Joel Lindsey: British-Born, Pittsburgh-Based Powerhouse

Joel Lindsey is the British-born, Pittsburgh-based powerhouse behind Joel Lindsey Entertainment—your all-in-one party starter. Singer. Guitarist. DJ. Vibe curator. Since 2008, Joel’s brought unforgettable energy to events across Western PA with electrifying live music, epic DJ sets, and full-throttle lighting. Bonus: he writes bangers too—check out “Take Some Love and Pass It On.” Let’s get this party started.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I knows it.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
This is an obvidio and you are Oh, bless your heart.
This is the CODA podcast, chronicle in Pittsburgh's music scene.
Welcome in now, I'm Johnny Heart, You're you're vacul Hey. Hey,
hello everybody, It's just my name, Johnny hurt Well, your
host along with Annie bougar Uh. Today we're got talking

(00:31):
to Pittsburgh based singer and guitars Joel Lindsay. Things are
going swimmingly. Yeah, start Usually it goes much smoother than that.
I was told this was a professional thing there. I mean,
I've never claimed that. Now I detect an accent. You
must be from north of the city, like Biab County

(00:53):
or something like.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
That, exactly just outside of Pittsburgh. London, Ontario, I've heard
actually in the past when i've I've said from London, London, Ontario.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Really really, how many people know London, Ontario, But you
apparently a London, England.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
London, England. Yes, I'm originally from from southeast London, England.
But God, something like eighteen years ago I moved here
to Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Why why why?

Speaker 3 (01:21):
I think that anyone who has moved that moved that
far generally has the same answer. When I meet someone
who's traveled as far as I have to live here
before they tell me, I say, wait, you're going to
I know what it is. You're going to tell me
it's a Pittsburgh woman, Right, It's a Pittsburgh woman. She
is the reason every time. And it's the same for me.
It's it's these Pittsburgh women. I tell you that they do.
You can take the girl Pittsburgh. It's true. And I

(01:45):
met my Pittsburgh girl in London. She was getting her
master's degree at Goldsmith's University and we happened to meet
one fateful night in London, and she told me she
was from Beaver which I had not heard of before.
I thought that was a very strange, strange chat up line.

(02:05):
I hadn't heard that one before. We could go further
depth down, but we're not going to go any further
with that. Yeah, but yeah, she she told me that
she was from Beaver County, Pittsburgh, and you know, we
hit it off straight away, and you know, after several months,
we we ended up getting a little flat in London.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
You know, we fell in love.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
It was very romantic.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Amy, Amy, Hi, Amy, Yeah, she's you know, she's she's
a big reason why I do all of all of
the things I do.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
I don't give her enough credit. She's you know, she's like,
we're we're a great partnership. But anyway, so we we
lived in London for a while in this really terrible flat,
costing us a fortune for just this gross little apartment.
And then eventually she said, you know, why don't we
go and visit Pittsburgh. We haven't been there before.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
You can you can afford a mansion in Beaver That
was That was a big That was a big thing
that kind of lured me over here.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
I mean, honest, this.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Is the way I'd lived in Beaver County for thirty years,
so you know, I have a lot of Beaver County.
It's great.

Speaker 3 (03:16):
But I think when I when I was first here
eighteen years ago, when we first came to Beaver one
of the first places I played was Thursdays in Bridgewater
and a couple of places in that area. Amy told
me it was a dry town over that I didn't
I thought that was only something that existed in the
wild West. I didn't know that a dry town was
a thing, but it But apparently it is in that
part of the country. Anyway, we found places to drink unfortunately,

(03:41):
but yeah, started in around you know, Beaver Beaver County,
and I honestly, I know it's kind of cliche, but
something spoke to me about this this part of the country.
I just really loved it. But before we decided to
settle here and before you know, we got married, I said, Amy,
before you know we do all this, I want to
do some traveling. I'm going to go and just see

(04:02):
the country a little bit. So I took my acoustic
guitar and I traveled everywhere from east to west coast
over a few months, playing open stages, meeting people, playing gigs, everywhere,
you know, Nashville, I was in Austin, Texas, made all
the way over to San Francisco, and again, I know

(04:23):
this is cliche, but just from all of that travel,
there was something about Pittsburgh that just spoke to me.
I just really loved it, the people, the layout.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Of There's no music there, but I think it wasn't
just about the music.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
It was the vibe of the city and you know,
the rivers and the layout of the city. Just something
about it just I just felt very at home here.
In Pittsburgh. I remember, I'm coming from London.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
It's one of.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
The greatest, biggest cities in the world. I mean, I
studied as an art student for four years in Covent Garden,
so I was really in the thick of it. So I've,
you know, I've and I spent a lot of my
life in New York as well. My late mother was
a New Yorker, So Manhattan, London, you know, I know
these cities, but something about Pittsburgh just made me feel

(05:10):
like I could make it my home right from the beginning.
And now here I am eighteen years later, still living here,
and I'm a big fan of the city.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
So your mother was from the States.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
She was, she was a New Yorker. My parents have
a much cooler story than I do. I'll quickly tell
you about my parents and kind of what brought me
into music. So my mum, Marsha, who died fifteen years ago. Sorry,
we lost her to cancer. Unfortunately, she was a total hippie.
She was very very cool. Came from Westchester and the Bronx,

(05:44):
but traveled the world. She lived in Betha was There's
not any way that she didn't end up living but
she finally made her way to England because she was
a massive fan of British music. She ended up meeting
my dad, who was a total rock and roller as well.
He had hair down to his elbows and playing in

(06:06):
some very very cool bands still to this day. It's
an electric guitar player and can play most people off
the stage, including me, one of the best electric guitar players.
You're here, Hi, Dad, He'll like that shout out anyway.
So my very cool hippie mom met my electric guitar
playing dad in London. So my mom had made a

(06:26):
way to England and they lived together for a while,
and then my mum talked my dad into opening a
guitar shop, which he had for forty years. He just
shut the shop down a couple of years ago. But
the guitar shop was my playground growing up as a kid.
I was never formally trained in music. Just every weekend,
you know, my mom would have me there at the

(06:47):
guitar shop, my siblings and I and that's where we
learned how to play, you know, guitar and piano and
all of the various instruments.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
And what kind of music did your mother and father
listen to? And did that gravity towards Did that Is
that part of your DNA as well?

Speaker 3 (07:03):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
I mean my mum, like I said, she loved the Stones,
the Beatles, that kind of thing, and I think a
big part of they again little known bands, you know,
I don't know if they made it over here. They're
not quite Donnie Iris and the likes of what you.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
Have over here.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
But that's he's good. I love brother.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah, I love Donnie Iris. By the way, I met
him a couple of time. It's a very nice guy.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Well, you'd Beaver County exactly if you if you're in
Walmart long enough, you're gonna.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
A quick segue. Actually, I was on the plane over
to Beaver and Amy put some headphones on me and said,
listen to this. This is a guy, Donnie Iris. He's
popular in Beaver County and on the plane I learned
the song love is Like a Rock And so I
get to play Thursdays in Bridgewater a few days later,
and as part of my set, I thrown a little
bit of this song. Amy walks up to the stage

(07:52):
points and goes, that's Donnie Iris. And he came up
and chatted to me and said something along the lines
of not many people cover my songs, and certainly not
people from England to cover my songs. So he was
pretty happy.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
But that's great.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
That's a great story. But speaking of the music that
my parents listen to, one of the big bands that
my mum especially loved was the Beatles. And now you know,
as a professional musician living here in Pittsburgh, a big
part of my living is playing Beatles songs and similar bands, Stones,
the Kinks, that kind of thing, you know, And I

