SPEAKER_01 0:14

Welcome to How's Your Stool? The show where we'll pull up a stool and find out if things are really going. Not just the gig, not just the music, but what's happening when the amps and the lights get turned off. Because if you ask a musician how they're doing, you'll want to answer check the stool might get the truth. I'm your host, Dave Randall. Today I'm sitting down with the blues man, Paulo Stante. Let's get a stool sample. Well, hello folks. We're here again for another episode of How's Your Stool? And uh today I'm sitting down with Paolo Stante. And we're gonna find out some more about him and what he's been up to. And uh welcome, Paolo. Good to be here, man. Yeah, it's great to have you. Thanks for driving all the way out to Saint Lazare.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Yeah, well, not that far.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

F Frontier Town.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Frontier Town?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

That's why I call it.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Ah, 20 minutes drive either way. Yeah. From coming from my uh from Mil Perot or from coming from the country.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Oh nice in the middle. Yeah. Well, as long as you don't have to do the Ilotort Bridge, which is still a bit of a nightmare. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:25

Really try to avoid that as much as humanly possible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

But uh otherwise, it's a beautiful day out there for now, and um, yeah, we're gonna have a bit of a chat. And um, well, we're like we start off everybody say, you know, so um where are you from? Uh where were you born and and where do you live now and all that all that kind of stuff and so okay, no problem.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Uh so I was born in Montreal, same with my uh two older brothers. It's funny how I always answer this question of where you're from or grew up, because I kind of grew up both on um on the Ontario side in the country and also you know, in Montreal, you know, West Island and and uh St. Leonard and all that, because family was really uh in Montreal and around and my dad was the one who he was traveling a lot, so he wanted to be in the country and kind of a central place where because at the time he was working both in Montreal and Toronto and Ottawa and all over, so he wanted a little kind of central hub. Right. So I got the best of both worlds, both being a country boy and city or uh city boy, I guess. Oh that's nice.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

That sort of thing. Yeah. Which do you prefer?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Uh country. Country, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

That's uh especially uh during lockdowns and all that, the country was way better.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Oh yeah, you had some open space to move around and fresh air. So all right, so uh but you grew up in the Montreal area? Yeah, I would say it's it half and half.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Half it really was half and half because when uh I went to school out in Ontario, but all all every weekend we were always here. Right. Uh you know, my brothers and I played sports and all the activities and see family and and all that. So it it it really was half and half.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Okay, cool. So in your family, uh young man, you're you're you're you're coming up, but when did you get inspired by music? When did uh you get the bug, so to speak?

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Well, um my family was always musical. I had cousins that played music, but uh they didn't they didn't pursue it as a profession or anything. Um I was told that my great-grandfather b uh while he was still in Italy, um he played music profession and they toured uh you know and I I actually just refurbished his classical guitar. It was just it's it's in a playable condition, but it was more for a sentimental value. But you could do a few things. But my fa my f parents are real music lovers, especially um especially my father. So all that really got blasted throughout growing up. Me and my brothers. Actually, my brother Carlo, he uh used to play the drums. He was actually on one of my albums too. Oh, okay, cool. But he he stopped. I mean, but sometimes he hopefully get him back on it, you know. He was always very just a natural drummer.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

So what music um did you did you start listening? Were you CKGM guy or showm guy?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

It was really a lot on Shoam.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Show him, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

And always in the car, traveling a lot back and forth. Okay, yeah. Especially because my brothers had hockey and I was still, you know, in a in a car seat. So, you know, heard Shoam a lot, and whatever mixtape my uh my dad uh in there.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Well, what would be on his mixtape?

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Well, Beatles for sure, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Bad Company, Guess Who? Uh some Peter Frampton. Well, that's a good graphic. Yeah, all all of the all of the stuff from the 60s and 70s, and even a bit earlier too, when you're going back to the 50s, Little Elvis and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Very cool, you know. And uh and w was there a particular style that you gravitated towards? Like you're a blues player now. Yeah, I guess it'd be fair to say.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Yeah, well, blue uh, I mean, it's the blues rock kind of thing. And it's and my father did have some blues albums, like some uh you know the best of uh you know, BB King and and and things like that, and some Muddy Waters. And uh as I really started to get when I started to play and not just idolizing or learning off of Clapton and Hendricks and all them, you start going back to what they're listening to. The you know muddy waters and even further about Sunhouse and Delta Blues. You know, Robert Johnson. So you you start to understand the uh the building blocks.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. And and was guitar your first instrument that you picked up, and how did you come to that?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

So I always wanted to play guitar ever since I was three years old. And I always tell the story, and people think it's fake, but I swear to God it's the truth. Because the first time I ever saw the movie Back to the Future, you know where I'm going with this. You see, you know, Marty McFly, you know, up there playing Johnny Be Good. And I was the first time I saw it, it was I I was no bigger than three. But uh that that really did it. But for whatever reason that I still don't understand from my parents, I got a as I got a little older, maybe eight or something, uh they put me in piano lessons. Okay, not guitar. Okay. So uh I still don't understand that. But anyway, uh I I was good at it, but I I wasn't crazy about the teacher at the time, so I did let it go. So when I actually started to play guitar was when my brother uh bought a guitar and he learned a few riffs, you know, inter Sandman and stuff. But yeah, you know how it is. Okay, it's cool, and put it in the closet. And it was always just sitting there, and I always picked it up and just strummed. I was like, I want to play guitar. So finally, when I was like 13 or 14, I finally started to take lessons. And well, never and look at me now, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

Making a living out of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Well, so far, working working on making a living out of it, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

It's a work in progress. Yeah, yeah, isn't it? And um, so okay, so well, you didn't start gigging when you were three, so you and then you had a few years of learning, yet you took some lessons, and um and and uh at what point did you feel drawn towards the blues specifically?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

It just sort of naturally happened. I I took lessons uh from you guys probably all know uh Doug Miller in uh St. Anne de Bellevue. I took lessons from him for oh man almost ten years or so. And uh and Doug is uh he's he's really a jazz guy at heart, but he play but he he was a great teacher because he showed me everything. And you know, the jazz chords and stuff and some bluegrass licks, but you know, when you su I didn't start with that, I started with just a dun dun dun dun dun dun dun, you know, just the real 12 bar. Yeah. And uh I don't know, it just naturally happened. I can't really explain. It's just like I I like doing this, you know? Yeah. And then listening to like I said, starting to go back and listen to the rock legends, their heroes, which were really blues guys. Yeah, yeah. I mean early rock and roll. Especially the British ones. Yeah. I mean early rock and roll too. I mean my buddy Holly and all them too, you know. But that's all based on blues music. So yeah, yeah. So you get to the roots.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

They stole it. They stole it.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

They they they took it to the to the next level, which is what you're is what you're supposed to do.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

