LIVE MUSIC CALENDAR
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Steph Lussier of Victim Or Victor
Interview By Meghan Killimade
Tell us how Victim Or Victor got started and who are the members & instrumentation?
Victim Or Victor started as an acoustic act by front woman Steph Lussier -- that's me! I'd perform original music acoustic every Tuesday night at Strange Brew Pub for open mic night. Going there every week, performing every week, I made lots of new friends and eventually recruited band members when I was recording my first acoustic EP, "Choices". During the process, I had guest musicians play on a couple tracks and those musicians became my fellow band members. Since then, I've only had one lineup change -- we got a new lead guitarist. The band currently consist of myself, rhythm guitarist and lead singer, Steph Lussier, bassist Dan Jackson, lead guitarist Connor LeBlanc, and drummer Danny Fleet.
Victim Or Victor started as an acoustic act by front woman Steph Lussier -- that's me! I'd perform original music acoustic every Tuesday night at Strange Brew Pub for open mic night. Going there every week, performing every week, I made lots of new friends and eventually recruited band members when I was recording my first acoustic EP, "Choices". During the process, I had guest musicians play on a couple tracks and those musicians became my fellow band members. Since then, I've only had one lineup change -- we got a new lead guitarist. The band currently consist of myself, rhythm guitarist and lead singer, Steph Lussier, bassist Dan Jackson, lead guitarist Connor LeBlanc, and drummer Danny Fleet.
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Dwayne Eldredge of Mourn The Light
Interview by Meghan Killimade
Mourn The Light has been shredding metal riffs in the area and beyond for quite some time – what’s the history of the band and who are the members & instrumentation?
Mourn the Light is: Andrew Small - Vocals, Dwayne Eldredge - Lead guitars and Backing Vocals, Kieran Beaty - Guitars and Backing Vocals, Bill Herrick - Bass, Kyle Hebner - Drums, Autumn Night - Keys. We started back in 2017 when Greg Gates and I decided to put together something that was no compromise, just what we wanted to do. We went through some early lineup changes because Greg moved away and our early bassist's business took off. We are now a 6 piece with members spread across CT and MA. Kyle Hebner has been on drums since our debut show back in 2018, Bill Herrick on bass has been with us since the first full length, Kieran Beaty (guitars) has been with us since just after the recording of the first album, Andy Small (Vox) and Autumn Night (keys) are new to the band. We are firing on all cylinders now, lots to come.
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Sadplant
Interview by Meghan Killimade
You two have a great story – have been best friends since 1986 and have been playing as Sadplant for nearly 2 decades! Tell us the history of Sadplant and how it all began!
Amy: Ben was looking to form a band that was able to tour and was somewhat sober since he had just quit drinking. I had played in bands with him in the past but didn't know how to play the bass, but he felt I could learn. I got thrown into the fire and played my first show on bass a few weeks later. It was awful!
Ben: True story!
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Lobotomist
Interview By Meghan Killimade
Tell us about Lobotomist - who are the members & instrumentation and how & when did you all get together?
Lobotomist is a 4 piece thrash metal band from the Connecticut / Rhode Island area. We all met through mutual friends, and we first started talking to each other in early August of 2023. Our first time jamming together was in September, and since then we try to meet up once a week to practice. Lobotomist is comprised of Owen McCarvill on drums, Liam Young on bass guitar, Gunnar Hofmann on lead guitar, and Lucio “Looch” Coleecchi on rhythm guitar and vocals.
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Pocket Vinyl
Interview By Meghan Killimade
Pocket Vinyl has been rockin’ the piano & paintbrush for a number of years now! How did you two get started?
Eric: We went to college together, and towards the end of that, we started hanging out due to the fact that we both had broken hearts. We were so heartbroken and blunt and just needed a friend. We both knew each of us was not ready for a relationship (and didn't want to jump back into one), and that had the wonderful effect of us becoming great friends. About a year after that, we had each healed and realized "Oh man, this person is pretty sweet." I (Eric) was going to go on tour in the summer of 2010 by myself on the piano, just because I'd never done it before. By that point we were dating and wanted to hang so Elizabeth decided to come along and paint. It went well enough that in 2011, we got married and decided to try PV full time, and 13 years later, we're still doing it amazingly. It feels like we've been hanging by the skin of our teeth for nearly that entire time, yet somehow we persisted.