(08:28):
think about her every time I play a Beatles songs,
certain songs in particular, and I play them, I feel
like I'm playing them for her. Songs like in My
Life are a big one. And at my wedding, my
mum and I danced to the Long and Winding Road,
So that's kind of a hard one for me to hear,
but I think about her every time I hear that
particular song.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
So at an early age, you were exposed to Beatles
and Rolling Stones, and your father played music and was
he in bands and what kind of music was he playing.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
He was playing much kind of heavier rock blues, although
these days he plays in a rockabilly band. You can
imagine a British rockabilly band that does exist and my
dad still plays in one. But I mean he grew
up around not that he knew them personally, but at
the same time as Zeppelin, who you know, he was

(09:20):
coming up in London, so these were bands that were
playing in the same small clubs as he was. He
heard about these bands before they were big, and even
you know, when he first opened his guitar shop, one
of his first big clients that really gave his guitar
shop a lift was Dire Straits. Yeah, Mark Knopfler, their

(09:41):
tour manager had come into my dad's shop and one
of the first big orders that he took as a
guitar shop was their entire back line for them to
go on tour. So he happened to know their manager.
The band Dire Straits made their big order and that
really helped my dad to continuous business on. So thank
you Distrates.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
You know, it's funny I revere English music. There's so
much when you lived there, did you know that it did?
Do Londoners appreciate you know, all that music that came
out of the sixties and seventies, that all that great
music from from London.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Absolutely but sometimes I ask myself, you know, do the
Americans love you know, British music more. I don't know.
I think there's always been a fascination between the two countries,
you know, both movies and the various arts music Personally,
I mean, some of my biggest inspirations growing up were
some of the American artists like Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder,

(10:41):
just the stuff that my dad was playing in the house.
I didn't I didn't really gravitate towards some of the
British music until I became a professional musician and was
playing that stuff. But I've grown up with just all
kinds of instruments. My very first instrument when I was
a little kid was violin. My dad wanted to be like,
wanted me to be kind of like a you know,

(11:04):
django Reinhart and Grippelli, and we do like a little
duo thing in the house violin and guitar. I'm certain
I sounded absolutely nothing like We didn't sound like that
duo at all, but in our heads, in my head,
I thought we kind of sounded like that. But but
you know, my dad was always kind of My biggest
inspiration in music is you know, he put the instruments

(11:25):
in front of me, and he's always played in bands.
So if it wasn't for my dad, I really wouldn't
have ever gone into music. And now I'm a father
of a seven year old boy, Levi, who's the apple
of my eye, and I see how kids' sons want
to be like their dads. I see it, you know,
in Levi, and it really makes you feel proud. Even
said to me that he wants to be just like

(11:45):
me one day, and I just just melts your heart.
And you also want to say you sure, because you
might want to rethink.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
That did you force him to play the violin? And
as far away as I can from the violin? All right,
So your first instrument was the violin, Yeah, but I
never went anywhere with that, honestly.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
Like I know some fantastic violins. I play with some
of the best violinists in town here in Pittsburgh. I
play with Bob Banajie, John Parendo, I play with philin Ray,
Stephen Weiss. They're just four of the guys that I
sometimes will play with in duo or trio settings, and
they're fantastic. But I really admire anyone who plays the violin,
especially in that kind of improvisational way that to me,

(12:26):
there is not a more difficult instrument to perfect. Anytime
I meet someone who has a young kid and they say, oh,
my kid's going to start playing violin, I say, no,
don't keep them away from that instrument.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
It's too hard.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
It's just too hard. That's my personal experience. Guitar or piano,
that's where I think a kid should normally start, and
if they get good on those things, then move on.
I'm sure any of your listeners who hear that might
not agree with me. That's just my two pence or
two cents.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Well, the big reason why I do this is I
am in art of musicians, because just take the guitar.
To see someone play a guitar, if they weren't doing
it in front of me, I would think it was impossible.
So you know what you perceive as you know an
instrument that is impossible. I have greater respect for anybody
who plays any kind of instrument. So how quickly did

(13:16):
you move on from the violin and what did you
play first? What was the first instrument you played after that?

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Speaking of like, as I was saying about dads, you know,
I think I admire musicians who didn't have musical parents.
I think having musical parents is a big one, you know,
because you're watching them, you're listening to them, and it's
just happening in the house all the time. So just
like I was saying for my son Levi, you know,
I'm a singer and guitarist. My wife is a amy.

(13:44):
She's a pianist and a kind of a classically trained vocalist.
She formerly was a piano teacher. So we have instruments
in every room, so there's always music going on around
the house. So it's obvious that our son, Levi is
going to get into music, just in the same way
that seeing my dad as a professional guitar player, I
wanted to be like him, and now I'm a guitar

(14:05):
player too. But it wasn't until I was about seventeen
or eighteen I really found my way into guitar. My
dad being an electric guitar play, he'd bought me electric guitars,
but the instrument just didn't quite speak to me. It
was only when I got my first electro acoustic guitar
that I really took an interest. And I was about
seventeen or eighteen, so I got into it relatively late.
That's when I really got serious and I played in

(14:28):
bands in London playing original music. I had hair down
to my elbows, you know. I was what kind of
bands were they? You know, rock music, British rock music,
That's what we sounded like. Probably our biggest inspiration was
Paul Rogers of the band Free. I just love him.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
He's bad company.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, he's one of my greatest here.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Oh yeah, and it's about time that he goes into
the Rugarron.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Absolutely, I made my vote for that.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah. Ah, all right, So I love asking this question
when you do you remember your first band that you
formed and what was its name.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
First band that I was in was a band called
Easy and we had a pretty good following in Southeast
London because my older brother was in the band, Marlin.
He was the co songwriter. But he's always been great
at marketing and just getting people down to our gigs.
He's he's someone who it just lifts people up and

(15:23):
really pushes them, and he always pushed me in music.
And now he has three daughters and he does the
same for them. He motivates them when they're all incredibly successful.
What they do because of his fantastic motivational skills. But anyway,
he really kind of he helped to create this band
and helped to make us popular in London, relatively popular.

(15:44):
We had, you know, some good club gigs, and we
always had people coming out to see us play. But
it was just frustrating to me that I couldn't make money,
you know, make a living as a musician in London.
That was what the hardest thing I've always played. But
living in London, such a big city, for all the
gigs that we were playing, I was broke. I just
didn't have any money, you know. I worked at my
dad's guitar shop. I didn't really have any decent prospects,

(16:08):
and I was kind of down on my luck. I'd
met Amy, my wife, from Pittsburgh, so when we moved
to Pittsburgh, things changed for me. I was inspired by
the city and it was here that I became a
professional musician and I make my living pretty much solely
from music now in this town. So I really have
Pittsburgh to thank for doing that for me. It inspired

(16:31):
me to completely change my life, and so many opportunities
came to me when I moved here and I just
embraced the city from the moment that I moved here.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
So the band easy, what kind of music? What kind
of music did you play? Did you play covers or it?
Was it all originals, all original music. I'd never even
learned a cover song until I moved to the States.
I was way too cool for that with long hair,
and you know, I was all about the lurk and
I was thought I was mystic cool, you know, but

(17:04):
I was broke as hell. But who was who was
doing the song writing?

Speaker 3 (17:08):
My brother and I, Marlon and I were with a songwriter.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Do you remember the first song you ever wrote a song?

Speaker 3 (17:13):
There's a song that he and I both wrote called
James the Cat and still to this day, Yeah, we
wrote when it was thirteen or fourteen.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Oh, please tell you remember some of the lyrics still
play it? Is it now? Please?

