BW&BK; scribe Carl Begai recently caught up with NEUROSONIC frontman / producer Jason Darr to discuss his recent decision to put the band on ice and collaborating with Canadian rocker Bif Naked on her new album, The Promise. An excerpt appears below.

“A lot of the Bif record came from ideas I had that I was going to use for the next Neurosonic record,” Darr reveals. “I actually started producing an EP for Bif because she was sick with breast cancer and chemo and all that, and they wanted to put something out for the fans. They ended up really liking the stuff and decided we had to keep going and make a full record. I had the opportunity to pitch a lot of my ideas and Bif really liked a lot of the stuff. We ended up working really, really well together, which was strange for me because I was used to being in control up to that point. I’m really excited about the Bif record and it’s a lot of fun just to wreck somebody else’s music for a change (laughs).”

What makes The Promise particularly outstanding is that it was written and recorded while Bif was undergoing treatment for breast cancer, not only during her recovery. This made for an added challenge in getting top-notch work in the can.

“We made a bit of a deal," says Darr. "I said that if she was going to come in and try to do some singing, if we weren’t getting gold out of her she should go home. That way she wasn’t wasting her time and I wasn’t wasting mine. It was ‘Come in when you feel up to it,’ because the one thing I don’t have the ability to do with anything is settle. Luckily she was a fucking machine and a monster when it came to the chemo. She just said ‘Don’t worry about it, I’m just gonna do it…’ and it was un-fucking-believable seeing somebody who literally crawled up the hill to get to work (laughs). Our studio is up the hill from where she lives, Bif would come in looking like death because she had the shit beat out of her with this chemo treatment, and for her to go ‘Just don’t look at me when I sing, let’s do it…’ was amazing. Close your eyes, put the headphones on, and it was ‘Holy fuck!’ She nailed it, she was a total pro.”

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Click this location to check out audio samples from The Promise and to order.