Campbell River musician rises from salmon mascot to Trooper's new drummer

Clayton Hill's path to drumming began almost by accident. As a young boy recovering from a broken leg, he picked up a set of bongos someone gave him, driven more by instinct than musical training.

"I didn't know anything about music," Hill said. "It's intuition. I mean, you don't know why you're going to grab wooden spoons to hit them on various surfaces."

At a family party, he found a drum tucked away in a closet and dragged it out to play. Not long after, his family relocated to Lions Bay, then Campbell River, where his drumming began in earnest. Brothers Dave and Steve Hillis, who played in the band Big Rock, taught him the fundamentals — and discovered he was playing his kit backward, unaware there was a correct way to set up for a right-handed player. At age 11 or 12, Hill learned to play in a crossover style, a skill Hillis pushed him to develop.

Campbell River became the backdrop for Hill's earliest performances. He played in local bands throughout his teenage years, including gigs at venues around town and sang an original song, "My Sweet Julie," in front of his entire school at Discovery Passage. He also spent two summers as the beloved salmon mascot, Mr. Tyee, earning $5 an hour under the costume's fins.

By high school, Hill's ambition was clear. "I knew from grade eight, when Big Rock was starting to go, that's all I want to do," he said. "I just want to be a drummer in the band."

He went on to play throughout the region and beyond, cutting his teeth in a series of bands before eventually moving to Vancouver to pursue music full time. His route to Trooper ran through years of steady work across Western Canada, including a stretch performing Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and Roy Orbison tribute shows that took him across the country and overseas to the United Kingdom.

By his early 30s, the music scene was shifting dramatically and gigs were becoming harder to find. Then came the call.

In the summer of 2006, the day after a show in Quesnel where Hill had struggled through a Trooper song, Randy Bergner — a former bandmate turned Trooper's tour manager — phoned out of the blue. The band was searching for a new drummer and had thought of him.

"I said, 'You have no idea what I just said about 10 hours ago,'" Hill recalled, referring to his botched attempt at playing a Trooper song the night before.

Hill accepted the opportunity and had to quickly learn 26 Trooper songs ahead of his first show in Port Alberni. He nearly walked away during his own audition after wrestling with an unfamiliar drum kit and a particularly intricate song intro.

"I could not for the life of me get through it," Hill said of the struggle. He persevered, though, and has remained Trooper's drummer since.