Speaker 4 (17:28):
Please? Please?

Speaker 3 (17:30):
I could please, I could play a little bit of
this please. So this is a song that's very, very silly.
Absolutely it's a silly song, but it's just followed me
right through my life and still to this day. My
band I played with the band called Boulevard of the
Allies out here and we still play this song. It
just followed me, and I never managed to let it go.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
Let me, we don't want we don't want to like it. Yeah,
all right, I'll play.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Let me see what I got here? And how old
were you when you're thirteen? Fourteen?

Speaker 2 (17:57):
Nice?

Speaker 3 (17:58):
All right, I'll do a little bit of it, okay,
all right, gay guys.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
See, I was smoking in the sunshine on a kee
blue summer's day. I didn't know where the heck I was,
but I thought I knew the way to the fuck
it old cats home. Oh man, you see to see
those street cats moon hell a big tom of my
guitar and starts playing while the head you looking at

(18:25):
her heard them busses cry.

Speaker 4 (18:28):
Don't you know? I'm James the Cat. I'm Bruna, Lil.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Jerpie, a guy boos bass, saying guitar, a pretty little
woman and a real first guy.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
You're gonna take one, nogam mean, I'm going far.

Speaker 5 (18:42):
My names James, Jamems the Cat, Jase saying a bird
and the butterflies, James the Cat.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
There are some appaarently mature lyrics for a thirteen year
old there play my older brother. Oh very good, James
the Cat. I thought it was going to be more
of a nursery rhyme and it a little bit more.

Speaker 6 (19:16):
It's a real.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yes, and you still play it.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
That is amazing.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Yeah, not that I want to, but you know, sometimes
some songs kind of follow us around and we don't
get to leave them. But I don't play as much
with my band as I used to. I mentioned Boulevard
of the Allies. It really consists of myself and my
bass player Jim Karash, who sings harmony with me, plays

(19:41):
five or even six string bass, or he plays an
upright bass. But we've been playing together for many, many years,
and we've got different musicians that we play with, a
couple of different drummers and guitar players and violinists. But
you know, these days, I do still try and play
as much original music as I can when it inspires me.
But I guess just the reality is that, you know,

(20:02):
I've got a family and we just bought a new house,
and a lot of my time is spent in making
a living as a musician. I'm a real hustler. I mean,
I'm always playing all kinds of different places. I mean,
that's what makes my job interesting and fun, is that
I don't go back to the same place every day.
You know, I play in the bars, the restaurants, clubs, casinos,
I'm in the country clubs. I do a ton of

(20:25):
weddings and corporate events, that kind of thing. So always
trying to keep myself as busy as possible, keeping my
calendar full and making a living doing it.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Did you you and your brother ever professionally record anything? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (20:38):
We made.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
I mean I've made CDs. Even saying CDs now sounds
very antiquated, but we put out many CDs over the years,
and I did the same with We did two albums
here with Boulevard of the Allies. We have music on Spotify.
If you want to hear any of my music, you
can either look up my name Joel Lindsay I've got
some solo stuff, or you can look up Boulevard of
the Allies the usual platforms and you'll find some of

(21:02):
our music on there. You can even look up easy
from when I was fourteen years old playing James the
Cat at the Bull and Gate in London, looking like
a complete nutter. Yeah, I don't like the same person
as I used to, but that's probably expected. But yeah,
I was a little rock and roller back in the day.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Oh, so your father was and your mother were both
very influential in your life. But tell me about London.
What was the sound of London, What was the radio like?
What did you listen to at the time? Did you
did you spend more time listening to the radio or
maybe seeing bands live? What was your life like?

Speaker 3 (21:41):
We definitely went to see bands. My dad always took
us to see groups. But I think the things that
we were listening to in London growing up were definitely
different to what a lot of people were listening to here.
And I can hear that in if I play a
typical three hour set of cover songs, it's going to
be different to what the pit's play. And I think
it's just because of what I was listening to growing

(22:02):
up and what they were listening to growing up. Some
of my favorite bands growing up were I loved the
Spin Doctors, I liked Extreme you know. So there were
American rock bands. I wasn't really that much listening to,
you know, Metallica. I tended to kind of listen to
the more gentler rock. I wasn't into like really heavy stuff.

(22:26):
I wasn't into heavy metal that kind of thing. I
liked songs with a good melody. As I mentioned before,
you know Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, some of these great vocalists,
Paul Rodgers. I was always about a great melody and
a great vocal and that's, you know, what I've instilled
in the way that I perform.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
Now.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
I feel like my quest in life as a musician
is just to refine my vocals and my guitar playing.
And I'm my own biggest critic. I think a lot
of musicians would relate to this. You know, a good
gig isn't just how the crowd enjoyed it. A good
gig to me is I felt good. I felt like
I sang in tune, everything went well, I could hear myself,

(23:05):
you know, the monitors were right. That's what really makes
me go home and feel good. You know, I'm hypercritical
of myself, and you are. That's I think that's what
makes me strive to be a better musician. I'm always
recording myself, listening back, trying to figure out how I
can improve my technique, that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Do you play every day? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (23:27):
I do play every day.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Do you record yourself every day?

Speaker 3 (23:30):
I don't, but I make a lot of little recordings,
videos that I'll watch back, and I think it's a
great Not enough musicians do this, in my opinion, Just
film yourself with your phone. If you've just learned a song,
if you've written a song, film it, record it, watch
it back, and then you can just you yourself. CanCERN
I can see that I sang that a little flat there,

(23:50):
or that expression wasn't quite right, or I didn't put
a breath in the right place there. That could have
been better. There's something that I do a lot of film,
you know, film and watch back and figure out I
can improve. There are some singers in Pittsburgh that I
really really admire. In fact, honestly, when I when I
first heard him sing, I said to myself, you know,

(24:11):
I can live in this town. I'm not. I'm certainly
not too good of a musician to live in this town.
That's that's for certain. When some of these guys are here,
I'm talking about guys like Pete Hewlett, you know we're talking.
Pete's fantastic. I love the voice of guys like Freddie

(24:32):
Nelson is another really good singer. He sings with Trey's Lads.
Very nice guy as well. So that there's a there's
a few of them that I just really admire in town.
And there's Pittsburgh has always had a lot of great talent.
You know, there's plenty of people to admire here in
this town.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
You had never gone to the You've never been to
the States prior to meeting Amy.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
I had. I spent a lot of time in America.
I was I was in New York a lot, but
I ever been to Pittsburgh. I didn't really know much
about it. In fact, there was one year that me
and a few flatmates were watching the Super Bowl. We
stayed up till three o'clock in the morning to watch it,
and Amy, because the Steelers were in the Super Bowl.
Amy in London in our flat made us a Shmaugas

(25:16):
board of things that we'd never heard of. She made
this sandwich with coleslaw and meat on white bread. She
made us these things called perogi's, and she made this
whole spread and back then we ate it, but we
didn't know what the heck any of it was. Now
of course, in fact, last night I was at Primana's
last night having a my wife made an observation, Actually,
you know, the Brits We love a good fish and chips,

