Their fast start became a product of being in the right place at the right time, meaning Halifax in the mid1990's, a scene going through a musical boom, with the success of Sloan, The Superfriendz, and
Thrush Hermit and clubs that sprung up out of nowhere to capitalize on this. Plumtree got sucked in bythis and before any of them were of legal age to play in nightclubs, they played their first show at
Halifax's all-ages Cafe Ole in June 1993. As Carla recalls "We sped through our only four songs and than rocketed off stage. The crowd seemed more stunned than anything else (not necessarily in a good way)." Ian McGettigan and Rob Benvie of Halifax's Thrush Hermit happened to be at that show and invited Plumtree to a round of touring.

Their fast start became a product of being in the right place at the right time, meaning Halifax in the mid 1990's, a scene going through a musical boom, with the success of Sloan, The Superfriendz, and Thrush Hermit and clubs that sprung up out of nowhere to capitalize on this. Plumtree got sucked in by this and before any of them were of legal age to play in nightclubs, they played their first show at Halifax's all-ages Cafe Ole in June 1993. Their set was only a few songs, that were so well received by the audience that an encore was called for, but being a new band meant that those few songs were the only one's they all know, so they improvised, they went back on stage, switched instruments and did the same songs over again.

In 1995, after countless EP's and 7-inches with local record companies, Cinnamon Toast Records (conveniently co-owned and operated by their manager, Walter Forsyth) released their first LP, Mass Teen Fainting, which caught the attention of up and coming bass-and-drum duo, The Inbreds, in search of a tourmate. The tour enabled Plumtree, still in high school, to get out of the Maritimes and promote themselves in larger cities such as Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.

Travelling through the country, a certain issue arose that the girls soon became annoyed with. They were young and they were female, and rarely did people notice anything other than that. If anyone did notice the fact that they were holding guitars, they were usually stunned by the whole of it - realising yes, women can rock just as hard as guys. But mostly the band gained the image of being simply "cute." More attention was being given to their ages and their sexes than thier albums and thier touring.

When high school came to an end, so did bassist Nina Martin, who left Halifax to attend Canada's prestigious McGill University, in Montreal. Amanda and the Gillis sisters decided to stay in Halifax and pursue their music career while still holding down stable jobs. The band still carried on, with a number of different temporary bassists that would commit to only a few shows. Tired of having to teach people their songs whenever a show took place, Plumtree set out to find a full-time bassist. That bassist was found in a university classmate of Amanda's at King's College, Catriona Sturton, a jazz harmonica player who'd played in clubs before and could dedicate herself, but had little experience with a bass guitar.

Putting their daytime jobs towards renting studios and making videos would have put them out on the street, but the band knew how to find money. They were already favorites of FACTOR, the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talents on Recording. A huge boost in terms of publicity and finance came when the band re-applied for a YTV achievement award, this time winning. This allowed them to return to Toronto, at the expense of the youth-oriented station, to play their music to a nation-wide audience, and a small taste of rock stardom, YTV paid for everything, as they explained "They were giving us each $50 a day for food and we were still eating at McDonald's."

But while the idea of playing on an awards show for anyone under 16 did very little for shedding their "cute" image, something else did in T.O. Plumtree took the stage at Molson Park in a music festival sponsored by local station 102FM, a festival that was one year short of launching into a major cross-Canada tour that carried acts well established acts, such as The Tea Party, Our Lady Peace, and The Foo Fighters. That festivals name was Edgefest, and welcomed other Halifax bands, like Thrush Hermit, and The Super Friendz.

Having made a mark on people above and below the age of 19, Plumtree returned to Halifax to record their second LP, "Predicts The Future," at Idea of East recording. It was Catriona's first voyage into the studio and the end product was a more rounded version of what Mass Teen Fainting had accomplished.

The album spawned some catchy singles, which came along packaged with videos. "Go" was filmed at an amusement park and features Lynette taking accidental physical abuse in a number of ways, taking a bump in the head from a whack-a-mole mallet, falling out of a spinning teacup ride (a sex doll stood in), and crashing her go-kart, allowing Catriona the lifeguard to come to the rescue.

"You Just Don't Exist" was another video in the Predicts The Future "thrillogy," featuring the band, all dressed up in makeup and such, simply playing their instruments. The final video was for "Scott Pilgrim," containing a different version of the song than that featured on Predicts The Future and features Carla and Lynette racing Amanda and Catriona in the prairies. The version also begins with Catriona on harmonica.

All three videos were simply conceived just to be simple, and, as it goes when you're in a small band, cheap. No extravagant computer graphics or pyrotechnics. Still, the videos gave Muchmusic no excuse not to promote them, so that's what Much did, and Plumtree began popping up on the weekly Halifax-based MuchEast. With one memorable interview taking place in Dio Mio Gelato, where most Halifax musicians spend their time, as Amanda and Catriona explained that on the recent tour with Winnepeg's Duotang, they managed to "bust out" of their cute image, and into a "sex, drugs and rock n' roll" mode.

This interview happened in November 1998 and by this time the Halifax music scene was starting to quiet down. A major impact was that Halifax posterboys, Sloan, had moved east to Toronto, while loosing fans accusing them of being sellouts and plagurists.

Other major Halifax bands were in trouble too, Matt Murphy left the Superfriendz to move onto the Flashing Lights in Toronto, Jale lost two founding members, guitarist Eve Hartling and Allison MacLeod. The Inbreds, the adopted two-piece of Halifax, also decided to call it quits, as did Eric's Trip. Thrush Hermit had been dropped by their American label, Electra, after only one album and seemed hopeless. At the same time, Cafe Ole, the all ages theater that gave young Halifax talent their start was in trouble with the landlord, who wanted thier space back.

Haligonian record label Murderecords remains in a coma, awakening every once in a while to release the odd Sloan album. Plumtree's own Cinnamon Toast records seems to have folded. With this, Plumtree jumped ship and released thier final album on Winnepeg's Endearing Records in mid March of 2000. Shortly after, the band launched into thier biggest tour, going across Canada, dipping into the United States for a tour of the Pacific Coastline, and driving back to Halifax. However, it was at The NXNE festival in June of 2000 that Carla announced from the stage of Toronto's Cameron House that Plumtree would be walking away at the end of the tour.

So, on June 31st, 2000 Plumtree played thier final show at Halifax's Marquee. The set was filled with songs to please everyone who's been a fan, including obscure stuff such as Have a Banana, In the Sink, and Dog Gone Crazy, a song about Nina being attacked by Carla and Lynette's dog. After the show the band cried, thier moms cried, the fans cried. Amanda's mom had made key chains in the shape of a guitar, with the inscription reading Plumtree 1993-2000. During a MuchEast interview, taped the following day, Carla and Lynette revealed that the breakup was due to everything falling in place at the same time. Lynette had been accepted to fashion school in New York City, Amanda had also been accepted to finish her masters degree in Toronto, Catriona was moving to Japan to teach English, and Carla was going to stay in Halifax to finish her solo album.

Like Thrush Hermit before them, Plumtree finished off thier career by releasing a VHS cassette of all thier music videos, with the odd segment shot on the road outside a concert. The video can currently be ordered from Endearing Records or Cinnamon Toast Records, as can all of thier EP's and LP's. Good luck to the members of Plumtree, Carla, Lynette, Amanda, Catriona, and Nina, and thank you for releasing some of the best, well rounded albums in recent memory.

Special thanks go to Carla Gillis for verifying all this information, in time for it to be put on Hoser Nation