July 26, 2025 • 31 mins
Dani Star – Musician | Episode 18 | Sudbury Interviews | July 26, 2025 | Host: Jana Bradley | Find us on Sudztown and join the conversation | Want to be a guest on the show? Contact us | Listen on: YouTube | Sudztown | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | iHeart Radio | Pocket Casts | Amazon Music | Overcast | RSSFeed | Website: https://sudburyevents.com/interviews/| #sudburyinterviews , #sudztown , #iheartsudz |
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hi everyone, welcome to Sudbury Interviews.
Today we have Danny Starr, he's a musician here in Sudbury and
plays gigs locally. Before we begin, you can find us
on Suds Town and join the conversation.
Hi, Danny, How are you? Hey Jana, I'm I'm very well just
finished a gig 4 to 8. I played at a 80th birthday
(00:25):
party tonight and it was very, very good.
It was very good. They're not all super good like
that. That was above average.
And I told them that for the theIT was just a perfect night.
Everything was perfect. The food, the people were happy
and it was really good. So how are you?
I'm well, thank you. Well, this isn't about me.
(00:46):
This is about you. I know, I remember saying that
to you. I know.
So Jana was was episode 1, Jana was episode 1 on the end.
And you know what? I, I just made that stuff up on
the spot. You didn't even know I was going
(01:06):
to say that. No, not at all.
So. So what's that?
So tell us how did this How? How?
Oh my God. So tell us how this began for
you and how you found your way to being a musician.
(01:27):
OK, well, you remember those old, There was these like before
we had downloaded music and digital music, we used to have
these. They were called Ghetto
blasters. You would remember those.
Ghetto, J. Yeah, ghetto J, but ghetto
(01:47):
blaster. You remember those old radios,
like kind of long, 2 feet long and it's, it's thin.
And so some of them, some of them had a microphone built in
back, back in the day. So I got one of those, I had one
of those and you would put a cassette tape in there and you
(02:09):
would press record and then you could just talk and it would
record your, it would record your voice.
So I would run around and recordmy friends and I was, I'm always
singing. I had a bunch of tapes singing
and this was when I was like 5-6, seven, well, probably 789
(02:29):
like before I ever started singing actually.
And I also used to do a fake radio show.
So I would, I would press recordand I would introduce, I would
talk about the weather and introduce the next song.
And then I would the next song on the radio would play.
I would record that song. So I made like fake radio shows
and I had tapes of this stuff. So that's like the earliest
(02:52):
recollection I have with with singing and, but I didn't, I
still didn't know that I was going to be a musician at that
point. So after we moved away from
Minnow Lake, because that's where I lived up until Grade 7,
we moved to Hanmer and then I met, I made friends right away
(03:15):
and I met this guy, I'm not going to say his name for
privacy reasons, but we're stillfriends to this day.
And he, he had, he had a guitar,he had a, they had a few guitars
there. His brother had a Flying V
guitar and he had this old Fender guitar.
And his dad was in a band like his for 20 years.
(03:38):
And in fact, I just saw his dad's band.
I just saw the guy last week at my gig.
He came out to my gig, the guy that my friend's dad played with
and put the pieces together. But anyway, so he was playing,
he, he would pull out this guitar and he would start
playing Nirvana songs. And I was like, how are you
(04:00):
doing that? You know, like how, how are you
able to, to play those songs? And he said, well, you know, put
your finger here. So he, he taught me how to play
a little bit, but it was just the top string because I wasn't
ready for bar chords or whatever.
So he taught me on the on the top note, which is the fattest
string of the guitar on the verytop, the E string.
(04:23):
He taught me a few a few things there, like it was all Nirvana
songs 100%. That's all I knew how to play
back then. I was about 11-12, I think
probably 12/11/12. So we, he had a drum kit down
there, We had amps, guitars, PA system.
And every day after school we would, we would go to his house
(04:46):
and jam like every day and eat and eat blueberry sandwiches
with peanut butter on it, like jam sandwiches with peanut
butter and play music. And that, that's what we did
throughout grade 7-8 and throughout high school.
And then when we got to high school, I was encouraged to join
(05:09):
the, the high school band, whichwas called the Cummi T Spectac.
That's Horizon Hottie's own highschool in Val Cairn.
And I didn't know my notes, ABCD, all that.
I didn't know any of that yet. I just knew how to play.
So I was a bit worried I wasn't going to get in.
But obviously I, I got in and that's when I, I started
(05:31):
singing, I guess publicly, because up until that point we
were just doing it in the basement of, of his house and
then sometimes at my house. And so I learned all my notes
through high school. And then that very, very
valuable thing to know. I mean, you know, I don't think
(05:54):
you can get very far without at least knowing that your notes
would notes to play like GE and most songs you just need a
couple of notes and you can get by.
So and then so through high school wrote a bunch of songs.
We wrote the theme song. I wrote the theme song for me
and my buddy did for the school and they would play it on the
(06:16):
radio show every morning, like every school day in the morning,
they would play our song and we we played it live for the school
like that. We did a talent contest in the
school. We won first place for that.
We won 50 bucks each and I thought that was a lot of money
at the time. It seemed like it and it just
(06:38):
sort of evolved basically from there.
It evolved. And then the story of my first
gig, my first paid gig, is a really good story because I had
to be really persistent to get that gig.
So like, we lived out in Hammer and at that time there was a the
old The Cousin Vinny's restaurant used to be called
(07:01):
Buddies. Did you ever hear of that?
