Released by Universal Music in 2003
Produced by Warne Livesey

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Notes From The Artist

There is little that I can say about this record that doesn’t immediately conjure up a whirlwind of emotions, primarily those of immense stress and pressure.

Shortly after the demise of the Matthew Good Band (which was actually in the fall of 2001, not January of 2002), I immediately started writing new material. The first batch of songs produced Weapon, In A World Called Catastrophe, and the impetus for what would later become Near Fantastica. In the months that followed, a strange dance ensued with me writing and demoing material amidst a haze of stress and panic related occurrences brought on by the growing dysfunction between me, my management at the time, and the record label.

After the band’s demise I was flown to Toronto and (without mincing words) actually reprimanded for the band’s termination. It remains the most humiliating experience I have ever had to endure in my professional life, and one that was not shared by those who played just as equal a role (if not more so in some cases) in the band’s destruction. Strangely, the material I wrote in the month’s that followed betrayed little of my emotions at the time, despite the fact that with the demise of the band almost everyone in my life literally disappeared in a matter of days simply because I no longer represented a revenue source. Even my girlfriend at the time, who would later become my wife, obliviously watched me sink further into a state of mania that no doubt ultimately contributed to my current mental state. Add to that a variety of ugly incidents with and in the press, and it’s somewhat amazing that I wrote the record at all.

In my opinion, though it has its faults, I consider Avalanche to be some of my greatest work. Of course, were I able to make some changes after the fact I most certainly would. For example, I would remove Lullaby For The New World Order because I think the record’s opening would be far more powerful had Weapon been the second track. It, by the way, represents the song on Avalanche that was recorded after the fact because of external concerns about single material, which is ironic because it was never even contemplated as one despite the fact that it was recorded. I would have also excluded Song For The Girl and Double Life, which I now find redundant in context with the rest of the record. That said, they weren’t left off, so there’s no point complaining about it now.

While most of the record was demoed long before I entered the studio, two songs on the album came about during the process, those being Near Fantastica and A Long Way Down - both of which are actually built on drum loops pieced together from takes of songs that I decided not to use, one of them being the later leaked b-side Comfortable Criminals. In the case of Near Fantastica, what is known now as ‘the radio edit’ is actually the original version of the song. The version on the record was ultimately used because I preferred it to the simple verse, chorus, structure of the original, and was altered during the mixing phase of the album.

In the end, an ‘internal political event’ saw Avalanche abandoned, which would be why, after producing two solid videos for two solid songs, it seemed to simply fade away. Looking back, I think it was a big mistake to release Weapon on Big Shiny Tunes as well. It would have served me much better had it been the first proper release from the record.

For me, there are two aspects about the release that I adore. The first is the video that was ultimately released for Weapon. It remains one of my finest achievements, even though I am not really known for working in that genre, and was one of the most creatively fulfilling experiences I have ever had. The second was being able to work with an entire choir and the strings of The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on numerous tracks, something that I will never again have the budget to afford to do.

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