Up to Now began humbly in 1995 when the Mother Redcap entered “The Pool House Studios” to record a demo. The Pool House was run by longtime friend Bill Ingram. Bill had crafted a tight, but fairly advanced (for the time) home studio in his basement. The band spent a few hours over homemade red wine and pizza recording what would become the song Caroline the records closer. Delany recalls, “It was interesting. Steve couldn’t fit in the cutting room, so he was recorded in the control room. My Marshall amp was placed outside both rooms by the washing machine. Chords were everywhere. Bill had to record us with headphones on. It was insane, cool , but insane.”

Pleased with the results the band returned a year or so later “It was funny,” remembers Oakley. “The studio was exactly as we left it. I’m pretty sure the empty pizza box was still there.”

Undaunted, the band cut Peace, Halfway to the End and AK47. For good measure, they remixed Caroline and ended up with a cohesive, tight sounding four song demo.
“Somehow,” continues Delany. “He managed to capture our live sound, on two ADAT machines. We began to think about doing more than just a demo.”

A year later, they regrouped to continue the record. Things weren’t going all that well recalls Oakley. “We couldn’t find the song (which would eventually become Killeen). We were struggling on every take. In between takes, I was working on a new song and Rodger came over the talk back and said that’s the one we should be doing.” The band abandoned the session and a month later regrouped to record Might As Well.

While the session for Might as Well went well, the band started to feel the need for change. “I missed the big room. I missed two inch tape,” says Oakley. “We dug the Pool house, loved Bill’s work, but the thought of cramming us all in there again absolutely held no appeal.”

So, they looked around and based on a colleague’s recommendation chose The Groundhog Studio (run by Walt Mcleary) and were all set to finish the record. Slight problem arose when their drummer was unable to make it to the sessions. Not quite ready for an unplugged session, the band enlisted Dante Cimino (of Dandelion fame) who happened to work with Oakley. According to Oakley, “He walked around for two days listening to the songs on a walkman with broken headphones. He kept saying “I’ll be cool, no worries.” I figured this is going to really great, or really not so much.”

Delany adds, “We’ve always been a little stubborn. So, canceling wasn’t an option in this instance (fortunately). Our stubbornness was rewarded. The first day we nailed the basic tracks for 5 songs.” In short order, the band recorded Mischief, Wedding Gown, Joe Maybe, Hard to Lose You and finally Killeen.

As Oakley states, “It was probably the smoothest sessions we ever had. We did everything in one or two takes. We taught Dante Hard To Lose You just before the tape began rolling, and kept overdubs to a minimum. We wanted to do a straightforward, no frills record. We wanted the songs to stand on their own without any additional weight. We really found the songs, we’re still pretty proud of that record.”

Upon completing the Groundhog sessions the band decided to release everything they had recorded up to that point, hence the name “Up to Now.”

Up to Now was released on September 12, 2000.