July 27, 2025 • 30 mins
Fab & Parker Cinel – Musicians | Episode 20 | Sudbury Interviews | July 27, 2025 | Host: Dani Star | 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 | AmazonMusic | Overcast | RSS Feed | Website: https://sudburyevents.com/interviews/| #sudburyinterviews , #sudztown , #iheartsudz |
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hi, everyone, Welcome to Sudburyinterviews.
Today we have Fabulous Fab and his son Parker Chanel, who are
each half of this great duo, musical duo that we have in
Sudbury called the Moonlight Buskers and they've been playing
together for about four years now and we're going to hear
(00:21):
their story today. So just before we begin, you can
find us on Sudstown and join theconversation.
If you would like to be a guest on the show show, please reach
out. Hey guys, how you doing?
I'm. Good.
Yeah, Danny, thank you for inviting us to be part of this
program. We're super stoked for that.
So am I, I'm very excited. Very.
(00:42):
Professional. I don't know about you.
So yeah, just to clarify, they're they are both on the
call today on the show, rather both of them at the same time.
So we'll be we'll be talking to them both.
So how do you start with this? How does this story begin
between you guys becoming a band?
(01:02):
Yeah, so I was always in involved with music since I was,
you know, just a little bit before Parker's, like Parker's
17 now. So when I was about 14, I
started playing music on my own,just learning.
I never got formal lessons or anything.
And at some point I became a volunteer for this program in
(01:24):
Subri called Subri Youth Rocks. And what it was is we got kids
to come in from different walks of life and we gave them
basically a platform to to learnand play music, but without
formal study. So basically we had volunteers,
(01:45):
kids would come in and we would just teach them how to play
basic songs and we would do shows around town and giving the
kids an opportunity to showcase their talent.
But the idea being that, you know, give something productive
and positive and hopefully steerthem away from, you know, drugs,
(02:06):
alcohol and, and, you know, criminality of a life.
So busy kids tend to be, you know, less likely to get into
trouble. And if they focus on something
that's healthy and positive increases the chances of them,
you know, being successful. So Parker came into my life just
(02:28):
over 8 1/2 years ago and I was like knee deep and volunteering
for this program. So I did it for about 14 years
and when Parker came, I actuallynever.
Had any interest in learning howto play music or anything at
all. Like I like the music, but I was
like, yeah, I'm good. Just being on the sidelines.
I was pretty shy. I was pretty like in my bubble
(02:50):
and yeah. Yeah, so he like, because I'm a
single parent, I didn't have anywhere for Parker to go.
So he was kind of stuck to come with me every time I would go to
volunteer. And, you know, of course, you
know, music being such a huge part of my life, I was hoping
that, you know, he was going to gravitate towards that as well.
(03:11):
And but I wasn't going to force it.
And maybe I'll let Parker kind of share what inspired him and
what got him started it. Was actually one of the
instructors, I think his name was John.
He's very, he's very, how do I put it?
He's a very chill guy. He's very nice.
(03:33):
He's very like bound to Earth And he, he, he helped me.
He's like here these like 4 chord shapes.
They're the exact same shape. You just slide it down the neck
and you just play it in this pattern.
And it, the first song I learnedwas Eye of a Tiger by Survivor.
We still do that song. We do a little differently now,
but like that first song is whatreally sparked it.
(03:56):
That first moment ignited the fashion of music and I just kind
of gone from there ever since. So.
Yeah. And then what flowed from that
was, you know, obviously he had an interest.
So then he became part of the program and he was actually the
youngest person at, you know, not.
(04:17):
Yeah. Well, yeah, much from the whole
time the program run. I don't think there was anyone
ever younger. That was the end of it.
Yeah, I think there was, yeah. 1bass player.
OK, As far as I know, Parker wasalways the youngest one to
start. And basically from there, you
(04:37):
know, we started having him playwith the other students and they
started learning songs together and.
And that kind of kept growing. And then the pandemic hit and.
Yeah, Yeah. And I took over the program from
the coordinator at the time because he had been doing it for
so long and he was getting tired.
(04:59):
So I decided, OK, like, I reallyfelt passionate about this.
So I decided, you know, I'll runwith it.
And at the time, it was run under the umbrella of the John
Howard Society because they helped provide the funding and
(05:20):
there was a change of director there as well.
And unfortunately, her and I didn't have quite the same
vision as to what the program was about and what it was to
look like. And it was very difficult
because the kids would come to practice, everyone would have to
wear their masks and social distance.
And and you can appreciate and maybe a lot of the listeners out
(05:40):
there doing music with masks on is not something that's
conducive especially. When you have to like, sing and
you got like, you know you're breathing, but you're not
breathing in as much as you needto be, Yeah, it's not.
It's not fun. Yeah.
So it's very challenging. So ultimately what happened is,
is, is we just kind of put a pause on the program and then
(06:04):
funding was cut off. So the program essentially
ended. That was that.
When was that? What year was that?
So it would have been the first year of the pandemic, so
20/21/22. 2020 I believe is whenit hit Sudbury anyways.
So it. Think I don't know.
(06:24):
So I mean, it would have been five years ago, because if
Parker and I started four years ago, it would have been about a
year before that when things kind of really took shape in
terms of, you know, entertainment being cut off and,
and, and there's no more concerts and stuff like that.
(06:47):
And it's important because this is what kind of started the
journey for, for Parker and I tostart playing music just him and
I. Because as you recall, during
the pandemic, everyone had to again, social distance.
And it was just him and I in ourhouse.
So we had nobody else, right? It was just the two of us can
(07:10):
find 24/7. And so to keep us from going
insane and like, I don't know, killing each other or something
crazy, we decided every week we're going to learn a song,
right? And we we posted those songs on
Facebook. Sometimes we had to take 300
takes of said yeah, yeah, yeah, even get a good one.