And I think I think to some extent the those old blue guys, blues guys uh credit them for revitalizing their music.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Because it's really because of them and the Rolling Stones and all that, all those guys that uh that popularized them or put them on the radar and they all went to England, and that's when they were actually started to make make money and not get totally ripped off and everything. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, they they credited them 100%, you know, which is good, you know. Yeah, but hopefully, I mean they were they were you know, let Zeppelin all they were never shy. I mean, we we know that they did take certain songs or whatever, and they had to settle that uh with court and all, but they they were always very straight ahead. Yeah, this is blues from so and so and whatever.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Oh yeah, they were big Willie Dixon fans. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, um I remember when when I was starting out guitar, I never had the benefit of lessons. I think I think my parents did sign me up for lessons, but it wasn't really working. Like I felt like I was because I joined a class in progress, and I felt like I was I I I couldn't keep up. I was like, I I can't do what these kids are doing. They'd they'd had maybe two or three weeks of lessons more than me, but it was enough for me to go, man, yeah, yeah, I'm not not doing good. And then, you know, um it this is well before YouTube, so I really didn't have any direction other than this little pink booklet that came inside the consumers distributing guitar that I had in my closet, and so I learned the basic chords. Yeah, and it was really when I got to get started getting together with friends, and uh you at the time we were we were big fans of Led Zeppelin and and blues-based rock at the time in the 70s. And blues seemed to be uh we used to we started to gravitate towards blues because and I I don't mean this with any um uh any any any i insult to the genre, but but it was easy, you know, it was three chords.

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yeah, yeah, I uh I know what you mean.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

I mean before I knew what 145 was, we were playing.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

I know it's it's easy in the sense that it's basic, but it's also very complex kind of thing as well. There's there's always beauty in the in the subtleties, you know. It's it's things like that. Yeah, but but I know what you're what you're trying to say. Yeah, it's it's easier doing that technically than going, you know, doing uh 251 and with the diminished and all that stuff and a bunch of things flying around at different chord shapes every every bar or something, you know. So I I get that.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Yeah, but uh but uh yeah, so it was it was a common ground for all of us, no matter what our particular interests were. We could also say, okay, we're gonna play 145 and G and everyone take a turn soloing over that. And um but I I I what you're saying, I I very much agree with that the blues can be common unless played with a better uh a deeper understanding of the music than just a 145 progression and and playing a pentatonic minor scale over the top of it. Uh so uh but I I I kind of diverged into more classic rock than just strictly strictly blues. Um did you find well, so for instance, when you do you do jam nights, you must uh participate.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

I use I used to host well when I started learning, I did go to a lot of jam nights, especially at the Smoke Me Pete's at the time. And yeah, there's really nothing better than getting thrown into the into the fire, you know. And I was lucky to come in at a time because I I befriended some really great musicians who weren't just blues players, but they also did funk. Okay. And some James Brown and all that. And once once they saw me coming around and that I could hold my own and keep up, well, yeah, at the time, you know, it was like, okay, we're we're gonna start messing with the kid. And they did, and they start throwing at the Tower of Power and all that. I'm like, what the hell is this? You know, so that so that was great, great learning uh for uh for me and and just uh yeah to get out of the just uh the single pentatonic uh box shape and three chords, you know.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

But I I've I I've I've done I I still pop in every once in a while on an off night if a friend is hosting a jam, if I'm at uh at um back home visiting the folks in uh in the Glengarry. Oh, okay. You know, uh if they uh the the local jam there at uh the Atlantic pub. The Atlantic pub, right? Yeah, yeah. A friend of mine hosts it, so I was like, if uh I'm free, why not? Just pop in and say hi, have a drink, play a few tunes, and that's it. I used to host a lot of jams, but I don't do that much anymore because I just don't want to. I've done my tour of duty. Yeah, absolutely. But uh I am gonna be hosting a jam for the listeners. Like, God, I don't have the date though. It's but it's in September with uh uh Jeff Starr and his all-star band. Oh yeah. It's at McAllen's. Gotta check that uh I wish I had the date. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

I'll put it on. Well, yeah, I'm sure it's up.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

I think they have it. But uh any jammers want to come by to that, more than welcome to. So have some fun.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

I mean, uh I've I've played for a long time and and used to have no problem stepping into a jam, but I'm a little intimidated now. I'm a little a little rusty to get up there, and there's a lot of good players out there.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Um but yeah, I I I I don't mean to cut you off, yeah it's also the right kind of jam too, with the right kind of people hosting it. Not not ego or or or also don't know how to host. Where like there are people, and I'm not gonna, you know, they just oh gotta play a few okay, we'll bring up jammers, and then they just take off and let and no one's reeling in the ring, uh holding the reins or anything, it just goes south very quickly, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

I understand. I've I've witnessed different kinds like that where uh say the the host, it's it's basically their show and they'll let somebody come up once in a while.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

So that's yeah, that's a different thing too. It's not a show. Yeah. It's a jam night. Do do three or four songs, your band or whatever, to get a volume and check and of get a vibe and then bring people up one at a time, or if they're together, bring you know, try to keep the house band together so that you have the you know, if they're not so good or they're starting out, you could keep it on the on the rails a bit.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. You got it it's it's it's work to keep the jam flowing and keep it together and keeping people in and out and so on.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Um Yeah, plus you got patrons too. Exactly. If you got a restaurant, you can't clear the room. You gotta keep them there or at the bar. They gotta keep them. It's it's a double, it's it's not easy. Yeah, it's a hard and I did it for a a long time and I I learned very well from my buddy Jeff uh Starzinski, who was great at it. And uh but uh like I said, I c w he was with those guys that I came in, you know, when I was 16 or something, and it started to show up. You know, I I was lucky because I saw how they ran it and whatever, and I I took what they did and just whenever I had to be the boss man or whatever, I kinda b based it on what they were doing and how they did it. And it was it was pretty fair. Yeah, you do get the odd, well, they'll hulk on this and this and this. I'm like, look, man, everyone plays two to three songs, try to make it cool. And I generally it's it's not so much the people that are like beginners. Beginners are really they're shy, whatever. Yeah, it's cool, man. Come on up, you know, it's cool. Or if you get a kid or whatever, I'm like, oh man, come on, you know, or even some in a some older person or almost elderly that just picked it up because they retired and whatever. I'm like, yeah, absolutely, come play, you know. It's it's more that the ones that could that can play, yeah, but they can't play in the sense they can't play with other people. Yeah, they're just there to show off. Yes, I and I just like uh that's right. I'm done. I'm not doing any more gems, like once in a blue, blue moon, but that's it.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

The other thing with gems that I found difficult yeah, you know, so you get say, okay, well, somebody wants to come up, they want to do a song. What song do you want to do? Um, can we do Sweet Child of Mine from uh Guns and Rose? I'm like, no, like unless you can sing it. Yeah, and yeah, do you know all the chords? Do you know the kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 18:26

