Can a band pick up where it left off nearly four decades ago, or does time turn unfinished business into something entirely different?

Some bands break up and become nostalgia acts in waiting. Others leave behind a few songs, a stack of fading rehearsal tapes, and a question that hangs around longer than anyone expects. A Different Brand of Noise took the scenic route back to the music, and Far More Than Conversation, their second album, arrives with a story that makes the long wait part of the listening experience.

Out now on major streaming platforms and led by the single “Who Dares,” the record follows the band’s official debut, Blurry, released in 2025. But the real hook here isn’t simply a comeback. It’s what happens when unfinished business survives long enough to meet a completely different version of the people who started it.

The roots go back to Montreal in the late 1980s, when guitarist Robert Ranaldi and bassist Ken Ashdown reconnected by chance on a city street. Both had already put in serious work with earlier projects, toured Canada and the UK, earned campus and alternative radio attention, and opened dates for established alternative rock acts. With drummer Gonzo in the mix, they formed a power trio that moved fast: writing, rehearsing, playing packed headline shows, and recording a demo on an analog four-track in late 1987.

That demo, Up, Tight, circulated as a bootleg and became a favourite on Montreal campus and alternative radio. Then reality came knocking. After roughly a year and a half, university and reliable paycheques beat out the uncertain economics of a band still finding its footing. The group folded, leaving 10 finished songs parked for decades.

Here’s where the story gets interesting.

Ranaldi eventually moved to New York. Ashdown settled in Roberts Creek, British Columbia. Gonzo remained in Montreal. Different lives, different distances, and a catalogue that had never quite made it out into the world. Then came a phone call during the early days of pandemic lockdown, when Ashdown reached out simply to check in with his old bandmates.

Revisiting the old material gave them something to do. What began as a way to reconnect gradually became a three-year exercise in rediscovery. Working remotely, the musicians relearned their own songs from deteriorating rehearsal cassettes, taught themselves audio production, and worked through Logic Pro while exchanging files across the miles. Nineteen songs eventually reached finished form. The first 10, written 37 years earlier, became Blurry. Now Far More Than Conversation carries the story forward.