Aqus Music

Mar 21th 10:30am - 12:30pm

Jeff Troiano

If you ask Jeff, he’ll tell you that his music “sounds like Neil Young, if Neil couldn't write very well, played guitar with his hands wrapped in thick bandages, and had been greatly influenced by his own songs.” Maybe so, but Jeff’s tunes have taken on a distinctly Sonoma flavor since moving to Petaluma from San Francisco five years ago. “We came out here in search of greener pastures, and everything just slowed down, including my music. I don’t feel the need to rush my songs anymore.”

Jeff grew up in Ohio on a diet of AM radio, listening to songs like “Billy, Don’t Be a Hero,” “Brandie (You’re a Fine Girl),” “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” and “Knights in White Satin.” Then, when his two older brothers grew their hair out and sprouted moustaches, the house began to reverberate with Bob Dylan, The Who, T-Rex, The Beatles, and The Kinks.

“I especially liked The Kinks because of Ray Davies’ storytelling,” he recalls. “Every song was like a short movie.” As a professional writer and editor, Jeff tries to bring that sense of narrative to his songs. “I’m at my best when I write sad, true songs. Honesty is essential. If the lyrics don’t ring true to me, I trash it. There’s no point in performing something that is just a series of nicely rhymed lines. What’s the point of that?”

Listen to some samples of Jeff’s songs here:
http://www. myspace.com/sonomoco