Steve's Music
Some places will always remain as music to people’s ears.
For 40 years, 415 Queen St. W has been the home of such a location: Steve’s Music. Whether it’s a professional musician expanding their repertoire, or a beginner just embarking on their instrumental journey, Steve’s has been a go-to destination in Toronto’s music scene.
“Back then, this whole area was pretty much punk rock. It was a punk rocker, jobber kind of a rundown, decrepit part of Toronto back in the day,” said Kevin Parker, store manager.
Steve’s Music began in Montreal in 1965, when late founder Steven Kirman decided to open up a music store at the age of 18. He expanded to Toronto in 1977, before Parker joined the Queen Street store in 1980.
While Kirman thought the Toronto market was an exciting one to be a part of, some more difficult, historical conditions also lead him to expand away from Quebec, according to Parker.
“The reason this store is here is because of the FLQ…because when that was going down in Montreal and there was martial law, Steve thought ‘oh, maybe I need an exit plan here’” said Parker.
Since then, Parker has seen it all when it comes to the evolution of Steve’s and the whole street they reside on. Toronto’s music landscape was thriving and dense when Parker came along.
“Within a kilometre of here, back then, there was probably 100 [music] studios, easily,” said Parker.
Eventually, changes came about. While music remained popular in Toronto, the retail space on queen street began to move away from greasy spoons.
“All the bars are gone except for the [Horse]shoe,” said Rick Welbanks, assistant manager.
“Let’s be honest here, queen street is starting to turn into a strip mall. It’s all big money, huge stores, international conglomerates and brand names,” said Welbanks.
Steve’s Music has always remained true to its original form and atmosphere even in the face of those large changes. There’s a couple of reasons for that.
“We don’t hire salesmen, we hire musicians,” said Welbanks.
Parker agrees that’s a signature trait of Steve’s Music, so his employees know what they’re talking about.
“All the guys here are players, almost everyone here is in a band. They’re out there playing every night, they’re using the gear, they’re doing sound systems. That’s a huge thing because they have real world experience with the products,” said Parker.
Welbanks took a moment to use himself as a reflection of Steve’s workplace culture.
“Look at me man, I’m assistant manager of this place. I’m 42 years old and I have a six gauge septum ring.”
Other than a unique work space, their success comes down mostly to how they handle customer interactions against other purchasing options.
“There was a huge online shopping boom, but you had the drawbacks of shopping online: zero customer service, no product knowledge imparted, no service of the [products] as well,” said Welbanks.
Their focus on community engagement continues to grow. This year, Steve’s Music introduced a new open mic area in the store, and it has seen positive results.
“It’s becoming very successful, growing very organically. It’s probably gonna have to expand to more nights now just because there’s so much demand,” said Parker.
Part of the open mic’s warm reception has come down to the fact that it’s simply held at Steve’s, as opposed to anywhere else.
“What we found is a lot of people don’t want to go to a bar, they don’t want to deal with the alcohol and stuff like that so that’s kind of a good thing here…it’s also helping with the live music scene in Toronto,” said Parker.
Steve’s Music wants to continue putting out more ideas and keep growing for the customers, but what exactly the future holds is a bit of a secret.
“I have many ideas here and in the next couple of years they are going to come to fruition, but I’m not gonna say what they are,” said Parker.
“We want to keep doing things that set us apart from any other musical retail store…and if you pay attention, you’ll see everybody else start to do what we’re doing.”