The original maenads were Grecian acolytes of the god Dionysus; women who engaged in wild acts of savagery and dance to celebrate their deity. For us, The Maenad Project was much more mundane although we were hoping it would inspire people to dance... and things did get a little wild at times.
As songwriters, we found certain of our creations didn't lend themselves to the bands we were a part of at the time. Playing in Random and The Gutterboys involved fairly straightforward rock and roll with "pop" sensibilities being pushed to the background. Those songs with a lighter or more "Top 40" sound were placed on a backburner in favor of the guitar-oriented rock that suited those particular bands.
After a while, Ray and I struggled with what to do with the collection of songs we'd come up with that were oriented towards keyboards and a dance-able rhythm.
The answer? The Maenad Project.
Of all the musical schemes we embarked upon, The Maenad Project was never a "band" per se that worked to perform live in front of an audience. It was simply a studio project meant to be recorded for posterity and... well, that's about it. We recorded these songs over a four year period starting in 1988 but it wasn't until 1992 when we were able to record an entire cassette's worth of material with the assistance of Lisa Gregoire on vocals. Surprisingly enough, the songs we recorded for The Maenad Project ended up taking on a life of their own with the tape being played by the CBC radio station in Iqaluit while Lisa was living there.
More than anything else, The Maenad Project was fun and it gave us an avenue to express certain elements of our creativity that would otherwise have never been exercised. By those criteria, it can only be ultimately described as successful.
Enjoy.