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Marty Stroo was born in
Easton, Sask., November 16, 1963.
Musical influences-
rockin’ bands of the ‘70s & ‘80s like Kiss, Alice
Cooper, David Bowie, ZZ Top, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Judas
Priest, Van Halen, Rush, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin,
etc.
Marty took piano and guitar
lessons briefly around the age of 8 or 9, but did not
enjoy them at all, so they only lasted for a few months
each. He played the trumpet in Jr. high band for 2 years
which gave him some theory and sight reading training.
After moving to Vernon
B.C. at the age of 19 to take computer sciences at
Okanagan College he started noodling on an acoustic
guitar that his parents had. He had been shown how to
make simple barre chords by a friend some time earlier.
He used this as a place to start teaching himself how
to play songs by ear. After meeting a guy who had a drum
kit and was just learning how to play, Marty bought
a cheap electric guitar and amp for his 20th
birthday. They jammed together
when ever they could, playing bits and pieces of songs
as they learned them.
After meeting and talking
with some local players Marty realized that he could
possibly one
day play guitar for a living and not have a day
job. That’s when he really started practicing constantly
and decided not to return to college for another year.
After playing with many
different garage bands in Vernon he decide to move back
to Camrose, Ab., where he had grown up, as the live
music scene was more promising there. This was where he
heard Al Piller singing along to a Heart record at a
party. What a voice! After bugging him for a while he
convinced him to come and try singing with some guys he
had been jamming with. A few months later” Zoom Hilda”
was born. They played their first gig and wound up going
on the road until they went broke. After that he was
determined to play guitar for a living and wound up
touring all over western Canada in various bands through
the late 80s.
Eventually he realized
that he would never make a good living being a musician,
so he moved back to Vernon and played in a band called
“Twice Lucky”, then in another called “Stranger” while
working day jobs. It was during one of these gigs in
Revelstoke that he met his future wife Wanetta on New
Years Eve 1992. He moved to Revelstoke that
spring.
This was where he met Ron
Sahlstrom (keyboards & vocals) , Dave Tataryn (drums &
vocals) and Rob Habermill (bass) who played and wrote
original music together as “Dr. Shakey” in the
Revelstoke area until Marty moved to Kamloops for 5
years for a job while still gigging with them
occasionally.
When he moved back to
Revelstoke in 2000 he joined up with Dave Tataryn and
Warren Bourke and formed “Hella Hella Hella” who played
together for a couple of years.
Then Dave and Marty got
back together with Ron Sahlstrom and ran Friday night
jams at Speeders Pub for four consecutive winters while
gigging as Dr. Shakey.→ |
During this time he
started to teach Wanetta how to play the guitar and she
and Dave’s wife Lise started an all girl band called
“Transparent Trixie” who played in the basement and
played some charity gigs. This was when Wanetta met
Kaylee Knecht through work and convinced her to try
singing with her band. The first time Marty heard Kaylee
sing he knew that he wanted to be in a band with her,
but she moved away for 2 years to go to school.
Meanwhile Wanetta was really progressing on the guitar
so he told her that when she got good enough they would
buy her some good gear and start their own band. This
was the seed that grew into “Blind Spot”.
While Kaylee was in
school Wanetta and Marty met Leslie Wilkens, a very good
drummer and singer who had just moved to town. After
Kaylee moved back we convinced Leslie to play with us.
This was the start of “Blind Spot”.
Since this was the first
“real” band any of the girls had been in Marty told them
that they would not play in public until they all felt
they were ready. This took over a year of playing once a
week, but was well worth the effort since their first
gigs were awesome.
Although the band was
doing well playing cover songs they really took a leap
forward when Heidi Bender joined them as their 4th
bassist. Playing her first gig with them on New Years
Eve 2007. Having a stable lineup made Wanetta comfortable
enough to bring some of her lyrics to the band and they
began to put together their own songs which eventually
became their first CD “Past Lives” which Marty recorded,
mixed and produced in their basement studio “Snow Storm
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