But the point is we kept workingand working and we got a lot of
(07:30):
positive feedback. So towards like the middle to
end of the pandemic when things were starting to kind of clear
up between the lockdown and thenlike the restrictions being
lifted and then the lockdown again, you know what I mean?
We decided that we're going to go and bus, get the parks.
Yeah. And so for people that are
(07:53):
listening, I always assume everybody knows what busking is,
but we still get asked this question all the time.
So busking is essentially the art of performance St.
performing. And it doesn't necessarily have
to be just music. Like there's busker festivals in
Southern Ontario and, and I got to attend a couple of those when
(08:16):
I was a little bit older than Parker.
I was thinking I was in my 20s. And it was really cool because
what they would do is they would, you know, I think it was
in Kitchener, the, the, the one I went to.
And but they're, they also had them in Ottawa.
Yeah. And they would shut down the
streets and they would basicallyjust have all these different
(08:38):
St. performers, whether it be acrobats, you know, drummers,
guitar players, mines, like you name it, like whatever, any kind
of art form that you can showcase, you know, there was
somebody there. And so the principle behind it
(08:59):
is, you know, they're not hired professionals.
So basically you put out a hat, you put out a guitar case or
whatever, you know, a bucket, anything.
And people would tip you if theylike what they heard or, or, or
or they saw. And so that's essentially the
art of busking is is St. performing for tips?
(09:22):
Or you know, what we kind of didwas we say, well, we're playing
for for smiles. But you know, tips are nice too
because we never wanted to ever have anyone expect.
Yeah, it, it wouldn't be. It wouldn't be fair to be like
here, like if we walked up to somebody, held out our hat and,
like, give us money, we'll play a song.
Yeah, we'll leave that to the mariachi band.
(09:44):
Yeah, which is probably where a lot of this may be essentially
started, right? Because that's what mariachi
bands do. Like, I don't know if they've
always been like that. I think it's part of, you know,
Mexican culture, but definitely whenever we've traveled and and
they come to the resorts and stuff like that, they they play
in again, they they kind of expect a tip out of you and
(10:05):
after they played a song for you, it's kind of understood.
So I think I don't know if that's where the idea originated
from, but obviously every culture, as I would imagine,
embrace that kind of, you know, event, you know, for people to
to to perform just for, you know, for either for applause or
(10:28):
for for money or for whatever. You know, sometimes for food,
which we'll, we'll, we'll get into that later on as we get
into because that's a very huge motivator for Parker.
Hey. So it begs the question then,
were you busking at Moonlight Beach?
Well. That's that's the next part of
the story. So sorry to jump the yeah.
No, no, no. Good, good segue.
(10:51):
The next part of the story is actually how we got our name as
the Moonlight Buskers. So we were playing at Moonlight
Beach in Sudbury, and we were just, you know, having fun.
And it was, I think it was a nice day.
It might have been a little bit of wind, but it was overall a
nice day. And then it was just cooling
off. And I reported from the Sudbury
(11:11):
Star Sauce and said, hey, can wedo an article on you?
And we're like, yeah, it's free publicity, free advertisement.
And really the first advertisement we've ever had at
that point other than us promoting ourselves on Facebook
before, or it's professional advertisement, I guess I should
say. And they called us the Moonlight
(11:32):
Buskers in the article. So we just kept the name and it
stuck. And we're like, you know what?
That's that's our name now. A It saves us from having to,
you know, create a cooler name, and B saves us from having to
create a cooler name because that's a cool name.
So, yeah, and what's really niceis that this interview is very
(11:54):
timely because the four year anniversary was actually a
couple of days ago because I gota reminder on my Facebook feed.
Of that article, yeah. So the article came out, I think
it was July, you know, 24th or 25th, you know, of 2021.
(12:16):
So yeah, so that's how I know that it's, it's been 4 years
that we've kind of started this journey because that's when the
article came out and that's whenit, you know, it kind of yeah.
And, and it's kind of what solidified, you know, us being
an actual band. We actually have a name now.
So there's, you know, something a little bit more to it and.
(12:39):
We're not just you guys playing for fun.
We're like, oh, this is real now.
This is like we're going. On where it is, yeah.
So then the next part of the journey is we went to Bell Park
and we're busking there, and this young gentleman named Zach,
(13:00):
who used to be as part of the Seven Youth Rock program that I
mentioned to you before, he heard us play.
And Parker had written one of his own songs and he was
performing it, and he was so impressed that he had some
(13:20):
studio space, Sound Labs, that sound labs downtown.
And he was like producing music.He was doing more like hip hop
and. Dubstep, yeah, each other
different, different, less mainstream stuff.
And then he's like, OK, we'll, we'll give you a slot.
(13:42):
I think he recorded it for free for us.
Yeah, so he said. I won't charge you.
Come in. We'll, we'll get you set up in
the studio and we'll, you know, take, you know, record it and
we'll, you know, kind of produceit and, and that was a big step.
That was it. Whoa.
Yeah. There's like a lot that goes
into this. There was a song that you
recorded there. Say that again.
(14:03):
Was it a a song? Yeah, yeah, one of those song
that I that I had written when Iwas 13.
Oh my God, that's all. That's.
Four years. Well, that's four years ago.
There you go. That's another I understand
there. Yeah, and So what was the name
of the song again? It's called Go the Extra Mile,
yeah. So if you actually Google, I
(14:27):
think it's I, I think I put it out there on YouTube or
something like that, but it's definitely out there somewhere.
I don't know where. But somewhere.
And, and it's really funny to listen to it now and see or hear
how much Parker has grown and his voice has changed.
I remember lyrics. To it.