I did not. I learned something new.
Yeah, it was called Buddies. It was called Buddies restaurant
and it was really, really busy. Like it was a pop in place,
like, you know, every weekend. And that's where I wanted to
start. So I called her.
(07:22):
And again, I won't, I won't say her name, you know, just for for
privacy reasons. But the owner, she's a very well
known person. I called her up on a Monday and
I said I want to come play. You know, I'm going to bring all
my stuff and you don't have to pay me.
And she's like, you know, F off.I don't know you click.
So the next week, the next week,I called her back on the Monday
(07:47):
and I said, hey, you know, it's Turbo because my first stage
name was Turbo. She's like, I don't know who you
are buddy, like leave me alone and click.
She hung up on me a second time.So then the third time I called
her up on the Monday, she's likeI said, hey, you know what, just
give me a chance. Like I just want to come play
(08:08):
some tunes. You don't have to pay me.
Like let's see what happens. She's like, OK, fine, bring your
stuff and do it. And then she hung up on me.
So I called my buddy Sean. He showed I'm like, I got a gig.
So he comes and picks me up in his car right away.
We we head over there, bring allmy, my stuff, my PA system and
everything I set up. I play all night and then at the
(08:31):
end of the night she walked up to me with money in her hand.
She had 150 bucks in her hand. She gave it to me and she said I
want you every Monday. Wow, isn't that cool?
That's a great story. It's a story of persistence, as
you say, and I think that that'sso important as a performer.
(08:55):
Yeah, well, it's and then she moved me to Tuesday's, which was
a little more busy and then it was Thursday's and then she put
me in on weekends and I was playing the the weekend spots.
I used to open up for Johnny, Johnny Williams Band.
He has a different stage name now.
Johnny Rock used to open up for him and Mark said it was playing
(09:20):
there buddies at the time with his band.
Stillwell. There was Andre Fourgette with
Acoustica, really, really good bands and I was playing the
weekend slot as well. So that's how it started and
from there it was just gig aftergig and I've done well over 2000
shows now. That's amazing.
And if if I'm not mistaken, you also participated in Canadian
(09:45):
Idol. Oh, no, yeah, I did.
Did you want to talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, I could talk about it about that.
It was really, really hard. So yeah, my audition was in
London, ON. I went down with my girlfriend
at the time and my mom. We drove down in a snowstorm.
(10:08):
It was in January of 2007. And one of the things that are a
mistaken concept about it is that you you automatically get
to see the celebrity judges, butyou don't.
You have to go through four different auditions before you
ever get to see the celebrity judges.
(10:29):
So most of the 12,000 people that auditioned that year, they
didn't even, they didn't even see the celebrity judges.
They get eliminated by producersor whatever.
So there was like 4 rounds of auditions and after the 4th one
we got to see the celebrity judges and they gave me the gold
(10:53):
ticket. Which is the top one.
SAS, Jordan, Jake Gold, Zach, what was his last name?
Werner, Zach Werner and Farley Flex.
(11:15):
So there was four of them and they signed my My Idol badge
too. I still have those things.
They gave me the gold, the gold ticket.
That's amazing. So the gold ticket is the top
100 in Toronto, which was in June of that year.
So that was January. We, we weren't allowed to tell
anybody that. We, we weren't allowed to tell
(11:38):
anybody anything really about the show.
We were we had to sign documentsconfidentiality because nothing
was coming out yet on TV. Right.
So, so the top 100 was in Toronto.
They flew us there, flew us back, they put us in a hotel
downtown, the Fairmont Royal York hotel downtown.
(12:00):
Everything was paid the food, but it was really, really hard
and I was happy to leave when I did because we didn't sleep at
all. It was 5 days straight.
So the first day you arrive and then at 11:00 at night on the
first day, we're all sitting in the studio auditorium all day
(12:24):
watching everybody rehearse. So you watch all the others and
they watch you and the celebrityjudges are sitting like at the
front. It's that's how they film the
show. It's kind of like they still do
it like that now on the other shows.
Not Canadian Idol, because that doesn't exist anymore.
But on the other shows, you knowhow the judges are at the front
(12:45):
and the crowd in the back, Well,that was all of the top 100
singers like us. And so then it was 11:00 at
night and they said, OK, everybody here's ACD,
everybody's going to get ACD. And you have to pick a song off
of the CD and tomorrow's group day.
(13:06):
So you have to find a group, three or four people to sing
with, and you have to rehearse all night long with one of the
songs on the CD. And there was like 12 songs on
there. So you had to pick one and put
it all together with a group andyou and then and on top of that,
you don't know anybody either. So you're scrambling around
(13:27):
trying to find people to sing with and everybody's doing that.
So we were up all night and we're rehearsing.
We picked Doobie Brothers. Listen to the music.
That's the song that we sang forgroup day.
Oh, sorry. The first day was was solo
auditions. I made it through that day.
(13:49):
The second day was was group. So this was the second round of
like, so they eliminated people after, after the solo day, we
all rehearsed our audition, likesolo meaning alone, alone on the
stage. And then that that night they
gave us the CD tomorrow's group date.
So you go find your group. And we had to be, we had to be
(14:12):
in the studio for 6:00 AM and they gave us the CD at 11:00 PM.
So we were up literally all night.
Nobody slept at all. And so we show up in the morning
and we sit all day, you know, inthe studio watching everybody
else audition, etcetera. And then we did ours and they
(14:34):
did made it through that day as well.