(25:38):
so I always get the colossal fish sandwich at Promanna's.
It's basically a fish and chips sandwich. Yeah, you know,
it's pretty close to what we have at home. It's
just the Americans had the genius idea of taking fish
and chips, putting it between two pieces of bread, and
shoving it down their mouths.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
And you've seen the size of Pittsburgh. We do it
way too often.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
I'm getting there too.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
Okay, So you had been to the States prior to
moving to Pittsburgh. So when, but had you had you
played professionally in New York and things like that.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
No, I really, I really hadn't ever played here. And
when I first moved here, I was still you know,
I would take a gig in Times Square from Pittsburgh.
So I packed my guitar up in our little car
and I would drive across to play my gig in
New York, and then the next day I would I'd
drive back home. So I did a lot of traveling
using Pittsburgh as a bass and then with the use

(26:34):
of you know, the Internet, I did a lot more
stuff virtually, particularly during the pandemic. I was one of
these musicians that was doing the evening shows online, you know,
performing to people all over you know, in any country
that knew me, they were watching me, which was a
really cool time I think for musicians to be inspired

(26:54):
to put on their own shows from home. So, you know,
as terrible as that that period of time was the pandemic,
musicians like myself found a new avenue to do these performances.
And it was the first time since moving to Pittsburgh
that my family back home in London were We're watching
me play live.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Oh that's great.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
Yeah, yeah, it makes you ask, well, why don't we
all do that more often? We can, but we don't,
but we probably should because there's a whole world out
there we could be performing too if we wanted to
do more of these you know, live online performances.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Americans get accused of not being well traveled, especially from Brits,
and now that you've lived here, you kind of realize
how big this country. Oh for sure.

Speaker 6 (27:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
But one of the things I hear so much living
here is, oh, it's my dream to go to London.
I've never been saying. It's really have you ever been
to you know, Seattle? It's about the same plane trip.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
You know.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
It's like with the little plug for British Airways. You
know they now have this direct flight now to London,
so my wife, son and I will go at least
once a year. It's like six and a half hours
and you're there one one single flight and another thing.
I think people don't realize. So when we went back
last to London. Once you're in London, we took we
went into King's Cross station and then from there you

(28:11):
can take a train and we went to Brussels. So
we were there, you know, and we spent a few
days in a completely different country while you're in London.
I mean it's the same as being in Pittsburgh and
taking a trip to you know.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
We're Pittsburgh, is we if we are in the north,
we don't go south through and nobody goes west. Do
you have to explain that to try to be mad?

Speaker 1 (28:36):
So?

Speaker 2 (28:36):
All right, so you're in the band Easy. You did
some recordings with your brother, Yes, was there any other
other stories from from England that you would like to
you know record?

Speaker 3 (28:51):
It was only really that we tried hard as a band,
just like a lot of bands, you know, we promoted
ourselves we played good gigs, but the thing that always
just struck me was that we just weren't making any
money doing it. And that's the hardest thing, to put
all of your time and energy into something and to
not be able to support yourself.

Speaker 6 (29:09):
Was it an expensive city London, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Just incredibly expensive and Amy and I, you know, when
we lived in a very humble flat and it was moldy,
and it was gross, and the landlord was a nightmare,
and it was costing us a fortune just to live there.
So that's why when I first came to Pittsburgh, and honestly,
we'd save some money, and within the first couple of
months of living in Pittsburgh, we ended up buying our
first place in the North Side and it was very inexpensive,

(29:35):
I mean really inexpensive, and we lived there for many
years and had a good life in the North Side.
We recently moved to a different part of town, but
I just couldn't believe back then, you know, especially seventeen
years ago. Pittsburgh has got a bit more expensive in
recent years, but seventeen years ago that we bought a
very cheap house in the North Side, but I was
just so happy. We were homeowners, and that was something

(29:57):
that was practically impossible coming from a city like London.
And I'm not putting down London, but something that somebody
once said to me was, you know, London is a
city where you're kind of you're just trying to survive
and meet, make ends meet. But with Pittsburgh, when we
first moved here, you can live here. You know, you
can have a good quality of life. You have a house,

(30:18):
you can have a car. You know, it doesn't cost that.
It doesn't cost an arm on a leg to have
a decent life here. So again, I'm a big fan
of the city and it has treated me very well,
and you know, I call it my home these days.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
To steal a line from staying a stranger in New York,
a stranger in Pittsburgh when you first came here, how
did you develop your career here?

Speaker 3 (30:42):
I got to say, just when you said that line,
it just made me. It reminded me of the fact
that I hate ordering a glass of water anywhere here.
If I'm in a restaurant, I'll just say to Amy,
can you just please orderable? I want a glass at
water and can have a water because I hate having
to say I hate having to say. That's when I
feel most like an alien in Pittsburgh, when I just

(31:03):
have to order a glass of water. It's just one
of those words. My dad has a story when he
had met my mum and he was in New York
and he was with all of her family a big
table in New York, and he was asked what flavor
ice cream, let's say he was going to order, and
he said the word raspberry, and the whole place laughed,
And he still to this day said, never say the
word raspberry in America. I just can't say it. And

(31:25):
for me, my one is water. Don't walk to ever
order a water because they won't understand you, and they'll
look at you like you're from another planet.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Well, you've been here long enough that there's a lot
of words we don't pronounce very well.

Speaker 6 (31:38):
Why are in theresh Yeah?

Speaker 3 (31:42):
Yeahs accidently Yeah, So some of it's I mean, I
wouldn't say that the yins of stuff has crept into
my dialect, but I do use. There are a few
words that I probably do use. I didn't before I
moved to I'll say route rather than root. Used to
take this route, but now it's that route and I

(32:02):
and I go back home my family, Like Joe, you're
talking with a with an American accent. Anyone listening to
this will think that's completely nuts, that I'm definitely sound British.
But yeah, I've been. I've definitely americanized. Another one was
went out with my dad to a calf back home
in London.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
A cafe.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
We call it a calf and for a fry up,
good British breakfast. Guy comes over, drinks tea t te.
He points at me, I'll have a coffee. Everyone looks
at me, like, what did you just say? You can't
order a coffee at a calf? Totally faux pa. But
I'm a massive I'm literally holding a coffee in my
right hand right now. I'm a big coffee drinker. And honestly,

(32:42):
I'd never even tasted a coffee before I moved to America.
Yeah no, I was tea all the way.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Those Beaver County girls will change your changer, that'll change.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
I told what your question about being an alien in
Pittsburgh the Sting song. I feel so at home here now,
it's it's kind of it's that's not a thing anymore.
I've been here so long now When I go back
to London, I'm the guy with the phone taking pictures
of Big Ben in the House of Parliament. I see
that city in such a different way, even though I

(33:13):
spent my whole life there, I come to appreciate it.
It's so differently. But when I get home to Pittsburgh,
the plain Lands, Pittsburgh Airport, and I get back in
my truck and I'm driving home, I feel at home.
Isn't that weird to say, But Pittsburgh has become my home.
I've been here so long.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
Your first gig when you moved to Pittsburgh, where was it?
Was it in Pittsburgh or did you have to go
to New York Like you said?

