''Somewhere Between Free Men and Slaves'' is the first full-length studio album by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band

Organ Thieves Organ Thieves is a southern and soul-influenced experimental hard rock side project by Brown Brigade guitarists Chuck Coles and Dave Baksh, formed by Coles in mid-2008. It has since become their main project. History Formation and ''God's F ...

, released on April 24, 2012, through

MapleMusic Recordings Cadence Recordings, formerly MapleMusic, is a Canadian independent record label founded by Andy Maize, Jeff Maize, Mike Alkier, Evan Hu, Lorique Mindel and Grant Dexter in 1999 and based in Toronto, Ontario. Other investors include Gary Slaight ...

, through the Canada iTunes service, later followed by a physical CD release on May 8, 2012.

Background

The band recorded most of the album in 5 days, between October 2–October 7, 2010, at BTown Sound in

Burlington, Ontario Burlington is a city in the Regional Municipality of Halton at the northwestern end of Lake Ontario in Ontario, Canada. Along with Milton to the north, it forms the western end of the Greater Toronto Area and is also part of the Hamilton met ...

, with producer

Greig Nori Greig Andrew Nori (born November 21, 1962) is a producer and musician from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and is well known as the frontman, co-lead vocalist and guitarist of the pop punk band Treble Charger. In the late 1990s, he began working as a ...

who has previously worked with

Dave Baksh Dave Baksh (born 26 July 1980) also known by his stage name Dave Brownsound, is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter best known as one of the guitarists of rock band Sum 41. Baksh quit Sum 41 in 2006 (not counting a guest appearance on ...

Sum 41 Sum 41 is a Canadian rock band from Ajax, Ontario. Originally called Kaspir, the band was formed in 1996 and currently consists of Deryck Whibley (lead vocals, guitars, keyboards), Dave Baksh (lead guitar, backing vocals), Jason "Cone" McCas ...

and with

Chuck Coles Chuck Coles (also known as Chuut Coles) (born 20 March 1980 in Oshawa, Ontario) is a Canadian musician. He was the guitarist for heavy metal band Brown Brigade and the lead singer, guitarist, and "band leader" for the band The Organ Thieves ...

and Matt Worobec in

Cauterize Cauterization (or cauterisation, or cautery) is a medical practice or technique of burning a part of a body to remove or close off a part of it. It destroys some tissue in an attempt to mitigate bleeding and damage, remove an undesired growth, o ...

, with pre-production beginning in late 2009. Additional recording took place in Coalition Studio in May 2011. The band has said many times that they prefer to self-release the album, rather than release it through a label, though on November 21, 2011, it was announced that the band has signed with

, who would release the album. The album was originally set for release for Spring 2011, then it was delayed until the summer, when the band decided to re-record some songs and it was delayed once again. On January 30, 2012, it was announced that the album would be released on April 24, 2012. The album's release was supported with a single show 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 ...

on March 21, supporting the recently reunited

Treble Charger Treble Charger is a Canadian rock band formed in 1992 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, consisting of vocalist and guitarist Greig Nori, vocalist and guitarist Bill Priddle, bassist Rosie Martin and drummer Richard Mulligan. They began with a melodic ...

, whose frontman

is the producer of the album.

Track listing

;Working titles *"Workers" - "Workers Get Paid" *"Phoebe" - "GGC randma's Got Cancer / "Long Way Home" *"Kickin' Stones" *"Disaster"

Personnel

- lead vocals, guitar *

- guitar * Mike Smith – bass *

Theo McKibbon Theo is a given name and a hypocorism. Greek origin Many names beginning with the root "Theo-" derive from the Ancient Greek word ''theos'' (''θεός''), which means god, for example: *Feminine names: Thea, Theodora, Theodosia, Theophania, ...

– drums, percussion

References

2012 debut albums Organ Thieves albums MapleMusic Recordings albums Albums produced by Greig Nori {{2010s-rock-album-stub