Do Make Say Think is a Canadian

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

band formed in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

in 1995. Their music combines

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

-style

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

ming, distorted guitars and

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...

s, and prominent

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

Biography

The band formed in 1995 as a recording project for a Canadian youth dramatic production. They rehearsed for the production in an empty elementary school room. The four simple verbs 'Do', 'Make', 'Say' and 'Think' were painted on walls of the room, and the band adopted them as their name. In 1996, the band progressed as they practiced in the rehearsal room in the basement of the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

radio station

CIUT CIUT-FM is a campus and community radio station owned and operated by the University of Toronto. The station broadcasts live and continuously from Toronto on the 89.5 FM frequency. Programming can also be heard nationally via channel 826 on Shaw ...

. The song "Chinatown" from 2002's ''

& Yet & Yet ''& Yet & Yet'' is the third album by Canadian post-rock band Do Make Say Think. It was released on March 18, 2002 by Constellation Records. "Chinatown" was featured on the soundtrack for Stephen Gaghan's ''Syriana''. Track listing All tra ...

'' is featured in the movie ''

Syriana ''Syriana'' is a 2005 American political thriller film written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, loosely based on Robert Baer's 2003 memoir ''See No Evil (Baer book), See No Evil''. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of George Clooney, Mat ...

'', as well as '' The Corporation''. The song "The Landlord is Dead" from ''

Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord Is Dead ''Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord Is Dead'' is the second studio album by the Canadian post-rock band Do Make Say Think. It was released on March 13, 2000 in Europe and March 23, 2000 worldwide. The record was published through the influenti ...

'' and "Chinatown" from ''

'' are also featured in the movie ''

A Simple Curve ''A Simple Curve'' is a Canadian drama film, directed by Aubrey Nealon and released in 2005. The film stars Kris Lemche as Caleb, a man in his mid-20s who works as a junior partner in his father Jim's ( Michael Hogan) woodworking shop in the rura ...

''. The band's fifth full-length album, entitled ''

You, You're a History in Rust ''You, You're a History in Rust'' is the fifth album from Do Make Say Think. It was released on February 12, 2007 in Europe and February 26, 2007 in the rest of the world. The album features vocals on two tracks, "A with Living" and "In Mind," a ...

'', was released on Constellation Records in February 2007. The band toured North America and Europe to promote the release of the album, and released a tour EP, ''The Whole Story of Glory'', to promote the Japanese leg of their tour. In June 2009 at

Luminato Luminato Festival, Toronto's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, is an annual celebration of the arts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, launched in 2007. In its first decade, Luminato presented over 3,000 performances featuring 11,000 artists fr ...

's annual festival of arts and creativity, the band provided part of the live soundtrack for the outdoor screening (at Yonge-Dundas Square) of the 1919 silent

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

horror film ''Tales Of The Uncanny'' ('' Unheimliche Geschichten''), alongside Canadian violinist

Owen Pallett Michael James Owen Pallett (born September 7, 1979) is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Under their erstwhile moniker of Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album ''He Poos Clouds''. Pallet ...

and

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

music artist Robert Lippok from

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany. Constellation Records released Do Make Say Think's sixth album, titled '' Other Truths'', in October 2009. Their seventh album, titled ''

Stubborn Persistent Illusions ''Stubborn Persistent Illusions'' is the seventh album from Canadian band Do Make Say Think. It was released on 19 May 2017. Track listing Personnel Do Make Say Think * Ohad Benchetrit – guitar, keyboard, horns * David Mitchell – drums * ...

'', was released on May 19, 2017. The album won the 2018 Juno Awards for Best Instrumental Album, and Best Artwork.* 2017 ''Root Structure'', Ted Quinlan, Larnell Lewis and Robi Botos.

Members

Current members

Ohad Benchetrit Ohad Benchetrit is a Canadian musician. He plays guitar, bass, saxophone and flute for the post-rock band Do Make Say Think, and has also contributed to albums by Broken Social Scene, Feist, The Hidden Cameras and Charles Spearin. He coll ...

–

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

*David Mitchell –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* James Payment – drums *Justin Small –

, bass guitar,

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

Charles Spearin Charles Spearin is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist from Toronto, Ontario. He is primarily known as a founding member of indie rock bands Do Make Say Think and Broken Social Scene. Career As a teen, Spearin studied at Etobicoke School of the A ...

– bass guitar, guitar,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

, cornet *

Julie Penner Julie Penner (born 1976) is a Canadian violinist who has played with The FemBots, Broken Social Scene, Do Make Say Think, Hylozoists, The Lowest of the Low and The Weakerthans. She also worked as the music producer for Stuart McLean's ''The Vi ...

–

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, trumpet *Michael Barth - trumpet *Adam Marvy - trumpet *Judah Rubin - trumpet *Kit Schluter - trumpet *Robinson Jeffers -

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

Previous members

*Jason Mackenzie –

, effects (departed after ''

'') *Jay Baird –

*Brian Cram – trumpet

Side projects

* Justin Small is also involved in a side project called Lullabye Arkestra as a drummer with his partner and bassist Katia Taylor. They have been produced by Benchetrit who, along with Spearin, records and tours with the Toronto group

Broken Social Scene Broken Social Scene is a Canadians, Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed by Kevin Drew (vocals, guitar) and Brendan Canning (vocals, bass) in 1999. Alongside Drew and Cannin ...

. * Spearin, Mitchell, and Benchetrit recorded an album together in 1997 under the moniker Microgroove, which put out a limited number of presses of their synthesizer and acoustic drum and bass beat working of jazz forms. * Benchetrit and Mitchell were also involved in a side project called Sphyr, who released one album, ''A Poem for M'', in 2003. This album is on Fire Records. * Benchetrit's current solo project is called Years and released a self-titled album under that moniker in 2009. * Spearin released ''The Happiness Project'' in 2009, a collection of interviews with his neighbors set to music. The album was long-listed for the

Polaris Prize The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 with a $20,000 cash prize; the prize was incr ...

. * Benchetrit and Small scored the soundtrack to the 2018 film ''

Braven ''Braven'' is a 2018 action thriller film directed by Lin Oeding and written by Mike Nilon and Thomas Pa'a Sibbett. The film stars Jason Momoa as Joe Braven, with Garret Dillahunt, Stephen Lang, Jill Wagner, and Brendan Fletcher. Principal photogra ...

''.

Discography

LPs

* ''

Do Make Say Think Do Make Say Think is a Canadian instrumental band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1995. Their music combines jazz-style drumming, distorted guitars and wind instruments, and prominent bass guitar. Biography The band formed in 1995 as a recording ...

'' (1999) * ''

'' (2000) * ''

'' (2002) *'' Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn'' (2003) * ''

'' (2007) *'' Other Truths'' (2009) * ''

'' (2017)

EPs

*'' Besides'' (1999) * ''The Whole Story of Glory'' (2008) (Japan-only)

References

External links

Official Do Make Say Think website

Constellation Records' Do Make Say Think website

Southern Records' Do Make Say Think website

Do Make Say Think collection
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

's live music archive
Coming Out Party: Do Make Say Think Move Beyond Post-Rock

CBC Radio 3 CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. The service, which lanuc ...

Live Concert Session; text by Nicolas Bragg, photography by Verena Eickhoff {{Authority control Canadian post-rock groups Musical groups established in 1995 Musical groups from Toronto Constellation Records (Canada) artists 1995 establishments in Ontario Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year winners