Bio

The story of

Rene D Young

Music was a major part of Rene’s life. You might say he was born into it. His mother, Beverly Foster, was a professional singer, appearing on radio and television as well as many stints as the house entertainer in piano bars.

There is a 78 RPM 7 1/2″ vinyl disc of five-year-old Rene singing True Love, with Hill and Gully Rider (Day-O!) on the flip side! It was cut direct-to-disc in a Vancouver recording studio. Around the same time, Rene began taking piano lessons. He got his first guitar in his early teens and started writing his own musical compositions.

In the mid-1970s he bought a Teac 4-track reel-to-reel tape deck with synchronized overdubbing capability so he could record some of his ideas. He recorded one track at a time, guitars, keyboards, a drum machine – whatever he could round up. There are many reels of crude recordings hidden away in boxes that will probably never see the light of day again.

In the late 2000’s Rene started using digital recording software and virtual instrument plugins on a computer. His 2-CD concept album, Dreams of Flying, was the first to be completed in the digital realm, in 2009.

Books Published

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Albums Recorded

Storyline

Rene Foster is born. His surname would be changed to Young before the end of the decade, when his mother remarried.

Rene is recorded in a Vancouver studio singing two songs, accompanied by a pianist.

Rene attends his first music concert: The Beatles, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

Rene reads a magazine article written by Peter Fonda about how pollution is destroying the ecosystem in the North Atlantic. It sparks an idea for a sequence of songs that will eventually become the album Dreams of Flying.

Rene purchases a Teac reel-to-reel to be able to create multi-track recordings.

Rene takes a 9-month course in audio engineering. Many of the classes take place at Ocean Sound Studios in Vancouver. Final grade: 97%.

Rene begins hosting a weekly progressive rock Internet Radio show called ProgRoots on The Dividing Line Broadcast Network. The show will run for 439 episodes spanning more than ten years.

After three years of recording with a computer software and plugins, Rene completes Dreams of Flying, a 2-CD concept album.

Rene finishes an album of Pink Floyd covers that he titled Which One’s Pink?

A second album of Pink Floyd covers is completed. This one is titled Which One’s Pink? Vol. 2, so the first one became Vol. 1. These albums were never made available to the public due to licensing rules.

A new full-length album is completed, with every song title being a single word. the album is therefore called Word. Several tracks feature vocals by Sabrina Lamblin. For this one, Rene has actual CDs manufactured. They are available for purchase right here.

Rene makes videos for two of the tracks from the Word album: the title track, and Wrong. These can be seen via the home page of this website. Four new original tracks make up a new EP titled Hawking Wind. Rene created a Bandcamp page for his music, where this is available as a free download.

A new concept album called Alien Dream is recorded. It’s a Science Fiction story told in the lyrics. rene decides it would be fun to write a novel based on the story, so he does. The novel shares the same title as the album. It is published on Amazon as a Kindle e-book.

Rene writes and releases a sequel to the first novel. This one is titled Alien Earth.

The Alien Dream series becomes a trilogy, with the release of Alien Revelation. All three books are also available as paperbacks and as a bundle.

A new full-length album called Tales and Tributaries is in the works, as is a fourth novel, The Perseus Problem. These are expected to be released in April 2023.