Yeah, again, you you want to come up. You want to keep it, or at least if you know the band, if you're friends with them and you talk to them, hey, do you mind if we sometimes you can. Yeah, you know, sometimes you can, or you know, I again uh it depends how good you are or close friends, or something if you if you text them and say, Hey, I really want to try this. Do you guys know this or can learn it? Sometimes you can. Yeah, there have been times where someone asked me, Can you learn this? I said, I'll try, but I'm kind of busy. Sometimes I'm able to do it, sometimes I can't, just because of time.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

You know. Yeah, and well, that's that's that yeah, that's kind of what makes the jams, you know, they can be hit or miss. I I've been out, excuse me, I've been out to the Atlantic uh once there. Um one of my friends, Marty is Laporte, is the drummer who who sort of yeah, hosts the uh and um yeah, he has a ton of energy for that stuff. I yeah, uh I remember when I talked to him about it, I was like such a good guy. He's got he's got such a great friendly attitude towards music. And he teaches too. That's that's why I don't think I can't.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

You got a lot you have to have a lot of patience. He has I've I've taught too, but um I've t I I haven't taught uh any small kids. Right. There were more uh teenagers, okay, which is easy. So I don't have the experience of teaching with a teaching well that's not true. I did teach I did teach one, it was Jeff's daughter. She was like maybe six or seven at the time. So I have a little bit of experience showing some chords. But uh to really teach like a small, small child, you know, that's that's a different animal altogether, so I don't I don't yeah teenagers are a little easier, you know.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Yeah, I I tried I tried giving lessons to and and one of my first customers was a young girl, maybe seven or eight or something. And like she seemed keen and interested. She'd gotten a guitar for Christmas, and mom wanted her to and so uh, you know, I came with what I felt were uh appropriate songs for a person that age, and they're not cool songs, they're they are literally she'll be coming around the mountain, you know. Yeah, which was that was the first song I ever learned from that little pink booklet that was in my I learned happy birthday. Um but but you know, some of them you know they want, oh, can we do Taylor Swift? And I'm like, I I can you know prepare that for you if you want to do it next week, but you gotta practice this, and then I kind of yeah, so you can play all the songs, and that's the thing is is the motivation that doesn't happen between the this time and the next time.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

It's I never had as as a swan, I I never had that problem, and you know, like I wanted to learn. I still do, and you know, I never go with like a like if someone does something that I don't know how to do, I was like, how the hell did you do that? And I'm gonna like you know, try to see to learn it because I'm like, man, that's cool. How did you do that? You know, like just just that kind of thing. Yeah, and yeah, the the the idea, I mean, going back to Doug, you know, he he even said, do all these hard chords, you know, and at one point he showed me weather report and things like that. I'm like, now that's well man, that's the heavy duty stuff. Yeah. We said, but if you could do this and make your fingers move all this stuff, all that rock and the stuff that you love, it'll just come easy. It'll just come much easier, yeah, technically wise. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you get into the emotion and all that, so that's a little bit different, but if you're just teaching the technique, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

What were those years that you were taking lessons with Doug?

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Uh I started when I guess I was f going on 14 and I think I stopped taking lessons at twenty two, twenty-three, maybe. Okay. Around there. It was almost a ten year.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

And what year was years were oh years.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Um oh I started in 2003, I think it was. Oh, okay. 14, sorry it was two uh two thousand and three. Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

So um w so he was teaching you um fundamental guitar or songs. Everything everything from the ground up.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

I went in and he he he'd say he preferred that way because no hard habits to break. Yeah. It was a clean slate. Okay, cool, cool. Literally, okay, this is an E, A, D, G, B, E. You know, just E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, just basics. Yeah. Right right from the yeah right from the ground floor.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Well, that's good. That I mean that that that so my guitar um experience was kind of in the beginning I learned what I could learn. Uh this is 1977. Yeah. And there was no YouTube and No, no, no tabs.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Yeah. No, but I but it's true. You got it it is it is was a lot harder because you gotta spin the put the needle back and then put a you gotta do that. Yeah. And I I was actually uh again, I was lucky because in the the the early 2000s, but that's when the internet really started. Yeah. Even that that was still before YouTube, but you had tabs. Now there were mostly bad tabs, yeah. Those got better, but but that was easier. Now things are are even to a whole other degree and apps teaching, which those kinds of things for internet, I think, is great that you could learn things, you know, it's kind of what it's supposed to be, right? Not to get one, not to go down that rabbit hole or whatever, but you know, yeah able to access anything to to learn how to do stuff, but there's still there's still no substitute for someone actually being there because they can literally put your finger okay, no, it's here and you're like they could be a little more tactile, and plus when you're playing with somebody, yeah, you know, you learn how to keep time or follow one another and that's very important. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

That's that's a whole other level of that's another that's another beyond just learning the guitar. No. One of my one of my favorite moments was uh so we're young, we're 17, me maybe 18. And uh, you know, in getting together on a Friday or Saturday night in someone's basement and just you know, we scrounged guitars up and stuff. And I remember uh somebody had borrowed an electric guitar namp. And it was one of the first times we had access to an electric guitar, and we all took turns going around the room and you know, I was learning bar chords, and and it it it it just happened. I was just holding playing the guitars, practicing my bar chords, and then I landed on a B and it was like holy crap, this is jumping jack flash. This is how you play jumping. That's how you do it. It just just jumped out. No, probably not the right way to play. No, no, of course, but that's it doesn't it doesn't matter. But it was it was and that's when my circle of friends that that were learning guitar, we that's when we started trading off things. It's it's great to to learn from somebody else. Yeah, that's so we I had the Mapes where I lived in Point Clair, so I was walking distance to the Mapes. We used to go down there and just stare at the musicians all the time there and try and pick up what we could. So as I said, my my get guitar life was in two parts. There's the 70s and 80s. Yeah. Dropped out, went back to university, came back, and by the time I came back in the 2000s, when I say come back, I mean actually picked up guitars again. Uh well, uh MP3s existed, yeah, which was awesome. No longer had to put the needle back. And uh again, that was a double-edged sword, but that's a different story, but yeah. And then uh uh then uh a piece of software I found, a piece of freeware. This is way back. And I was in I I worked in computer science, so I was familiar with all the nooks and crannies of what was the beginning of the internet then. Yeah. And uh I found this I still have it, a copy of it. It's called The Amazing Slow Downer, and it would slow down the speed without changing the pitch, the pitch of it. And it was like that was that was that makes it a lot easier.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

There it is. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Yeah, in real time, it's just blah blah blah. Yeah, yeah. What the hell is that how you do that? Exactly. And then of course, today, um, Jesus, YouTube, man. I mean, I I go to YouTube now and I want to learn. I still do. I mean, I know I'm not learning any songs to perform anymore, but I hear something and I go, Oh, I'd love to learn how to how to play that. And there are a thousand guys out there, guys and girls, giving detailed lessons.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Yeah, there are some there are some real good ones. I fall I still I follow a few of them. Yeah. And like I said, oh that's cool. How do you do that? And I try to do that. Or even um because I I'm not I'm not a gearhead in the sense that you know pedals and all that. No, uh very little pedals. Even the pedals that I have, I find it's too much at times, but I only mainly use one and use the volume on my guitar to clean it up. But I you know, I like it uh and um just lessons in certain how to set certain things up or try or things like that to try to to good to go on that route as well, you know. And people that have t toured, like left the country, uh go to uh overseas and to you know how do they do it or what's what's some good advice for them to give how to pack your guitars or your things like that, you know. Yeah, that that the the more like the road lessons, I guess. So I haven't had though I really an opportunity yet to go overseas yet. Okay. Working on that coming up soon. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, we'll we'll see. See how things turn out in the world, but we won't get into that. When did you when did you yeah, just stay in Canada?