Yeah, it's. Been so long since I've played
(14:49):
some of these. So then anyway, so it was nice
to actually have his song professionally recorded and then
we would use that. Oh yeah, to go, you know,
different places to, you know, to, to kind of like showcase,
you know, here's a a young artist who's, you know, he's
(15:13):
he's not only learning his craft, but he wrote a song.
So, you know, of course I wantedto get Parker as many are not
just Parker, but both of us opportunities to, you know, to
play together and and perform and and you know.
And the next part of that is because we're putting this this
(15:34):
song out there, putting it to different festivals and putting
it to different people. I also got in at Cyber Music
Academy because they did like a.Were the contest that they did
or was it just like a? So there's a gentleman there.
His name is Rob Patterson. While he he's a part like he,
(15:54):
he's a musical duo of Nickel, 64, and Dave Carlson, who part
owner of the Sunbury Music Academy.
They wanted to sponsor a couple of kids who had some talent but
(16:15):
either didn't have the resourcesor just, you know, for whatever
reason did couldn't get formal lessons.
So I submitted Parker's song to to Rob and he listened to it
with Dave and they were so impressed with it.
They said no, We, we see that Parker has some talent here.
We want to help foster that and yeah, and, and be part of that
(16:39):
journey. So they've been kind enough to
continue to sponsor him to this day.
And now Dan, who's also. So Dan used to be.
Dan. Moyer used to be an instructor
there, but now he's part partnerof, of the organization.
(17:00):
So now he's been working with Parker for the last, you know,
couple of years and working withhim on his vocals and guitar
skills and, and you know, whole lot, whole bunch of other facets
of, of learning and playing music.
So it's, it's a pretty amazing thing when you know, you have
other musicians out there who are willing to, you know, put
(17:24):
their name out there and, and take a chance on, on a young
artist and help them on their journey and teach them what they
know so that they can improve and be better musicians.
And, you know, without any real agenda or anything other than,
you know, just for the love of music and, and to, you know, to
(17:45):
help somebody along. So that was a huge yeah.
And. It's, it's really nice when one
thing just flows into the next thing, which flows into the next
thing, which just builds and it's like, it feels like there's
like this Otter and that was meant to happen and it happened
that way. And it's like really satisfying
to, to look back and be like, wow, this, like this happened,
(18:07):
then this happened, then I've just grown bigger.
I've reached a bigger audience now.
This is happening now we're getting gigs.
Should you? Use Viagra.
Or oh, what was that? Well, I was trying to play your
video. Do you use Viagra?
Was that an advertisement? That came on.
Oh geez, that's not good. Is this like totally like raw
(18:34):
when you when you when you post it or just ready anything that
goes up? I was trying to put your video
on YouTube. Oh boy.
Boy, that's funny. Anyway, let's pretend that
didn't happen. Maybe I'll cut it out of there.
OK, sounds good. If not, it's still pretty funny
language. I don't know why I got that.
(18:56):
I'm getting too personal. Danny, come on.
There was one time I had somebody else's phone and I was
getting those ads and I'm like, this is not for me.
Like this is not catered to me. I don't have any any issues or
whatever, but so there's. No judgment here, Danny.
We don't judge. We're judgment free health.
Even if there was or there wasn't, it doesn't matter.
I mean, these things come up regardless and we understand
(19:20):
that's the world we live in. Ads.
Are very random sometimes. Yeah, and it's it's the
metaverse. Sometimes things are said and
maybe in joke. And then all of a sudden now
you're you're getting all these links and advertisement even
though you never intended to be the recipient of that kind of.
Yeah, yeah. Well, we we got us to laugh.
(19:41):
That's yeah, yeah, that's good. That's good.
So, yeah, so like Parker was saying it, it it started the
momentum for us kind of, you know, getting opportunities.
And I think the next part of that story is that we're playing
at the subree market. So the subree market used to.
(20:02):
Have a budget for entertainment and then coming out of the
pandemic, you know, obviously the market relied on, you know,
people actually out shopping and, and being face to face.
So you can imagine the part the,the market was shut down, so
they lost a lot of their fundingbecause they didn't have vendors
(20:24):
to pay into, you know, you know,for, for them to run the, you
know, the whole program. So, but they've always loved
having music at the market because it attracts people, it
gets people in a good mood. And, and it's always been
something that's been part of, you know, the whole experience.
(20:45):
When you go to the market and you go there, you looked for
artisans, you look, you know, for, for, you know, bakery
items, that kind of stuff. And then, you know, you listen
to some, some music in the background.
It kind of just enhances the experience.
So Jane, who who's the market manager, said, look, you know,
we can't afford to pay you guys right now.
Maybe in the future once we get our funding back, you know, that
(21:07):
can change. But you know, you're more than
welcome to, to come here, you know, every Saturday and, and
just play. Back then they were doing it on
Saturdays and Thursdays to Wednesday.
Nope. Thursdays, yeah.
In the summer, yeah, Yeah. And back then it was being run
at the old CN station on on Elgin St.
(21:32):
Yeah, right, right. Yeah, so they actually had a
stage there. And so we would show up at 8:30
in the morning before it started, and we'd set up and
we'd play until sometimes 1. So that's where Parker learned
how to be very, very resilience as a musician because for a
(21:54):
couple of reasons. You can't take any breaks.
These people are coming and going all the time.
You don't know if you're going to have an audience or you're
not going to have an audience orwhen people are going to tip.
Yeah. So you kind of have to just keep
going. And.
And so that was very important for our journey because it
forced us A to Start learning a lot of songs.
Yeah. We need a lot more material.
(22:16):
And a lot of different styles because, you know, yeah, you
don't know if it's somebody in their 20s, thirties, 40s,
fifties, sixties, 70s, we had tobe able to have songs that would
appeal to a wide group. So.