Speaker 3 (33:35):
It was the Open Mics actualy that in Beaver County, right,
It was a Beaver Bridgewater Thursday. I was playing quite
a lot, but the Copper Dog. There were a few
places right where Amy lived in Beaver that people were
very welcoming. They were they were they liked the music
that I was playing. I played at Kelly's in in
that area as well, Kelly's Riverside Saloon places down there,

(33:59):
and it was just something was happening. I felt like
people were listening to me, and obviously you know I
was different. I was British and I've I've always worked
that to my advantage, you know, right right today. You know,
one of our big lines of work here is we
run a little entertainment company, my wife and I. We
specialize in private events and weddings. And as part of that,

(34:19):
you know, I'm still singing and playing guitar, but I
do some DJ work and I do some MC work
as well, so you know, the British accent, I mean,
you know, it's definitely a good selling point for me
when I've got to promote myself as an MC. If
people can understand what I'm saying, I do have to
say dance floor rather than dance floor. There's a few
words that I've had to adapt to make sure no

(34:40):
one's missing the things that I'm saying. Plus, you know,
when it when it comes, if it's a wedding and
I've got to introduce the family, I've got to run
through some of those Polish and.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
In Pittsburgh, they're tricky for even for us exactly.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
I mean, it's hard for an American to pronounce them.
I've got I've got to figure it out with my
British accent. It makes I don't screw the whole thing
up because I don't want, you know, some uncle from
Poland coming over.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Afterwards saying, you just completely screwed up my last name.
So and you get one chance to get it right chance,
one chance you mess up. That's one of the big, big.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
Pressure moments of a wedding is looking at that list
of very weird last names and think I've got somehow
pronounced every one of these correctly, and there was have
been big trouble.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
So are you familiar with the movie Anchorman?

Speaker 6 (35:30):
You know?

Speaker 1 (35:30):
You know?

Speaker 2 (35:31):
Like, yeah, I always say when you're when I'm pronouncing
a name somewhere, write it phonetically, because I am ron Burgundy.
I will pronounce it that way. If you write it wrong,
it's going to be pronounced wrong, all right. So maybe
this is a misconception, but it seems to me, even
the Beatles to a certain extent, seeing almost in an

(35:54):
American accent.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
I get asked this a lot as well. Yeah, people,
because I'm guilty, well guilty of it. It's just the
way that it comes out to me. It's just it's
almost like playing a character. But it depends on what
I'm covering. I mean, if I'm playing a Johnny Cash song,
a little bit that Johnny Cash is going to come out.
But if I'm covering an Oasis song, it's gonna it's
not going to have that American sort of sound. To me,

(36:20):
the American accent has a nice flow to it that's
a bit more musical. I think if I were to
use my accent and sing a Stevie Wonder song, it
just wouldn't sound right. It just it just wouldn't sound right.
Whereas you know, if I'm doing a Beatles number, it's
I can use my accent, but it's not something that
I do consciously. I have an I have a background

(36:42):
in acting on you know, a big theater background growing
up as a kid, and I think when I when
i'm if i'm particularly if I'm covering an artist, there's
a part of my brain that is aware of who
did the song originally, and that creeps in and so
the accent maybe adapts to trying to, you know, emulate
that that person and who did this song originally.

Speaker 6 (37:01):
There's a rock accent, though, don't you think there's like
a I don't know if you accents the right word
but there's a way to sound when you sing rock music,
don't you think.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
Well, I think a lot of Brits have an American accent,
and then there's a lot of Americans who were influenced
by the Stones and the Beatles that sing almost in
a British accent. Of course, then there's Madonna, who just
went full British brit right there. You brought a guitar.
I don't want to get too far without playing some music,

(37:33):
so I got singing with a British accent. Now, conversation,
I was gonna say that.

Speaker 3 (37:38):
You know Paul McCartney, who everybody loves, You're gonna go
and see him play?

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (37:42):
We get tickets?

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Oh yeah, yes, I've read. I've put a second mortgage
on my house and I going to afford exactly.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
I was just having a conversation with someone about what
is too much to spend on a McCartney ticket, and
I don't know what that is.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
But see, he's the last one on my bucket list.
You've never seen him. I've never seen God. I've seen
Ringo a number of times. I have a dog name Ringoing,
and so I'm a huge Beatles fan and to not
have ever seen Paul. He's my hero.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
I've seen him a couple of times. I saw him.
I saw him in London and I've seen him. I've
seen him here as well.

Speaker 2 (38:14):
He was here.

Speaker 3 (38:15):
He doesn't take breaks during a three hour set. He's unbelievable.

Speaker 6 (38:20):
Yeah, Jonathan went to see him. He said, yeah, he's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Yeah, straight songs.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
I like to have a sip of water.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
And it's too bad that he doesn't have any songs
to sing. He just like, no, he's singing the hokey
pokey now there's nothing.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
Laughed Yep, exactly.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
No, he's an absolute He's an absolute hero of mine.
But you know, I cover a bunch of his stuff,
but a lot of the music that I write is
also inspired by him. I don't think that my music
sounds like the Beatles, but the one thing that I've
always got from them is just the importance of a
great hook. And I think in a lot of Beatles songs,
the hook doesn't just come in in the chorus and

(39:00):
the verses. They got hooks in all over the place,
and the basslines a certain iconic it's every part of it.
You know, it's ingrained in us. We know every If
you're a Beatles fan, you know it's it's all just
we know every single part of all of their songs.

Speaker 2 (39:15):
And Ringo was such a musical drummer. Now was he
John Barnham type? No, but every every, just about every
Beatles song had a different beat.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
Yeah, and he made some choices. I mean, you listen
to something like in My Life and the beat that
he plays in that. I think if he lined up
one hundred professional drummers, none of them would have played
that beat that he designed for that particular song. Anyway,
I should I do a number?

Speaker 2 (39:44):
I think you should. I really wish you well.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
We can let everybody know that it's early in the
morning and that if my voice gets a little croaky
then it's because you know, I'm a rock and roller
and I don't know it comes to three o'clock in
the afternoon.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
That's not it's five o'clock in London times.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
That's true. Just having a sip of any whiskey in
here now, No, No, you have to deal with the water.
A little sip off what the water?

Speaker 4 (40:13):
Thank you?

Speaker 2 (40:15):
All right? So what are we playing? Is this in
a Regin?

Speaker 1 (40:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (40:18):
I got to do an original song and this is
a you know, these days, I'm inspired to write a
song by a moment. This was just a moment. It's
my wife and I were having an argument, as a
lot of couples have, and it was just something that
that she said in this moment, and that one line

(40:38):
kind of made me write a song. I love my wife,
she's like my biggest partner in crime. But she doesn't
like this song because it's about an argument. But when
you're a songwriter, God, that sounds a bit pretentious. But
so anyway, when you're a songwriter, you know when when
the moment calls, and if something inspires you, you you
turn it into a song if you can. So that's

(40:59):
what I did with this.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
And what is it called.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
It's a song called if you've got something to say,
just say it. And this is my newest tune. So
that's not what you think of this. Here we go,
try to get closer.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
Yes morning in the kitchen, cort breakfast, silent treatment, last beginning,
this fight last night, it can only meet we turning
back in time again. The coffee is on the table
and suddenly the words are come and hot. Well this
nine am, and I felt it when she said, I
can't be something that I am not skipped the nice
of these skipped the beat ticking up to the level tenth.

(41:46):
She's red, laying in, attempts to climb in two late
and tired to bring it down again.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
Neither whole on me. Would never pitch and see the
day as dark as this.

Speaker 1 (41:56):
You can't patch your up or make your way out.
Shot lad her with a maker kiss. This is the
reason that I on you. It is the beason.

Speaker 5 (42:04):
Shoot.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
Go hold on them, Hold on me.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
You've heard it all before. No one, no reason that
iargue it is the Beason. Shoot, go hold on them,
hold on me. If you got something to saint, just
say two nights passing, we both had a chance contemplate
the holy mess we're made.

Speaker 4 (42:25):
I digest to have the taste. I don't have the
energy or time to waste.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
No.

Speaker 4 (42:30):
Typically, normally we'll find a common ground, a way to
work it out. Within the back of my mind, I'm
wondering if it's too late.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
The time is sinking. Ship boo round, I text, She
goes no answer. I'm the most forgiving man, but understand,
I understand you.

