It wasn’t supposed to happen so soon. In the early 2000s, Doug Cho lost his father to prostate cancer. The doctors weren’t able to catch the disease in time. Having built a successful career in the pharmaceutical and medical supplies industry, Doug immediately began yearly screening tests of his own. Any readers/listeners who have experienced such loss will understand the feeling of not taking life for granted after such a tragedy and his father’s passing made the onetime singer-songwriter realize that he still had a desire to reconnect with his earlier musical vision.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, Doug, then in his early twenties, had recorded three independently produced and self-financed vinyl records, two LPs and a 7” EP, released under his given name, and while never a full-time gigging or studio musician, the songwriter still had a great many thoughts and feelings to express and share through his love of music. With no time to waste, Doug started recording at home by himself, with only a couple of guitars, a keyboard, and various pieces of percussion. He described his latest batch of songs, now performed instrumentally, as “raw music,” free from any of the superfluous trappings and trickery present in many modern day recordings that can still be heard across the digital music landscape.

Bearly Music, his first output from this “raw music” era was produced in 2008 and released as a CD-R the same year, and given to friends and family. This was followed by an unfortunate prostate cancer diagnosis of his own. Unlike his father’s fatal experience, Doug’s cancer was caught early enough during one of his regular screenings for it not to spread beyond medical help. Surgery and recovery was still not without its challenges, yet it inspired Doug to love, laugh, and breathe to his fullest, to cycle vigorously, a longstanding passion, and to create more.

Bearly Music, pun fully intended, was followed by 2014’s Not All Bear? and once again, was shared with friends and family as a CD-R in a colour photocopied sleeve with handcrafted art. “The record contains a wide variety of different genres of music,” said Doug to Voluntary In Nature about Not All Bear? in a letter dated March 20, 2017. “Not all songs will appeal to all tastes, but I hope it will broaden people’s outlooks of that fluid quality we call music. The past decade has been an exploration in my continuing journey to find those intangibles in music that touch us all. It is a never ending quest that many before me have undertaken.” As there is more Doug Cho music from the past ahead, I think it’s best to leave it at that for now. It’s time for us to listen. (VIN 005)

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