to follow: find a location, preferably rural (in this case Mackenzie’s grandparent’s barn near Port Hope,Ontario), free from distractions and complaining neighbours and move in for a few days to record lightly sketched out bed-tracks. After that, the songs are brought back to Toronto where overdubs are recorded and mixing is done over many months. The recording, mixing and mastering on all the albums so far have been done by Ohad Benchetrit and Charles Spearin with help from Justin Small.
After Do Make Say Think’s first European tour in 1999 Jason Mackenzie left the band leaving the current five core members: Justin Small - guitar, Ohad Benchetrit - guitar/sax, Charles Spearin - bass/trumpet, James Payment - drums, and David Mitchell - drums. Additional performers include Jason Baird - sax, Brian Cram - trumpet, and most recently, Julie Penner - violin.
From album to album more and more time gets taken in the studio to painstakingly construct a very meaningful and concrete idea, so over time the improvisational nature of the band’s performances has given way to a more clear presentation of the compositions. Currently there is very little improvising at a Do Make Say Think show.
In 2002 the band’s third LP '& Yet & Yet' was released; in 2004 'Winter Hymn, Country Hymn, Secret Hymn'; and to be released this February, 'You, You’re a History in Rust' which features guest vocals byAkron/ Family, Alex Lukashevsky (Deep Dark United) and Tony Dekker (Great Lake Swimmers). As well as Do Make Say Think themselves singing on the closing song ‘In Mind’.
Since the the band’s music is (until recently) entirely instrumental and often has a kind of landscape quality to it, it has been of interest to many filmmakers and has been used in films such as Mark Akbar’s “The Corporation”, Velcro Ripper’s “Scared Sacred” and Stephen Gaghan’s “Syriana”.
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