SPEAKER_01 28:36

It's a good place, a good place to be right now. For now, uh I'm okay right now. I'm okay right now. So um when did you when did you get interested in performing and and what was your first experience in that?

SPEAKER_00 28:51

Again, it was it was really going to the jams. Yeah. I think the first time I went to Pete's, I might have been 16 or 17 or around around there in between. Can't remember exactly. Plus once the um once my music teachers at school heard me play, you know, and I wasn't even in the music class at the time, but I was just playing and just doing dun dun dun just simple and learning how to solo, bending, and what just very basic. You know, without asking me, she uh signed me up to uh to you know the jazz band or uh concert band. Right. Signed me up for um uh you know, like the the talent shows or the Christmas shows and stuff, yeah. Things like that. So those were really the my first steps in it.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

And did you did you like performing?

SPEAKER_00 29:42

Uh I was a nervous wreck. But I did. I I I to this day I still get I still get nervous, but I but a nervous in the sense of logistics-wise, where okay, we gotta be here, we gotta that, and oh boy, I hope things don't blow up or whatever, but that's completely stuff out of control. Yeah, it blows, well it blows up. I I can't bring stacks, you know. Exactly. But once start playing, yeah, then okay. I'm playing, I'm I'm cool now. Yeah. You know, I just I just calm down and I just play.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

And it feels good. What was your first band then? Your own band, your own guys.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

We had some things a little bit in in uh in high school. Again, it was it was a rural area. You know, I went to school in in Alexandria, Glengarry District High School. But there were actually a lot of musicians there, but it's a heav it's a very uh Celtic uh area because there's over there it's it's uh Scottish. It's it's actually Scottish, French, and Dutch, like the the the population really. Right, right. So a lot there were a lot of fiddle players. And real good ones. And and there's some that still tour and and uh Ireland and all that, like they could really play to fiddle. Right. But the you know, the guitarists, they were at the time, you know, doing a lot of um I couldn't really find anyone to do the classic rock, not much of it. Uh they were do I mean they were doing stuff like um I mean like the Celtic music, which I learned how to do, which is also good to know how to do it, just to do that rhythm. You're doing basic chords, but you're gonna do this rhythm doing you gotta do that for like eight minutes while the uh while the fiddle player is going nuts and not speed up and slow down. So you do that, that's a that just that, and yeah. It it's it's a challenge in and of itself, just to be steady. Well it's true, you just you gotta always and um yeah for a long time, man. Those when you have a role with fiddle players like, oh boy, here we go. So um, but uh jammed around with guys, I get really my band band it did it took a long time for my own band to happen, and that's with with uh um Mario Assini and uh Dave Neal. Yeah, and and they're they're older than I am, but I mean they're great guys. We just always we just hit it off. Yeah. And we play great off one another, and it's it's just a good combination, and we really try to keep that unit together as much as possible. Yeah, but Dave, you know, he he's he's also in the the Beatles help tribute band, and the Elton John and the Elton John. So I can't really do the McKibbins gig because I gotta go here and play out and make you know 500. But I'm like, okay, yeah, you go you go do that, it's all good, you know. Don't worry. But for the main things, like we played at the Ottawa Blues Fest and uh Yeah, that was awesome. That that came out uh that was a lot of fun, yeah. Things like that, and studio work and so and how did you connect to that?

SPEAKER_01 32:48

I w there's some questions I want to go earlier.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Again, man, the jams. Oh, really? I was really lucky because I came in at the end of Smoke Me Pete having the the jams. He started back now, but uh he used to have them like seven days or five days a week, right, and had some of the top musicians in Montreal play there. So I met those guys there. That's how I met them, and that's how I learned uh and everything. So pretty much everyone I met was through there, which was you know great, and I'm very thankful about that.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we're you're talking about Dave. I I've known Dave Dave for a while that I've had the opportunity to play with Dave on several occasions. Um the last iteration of uh well, it I'll let's let's say my adult life, I know, after the 2000s, I uh um I I I I I wanted to perform, uh, but I I didn't want to uh I didn't have a fixed group of guys for event. I don't know why that didn't, it just never gelled. Everyone was anyway, so it was every gig was uh hey, you're free, you're free, you're free, you're free.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Well there's a bit of I have an answer to that, oh roughly, but I'm sorry, I'll let you finish.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Yeah, no, but I mean, I mean, and and so Dave, Dave got calls on several occasions that I um that I'm sure he only did because there was a little bit of money. Yeah. Not that we were such a great, great players, but I love playing with Dave. He's Marty, Marty and Dave are two of my favorite drummers that I know well, and I've played with m more than once. Yeah. Um, and they're very different. Marty is is um is more technical, yeah, um, and and very talented. And Dave, Dave is just more freestyle when I watch him play.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

He's very, he's very, you know, of the Bonham and uh that's cool. Animal. He is. I love it when he wears his animal shirt and everybody's kind of like ah yeah. But no, it's true. It's it's that style, which I I like that uh or a ginger baker and uh Keith Moon style because they're doing more than and I and it's nothing wrong with their simple rugby, but they could they're creative, they could just like their parts end up being uh part of the music, you know what I mean? One who did that too was Ringo, and uh Ringo did that too. I mean when you listen to Ticket to Riot, doom daom. That's not a regular that's a that's a part of the song. Like you don't have that, then the it everything falls apart. So I I I always love Dave because he's very imaginative. Yes, and he creates a lot. Yes, and another guy I play with all the time too is uh Dan Lego. And I work I know that name. I you I'm sure you do. He he's he's done he plays with everybody, he's playing with Guy Belanger now, and uh he was uh he did his stuff with uh Eclipse, the um Pink Floyd tribute. But I recorded my albums at his studio. Okay. And him, him too, and he can, he's creative too. But I always figure I I could equate him a little bit more like like uh Charlie Watts. Perfect in the groove, doesn't have to do anything flashy, but he can if he wanted to. And sometimes when you get him to do it, he can. He can do it. But he's he's like he keeps everything together, and you can set your watch by him. But for for me, it's Dave and Dan that are you know my two guys. And there's some other great the JP uh JP Levesque, he's great, he's a great drummer too, super nice guy. Martin's a great guy too. Yeah, uh Ken Allman, he's he's good people, and he he uh he uh he's he gives you give him a song, he's a total pro. You give him a song, he'll learn the song, and let's go to the gate. We don't have to rehearse, just alright, I got it, let's go. So I I've been lucky in that regard that the the guys that I've you know in well my circle, they're good great musicians, and they're good, they're good guys. So I don't have to be like, oh my god, I don't want to deal with this freaking guy, you know.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Yeah, isn't that a pain when you you have to worry about personalities at a point and it's like oh no, I can't do this. Uh exactly for a while I did uh I was booking bands and and doing sound at uh the Chateau du Lac here in Hudson. Uh and um the the to me the indicator and uh especially it was a band I hadn't seen before um was um the indicator of how how easy the night was gonna be was the drummer. The drummer would show up. The drummer showed up with a 1970s Neil Perrett kind of kit, I'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Fuck me. Yeah. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

