The bandmates are Brenden Claypool, Eric Kristjansson, P.Eng., Justin Mrazek P.Eng. and Chris Sawcyn, M.Sc., P.Eng.
The Company:
Based in Regina, Coherency is a four-piece rock band that blends elements of rock, grunge and punk into a driving, cohesive and energetic sound. As a true independent band, Coherency shares a common belief in the punk rock ethos of DIY.
The Achievement:
Usually it’s the geoscientists who specialize in rock formations.
But in this case, it’s three Regina-based engineers who share a common love for 1990s alternative grunge music who came together to form a four-piece band called Coherency.
The bandmates are Brenden Claypool (vocals, guitar), Eric Kristjansson, P.Eng (guitar), Justin Mrazek P.Eng (bass, backing vocals) and Chris Sawcyn, M.Sc., P.Eng (drums, backing vocals).
The band originally took shape in the early 2000s and played cover songs at house parties.
After a seven-year hiatus, Coherency released an album called Cognitive Dissonance in 2018.
In January 2019, the band debuted a video on YouTube from the album. The video from the song Bleed is hockey-themed and features a highlight montage of the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats.
Cognitive Dissonance is the follow-up album to Coherency’s debut EP Shades of Aura. The band is expected to release an acoustic album soon, as well as a third studio album sometime this year.
Their respective engineering backgrounds play a distinct role in the music-making process.
“It’s no secret that our lyrics and songs have been impacted by math and science. We can’t hide who we are,” Eric said. “Having technical educations has really helped us in the recording and studio design process because of our ability to research and develop solutions as we go.
He added the band uses spreadsheets to track the album progress on a track by track and song by song basis for each performer’s parts.
The recording of the band’s first album (in 2007) was challenging. The venue was Chris’s basement, hardly the ideal setup for several reasons. So, they improvised and made adjustments on the fly to get the most out of the sound quality.
“It was more of a live recording,” Chris recalled. “We had to separate the guitar cabinets in different rooms and set up mattresses in the rooms to soundproof them so we didn’t have a bleed from mic to mic between takes.”
“The technology jump from the first album where you’re capturing sound through a microphone that’s coming out of your amp … to record it all and then go and try to make it all sound good when you’re getting reverberations from different rooms is totally different from the sound you get today when everything is run through a computer and you’re able to change it note for note, sound for sound,” Eric added.
They agreed that the first album had a true garage band sound.
The new album, Cognitive Dissonance, was recorded in a digital studio at Brenden’s house.
“We could lay tracks separate from one another and eliminate the bleed issue,” Chris said.
Justin has a mixing studio at his house, where the bandmates can listen to the different takes and adjust the sound.
“Cognitive Dissonance is more radio-play worthy,” Chris said. “When we hear the album now, it doesn’t sound out of place like our first album probably did.”
Hockey also has been a big influence on the band. Justin is a former goaltending prospect of the Washington Capitals, while Eric and Chris have been friends since they first met playing atom hockey together in Regina.
The guys convene at least once a week to play hockey. And when they’re not playing, they can still be found at the local rinks watching their kids’ games.
Chris has three kids, Eric has two kids, Brendan has a son and Justin has two kids. They’re all involved in sports and music, which makes it a challenge for the band to find time to rehearse.
But you’ll hear no complaining. They all enjoy watching their kids play hockey and learn the instruments their dads play. Both hockey and music keep the bandmates close.
“Living in the trenches with Chris at school and doing all of the work there helps form a deeper bond as friends,” Eric said. “And once you’re out of school, your friend group tends to be people who share that similar mindset.”
The Band:
Eric has a background in civil engineering. He is the director, chief estimator at PCL in Regina. Chris comes from a mechanical engineering background. He is the platform lead – rail/machines in the machine conversion group at Brandt Engineered Products Ltd. Justin, also with a background in mechanical engineering, is a supervisor, mechanical maintenance with Enbridge Pipelines Inc. Brendan is an IT infrastructure manager at SaskTel.