So now we're kind of like top 70maybe somewhere around there.
And then at 11:00 at night, it was the same thing again for
now. That was the third time because
there was the solo and then there's the group CD that they
(14:57):
gave us and they gave us anotherCD for like the third one.
And they said tomorrow's duet day.
So find a duet partner and pick one of these songs and rehearse
all night. So we hadn't slept at all at
this point, you know, and we hadto go back in in to the studio
at 6:00 AM again, like the next morning.
(15:17):
So I found this fantastic singer, much better than me.
And her name's, well, I won't say her name, but she was
really, really good. And we rehearsed all night, all
night long. We sang Willie Nelson's song,
You were always on My mind. That was the song that we sang
(15:40):
her and I together. And I just remember going like
sneaking out of the studio and going to a Chinese food
restaurant that was right aroundthe corner.
And I I asked them for an onion because I wanted to make it look
like I was more emotional with that song when I was like when I
(16:03):
was singing my parts. So I actually put like the onion
up to my face so that I looked more emotional.
That's amazing. Yeah, it was really hard.
Like we, we were tired, exhausted really.
And I, I, I basically wanted to leave at that point, like,
(16:28):
'cause I couldn't even, you know, it was just being awake
for that long. It's it's really difficult.
Yeah, I bet. Yeah.
But it was worth it in the end. Well, yeah, it was, it was, it
was fun. It was worth it.
And then so that that night there, they eliminated between
70 and 30. So I was amongst one of them
(16:49):
that went home after the duet. But my partner, my duet partner,
she continued on. She continued on that night.
And the guy who won the whole season, Brian Melo, he was my
roommate in Toronto during that time.
But we didn't go to sleep, but we were in the same room, like
hotel room. Yeah, wow, what a great
(17:13):
experience. Yeah, and Ben Mulroney was there
all along. He was introducing the show and
walking around and we got to talk with him.
He was, he was there. The, the singers that were there
were extraordinary. I mean, they were really, really
good. Like I'm just an entertainer,
right? I, I sing cover songs and
whatnot. But like these people were
(17:36):
really, really good, much betterthan me.
But the reason they sent me home, like there was this whole,
all of the people that went homethat day, which was between 70
and 30. So there was 4040 people, they
were all in a line up to go and talk to the the celebrity
(17:56):
judges. And for some reason I was at, I
was at the back of the line, butfor some reason they came and
got me at the back of the line and put me in first before all
the other people. I don't know why they did that,
but they want, they didn't want me to wait.
They didn't want me to wait. So they brought me in and they
(18:17):
signed my Canadian Idol badge, which I still have, and all of
the judges signed it and they told me why they sent me home
because they said we can't market you because you, you're
too versatile. Like you, you can sing country,
you can sing rock and you can sing Blues.
(18:40):
And we just don't know where to where to put you, you know,
because everybody sort of is distinctive.
That was there like there was, there was like the gothic guy,
the country guy, the, the everybody was very distinctively
in a jar of music except for me.And it's still like that today.
Like that's why I get so many gigs because I play a lot of
(19:03):
different stuff and I love it all.
But that's eventually that's whythey sent me home because they
they said we can't. We don't know where to place
you. Like what?
We can't, we can't sell you to the public because we don't even
know what you are. Yeah.
(19:24):
But I, I was happy to leave. And when I was on the airplane,
I, I think I was hallucinating. I was so tired that I, I was
probably hallucinating. And I remember being being more
tired than I was ever in my entire life during that on the
way back. So that was kind of it in a
(19:44):
nutshell. You know, there's a lot of other
things too, but it was really difficult.
And the people who continued on had to go on for more days of
that, of no sleep. All those singers on the show,
they hadn't, they haven't slept in days, especially the top 10,
because they filmed all the way to the end.
(20:04):
And I wasn't allowed to go home and tell anybody about who was
there, who was eliminated. Like it was all confidentiality.
And my friends, my friends knew that I went, but they're like,
so who's? Like who's still in there?
And they wanted to know. I said, I'm sorry, I can't tell
you anything. No.
Well, that sounds. That's all great.
(20:25):
That sounds fantastic. What a great experience.
Yeah, it was good. It it landed me a lot of gigs
when I got back, but I already had a lot before that.
But it, it gave me a little bit more notoriety, I guess, you
know, or whatever. Do you do you travel around for
(20:51):
gigs? Like, do you go out of town?
Yeah, I do sometimes I don't like to anymore, but I have done
a fair share of it. I I actually just went like 3
weeks ago to halfway to Timmins for a couple of gigs.
I went, yeah, I went twice in the same week.
(21:13):
Oh wow, to do it so. The same place.
Yeah, yeah, Same place. Like they have a big company out
there and they they wanted to increase the morale of the
workplace. So they brought in live music
twice in the same week, two different shifts.
(21:33):
It was like 800 people in the cafeteria.
Wow. It was pretty different.
Yeah, yeah, I bet. Well, that's wonderful.
There was another There was another odd gig that I did too,
in Chelmsford, in the grocery store out there, The
Independent. You sang in a grocery store.
Yeah, I sang in the produce section of a grocery store,
(21:55):
right by the tomatoes. Yeah, my friend, friend of mine
out there, she said, hey, I got us a gig.
It's we're going to go sing, youknow, in the grocery store and
people were walking through the door and there's this live band
playing. By the tomatoes.
Yeah, exactly. So that was another really
(22:17):
bizarre, bizarre gig that I did.It was good, though.
It was fine, went well. Christmas songs.