Speaker 4 (42:47):
You're keeping upper hand.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
I call a voice mount leave a message to tell
you now if I could choke you. I tell you
there's no way and help, that I am walking out
at the peas, and that it's the peas and n shoot,
do hold on them.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
Hold on me.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
You've hearted all before. I know no reason that I
warn you. It's the peason.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
I should go hold on, hold on me.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
You've got something to say, just say it. A little
time out, we can catch our breath, a little mumment.
We can see what's left, the.

Speaker 4 (43:25):
Corners of your mouth, turn up, what's next, trying to
make a smile. That's a recept press. So much potential,
But we don't change so much, easier to eat the pain.
We're all good for each other, she cries in vain.
We've never been good or good.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
Bass boy, something's different this time, miss and Nit feeling
it down to the pavement. Give me the chance to
build and grow a too little, too late, sea late,
she goes, too.

Speaker 4 (43:48):
Madden our wretched duneze done. Oh the door and oh yeah,
she runs silence. Choose me to the bone. You know
it hurts like a bullet when you're on alone. The
reason that I an you is the peason. Should go
hold on, Hold on me. You voted on no.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
Reason that I want you is the peason I should
go hold on me, hold on me. You've got something
to say, Just say the reason that I want you
is the peason.

Speaker 4 (44:21):
I should go. Hold on me, Hold on me. You
voted oh before no, No. The reason that I awed
you is the peason. I should go hold on me,
hold on me. You've got something to say, just say it.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
All right, Well, knowing that you're married to a beaver
counting girl, I bet eventually she eventually did say it.
Let me let me break down something. Something that occurred
to me is that you mentioned Paul Simon and John
the cash. I don't. I don't, and I didn't hear
any Beatle influencing that, nor American, but certainly the British

(45:10):
cadence almost like a Robbie Williams and uh and Oasis
kind of a that just that a different pace than
that a lot of Americans would write in. You have
a different voice, a very unique voice.

Speaker 6 (45:26):
I thought that when I first heard some of your originals,
it sounded fresh to me. It was just a different cadence.
I think that's the right word, Johnny, Yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (45:36):
Think I set out to write a song with lots
of words I wanted. I wanted to write a song
that had material things that I could do with my voice,
So I needed I needed words. Prior to this song,
during the pandemic, I wrote two songs I had put
out and I ended up, you know, did some radio
stuff with them because they they had a kind of

(45:57):
a very kind of sentimental message. I wrote a song
called Take Some Love and Pass It On. It was
again a pandemic song. It was about how I noticed
that people were, you know, in these very hard times,
were being really good to each other and trying to
take care of each other. But a song like that,
it only had like fifteen words in it. It was

(46:18):
kind of sparse. So when I wrote this song, the
one that I just performed, I wanted one that had
words in it gave me space to put in a
lot of lines. It's not a rap song, but it's
got that same kind of I yeah, a ton of
lyrics in it, but it's kind of like an argument,
you know, when you're when you're arguing, you're just there's

(46:38):
a back and forth. And I think with this song,
it's almost like there's lots of words because there were
two people having the conversation, so it wasn't just me talking.
It's as if we're both you know, you could split
the lines up between two people. That's why there's a
ton of lines in there.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
But Amy was the muse on that song, Do you
find You find her? She's your muse, She's made your son.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
My wife is is has always been my my muse.
But you know it's I still write songs that aren't
necessarily happy, though, and I am happily married. I love
my love Amy, But there's something about writing an angry
song or a song about a moment that wasn't very happy,
like this song. Like I said, she, you know, truthfully,

(47:23):
she doesn't like this song. I said, I'm going to
go on, I'm going to go and do this thing today.
I'll probably do that song. And I could tell she
was like, do that song, but she's you know, she
was okay with it, and she just and it's it's
hard to explain why a songwriter would write a song
that isn't very happy when when in fact they are happy.
But it's just as an artist, as a as a musician,

(47:44):
we it was a moment, it was an art, it
was a fight that we had, and this is how
it came out. But there are plenty of songs that
aren't aren't like this one. And you know there's James
the Cat. I mean that was that was not about
an argument. That was just I don't know, I don't
know what that was about.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
What was that song about.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
It was just a silly song about a black and
white cat that lived in a garden. But my songs,
the songs that I've written over the years, I do
try and write from the truth.

Speaker 6 (48:14):
These songs are very reflective.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
Yeah they are.

Speaker 3 (48:16):
I tend not to write I won't write about nothing.
I'll write about an experience, something that's happened to me.
Another sort of significant song that I wrote as far
as my musical career. I wrote a song called Man
in the Photograph when I first moved here to Pittsburgh,
and it's about my dad and my grandfather. When I

(48:37):
was a little kid, I loved my granddad. He was
quite a grumpy man, but as a little kid, I
would always kind of make him smile or just kind
of get to him. And my dad always said, you know,
Granddad loves you. He thinks he thinks you're great. Even
though he was a grump that sat in his armchair
and didn't smile that much anyway. Years later, I found
this photograph of my granddad and my grandma, white picture,

(49:00):
and I've never seen this picture before. I found it
when I was about twenty five twenty six years old,
and it was a picture of my granddad when he
was that age. And I looked at it and it
was like looking in the mirror. I had no idea
that I looked so much like my granddad. It was
like it was like, like I said, it was like
looking in a mirror, and it's like, wow, I kind
of am my granddad. Does that mean I'm going to

(49:21):
end up being a grumpy old man? Almost? Definitely?

Speaker 2 (49:23):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
So I wrote I wrote a song about this is.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Living in Pittsburgh. We all end that bad way?

Speaker 6 (49:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
So I wrote a song called the Man and I'm.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
Not going through two bridges to go over there exactly?

Speaker 3 (49:35):
Why is what is Pittsburgh's problem with that across a
bloody bridge?

Speaker 2 (49:39):
Because there's too many of them and there's too many
bridges driving ten miles an hour ahead of Its not
me and we're blaming you. Is there another song I
can get you.

Speaker 4 (49:49):
Is that a great song?

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Man?

Speaker 2 (49:51):
You play that song?

Speaker 4 (49:52):
Yeah, I could do Mana in.

Speaker 6 (49:52):
The photogoph That was I think the first song I
ever heard you do.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
It's another song, that's just it was something that was
very real. I don't write a song unless I've got
a reason to write a song.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
And how often do you find yourself writing it? Is
it just whenever the mood hits you. It's some hart.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
It's hard to sort of be honest because it's it's
just I'll just be truthful and say, you know, I'm older.
I'm forty three years old now, and I don't do
it as much as I used to. It's just, you know,
your life such a cliche. Life gets in the way
and you have different priorities. But now I write a
song if it cools to me, if something you know says,
you know, there's a song here, You've got to sit

(50:31):
down and do it. So I'll grab my guitar and
I'll do it. But when I was younger, I mean
I would. I could write five songs in a week.
But that's just not the way it is anymore. But this,
this was a song that I wrote about fifteen years ago,
and this is an important song to me because it's
about my dad and about my grand my.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Grandfather and what was your father's name, and what was
your grandfather's name.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
My dad, who's still living back home, is Eric and
my grandfather was Immanuel.

Speaker 5 (50:59):
That's good, So.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
All right, let's do this one.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Am I close enough to the mic? So I'm trying,
all right? This is man in the photograph goes like this.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
The man in the photograph is me. He's staring down
the world from the mantlepiece. Because after a time and
the picture frame and in my mind and will always remain,
I'm the son of the son of the man I see.

