FEATURES

     "We've been working really, really hard to get our name and our music
out there to people," said Mark Anderson, founder/guitarist of the
Markham-based metal group, Ditchwater.

    "Being in a band is supposed to be fun, but you've always got to remember
that it's a business too," he said. "In business, you have to spend money to
make money and it's the same way when you have a band and you want to get
from the local clubs to the next level."

    Ditchwater is currently investing any and all profits from their lives
shows into recording and duplicating CDs, which they then give away free of
charge to anyone willing to listen to their music.

    Their free CD contains two original cuts - "10 to 12 Soul To Cell" and
"I.D.G.A.F" - and those twin songs are pretty indicative of the group's
overall sound, which Anderson described as a mix of today's aggressive
"nu-metal" with the melodic structure of traditional heavy metal.

    "We've already given away about 1,000 of the two-song CD," he said.
Requests have been coming in via email to their web site from all over the
world.

     Ditchwater's music has been mailed out to heavy rock fans in Russia,
Cuba, Belgium, Germany, and virtually all corners of the world since the band
started the promotional blitz in September.

    "Yes, it really gets pretty expensive to mail CDs to people all over the
world for free," said Anderson. "The postage to other countries generally
costs us more than the CD itself cost us. Sometimes we all have to dig into
our personal pockets, but that's okay, because we feel it's money well spent.
We know that it's getting our name out there to people and it's allowing us
to develop a fan base outside of our local neighborhood clubs."

    Their heavy use of the internet as a marketing tool has helped this South
Side band establish "street teams" in several states.

   "These are fans that we met through our web site who go out there and push
our band to people and get their friends to sign on to our site and listen to
our music," he explains.

    Ditchwater is also wisely starting to network with heavy bands from other
states and are in the process of setting up mutually beneficial live shows.

    The band has even garnered a little interest from some a few indie and
major labels along the way. "We've has some contact, but nothing concrete
yet," said Anderson.

     "I put the first version of this band together when I was in high
school," said Anderson. "The name Ditchwater has been around for seven years,
but we look at this band as having really started in 1997, when I met our
drummer, Jerry J.J. Romero."

     The current line-up, which also includes longtime bassist Bret Basick,
has been together since October of 1999. That is when vocalist Bill Matthews
answered an ad which was scribbled on paper and tacked on a local music
store's bulletin board. "Bill was the missing piece," said Anderson. "We
went through a lot of singers and weren't happy with anyone until he came
along."

      Ditchwater are intent to focus on playing the bigger rooms in the
Chicagoland area and then continue to widen the geographical area they are
playing to include most of the Midwestern states.

    "You don't go anywhere sitting still and hoping to be discovered," said
Anderson. "You have to get you ass out there and make some noise. It takes a
lot of work and sometimes things happen and sometimes they don't, but I have
no intention of stopping until this band gets to that next level. I want to
do this (music) for the rest of my life and so do the other guys in this
band."