“Let’s make the sound that’s in our heads”
From its earliest beginnings, rock and roll has continually changed, morphing and deliberately annihilating forms and styles that previously had found favour and audiences.
The music that swept up from the Mississippi Delta, commingled with ethnic folk and European popular song, freed a restless generation of American teenagers “to jump and shout”.
Elvis won a million hearts with his joyful dance steps and blues-tinged gospel rockabilly. The Beatles usurped the American songbook for all time, more popular sixty years later than any other group in music history. The seventies splintered into thunderous metal, disco pomp, country folk and Nashville outlaws, and shape- shifting icons like David Bowie, Madonna, and Michael Jackson.
Yet nothing compared to the emergence of punk rock, however that might be defined. Even within its revolutionary style, punk—disruptive, chaotic, and disdainful of the lumbering legends that dominated the industry and the charts—reenergized rock so powerfully that it careened into hundreds of stylistic approaches.
When Troy Sinister heard that sound, he knew that it was the music he wanted to make, forever—aggressive, mesmerizing, and loud. And through the late 1970s until the early 2000s, Sinister did just that.
He has played with some of the most unique bands ever formed, as a bassist, a songwriter, singer, producer, record-label owner, and overall relentless advocate for the communal spirit and drive that rock and roll instils in both musician and fans.
At an early age, Sinister was encouraged to play and sing at family parties and campfires in his hometown of Saint John, New Brunswick. Although he wanted to play bass from age eleven, his mother insisted that he learn some form of acoustic instrument: piano, guitar, or ukulele. He chose guitar and when he wanted to start his first band, his uncle offered up a garage to practise in. But the bass guitar remained his life’s passion, because, as he states, “You could shake the whole building. Between you and the drummer, you could bring the whole thing down.”
Electric bass guitar is not a simple instrument to manage at a young age. The weight, large-scale fretboard, and the need to pull notes almost exclusively with the fingertips make for an intimidating learning curve, but Sinister loved it. What he loved more was playing with his friends, so he started his initial bands as a teenager.
By the late 1970s, the young bands wanted to sound different than commercial radio—they wanted to play faster and harder and louder. Emulating bands like Kiss, Motorhead, Black Sabbath, Sinister wanted to make his bands sound better, more powerful. ‘Let’s make the sound that’s in our heads,’ he remembers his friends saying. For Sinister, he wanted to write and play his songs, his way.
To realize that dream, Sinister went to Toronto. He understood quickly that to make a difference, to really progress, he had to start to learn the craft, the industry. That meant learning to manage a band—getting the word out, finding venues, showcasing with lesser or better-known bands, booking tours. The most positive element to develop in the music scene throughout the 1980s and ’90s was the emergence of self-managed careers by musicians, particularly those in the rock bands.
Sinister learned it all and did it all. Not only was he writing and performing, but he also became something of an entrepreneur. Once in Toronto, Troy began to associate with a huge group of musician friends and songwriters. His constant goal was to get better, and also find the means to produce the sound that he could envision and find a way to get it out to the world.
He began to work more closely with producers, trying to comprehend the technical aspects of making records as a means to reaching audiences. Live performances were the cornerstone of their work, but bands make money from merchandise, especially recordings. Sinister learned to make cassette tapes from a basic recording set up that in modern terms would be seen as far too complex. He went at it with stubborn fierceness that only a dedicated artist might—full, frontal confrontation.
He founded two independent record labels that rostered not only his own bands but other emerging acts and friends. He also managed the accounts of his band and others. This skill in itself is a major accomplishment because rock acts are notoriously resistant to structure. Sinister was an insider—developing talent was a skill and he succeeded.
His first major breakthrough came with The Sinisters, although he has been associated with several acts: The Falls River Fiends, the Dregs of Humanity, and the Legendary O’Lantern Brothers. The Sinisters toured and recorded for over a decade, working endless tours throughout the United States and Canada. Troy was on bass, with co-founder Steve Scarlet on guitar, plus drummer Brian Christopher and singer Steevi Saint.
Their raucous career ended around 2003 with Sinister moving to Huntsville not long after. The Sinisters are still a much-beloved band in many circles but for the most part, Sinister is established as a core member of several bands in the area including the Jukebox Scoundrels with Jeff Stamp and Juan Barbosa, and the Juan Barbosa Band.
Sinister is such a valuable bassman, since he can cover so many different grooves, that he finds a place in almost any genre. His latest unit, Gord, plays hard rock and was finding a broader listenership with Muskoka prior to the global pandemic. Rock is his natural inclination and Sinister loves music that pushes an audience hard, onto the dance floor along with a cold beer.
Troy Sinister may have seen it all and done it all and had more fun than most of us even dream of, but there is more yet to come. Sinister is one those rare creators who makes art for itself, for the joy, for the love of making it, and nothing is more rewarding.
For more about Troy Sinister (mature content): reverbnation.com/troysinister or facebook.com/troy.sinister.
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