And, you know, I've always been impressed by Parker on this is
(22:39):
that he's never once been resistant to learning stuff
that, let's face it, most teenagers probably would not
only not only turn away from, but let alone learn how to play.
So, you know, he learned music from Johnny Cash and Neil
Diamond and, you know, stuff to the 80s like Bryan Adams in the
(23:02):
90s, like Guns and Roses, like he, he was always open to
learning whatever. And because he was like that and
because, you know, he started getting some recognition and he
started seeing that, you know, people do tip stuff like that
and people will, you know, stop and and sing along or clap or,
(23:25):
you know, kids will come along and just be watching like total
bewilderment, you know, like, you know, here's this young
person on the stage with a guitar singing, you know, and
and it was it was kind of cool. And and I think what made it
extra special is being a father son duo is not that's common to
(23:47):
see right? Like you see a lot of bands out
there. There's a husband and wife or
siblings or, you know, just friends, guys, just.
That man travelling across the country.
Yeah. But the other thing was is that
I was also so much younger than literally everyone else in the
industry, especially at the time.
Like I'm kind of, I'm kind of catching up to some of them now,
(24:10):
but back then when I was like 131415, like people were like,
it's this 14 year old is playingon a stage in front of like, you
know, maybe 50 people at a givenmoment at the market there.
So it's like, you know what I mean?
Yeah, that's not easy for peopleto do.
And believe me, it took me a while to even get to that point.
(24:32):
And I used to be like really shy.
I used to just play the songs and get the songs over with.
But I've been trying to incorporate more like
interacting with the crowd and, you know, stuff like that.
So as I add, the more I play, the more I develop and the more
I, you know, add new new techniques, add new jokes to my
(24:52):
list. And I think another huge
influence on that is Rod Bazinet, who kind of took Parker
under his wing. And, and I'm sure a lot of
listeners who know Rod Bazinet is, and I know you do because
Keith and Rod play, play all thetime.
And actually Keith, Rod and I have played together in, in, in
(25:13):
a couple of bands too. So it's nice how the the music
world in in Sudbury, like, yeah,we're all kind of connected in
some way. And it's and it's it's really
inspiring when you have other musicians support younger
musicians. And Rod, you know, would share
the story how when he was Parker's age, that's how he
(25:35):
started by busking and just playing on the streets for tips.
So whenever Rod would perform somewhere and we'd come watch
and support him, he would inviteParker on the stage to play two
or three songs, which again gaveParker, you know, more exposure
and, and, you know, other peoplegot to see his talent and, and
(25:58):
that opened the door for him to get other gigs and stuff like
that. People.
Rod's big enough in the community that people will go to
see Rod, you know, So when we goto see Rod and support him and
he gets me on the stage, there'salready people there listening.
You know, I don't have to wrestle with the crowd for them
(26:19):
to to pay attention to me because they're already there.
They're like listening already. And that was, you know, one of
the big things that Rod did for me is he he got people to
listen. Yeah.
Yeah, that sounds great. So we have about four 7 1/2
minutes left and this next question will be the the the
capper and I call it the daily segment.
(26:41):
What is one thing that you feel would make Sudbury greater?
Paula Parker, think about what his answer is going to be For
me. I think what's going to make
Sudbury even more greater than what it already is, is have more
(27:03):
opportunities for for young people to be able to perform
and, and you know, it kind of work on their craft.
There's not a lot of opportunities.
There's not enough like matineesfor younger people Like there's,
you know, there's bars and and restaurants and stuff like that
(27:26):
that, you know, have entertainment, but there's not a
lot of places that do like matinee entertainment, which
like early in the afternoon because obviously you know, for
kids, they, you know, sometimes not appropriate for them to play
at certain venues. And so Sub Breeze got a lot of
limitations and it'd be nice if,you know, the city would help,
(27:51):
maybe some of the establishment like coffee houses and stuff
like that. And, you know, support some of
that and say, you know, you know, let's get some young, you
know, talent in there to play for an hour and, you know, maybe
have some sort of tax benefit or, you know, use some tax
dollars to help inspire the youth.
(28:12):
And that money can go, you know,for them to keep working on
learning their, their craft and towards lessons and instruments
and stuff like that. So in my view, that's how we can
make Sabri greater by really focusing and helping the youth,
you know, stay more focused, do positive things, kind of like
(28:32):
what I was doing before with theprogram, but just maybe in, in a
different way. Yeah.
And to add to that, I personallythink that the music community
should be a welcoming place where we all have our own spot
to shine. And sadly, it seems, especially
in today's world, that there's more politics involved in the
(28:55):
music industry than there reallyever was before.
A lot of these big shot artists from like our small hometown,
you know, they have this, this mindset about them that they are
above people and we are all equals.
We are all musicians. We're all trying to entertain
(29:15):
people. We are all, you know, trying to
have fun and make our own livings.
That's what you're trying to do with your music career.
And it should be more inclusive.We should like, you know, let
people have their moment to shine.
Let people take the stage like Rod did for me.
(29:36):
Let people, you know, negotiate with people like if you have a
time slot, but the other musician who's lesser known than
you may, may not be able to maketheir other time slot.
You know, you can negotiate withthat, you can make things work
and we all work around that. And I feel like that can make
(29:58):
Sudbury a lot greater. Good answer.
Yeah, I love that Sudbury interviews everyone and I, I
really want to thank you both for your time.
It was a pleasure. I doubt there will ever be
another show with two guests at the same time.
Could happen, but. It's a little chaotic.
It's a little chaotic. I love it.
I love it, guys. It.
(30:18):
What a great idea. Thank.
Thank you for the opportunity, Danny.
We appreciate that so much. Yeah.
