I Mother Earth

I Mother Earth
Jasper Dailey Dads Band performing at Echo Beach in Toronto, August 2014
Background information
Also known as	IME
Origin	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Alternative rock, funk rock
Years active	1991–2003, 2012–present
Labels	Universal, Capitol
Associated acts	Crash Karma
Members	Jagori Tanna Christian Tanna Edwin Chuck Dailey
Past members	Bruce Gordon Brian Byrne Franz Masini

I Mother Earth, or IME, is a Canadian alternative rock band. The band was at the peak of its popularity in the mid-to-late 1990s. On January 24, 2012, the band ended an eight-year hiatus with an announcement on their official website.

The brother duo of drummer Christian and guitarist Jagori Tanna met vocalist Edwin at their shared rehearsal space in 1990. Edwin asked the brothers to form a band with him, and the three came together in 1991, taking on Franz Masini as a bass player. The band came up with the name IME, as in "I Am Me", but later decided the letters should stand for something. Jag Tanna ad-libbed the name I Mother Earth and has always insisted it has no special meaning. The band, represented by a professionally recorded five-song demo, played a mere thirteen shows over the next year. These were noted for their jam sessions, poetry readings, and murals painted in the background during the songs. At the end of the year, the band was in the middle of a bidding war between labels. IME ended up being signed to EMI in Canada, and Capitol for the U.S. and internationally.

I Mother Earth 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 by 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, the first three of which actually originated from IME's demo tape and were later included on the proper album. "Rain Will Fall" and "Not Quite Sonic" were released in the summer of 1993, and "So Gently We Go" and "Levitate" were released the following summer. All four garnered respectable 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 album itself 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.