Al Langlade- lead vocals, acoustic 12 & 6 string guitar and keys Andre Pelletier- lead and rhythm guitars, acoustic 12 & 6 string guitar, backing vocals Rolly Saulnier- fretted 7 fretless bass, backing vocals Peter Martin- drums and percussion Jamie Flynn- keys, backing vocals ( Jamie appears on "Yesterday, Guardian and Can't Win For Losin'") Written by Stefan Edström Tuesday, 24 September 1996 AOR from Canada is always of our interest, the band Total Stranger is certainly no exception. To find out some more about them I called founder and leadvocalist Al Langlade. Since the album they have out now is called only Total Stranger I thought that it was their very first, but I was wrong. "We've done some other independent releases over here in Canada, but they have never been distributed. We did them our-selves and sold them off stage when we played." When we talk I get the feeling that he doesn't want to talk too much about the previous albums. "There are some good tracks on the previous albums but as a whole I would be, not embarrassed, but we hadn't quite developed our sound back then. We were a little more progressive back then, we're kind of influenced by bands like Rush and Yes." Anyway the band Total Stranger goes back to around 1985. But since then there's been all different members except for the leadsinger Al Langlade. "I guess basically about 5 years ago when the guitar player Andre Pelletier came on board that's when we started getting fairly serious about the writing and that stuff because we've always been a cover band before." They also found a keyboard player in Jim Flynn. Before they found him Al used to handle all the keyboard playing, even on stage. "For the liveshow it wasn't looking good having the singer stuck behind the keyboard so we were very fortunate to get Jim. And on the next album, which we're recording right now, he's got a couple of songs." One of the new tunes on their next album is called "To The City". "I think when you hear that song you're gonna say who the heck is this band. I'm using some different recording techniques, vocally for sure." For a moment I think it's gonna be something really strange but Al explains to me that it is a really melodic, hooky and catchy kind of thing but with a little different sound. As you've noticed we have no picture of them and the album doesn't contain one either. "We're not bad looking guys, it's just that we thought that we'd hype this Total Stranger concept. We're actually thinking for the next album cover to do a picture of us but with missing pieces and as we do the next album we fill in a few more pieces." Stefan Edström