Thank you, Danny. My pleasure my friends, we'll
see you down the road, see you out on playing shows and stuff.
Sounds like a plan. Listeners, thank you.
Take care. Take care, bye.
Hi, everyone, Welcome to Sudburyinterviews.
Today we have Fabulous Fab and his son Parker Chanel, who are
each half of this great duo, musical duo that we have in
Sudbury called the Moonlight Buskers and they've been playing
together for about four years now and we're going to hear
(00:21):
their story today. So just before we begin, you can
find us on Sudstown and join theconversation.
If you would like to be a guest on the show show, please reach
out. Hey guys, how you doing?
I'm. Good.
Yeah, Danny, thank you for inviting us to be part of this
program. We're super stoked for that.
So am I, I'm very excited. Very.
(00:42):
Professional. I don't know about you.
So yeah, just to clarify, they're they are both on the
call today on the show, rather both of them at the same time.
So we'll be we'll be talking to them both.
So how do you start with this? How does this story begin
between you guys becoming a band?
(01:02):
Yeah, so I was always in involved with music since I was,
you know, just a little bit before Parker's, like Parker's
17 now. So when I was about 14, I
started playing music on my own,just learning.
I never got formal lessons or anything.
And at some point I became a volunteer for this program in
(01:24):
Subri called Subri Youth Rocks. And what it was is we got kids
to come in from different walks of life and we gave them
basically a platform to to learnand play music, but without
formal study. So basically we had volunteers,
(01:45):
kids would come in and we would just teach them how to play
basic songs and we would do shows around town and giving the
kids an opportunity to showcase their talent.
But the idea being that, you know, give something productive
and positive and hopefully steerthem away from, you know, drugs,
(02:06):
alcohol and, and, you know, criminality of a life.
So busy kids tend to be, you know, less likely to get into
trouble. And if they focus on something
that's healthy and positive increases the chances of them,
you know, being successful. So Parker came into my life just
(02:28):
over 8 1/2 years ago and I was like knee deep and volunteering
for this program. So I did it for about 14 years
and when Parker came, I actuallynever.
Had any interest in learning howto play music or anything at
all. Like I like the music, but I was
like, yeah, I'm good. Just being on the sidelines.
I was pretty shy. I was pretty like in my bubble
(02:50):
and yeah. Yeah, so he like, because I'm a
single parent, I didn't have anywhere for Parker to go.
So he was kind of stuck to come with me every time I would go to
volunteer. And, you know, of course, you
know, music being such a huge part of my life, I was hoping
that, you know, he was going to gravitate towards that as well.
(03:11):
And but I wasn't going to force it.
And maybe I'll let Parker kind of share what inspired him and
what got him started it. Was actually one of the
instructors, I think his name was John.
He's very, he's very, how do I put it?
He's a very chill guy. He's very nice.
(03:33):
He's very like bound to Earth And he, he, he helped me.
He's like here these like 4 chord shapes.
They're the exact same shape. You just slide it down the neck
and you just play it in this pattern.
And it, the first song I learnedwas Eye of a Tiger by Survivor.
We still do that song. We do a little differently now,
but like that first song is whatreally sparked it.
(03:56):
That first moment ignited the fashion of music and I just kind
of gone from there ever since. So.
Yeah. And then what flowed from that
was, you know, obviously he had an interest.
So then he became part of the program and he was actually the
youngest person at, you know, not.
(04:17):
Yeah. Well, yeah, much from the whole
time the program run. I don't think there was anyone
ever younger. That was the end of it.
Yeah, I think there was, yeah. 1bass player.
OK, As far as I know, Parker wasalways the youngest one to
start. And basically from there, you
(04:37):
know, we started having him playwith the other students and they
started learning songs together and.
And that kind of kept growing. And then the pandemic hit and.
Yeah, Yeah. And I took over the program from
the coordinator at the time because he had been doing it for
so long and he was getting tired.
(04:59):
So I decided, OK, like, I reallyfelt passionate about this.
So I decided, you know, I'll runwith it.
And at the time, it was run under the umbrella of the John
Howard Society because they helped provide the funding and
(05:20):
there was a change of director there as well.
And unfortunately, her and I didn't have quite the same
vision as to what the program was about and what it was to
look like. And it was very difficult
because the kids would come to practice, everyone would have to
wear their masks and social distance.
And and you can appreciate and maybe a lot of the listeners out
(05:40):
there doing music with masks on is not something that's
conducive especially. When you have to like, sing and
you got like, you know you're breathing, but you're not
breathing in as much as you needto be, Yeah, it's not.
It's not fun. Yeah.
So it's very challenging. So ultimately what happened is,
is, is we just kind of put a pause on the program and then
(06:04):
funding was cut off. So the program essentially
ended. That was that.
When was that? What year was that?
So it would have been the first year of the pandemic, so
20/21/22. 2020 I believe is whenit hit Sudbury anyways.
So it. Think I don't know.
(06:24):
So I mean, it would have been five years ago, because if
Parker and I started four years ago, it would have been about a
year before that when things kind of really took shape in
terms of, you know, entertainment being cut off and,
and, and there's no more concerts and stuff like that.
(06:47):
And it's important because this is what kind of started the
journey for, for Parker and I tostart playing music just him and
I. Because as you recall, during
the pandemic, everyone had to again, social distance.
And it was just him and I in ourhouse.
So we had nobody else, right? It was just the two of us can
(07:10):
find 24/7. And so to keep us from going
insane and like, I don't know, killing each other or something
crazy, we decided every week we're going to learn a song,
right? And we we posted those songs on
Facebook. Sometimes we had to take 300
takes of said yeah, yeah, yeah, even get a good one.
