It is the stuff of dreams ...
Picture a couple of young guys interested in music.
One is a former ski-bum who dabbles with his keyboards and a home studio, helping his musical friends lay down their musical experiments.
The other is an advertising copywriter at 92 CITI FM, a Red River College creative communications grad who plays and sings in a band called Fargone.
Singer/guitarist Trevor Tuminski, the copywriter, is eager to record some of his own material outside the auspices of Fargone. He's looking around for a cheap place to record.
Keyboardist/guitarist Dave Swiecicki, who spent much of his time after high-school snowboarding and skiing in Alberta and B.C., has been producing and recording and mixing music within his circle of friends and is looking for someone new to work with.
They live just minutes apart from each other in East and North Kildonan -- but they haven't met.
Yet.
"Some friends introduced us," Tuminski says. "And I asked him to produce my stuff. As we got into the project, he was playing on everything, and so what started as a solo project sort of merged into a collaborative effort."
By mid-1998, the two young musicians had a decent tape together but were unsure what to do with it.
So, with the gall that comes with complete naivete, Swiecicki made a phone call that would change his musical life forever.
"I'm a big admirer of Pierre Marchand, Sarah McLachlan's producer, and I managed to get his phone number through an acquaintance," Swiecicki recalls. "I left a message for him a Wild Sky studios asking if I could send him some material.
"He called back and said 'Sure, send it out,' so I sent him four songs, looking for some professional advice.
"I was just looking for feedback, really, but he obviously took it one step further."
What Marchand did was call back, and ask Swiecicki for permission to forward the tape to Terry McBride, manager of Sarah McLachlan and Barenaked Ladies and founder of Vancouver label Nettwerk Records.
"Nettwerk called us back right away," says Tuminski, taking up the story. "So, the next thing we knew were in Vancouver, doing a showcase for all the Nettwerk brass, in the offices, with just an acoustic guitar and a piano.
"We got offered a contract almost on the spot."
That was the fall of 1998. Swiecicki, now 25, and Tuminski, 24, didn't even have a band name, let alone a band. Some 18 months later, they are hopping with anticipation.
Jet Set Satellite's debut album, Blueprint, hits record stores across the country on Tuesday.
The duo -- which has been augmented by the addition of live drummer Tetrault -- has a video on MuchMusic for first single The Best Way to Die. The song is being played heavily at rock radio across the country.
As Swiecicki and Tuminski sit and tell their story to a reporter over drinks at a North Kildonan restaurant, it seems as though they can't quite believe what they've done.
"Yeah, it is a pretty fairy tale story, isn't it?" Tuminski grins.
You'd think the Brothers Grimm were writing this story, given what happens next.
After signing their deal, fielding a few hometown interview requests and getting through the Christmas season, Swiecicki and Tuminski and their record company set about finding a producer.
Eventually they settled on Michel Pepin, an engineer/producer who works with Marchand and agreed to work on their debut recording in Montreal at Pepin's favourite studio.
And where did they live while they stayed in La Belle Province?
Oh, just the home of Kate McGarrigle and her children Martha and Rufus Wainwright.
Kate is one-half of the pioneering folk-pop act the McGarrigle Sisters, while her children are the products of her marriage to singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright III. Rufus Wainwright put out a critically acclaimed debut album and recorded a song for last year's highly successful Gap ad campaign, and Martha is an up-and-coming singer/songwriter.
"It was pretty cool," grins Swiecicki. "We even got Martha to sing backup vocals on one of the songs (Suddenly)."
Most of the three months they stayed in Montreal, Swiecicki and Tuminski were holed up in studio with Pepin.
"We worked from 10 to 8 most every day," Tuminski says. "We listened to music a lot, we drank a bit. But mostly we worked."
The pair emerged from their Montreal sojourn with 13 songs. After a summertime writing spurt, four more tunes were recorded with producer/keyboardist John Webster in Vancouver late last fall, including a killer track called Baby, Cool Your Jets.
Now all the group has to do is get out and play.
"We're so anxious to do that," Swiecicki and Tuminski say, almost in unison.
"But we still need a bass player," Tuminski points out.
As for future prospects, both musicians seem unfazed by what is to come.
"I don't think it's really sunk in yet," says Swiecicki. "At times I've got to pinch myself."
"Sometimes I think we're getting away with something here," Tuminski adds. "But if it all ends tomorrow I won't be disappointed. We got to make an album and shoot a video.
"Now it's our job to go out and make things happen. We're not going to sit back and wait for it to happen, we're going to go out and do it."
He grins.
"We've been wanting this our whole lives ... so complete world domination, that's the master plan."
With that, Tuminski looks at his partner and they both smile.
Some dreams do come true.
