Brent Doerner began his musical career at the age of 13 with a set of drums his parents gave him. They were taken from him by his twin brother Brian ( Saga , Helix ) shortly thereafter so he turned his attention to guitar. Having toured worldwide with Helix , Brent had earned four gold and three platinum albums.
In 2006 Brent was bound and determined, come hell or high water, to make an album. He bought a 24 track, one of those digital things, and said, 'I'm making an album, I don't care how I do it.' He still had all his guitars, or some, and just started writing.
Things took a turn when Chick Schumilas called up Doerner to check out some tunes and ideas. As Brent tells the story: "I met these other guys, Shane Schedler, Chick Schumilas and Dan Laurin, when I was living alone in my house. I was writing songs, and going at it with a vengeance, really. These guys kept coming by to my house and saying, 'We got all these songs too!' I got to their hall, with some beer, and I sat down, and they blasted away for a friggin' hour, just earthquake volume. When they're done, they say, 'Well what did you think of the songs?' And I said, 'Well I didn't hear any songs, just all this music.'" The band responded to, 'Well we did the hard part. You just have to write the melody and the lyrics!'
After becoming inspired by Chick , Dan , and Shane 's enthusiasm, they decided to make them into real songs. They had enough gear and talent amongst themselves to pretty well cover all aspects of making a record. They started quickly thereafter chopping down walls and pretty soon "The Bunker" was born. They continued to rehearse there as construction and demolition was going on. The album was recorded as the studio was slowly being built.
There was even a smattering of guest appearances on the CD. Perhaps most exciting was a guest shot by Brent's twin brother, and ass-kicker on the drums, Brian Doerner.
Doerner kind of liked the idea of three guitars in the band, with a bass player and a drummer. As Brent stated, "We were bound and determined in the end that they wanted three guitars. And what's happening with me when I lead sing is, I stop playing so I can sing, because some of this stuff I can't sing and play over it. I can sing and play over a lot of shit, but it seems that I can't sing and play over some of the stuff that I wrote!"
2007
Early 2007 saw some changes for Decibel with the departure of drummer Dan Laurin. Brian Doerner joined the band on drums and Hillirad "Hills" Walter on bass. The debut performance of these 2 additions prompted a rave review... "This was only their second “real” show, and the new lineup (featuring bassist Hilliard Walter and awesome skin-pounder Brian Doerner, fresh off a Saga tour) sounded hot."... "While some bands would view a blackout as a disaster, Decibel turned it into a rare chance to see a drum solo by one of Canada's - no, the WORLD'S—best stick-bashers."
