THE DISTANCE – LIVE AND LEARN

 

second album - still sealed CD

 

Chris Ousey  - Lead and backing vocals

Kenny Kaos  - Guitars

 

Dave Hopia – Bass & backing vocals (formerly of Pokerface & White Vision)

Rob Kurzreiter – Drums (formerly of Boulevard & Faith & Desire)

Andy Lorimer – Keyboards (Prism)

 

Catalogue Number: ESM 042             Bar Code: 5 031281 00042 2

 

Track listing: Judgement Day / You Live and You Learn / The Sleeper / Take it or leave it / Twisting the Knife / Under her spell / Stealing the keys / It’s you / Come what may / Dancing On The Edge of the world / Wildest Dreams

 

Chris Ousey has been cited as the UK’s current premier rock vocalist. His career started at a very young age when he fronted AOR band Virginia Wolf, since then he has recorded five albums with Heartland, the last three of these on the Escape Music label. He met Kenny “Kaos” Loney through Escape Music, Kenny has a strong background in the rock music business and has played and produced with various rock bands in the 1980’s, such as Simon Kaos, Point Of Power, Paul Laine, White Vision, Darby Mills and Loverboy. With Escape Music he has recorded Project X with Don Wolf of Whitewolf and Pokerface, the latter being regarded as one of the best rock albums out of Vancouver in the last few years. Their “coming together” for the debut by Distance (ESM 022) ended up as a marvellous hybrid of Heartland and Pokerface, a perfect blend with an explosive result. Originally this was meant to be a side project, but has now ended up being a band in it’s own right. The Distance is now a fully-fledged unit, completely separate from Heartland.

 

“Live and Learn” is much more mature than the debut and has such a full “nineties” sound, having being mixed by Paul “The Machine” Dean (Loverboy) and produced by Kenny himself. It is one of those recordings that will win you over from the start and each time it is played there will be something new to appreciate you never heard the previous time. The choruses are immense and have that “Ousey” touch that sets them apart from the rest and are made even more unique with the addition of female backing vocals in some songs. A couple of great examples can be found in “The Sleeper” and “Take it or leave it”, the latter being an ideal choice for a hit single. Other particular points of note are the energetic opening track “Judgement Day”, which is a collaboration with Mike Reno (Loverboy) and “Under Her Spell” which Chris co-wrote with David Rosenthal (Rainbow, Red Dawn and Billy Joel). There is just so much going on with this album, not only do you have the undoubted class of Chris’s vocals and Kenny’s guitar playing and their joint song writing skills, but they are supported by some of the best musicians in Canada, who are now full-time band members. In particular credit must go to bass player Dave Hopia, who is also a fine backing vocalist. These fine touches are so important to create an album that will be respected for years and this album is going to see the band soar to new heights.   

 

The Distance have come of age and have made a very mature follow-up to their much-acclaimed debut