PROFILE
TIM THORNEY
By Shanine Cook
T
im Thorney is a big personality with
a big passion for music and sound.
Boasting an accomplished and well-
rounded career in the music and
sound industry, Thorney has produced,
written, played, and travelled with a diverse
group of artists, including household names
like Alanis Morissette and Jimmy Rankin. Now,
he’s putting all that experience to work as the
co-owner of Villa Sound, a recording and pro-
duction studio in Singhampton, ON, alongside
his business partner, Adam Fair.
Thorney grew up in what he jokingly calls
“a normal, Jetson family.” “I thought we were
middle class, but looking back at pictures, I
think we had less bread than that,” Thorney
says, though he still had an opportunity to
pick up instruments and play music.
At age 14, he got into a band and his
career in music began. A man from the Univer-
sity of Manitoba once approached the young
group wanting to record them. The boys were
taken aback considering their relative youth;
they’d never even considered stepping foot in
a studio. “We went in, and I don’t think it was
a recording studio – I think he brought gear
into a multi-purpose room. It was a four-track
TEAC [recorder]. He had a couple of Sony or
Shure little mic mixers,” Thorney recalls. “We
started to record, and it was great. It changed
everything.” Realizing his interest in the techni-
cal side of music, he started down the rabbit
hole that is the recording world.
Early into his career, Thorney spent plenty
of time touring the community clubs in the
‘60s, which is where now-legendary acts like
Neil Young and The Guess Who would go to
be discovered. That’s where he made the con-
nections that would lead to his first big break
in the industry: an opportunity to work with
Burton Cummings.
Writing with The Guess Who frontman
and Canadian music icon kept him going
for awhile as he worked to establish himself.
Next, Thorney decided to move to Toronto,
where he had a chance to collaborate with
Dalbello. “Getting to work and write songs
with her and play in her band was great. With
her being a session singer in Toronto, she
brought me around and that’s how I broke
into that scene. It was
through her taking me
places and introducing
me to people in Toronto
that I established myself
as a producer, writer, and
session guy.”
Throughout his career,
Thorney has earned more
than his share of awards
and recognition. Thorney
has won and been nomi-
nated for various awards,
including Junos, a Gemini,
and even an Emmy. Much
of that attention stemmed
from his work with coun-
try singer Cassandra Vasik,
one of his favourite col-
laborators. “We started in
sort of a country form,
but by the end, we don’t
even know what it was,” he
shares. “Whatever it was, it
was some of my favourite
music we ever did.”
At Villa Sound, Thor-
ney and Fair have every-
thing one could ask for
in a studio. “We got that
room that you can be
looking for your whole
life,” he enthuses. “After
all, [Adam and I] started
out in a Toronto apartment. We did Andrea
Ramolo’s record in the apartment, my record
in the apartment... But all kinds of things
were bugging me, so we decided to start
over somewhere new. Adam found a place in
Singhampton and the first second I walked in
the place, I said, ‘This is it.’”
He acknowledges that, in this day and age,
good gear comes easy, but a great-sounding
space, not so much. “What we knew about
the way recording was going to be was
everybody’s got the gear. Everybody’s gear
is good and sounds okay. It’s the room and
nothing but the room [that can make or break
projects],” Thorney says.
Between his work at the studio and other
odd audio and writing projects he takes on,
Thorney is keeping plenty busy these days.
He currently resides in the resort town of
Collingwood, ON, “passing for a normal guy,”
as he likes to say. One of his longtime hob-
bies is searching for unique pieces of vintage
gear. He doesn’t spend much time in front
of the television, but likes a good curling
match or the odd music documentary every
now and then.
It’s been a long road in music and record-
ing for Thorney, and he now finds himself in
a studio that he’s proud to call home, doing
the work he loves. “Things have been excel-
lent since we got set up here,” he says. “Happy
ending.”
Shanine Cook is an Editorial Assistant with Professional Sound.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 21