CKLW Shaped Tastes of Sherwood Park Musician/Studio Owner

Anything to do with the world of music...old or new

CKLW Shaped Tastes of Sherwood Park Musician/Studio Owner

Postby jon » Thu Sep 18, 2014 11:19 am

DanLyn Studios in Sherwood Park a musician’s labour of love
By Roger Levesque
Edmonton Journal
September 17, 2014

EDMONTON - Dan Sinasac spent much of the past year recording a sprawling, grooving double-CD, Street Corner History. But in a sense, he’s been working on it most of his life.

The street corner in the title refers to the intersection of King and South streets, west Windsor, Ont., where Sinasac’s family lived throughout his childhood. As musical influences go, rhythm and blues grooves were a big part of the neighbourhood soundtrack.

In shaping his tastes, Sinasac credits Windsor’s influential radio CKLW, free college concerts, the many music acts — like Ike and Tina Turner — who lived just over the border in Detroit, and his good friends, most of whom were black.

“My mom always jokes about looking out the back door when I was about seven as one of my black buddies was trying to teach me how to dance, insisting ‘Man, you’ve got to groove.’ ”

The keyboard player-multi-instrumentalist wound up in a nine-piece funk band by high school, but music hit the back burner as he apprenticed in electronics. A resident here since the early 1990s, Sinasac retired from his first career as owner of an industrial electrical shop in 2007 to create his labour of love, Sherwood Park’s DanLyn Studios. Thirty-five records have been made there since he switched on the power in 2009, including projects with Tommy Banks and Jack Semple. The studio is also the site of regular house concerts.

Owning his own studio helped as he nailed down a great sound, strolling memory lane for the upbeat grooves and original songs that fill out Street Corner History. The final track, Days Gone By, is one of the first songs he wrote when he was around 16, trying to teach himself piano. Other tunes are brand-new but still a nod to his musical origins, like Walkin’ To Work, the album’s only a cappella tune (with his multi-tracked vocals), offering echoes of doo-wop.

Sinasac admits Street Corner History isn’t the easiest project to market, with one “acoustified” album and a contrasting, “electrified” disc that share elements of blues, jazz and pop between them.

“I don’t think about genres. I just try to make the best music I can. It’s all just music, honest and straight from the heart. This is really the story of my life.”

Guitarist Jack Semple, bassists Dave Chabot or Mike Lent, and drummer Sandro Dominelli shared duties as the core band over both discs with Sinasac on acoustic piano or B3 organ, leading a round of backing singers on some of the thicker tracks. He says it was “a real team effort,” but the passion in his growling voice and hot keyboards drives the band with a spirit you can’t ignore.
User avatar
jon
Advanced Member
 
Posts: 9256
Joined: Mon May 08, 2006 10:15 am
Location: Edmonton

Return to Music Notes

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 61 guests