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Hopeville General Store
Published March 14, 2024
Interview By Meghan Killimade
Interview By Meghan Killimade
Tell us the history of the band – who are the members & instrumentation and how did you all come together?
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Dirt Pile
Interview by Meghan Killimade
Tell us about Dirt Pile – who are the members & instrumentation and how did you all come together?
Dirt Pile is a three piece band based out of New London, CT. Our members are Dean on drums, Jeff is our guitarist, and my name is Matt and I do vocals. Dean and I have known each other for several years and have been in a few different bands together. In 2022 we decided we wanted to start a new project so we took to the interwebs to find some new people to work with and through the magic of Craigslist we found Jeff.
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Danny Fleet
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Published February 22, 2024
Interview by Meghan Killimade
Interview by Meghan Killimade
The band started back in 2016, but everyone in the group has been playing most of their lives. Personally, my first experience was with my high school trio Sonnie and learning how to set up sound for shows in our gymnasium. Like many people, these were formative years that taught me how to pursue music in different forms. Fleet has gone through multiple iterations, but currently I'm honored to be joined by Christian Brunelle on drums/vox, Noah Greenleaf on bass/vox , Max Kelly on lead guitar, and Noah Feldman as our co-lead vocalist/ keyboardist/ multi- instrumentalist. As mentioned, we've all been playing most of our lives and have a rich history within this corner of Southeastern CT. Some of us had played in previous groups together or supported each other's projects, so this band has just felt like a natural extension of that.
Live Music Schedule for Strawberry Festival 2024 at Olde Mystic Village June 8 & 9
*Last updated 6/7/24 12:15pm
Wailing City Spotlight Interview: Matt Gouette
Interview by Meghan Killimade
You’ve been writing and performing music in our area for a long time – how did you get started in music and how did growing up in this area shape you as a musician/songwriter?
It's just something that came naturally. I love music and always wanted to be a rock star. I used to play the guitar on tennis rackets when I was five or six years old. I convinced my parents to get me a guitar in 1992, took some lessons, learned the basics and went from there. I wrote songs before I could play an instrument. They weren't GOOD, but I was writing them. I'm glad those tapes were erased years ago. As for growing up in the area, I can't say it shaped me in terms of what I do musically. I just do my thing, and however it comes out, there it is. I've always marched to my own drum. But I will say that years ago, a friend mentioned that maybe I should do more original songs and not so many covers. That may have helped me to gain the confidence to just be myself and not try so hard to be another Elliott Smith or Nick Drake. Which WAS my trajectory in the mid-2000s, I cringe to admit.
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Bards Of Gungywamp
Interview by Meghan Killimade
Tell us about the band – who are the members & instrumentation and how did you all come together?
Craig: It was the end of the winter of 2020. I was coming off of a 100 day sobriety bender. My day 1 of drinking was going to be on St Patrick’s day at the Strange Brew watching friends old and new playing Irish traditionals! It was kind of unbelievable… but then all the bars shut down because of some new outbreak called Covid.
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Ben Parent of Superbald
Published January 24, 2024
Interview by Meghan Killimade
Superbald recently got back together after a fairly long hiatus – welcome back! Talk about the time off and what inspired you guys to start playing music together again!
First of all, thanks to Wailing City for the interest in the band! Superbald is stoked to be playing again.
We hadn’t played seriously in about 10 years, but Steve Elci (Superbald singer/bass player) and I have continued to play and write together in other capacities over the years. Last summer, Steve joined Nancy Parent (of the Rivergods) and myself at an acoustic show for a few numbers, and we broke out a few Superbald tunes just for fun. And while the songs were great, we realized they needed the full electric trio to be Superbald songs! So we got in touch with Trevor (Superbald drummer), who was thankfully still interested in rocking. And things just progressed from there.
Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Emmanuel Thresher of Xenos
Published January 18, 2024
Interview by Meghan Killimade
Tell us about Xenos - who’s in the band, what’s the instrumentation and how did the band come together?
The band came together a little over a year ago after I got back into playing the Cretan lute after not playing it for a while. I had played for a couple years in my early teens, but then switched to guitar and never looked back. So after picking it back up, I had the idea to put a band together to play a more modern style of Cretan folk music, inspired by contemporary Greek bands. Jeffrey May, a good friend and multi-instrumentalist, jumped in to play keyboards and recommended the battle-hardened J Curland to play drums. We played as a trio for a bit until a few months later my brother Alexios LaBonne joined us on bass, and we've been playing as a quartet ever since.
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