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DRUMMER ED Baarda, Steven
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an R&B song during a recent con-
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Band
performs
locally

PAGE 16

13 - Friday, Apri! 10, 1987 - North Shore News

pop onto

local music scene

FOURTEEN YEARS ago, 12-year-old Ed Baarda desper-

ately wanted to play the violin.

“My parents wouldn’t let me
play the violin,” laments a 26-
year-old Baarda, now the drummer
for the band The Toasters. ‘*They
Said they wouldn’t have me
screeching that thing around the
house. I decided to play the drums
instead.”’

Running from contemporary
and traditional rhythm and blues
to jazz and Motown classics, The
Toasters put out a skillful blend of
vocals and play with a dedicated,
fiery intensity that is seldom seen
on the local music circuit.

Together for about 18 months,
The Toasters were born from Vic-
toria’s The Uncle Wizgley Band
when Baarda and singer Hank
Leonhardt moved over to the
mainland.

“We tried to move the band to

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Vancouver because of the limited
market over in Victoria,’ Baarda
remembers. ‘‘Because of the
geographical differences between
those band members in Victoria,
The Uncle Wiggley Band eventual-
ly split up.””

For about the next year, Baarda
spent his time on an assortment of
local music projects before looking
around for other players to work
on the new Toasters.

It is a continued source of
amusement for the band that no
one can recall how the group’s
name came to be. But Baarda does
remember ‘tit was Hank’s idea.”’

Not to miss the opportunity for
hilarity, Baarda recites what must
be a-series of old standing jokes.

“ft just sort of popped up,’’ he
says of the name. ‘‘And if we ever
get female back-up singers we’re
going to call them The Pop Tarts.

SOME.

CHEF GIOVANNI

We call our horn section the But-
terhorns.”’

Often seen performing their own
versions of other songs, the band is
Starting to do original material
hashed out in wi.ting sessions with
the five members.

‘*Everybody in the band writes
their own stuff plus we all write
together,’’ says Baarda.
‘*Everybody has input on
everybody else’s material and
ideas.’’ °

And the amount of original ma-
terial The Toasters performs is
steadily growing. ‘‘We’re usually
adding one every gig. Right now
we're in a writing phase.”

Similar to the gritty blues sound
of Stevie Ray Vaughn and Los
Lobos, The Toasters sometinies
complements its music with a
two-member horn section.

A recent concert at the 86 Street
Music Hall saw the so-called But-
terhorns — top horn players Mark’
Hasselbach and Wayne Kozak —
join the band on stage.

See Band
Page 19

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