UNCLE STEVE
Music Bio
Born in Northern Ontario in Sault Ste. Marie, Steve has spent most of his adult life active as a performer or staging technician. After finishing high school, Steve went on to study both theatre tech & later film at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto. As well as devoting himself to songwriting & working as a singer/guitarist in various bar bands in Ontario & British Columbia, Steve has been developing his skills as a screenplay writer.
Steve put aside his performing ambitions to work as a staging technician & video editor to raise his young daughter. But then, ten years ago Steve began the development of an extended family of musicians, that came to be called the "Uncles" and so "Uncle Steve" was born.
Whenever asked about the kind of music he writes, Steve used to comment on the influences of southern country blues & cajun music. However, Steve was inspired by the Canadian comedians, "the Mackenzie Brothers" & their jokes about the "mercans" south of the border & us "canajuns" in the "great white north". Ever since, not being comfortable with defining himself in terms of "mercan culture", Steve began to see himself as a "canajun", historically & culturally, the essence of all things Canadian.
Over the past ten years, Derek Stephen McPhail has produced three cd projects, through his Beer Weazl Productions company, called: "Labour of Caring" (1992), "Story Book Blues" (1996) & "Canajun Blues" (1998), all songs copyright at SOCAN. "Uncle Steve" is presently gearing up for a collaboration with Eduardo Teja, on a cd of original & traditional sea shanties, to be called, "Caribbean Dreaming". Later this year, a 4th Uncle Steve cd "Hunger Of The Heart", will be available.