It was Christmas songs. Yeah, it was Christmas time it.
Was very nice. I have another question for you.
So do you, do you have any CDs? Have you made any CDs?
(22:37):
Yeah, I put out one, one album in 2011.
It was recorded in 2010. It was a full band album, but
the band broke up before I before the album was released.
So I released it as my own name,Danny Starr, in 2011.
(22:58):
And I I got 1000 copies printed like CDs and I saw I was selling
them at my shows for a while. And yeah, I don't even think I
have one left. That's great.
I don't even think I have one. I thought I did up until
recently and I was looking for it and I don't couldn't find it
(23:20):
so. Do you think you would record
another CD? Yeah, I do want to.
I have an idea of what I want todo.
Like I want to make an hour of music, like an album and that
would be enough for me. If I can do something one hour
(23:40):
of music that I'm really proud of and that I'm like 100% cool
with, I would. I think that would be enough for
me. I wouldn't need to do anymore
after that. So that's what I would, I would
want to do is like write enough music to go 60 minutes and sort
(24:01):
of like a, a story, like each song connects into the next one
and it all kind of fits togetherlike a puzzle.
And a lot of it's going to be light body, kind of a lot of
harmonies, vocal harmonies and good instrumental, like good
acoustical music and solos, likejust something that's really
(24:24):
good, you know, the catchy, likeThe Beatles kind of, but with my
own influences. That's how I see it being.
And then I I'd be ready to to hang up the skates after that.
Really. Yeah, because I know I didn't do
enough recording yet because I've been playing live all for
(24:50):
these 2020 years, more than 20 years now, I've been doing shows
live, and it takes your creativeenergy to do that.
And usually bands, when bands goon tour, they don't record, they
take time off to record. So trying to do both is it's
hard because you, you get musically tired, I guess.
(25:15):
It happens to me. It probably happens to everyone
a little bit. You sort of use, you use up your
musical energy and then it needstime to recharge, you know.
So if you're playing like a lot of shows, I find it hard to do.
Like the other week I had five in one week, which I used to do
in my 20s like quite easily, butnow it's just not as easy to to
(25:41):
do it anymore because I find like I need time to recharge my
batteries. So I, I think in order for me to
re record that that music of my own, I would need to stop
gigging and give it some time sothat I can put my creative
energy into that, right? Into solely recording.
(26:06):
Yeah, yeah, and not gigging, notplaying Live 0.
Well, that makes sense. Yeah, I'm gonna do it.
I I hope to do it some as soon as I can, but I never I keep
taking gigs. So I I would have to actually
make a decision. K I'm not taking any more gigs
(26:26):
after this date, you know, whichis hard for me to do.
Like it's hard. It's hard to say no because it's
almost like it's a compulsion orsomething.
Right. But it's, it's something I love
to do as well. But it's just I, I find I don't
really say no to gigs unless they're out of town.
I don't want to do it. It's too far, you know.
(26:49):
But like you, you would you would prefer to stick around
Sudbury. Yeah, I don't even have to go
out of town. Like there's so many gigs here.
Well that brings me to my next questions.
Some perfect timing. What is one thing you feel would
make sub regrader? That's funny.
(27:14):
I would, you know, we could start off with just put a roller
coaster over top of downtown, you know, and then when the
change, the money's going to fall out of people's pockets.
It's going to help the homeless people.
Right, great strategy. Yeah, I think we need more fun,
(27:40):
just more fun. But like, you know, the homeless
situation is is is is a complex issue.
I have no idea about anything about that, like how to fix
that. But I do know that we we need to
have fun in life and we need to laugh and, you know, we need
attractions like we need roller coaster, like we need a bakery
(28:04):
on, on every corner, you know, right.
Just more, I don't know, becauseI went to France and it was, it
was a lot of fun being there. You enjoyed your time in France.
Well, I, I, I, I happen to be there during the Paris terrorist
attacks. So I didn't enjoy it for that
(28:29):
reason. But I observed the culture like,
because I was there for a few weeks and I, I observed the
culture of how they are, how they live, you know, and it's
not at all like what's here. It's very different.
They're more civilized. They're more, it's an, it more
(28:50):
older civilization. They're older, so and they've
had wars on their on their own land, which we haven't.
So they're they're more like developed, I find in in
everything in. Everything.
Yeah. And Speaking of more fun, I, I
would wholeheartedly agree with that state statement.
(29:15):
One thing that I've noticed personally about Sudbury is that
Sudbury doesn't have any outsidepools.
Did you know that? And in, in down South, in like
Toronto, even Branford, they have outside pools for, for
children and families. We have splash pads, but we
don't have those outside pools that the southern regions have.
(29:38):
And I mean, that's something that I would love to see in
Sudbury. That's just my opinion.
Yeah, and they also have those in Halifax.
When I went there, the outside pools, yeah, it was a great
idea. They had this huge, huge a park
in the middle of the city, like 4 baseball fields and four
soccer fields and outdoor swimming pools and tracks.
(30:01):
And it was just, it was just incredible.
So I agree with that. Yeah, outdoor pool, that'd be
super fun. Some water slides like just fun
stuff. Oh yeah, I briefly lived in
Toronto back in 2006 to 2000 andseven, 2005 to 7.
And yeah, we went to outdoor pools.
(30:24):
Often it's. Very nice, especially for young
children, Teenagers, it's a wonderful idea.
Well, we're we're at the 30 minute mark.
