News Article

Prodigal sons come home to musical roots


3/11/2004 4:17:51 PM


Edmonton-based Sinclair rocks the crowd at Clancy's in Stephenville, as part of their Canadian east coast Hit the Home Ground Tour. From left back, Scott Greene on guitar and vocals, Ed Smith on keyboards and vocals, Steve Pinsent on drums, Ken Greene on bass, Mike Jenkins on guitar and vocals, and in front, Mike Letto, lead vocals. The band will end the tour on the east coast of the island.


Edmonton-based Sinclair made a point of stopping into College of the North Atlantic in Stephenville while on their east coast tour, to visit the facility where their music careers began, and to give a workshop to current MIP and RA students.

By Tanya Alexander

March 11, 2004 – After only one year in business, the members of the band Sinclair have traveled from Edmonton back to their east coast roots on their first musical tour.

The Hit the (Home) Ground Tour is going extremely well; all six band members agree. Better than they had hoped.

“It’s just awesome to come ‘home’ with our band,” says Mike Letto, lead vocalist for Sinclair.

“This is where it all started for us.”

Four members of Sinclair are graduates of College of the North Atlantic. Corner Brook native Steve Pinsent, Labrador City native Mike Letto and Mike Jenkins from Twillingate, have an Applied Arts diploma in Music Industry and Performance (MIP), and Scott Greene from Placentia, has a Recording Arts (RA) diploma – all from the college’s Bay St. George campus in Stephenville.

The four had collaborated musically while enrolled in their programs, and found great inspiration there. It was only after they parted following graduation that they realized how rare was their musical chemistry.

“When Scott (Greene) and I got together in Edmonton with the intent of starting a band, we auditioned so many people,” says Pinsent, drummer and promotions person for the band.

“But no matter where we looked, we couldn’t find what we had with our former classmates at the MIP program in Stephenville. We kept comparing everyone to them.”

Finally, they decided to track down their classmates, two in particular –Letto (lead vocalist) and Jenkins (one of the lead guitarists in the band). Letto was completing his degree in marketing at Nova Scotia’s University College of Cape Breton, but joined the band soon after in Edmonton. Greene’s brother Ken, already in Edmonton, joined as bassist. The band was complete when St. FX grad and Placentia native Ed Smith joined as keyboard player.

In only one year, the band has worked hard to get on the “A Circuit” in Edmonton, have recorded and released their debut album “Hit the Ground” which is getting some serious air play in western Canada, have opened for such acts as Kim Mitchell, Honeymoon Suite, and the Northern Pikes, and have made several television appearances, including on Global TV with Lorraine Mansbridge, Breakfast Television and Much Music’s Going Coastal.

A tour seemed the natural course of action. And it served more than one purpose.

“We wanted to come back to where it all started,” says Pinsent. “We wanted to give back to the college that helped get us where we are today.”

Sinclair made sure the tour included a stop in Stephenville. They contacted MIP instructor Wade Pinhorn, who set up a workshop for the students of MIP and RA with Sinclair as special guests. It was a rare opportunity, says Pinhorn.

“These guys were in the very first class of the MIP program in 1999. They were basically the Guinea pigs,” he laughs.

“To see their level of professionalism and success is rewarding. And their willingness to share their experiences is invaluable to current students – it’s good for them to see people not long out of the program actually making it happen.”

The students even prepared a lunchtime concert to play for Sinclair, in the hopes they could get some feedback.

“It was flattering that they wanted us to see them play… give a critique. And the feeling of being told we are inspirational is indescribable,” says Letto.

Aside from having a chance to return to their home turf, the band had a chance to further apply what they learned in school.

“MIP taught us so much about taking our careers into our own hands,” says Pinsent.

“We do our own promotion, marketing, bookings… all things we learned in the program. The reality is that we just wouldn’t be where we are without it.”

Also, Greene’s sound engineering training from the RA program help the band in the studio. In fact, they did a great deal of it themselves.

The tour – their first – is a chance to further apply what they learned. And to learn some more.

“Because of what we were taught in school, we were able to do it all ourselves. And we were quite organized with it,” says Greene.

“However, once you’re on the road, many unexpected things pop up,” he smiles. “You have to expect the things you don’t expect.”

He says overall the tour experience has been incredible and the crowd response has been fantastic.

“We’ve gotten great crowds thus far and they’ve really been into the music. That’s all we want.”

Before coming to Stephenville, Sinclair played some venues in Halifax and Antigonish. After their performance at Clancy’s in Stephenville on the 9th, the band went on to perform in Port aux Basques, and will do a night in Corner Brook on Friday, March 12 at the 709 club, The Flyers Club in Gander on the 13th, Laval High in Placentia on the 16th, and in St. John’s at The Attic on the 17th and Junctions on the 19th. The tour ends with a date in Clarenville at My Rec Room on March 20.

If you have a chance to see this original, high-energy blues/rock band, do it. You won’t be disappointed.

For more information about Sinclair check out the website: www.sinclairmusic.net.

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For more information about the Music Industry and Performance or Recording Arts programs contact:

Stephen Lee
Communications Manager
(709) 643-7929

or

Tanya Alexander
Public Information Officer
(709) 643-7928