But the point is we kept workingand working and we got a lot of
(07:30):
positive feedback. So towards like the middle to
end of the pandemic when things were starting to kind of clear
up between the lockdown and thenlike the restrictions being
lifted and then the lockdown again, you know what I mean?
We decided that we're going to go and bus, get the parks.
Yeah. And so for people that are
(07:53):
listening, I always assume everybody knows what busking is,
but we still get asked this question all the time.
So busking is essentially the art of performance St.
performing. And it doesn't necessarily have
to be just music. Like there's busker festivals in
Southern Ontario and, and I got to attend a couple of those when
(08:16):
I was a little bit older than Parker.
I was thinking I was in my 20s. And it was really cool because
what they would do is they would, you know, I think it was
in Kitchener, the, the, the one I went to.
And but they're, they also had them in Ottawa.
Yeah. And they would shut down the
streets and they would basicallyjust have all these different
(08:38):
St. performers, whether it be acrobats, you know, drummers,
guitar players, mines, like you name it, like whatever, any kind
of art form that you can showcase, you know, there was
somebody there. And so the principle behind it
(08:59):
is, you know, they're not hired professionals.
So basically you put out a hat, you put out a guitar case or
whatever, you know, a bucket, anything.
And people would tip you if theylike what they heard or, or, or
or they saw. And so that's essentially the
art of busking is is St. performing for tips?
(09:22):
Or you know, what we kind of didwas we say, well, we're playing
for for smiles. But you know, tips are nice too
because we never wanted to ever have anyone expect.
Yeah, it, it wouldn't be. It wouldn't be fair to be like
here, like if we walked up to somebody, held out our hat and,
like, give us money, we'll play a song.
Yeah, we'll leave that to the mariachi band.
(09:44):
Yeah, which is probably where a lot of this may be essentially
started, right? Because that's what mariachi
bands do. Like, I don't know if they've
always been like that. I think it's part of, you know,
Mexican culture, but definitely whenever we've traveled and and
they come to the resorts and stuff like that, they they play
in again, they they kind of expect a tip out of you and
(10:05):
after they played a song for you, it's kind of understood.
So I think I don't know if that's where the idea originated
from, but obviously every culture, as I would imagine,
embrace that kind of, you know, event, you know, for people to
to to perform just for, you know, for either for applause or
(10:28):
for for money or for whatever. You know, sometimes for food,
which we'll, we'll, we'll get into that later on as we get
into because that's a very huge motivator for Parker.
Hey. So it begs the question then,
were you busking at Moonlight Beach?
Well. That's that's the next part of
the story. So sorry to jump the yeah.
No, no, no. Good, good segue.
(10:51):
The next part of the story is actually how we got our name as
the Moonlight Buskers. So we were playing at Moonlight
Beach in Sudbury, and we were just, you know, having fun.
And it was, I think it was a nice day.
It might have been a little bit of wind, but it was overall a
nice day. And then it was just cooling
off. And I reported from the Sudbury
(11:11):
Star Sauce and said, hey, can wedo an article on you?
And we're like, yeah, it's free publicity, free advertisement.
And really the first advertisement we've ever had at
that point other than us promoting ourselves on Facebook
before, or it's professional advertisement, I guess I should
say. And they called us the Moonlight
(11:32):
Buskers in the article. So we just kept the name and it
stuck. And we're like, you know what?
That's that's our name now. A It saves us from having to,
you know, create a cooler name, and B saves us from having to
create a cooler name because that's a cool name.
So, yeah, and what's really niceis that this interview is very
(11:54):
timely because the four year anniversary was actually a
couple of days ago because I gota reminder on my Facebook feed.
Of that article, yeah. So the article came out, I think
it was July, you know, 24th or 25th, you know, of 2021.
(12:16):
So yeah, so that's how I know that it's, it's been 4 years
that we've kind of started this journey because that's when the
article came out and that's whenit, you know, it kind of yeah.
And, and it's kind of what solidified, you know, us being
an actual band. We actually have a name now.
So there's, you know, something a little bit more to it and.
(12:39):
We're not just you guys playing for fun.
We're like, oh, this is real now.
This is like we're going. On where it is, yeah.
So then the next part of the journey is we went to Bell Park
and we're busking there, and this young gentleman named Zach,
(13:00):
who used to be as part of the Seven Youth Rock program that I
mentioned to you before, he heard us play.
And Parker had written one of his own songs and he was
performing it, and he was so impressed that he had some
(13:20):
studio space, Sound Labs, that sound labs downtown.
And he was like producing music.He was doing more like hip hop
and. Dubstep, yeah, each other
different, different, less mainstream stuff.
And then he's like, OK, we'll, we'll give you a slot.
(13:42):
I think he recorded it for free for us.
Yeah, so he said. I won't charge you.
Come in. We'll, we'll get you set up in
the studio and we'll, you know, take, you know, record it and
we'll, you know, kind of produceit and, and that was a big step.
That was it. Whoa.
Yeah. There's like a lot that goes
into this. There was a song that you
recorded there. Say that again.
(14:03):
Was it a a song? Yeah, yeah, one of those song
that I that I had written when Iwas 13.
Oh my God, that's all. That's.
Four years. Well, that's four years ago.
There you go. That's another I understand
there. Yeah, and So what was the name
of the song again? It's called Go the Extra Mile,
yeah. So if you actually Google, I
(14:27):
think it's I, I think I put it out there on YouTube or
something like that, but it's definitely out there somewhere.
I don't know where. But somewhere.
And, and it's really funny to listen to it now and see or hear
how much Parker has grown and his voice has changed.
I remember lyrics. To it.
Yeah, it's. Been so long since I've played
(14:49):
some of these. So then anyway, so it was nice
to actually have his song professionally recorded and then
we would use that. Oh yeah, to go, you know,
different places to, you know, to, to kind of like showcase,
you know, here's a a young artist who's, you know, he's
(15:13):
he's not only learning his craft, but he wrote a song.
