My Calvin Quaite Fan Page
Hi! This is my Calvin Quaite fan page!
So first of all, if you're looking at this page you probably already know who Calvin Quaite is. If not, you're crazy! Just kidding. Unless you live in British Columbia, Canada you may not have heard of Calvin. He is currently the bass player for the band Scarecrow Balcony, but he has been in many, many B.C. bands in the last ten years or so, and he is a staple in the Vancouver music scene, But most importantly, he's super gorgeous - LOL! The bio of one of Calvin's old bands Socratic Method says he picked up his first guitar in 1988, but when he played bass on the Trooper Tribute Album with a band called Sediment the bio there says he bought his first guitar at age fifteen. If he was 15 in 1988, then that would make him 31 years old now (2004) but I have it on good authority that he turned 33 this year, so there's something a little funny about the info in the bios.
To the right is the first know picture of Calvin playing guitar, (that I could get my hands on at least) which was taken by a friend in about 1990. Check out the perm! I think he's 19 in this picture. If anybody has any earlier pictures or proof of when Calvin started playling music please let me know as I would like this page to be accurate and I would also like to find the earliest possible picture of Calvin playing music.
Aparently between 1988 and 1992 Calvin played in a bunch of bands that did mostly cover songs, though nobody has ever confirmed that they ever saw him play any live shows with these bands. Some of the known band names were 'Kaos', 'Hillarium', 'The Harley Band', and 'Jammin' though it is speculated that he played with a lot of different people before forming a real band.
The picture to the left shows Calvin at the end of 1991, shortly after moving to the big city of Vancouver to make it in the music industry. Hooray - the perm grew out! Doesn't he look like a young Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall?
So after moving to Vancouver, one of Calvin's first roommates was Rick, the drummer for Socratic Method at the time, and Rick quickly introduced Calvin to the other members of his band, Wayne, Shayne, Darren and Eric. It is rumored that Calvin was first introduced to his future wife Carole at the same party that he met Socratic Method at. Of course, Carole was going out with Darren the guitar player at the time, but that's a different story! Calvin quickly befriended Socratic Method, and jammed with them quite a lot at parties and sometime at after hours clubs, during the early 90's. The picture to the right is a very rare glimpse of calvin playing bass guitar at one of Socratic Method's house parties, even though Calvin had only ever played guitar up until that time, and still considered himself to be a lead guitar player. I guess it was anything goes at these parties because the drummer behind him (not shown in this picture/cropped for space) is actually Wayne, the guitar player and singer for Socratic.
Calvin went to many parties at the Socratic Method house, and perportedly liked his beer a LOT. This picture should be entitled 'Dazed and Confused' LOL! A confused Calvin contemplates a plastic rose as another partier looks onward. he he he!!!.
Finally, after a few years in Vancouver, Calvin gets an oportunity to play in a hardcore band called Typhus. They need a bass player, and though he's a guitar player, he agrees to take the position and borrows a bass for a while until he buys his own. The picture to the right is from Typhus' very first gig in 1995 at the now defunct Gastown Music Hall. This is also the first picture I can find of him after he cut his hair off for the first time. Apparently it was pretty short, but is already growing back in this photo. In later years, he will grow it all (well, most of it) back to its previous length again before cutting it short permanently. Sigh, too bad.
According to the old Typhus website, they played something like 30 shows with Calvin. They also record at least three albums, maybe more - I have been able to get ahold of three tapes that say that he was on the album. If anyone has any other tapes or demos other than 'Death, Death, and more fucking Death', 'B.N.T.', and 'Framed', let me know! I wanto to hear/see them!
Here are the covers of the three albums I have. Like I said, they're called 'Death, Death and More fucking Death', 'B.N.T.' and 'Framed'. It is speculated that B.N.T. stands for 'Brand New Typhus' album. Considering how funny their song titles were, I wouldn't be surprised if this was true.
