Questions we've actually been asked, or expect to be. If yours isn't here, get in touch.
A combination of personal archives and internet archaeology. The curator was part of the GTA music scene from the late 1990s onward — many of these recordings, photos, posters and memories come from being there directly.
For bands where personal records don't exist, we dig. Sources include:
Where information comes from a specific source, we note it where possible. If you spot something that's wrong or misattributed, please let us know.
Because the internet deleted most of it — which is, literally, why this project exists.
When MySpace collapsed, it took band pages, photos, and music with it. Blogs disappeared. CD-Rs degraded. Hard drives died. What's left is scattered, incomplete, and often contradictory.
An incomplete listing is not a slight — it's a placeholder. It says: you existed, you mattered, and this entry is waiting for more. If you have recordings, photos, a bio, a set list, or just memories, we'd genuinely love to add them.
Fill in the gaps →Use the submission form. It handles everything — corrections, additions, new recordings, photos, stories. Just note what needs fixing in the "Anything Else?" field if it's a correction rather than a new submission.
There's no automated upload — files are transferred separately after initial contact. We'll respond promptly.
Things we can add or update:
Yes. If you find your band, your recordings, or your likeness here and want it taken down, we will honour that request — no questions asked.
To request removal or discuss your listing, use the submission form or contact us directly. We'll respond promptly.
This is a question worth answering honestly rather than hiding from.
The short answer: archival use of publicly posted creative work sits in a legal grey area. Most of the recordings here were self-released by the artists themselves and posted publicly online — on MySpace, ReverbNation, and band websites — with the intent of being heard. None of it is being sold or monetised in any way.
The intent of this archive is preservation and attribution, not commercial exploitation. Every band is credited. Every recording is presented in context. Nothing here is being passed off as someone else's work.
That said, copyright belongs to the artists, and we take that seriously. If you are the rights holder for any recording on this site and have concerns, we will address them. The removal policy above applies to legal concerns just as much as personal ones.
If you'd like to formally license your recordings for archival use, we're happy to arrange that too — just get in touch.
The Deleted Years is a solo project run by a musician and audio engineer based in the GTA who was part of this scene from the late 1990s onward. It started as a way to do something useful with boxes of old recordings that had been carried from apartment to apartment for two decades.
The hope is that it grows into a community archive — a place where anyone who was part of this era can contribute and find their history preserved. For now, it's one person opening boxes and digitising cassettes.
Read the full story →Absolutely — this is exactly the kind of contribution that makes the archive grow. Use the submission form and tell us whatever you know: band name, where they were from, what they sounded like, when they were active, who was in them. Even just a name is enough to get a listing started.
Bands with no content yet are listed in the Lost Bands section of the main page — a placeholder that says they existed and invites anyone who knows more to come forward.
See the Lost Bands section →Anything. Seriously — if it plays, we'll take it and clean it up if needed.
Low quality is not a disqualifier. A bootleg cassette recorded at the back of a bar is exactly the kind of thing this archive exists for.