AFTERLIVES: millionaires, sylvania, COLLABORATIONS with Mars Roberge, Rob Sanzo, Steve Leckie, JENNIFER SWAIN
Afterlives. Transmission. Transition.
This is a record of the work that followed the end of the primary timeline. The collapse of a project is rarely total; Afterlives documents the transition from a collective identity to isolated, structural studies.
LEGACY 01
SYLVANIA
The sound was the point. Drums programmed to a mechanical perfection no human hands could hold, layered beneath atmosphere that breathed and shifted. Guitar that moved through the electronics rather than against them. This was the moment post-punk's raw darkness stopped resisting the machine — and something new came out the other side. The Furies had carried that DNA through the late 80s and into the mid-90s. Sylvania was where it mutated into darkwave.
Sylvania (1999–2003) was the pivot point — where the thread running from The Furies met the future. The lineup signalled it immediately. Jennifer Swain — co-founder of Tuuli, contributor to Rusty — brought rock-trained precision over electronic architecture. Conan Romanyk shaped the atmospheric mood on synthesizers. Mark Stewart returned on bass and programming — the same understated anchor he'd been in The Furies.
The work earned its place — The Velvet Underground, the Kathedral, Holy Joe's and support for VNV Nation at The Big Bop's Reverb during the Empires tour.
LEGACY 02
Millionaires
The Millionaires formed from the dissolution of The Furies — Toronto's proto-goth institution. When the band ended, Mark Stewart and I stripped everything back and started over: black suits, no excess, no filler. Dark Glam. Purist.
The lineup we assembled wasn't accidental. Mars Roberge — known across Toronto as Die J! Mars — was a scene fixture behind the decks at Catch 22 and a natural fit on guitar. Rob Sanzo brought the technical authority of a producer already deep into Toronto's underground infrastructure — CIUT 89.5 basement sessions, and building what would become Signal to Noise, a major-label-grade facility on Spadina. Behind the kit: Dom "The Bomb" Whelan of The Mahones — an Irish punk institution that shared stages with the Dropkick Murphys, The Tragically Hip, and Van Morrison.
The Millionaires lived in the world Davy Love built — BlowUp's Britpop and mod nights at the El Mocambo — and the scene Mark Holmes ignited with Orange Alert. But we weren't products of it. The Furies predated all of it. We were bloodline, not bandwagon — proto-goth DNA in a moment of Britpop revival, playing Dark Glam for rooms that knew the difference.
Eye Weekly and NOW Magazine covered the band. We never signed. Some things are better that way.
LEGACY 03
Fleurs Du Mal
The Fleurs du Mal project was Steve Leckie's next act — and somehow, I was in it.
As frontman of the Viletones, Leckie didn't just ignite Toronto punk — he wrote the template. In 1977, "Screaming Fist" became one of Canada's earliest punk recordings and eventually a cultural artifact: William Gibson lifted the title for the defining military operation in Neuromancer, hard-wiring Leckie into the origins of cyberpunk. He also organized the Canadian invasion of CBGB — the showcase that put Toronto on the map and drew Lester Bangs to the story. Personable like a mentor. Terrifying like a killer. Genius.
I'd gotten close to him during the Furies era, where he dangerously cast me as his muse — some incarnation of Stiv Bators, his Brother in Arms from the Dead Boys. One late night at Fleur de Mal, he materialized from shadow and drove a switchblade into the table in front of me. Cold eyes. A hunter's voice: "I am not your fucking father." I felt like prey. "You're going to play guitar for me." "But I'm a singer." "Exactly."
The chair came with prior occupants: Chris Hate, Sid Vicious. No complaints.
“A Staple of the Goth Nightclub Circuit.”
BLOGTO — Shazia Khan