So anyway, Typhus recorded a few albums over the years with Calvin playing bass. Usually the songs were recorded at NAL studios in North Vancouver, but one album was recorded at Phoenix Studios with Wayne Powell (of Socratic Method) listed as the engineer and producer. Hmmm!!! Also, one album says Calvin recorded it himself, with Wayne on a 4-track recorder. This was the first time I've heard of that Calvin started doing his own recordings. To the left is a picture of Typhus at NAL rehearsal studios. Paul the drummer is putting his drumsticks above Calvin's head like alien antenae or something.
In 1997 Calvin got a big break when Shayne left Socratic Method, and the band now had an opening for a bass player. Since Calvin knew the band so well, was probably a shoe-in. I don't know if there was an audition process or if he just slipped in, but the Socratic Method webpage shows five gigs between August 1997 and October 1997, where Socratic Method and Typhus not only played on the same bill, but Calvin was still in both bands! Wow! What a hero! Calvin also started writing a sort of gig diary on the Socratic website called 'My 2-cents worth' as soon as he got in the band, and for the September 27th 1997 show at Route 66 he mentions that he played in both Typhus and Socratic Method that night.
(To the right is the Typhus bio picture from their press-pack) After the very next double header gig at the Vancouver press club, Calvin writes in his 'My 2-cents worth' entry : "...again I played back to back with Socratic and Typhus- Looking back, I think it was after this gig that I realized I couldn't keep that up for much longer - especially when sandwiched between the Loading in and loading out. And, as it turned out, this would be my last gig with Typhus. On to bigger and better things!"
Bigger and better things it was!
After joining Socratic Method and leaving Typhus, Calvin played lots of gigs in lots of cool venues, like The Gate, The Brickyard, and The Starfish Room. Socratic released an album shortly thereafter and had their CD Release party at the Starfish Room in May. Though Calvin's name and picture is all through the CD, it looks like the actuall music on the CD was recorded before he joined the band, with Shayne on bass. I guess the studio tracks were done before he joined the band, but all the artwork and pressing was done after. Interesting. Free royalty credits! Actually, I don't know how that works, but Calvin got to tour and I saw lots of those shows - so that was cool for me!
Here's the album cover from Socratic Method's "Vertical Ponds" CD
Supposedly there are quite a few Socratic demos kicking around from all different years. A friend of mine has their song 'Fortune' on a Desolation Sound compilation CD, but I've never come across any other recordings with Calvin on them.
Socratic was much more of a progressive metal outfit than Typhus (which was hardcore) so Calvin had to hone his bass skills a bit, especially on Socratic's 12 minute epic Kipt to Riah. But over the coming months and years, he not only grew into a really great bass player, but he grew his hair back!
Here are a few pictures of Calvin from Socratic Method gigs between mid 1997 and mid 1999
In about mid 1999 Socratic was in a bit of turmoil. They had a new drummer (Gary was replaced by Troy) and their image seemed to change to correspond with the lineup change. Shortly after though, the band just stopped playing. Reportedly a demo was recorded with the new drummer, but other than listening to the mp3s on the Socratic Method website, I haven't heard it or seen it for real. I heard some of their newer songs at one of their last gigs though, and they were awesome. There was a 'Monster from the Deep' song and a funky 'Dance Mother F*cker' song that kicked ass - from what I remember, the bass was increddible on both songs!
But alas, that seemed to be the end of Socratic.
But not the end of Calvin!
He played in a band called Fuzz Curtain with some old friends for a few months, and then in another band called Gully Foyle which included his wife on keyboards and her ex-boyfriend (ex-Socratic guitarist) Darren on guitar - how wierd is that? But neither of those bands went anywhere. Calvin then spent half a year with Split Lip Ashtray and played a bunch of shows with them, but I guess that never really panned out either. Their music was punkier and a lot less complex.
The next venture however, enjoyed moderate success. In fact, for a bands that only played one gig, it was probably the highlight of Calvin's popularity up to that point! The band was called Sediment, and if you believe the somewhat contrived bio on the Trooper Tribute page it says the band was formed when "Calvin was approached by a mauled and barely recognizable Troy Taillon [last drummer from Socratic Method], who invited him to "get in on the ground floor" of an exciting new project, "Sediment" - on the condition that he never ever speak of clowns. Calvin agreed..."
