Floater biography
Floater was formed in the summer of 1993 in Eugene, Oregon and for 24 years consisted of the three founding members, Robert Wynia (vocals, bass and guitar), David Amador (guitar) and Peter Cornett (drums, percussion, vocals, guitar, samples). Peter Cornett announced his departure from Floater on October 17, 2017. Mark Powers joined the band, taking over on the drums, percussion, live samples and backing vocals.
The musical seeds of Floater were planted when Robert Wynia met Andrew Smith at their mutual friend Rich Swanson's house in early 1992. The two started talking about music and putting a band together, as Robert had already penned many songs by this time he wanted to play and record. They were joined by Andrew Dent on guitar, rounding out the band when Peter Cornett responded to a musicians wanted ad, posted at a local Eugene music store by Robert Wynia. The band Henry's Child was formed, consisting of Robert Wynia on bass, Peter Cornett on drums, Andrew Smith on lead vocals, and Andrew Dent on guitar. Andrew Dent later left the band and Henry's Child recorded a 4 song demo tape (titled either Mother Box or Fourskins) with guitarist Ed Cole in the winter of 1992/1993, at Rogers Recording Studio in Glenwood, OR. Henry's Child never played any live shows during this time, but the band wrote music and rehearsed often at the warehouse Robert, Peter and Andrew worked at. Ed Cole started missing rehearsals and was soon replaced by new guitarist Rich Clinton in March 1993, who alongside the original singer Andrew Smith, remains in Henry's Child today.
Peter left Henry's Child in April of 1993 and kept jamming at the warehouse with Robert for a couple months, working on new music together. A demo tape titled Seed was recorded on June 8, 1993 of all early Floater material. They ran into their old Henry's Child guitarist Andrew Dent at John Henry's around this time, and he joined the new project which became known as The Dog's. Robert then also left Henry's Child to focus on the new band. The Dog's played one show at John Henry's in Eugene shortly after, and Andrew Dent left the band after this show. Robert and Peter again jammed with former Henry's Child guitarist Ed Cole a few more times that summer, then formed Floater in the late summer of 1993 adding David Amador, after a heavy round of guitarist auditions, completing the Floater lineup that existed from 1993 to 2017. In the early days, Floater played all around the Eugene area, starting with small parties and shows at the beer gardens and EMU lawn at the UofO, and surrounding venues like John Henry's and Max's. Floater recorded a 3 song demo around this time, simply titled Floater. Playing anywhere and everywhere, Floater shows drew the crowds and they quickly moved from an opening band to headlining shows in a matter of months. During January of 1994, Floater recorded and released two demo tapes. The first demo tape, titled Stiff & Restless, was a four track tape recorded on January 1, 1994 at Pro-Arts Studio in Eugene, OR. Their second demo tape, titled Sink, was also recorded in early January of 1994, and contained nine tracks, the first four tracks being from the Stiff & Restless demo. Some tracks on the tape were later re-recorded and released on their 1995 album Glyph. On January 1, 1994 Floater also played their first show at the historic WOW Hall opening for Two Minutes Hate and Gashdig. Later in the show, Robert and Peter joined Two Minutes Hate onstage with members of Gashdig for a cover of The Revolting Cocks' "No Devotion", which was released on the Two Minutes Hate cassette EP a month later. The Sink demo tape caught the attention of independent label Elemental Records, owned at the time by founder Jonathan Boldt. Peter and Robert approached Jonathan at a local Jollymon show on February 4, 1994 and gave him a copy of their Sink demo tape. A few months later, he signed Floater and they got to work on their first album, Sink. On May 2, 1994, Floater won the local Battle of the Bands V competition at Swingers Nightclub in Springfield, OR, capturing the $1000 prize. This show was also professionally filmed in full, and a later broadcast on a local public access show Live Music Northwest aired, with four of the nine tracks being shown. Floater also snagged a last minute opening spot for a Type O Negative show at John Henry's on May 24, 1994.
