Pat Steward

Who is Pat Steward?

Pat Steward is a Canadian musician born in Vancouver to British parents who had recently relocated to the west coast of British Columbia. Pat hopped around the west coast beginning high school in Thousand Oaks, California and finishing up in Powell River, British Columbia. Being a keen student of the drums he sought out mentors. A chance meeting with punk drumming pioneer Barry Taylor encouraged a fifteen year-old Steward to hop on a Greyhound to Vancouver and hang out watching and sitting in as Barry and the Young Canadians played and rehearsed. In 1980, Steward enrolled in the jazz program at Malaspina College on Vancouver Island. There he met bass player Doug Elliott and they began a friendship and musical partnership that would prove pivotal over the next thirty years. It was with Elliott in the ska band “Rubber Biscuit” that Steward was first spotted by Bryan Adams and recruited to play on, and tour to promote, Adams smash album “Reckless”. Among many world tour stops Steward performed with Adams at “Live Aid” in 1985 and on the “Conspiracy of Hope Tour” for Amnesty International in 1986.

During the late 1980s Steward was in demand as a touring and session drummer for the likes of Jimmy Barnes, John Eddie, Doug and the Slugs, Raymond May and many others. A chance call in 1994 from old pal Doug Elliott had him step in to replace departing drummer Paul Brennan in Warner Recording artists Odds. Elliott had been a founding member of Odds and the band was mid-way through recording their commercial breakthrough album “Good Weird Feeling” when Steward joined the band. Steward would go on to record, compose and tour with Odds until their hiatus in 1999. After that point he continued to collaborate with Odds members Craig Northey and Doug Elliott on many projects – Strippers Union, Northey Valenzuela, Bruce McCulloch’s “Drunk Baby Project” and soundtracks for “the Kids in the Hall in Brain Candy” and “Dog Park”. The three would sometimes perform as “the Craig Northey Power Trio”. Steward also began an association with Canadian guitar slinger Colin James and recorded and toured with James on and off for the better part of a decade. His Odds bandmates eventually joined him in the Colin James Band. In 2003 Steward performed on the album “Avalanche” with popular Canadian rocker Matthew Good. He toured with Good and continued on for Good’s 2004 “White Light Rock & Roll Review” and 2007’s “Hospital Music”.