BUDDY was created not only as a vehicle to make music, but also as a way for Tom and Allan to express their feelings about life, as they see it. Determined to make music the way they feel it, WITHOUT REGARD TO INDUSTRY STANDARDS, Buddy slams the door on traditional formulas and genres. Instead, they focus on what is pleasing to their ears and what they hope their listeners will want to hear. Tom and Allan write, perform, and produce all of the tracks, so it's no wonder it's taken 6 years for this work, OCHO. "It's tough to find the time to do anything creative these days, with all of the daily rituals one must go through, just to survive", says Allan. " With work, and house stuff (they've been life partners for nearly 20 years) it's a real challenge. Fortunately, for us, music is like bread and water. We couldn't survive without it. So, it's not long before we're hungry again and itching to make new music, and somewhere we find the time." We had a lot of fun making OCHO. Mainly because it marked the first time that Tom actually played guitar on the tracks and the first time Allan recorded guitars. Normally we use keyboards, but Tom, a classic rocker at heart, who loves nothing better than an acoustic guitar riff, decided to pick it up for this album. No, we didn't get divorced, but let's just say we took a lot of walks, and Allan smoked a lot of pot. Tom and Allan have very different styles, and that's pretty apparent on this album. "I think it's what makes our sound interesting", says Tom. " We come from totally different backgrounds and we try to celebrate that." Indeed, Tom's classic rock guitars move in and out of Allan's synths and strings, while their soaring vocal harmonies demand your attention. "It's honest, it's real, and it's music the way we make it," says Tom. "Hey, we're a couple of old farts still rockin, still slammin, still groovin, still barking!", says Allan. " We're not 20. We've lived a considerable portion of our lives on this earth. Time has taken it's toll on our bodies and our voices, and what you hear is the sound of 2 mature men who still have fire in their bellys. No tricks, no cons...pure Buddy.