Floater's first album Sink was recorded during the summer of 1994, beginning on June 26th, lasting 76 hours of studio time. The first pressing of the CD featured 18 tracks, and the artwork on the CD was the sink photo from the Sink demo tape recorded earlier that year. 500 copies were initially pressed in September 1994 after a rush to mix it and get the album ready for CD release shows already scheduled. Then the album was partially remixed by Drew Canulette in late 1994 and released again with different disc artwork, and only 17 tracks. "Summoning (II)" was omitted from the track list on all later releases. There were also 500 cassettes made of Sink in early 1995, the only cassette release in Floater's official discography. The cassette lists only "Summoning" on it, unlike the CDs that still list the song as "Summoning (I)". After Sink's release, Floater began playing up and down the I-5 corridor between Washington and California as demand grew for the live shows, and took their first tour of the southwest as far east as Texas and Missouri. An Elemental Records compilation entitled "Northwest Post-Grunge" was released in November 1994 featuring "Godgun (Post Edit)", Floater's first compilation appearance of many to come. After Sink was released, Robert Wynia created his own record label, Typhon Records. This imprint was on all releases alongside Elemental Records (who was now distributing their albums and promoting the band) from Glyph through The Great Release, and then again from Acoustic Live at The WOW to date, and is both Floater and Robert Wynia's current record label.
Their second album Glyph was released in October 1995. Originally the album began as an EP, consisting of some leftover Sink and demo tracks, but after a few more songs were added, became a full length album worth of material. Mixed again this time by Drew Canulette, the first pressing was only 500 copies before there were some minor changes made and it was re-released in early 1996. Track 4, "Midnight Ride" replaced "Silt" on the previous version of Glyph, and a short intro to the song "Dead" was also added. The cover and tray artwork was changed slightly, font and CD artwork as well. Two promotional compilation CDs were also released around this time, "NAIL Fall/Winter 95/96" compilation featuring "Thin Skin" and "Hits Rock New Sckoool Volume 1" compilation featuring "Kill the Girl". The band was routinely selling out the WOW Hall venue in Eugene with strings of shows, where they still play to this day, and it could arguably be said that it is their favorite venue. In late 1995 around the release of Glyph, Peter and Robert played some live shows as part of a side project with Keith Brown of Threscher called Sentenced to Life. A cassette of this project exists, with the first side being live tracks recorded at the WOW Hall featuring both Robert and Peter, and the second side consisting of studio demo tracks featuring Keith Brown playing all instruments and Robert providing the vocals on one track, Gabrielle. They also played in local jam and cover bands called Q and Horsey around this time with rotating musicians of the Eugene scene. Floater released an early version of "American Theatric" on the compilation CD "Subject to Change" recorded in January 1996, a shorter version without the intro or extended outro. The song "The Sad Ballad of Danny Boy" received some national airplay thanks to Stephen Woodward of Elemental Records, and was played on the now defunct syndicated Z-Rock radio station, garnering the band some nationwide recognition all across the US. They released a promotional CD single "Danny Boy plus three" that included three radio edit tracks from Glyph, and an unreleased outtake from the 1994 Sink recording sessions "Alcoholic", which was re-recorded and released 6 years later on the Burning Sosobra album. 1000 of these discs were pressed. They toured on the strength of the single across the US, going as far north as Ontario, Canada, and as far east as Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, playing CBGB's for the final show of the tour in the fall of 1996, and making fans all across the way. Both Sink and Glyph earned the band preliminary Grammy nominations for the albums during this time.
Floater released their third album Angels in the Flesh and Devils in the Bone in May of 1998 after months of delays, mixing and production issues with the now departed original producer Rick Parashar (who produced Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains among many other major label artists). Another promotional CD, Angels in the Flesh... radio edits was released just prior to the albums release, containing 4 radio edit tracks, and a couple added lyrics to the end of "Minister" that was not released on the record shortly after. Only 500 of these CDs were released. Angels in the Flesh & Devils in the Bone was later re-released in January 2000 on Elemental Records and 2008 on Floater's own Typhon Records with different cover and CD artwork. The band had also relocated from Eugene to Portland, OR at this time, where there were more venues to play and by far more exposure than in Eugene. Floater had been courted by major labels, turning down stalling offers from Capitol Records and Zoo Records, but stayed with Elemental Records to maintain creative control of their music. The band and record label were about to go through some major changes.
In 1999, a Southern Oregon public access cable show called "Iron Mike Presents" recorded and broadcast a Floater performance in Medford from March 6, 1999. Later that year, Floater released their first live album The Great Release. As Floater began writing for their fourth album, Elemental Records was purchased by Aaron and Cassandra Thorpe (Banton) on September 9, 1999, and they moved the Elemental Records offices to the Portland area. Floater had also changed management to Cassandra as well, having recently parted ways with manager Paula Vail.