Speaker 4 (51:38):
I know that smile, I know those eyes. I know
that soul that was pasted to me. It was pasted
to me. It was passed to me Thomas. It's the
sippiest sky.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
But the world the same in his life, and those
eyes he stained and faded mammalvies.

Speaker 4 (51:52):
But the yoda you get them more. You see, he
loved me.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
My grandmother tells me I was a child, but I
remember clearly in the years past, and the boy grows
up to see the man in the photograph is me.
The man in the photograph is me.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
He and the pitch hockey.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
She has a spy with his wife to be and
his army stripes, to sit against the black and white sea,
beautiful horizon where heaven moppy, no man can't see. She
takes my hand, tells me how we look the same,
and it helps the painter.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
It comes to pain through.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
The glass of staring to his eyes. He stays back
and becomes a light. We share a moment together. He
begets me nearer to or play something not ready for.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
But I will see him again. I will see him again. This,
I'm sure. Is this my reflection.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Staring back at me, sit beyond similarity.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
The man in the photograph is me, and we sang
gay Gang Guy Gay, said the man in the photographs.
Me why a man? Why man?

Speaker 6 (53:06):
Man?

Speaker 4 (53:09):
Said the man in the photographs.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
Me oh, by guy, guy Guy, guy Guy said The
man in the photo graphs me.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
All right.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
My father stood alone one silent stars shone down like
diamond lights. Although I couldn't see his eyes, he whispered
into the window so quietly, lying away it.

Speaker 4 (53:41):
Suddenly he said, I.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
Was just a boy, but I knew some and it
changed something inside me.

Speaker 4 (53:51):
Told me to stay.

Speaker 1 (53:53):
Then he looked down with tearful lies, and he said, song,
the man in the photographs, the man in the photographs,
the man in the photograph is free, and we sangay, guy, Guy, Guy, Guy,

(54:15):
I said, the man in the photographs me all right,
the man in the photographs me staring down the world
from the man on pieces have the timing to picture frame,
and in my mind it will always remain I'm the
son of the son of the.

Speaker 4 (54:33):
Man I see. I know that smile, I know those ohs,
I know that soul. It was pasted to me. It
was pasted to me. It was passed to me.

Speaker 2 (54:51):
That is great, that's really great. Did Emmanuel Was he
a musician as well?

Speaker 6 (54:56):
No, he was not.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
He was not a musician at all. But he supports
to my dad and he got my dad his first guitar.
I do come from a line of musicians going back.
But no, he was quite a serious, kind of a
i'll say, grumpy, grumpy man.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
But I just I just.

Speaker 3 (55:16):
If I was a little kid that always wore a
baseball cap, and he'd say to me, Joel, if you
always wear that baseball cap, your hair is going to
fall out. One day, Granddad, My head did not fall out.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
We talk about your songwriting and influencers. Who influenced your
guitar playing?

Speaker 3 (55:32):
My dad, I mean, my dad was my biggest influence,
but I think the guitar playing, you know, also the Beatles,
Paul McCartney. I don't consider myself any kind of a
virtuo so guitar player, it's just a means to write
a song. Same for piano. I play a little piano
as well, and I think someone like McCartney would probably

(55:53):
say the same thing. You know, he doesn't consider himself,
you know, he's no Eddie van Halen. But it's to
be able to playing an instrument competently. That's your that's
your instrument that you can use to create a song.
You can't really create a song unless you can play
a little bit of an instrument.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
Do you collaborate with with Amy at all? Ever?

Speaker 3 (56:14):
I think Christmas Songs is the only time that we
do anything, although now that we have our seven year
old son, we we do a little bit. My son Levi,
who as I mentioned, he's everything. He's just starting now
take playing piano lessons and he's got this great piano
piano teacher who's teaching him first first song he's learning

(56:34):
is Stairway to Heaven on the piano. A good piano teacher,
I like starting there. Wow, Okay, So he's playing Stairway
to Heaven on the piano and I'll try and strum
along the guitars the guitar with him, and Amy's on
the bass on the piano and she's playing, so he's
he's making Amy and I kind of play together a
little bit. So it's nice when the three of us
are are doing something musically. But generally Amy and I

(56:55):
would just come from such different musical backgrounds that if
we played any more music together, I'm probably gonna end
up writing another horrible song like I did. Yeah, she
doesn't want me to put her in another song like that.
So now she's a fantastic musician. Like I said, she's
a Duqune University graduate who made her way eventually to Rome, Italy,

(57:15):
and then to London where she got her master's degree.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Which is how we met and how did you meet?

Speaker 3 (57:20):
We met one fateful night at a very hard to
get into club called Cafe Royale. It's a nineteen twenties
bar in London. There's no sign up above the place.
It's a kind of a late night place, and you
have to dress like your nineteen twenties. The shoes, the trousers, shirt,

(57:41):
everything you're wearing. The dress for the ladies has got
to be absolutely spot on nineteen twenties. There's a guy
at the door that will look you up and down,
and if you're wearing a pro nikes, forget it, points
the other way.

Speaker 2 (57:51):
You're not coming in.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
So you know, I'm dressed up with some buddies. She's
with some friends. We meet at Cafe Royale, dressed in
our nineteen twenties gear. In fact, we're at the bar
ordering drinks, a very busy place, and I've had a
couple of Gin and Tonics and I overhear her ordering
with her American accent, her Pittsburgh accent. She's ordering herself

(58:13):
a drink. I've had a couple of drinks. I think
I'm funny. It's a noisy bar. I put on an
American accent. You don't want to hear it.

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Oh, I know, come on, how.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
Did you my New York accent totally? Hey, you're an
American too, you know. I can't believe I just did that.
It was very noisy. I don't know if she thought
maybe I was just being cute or she did fall
for it. I do think she fell for it. But
we chatted for about ten minutes with me pretending I
was an American. Hey, isn't it a small world with

(58:44):
both American in this bar in London?

Speaker 2 (58:46):
Well, technically your mother was was American, so yeah, but
I was talking like this, like I was Rocky Balbo
from New York City.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
I didn't know why I was doing that.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
I only don't know why you were doing that either,
But all right, keep going, keep going.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
But the next day, you know, I texted her and
I said, oh, we met last night in the bar,
and she said something like, yeah, I remember, you were
the guy pretending to be American. But yeah, it was
such a cool setting. I guess I should name drop
a little bit and say that, you know, this club
was a very cool place. There were a bunch of
celebrities walking around. There was Kelly Osbourne was there. I

(59:20):
think Jules Holland was there that night as well. He's
a British musician. But it was a very cool spot
and that's where we met. Dressed in nineteen twenties, gearing
in a nineteen twenties bar in central London.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
And so you texted, ended up dating. Where'd you go
in there? First date?

Speaker 3 (59:38):
Yeah, we ended up dating for a while, and my
mom and dad actually were out of town. They were
actually visiting the States. They were in New York for
a few weeks and when they came back, they met Amy.
And I never dated an American girl before, but my
mum who was living back then, like I said, she
was a New Yorker, and they hit it off. They

(01:00:00):
really got along really well. And I remember when Thanksgiving
came around. We never celebrated Thanksgiving in London, even though
my mom was in New Yorker, and you know, my
two brothers and sister and my dad, we didn't have
a thing for Thanksgiving. But the first Thanksgiving when I
had Amy over, my mom went all out. She made
the sweet potato and with the marshmallows on top, and

(01:00:22):
she did the whole shebang and we had a proper
Thanksgiving dinner. So my mum was really happy to have
another fellow American in the house and they got along
really well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Yeah, that's a great story.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
Yeah, we missed my mom. I'm glad that Amy got
to got to got to get to know my mom
pretty well as well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
You're Afley, you're still very young. But do you what
do you wear aspire to?

