My Story

My name is Tdub McLoud and I was born to Rock. I was born in the year of the Beatles to parents who are jive dancing children of the fifties, the birth of rock and roll.

It was on a Christmas Day that I received my first guitar only a short while after my parents caught me lip syncing and playing “air guitar” all alone behind closed doors in my room to Elvis, The King of Rock and Roll, and a number of rock and roll artists like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bill Haley and Buddy Holly to name a few. Thus a love affair and passion for music, namely rock and roll was ignited in me.

From that day forward it was hard to find me without a guitar in my hand or music playing on some format anywhere in my general vicinity. All through my school years I learnt to play and rock with my best friend Greg as we sat across from one another every night and weekend looking at each other’s fingers go and lifting all the best rock tunes of the day from Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Kiss etc…I always gravitated to the harder edged rock music. One of my earliest memories of actually finding my own style was when my brother and I were in the back seat of the car, my parents in the front seat and on the radio in between some lame pop song of the day on came Rock and Roll All Nite by Kiss. My parents didn’t get it and said what is that? I said wow, that’s MY kind of music, I was smiling from ear to ear. I had found my generations style of rock music that gave me an identity and set me apart from my parents music and tunes. Even though I loved their rock and roll this was new and exciting and loud and in your face and I loved it loud! Schools Out by Alice Cooper was an anthem for me that sent me to high school growing my hair and starting to party, guitar in trail.

Throughout my high school years I developed as a competent player, in and out of many basement bands and now listening to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon, AC/DC…rockin’ heavy metal music!

Right after high school I was lucky enough to hook up with an already established band through friends of mine and the live bar club scene. I joined Kurt Phillips and Witchkiller just in time to write and learn new originals and go down to Toronto to record the “Day Of The Saxons” EP album in 1983 on the Metal Blades label at Phase One Studio in Scarborough, Ontario.

One thing led to another, lead singer and band not getting along, lead singer quits band. We tried out a few more singers and while this was going on the aforementioned lead singer, now back in Toronto and in a new band called me up and asked if I was interested in coming down to Toronto to join another already established recording act and again as luck would have it just about to go into the studio to record an album.

So off I go with out a second thought back down to the Big Smoke and recorded the Heart of Steel record with Reckless for Quality Records under the Polygram label at The Metal Works, the band Triumph’s infamous studio. This band to fell apart not long after and I was back home thinking that wow, this is easy, just make a record every year and something’s bound to happen…well, not quite!

Needing money and a job while playing in a very busy part time band all over Ottawa called MFC with Geoff Winter from CHEZ 106 I also worked in theatre, music production and eventually television for the CBC for about 6 years doing every technical job in the studio and in the field that led me to a government job doing technical coordinating and Team Leader at the highest level for the last 5 prime ministers of Canada and taking me all over the world numerous times in the past 23 plus years.

What is essentially another great and lucky break that has given me a great career and life has left me with a big hole in my heart and a slow dying, painfully unfulfilled passion. I have always said that at the end of it all the worst thing that you could do or say on your deathbed was that you have regrets. I “coulda, shoulda” blah blah blah whatever. Well I can’t let that happen so with no real band, no posse or anyone to kick my ass I am self motivated to pick up the dream where I left off and finish what I started, what I think about every waking moment of my life…my music, our music, my life’s work.

Throughout the entire time frame I just narrated to you I was not alone, I had a silent partner in the background of my life, my dear friend and brother in arms Lance Fay. Together we laughed, partied, wrote the best songs the world was ever going to hear…and…did I mentioned we laughed? Well, we did and I will never, ever, in this remaining lifetime ever laugh that guttural, drop you to your knees, tears in your eyes laugh only the guys with the same soul and inside scoop can laugh. Lance passed away in September 2012, I had just spoken to him and told him to hang in there, that I will record the album finally after all these years, something I should have done 20 years ago, I promised him it would be done…then he was gone.

Well, 30 years after recording my first record, here I am and just finished recording my third album albeit my first “solo” all original 12 song album. For the very first time I am singing all the vocals and playing acoustic and electric guitars in addition to my bass playing. McLoud music is a guitar based, four piece, rock and roll band through and through.

It is now an era of  a “singles” driven, digital streaming world and a very different music business that I had started in 30 years ago but I know that I can adapt, create an advantage and I will use all the social media and digital tools to get my music out there and reach you people. I will promote myself and this album because I think you will enjoy it and rock to it and maybe even save a few souls as it has already saved mine. In what may appear to be a reinvention of myself I am actually using my real nick name that I was christened by my friends and family a very, very long time ago…I am Tdub McLoud…and I always have been!

The McLoud’s are a coming, we are alive, we are The McLoud’s, become a McLoud!