Released in September of 2000, Burning Sosobra featured a cover of The Doors' "Waiting for the Sun", as well as the re-recorded version of "Alcoholic". The CD was originally released as a digipak, and was later released in jewel case versions. Having moved to Portland, and the changing of label owners and management, it was a fresh start of sorts for the band. Floater began playing acoustic sets at some shows, and exploring new ground with their sound. Keith Brown (from Two Minutes Hate, Sentenced To Life, Threscher, TV:616 and Drumattica) would at times perform with the band, filling in on guitar or bass when Robert picked up a six string. It is not uncommon for Floater to play two nights back to back in the same town or venue, playing an acoustic show one night, electric the next, or even both in one night. Floater was featured in November 2001 on a mainstream subscription based magazine on CD-ROM media disc "LAUNCH 46" via Yahoo!, in which a live "in studio" Floater video for "The Marriage of the Black Sheep" was included, as well as a short clip of Robert talking about the Portland music scene, and a short promo for Floater featuring Robert. Three videos were recorded during this session, "Rabbit King" which was also released on the band's official website in 2001, and "Independence Day" which was never released. By this time, Floater was playing much larger venues in Portland, Seattle, and ventured to Northern California quite often. They would trek as far south as San Diego, east to Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado and Utah. With a great fan base in Chico, CA, The Brick Works also became a favorite stop for the guys. In 2001, Elemental Records released a second live Floater album, Live at The Aladdin, recorded December 31, 2000 / January 1, 2001 at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, OR, with only 2000 copies being pressed. The label chose the CD track list and designed the album's artwork.
2002 saw the June release of Floater's fifth album, Alter. Prior to Alter's release, Elemental Records created a label called Pantheon Records specifically for Floater, but after some legal issues with the label name, they dropped the name and went back to Elemental Records. Alter and Burning Sosobra (first jewel case re-release) were both released on Pantheon Records in the short existence of the record label.The album was mixed in only 3 days and released due to time constraints, but a "director's cut" of the album was mixed after the album's release, and may eventually see the light of day. Robert was also singing in a side project band called Drumattica since 2001, which released their first album "A Part of Something" in 2003, also featuring the mastermind of the band Keith Brown (TV:616), Eric Helzer (Wehrmacht), Brian Lehfeldt (Sweaty Nipples/Wehrmacht/Cryptic Slaughter) and vocalist Jennifer Folker (Dahlia). Floater was featured in another 2003 compilation, "Eclectic Eugene", featuring the song "Rocking Horse". in the fall of 2003, Sink, Glyph and Angels in the Flesh discs were all repressed, being the third pressings of each album. Sink and Glyph were slightly altered since the original disc artwork files couldn't be found.
In August 2004, Floater released their sixth album, Acoustics, a mainly all acoustic album, with some additional players in the form of Rich Landar (King Black Acid) and Keith Brown (Drumattica). Originally around 30 acoustic tracks were recorded during the Acoustics sessions, some of which were later demoed and recorded on electric albums. They also released Floater Lives later that year, a new two disc release of their out of print live albums The Great Release and Live at The Aladdin, with three additional bonus tracks, including a new track with Jen Folker titled "Cold" (actually performed with Drumattica including Floater). Known for playing their new albums from beginning to end at the CD release shows, Floater started playing entire albums at select shows, starting with Sink on December 31, 2005 at the McDonald Theater in Eugene, OR.
In October 2006, Floater released their seventh and final album under contract with Elemental Records, Stone by Stone. The first pressing of the album was a two disc set that also included a bonus DVD "Behind the Scenes" which included some live footage and a brief history of the band, but concentrated mainly on the recording sessions of both Acoustics and Stone by Stone, with various live clips throughout. The later 2008 release of the album was the audio CD only. This album saw Floater shy away from their normal sound of swirling guitars, driving bass lines, primal drums and heavy samples, and go for a more straight forward commercial rock sound with the goal of being signed by a major label, signing with publicist Alex Steininger. Some songs recorded for the Stone by Stone sessions were later re-recorded on the next two albums Wake and The Thief. Peter Cornett also released a solo album under the name Riverboat, entitled On The Lamduring this time. The album was written, recorded, performed, mixed and produced entirely by Peter.
