Confine Official Biography
Confine playing live
Confine formed in early 1997 as one of southern Ontario’s (Oakville) most aggressive and chaotic hardcore (without being screamo). The original line up was Rob Blakely on vocals, Neil Hamilton and Gordie Ball on guitars, Mike Earp on bass and Darryl Ware on drums.The band wrote two songs and Rob (who wasn’t very fond of the heavier hardcore they were doing) left and in comes Ian “Sparkie” Clarke. They released a four song demo tape that year and almost immediately OneDaySavior Records (then called The Godlike Communications Group) tried to get them for a compilation, but in vain. The band’s first label release came when the members of Avarice offered them to do a split on their own label, Redstar Records. The CD came out in the summer of 1998. By fall of that year Darryl left to Montreal for school, and was replaced by Andy Stratas. The band began playing shows with Spread the Disease quite often.
Confine show on September 13th 1997 at the Oakville YMCA with Karenza, New Day Rising and Torn Apart
Avarice and Confine split, Redstar Records, summer 1998
Avarice & Confine split advance copy tape sampler. Photo courtesy of Jun Matsumura
Rumors were spreading that Confine would then sign to Goodfellow Records, in their hopes as well. However Chris from OneDaySavior contacted them again, and finally signed them. Their next release, “The Beginning of the End”, came out on July 16th 1999. The ep featured four new songs as well as three songs taken from the previous split. This was done because most of the splits were only sold in Ontario and as Confine planned to play some US dates, they wanted people to hear the older songs they stilled played. Summer 1999 brought them a short tour, which had five Canadian dates and two US dates. The band played Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec. All those shows went great. However by the time they crossed over the border, things started to get worse. The tour was meant to be with Spread the Disease and Poison the Well, but with the loss of one of their guitarist, headliner Spread the Disease didn’t go. Most of the US shows were cancelled or lacked spectators due to their absence. The only two US dates that were played were Rochester and Syracuse. On October 9th 1999, Confine play at the Oakville Octoberfest.
Confine show on June 30th 1999 at The Transit Union Hall in Hamilton, with Buried Alive and Chore
Confine “The Beginning of the End”, OneDaySavior Records, July 16th 1999
By late 1999/early 2000 the band was having inner tensions. Mike would start missing practices to spend more with his girlfriend and his show participation was fading. Gordon, who was not entirely satisfied with the band issues, would leave to form The Fullblast, Neil inevitably becoming the lead guitarist. Confine played as a four piece a few times, but things were simply not working out. By this time four new songs were written and they wanted to release another ep also on OneDaySavior, but things were really not happening. It was in the summer of 2000 that they decided to call it quits, announcing a final show on July 29th 2000 at The Pinetoom in Oakville, for which Gordie came back to play.
The last Confine show on July 29th 2000 at The Pine Room with Buried Inside, In Dying Days, Fighting Chance and Standfast
The remaining three friendly members decided they wanted to record the final songs anyway and attempt to release them as a farewell. So while Mike was away on vacation, Ian, Neil and Andy booked time at Audio Magic Studios in Buffalo, NY with Fred Betschen and recorded the final four songs in August 2000. Three new songs and “The Disease” was re-recorded from the previous ep. After a twelve hour recording session, the guys came back home and offered OneDaySavior to release it, as pre-planned. However the label was not interested in releasing a broken up band’s material, so the stuff was just never heard.
Re-Define Records ad for the Confine discography, circa 2001
Re-Define Records ad in Full Contact Magazine describing the planned release.
In 2001, James Hamilton, who was running Re-Define Records wanted to release the final recordings, and offered to put out “The Disease” EP. The discussion quickly grew to offering to do a complete discography release entitled “Confine – 1995-2000” (although I’m pretty sure that date was a typo). The CD would have even featured enhanced content from videos at their later shows. Artwork was created and a full history booklet was designed but label financing fell through and both the final recordings and the discography remained unreleased.