Economic Research: Dave Sinclair

Dave Sinclair

Growing up in Vancouver, David was first was exposed to the world of professional music at the age of twelve. As a teenager, he was part of many bands and played locally regularly, moving from one playing situation to another, refining his guitar skills and performance. At the expense of his academic courses at the University of British Columbia's School of Music (Canada), he would often spend hours in the music library listening to a wide variety of guitar music from delta blues, to Django and to classical. During that period he was also introduced to the recording studio namely, "Vancouver Recording" (with legendary Vancouver engineer/producer Robin Spurgin), one of the very few pro studios in town at the time, which he frequented for days at a time, observing sessions and doing everything and anything he could to gain "studio" experience.

By the age of 18, he was already a professional musician performing 5 to 6 nights a week in some of Vancouver's notorious 'East -end' cabarets, and appeared regularly as a feature vocalist on CBC TV's 'Let's Go' and 'Where it's At' series. He also performed as a solo acoustic artist at coffeehouses and toured B.C. as opening act for ‘The Poppy Family’. Over the next few years he released his first solo album, Take My Hand, and helped form the successful Vancouver group “Sunshyne” which included the late Bruce Fairbairn (producer for Aerosmith etc), Jim Vallance (songwriter with Bryan Adams and Ozzy Osborne) and jazz flautist/saxophonist Tom Keenleyside. Sinclair left "Sunshyne" after a few years to tour with a succession of major Canadian artists. Meanwhile, "Sunshyne" was trans