All right. Well, Danny, I'd like to thank
you for your time. My pleasure anytime.
A great, great interview. It's always great hearing from
(30:48):
you and I look forward to the future and wish wish you the
best of luck. Thank you, Same here.
I'll talk to you soon. Talk soon, Bye bye.
Hi everyone, welcome to Sudbury Interviews.
Today we have Danny Starr, he's a musician here in Sudbury and
plays gigs locally. Before we begin, you can find us
on Suds Town and join the conversation.
Hi, Danny, How are you? Hey Jana, I'm I'm very well just
finished a gig 4 to 8. I played at a 80th birthday
(00:25):
party tonight and it was very, very good.
It was very good. They're not all super good like
that. That was above average.
And I told them that for the theIT was just a perfect night.
Everything was perfect. The food, the people were happy
and it was really good. So how are you?
I'm well, thank you. Well, this isn't about me.
(00:46):
This is about you. I know, I remember saying that
to you. I know.
So Jana was was episode 1, Jana was episode 1 on the end.
And you know what? I, I just made that stuff up on
the spot. You didn't even know I was going
(01:06):
to say that. No, not at all.
So. So what's that?
So tell us how did this How? How?
Oh my God. So tell us how this began for
you and how you found your way to being a musician.
(01:27):
OK, well, you remember those old, There was these like before
we had downloaded music and digital music, we used to have
these. They were called Ghetto
blasters. You would remember those.
Ghetto, J. Yeah, ghetto J, but ghetto
(01:47):
blaster. You remember those old radios,
like kind of long, 2 feet long and it's, it's thin.
And so some of them, some of them had a microphone built in
back, back in the day. So I got one of those, I had one
of those and you would put a cassette tape in there and you
(02:09):
would press record and then you could just talk and it would
record your, it would record your voice.
So I would run around and recordmy friends and I was, I'm always
singing. I had a bunch of tapes singing
and this was when I was like 5-6, seven, well, probably 789
(02:29):
like before I ever started singing actually.
And I also used to do a fake radio show.
So I would, I would press recordand I would introduce, I would
talk about the weather and introduce the next song.
And then I would the next song on the radio would play.
I would record that song. So I made like fake radio shows
and I had tapes of this stuff. So that's like the earliest
(02:52):
recollection I have with with singing and, but I didn't, I
still didn't know that I was going to be a musician at that
point. So after we moved away from
Minnow Lake, because that's where I lived up until Grade 7,
we moved to Hanmer and then I met, I made friends right away
(03:15):
and I met this guy, I'm not going to say his name for
privacy reasons, but we're stillfriends to this day.
And he, he had, he had a guitar,he had a, they had a few guitars
there. His brother had a Flying V
guitar and he had this old Fender guitar.
And his dad was in a band like his for 20 years.
(03:38):
And in fact, I just saw his dad's band.
I just saw the guy last week at my gig.
He came out to my gig, the guy that my friend's dad played with
and put the pieces together. But anyway, so he was playing,
he, he would pull out this guitar and he would start
playing Nirvana songs. And I was like, how are you
(04:00):
doing that? You know, like how, how are you
able to, to play those songs? And he said, well, you know, put
your finger here. So he, he taught me how to play
a little bit, but it was just the top string because I wasn't
ready for bar chords or whatever.
So he taught me on the on the top note, which is the fattest
string of the guitar on the verytop, the E string.
(04:23):
He taught me a few a few things there, like it was all Nirvana
songs 100%. That's all I knew how to play
back then. I was about 11-12, I think
probably 12/11/12. So we, he had a drum kit down
there, We had amps, guitars, PA system.
And every day after school we would, we would go to his house
(04:46):
and jam like every day and eat and eat blueberry sandwiches
with peanut butter on it, like jam sandwiches with peanut
butter and play music. And that, that's what we did
throughout grade 7-8 and throughout high school.
And then when we got to high school, I was encouraged to join
(05:09):
the, the high school band, whichwas called the Cummi T Spectac.
That's Horizon Hottie's own highschool in Val Cairn.
And I didn't know my notes, ABCD, all that.
I didn't know any of that yet. I just knew how to play.
So I was a bit worried I wasn't going to get in.
But obviously I, I got in and that's when I, I started
(05:31):
singing, I guess publicly, because up until that point we
were just doing it in the basement of, of his house and
then sometimes at my house. And so I learned all my notes
through high school. And then that very, very
valuable thing to know. I mean, you know, I don't think
(05:54):
you can get very far without at least knowing that your notes
would notes to play like GE and most songs you just need a
couple of notes and you can get by.
So and then so through high school wrote a bunch of songs.
We wrote the theme song. I wrote the theme song for me
and my buddy did for the school and they would play it on the
(06:16):
radio show every morning, like every school day in the morning,
they would play our song and we we played it live for the school
like that. We did a talent contest in the
school. We won first place for that.
We won 50 bucks each and I thought that was a lot of money
at the time. It seemed like it and it just
(06:38):
sort of evolved basically from there.
It evolved. And then the story of my first
gig, my first paid gig, is a really good story because I had
to be really persistent to get that gig.
So like, we lived out in Hammer and at that time there was a the
old The Cousin Vinny's restaurant used to be called
(07:01):
Buddies. Did you ever hear of that?
I did not. I learned something new.
Yeah, it was called Buddies. It was called Buddies restaurant
and it was really, really busy. Like it was a pop in place,
like, you know, every weekend. And that's where I wanted to
start. So I called her.
