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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Musician with Northwest ties found shot to death in N.Y.

Troy Young played in Civilized Animal

Young

A musician who grew up in North Idaho and played with a well-known Spokane-area band was found shot to death in his New York apartment last week.

Troy Young, 29, was found last Friday, shot in the shoulder at close range in his apartment in an area of Brooklyn known as Carroll Gardens. The bullet traveled to his heart, his father said Thursday.

No arrests have been made in his death, and police haven’t revealed any leads, said Young’s father, Ed Young, of Rathdrum.

“The police are being pretty tight-lipped,” Ed Young said. “It’s been tough.”

Troy Young, who for several years played drums with the local funk-ska-hip-hop-punk band Civilized Animal, moved to New York City four years ago.

“I last talked to him on Tuesday the 8th, when I saw he popped on to the Internet,” Ed Young said. “He said he was working, and ‘I’ll get back to you,’ so I didn’t think too much about it.” He got the call last Friday that his son was dead.

His mother, Beverly Young, flew to New York this week for services in Manhattan, Ed Young said. She is flying back with her son’s ashes, and local funeral services are planned Saturday in Post Falls.

Ed Young described his youngest son as a hard worker who moved to New York to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a professional musician.

He had just finished writing the score for a movie starring Steve Guttenberg, due out in spring.

“He was on his way,” with four more possible movies in the works, Ed Young said.

Young starting playing the drums when he was 7, “out in our garage,” Ed Young said.

He graduated from Lakeland High School in Rathdrum, where he lettered in music, and attended North Idaho College on a music scholarship. Young was born in Panama; his father worked as an executive for Black & Decker in South America.

The family moved to Idaho when he was 3.

“By the time we moved here, he had more air miles under his diaper than most adults have in their entire life,” Ed Young said.

After playing as drummer in Spokane-area bands, Young said, his son wanted to get serious about his career.

He headed to New York and enrolled in a Manhattan music school. He also took a job working for Manny’s, a renowned New York drum store.

It was there that he made connections that led to jobs playing drums for several bands, including The Spines and Rapscallions.

Eventually he started recording at home, writing and recording drum tracks on request.

Young moved into his basement apartment in an upscale brownstone in Brooklyn about 18 months ago, his father said.

“I always told him no matter what you do in life, find something you like and become the best you can,” Ed Young said.

“Once you become the best, then you’ll be happy. And he was. He was just a delight.”

Troy Young’s death is the second recent blow for the family, which spent the past year mourning the death of 35-year-old Richard Kinsey-Young, his brother.

Kinsey-Young, a Navy veteran, died of an apparent drug overdose in April 2008 after a 16-month struggle with back pain and depression.

The death was ruled a suicide, but the family accused the Department of Veterans Affairs of botching his medical care.

“All the kids were all very close, so it’s been hard,” Ed Young said. Troy Young is survived by three older siblings, brother Grant Young and sister Allyson Marotta, both of Coeur d’Alene, and brother Damon Young, of Wodonga, Victoria, Australia.

“(Troy) will interred next to his brother,” Ed Young said.