Steve Sainas Trio

A powerful Rock Band from day one, the members of the Steve Sainas Trio (SST) have been singing, performing, and playing with a chemistry that leads one to believe they have been together their entire musical careers. Steve Sainas, Brad Shigeru Uchida, and Terry Tokiwa have enjoyed great success in their respective critically acclaimed careers, and have now combined their talents to create a super sonic trio that rips through tributes to the greatest classic rock bands of our time.

Steve Sainas led his rocking blues band, Mud Dog for almost 20 years while they performed throughout BC and recorded three albums. Their second album, River of My Soul was nominated Best Blues Album at the 2008 Western Canadian Music Awards. In 2011, Sainas's Mud Dog Duo represented BC at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. While in Memphis the duo recorded a ten song album, Mud Dog~SUN at legendary Sun Studio. In 2015, Sainas was honoured with a Juno Award  for MusiCounts Teacher of the Year. Sainas then followed up with four years of steady solo acoustic work that resulted in his debut solo release, Steve Sainas~"Simple As This" that featured highly sought-after session players,Chad Matthews on Bass and Kelly Stodola on drums. "Simple As This" received great national and international reviews, as well as world wide airplay.  Following, the release of this well-received album, Sainas invited Stodola and his longtime friend, bass player and harmony vocalist, Ted Tosoff to form the powerful Steve Sainas Trio.

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In 2022, Steve Sainas was excited to welcome bass player-harmony vocalist Brad Uchida and drummer-harmony vocalist Nick James to the group. Together, these incredibly talented musicians created a tight dynamic rhythm section punctuated with soaring harmony vocals until 2024 when Nick needed to leave the band due to his move to Ontario. After an extensive search for the best replacement for Nick, Terry Tokiwa was invited by Steve and Brad to join SST.

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During his 35-year professional music career, Brad Shigeru Uchida has performed in numerous bands from a broad scope of genres. Early in his career, Brad performed in many classic rock bands, and also enjoyed performing country that included a popular Eagles tribute band. He was also a member of  Metro Vancouver recording act Queensbury Row that was featured at Expo ’86. In the late ‘90s, Brad travelled to Maui to perform steadily for three years in a classic rock trio and an original act. Upon his return to Vancouver, Brad joined a jazz ensemble which was signed on by Holland America cruise lines for a four month contract in Alaska, Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia and numerous Caribbean ports-of-call. In 2008, Brad joined The Hip Show, Canada’s most popular Tragically Hip tribute band that has been performing all over Canada in venues varying from small local pubs of 100 or so, to large festivals including the Thunder Bay Blues Festival with crowds of 40,000. With such a vast range of professional music experience, Brad brings an incredible wealth of musicianship and chemistry that adds a powerful sonic depth to the Steve Sainas Trio.

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After longtime band-brother, Nick James sadly gave notice at the end of 2023 that he was going to be moving out of province, Steve and Brad began their seemingly impossible search to find a comparable successor to Nick’s amazing talents both as a drummer and vocalist. Equally important to talent, Steve and Brad needed to find a new band-brother with a consummate work ethic and a positive personality to be a natural fit for SST. After a long search, Steve and Brad enthusiastically invited Terry Tokiwa to join SST, who brings rock solid drumming and excellent singing that will expand the sound and versatility of this power trio with Terry as a third lead and harmony vocalist.

Like many musicians, Terry’s musical journey began with an innate drive to make music at a very young age. At 9 years old, Terry realized drums and singing were to be part of the rest of his life as he found himself banging on ice cream buckets lined up on his bed while listening and singing along to the songs of Kiss and Elton John spinning on his Mickey Mouse turntable. His parents bought him his first drum set at age 11 which began a musical journey filled with gigs and great friends. In the early ‘80s, Terry formed his original band named “Tokiwa” while also performing in the cover band circuit throughout Metro Vancouver for several years in the popular band, Visions. During his 30s, Terry took a break from performing to start a family, but it wasn’t long before his love for music brought the drums out of the crawl space again to continue the journey. Terry quickly embarked on a busy performance schedule throughout BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan with cover bands that include “Cruise Control" and tribute acts such as AC/DC tribute band, “Live Voltage" and Alice Cooper tribute band, “See Alice”. Terry is passionate about drumming, as well as singing lead vocals and harmonies. Excellent harmonies separate the great bands from the good bands, and Terry’s powerful singing creates a naturally rich vocal blend that is a highlight for SST. Terry, Bradley, and Steve have already developed musical chemistry as band-brothers, and are stoked to elevate SST on to an even higher altitude of success!

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At every show, this super sonic trio fills the room with fun high octane energy as they crank out their favourite classic tunes and rockin blues that are sure to get you groovin’ on the dance floor!