Defunct Local Band Profile Series: The Isolation Sessions

To keep the stream of normal posts going thanks to our current backlog, let's double up with this month's Defunct Local Band Profile as a second post today! This monthly feature looks at randomly selected local metal, hard rock, or punk bands who are defunct or functionally inactive for a year+, in order to spotlight them and their run for modern readers! This band was very much a product of their time, if full of familiar faces playing familiar hard rock hits, so here's what you should know on them!

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The Isolation Sessionsr

Hometown: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Genre: Acoustic Hard Rock

Lineup:

Jordan Rains (Half Past), vocals
Todd Kidd (8ight Past Nine, King Misfit), guitar
Arthur Lacasse (Half Past, The Soo Fighters), guitar/bass
Chris Thompson (Fitswitch, Frightlight, Half Past), drums

Audio/Video: The Isolation Sessions never played live, partially due to publically forming at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but a handful of covers featuring just Jordan and Arthur were posted on Art's YouTube channel, including two takes of Three Days Grace's "Never Too Late", plus one of Seether's "Plastic Man". That song is the only surviving video on their Facebook page, also their only publically posted media with the full band (if not visually), so give it a listen below! Staind's "Epiphany" and Fuel's "Bad Day" were among now-deleted covers posted to Facebook.

Info/Analysis: Former (and future) Half Past bandmates Jordan Rains & Art Lacasse formed The Isolation Sessions in March 2020, with the name and their initial setup capitalizing on the real isolation that everyone was dealing with during that initial pandemic lockdown. Once things opened up a bit that summer, they added fellow Half Past alum Chris Thompson and Windsor native guitarist Todd Kidd to form a full lineup, but only that "Plastic Man" cover in October and the aforementioned YouTube videos in January 2021 followed. By March of that year, Art & Jordan had joined the new local hard rock band Dealing Without, who gave way to the Half Past reunion that fall, with The Isolation Sessions falling by the wayside regardless. The Isolation Sessions hit at the right time with the right approach to make an impact, but it wasn't meant to be despite best intentions.

Prior Half Past chemistry helped, and they played to Jordan's vocal strengths, but I'd have liked to have seen The Isolation Sessions do some live-streamed concerts or somesuch to really seize the moment they were born out of. Perhaps this served its purpose as a laid back creative outlet before Jordan & Arthur could get a full normal band going, so look for more from Half Past soon, hopefully we hear from Todd again, and R.I.P. Chris!

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I hope you guys liked this month's Defunct Local Band Profile! We'll jump across the border for a Sault Michigan-area project next, namely Heavy Lies The Crown guitarist Ted Olson's inactive solo project, as randomly selected from our links! Look for that on or around July 10th, and for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!