And then I don't have enough mics.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

No, I know I don't have enough mics for this crowd.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Excuse me. Yeah, I I admire a drummer who can play on a minimalist kit. Yeah, because you have to you have to you have to work, you have to know how to make music with that.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

You have to m work more with less. Yeah. You got less to work with, but you gotta be more creative with it. And I I talked to Dan about that because a lot of times where I I'm in one of my I'm in like five bands, but one of the bands I'm in is uh is uh Vintage Vibe, and we we do a lot of the McKibben stuff, you know, at the end of the month. Oh, okay. And um he just tends to bring a snare and a hi-hat, and then sometimes he'll bring a Tom. Sometimes he will. But you know, just a record, you know, just like it's like, well, there's two parts. One, it's playing these songs, but I gotta try to challenge, you know, okay. I only have this to work with, so I gotta figure out what to do.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

So yeah, there was a young drummer uh who passed away last year, Dan uh I wanna say was it Dan Vesnel? I can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Oh, oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:02

Um not Vesno, Dan.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

Anyway, he I know who you're talking. I forgot his name. Shit.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

Yeah. He always reminded me of uh of Kurt Cobain. He had he had that that that look and the and the hair. Anyway, and I remember he came in and played with somebody at the shot, and I I had to go talk to him. I said, I love your kit, man. It was, as you said, a snare. Yeah, I think there was a floor tom, maybe a crash ride and a hi-hat, and that was it. And I was like, and whenever one of those guys would show up with that tiny kit, I knew it was gonna be a very rhythmic uh sound in in the backbeat there. And I I loved it. I just I just I admired drums like that, and even um you know, Quest Love, uh, he's so he he worked with Ludewig and he came out with a kit. Um, but I almost wanted to buy just because I thought it was cool. And it he said he designed the kit because if you're a New York drummer and you want to be able to throw your kit in the back of a taxi. Yeah. So it's minimalist, minimalist, minimalist. You gotta the kick drum is only like 14 inches or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 40:09

And uh plus you got no space to yeah, you go to McKibben's uh downtown, there's no space to play. So you gotta be compact. I'm not bringing no no stacks or anything. I don't even have I never even played through a Marshall stack. One day it's on the bucket list, but you know, the but uh no, just compact and you're squeezed in there and get nice and cozy.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

So yeah, oh my god, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

It's uh go with the bare minimum. Yeah, you know, I would I would love to bring a few guitars so I could do I could have this and open tuning here and this. I can't. All right. Well, one gets to maybe, maybe two sometimes just in case I break a string. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

Yeah, I I had uh I always had two because I because we did well, I I did uh a lot of Rolling Stones stuff, and I needed a guitar and open G tuning. Take the E string off. Um, but uh yeah, yeah. Uh the place uh in in Valwa. Uh it I think it's uh uh is it not McNot McKibben's the other one, the other uh old orchard. Kelly Kelly's Orchard. Kelly's Orchard, yeah. Kelly's so used to play there a lot. And on the one hand, it was kind of kind of a great gig because uh lot of energy in the room. People came out to see live music when I was doing that. This is like the mid-2000s, and and good energy there, um, but ridiculous room. You jammed into uh well, basically in front of where the poker machines are. Yeah, and yeah, you're here's your stage, you're in the corner. And then Liz is like, well, you have to leave the passageway so people can get it. I'm like so dude, you're standing there sitting, and someone literally walking behind you. I've done that. This is this is not fun.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

I've been there. You're trying to walk and someone you're just moving. I'm like the worst is when they accidentally bump the mic and it whacks you right in the face. Oh, yeah. That's happened to me. I've I've gotten a good one, and I was like, oh my god, did I lose it? Because I know someone who did lose a teeth. I'm like, okay, no, I didn't, but I've hurt like hell.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

It's like I developed an instinct for it, and again, it was the Kelly's was was the worst for it because like the band was here and the dancers were like standing there, you know. We didn't even have floor monitors or anything, we had they were off to the side, and uh yeah, I I kind of developed an instinct when I could see the dancers getting I I've immediately curved my lips around my teeth, and sure enough, it'd be boom, boom, boom. It's like, oh yeah, um that's good times all those times, or uh yeah, when uh we you know you you I mean I mean I had a pretty extensive set list, everything from country rock to heavy rock, and one of the things I didn't really do because I it wasn't my style was uh Stevie Ravon. Well, invariably you get people coming up to you, please Stevie Ravon. Well, I got like 60 other songs here. I know the one song that the band and I I'll do it, but it's gonna it it's gonna be shit. But then all you have to do is and then they go mental, and it's like it doesn't matter what you're saying. You fake you fake whatever. I faked a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Problem is is is lyrics when I if if I'm the one singing that night, it's like oh god, I don't have the lyrics, I don't know what it is, I'll just mumble whatever. People don't tend to notice or care at a lot of times. That's exactly they want to have fun or just get a bit of it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

So um so I didn't know you're you're playing with other bands, and it's not just the Palestante band here doing other stuff.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

I'm in I'm in like five of them. How many

SPEAKER_01 44:00

How many nights a week do you get?

SPEAKER_00 44:02

Um depending on I mean drive on average you get about three you get about the Thursday, Friday, Saturday a lot of them. Nice. Some some uh some off uh off Saturdays or uh Do you do any solo like pub style acoustic or just solo acts no I've done them in the past uh they're okay. I mean I honest personally I try to avoid it because it's not it's not uh it's not my thing. And I I I I've worked I've worked with a looper, which is which is good, but it's a different beast altogether. And I learned out very quickly is just how fast you would speed up and slow down in a song. You lay down a loop and then okay, you click it back on to do a solo. I'm like, oh, this is slower than how I was singing it. So you know I I I needed to dive much more work on that much but yeah, a lot of times uh the uh in in pubs uh do a lot of dual work. Right. I mean, I I do a duo with Dan. Yeah, he's a drummer, but he also plays guitar, rhythm guitar. Okay. And I also do a duo with Kenny Dupree. Okay. Uh so I'm backing him up. And him and I me, Kenny, Dan, and our buddy, uh the bass player Pat uh Pat Blanc are in a band called Vintage Vibe. And we play at old McKibbons and do some corporate stuff here and there. And I got my band, the Paulo Stante band. But that's with uh that's what I do, the the original work and Mario and Davor and that one. And also in a band with with Kenny, uh another one, uh called Rocology. And that's um that's a bigger band, and it's more of a uh I guess a show band in the sense that I mean we we play at places like uh Distrant and stuff like that. Yeah, Distrant uh but uh uh Shea Maurice. Okay. Oh and it's uh it's uh rock medleys from you know we we do uh you know like medley from Doobie Brothers, C C R Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, uh some yeah, yeah, classic rock medley very much in the 70s and how's it playing at Shea Moris?