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
That's a really hard question because I don't know whether
our lives will I don't know whether we'll always stay
in Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
Obviously.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
The whole thing about living here is my family being
back in London, and we try and get to see
them as much as possible, and they come out to
visit once in a while, not often enough, but they
should come out. You know, we get we get to
see each other, but I just it's hard to be
away from from everyone, especially with my dad getting you know,
he's in his late seventies. Sorry, Dad, I won't I
won't tell them exactly how old you are. So it's

(01:01:22):
that's the hardest thing is it's just being away from them.
So I don't know whether, you know, at some point
in the future we'd move back. I don't know how
we would do it. It's the problem because we have
so much set up here and I've just become so
accustomed to life in Pittsburgh. I don't know how we
would leave. You know, Levi's in a really good school here,
and like I said, we recently just bought a new
house that we really love here. So but yeah, I mean,

(01:01:45):
living living in a in a country away from your
family is just the hardest part. It's the hardest part.
But it's it's amazing technology.

Speaker 6 (01:01:53):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:53):
We were all on WhatsApp, and a lot of Americans
use WhatsApp, but it's it's an app that we use.
We can call each other all the time, so we're
always calling and speaking to each other and seeing what
we're all up to. But you know, Amy and I
only we just have one our little boy LEVI no siblings,
and he has one hundred cousins back home in London,

(01:02:15):
so he'd love to be seeing them more often. So
it's it's something that we struggle with a lot, you know,
being so far away from home. But my mom, I mentioned,
she was, she traveled, she she she did the same
thing that I did. So my parents were never mad
at me for what I did because they know that
I'm doing the same thing that they did. My mum
moved from New York and lived her life eventually in England,

(01:02:38):
and I've I've gone the opposite way. I met an
American and I moved to America. She met an Englishman
she moved to England. I think I've always just really
admired my parents, and I think I just kind of
they lived incredible lives, and I think in some way,
I'm trying to trying to live out, you know, the
things that they did. So my family support me for

(01:02:59):
being out here, but it's not easy being being so
far away from them, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
What would you like to see? What would you like
your legacy to be.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
In Pittsburgh.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
It's an open question. Whether it's professionally, maybe it's family wise.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
What would you like I think it's just hard work.
I think I think that's something that I try and
teach my son and other younger musicians who I meet.
When I tell somebody that I make a full time
living as a musician in Pittsburgh, it gets a big reaction.
I do, honestly find that because I think I'm one
of the few guys that doesn't work a boring office

(01:03:38):
job during the day, you know. And we talked about,
you know, some of the side of my business doing
the corporate events and the weddings. It's not the most
fun thing to do, but it's still a lot more
fun than a cubicle job, working at nine to five,
and I always try and remind myself of that. You know,
as hard work as you know, a wedding can be,
you know, dealing with brides and mother of and all

(01:04:00):
the things that go into a wedding. It can be
quite stressful and it's not always fun. It can be
a lot of work and very long days. But you know,
on those days where the weddings are a lot of work,
or the corporate events, it's you know, I've always kept
myself out of doing a nine nine to five, you know,
sitting behind a computer looking at spreadsheets. That's not my life.

(01:04:22):
My life is working evenings and weekends. But you know,
this whole summer holiday right now, with my son being off,
I spend every day with him. I don't have to
go to a job in the daytime. I get to
spend spend it with my wife. We go for coffees
during the day when we want to, and I play
with my son in the backyard when I want to.
Because that's the that's my my schedule. My schedule is

(01:04:46):
I work evenings, and you know, I think it does
it is kind of a strange. It's a strange one
for friends. A lot of my friends have the same
kind of schedules.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
Me.

Speaker 3 (01:04:57):
I'm good friends with a lot of photography and musicians,
and it's hard to be friends with people who work
a nine to five because you know, I'll say, well,
when do you want to get a drink? You want
to do it like a Tuesday at three o'clock in
the afternoon. They're like, no, I can't do it Tuesday
at three o'clock in the afternoon, you know. And I
don't get those Friday and Saturdays to go out and
have a good time with people, and I miss a lot.

(01:05:18):
I don't always get to go to big things. I've
really got a plan ahead if someone's having a wedding
or a big event and it's a Saturday night. I mean,
most of throughout the year, I pretty much work. You know,
I could if I wanted to work every single Saturday
in the year. I basically could if I wanted to.
I've got I've got to make sure that I leave
space in my schedule and mark off things like for

(01:05:38):
holidays for vacations. Otherwise I would just work every single Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday and Sunday in the whole year.

Speaker 6 (01:05:45):
You know in this conversation you answered the legacy question
that it would be working. But as you're speaking, I
can hear another priority come through, and that's being with
your family.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
Absolutely, you know, Yeah, I take a lot of pride
in the things that we've accomplished since moving here without anything.
We didn't have money, we didn't have This was a
completely new city to me. I didn't know anything about it.
My wife and I we were just we were just
having a good time. We didn't have prospects. My very

(01:06:21):
first job when I moved here was working at sharper
Image in South Side Works, a place that since closed down.
I was selling those massage chairs. I didn't know what
I was doing, heren't. I knew that I liked Pittsburgh,
but I wasn't making ends meet. It was only when
I started to realize that I could play a bar gig.
And back then, you know, making one hundred and fifty

(01:06:42):
bucks for a two or three hour gig playing in
a pub. Man, I can make a kind of a
living doing this. So I'll do that on a Saturday night.
And and then I started to do more Fridays and Saturdays,
and then I was taking gigs wherever I could, gradually
building that up and then starting to do country clubs
making a bit more money, and then playing some weddings ceremonies. Okay,
I can make this kind of money if I do
a wedding ceremony and then hang on. If I'd become

(01:07:04):
a DJ, then I could do live music for the
ceremony in the cocktail hour, and then I could DJ
the reception and hang on. What if I add on
a violinist and my bass player, then I can charge
for a trio or even a band for these private events.
And it just kept building that way. But it started
with really, I came here with came to Pittsburgh with nothing.
But I do take great pride in the fact that

(01:07:26):
for all of the hard work that my wife and
I have done here, we support ourselves. We really, you know,
I had a great upbringing, but my parents did not
spoil us, and we're not We weren't given some enormous
amount of money to do the things we've done. Everything
that we've done out here, we've accomplished ourselves. And I'm
really am proud of us for having worked as hard

(01:07:46):
as we have. And I try and teach my son
all of those things. In fact, I'm teaching my son
how to wrap cables right now and every time if
he comes to you know, I might play at Federal
Galley or one of these bars. I'm off the rails.
Actually later on tonight in Verona the barbecue place, so
my wife and I will come and at the end
of the gig, my son, seven years old, Levi runs over.

(01:08:08):
He's breaking down my mic stand. He's wrapping my cables.
He's putting my pedal board in the bag. He'll count
my tips and my tip jar. He'll count them for me.
I'm watching him making sure he doesn't slip. But I'll
give him a couple of bucks at the end. Thank you, Levi.
You did a great job. You know he can earn
He can earn a couple of dollars if he helps me.
And my dad would have done the same thing for me.

(01:08:31):
I'm known. One of the things that I always take
out to my gigs. I have this wagon. I've got
this fold up wagon. I always put my gear in it,
and a lot of people it's there's pictures of my son.
Levi is a little guy and he's pulling my giant
wagon with the PA system and all my stuff in it.
He pulls it down the street to my truck, so
he's my little helper. Does that answer your question?

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
Questions eight