Sharks On Fire was a punk-pop (punk first) band from Vancouver BC that existed from 2007 to 2014. Originating in Kamloops, Sharks’ accomplishments include moving the entire band to Vancouver, playing across western Canada, a pretty aggressive eight year run with 5 releases, a number of music videos and dance remixes, and a completely organic following that was built off of live performances and organic outreach. We didn’t do much ad-spend. We also had a hometown mini-festival jokingly called “Sharksfest” for two years running.

My roles involved song writing, lead vocals, synthesizers, conceptualization, graphic design, web design and organizing events.

From Birth To Bad Grades
(Every Day, The Same Dream)

Album Art – Front & Back

Album Cycle – From Birth To Bad Grades (Every Day, The Same Dream) (2013). The band’s sophomore album was the product of moving to Vancouver and having a really rough time. It was difficult finding decent work, our guitarist and I ended up without a place to live for a while, and we ended up junking our tour van. I spent many tough nights working the graveyard shift at the Golden Arches, which ended up being fodder for a lot of these lyrics.

However, this is my favourite album because I wrote a lot of things that remain true and heartfelt; and when we rehearsed, it would be for hours at a time running till late at night. It became an escape and a source of true happiness. Even now, looking through this art with the hand written notes and lyrics, I’m struck by how many little bits of personality and honesty went into this.

This album was recorded and mixed at Bully’s Studios in New Westminster BC by Mike Kraushaar, and mastered by Stu McKillop at Rain City Recorders.

Six Panel Album Art with Poster. Custom photography, heavy photoshop and many hours scribbling down the lyrics and notes. A lot of time went into adding personality – with small comments, details, and additional thoughts. Also, the bottom right section of the poster is the inside cover of the album, and the bottom left is the inside cover, so it was imperative to make these seamlessly work with the overall poster design.

Music Video – Everyday, The Same Dream. Filmed by Dan Ronalds of DC Film at Bully’s Studios in New Westminster with typography and animation by Katie Hodgson. Originally this was a separate music video and lyrics video being made at the same time by two different people, but we had the genius (very obvious) idea to take both projects and mush them into one.

Playing with that swinging light was a lot of fun, but naturally I smashed it within the first five minutes of filming and we had to stop the shoot to go and buy a new one.

Music Video – Tama Hills. Filmed and conceptualized by Cody Murakami of Yellow Yugo, this music video focused on the line “I forget what it’s like to be so young”, having the band transform into some elderly gentlemen. This was probably one of the most fun videos I’ve ever been a part of, mostly because we shot a lot of things in public and we were able to mess with people who genuinely thought we were old. The party at the end was fairly crazy, featuring beer bongs and a random person jumping from the neighbour’s roof to the balcony we were on while greatly intoxicated. Also, a cool sidenote – the BC band Tama Hills took their name from this song, but they asked permission first so it’s okay.

Web Design. Custom WordPress website with online store, blog and tons of free downloads – I wish it was still up. Also pictured is our old-school Myspace design based around the first album’s aesthetic. The fact that this exists goes to show how long ago Sharks On Fire started, how far we came, and how now I’m in my thirties.

Merch Design. Some of my favourite two-color designs! Both of these use white plus a spot color to keep printing costs low. As noted elsewhere on this site, it’s always super important to me to create designs that look cool, and I really believe that a good shirt design should stand on its own without relying on the band’s name to sell. These designs came on a variety of shirt colours, though I think the biggest seller was the Sonic shirt as a tank-top.

We Had a Dance-Off in a Thunderstorm

Album Art – Front & Back

Album Cycle – We Had a Dance-Off in a Thunderstorm (2009). The second EP from Sharks On Fire, but the first that wasn’t solely comprised of home-made basement demos. Recorded by Dustin Marsh in our hometown of Kamloops BC, this was our initial endeavour to create something with broader appeal.

Though it is very immature in a lot of ways, this album was completely earnest in its conception and creation, and still seems to have a small fanbase from back in the day. No idea how or why.

Eight Page Booklet. The visuals were created from magazines I scanned digitally and manipulated in Photoshop. The ‘teeth’ along the red stripe are notable for being from an article about Walmart destroying local communities. This was also the very first design piece I ever made that was printed professionally, so it holds a huge place in my heart.

Sharko Polo

Single – Sharko Polo (2014). Recorded as the final goodbye after eight years as a band, this single was recorded and mixed by Michael Kraushaar at Bully’s Studios, New Westminster. The visuals were created with assets I re-used from ‘From Birth To Bad Grades’ album, along with a few new graphics. The goal of this project was to create something that came across very much as a personal thank you to our audience. The photography below, taken by Cole Chalmers, are of the band house where I lived with our guitarist, before leaving Kamloops.

Air Combat

Single – Air Combat (2010). Released right after Sharks moved from Kamloops to Vancouver collectively, this song become a bit of a fall anthem for ourselves and our audience. Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Dustin Marsh at Marshland Studios, this is a release that came together in the last minutes, including big structure tweaks while we were in the studio – something I’d not advise.

I recall a moment where we were talking about what to do for the album art, when I flipped over the random piece of card-stock I had written the lyrics on. It was grey and textured, with two brown scratches down the middle, vaguely resembling the Sharks On Fire logo. A lightbulb went off and I took a ball point pen to the card, creating the design. After scanning it, and a few small tweaks in photoshop, the final design is what you see here. It felt almost like destiny, and I actually still have this piece of card to this day.

This song title would later go on to be the name of my next major band.

Music Video – Air Combat. Shot by Joy Factory Films, this music video was more of a showcase of bands that played at our tongue-in-cheek mini-festival “Sharksfest” in Kamloops. We had 8 bands from Western Canada play a really amazing all-ages send-off show before leaving town, with promotional support by local radio stations 97.5 The River, and TRU’s campus radio 92.5 the X. It was an amazing show and it felt like prom. Sidenote about prom – I missed mine because I accidentally booked a show with Sons of Butcher for the same night. So I played it in my tuxedo and my mom was not mad but ‘disappointed’.