So, you know, of course I wantedto get Parker as many are not
just Parker, but both of us opportunities to, you know, to
play together and and perform and and you know.
And the next part of that is because we're putting this this
(15:34):
song out there, putting it to different festivals and putting
it to different people. I also got in at Cyber Music
Academy because they did like a.Were the contest that they did
or was it just like a? So there's a gentleman there.
His name is Rob Patterson. While he he's a part like he,
(15:54):
he's a musical duo of Nickel, 64, and Dave Carlson, who part
owner of the Sunbury Music Academy.
They wanted to sponsor a couple of kids who had some talent but
(16:15):
either didn't have the resourcesor just, you know, for whatever
reason did couldn't get formal lessons.
So I submitted Parker's song to to Rob and he listened to it
with Dave and they were so impressed with it.
They said no, We, we see that Parker has some talent here.
We want to help foster that and yeah, and, and be part of that
(16:39):
journey. So they've been kind enough to
continue to sponsor him to this day.
And now Dan, who's also. So Dan used to be.
Dan. Moyer used to be an instructor
there, but now he's part partnerof, of the organization.
(17:00):
So now he's been working with Parker for the last, you know,
couple of years and working withhim on his vocals and guitar
skills and, and you know, whole lot, whole bunch of other facets
of, of learning and playing music.
So it's, it's a pretty amazing thing when you know, you have
other musicians out there who are willing to, you know, put
(17:24):
their name out there and, and take a chance on, on a young
artist and help them on their journey and teach them what they
know so that they can improve and be better musicians.
And, you know, without any real agenda or anything other than,
you know, just for the love of music and, and to, you know, to
(17:45):
help somebody along. So that was a huge yeah.
And. It's, it's really nice when one
thing just flows into the next thing, which flows into the next
thing, which just builds and it's like, it feels like there's
like this Otter and that was meant to happen and it happened
that way. And it's like really satisfying
to, to look back and be like, wow, this, like this happened,
(18:07):
then this happened, then I've just grown bigger.
I've reached a bigger audience now.
This is happening now we're getting gigs.
Should you? Use Viagra.
Or oh, what was that? Well, I was trying to play your
video. Do you use Viagra?
Was that an advertisement? That came on.
Oh geez, that's not good. Is this like totally like raw
(18:34):
when you when you when you post it or just ready anything that
goes up? I was trying to put your video
on YouTube. Oh boy.
Boy, that's funny. Anyway, let's pretend that
didn't happen. Maybe I'll cut it out of there.
OK, sounds good. If not, it's still pretty funny
language. I don't know why I got that.
(18:56):
I'm getting too personal. Danny, come on.
There was one time I had somebody else's phone and I was
getting those ads and I'm like, this is not for me.
Like this is not catered to me. I don't have any any issues or
whatever, but so there's. No judgment here, Danny.
We don't judge. We're judgment free health.
Even if there was or there wasn't, it doesn't matter.
I mean, these things come up regardless and we understand
(19:20):
that's the world we live in. Ads.
Are very random sometimes. Yeah, and it's it's the
metaverse. Sometimes things are said and
maybe in joke. And then all of a sudden now
you're you're getting all these links and advertisement even
though you never intended to be the recipient of that kind of.
Yeah, yeah. Well, we we got us to laugh.
(19:41):
That's yeah, yeah, that's good. That's good.
So, yeah, so like Parker was saying it, it it started the
momentum for us kind of, you know, getting opportunities.
And I think the next part of that story is that we're playing
at the subree market. So the subree market used to.
(20:02):
Have a budget for entertainment and then coming out of the
pandemic, you know, obviously the market relied on, you know,
people actually out shopping and, and being face to face.
So you can imagine the part the,the market was shut down, so
they lost a lot of their fundingbecause they didn't have vendors
(20:24):
to pay into, you know, you know,for, for them to run the, you
know, the whole program. So, but they've always loved
having music at the market because it attracts people, it
gets people in a good mood. And, and it's always been
something that's been part of, you know, the whole experience.
(20:45):
When you go to the market and you go there, you looked for
artisans, you look, you know, for, for, you know, bakery
items, that kind of stuff. And then, you know, you listen
to some, some music in the background.
It kind of just enhances the experience.
So Jane, who who's the market manager, said, look, you know,
we can't afford to pay you guys right now.
Maybe in the future once we get our funding back, you know, that
(21:07):
can change. But you know, you're more than
welcome to, to come here, you know, every Saturday and, and
just play. Back then they were doing it on
Saturdays and Thursdays to Wednesday.
Nope. Thursdays, yeah.
In the summer, yeah, Yeah. And back then it was being run
at the old CN station on on Elgin St.
(21:32):
Yeah, right, right. Yeah, so they actually had a
stage there. And so we would show up at 8:30
in the morning before it started, and we'd set up and
we'd play until sometimes 1. So that's where Parker learned
how to be very, very resilience as a musician because for a
(21:54):
couple of reasons. You can't take any breaks.
These people are coming and going all the time.
You don't know if you're going to have an audience or you're
not going to have an audience orwhen people are going to tip.
Yeah. So you kind of have to just keep
going. And.
And so that was very important for our journey because it
forced us A to Start learning a lot of songs.
Yeah. We need a lot more material.
(22:16):
And a lot of different styles because, you know, yeah, you
don't know if it's somebody in their 20s, thirties, 40s,
fifties, sixties, 70s, we had tobe able to have songs that would
appeal to a wide group. So.
And, you know, I've always been impressed by Parker on this is
(22:39):
that he's never once been resistant to learning stuff
that, let's face it, most teenagers probably would not
only not only turn away from, but let alone learn how to play.
