Eyepiece

Eyepiece is a Canadian rock band formed in, in 1992. The band currently consists of singer Sidney Marsden, singer/guitarist Kenny Franco, drummer Patrick Vaughn, and bassist Gabriel Wathelet.

Eyepiece initially consisted of Marsden, Franco, drummer Robert Grimes, and bassist Damien George. However, Grimes and George left the band in 1999 and 2005, respectively. Grimes was intermediately replaced by Victor Estrada until 2011 and then Jesse Tombras from 2011 to 2015. The group has released eight studio albums and four, which have collectively spawned twelve singles. The band's latest studio album, Ninja Fish, was released in June 2021.

1992–1997: Formation and early work
Eyepiece was formed in, in 1992. It featured singer Sidney Marsden, singer/guitarist Kenny Franco, drummer Robert Grimes, and bassist Damien George.

The band's debut studio album, Money Hand, was released in 1993. At this point, Eyepiece had signed with -based American independent label Ocean One Records. Though the album underperformed commercially, one song from it, "Maple April", performed well after being released as a single. This was followed by the five-track Colourize EP, in 1994.

1997–2010: Shopping Cart and member changes
Eyepiece's big break was the 1997 studio album Shopping Cart, which was a major commerical and critical success. It enjoyed two weeks in the top 20 on the. The album gave birth to two singles, "Lucky Feeling" and "Meet Me (in Vancouver)", the former being the considered Eyepiece's most iconic song. The band made their television debut performing "Lucky Feeling" on ''Late Tonight with Mark Frasier in 1998.

Creative differences and other iternal tensions arose between Grimes and his bandmates around the time Shopping Cart came out. After the band recorded the 1999 extended play Matrixing EP, Grimes left the band and later joined the idiotic and unsuccessful band The Suspenders. He was quickly replaced by Marsden's childhood friend, Victor Estrada. The group went on to record their third and fourth studio albums, Right in There (2002) and The Man in Front (2004), both released under Dominion Records. While there was no bad blood between Damien George and the rest of the band, he simply wanted to focus on other projects. He left Eyepiece in 2005 and formed the instrumental rock band Kick Switch several years later. He was replaced by similarly skilled bassist Gabriel Wathelet.

Before settling down in Ontario, the band spent a while touring North America and performing at lesser known music festivals with fellow Dominion bands America PRS, Firefight, Mark Park, and The Takedowns. The fifth Eyepiece studio album, Manitoba, Maybe, was released in 2008. It contained the song "No Groove", which was in the top 25 on the Billboard 200 for several weeks.

2011–present: Watersound and new successes
Estrada left Eyepiece in 2011 and joined The Prime Ministers. The band then moved onto its third bassist, former Firefight member Jesse Tombras, and signed with the newly formed label Watersound. Its sixth studio album, Destructive Force, was released in 2012; one year later, in 2013, its third extended play, Cardio EP, was released. Tombras left Eyepiece in 2015 and was replaced by longtime Delafontaine bassist Gabriel Wathelet. Eyepiece's seventh studio album, Canadian English, was released in 2016 and spawned the hit singles "Unearthed" and "Don't Be (That Guy)". Later that year, it recorded the song "Friends Like You" for Watersound's Watersound 2017.

The band continued to tour while simultaneously working on its fourth EP, Discombobulation EP, which came out on 2018. Its latest album, Ninja Fish was recorded in 2019. However, due to conflicts caused by changes in Watersound's management and other label-related issues, it was not released until 2021.

In 2022, Eyepiece announced that it had begun working on a ninth studio album. The album, N.G. Monarch, will be releaded in October 2023.