Sediment turned out to be Calvin's most 'commercial' project to date. Their demo songs had a heavy edge, but were totally radio friendly. There was an intelligent quotient to the song writing, and it may have been this factor that landed them a spot on the Trooper Tribute Album along side the likes of SNFU, DOA, Ani Kyd, Dayglow Abortions, Thor, and of course Trooper. Even better that being on an album with these huge bas that they got to play the CD Release party for the Trooper album, at the fabulous Comodore Crystal Ballroom, with all those bands, plus people like Biff Naked and The Real McKenzies and Teenage Head. I was at that show, and they were sooooooo awesome!
(Here are a couple of the Sediment bio pics from the Trooper Tribute page - notice that he has cut his hair really short again, probably for good this time.)
This was a really good looking band with a really good image and some really good songs and momentum - it looked like it was the bigtime for these guys.
But as quickly as it all came together, it was all over. If you look closely at Calvin's left hand in the RED Sediment bio picture, you can see that he's prominantly displaying his wedding ring. There is a widespread rumor that his refusal to remove his wedding ring for photo shoots and live shows was a major source of contention with the rest of the band (who wanted to maintain an 'image') which ultimately lead to an irrepairable rift between the members. Aw, what a sweetheart! And that brings us to Calvin's latest and totally greatest band, Scarecrow Balcony !!!
Scarecrow Balcony has Calvin on bass, Wayne from Socratic Method on guitar, and Ron from Mach Turtle on drums. After Socratic had split up, and Calvin was with Split Lip Ashtray and Sediment and all those other bands, Wayne had formed a punk band called Vitamin Voodoo. They recorded an album and played lots of shows, but when they lost their bass player the whole band drifted apart. Time for Wayne and Calvin to get together again and start something new!
It's funny how After Socratic Method broke up, Calvin was in bands with every one of the other Socratic band members (with Troy in Sediment, with Darren in Gully Foyle, and with Wayne in Scarecrow Balcony) yet they never ever all got back together to be Socratic Method again. In an aside, Calvin recently played five string bass for two shows with Randomblind - that's the band that Shayne, the old Socratic bass player that Calvin originally replaced, is now playing guitar for! Small world! So that means that Calvin has been in bands with lots of Socratic ex-patriots.
Anyway, in 2002 Calvin and Wayne put together Scarecrow Balcony, wrote a bunch of songs, and started performing all over the place. in 2003 they averaged about one live show a month, but in 2004 they took several months off to record an album, then apeared back on the scene in September to showcase their new material and played four Vancouver shows in one week.
In the Frequently asked Questions section of the Scarecrow Balcony website, they say that the new album will be released before May 2004, but it has been over four months since then with no sign of a new album, which has lead to speculation about what they actually were doing for the first half of the year. Like I said, Calvin had been seen doing a couple of shows with Randomblind, and Wayne has also been seen playing bass live for a funky band called The Rain Spider, but since Scarecrow still seems to be going strong, it's anyone's guess what's going on and where their new album is. The Scarecrow website is selling T-shirts, stickers, and a demo EP (it's a really rough demo) but no sign of a real album! Argh!
This is a bio picture of Scarecrow Balcony from their webpage. It was taken some time in 2004.
It looks like a five string bass that Calvin is holding, and I know he played five string for those two shows with Randomblind, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen him play a five string in Scarecrow Balcony before, so this is kind of strange. Or maybe it's a sign of things to come? That would be so cool!