SPEAKER_01 46:17

I I've never played that I've only been in there once or twice.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

It's really cool, you know. I like it. Yeah, I wish we could play there a little more often, but uh well it's nice because uh it's a nice big stage and they have the professional. You can move a little bit too. A lot of times you can't move. It's like why don't you move around? It's like I can't nowhere to move. I'm gonna bash somebody in the face. I'm like, thanks. And you know uh uh Les Paul head stocks, you know, you just look at them wrong and they could break. It's like geez. But yeah, uh nice big stage. It's it's uh it's a really cool room, a cool vibe. And I I know some people that come out, some friends and friends in the area. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Yeah, I'll in the in the 80s when I did m most of my real playing. I mean, uh there was no shortage of of gigs, and uh it was you could play seven nights a week if you wanted to, if you were if you and get paid really well for it. Well really well for the time, but it's exactly the same pay today as it was in the 1980s.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

But again, in the 80s it was worth more than what it is now, and that's the problem. Exactly. And that kind of circles back to kind of what you were saying before when you were calling people up to jam, people are busy or try to or uh uh for a gig. Yeah. The reason why you can't just keep it's very difficult to keep your main unit is because gigs are so far in between at times, yeah. And people are just kid here or here or get an offer for a corporate thing. You gotta understand to take that, and that's why I'm in five and six bands. Yeah. Because okay, my band is not is playing, you know, a couple times a month. Then I got this dual thing on a Thursday, you know, okay, and then uh at the end of the, you know, so I I that's why I've spread it out.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:08

At one point I got a little too I spread myself a little too thin at at uh one point, and whatever one-off gigs here and there, you know, a corporate thing or someone needed to be, hey, are you free to do this? But you gotta learn these songs for that sure, you know. At the time I could do it. Uh but uh after the pandemic, I really like everybody, we there was blood in the water, so we were all we were all going after it. So I that's when I just went really hoard myself out there. So pain for it now, but no, it's but no, so far so good.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

So yeah, that's why I that's why I now I'm talking in the my the 2000s era of my of my playing. Um I had I had to do the the pub thing to stay busy. There just weren't enough band gigs to play, uh like locations to play. And um yeah, I it it it really it's really the the live music scene is kind of well different than the than what I grew up with.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

See, uh unfortunately with I mean it was already on the downslope. COVID pretty much just was the final nail in the confidence for a lot of things, and then even people that want to see live music or go out, it's too damn expensive to go out. Right. To just go on a date or whatever, just to a pub. I went out on the I took someone out a few months ago, it cost me like what the hell? And we just had a beer and pub food, nothing thing, you know, it's it was kind of crazy. So there's that, uh there's I mean, I I always get I always get upset because I I I I play with guys your age, you know, or in between, yeah, and younger, and they they tell stories of the uh, you know, back in the day, the good old days, we did this, this, that even in the 90s, you know, we play seven days a week. Yeah, we'd actually get this amount of money, and then afterwards we'd go to this place. It was an after hours of to have breakfast, and like and all the bands were there because everyone's off, and whatever girl, the strippers or whatever, they're all everyone's closed. The bar people are they can eat now, right? It's 4 a.m. in the morning. Exactly. Everyone's there, and they're just talking and having fun and chinoise. You know, Chinoise. Yeah, Chinoise, I know. Jeez. And I heard they're going, they're closing. They're not 24 hours anymore. And I heard someone say they're closing. I'm like, oh man.

SPEAKER_01 50:31

That reminds Chinoise, that makes me think of uh so I remember when they uh uh stopped cigarette smoking inside. That was that was the first nail in the copy.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

That's true. I mean, I agree, I'm not a smoker, I do agree with it because health-wise, but I do, yeah, it does, yeah, I know it kind of screws things up.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

And then we'd go, so we'd we'd play the gig and then we'd go to Chinoise after and and you'd walk into Chinoise and it was just a fog all the way to the back of the restaurant, everyone smoking cigarettes. It was truly disgusting. I you know, waking up the next morning and you know, your clothes are on the floor beside the bed, and you're like, oh, it just stinks.

SPEAKER_00 51:15

Open the windows. It's in the winter, just open the windows anyway, man. You gotta get this out.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

Oh, and you you it you're talking about the after hours, but yeah, strippers showing up there. Well, one of my first gigs uh with a band that I was in in the 80s um was at uh the Miss Dorian, where the when you said Miss Dorian, oh god, dude. It's it's now condos and ghost ghosts of strippers past still haunt the building. But but they got the o the notion there. Uh we were um uh 50s and 60s retro band, and they somebody there got the notion to on the weekends, because they did their their I mean it I'm sure at one time it was busy every day, but uh they did most of their business on the weeks when they had um uh the truckers would come, you know, stop there for the lunch. Sure. But on the weekends it was dead, and so they were trying to revive. They said, well, let's have let's have a rock and roll band in. And we did literally like Elvis, Buddy Holly, the Bindles, like retro 50s, 60s. And uh, you know, they had our dressing room was the the dancer's just and there was I'll never forget this. There was before Costco, a Costco sized jar of what I called perfume slash disinfect. Oh, yeah, and that smell got up my nose, and for some reason, I'd wake up the next morning and my clothes had glitter all. So we played this, we played the Miss Dorian, and the first night I remember it was pretty quiet, but the dancers were dressed up in poodle skirts and the whole 50s and things.

SPEAKER_00 53:03

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 53:04

And at one point, it was in a long room, and and and one of the dancers working as a server, and she comes like skipping up towards us in the stage, and she's lifting her poodle skirt up like they do, but she's not wearing any. Well, yeah, I mean and it maybe maybe she was warm.

SPEAKER_00 53:23

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 53:24

It was it was kind of one of those blues brothers moments. Ah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

So that's a dream, man. A little bit of club like that in the cycle.

SPEAKER_01 53:33

Um god. Uh what did I I wanted to ask you? Okay, so um your um your other bands are our variety of music, yeah. Classic rock and stuff, classic rock and funk and but your your original music, the Mario's uh the Palestante band with Mario and Davie. You do your own have you how many albums do you have out now?