Floater released their first official concept video for "In Transition" in 2007. Also released that year was another promo compilation CD titled "FMQB Submodern #16: The FMQB Submodern Specialty Show Sampler" featuring Floater on the cover, and the track "An Apology" kicking off the CD.
Floater released their third live album, Acoustic Live at The WOW, in 2008 on their Typhon Records label. Recorded over a two night acoustic stint at the WOW Hall in February 2008, it was also released as a digipak, kicking off a green theme of digipak releases. Bonus songs from those shows were also available for sale on Floater's website during its initial release. A couple cover songs, Elton John's "Rocket Man" and U2's "Seconds" were given to the Street Team members. Additional live electric tracks were available to the Street Team members around that same time, about a whole disc worth of live material. A second Drumattica CD was also released this same year entitled "Train Out of Time", now also featuring David Amador on guitar. Floater was featured in another promotional compilation CD "Promo Only Modern Rock Feb 08", with "An Apology".
June 2010 saw Floater's eighth and first completely self-financed and self-released studio album Wake released on their own Typhon Records imprint. Released in a digipak as well, Wake kept with the straight forward commercial rock theme as Stone by Stone as the band continued to try and get some major label support. This was Floater's last big years long Western States tour before settling down to only local Northwest shows mainly between Chico and Seattle.
In 2011, Robert Wynia released his first solo album Iron By Water, a stripped down Americana approach far from Floater. Robert routinely played solo shows as Robert Wynia & The Sound with a revolving set of musicians, with Peter Cornett sitting in on drums for his solo shows on most stops, as well as Robert Wynia's Triptych Trio with Don Henson and Skip VonKuske. Robert released his first solo concept video for "Only You" in 2011. In 2012 Floater made their most recent compilation appearance on the "Rise & Shine" charity CD set put together by Burgerville Records, featuring their track "Wondering".
Following the end of the Wake tour in 2012, the band slowed it down and concentrated on taking care of things in their personal lives, and spending more time with their families while playing far less shows, performing locally only in the Pacific Northwest and down to Chico. Robert had moved to Boise around this time with his family, and attended BSU to finish his Bachelor's Degree in Enviornmental Science. Floater took most of 2015 and 2016 off for personal reasons, while playing only a handful of shows in 2015. Floater released two live tracks on their new Bandcamp page, "The Marriage of the Black Sheep" and "Ghost in the Making" in July 2016 followed the next month with their only show of 2016. Robert Wynia finished writing and recording his second solo album Brave The Strange, which was released in April 2017. David Amador routinely joined Robert Wynia & The Sound on guitar, along with future Floater drummer Mark Powers, which allowed them to bring some of the harder Floater classics into the setlist while Robert toured to support his new release during the remainder of the year and into 2018. Robert released a video for the song "Dark Water" in 2017.
It was announced in July of 2017 in the middle of Robert's solo tour, that Floater was to be inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. Floater was officially inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame on October 14, 2017 at the Aladdin Theater, in Portland, OR and played a shortened three song set with Peter Cornett, which would be his last performance with the band. Three days later, Peter Cornett publicly announced his official departure from Floater. Mark Powers officially joined Floater following Peter's leave from the band, with his first official Floater show being on December 31, 2017 at the Star Theater in Portland, OR. Following the OMHOF induction, the band now with Mark Powers on drums, went back into the studio to finish writing and recording the new album that had been put on the backburner for the last few years.
After an eight year gap between albums, Floater released their long-awaited ninth studio album The Thief in May 2018, their first to feature Mark Powers on drums, and toured in support of the album through September 2018. The album was produced and mixed by Robert Wynia, and was a return of sorts to a lot of the classic sound that put Floater on the map. Another video by Robert for "Down Among the Thornbushes" was released around this time. "Misfit II" was released as a free digital download in August for signing up to Floater's mailing list on the Typhon Records website, the song is labeled as a "2018 re-imagining" of their 2004 track "The Misfit's Song", a new re-recording now featuring Mark Powers, Skerik and Skip VonKuske. Floater also released their second official concept video, for the track "Handcuffs". Robert then headed overseas with his family in the summer of 2018, coming back for a few scheduled Floater shows in September. He then immediately returned to Europe and rejoined his family for the remainder of the 2018/2019 school year, and performed some solo shows across the world from Iceland to Japan before returning home in May of 2019.