So that's the musical and band history of Calvin Quaite. But there are still lots of questions to be answered and cool info to find! The coolest thing I ever found was when doing a goole search for "scarecrow balcony". I found a mention of Scarecrow Balcony on a website called blog.sed.ca. The name of this site is "Calvin's Weblog" and the particular entry I found from google was about someone named Calvin who went to see a band at the Comodore Crystal Ballroom. Hmmm - Calvin has played there before! That's in Vancouver! But the quote in the entry says "Flash forward fifteen albums and twenty years (well, minus a few hours) and you'll find me, my wife, the rest of the guys from Scarecrow Balcony and about 900+ diehard W.A.S.P fans packed into the illustrious Commodore Crystal Ballroom to witness the band's Neon God tour. It looks as though I stumbled across Calvin's personal weblog! Though his last name is never mentioned on this site, this has just got to be him writing this stuff. Need more proof? The old band Sediment used to have the webpage "www.sed.ca" - this weblog page is "blog.sed.ca". AND, if you got to www.sed.ca now, you get redirected to the Scarecrow Balcony website! Proof! In this weblog Calvin talks a lot about the things he does day to day, what he thinks about George Bush, about all the shows he plays, and places he travels. And boy, does he travel a lot! I highly recomend going through that website for lots of cool (and some unflattering) pictures and candid information. There is also a link on his weblog to his wife's photo gallery Carole's Photo Gallery website where you can find an absolute treasure trove of Calvin pictures, band pictures, and pictures of all the places in the world that they have travelled. What a lucky girl that Carole is! There sure must be good money in bands these days!
Here are some other facts about Calvin Quaite.
Calvin is very tall, and looks to be well over six feet. He has blonde hair and blue eyes, though his hair seems darker now that it is shorter. He has a wife named Carole and they have been married at least since he was in Sediment, so that is at least four or five years and at most about ten years because he only met Socratic Method in 1993 or 1994 and the Socratic Method guitar player Darren was her boyfriend when they met.
Calvin Quaite lived in Chilliwack, B.C. before moving to Vancouver. His earliest bands were in Chilliwack. It is unknown if he ever performed there.
Calvin's favorite bass guitar that he has used in nearly every band, is a black four string Ibanez Sound Gear bass with a sticker that says "Keep Music Evil" on it. Calvin also almost always plays through a Jordan bass amplifier.
When he is on stage he is very energetic and his awesome bass playing is always the best part of every show but he does not sing very often, and he is very quiet when not on stage. He sometimes talks to the audience between songs though and is usually very fuuny. He has a super sense of humor! When other bands are playing he usually sits quietly in a dark corner with his wife and drinks beer, while the other band members mingle with the crowd.
Calvin's birthday is in March.
Calvin's favorite color is black.
Calvin's favorite bands are Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Kiss, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Godsmack, Tool, and Disturbed.
UPDATE!!
Somebody sent me a link to the Scarecrow Balcony listing on GarageBand.com, which I have seen before, but what I didn't know was that if you click on Calvin's name, it brings you to a section that has a new "My Bands" listing on the right side, and on that listing are a bunch of bands that I never heard of, that it looks like Calvin is in! We've all heard of Scarecrow Balcony and Socratic Method, but the other ones listed are Shania Q., Poop Chute Lollipop (yuk!), and Shweenis Envy! Better yet, a couple of them even have mp3s you can listen to. The Shania Q. one is a girl singing with piano parts... could this be Calvin's wife? And the Shweenis Envy one seems like a joke band because the two songs are called 'Tie me up and smack my ass' and 'Be my F*ckin Valentine' and they're both accoustic songs - I wonder what Calvin's playing in these bands... guitar I guess?
Thanks B.M. for this great info! I'll update the list of bands that Calvin has been in, right away!
Okay. I know this page is far from complete. Here's what I'm looking for, if anybody find any of these things please let me know right away and I will add them to my fan page! Please send me any of the following:
Pictures of Calvin playing in Split Lip Ashtray
Pictures of Calvin playing in Sediment
Pictures of Calvin playing in Randomblind
Pictures of Calvin playing in Fuzz Curtain
Pictures of Calvin playing in Gully Foyle
Pictures of Calvin playing in Kaos
Pictures of Calvin playing in Hillarium
Pictures of Calvin playing in The Harley Band
Pictures of Calvin playing in Jammin
Any pictures of Calvin playing an instrument before he was 19
Any information about any other bands Calvin might have been in or played with
Any audio clips or mp3 of songs other than Typhus, Socratic Method and Scarecrow Balcony songs.
Any other information about Calvin that I didn't mention that might be cool!
Email me at calvinfan_17-no-spam@lycos.com (remove the '-no-spam' before emailing)
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