Tyler Stewart

Infobox musical artist
Name = Tyler Stewart

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Img_capt = Stewart on stage, 2005.
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Tyler Joseph Stewart
Born = birth date and age|1967|9|21|mf=yes Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Instrument = drums
Genre =
Occupation = Drummer
Years_active =
Label =
Associated_acts = Barenaked Ladies
URL =
Notable_instruments = Pearl drum kits Sabian cymbals Regal Tip drumsticks

Tyler Joseph Stewart (b. September 21, 1967) is the drummer for the Canadian music group Barenaked Ladies. He was the last of the original five Barenaked Ladies to join the band.

Role in Barenaked Ladies

Stewart met Steven Page, Ed Robertson and Jim Creeggan at a buskers festival in the summer of 1990 and soon filled their desire for a real kit drummer. When Andy Creeggan (who played congas) returned from a trip to Ecuador to find Stewart on drums, he felt a little displaced (and eventually moved over to playing mostly keyboards). Stewart has been with the band ever since.

He is the only member of the band who does not actively write songs for the group's albums or for a side project. He has received a writing credit on only three songs in the band's catalogue: "Grade 9" from "Gordon," "Allergies" from "Snacktime!," and "Why Say Anything Nice?" from "Barenaked Ladies Are Men" (on the latter, he only came up with the title). He is also the member who least commonly sings, both for background vocals, and lead vocals. He sings lead on only two songs, while having one or two lines of lead in only a handful of others. Stewart sings lead on "Allergies" and a cover of "Holly Jolly Christmas" which was cut from "Barenaked for the Holidays", and later released as a B-side. Stewart also sings lead on a version of "Feliz Navidad" which the band has performed live for holiday shows since 2004. For the song, the other four band members rotate to play one of instruments they don't normally play. The song has also been played on other occasions with the word "navidad" replaced by lyrics relevant to the event; for example, "Feliz Ships and Dip" on the band's Ships and Dip cruise, "Feliz Good Friday", and "Feliz Halloween", among others.

Stewart also adds numerous other percussion elements to the band in the studio, and occasionally adds melodic elements (including some piano on the "Born On A Pirate Ship" album). For live shows, he usually has an electronic sampler pad which he can activate with his drumsticks.

Early life

Stewart was born in Toronto, but was raised in Newmarket, Ontario. He is the son of a white mother and a black father, a fact which he learned when he was about 12 years oldcite video
people = Moll, George (executive producer)
title = Behind the Music
medium = TV-series
publisher = VH1
location = New York, NY
date = 2000 ] . His father sang in a Scarborough rock band named "The Wizards of Id".cite video
people = Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Steven Page, Ed Robertson, Tyler Stewart
title = The Barenaked Truth
medium = Television documentary/DVD
publisher = Take 3 Productions/Casablanca Media Television
date = 2004 ] He notes their relative youth (only 19 years his senior) to exposing him to interesting music which was frequently played around the house when he was young. He has claimed that his unique eyebrows are the result of his shaving them off when he was young.

Stewart is a graduate of Huron Heights Secondary School. He received a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Radio and Television Arts from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University) in 1989, making him the only member of Barenaked Ladies to have earned a degree.

Stewart was a member of The Ambassadors Drum and Bugle Corps, playing bongos and pit percussion from 1979-1980, and tri-drums from 1980 to 1982. He was the drummer for cowpunk/rockabilly band Pogo Rodeo and later 3 Day Bender in the late 1980s. When he met the Barenaked Ladies, at a buskers' festival, he was drumming for the Would Be Goods.

Personal life

Stewart's wife, Jill (nee Spratt), is a former high school French teacher, and the two were married on Sept 19/98; they have two daughters, Mili Apr 2/99 and Hazel Apr 16/01. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking. He is a fan of hockey (the Toronto Maple Leafs in particular), and went to school with former Leafs goalie, Curtis Joseph, where the two became friends. Stewart also enjoys playing hockey, and is a member of the Jokers hockey team in the Canadian Exclaim! Hockey Summit of the Arts. Stewart is also an occasional panelist/contributor on the post-game show for Hockey Night In Canada.Tyler took part in Super Skate at Madison Square Garden for the Christopher Reeve Foundation in 2001 and 2002. It was a celebrity hockey game with participants such as Denis Leary, Kim Alexis, Rick Moranis, Chris Jericho, Gary Dell'Abate, Chad Smith, Darren Pang and Jason Priestly, among others.

Drum Equipment

Stewart currently plays Pearl drum kits and Sabian cymbals. He uses Regal Tip drumsticks (mainly Groovers) and Regal Tip Blasticks for brushes. He also has his own signature Thai sticks made by Regal Tip which he designed with his drum tech, Rob "Tiny" Menegoni. The sticks are called Ty-phoons (a second, "dipped", version of which was released in the mid-2000s).

Prior to his switch to Pearl in mid-2006, Stewart used custom Ayotte drums from at least 1997, if not prior.

References

External links

*imdb name | id=0829882 | name=Tyler Stewart
* [http://www.bnlmusic.com Barenaked Ladies Official Website]
* [http://www.interlog.com/~zamiel/Ambassadors.html The Ambassadors Drum and Bugle Corps]