Signed to a co-venture deal

In 1992, I Mother Earth signed to a co-venture deal brokered between Capitol Records (U.S.) and its Canadian affiliate, EMI Music Canada . The band travelled to Los Angeles in 1992 to record its debut album with former Guns N’ Roses producer Mike Clink . During these sessions, Franz Masini was fired, leaving Jag Tanna to re-record the bass parts himself. At the completion of the album, Masini was replaced by Bruce Gordon , whose band Rocktopus was breaking up at that time. With the lineup solidified, the band underwent an intensive international tour to support its debut, Dig , in mid-1993. Considered an anomaly in the “alternative” era and often mistaken for heavy metal , the album combined traditional hard rock with grooves, extended jams, psychedelic lyrics, and the Latin-based percussion of Luis Conte and Armando Borg . Dig spawned four singles, three of which originated from IME’s demo tape and were later included on the proper album. “Rain Will Fall”, “Not Quite Sonic”, and “Levitate” were released in 1993, and ” So Gently We Go ” was released in the summer of 1994. All four garnered radio and video airplay in Canada, as well as rotations in the U.S. and Europe. The latter two singles in particular charted well on Canadian rock radio. The Dig album won a Juno Award in 1994 for Best Hard Rock Album, beating out IME’s childhood idols Rush for the award. This cemented a long relationship between the two bands, which started with IME opening for Rush the night after the Junos. By the end of the album’s run, Dig was a Gold record in Canada.