So, you know, he learned music from Johnny Cash and Neil
Diamond and, you know, stuff to the 80s like Bryan Adams in the
(23:02):
90s, like Guns and Roses, like he, he was always open to
learning whatever. And because he was like that and
because, you know, he started getting some recognition and he
started seeing that, you know, people do tip stuff like that
and people will, you know, stop and and sing along or clap or,
(23:25):
you know, kids will come along and just be watching like total
bewilderment, you know, like, you know, here's this young
person on the stage with a guitar singing, you know, and
and it was it was kind of cool. And and I think what made it
extra special is being a father son duo is not that's common to
(23:47):
see right? Like you see a lot of bands out
there. There's a husband and wife or
siblings or, you know, just friends, guys, just.
That man travelling across the country.
Yeah. But the other thing was is that
I was also so much younger than literally everyone else in the
industry, especially at the time.
Like I'm kind of, I'm kind of catching up to some of them now,
(24:10):
but back then when I was like 131415, like people were like,
it's this 14 year old is playingon a stage in front of like, you
know, maybe 50 people at a givenmoment at the market there.
So it's like, you know what I mean?
Yeah, that's not easy for peopleto do.
And believe me, it took me a while to even get to that point.
(24:32):
And I used to be like really shy.
I used to just play the songs and get the songs over with.
But I've been trying to incorporate more like
interacting with the crowd and, you know, stuff like that.
So as I add, the more I play, the more I develop and the more
I, you know, add new new techniques, add new jokes to my
(24:52):
list. And I think another huge
influence on that is Rod Bazinet, who kind of took Parker
under his wing. And, and I'm sure a lot of
listeners who know Rod Bazinet is, and I know you do because
Keith and Rod play, play all thetime.
And actually Keith, Rod and I have played together in, in, in
(25:13):
a couple of bands too. So it's nice how the the music
world in in Sudbury, like, yeah,we're all kind of connected in
some way. And it's and it's it's really
inspiring when you have other musicians support younger
musicians. And Rod, you know, would share
the story how when he was Parker's age, that's how he
(25:35):
started by busking and just playing on the streets for tips.
So whenever Rod would perform somewhere and we'd come watch
and support him, he would inviteParker on the stage to play two
or three songs, which again gaveParker, you know, more exposure
and, and, you know, other peoplegot to see his talent and, and
(25:58):
that opened the door for him to get other gigs and stuff like
that. People.
Rod's big enough in the community that people will go to
see Rod, you know, So when we goto see Rod and support him and
he gets me on the stage, there'salready people there listening.
You know, I don't have to wrestle with the crowd for them
(26:19):
to to pay attention to me because they're already there.
They're like listening already. And that was, you know, one of
the big things that Rod did for me is he he got people to
listen. Yeah.
Yeah, that sounds great. So we have about four 7 1/2
minutes left and this next question will be the the the
capper and I call it the daily segment.
(26:41):
What is one thing that you feel would make Sudbury greater?
Paula Parker, think about what his answer is going to be For
me. I think what's going to make
Sudbury even more greater than what it already is, is have more
(27:03):
opportunities for for young people to be able to perform
and, and you know, it kind of work on their craft.
There's not a lot of opportunities.
There's not enough like matineesfor younger people Like there's,
you know, there's bars and and restaurants and stuff like that
(27:26):
that, you know, have entertainment, but there's not a
lot of places that do like matinee entertainment, which
like early in the afternoon because obviously you know, for
kids, they, you know, sometimes not appropriate for them to play
at certain venues. And so Sub Breeze got a lot of
limitations and it'd be nice if,you know, the city would help,
(27:51):
maybe some of the establishment like coffee houses and stuff
like that. And, you know, support some of
that and say, you know, you know, let's get some young, you
know, talent in there to play for an hour and, you know, maybe
have some sort of tax benefit or, you know, use some tax
dollars to help inspire the youth.
(28:12):
And that money can go, you know,for them to keep working on
learning their, their craft and towards lessons and instruments
and stuff like that. So in my view, that's how we can
make Sabri greater by really focusing and helping the youth,
you know, stay more focused, do positive things, kind of like
(28:32):
what I was doing before with theprogram, but just maybe in, in a
different way. Yeah.
And to add to that, I personallythink that the music community
should be a welcoming place where we all have our own spot
to shine. And sadly, it seems, especially
in today's world, that there's more politics involved in the
(28:55):
music industry than there reallyever was before.
A lot of these big shot artists from like our small hometown,
you know, they have this, this mindset about them that they are
above people and we are all equals.
We are all musicians. We're all trying to entertain
(29:15):
people. We are all, you know, trying to
have fun and make our own livings.
That's what you're trying to do with your music career.
And it should be more inclusive.We should like, you know, let
people have their moment to shine.
Let people take the stage like Rod did for me.
(29:36):
Let people, you know, negotiate with people like if you have a
time slot, but the other musician who's lesser known than
you may, may not be able to maketheir other time slot.
You know, you can negotiate withthat, you can make things work
and we all work around that. And I feel like that can make
(29:58):
Sudbury a lot greater. Good answer.
Yeah, I love that Sudbury interviews everyone and I, I
really want to thank you both for your time.
It was a pleasure. I doubt there will ever be
another show with two guests at the same time.
Could happen, but. It's a little chaotic.
It's a little chaotic. I love it.
I love it, guys. It.
(30:18):
What a great idea. Thank.
Thank you for the opportunity, Danny.
We appreciate that so much. Yeah.
Thank you, Danny. My pleasure my friends, we'll
see you down the road, see you out on playing shows and stuff.
Sounds like a plan. Listeners, thank you.
Take care. Take care, bye.
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