SPEAKER_00 53:59

I actually have four albums. Okay. And uh and I I I released a um a single uh just in in January, but the single is actually a cover of uh Don Henley's um Dirty Laundry. Oh yeah. Uh that came out really good. I'm really proud of that one. But um, yeah, for four albums. I'm uh it's all available on Spotify, Apple, all the streaming platforms, and I still have some good old-fashioned CDs. No vinyl. No, I knew you were gonna ask no vinyl yet, but I got I the next one I really want to get vinyl, but it is freaking expensive. And I would have to sell the vinyl at a proper the premium. There's just no choice because it's too expensive. It's not like yeah, okay, 10 bucks for a CD or 15 bucks. No, it's it's so I would love a vinyl for the next album. And uh I'm hoping in and um well last year I I did these videos. Um I recorded at the barn. The barn, yes, I've watched some of the funny thing. That funny thing is that those are the the the owners of that is um Brian and Elizabeth Cadell, and they were my high school teachers. Oh nice. And the the teacher that signed me up for everything is Elizabeth Cadell. So wow. So they were kind enough to let me use their uh their their place, and I I I wanted to do a kind of a live from Daryl's thing, which it came out really good. So I was just listening to it n a few months ago. I was like, you know what? The audio is good too. Why don't we just mix it a little bit more and just release it as we weren't play I mean there were some people there, but it wasn't a live audience, but we were playing live off the floor. Okay, so one take, oh let's do a two okay to the no overdubs. We were just playing, you know, two, maybe three takes a song depending on the song. Some there were a couple we actually got on the first take. We're like, all right, that's good. You know, so we want to release like the the barn sessions on just digitally. Yeah. So I'm hoping to do that next uh next month. So just to have them there, and because I I we went back to play live some of the earlier stuff from like the first two albums, which you know, I'm younger and had no no less money, so it was it's like okay, that's rough, and my singing definitely was not up to it, but it was a good but it's a good stepping stone. Like I I am happy that each one got better and better and better and better and better. So I'm hoping that the next album is better than the last one, which is Lawless, which is uh that one got a little bit of steam, a little a few plugs on Shom from uh Blau Butt and Hal. Yeah, they were kind enough to you know give me a few plugs on that thing, and um terrific. Yeah, and people that seem to re people who've who've heard it and heard us play the songs and heard the heard the album, they they really responded well to it. Yeah. It's just getting more people to hear it. That's always the trick.

SPEAKER_01 57:03

But that is the eternal struggle for musicians getting their stuff out there. But I mean um it is nice that you can self-publish.

SPEAKER_00 57:12

I know, but they're again everything's a double-edged sword because you could self-publish, you could do things yourself. The technology you could you could have great sounding. I'm not even talking about going through plugins or anything. You could you could have great sounding just here in your room. Yeah. But the problem is is that if you want it's so much going on, it kind of gets buried in the noise. And you have some and there are some really great new acts out there, but you don't hear about them because it's just underneath whatever, or whatever the record companies that are left, they just yeah, push. Yeah. And I always find something that's really BS that I do have to call out on is I guess the the the companies now all they're interested in is they'll they'll look at you if you already have wow a million subscribers or a million streams or things like that. Then they'll sign you to whatever. But my point is like if I already have a million and over a million, why the hell would I need you? Yeah. Why? I did I did all the work. Right. I did it. Yeah. You know, I don't need you at that point. I thought the whole point of a company is to publish and to hey, there's a new artist here and to get them known.

SPEAKER_01 58:33

Yeah, I don't know how uh artists like yourselves, young artists coming up navigate that uh that it's I I'm still trying to figure it out. You don't know you do you have a business manager or do you have to be?

SPEAKER_00 58:46

No, I well it's some business. My um luckily my my father's background is in law. Oh, okay. So it's just to make sure I don't get hamstrung or anything. Uh as in terms of finding like a booking agents or anything like that, I don't really have one. I've dealt with s with some to get into the festivals. Sure. You know, I'm still kind of looking for a proper uh you know, representation in in that sense.

SPEAKER_01 59:15

And do you have someone who manages uh your your social media presence? Nah, that's really just me. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 59:21

And I don't do a very good job at it because I hate it so much, even though I know it's important and this and that. It's just I don't like the idea of always being glued to your phone. God yeah. You know, like I'm doing this instead of what I'm supposed to be doing, the work. Yeah, I it's part of the job, yeah, but it shouldn't. Artists today have to be everything, they have to be their own PR guy, they have to be their own producer or or engineer, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 59:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:54

And it's not supposed to be that way. It's great to know how to mix and master, and all, and that's something that I'm learning. I'm teaching myself how to do it. Right. Because I I would like to learn. Yeah. But it it's not it's not what all of the greatest bands and artists came before. They didn't do that stuff. No, no, no, they they they uh but like the marketing stuff. I mean, there were ones that took over because they were getting ripped off. I think the rolling uh um uh McJager. Yes, he went back to business because they were broke until all the hits that they had in the 60s, they were broke until the 70, whatever, then they took it over so then they could get their money because they were getting ripped off.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:36

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Uh it's uh but um yeah, I guess there's no there's no perfect formula. Um I don't know. I I hate the I hate doing social media uh myself. Uh I I I do just what I have to to put this out, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:55

But I I only ever use it. I never really get per personal. I actually rarely do. Uh I only ever post things of my dog or cats, you know. And uh because I I love animals and whenever I'm playing or where I'm playing. And I do I have to do I have to start doing them again. Uh I kind of gotten really busy this summer, but uh you know, my Tuesday noodles where I just literally just play guitar or over something or whatever, just like yeah, like a minute long for the reels and whatnot. That's literally me noodling on the guitar just to get more views and stuff and things like that. Right. And uh I did uh I actually got one well at the time of this recording, tomorrow will be Tuesday, so I'll have one coming out. Okay tomorrow, uh again, it's just a minute long, but uh something for uh Godang guitars. Oh nice. And um they uh they lent me some uh guitars to try out. I actually have I have one of them now. I bought they gave me a deal on it, but it's a really cool guitar, so that's that's what's gonna be on it. But uh I wanted to get in stuff for them too, because to help with the online presence. Like I would love I I'm part of I'm one of their artists now it happened last December, but I I told them it's like I would love to be the guy that demos the guitars. You know, you see like rig rundown or a premium guitar or whatever. I would just just give me the guitar to play it. If you want me to say certain things in French or in English, it's fine. You can. We'll give the specs. I I I would love to be that dude, you know. Just do that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

That's a nice day job to have.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:29

Not a bad day job, get a few bucks, and you just get to play guitar all day.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:34

Are you can you read charts? Like no, it's I I so I I I'm not sure if you ever know knew this, because again, we we've worked together, but we've never had a conversation. Um I'm actually legally blind.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:49

So charts, mu the the music seeing stuff on the music okay music notes, it's very difficult for me. I have to get it like I know where G is and F and uh on the staff, but I have to get it so big for me to see it that one bar is like almost the size of the face. So it's it makes no sense. So I do everything by ear.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:10