(07:22):
And again, I won't, I won't say her name, you know, just for for
privacy reasons. But the owner, she's a very well
known person. I called her up on a Monday and
I said I want to come play. You know, I'm going to bring all
my stuff and you don't have to pay me.
And she's like, you know, F off.I don't know you click.
So the next week, the next week,I called her back on the Monday
(07:47):
and I said, hey, you know, it's Turbo because my first stage
name was Turbo. She's like, I don't know who you
are buddy, like leave me alone and click.
She hung up on me a second time.So then the third time I called
her up on the Monday, she's likeI said, hey, you know what, just
give me a chance. Like I just want to come play
(08:08):
some tunes. You don't have to pay me.
Like let's see what happens. She's like, OK, fine, bring your
stuff and do it. And then she hung up on me.
So I called my buddy Sean. He showed I'm like, I got a gig.
So he comes and picks me up in his car right away.
We we head over there, bring allmy, my stuff, my PA system and
everything I set up. I play all night and then at the
(08:31):
end of the night she walked up to me with money in her hand.
She had 150 bucks in her hand. She gave it to me and she said I
want you every Monday. Wow, isn't that cool?
That's a great story. It's a story of persistence, as
you say, and I think that that'sso important as a performer.
(08:55):
Yeah, well, it's and then she moved me to Tuesday's, which was
a little more busy and then it was Thursday's and then she put
me in on weekends and I was playing the the weekend spots.
I used to open up for Johnny, Johnny Williams Band.
He has a different stage name now.
Johnny Rock used to open up for him and Mark said it was playing
(09:20):
there buddies at the time with his band.
Stillwell. There was Andre Fourgette with
Acoustica, really, really good bands and I was playing the
weekend slot as well. So that's how it started and
from there it was just gig aftergig and I've done well over 2000
shows now. That's amazing.
And if if I'm not mistaken, you also participated in Canadian
(09:45):
Idol. Oh, no, yeah, I did.
Did you want to talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, I could talk about it about that.
It was really, really hard. So yeah, my audition was in
London, ON. I went down with my girlfriend
at the time and my mom. We drove down in a snowstorm.
(10:08):
It was in January of 2007. And one of the things that are a
mistaken concept about it is that you you automatically get
to see the celebrity judges, butyou don't.
You have to go through four different auditions before you
ever get to see the celebrity judges.
(10:29):
So most of the 12,000 people that auditioned that year, they
didn't even, they didn't even see the celebrity judges.
They get eliminated by producersor whatever.
So there was like 4 rounds of auditions and after the 4th one
we got to see the celebrity judges and they gave me the gold
(10:53):
ticket. Which is the top one.
SAS, Jordan, Jake Gold, Zach, what was his last name?
Werner, Zach Werner and Farley Flex.
(11:15):
So there was four of them and they signed my My Idol badge
too. I still have those things.
They gave me the gold, the gold ticket.
That's amazing. So the gold ticket is the top
100 in Toronto, which was in June of that year.
So that was January. We, we weren't allowed to tell
anybody that. We, we weren't allowed to tell
(11:38):
anybody anything really about the show.
We were we had to sign documentsconfidentiality because nothing
was coming out yet on TV. Right.
So, so the top 100 was in Toronto.
They flew us there, flew us back, they put us in a hotel
downtown, the Fairmont Royal York hotel downtown.
(12:00):
Everything was paid the food, but it was really, really hard
and I was happy to leave when I did because we didn't sleep at
all. It was 5 days straight.
So the first day you arrive and then at 11:00 at night on the
first day, we're all sitting in the studio auditorium all day
(12:24):
watching everybody rehearse. So you watch all the others and
they watch you and the celebrityjudges are sitting like at the
front. It's that's how they film the
show. It's kind of like they still do
it like that now on the other shows.
Not Canadian Idol, because that doesn't exist anymore.
But on the other shows, you knowhow the judges are at the front
(12:45):
and the crowd in the back, Well,that was all of the top 100
singers like us. And so then it was 11:00 at
night and they said, OK, everybody here's ACD,
everybody's going to get ACD. And you have to pick a song off
of the CD and tomorrow's group day.
(13:06):
So you have to find a group, three or four people to sing
with, and you have to rehearse all night long with one of the
songs on the CD. And there was like 12 songs on
there. So you had to pick one and put
it all together with a group andyou and then and on top of that,
you don't know anybody either. So you're scrambling around
(13:27):
trying to find people to sing with and everybody's doing that.
So we were up all night and we're rehearsing.
We picked Doobie Brothers. Listen to the music.
That's the song that we sang forgroup day.
Oh, sorry. The first day was was solo
auditions. I made it through that day.
(13:49):
The second day was was group. So this was the second round of
like, so they eliminated people after, after the solo day, we
all rehearsed our audition, likesolo meaning alone, alone on the
stage. And then that that night they
gave us the CD tomorrow's group date.
So you go find your group. And we had to be, we had to be
(14:12):
in the studio for 6:00 AM and they gave us the CD at 11:00 PM.
So we were up literally all night.
Nobody slept at all. And so we show up in the morning
and we sit all day, you know, inthe studio watching everybody
else audition, etcetera. And then we did ours and they
(14:34):
did made it through that day as well.
So now we're kind of like top 70maybe somewhere around there.
And then at 11:00 at night, it was the same thing again for
now. That was the third time because
there was the solo and then there's the group CD that they
(14:57):
gave us and they gave us anotherCD for like the third one.
And they said tomorrow's duet day.
