Pilot Speed - History

History

Todd Clark, upon completing university, became overwhelmed by his desire to create music and, accordingly, posted an ad for a bassist on the internet. In this fashion, Clark and Bumrah met, with Bumrah later introducing Chris Greenough and Bill Keeley to Clark, all three of which were art school classmates at the time. Together they began to create music and eventually released an independent EP titled For All That's Given, Wasted in order to establish their presence on the Toronto music scene. Their unique sound consisting of fervent falsetto and quiet depth eventually developed a small fan base, but Todd Clark insisted that the members of Pilot Speed were just four normal guys lucky enough to have found the same musical vision.

Pilate (pronounced as "Pilot" rather than "Pilotty") soon became a popular draw on the Toronto club scene. After the band played a show opening for the British band Alfie, NOW reviewer Sarah Liss wrote that "It's not too often that you catch a show where more of the audience is there to see the opening act than the main attraction." Attention on Pilate grew further when, at the 2002 NXNE festival in Toronto, Pilate was named "Best Unsigned Band." In the following year, they finally released, on MapleMusic Recordings, their first full-length album, Caught by the Window, which was recorded at Toronto’s Umbrella Sound studio with Carvalho, and eventually spawned the hit singles "Into Your Hideout" and "Melt into the Walls." It also spawned a third single, "Overrated". Caught by the Window is often compared in sound to a mellow, hazy Brit-rock. During this period the band toured and performed with many notable Canadian talents such as Lesley Pike.

With their new album, Sell Control for Life's Speed, released in Canada on April 25, 2006, and on May 2, 2006 in the US, the band developed a harder sound when compared to their dulcet previous release. The first single from their second album is "Barely Listening." The single also appears on the video game NHL 07. They re-released the record through Wind-up Records on September 19, 2006 and renamed it "Into the West."

Their song "Alright" is heard during two scenes and closing credits of the movie Death Sentence. It is also heard in the closing scene of the now-canceled CBS show "Joan of Arcadia" (Episode 43: "Spring Cleaning".)

A blog posted July 30, 2008 on the Pilot Speed MySpace stated that the band is currently in the process of recording their next album with producer Dennis Herring, who has previously worked with Modest Mouse.

On April 28, 2009, Pilot Speed released their third album, Wooden Bones.

The song "Light You Up", released on Wooden Bones, was featured at TIFF 09, being used during each film screening's opening bumper to promote the Festival's various film categories, the Bell Lightbox as well as major sponsors.