Throughout 2019, while Robert was traveling the globe, Drumattica mastermind Keith Brown started writing and recording new music that led to Robert Wynia, David Amador, Mark Powers, Jennifer Folker and Scott Watkins (Two Minutes Hate, Threscher, TV:616, After The Rain) contributing to a new Drumattica album. Floater kicked off their 2019 return with a string of west coast shows starting in May, and concluded the decade with a New Years Eve show in Portland to ring in 2020. New shows in 2020 in Seattle and Portland kicked off the new year, but then Floater was forced (as all touring artists were) to cancel all scheduled live performances in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic starting in March 2020. During this sudden down time, Floater recorded and released a cover of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds version of "Henry Lee" featuring Gabby Holt on March 20th, via their Bandcamp page. Robert Wynia also released a cover of the Ronnie Lane song "April Fool" on April 8th. Drumattica kept recording and mixing as well during this time and announced that their third album "The Way Out" was finished and slated for a summer 2020 release date. On June 10th, Robert released Night Walks (The Soundtrack) on his Bandcamp page via digital album, labeled as "An instrumental reader's audio companion and soundtrack for the book of poetry, Night Walks", a new book of poetry, short stories and lyrics by Robert Wynia that was released the next day on June 11th via Amazon. On July 11th, Floater performed a livestreamed show from the Alberta Rose Theatre. The next day on July 12th, Drumattica released the new album "The Way Out" on all digital platforms, which was followed shortly by a video for the opening track "Desolation". Later that month the band pressed 100 copies of the new disc on CD. The remainder of 2020 the members of Floater have been writing, recording and working on various music projects. On December 21, Robert Wynia released a duet with Erin Adkisson called "Winter Sky", also featuring Mark Powers, David Langenes, Nathan Olsen and Skip VonKuske.
On February 12, 2021, Drumattica released a second new video for the track "Spiritual". Floater announced their first scheduled shows back (post-pandemic restrictions) in Redmond, OR at General Duffy's Waterhole with Everclear and at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland, OR. In June 2021, Robert Wynia scored a short soundtrack for an audiobook snippet of Matt Haig's book The Midnight Library for the Storybound podcast, also featuring David Amador and Mark Powers. In July 2021, Mark Powers and Robert Wynia launched a new podcast, Igniter, which features the two discussing music, the creative forces behind it and how artists overcome the hurdles of creation, which will also feature special guests (first guest, Storm Large, followed by second guest, David Amador) to join in on the conversation. On September 3rd, King Black Acid released a new track featuring Robert Wynia and Mark Powers titled "Never Alone".
On November 20th, 2021, founding member and original drummer Peter Cornett passed away at his home in Eugene, OR, he was 53 years old.
2022 saw Floater performing a handful of dates including Redmond and Boise. Rob performed some solo shows at home and abroad in the U.K., where he also performed live and recorded an album with the band Goodbye Dyna at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London. Floater ended 2022 with a pair of Floater shows in December in Portland and Eugene. The December shows saw Floater play Pink Floyd's "Animals" in its entirety (with guests Nathan Olsen and David Langenes), as well as Floater's "Alter" also being performed in its entirety in Eugene to close out the year on New Years Eve.
Floater kicked off 2023 with a third performance of "Animals" at the Spanish Ballroom in Tacoma, WA. The show was recorded and released on June 2, as "Floater performing Pink Floyd's "Animals" - Live at The Spanish Ballroom Tacoma, WA - 2023", performing the album in its entirety plus four additional live Floater tracks. Floater also performed in Tacoma, Eugene and Portland with a handful of Robert Wynia solo dates.
Floater played shows in Chico, Tacoma, and Eugene in 2024. In October, Goodbye Dyna released the album "Lava Meets Water" on both colored and black vinyl, CD, and cassette, featuring Robert Wynia on bass and backing vocals. On November 22, Floater released their first vinyl record for the album "Acoustics", pressed in sunset / sunrise swirled orange and red vinyl.
Of course there is always more to this Floater story to be told...
"Do the best you can with what you've got, and we'll go from there"