Black & Berardi worked for the next few years on the bands development and songwriting. After countless demos and club dates to fine-tune the material, the band was starting to show results. The music soon became an outlet allowing them to air their views on the social landscape and its changing tides. The sound was also taking on a new shape. Experimental pop textures were infused with timely subject matter, (always with a tongue-in-cheek delivery) yielded refreshing results, such as their first single and video I SHOT THE MONKEY on their self-titled, debut album. Mackenzie First’s music had now evolved into their very own distinct brand. Bassist Julien Bedard and drummer Graham Leduc to completed the quartet when they joined the band.

A small farming hamlet of 48 people located 100 km north east of Edmonton; often referred to as the arm pit of Alberta. All geography aside, Jake began his music career in High School starting the legendary Edmonton punk rock act, PiND, in which he was the lead guitarist, lead vocalist and chief songwriter.