Oh, okay. All right. Yeah. I was just thinking if maybe you could get like a session, any session work or stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:17

I've I've done some session work, but luckily it's just okay, these are the chords, or they give me the demo or whatever, and I listen to it and they tell me, they give me, okay, what do you want? And I'll okay, I'll do this or do this, make it sound like this, uh, you know, things like that. Just because I can't. I can't give okay. Here's a here's a chart, sight read. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:39

Yeah. Well, I can't just because I can't. I can read the music, I can't do it in real time. Like, yeah, sight reading. Sight reading.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:47

That's that's something else too.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:48

Yeah. Um yeah, so I just wanted to to your your gig at the Ottawa Blues Fest, um, which uh from my experience is less of a blues fest as just a music fest, but you got on the city.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:03

More and more, yes. I well, uh one of the stages, it was a it was a cool setup too, that uh because it was it was a nice big stage, and it was actually um it was behind the main one, it was in its own little section, but it was right next to the food uh court and it was kind of in a tent. And once we started playing, people just showed up and it was full. Okay. And they had a speaker and a jumble chart outside the tent, so then when you peek around the corner, you see people there, and they just migrated and it was a really cool turnout. But I went there and I really wanted to play blues. I mean, it's not blues pu uh pure blues, but I it I wanted to first of all, that is my thing, and second of all, it's what the the the festival was based on, and I even gotten a couple of compliments from someone said you know, I was coming here when it was blues, and you brought me back to that time, so thank you. And it was it was a really nice compliment. So I'm like, thank you, you know, and people people stopped me on just walking around. Oh man, your set was great. So it was a it was a fun experience. It was the first time I I played that festival, and God willing, I get to play it again.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:17

So yeah, well, I the clips I saw looked looked fantastic, and uh yeah, you you guys were really hot at that uh uh for that show. So good for you. Thanks. What have you got planned for the rest of the summer?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:30

Uh more gigs, more local stuff. Um besides the tractor work. I'm gonna go I gotta head back to my folks and spend five hours on the tractor today. Take advantage of uh no rain. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:43

Well, fingers crossed.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:44

Yeah. Uh yeah, there was um I mean you can check my website, uh palostante.com, or follow me on the thing, yeah. Facebook and Instagram. I always post whenever I'm playing, and I have my more of a full schedule, or at least a Ten weeks on the website. It kind of shows up ten weeks at a time. But uh Wednesday this coming Wednesday out in Ontario playing at the Grotto, which is another venue. Where's that? It's in Alexandria. It's another thing. Again, it has to do with uh Brian and Elizabeth Cadell. They started that series of shows. Nice. Really nice. Alexandria is becoming a happening town. Yeah, I guess so. Who'd have thought? I I sure didn't. This week's a busy. And thir Thursday, um, with Vintage Vibe at um uh Tapas, uh Ole Tapas, and and I've heard of it. And uh it's a new place in uh St. Anne de Bellevue and played Dukes and Divine as a duo on Friday in Voderay with Dan and you know and uh Saturday uh another duo with Kenny. Any any other festivals. But festivals festival-wise. Uh the next big one is September 11th on at the uh VIP uh VIP en blues. Okay. It's in um it's in uh Il Perole. Uh Voderay No, it's it's in Il Perol, so okay. Uh I don't have times yet, but uh keep a lookout on that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:09

Um well like I said, I'll post your uh your schedule and the with the with the the just the the website.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:15

Yeah. Like I said, the website has dates but only of ten weeks. It's just how it the website works. Just it just cycles through it. Very good.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:22

Yeah. Um Paolo, I want to thank you for coming out today and chatting with I've I've gotten to know you a bit better. Oh and um And I don't want to know you anymore, right? Is that no no? I was gonna say uh you know, I I always uh suggest to the guests that uh love to have you back sometime. We can talk more. There's many topics. Uh we kind of go all over the place, right? You know, and and a popular topic these days is AI and the impact on your life. And do you use it as a tool? No, I don't. There, there it is. Done. No. It's uh it's it's it is too one of those double-edged swords. It's a great, great productivity thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:05

I know what the idea, the idea behind it, and and what you're trying to get to, you know, is it's very like in Star Trek, computer do this or whatever. Yeah, it's great. But uh computer write a song for me and do this and make it that, yeah, that's not so good.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:21

So no, no, no. That's that's that crosses the line.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:24

But it's supposed to be for additional information. How do I do this or or to teach whatever or things like that, not to replace you doing stuff, but well, and as you get into more of your home own home recording and stuff, you'll find that AI, there's AI tools which are very helpful and doing stuff, yeah. And you need the right tool for the right job. Right. You use it as a tool. Yeah, that's fine, fair enough. But typing in something, oh yeah, I need you to write these lyrics for this to make it sound like John Lennon and whatever, that kind of stuff. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:59

No, I mean, what's the point? It's there's not although anyway, we're going off the bigger. Sorry. This is oh now you got me going, man. What the hell? Part two in uh six months or something like that. Exactly. And um, someone, another one of the guests here has suggested uh see, I d I I originally had this notion of we'll we'll do a musical break and the guests you can pick up a guitar or do whatever, and you know, and uh then I started running into the copyright police on uh on oh yeah, not for the so much for the podcast, but yeah, when I post the video on YouTube, they yeah, they really it's it's it's uh even my theme song, which I've got the license for, they hit me every week. And I'm like, can I just get a blanket? Like you here's the anyway. So um, but somebody did uh suggest having a a writer's circle, having some guys in and just doing making up a song and you know, going through that process. What would you like to do here? How do you want to structure the song? And just working it out. That would be that would be a fun little exercise, you know. You get to know some other musicians. It's not really a jam session, no, no, it's a writing session. It's a writing session. I think that could be fun, but I could be fun. I'd have to plan for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:14

Yeah, yeah, and and not to get you don't want too many cooks in the in the kitchen, too, right? Because they're like, oh, this, this, and I don't like that, you know. This goes back to the discussion egos. Well, it's not even an ego thing, it's just sometimes it's just a different thing, you know. And I I I like to think I I do a pretty decent job of keeping my ego in check. Actually, some people tell me you I should have more of an ego. I'm like, nah, you know, I'm chill, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:39

We wouldn't be here if you had more of an ego. Okay, good. There you go. You're a very down-to-earth guy, and I've always liked working with you and I appreciate what you're working on and your music. Thank you, man. And wish you luck for the rest of the summer, and I will definitely uh reach out to you again sometime later in the year. Yeah. I'll be down. See what's going on. All right. Cheers, buddy. Have a good one. You too. All right, that's a wrap. Huge thanks to Palo Plante for pulling up a stool and hanging out. If you liked what you heard, go check them out. Support local music, go to a show, buy some merch, make some noise. And before we go, one last check-in. How's your stool? I'm Dave Randall. This is How's Your Stool, and we'll catch you next time. This has been a Bandit Monterey Production.