Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Mar 15/02) - It's been like waiting for breakup for Inuvik rockers Delta Flood, but they have finally released their first CD.

The 10-song recording is a collection of hard-driving rock with a sprinkling of ballads to round out the mix that was over a year in the making.

Delta Flood is Laurie McNabb on bass, Pete Smith on drums and Doug Villeneuve on guitar and they say they "make as much noise as a three-piece band can make."

"We like to play the high-energy stuff," Smith says of the new collection. "The dynamic and really tight stuff; we put a lot of energy into it."

The self-titled effort is the band's first attempt at writing original songs, but they say the writing came fast and furious, once they got rolling.

"We wrote the majority of songs in about one week," Smith said.

The CD was recorded at Spiritwalker Production in Yellowknife over a period of six days in January 2001, but the recording sat in the can for almost a year, while the band approved the post-production by snail mail.

"We had to come back to work our day jobs," Villeneuve said. "Norm Glowach would do the mix and mail the CD to us. We'd listen to it, critique it and tell him the changes we wanted."

"We kept on doing that until we had what we wanted and we ran out of money."

The CD production was funded from the GNWT Arts Council and the Mackenzie Delta Hotel Group helped with the artwork and post-production expenses.

They had 1,000 copies of the CD burned and the boys say if they sell them all, that constitutes a platinum record in the Delta.

"That's as big as it get's in Inuvik," Smith joked.

Any revenue generated from this CD will go into the production of the next one.

"We'd like to have more time to work on the next one; with this one we were kind of rushed," Villeneuve said.

"I'm pretty proud of this and the response has been excellent," Smith said. "We'd just like to have more time to polish the next one."

The boys held their CD release party at the Zoo and were glad to see the outpouring of support from all their friends and family.

"We have a real loyal gang of friends and fans," McNabb said. "We have people who have been to every show we've ever performed and even followed us to Yellowknife."

McNabb was born in New Brunswick but has lived in Inuvik about half his life, while both Villeneuve and Smith were born in Inuvik.

"I came out screaming and haven't stopped since," Smith laughed.

The band got their start when McNabb joined in 1998 as the second guitar player, but when the bass player moved, McNabb picked-up the four string and the power trio Delta Flood was born.

"We used to rehearse in the old Grollier Hall chapel," Villeneuve recalled. "Laurie picked up the bass and the lead singing."

Since then the band's been playing the recreation centre, curling club, Mad Trapper, the Zoo and last year, their first appearance at Yellowknife's Folk on the Rocks.

"That was pretty interesting," Smith remembered. "Big crowd, big sound and a lot of musicians -- were hoping to go back again."

The band also hopes to hit the Dawson City Music Festival this summer and return to the Woodblock Music Festival in Fort Good Hope.

The CD is available in Inuvik at Boreal Books, Video Effects, Northmart and can be picked-up online at the band's web site at www.deltaflood.com