So find a duet partner and pick one of these songs and rehearse
all night. So we hadn't slept at all at
this point, you know, and we hadto go back in in to the studio
at 6:00 AM again, like the next morning.
(15:17):
So I found this fantastic singer, much better than me.
And her name's, well, I won't say her name, but she was
really, really good. And we rehearsed all night, all
night long. We sang Willie Nelson's song,
You were always on My mind. That was the song that we sang
(15:40):
her and I together. And I just remember going like
sneaking out of the studio and going to a Chinese food
restaurant that was right aroundthe corner.
And I I asked them for an onion because I wanted to make it look
like I was more emotional with that song when I was like when I
(16:03):
was singing my parts. So I actually put like the onion
up to my face so that I looked more emotional.
That's amazing. Yeah, it was really hard.
Like we, we were tired, exhausted really.
And I, I, I basically wanted to leave at that point, like,
(16:28):
'cause I couldn't even, you know, it was just being awake
for that long. It's it's really difficult.
Yeah, I bet. Yeah.
But it was worth it in the end. Well, yeah, it was, it was, it
was fun. It was worth it.
And then so that that night there, they eliminated between
70 and 30. So I was amongst one of them
(16:49):
that went home after the duet. But my partner, my duet partner,
she continued on. She continued on that night.
And the guy who won the whole season, Brian Melo, he was my
roommate in Toronto during that time.
But we didn't go to sleep, but we were in the same room, like
hotel room. Yeah, wow, what a great
(17:13):
experience. Yeah, and Ben Mulroney was there
all along. He was introducing the show and
walking around and we got to talk with him.
He was, he was there. The, the singers that were there
were extraordinary. I mean, they were really, really
good. Like I'm just an entertainer,
right? I, I sing cover songs and
whatnot. But like these people were
(17:36):
really, really good, much betterthan me.
But the reason they sent me home, like there was this whole,
all of the people that went homethat day, which was between 70
and 30. So there was 4040 people, they
were all in a line up to go and talk to the the celebrity
(17:56):
judges. And for some reason I was at, I
was at the back of the line, butfor some reason they came and
got me at the back of the line and put me in first before all
the other people. I don't know why they did that,
but they want, they didn't want me to wait.
They didn't want me to wait. So they brought me in and they
(18:17):
signed my Canadian Idol badge, which I still have, and all of
the judges signed it and they told me why they sent me home
because they said we can't market you because you, you're
too versatile. Like you, you can sing country,
you can sing rock and you can sing Blues.
(18:40):
And we just don't know where to where to put you, you know,
because everybody sort of is distinctive.
That was there like there was, there was like the gothic guy,
the country guy, the, the everybody was very distinctively
in a jar of music except for me.And it's still like that today.
Like that's why I get so many gigs because I play a lot of
(19:03):
different stuff and I love it all.
But that's eventually that's whythey sent me home because they
they said we can't. We don't know where to place
you. Like what?
We can't, we can't sell you to the public because we don't even
know what you are. Yeah.
(19:24):
But I, I was happy to leave. And when I was on the airplane,
I, I think I was hallucinating. I was so tired that I, I was
probably hallucinating. And I remember being being more
tired than I was ever in my entire life during that on the
way back. So that was kind of it in a
(19:44):
nutshell. You know, there's a lot of other
things too, but it was really difficult.
And the people who continued on had to go on for more days of
that, of no sleep. All those singers on the show,
they hadn't, they haven't slept in days, especially the top 10,
because they filmed all the way to the end.
(20:04):
And I wasn't allowed to go home and tell anybody about who was
there, who was eliminated. Like it was all confidentiality.
And my friends, my friends knew that I went, but they're like,
so who's? Like who's still in there?
And they wanted to know. I said, I'm sorry, I can't tell
you anything. No.
Well, that sounds. That's all great.
(20:25):
That sounds fantastic. What a great experience.
Yeah, it was good. It it landed me a lot of gigs
when I got back, but I already had a lot before that.
But it, it gave me a little bit more notoriety, I guess, you
know, or whatever. Do you do you travel around for
(20:51):
gigs? Like, do you go out of town?
Yeah, I do sometimes I don't like to anymore, but I have done
a fair share of it. I I actually just went like 3
weeks ago to halfway to Timmins for a couple of gigs.
I went, yeah, I went twice in the same week.
(21:13):
Oh wow, to do it so. The same place.
Yeah, yeah, Same place. Like they have a big company out
there and they they wanted to increase the morale of the
workplace. So they brought in live music
twice in the same week, two different shifts.
(21:33):
It was like 800 people in the cafeteria.
Wow. It was pretty different.
Yeah, yeah, I bet. Well, that's wonderful.
There was another There was another odd gig that I did too,
in Chelmsford, in the grocery store out there, The
Independent. You sang in a grocery store.
Yeah, I sang in the produce section of a grocery store,
(21:55):
right by the tomatoes. Yeah, my friend, friend of mine
out there, she said, hey, I got us a gig.
It's we're going to go sing, youknow, in the grocery store and
people were walking through the door and there's this live band
playing. By the tomatoes.
Yeah, exactly. So that was another really
(22:17):
bizarre, bizarre gig that I did.It was good, though.
It was fine, went well. Christmas songs.
It was Christmas songs. Yeah, it was Christmas time it.
Was very nice. I have another question for you.
So do you, do you have any CDs? Have you made any CDs?
(22:37):
Yeah, I put out one, one album in 2011.
