Who are we?
TINI is currently administered by the creators of this site. It is in the early stage of becoming a multi-stakeholder co-operative, but though we have been planning the organization for some time, the founding members have decided to launch a resource page prior to our official incorporation because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the desire to get resources out to the music community, while so many musicians are scrambling because of the loss of regular live performance gigs. The official incorporation can take place live over this platform and will be celebrated later in public events. Contact us to get involved and help shape the TINI community from its inception.
Simon Patrick Rogers is an archivist and occasional songwriter who grew up playing in bands and hosting a community radio show in Guelph, Ontario in the 1990s. He’s been known to cut a rug. Once he sat witness to the original line up of the Nihilist Spasm Band perform in a nearly empty media arts centre and he has been searching for the right words ever since to capture such perfect little moments of clarity in an otherwise imperfect world. He has called Toronto home since 2001.
In his professional life, Curtis Sassur heads up the Archives & Special Collections team at The University of Guelph, with previous stints at TMU, the CBC and the University of Toronto Media Commons. As a kid, he practiced classical music on the piano enough to win the odd silver dollar but failed to develop as a musician with any kind of serviceable ear. This unfortunate situation was exacerbated when he incorrectly selected the tenor sax over the drums at the start of grade 7. Having failed to catch on in any local bands while an undergraduate student at the University of Guelph, he reconciled himself to his role in the scene: event attendant. Over the past score and a bit Curtis has attended countless hundreds of shows in Toronto and elsewhere, and has most of the ticket stubs to prove it.
Liz Hysen is an archivist and musician living in Toronto and has worked at the City of Toronto Archives, the Archives of Ontario and various positions at the University of Toronto. Born into a deaf family, Liz is a self-taught musician who discovered alternate tunings and unconventional string arrangements and has toured a bunch in North America & Europe over the last 12 years. In both music and archives, Liz struggles to reconcile the analog with the digital and has yet to be wowed at a show where the main instrument is a laptop.
TINI Music Co-op 