For fans of 1990s swaggering Canadian rock band Sven Gali, the fun and the music seemed to be over before things got really interesting. Formed in the Niagara region of Ontario, Canada, in 1987, the band’s 1992 self-titled major label debut album was a barn burner of a record, shooting up the charts, garnering loads of airplay and video play thanks to super heated singles like Under the Influence, Tie Dyed Skies, In My Garden and slow dance sensation, Love Don’t Live Here Anymore.
The band garnered two Juno nominations the following year, won a MuchMusic Video Award for Best Metal Video for Under the Influence, and the album itself achieved gold status. A second, more Seattle grunge-inspired album, Inwire was released in 1995, to less popular and critical acclaim, and after some personal issues, a major injury and record company shenanigans, disillusioned core members David Wanless, Dee Cernile, Andrew Frank and Shawn Minden put the band on hold … for nearly two decades.
But life is funny. Never wanting to end things the way they did, the core of Sven Gali would get together from time to time over the past decade or so, culminating in the release of the band’s first new music in 22 years. More recently, it was announced that that single, plus one release in 2019, and more recently that powerhouse tune Now, would be included on an EP to be released June 12 entitled simply ‘3’. A fourth song, Hurt, will be released when the EP comes out.
The lineup that has been recording the new material consists of three original members from the late-1980s, early 1990s heyday for the band: vocalist Wanless, guitarist Frank and bassist Minden. They have been joined by new guitarist Sean Williamson, and a familiar old friend, Varga co-founder and drummer Dan Fila.
In August 2009, Sven Gali initially got back together to play some shows to help raise money for former guitarist and band co-founder Dee Cernile who was battling cancer. The disease eventually claimed his life on Feb. 25, 2012 at just 46 years of age. There were some sporadic shows in the interim, with the band coming back together in earnest to write and record a new single, called Kill The Lies, with original producer David Bendeth behind the board in 2018.
“Andy had kept playing on his own and Shawn was playing with Forgotten Rebels, who were good friends of ours from day one. Shawn filled in and then ended up playing with them full time. And I toured with a bunch of friends of mine from back in the day when we just used to be kids and hang out and jam. I used to go over to their house, and we started playing music. So, we always kept our foot in it for our love of music. It’s one of those things that you have to do. If I don’t play music of some kind, it doesn’t feel right, sometime in my life is off-kilter. So, yeah, the creative side is so important and all of us in Sven Gali have kept slightly in it, but under the radar,” Wanless explained.
“I think, deep down, the common phrase that we had is that we had unfinished business. I think in the end, how we didn’t get our full shot with everything that happened towards the end starting around 1995, with first Dee getting in that [boating] accident and we were kind of shelved for a bit because we were waiting for him to heal. The way it all ended kind of left a bad taste in our mouths that we let it go. We felt then, and we feel today, that we have a lot to offer Canadian music fans.
“What happened was it ground to a halt because of what happened with Dee and then things didn’t go well with the Inwire album and tour and the business side of it was on the downslide, so to some extent we had a bitter taste in our mouths about music. I think to some degree we felt like we kind of got ripped off a little bit because of everything that happened. So, we just went on, and I’ve got to tell you there was probably three years where I just didn’t want to do anything. I had enough, I was disappointed and losing my passion for music. I would still listen to music, but I just had enough of being an artist. I needed to find a new direction for me and my now wife.”
When the band decided to get back together on a more permanent basis, the creative element was at the forefront. There was no point in bringing Sven Gali back half-assed, both effort and energy wise, as well as regarding the music they made, 25 years on. If it didn’t kick some serious ass, in Wanless’ mind, what’s the point?
“As you grow older, you kind of realize what you had. And then you also realize just how fast times go by and that if we don’t do it now, we’ll never do it again. Me and Andy had this conversation where, when we were younger, and we would see bands from back in the day coming back and when they tried to have a resurgence, every time when they came back into the public eye, the music seemed softer. It didn’t seem like the same band that you’d remembered when you were younger,” he said.
