Alan Frew: vocals
Al Connelly: rhythm and arpeggio guitars
Sam Reid: keyboards
Jim Vallance: keyboards and drum programming
Keith Scott: lead guitar (end of song)
Dave Pickell: DX7 "harmonica" solo
Backing vocals: Lisa Dal Bello and Sharon Lee Williams

Produced by Jim Vallance.  Recorded by: (1). Lorne Feld at ESP Studios, Buttonville; (2). Paul Northfield at Le Studio, Morin Heights; (3). Jim Vallance at Distorto Studios, Vancouver; (4). Hayward Parrott at McClear Place, Toronto.   Mixed by Ed Thacker at Phase One Studios, Toronto.

Alan Frew: vocals
Al Connelly: guitar
Sam Reid: keyboards
Jim Vallance: keyboards, drum programming

Recorded at Distorto Studios, Vancouver.  This is our May 1985 home-studio demo for "Someday".  Like the master recording that followed a few months later, the demo was programmed on a Yamaha QX-1 sequencer, primarily using DX-7 keyboard sounds (electric piano, marimba and slap bass), supported by a rather unadventurous Linn drum loop.

Also recorded by M-Appeal

Everything about "Someday" is dead simple. The verses are sparse and minimal  --  just four lines of lyric each -- but it seems to work.  Same for the choruses -- a mere three lines of lyric -- and again, the melody and chord structure is very simple.

Despite the simplicity however, the song proved extremely difficult to record, and there were a few moments when I didn't think we'd get it on tape.

We wrote the song in my home studio in Vancouver, the same week we completed "Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone"). I can't speak for Alan Frew and Al Connelly, but my contribution to the song was inspired by the 1985 Paul Young recording "Every Time You Go Away", brilliantly produced and engineered by Laurie Latham.  Latham's track is simple and solid, yet it's full of little surprises (high piano stabs, electric sitar lines, gospel backing vocals, etc). It's still one of my favourite records.

The programming for the released version of "Someday" took place in Newmarket Ontario, at Sam Reid's home studio, located in his back garden, near the river. For the most part, the track consists of Yamaha DX-7 sounds (bass, marimba and electric piano) programmed on a Yamaha QX-1 sequencer. Sam handled all the technical aspects, essentially creating a studio-ready "midi" recording

The QX-1 was one of the earliest midi sequencing devices, and it was excruciatingly slow to enter and quantize data. In addition, we used a Linn Drum machine, later replacing the Linn snare with a deep Syndrum sample. Several years later I used that very same sample on the Aerosmith recording of "Rag Doll").

We’d had the luxury of recording "Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone" at Sounds Interchange, a modern, state-of-the-art facility in Toronto. But for "Someday", Capitol Records sent us to tiny ESP Studios in the suburb of Buttonville, north of Toronto. The ESP building is over 100 years old and had once been an antique store, and before that a blacksmith's shop ... in fact, there were still horseshoes nailed to the wall.

At that time ESP was best known as the "home" of legendary musician Dee Long, from the group Klaatu. Dee was a pioneer in the use of Fairlight and midi technology, however ESP's analog recording equipment was out-dated and faulty, and initially we didn't have much faith in the young engineer, Lorne Feld, who seemed scattered, disorganized and completely flustered by the equipment failures. Things were not going well at all, and I thought we’d have to scrap the day’s work and start again elsewhere ... but suddenly everything started coming together, and by the end of the day we left ESP with one of the strongest tracks on the album!

Additional recording was done at Le Studio (near Montreal) with Paul Northfield, and most of Alan’s vocal was completed in my basement studio in Vancouver, but I credit ESP Studios and engineer Lorne Feld with delivering magic that might have eluded us elsewhere.

Singers Lisa Dal Bello and Sharon Lee Williams provided backing vocals at McClear Place studios in Toronto, with Hayward Parrott engineering. Dave Pickell added a superb DX-7 "harmonica" solo at my studio in Vancouver.

Ed Thacker mixed the track at Phase One in Toronto.