The self-titled debut from Toronto’s Crash Karma is the result of three individuals with multi-platinum pedigrees and one equally skilled yet unknown musician who sneakily orchestrated the rock band’s formation. Yep, he lied — but for the greater good, as you can hear. Lead vocalist Edwin (ex I Mother Earth), drummer Jeff Burrows (ex The Tea Party), guitarist Mike Turner (ex Our Lady Peace) and bassist Amir Epstein (Zygote) crashed karmically in the studio to create songs that are heavy, intricate, big, intense and melodic, a sound that can only come from these four guys with their respective histories, chemistry and musical prowess. Produced by Mike at The Pocket Studios, “Awake” is a psychedelic, other-worldly percussive rock trip into a higher consciousness; “Fight” is an aggressive accusatory punch-up about reflection and perseverance; the mercurial “Next Life” hopes for a different outcome; while the acoustic ballad, “Lost” (feat. a guitar solo by Ian Thornley), is sentimental and tender, and the insistent rocker “Man I Used To Be,” a reminder of yesterday and the need to break the cycle. “A couple of months into the project, I realized that we did have something going here,” says Edwin. “When I started hearing the complete picture on some songs, then I thought, ‘Wow, we are actually bringing elements of all four of our previous bands to this one sound.’ Even if it’s a subtle transfer from the old bands or if it’s an obvious one, it’s working and it sounded really good together. I guess I started getting excited then.” The band came together in 2008. Edwin was three albums into a sustainable solo career; Mike was running The Pocket, the studio he opened after leaving OLP, as well as playing in the band Fairground; and Jeff, now an on-air host, had the No.1 mid-day show on CKUE in Windsor, ON, and was doing various drum sessions. Amir, the bass player and songwriter in a popular Toronto jam band, Zygote, had returned from law school in Australia and was practicing criminal defense law. Amir knew Edwin’s then-publicist through a mutual friend and half-jokingly asked if she’d tell him he wants to co-write with him. To his surprise, Edwin agreed to meet with him. That’s when Amir flipped agendas and told him he wanted to start a band and could get Mike to play guitar and Jeff to play drums. “I fibbed,” laughs Amir. Edwin, though skeptical, said he’d think about it. “I did know that immediately I liked Amir’s positivity and energy and that’s why I even sat down and talked to him about this,” Ed says. “I loved the way he presented himself and the whole project.” Amir had some work to do — and fast. The same day, he drove to The Pocket, where he had recorded both solo and Zygote material, and asked Mike if he wanted to be in his new band with Edwin and Jeff. He then went to see Andy Curran, who produced a Zygote album and was now an artist manager at SRO, which used to manage The Tea Party. He told him he was starting a new project with Mike and Ed and could he ask Jeff to be involved? “I didn’t really manipulate them,” claims Amir, showing his defense skills. “I didn’t say, ‘I have Jeff burrows, I have Mike, I have Ed,’ it was more, ‘I’m thinking blah blah…’ but I made it sound like they were already involved.” “There’s a grey area in just how much trickery was involved,” laughs Mike. “Odd that we all felt that we were each being asked as a last hold-out.” Interestingly, Edwin, Mike and Jeff were not the main songwriters in IME, OLP and TTP respectively, but in Zygote Amir was. And that’s how this new band began. Amir, the guy most excited and eager to make this work at the time, brought some acoustic songs and ideas over to The Pocket. “They all take what they’ve been doing forever and applied it to make that much better,” Amir says. “Amir had nuggets, ideas and progressions, but everything was torn apart and put back together and rewritten,” says Edwin, who would often work on lyrics alone or with Amir at his condo. “He’s a super creative guy and a ton of fun to work with,” Mike says of Amir. Jeff, who would drive in from Windsor for intense working weekends with the band, would see these “shells of songs” turn into “monsters,” he says. “I would do this drum part and that part and then I’d say, ‘It can’t go like that,’ and then we’d add another guitar part and then the song would change completely and then the chorus would change completely. I don’t think anyone has worked like that. It was out-there.” “As everybody brought their own two cents to it, it’s taken quite a while to develop its own thing,” Mike says. “But every band goes through that. Usually, you get that from rehearsals and jamming. We’ve done it more from the studio side, which is a little strange.” Crash Karma made its live debut in May, playing Jeff’s annual 24-hour drum-a-thon charity event in Windsor. The set included OLP’s “Naveed,” IME’s “One More Astronaut” and The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter and “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” and gave the guys their first indication of how the band delivers on a concert stage. “I didn’t know what to expect,” says Jeff. “Without any rehearsals or ever playing together, they joined me at the 23 ½ hour of the marathon and Ed was killin’ it. He was screaming, much like he did on the record, but he was doing it live with confidence. I was equally as out of it at that time of the hour — but that was us playing live for the first time and the chemistry felt right.” Amir can now rest his case. Crash Karma has ended up with a fantastic album that will join the ranks of releases from their previous bands of which they are still proud. The four have running jokes now and a camaraderie that came not just from their musical connection, but friendship. “I enjoy hanging out with the guys. It’s not like work. I look forward to it,” says Ed. “And as soon as I started working with them, I realized our dynamic is really cool. There’s no bullshit, no pretention and no ego and if we do get egotistical, then we are laughing it off. It’s not like, ‘I’m great.’ We’re just messing around. Everybody insults everybody, but nicely so there is a great energy. “The only thing that has to be different this time,” says Ed, “and it’s imperative and I will not budge — is that everything is equal, everything, shared equally. There is no one guy above everybody else.” That’s a democracy and that’s Crash Karma.