It was recorded in 2010. It was a full band album, but
the band broke up before I before the album was released.
So I released it as my own name,Danny Starr, in 2011.
(22:58):
And I I got 1000 copies printed like CDs and I saw I was selling
them at my shows for a while. And yeah, I don't even think I
have one left. That's great.
I don't even think I have one. I thought I did up until
recently and I was looking for it and I don't couldn't find it
(23:20):
so. Do you think you would record
another CD? Yeah, I do want to.
I have an idea of what I want todo.
Like I want to make an hour of music, like an album and that
would be enough for me. If I can do something one hour
(23:40):
of music that I'm really proud of and that I'm like 100% cool
with, I would. I think that would be enough for
me. I wouldn't need to do anymore
after that. So that's what I would, I would
want to do is like write enough music to go 60 minutes and sort
(24:01):
of like a, a story, like each song connects into the next one
and it all kind of fits togetherlike a puzzle.
And a lot of it's going to be light body, kind of a lot of
harmonies, vocal harmonies and good instrumental, like good
acoustical music and solos, likejust something that's really
(24:24):
good, you know, the catchy, likeThe Beatles kind of, but with my
own influences. That's how I see it being.
And then I I'd be ready to to hang up the skates after that.
Really. Yeah, because I know I didn't do
enough recording yet because I've been playing live all for
(24:50):
these 2020 years, more than 20 years now, I've been doing shows
live, and it takes your creativeenergy to do that.
And usually bands, when bands goon tour, they don't record, they
take time off to record. So trying to do both is it's
hard because you, you get musically tired, I guess.
(25:15):
It happens to me. It probably happens to everyone
a little bit. You sort of use, you use up your
musical energy and then it needstime to recharge, you know.
So if you're playing like a lot of shows, I find it hard to do.
Like the other week I had five in one week, which I used to do
in my 20s like quite easily, butnow it's just not as easy to to
(25:41):
do it anymore because I find like I need time to recharge my
batteries. So I, I think in order for me to
re record that that music of my own, I would need to stop
gigging and give it some time sothat I can put my creative
energy into that, right? Into solely recording.
(26:06):
Yeah, yeah, and not gigging, notplaying Live 0.
Well, that makes sense. Yeah, I'm gonna do it.
I I hope to do it some as soon as I can, but I never I keep
taking gigs. So I I would have to actually
make a decision. K I'm not taking any more gigs
(26:26):
after this date, you know, whichis hard for me to do.
Like it's hard. It's hard to say no because it's
almost like it's a compulsion orsomething.
Right. But it's, it's something I love
to do as well. But it's just I, I find I don't
really say no to gigs unless they're out of town.
I don't want to do it. It's too far, you know.
(26:49):
But like you, you would you would prefer to stick around
Sudbury. Yeah, I don't even have to go
out of town. Like there's so many gigs here.
Well that brings me to my next questions.
Some perfect timing. What is one thing you feel would
make sub regrader? That's funny.
(27:14):
I would, you know, we could start off with just put a roller
coaster over top of downtown, you know, and then when the
change, the money's going to fall out of people's pockets.
It's going to help the homeless people.
Right, great strategy. Yeah, I think we need more fun,
(27:40):
just more fun. But like, you know, the homeless
situation is is is is a complex issue.
I have no idea about anything about that, like how to fix
that. But I do know that we we need to
have fun in life and we need to laugh and, you know, we need
attractions like we need roller coaster, like we need a bakery
(28:04):
on, on every corner, you know, right.
Just more, I don't know, becauseI went to France and it was, it
was a lot of fun being there. You enjoyed your time in France.
Well, I, I, I, I happen to be there during the Paris terrorist
attacks. So I didn't enjoy it for that
(28:29):
reason. But I observed the culture like,
because I was there for a few weeks and I, I observed the
culture of how they are, how they live, you know, and it's
not at all like what's here. It's very different.
They're more civilized. They're more, it's an, it more
(28:50):
older civilization. They're older, so and they've
had wars on their on their own land, which we haven't.
So they're they're more like developed, I find in in
everything in. Everything.
Yeah. And Speaking of more fun, I, I
would wholeheartedly agree with that state statement.
(29:15):
One thing that I've noticed personally about Sudbury is that
Sudbury doesn't have any outsidepools.
Did you know that? And in, in down South, in like
Toronto, even Branford, they have outside pools for, for
children and families. We have splash pads, but we
don't have those outside pools that the southern regions have.
(29:38):
And I mean, that's something that I would love to see in
Sudbury. That's just my opinion.
Yeah, and they also have those in Halifax.
When I went there, the outside pools, yeah, it was a great
idea. They had this huge, huge a park
in the middle of the city, like 4 baseball fields and four
soccer fields and outdoor swimming pools and tracks.
(30:01):
And it was just, it was just incredible.
So I agree with that. Yeah, outdoor pool, that'd be
super fun. Some water slides like just fun
stuff. Oh yeah, I briefly lived in
Toronto back in 2006 to 2000 andseven, 2005 to 7.
And yeah, we went to outdoor pools.
(30:24):
Often it's. Very nice, especially for young
children, Teenagers, it's a wonderful idea.
Well, we're we're at the 30 minute mark.
All right. Well, Danny, I'd like to thank
you for your time. My pleasure anytime.
A great, great interview. It's always great hearing from
(30:48):
you and I look forward to the future and wish wish you the
best of luck. Thank you, Same here.
I'll talk to you soon. Talk soon, Bye bye.
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