RIVIR's History

The idea for RIVIR was formed on October 13th, 2002. This was the day that Sands of Time was recorded in the wee hours of the morning, in a tiny apartment in Toronto, Ontario. The actual lyrics and music were written years prior to this, but I was lacking the ability to record a decent-sounding version of the song. From there, it would be a long wait till the next recording, a demo of an old Socrates song called So Perfect. It was originally recorded in 1997 using Mario Paint for SuperNES as a drum machine. Under my new band name, it was re-done August 12th, 2003, but the following day, a new original track was born. It was titled Again. I went into work-sleep mode for a couple months, and finally when I got a new job offer, I was happy so I recorded a new track called Seven. The lyrics for Seven were written back on May 23rd, 2000, but there was never any music put to it until October 19th, 2003. Nearly a year later, the drums and bass have been re-done, and the new version of the track released. A new song finally began being worked on through inspiration of the reunion of Skinny Puppy, and we called it Reflection. It was worked on at various times between April 10th and July 3rd of 2004. Reflection was the first RIVIR track to feature Sarah on backing vocals, and to reflect the musical direction where RIVIR was heading. On July 6th through July 8th, 2004, a new track called Mortify was written and recorded. There was a rough demo mix of it floating about friends of the band, but it had not yet been released officially. On April 1st and April 2nd, 2005, the guitars and vocals were redone and the final version of Mortify was mixed and released to the public. On August 29th, 2004, a new demo called Darkness of the Night was written and recorded. There are only incomplete lyrics for this song at this time, but once they are finished, there will be a release shortly after. Another untitled track is in the works, the music complete, but the lyrics still need to be written. This song was written and recorded on September 5th, 2004. There are also a bunch of other tracks sitting in limbo, written at various times, but may never see the light of day. This history is out of date and very incomplete, and will be updated some day, maybe.

The Band Name

The name RIVIR didn't come from anywhere in particular - that is, it's just a different spelling of the word "river" (if you looked at half the word in a mirror) and is pronounced the same. Some people have pronounced the band's name as "revere" and that works too, but officially, it is "river."

RIVIR's current lineup is:

Dana Olson - Vocals, guitars, synths, bass, drums and percussion
Sarah Olson - Vocals, drums and percussion

RIVIR uses the following equipment:

Guitars by Fender/Squire, Charvel/Jackson, Epiphone, Ovation/Applause, and Yamaha.
Drums, cymbals, and hardware by Tama, Zildjian, Remo, ProMark, and Vic Firth.
Microphones by Samson, MCA, and AKG.
Signal processing and amplification by DigiTech, T.C. Electronic, Boss, Fender, and Behringer.
Audio workstation by Yamaha and Fostex.