Wailing City Spotlight: Interview With Danny Fleet

Published February 22, 2024
Interview by Meghan Killimade

How did you get started in music? How about the band – how did you all come together and who are the members and instrumentation? 

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.

Wailing City Spotlight Interview: Matt Gouette

Published February 8, 2024
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.