“And that’s why we kind of wanted people to remember Sven Gali for what it was, and just shut it down at that time and let people have their memories. But when we started writing again, we feel like our writing is even getting better than it was back then. Kill the Lies, the first song we did for the EP with David Bendeth. We did that in New York City and that whole experience was a coming together of the past, and we kind of confronted the past as we sat and talked. Everybody got things off their chest that we just discussed with David, who was our producer for the first album. We discussed everything that happened, and it was kind of like therapy. I’ve got to be honest with you, it was truly, truly like therapy.
“And we were going down there for three or four days just to bang this song out and see what would happen. But ended up staying in New York for 10 days: the guys in the band, we didn’t want to leave each other. We just hung out in the studio. At one point Andy said he had to go back to China [where he now lives most of the year] and I said I had to get home to Toronto because I was busy. But we both woke up the next morning and said, ‘f*** it, we’re staying. Let’s just go hang out in the studio and see the song through all the way to mastering and everything.’ And from there, I know on the drive home from New York, I just knew that, okay we’re going to start something here. And then You Won’t Break Me happened, the next song last year. And then we’ve all be so happy with the way the newest song, Now happened. We just did a radio edit. Now that we’ve got the EP ready to go, we’re looking forward to the day when we can go out and play again.”
Wanless said the second time around is so much more fun, fulfilling and rewarding because not only is the band able to reconnect with old fans and make new fans, but they are in full control of their own musical and commercial destinies for the first time. In short, Sven Gali doesn’t need to make music and play shows, they WANT to do it.
“Listen, over the past 20 years or so, everybody in Sven Gali has done very well for themselves. I own companies, I am a partner with Andy in a company in Beijing, and Dublin, Ireland; Shawn does a lot of commercial real estate, plus he owns jewellery stores. Everybody has done very, very well and it’s great, because that mean there is absolutely no pressure on us musically. We don’t depend on it for a living,” he said.
“We feel like we are kids again because we never really gave a shit about what people thought of us or our music or anything before. And it’s funny, we’re at that point in our lives right now where we’re all financially stable, there are no issues and we’re just making music that we want to make again. And it’s very refreshing. I kind of wake up every day and say to myself, ‘oh shit, we’re actually doing this again.’ We actually just signed a record deal with RFL Records out of New York City.’
“And you know what, I’ve got to tell you, because I’ve been on both sides of the major label thing, I’ve been on a major label and I have seen that whole side go down. I have been to the huge offices that the old labels had, and all the people that were there. And I remember back then all that was going through my brain was ‘overhead.’ Where, what I love about RFL Records, is that it’s a boutique label and the difference is the record company came from a passion for music, from fans. And there is such a big difference. There’s not many levels of management or layers of decision making. The band or artist makes the decisions and bounces them off the head of the record label and he comes back with his feedback and decisions are made really quick. It’s about freedom, freedom to express ourselves and whatever happens, happens. It was a machine back in the day.”
Fans both new and old embraced the band when they made their tentative first steps to reunite.
“It’s been great, because you have to remember we travelled across Canada, back and forth 11 times during the cycle for the first album. We were going back and forth, back and forth, playing and playing and playing. We met so many people and had so many great shows all over the place. And people remember those times. We’re getting comments and emails to our website and on Facebook saying, ‘I remember you guys,’ I remember this show in Thunder Bay,’ ‘I remember Snow Job’. They’re sort of remembering a time in their lives when it was great to be young and have no issues and just go out and see a rock band,” Wanless said, adding that with a resurgence in interest in bands like Motley Crue and Queen thanks to recent biopics, and Guns ‘n Roses because of their reunion, they are hearing from younger fans interested in that same era of music, noting that during their peak few years, they toured with the likes of Def Leppard, Motley Crue’s frontman Vince Neil, Foreigner, Pearl Jam, April Wine and more.
For more information on the band, on ‘3’ and on any post-Covid-19 touring, visit www.SvenGali.ca, www.facebook.com/svengalicanada or www.RFLrecords.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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