Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, it's the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. This is Hollywood Mike.

It's Ash Wednesday, don't start this Mardi Gras crap. Yeah, but you know what, Mardi Gras goes on for like two weeks for me. Yeah.

Come on, yeah, it happens when it's born in your blood like that. Yeah, I guess so. I guess.

How was your Mardi Gras? Uneventful. Uneventful? That's your fault. I didn't really Mardi Gras at all.

No? No. Man, I had a good time at home actually. I made an entire New Orleans feast.

Nice. Yeah, yeah. Nice, but I got up this morning and we had that weird rain last night.

We did. I thought my car had ashes. Yeah, you know what, you're exactly right.

I walked out, I'm looking at my car and I'm like, it rained all night. It's a miracle, Lord, have mercy. My car's been saved.

I'm like, holy cow, was that thing a mess? Yeah, yeah. You know, my car is not saved. Okay, so I've got my company vehicle with me instead of my truck.

The door sensor, the thing that tells the car that the door is closed or not closed, has gone bad. When that happens, that's a disaster. I had to disconnect my battery and everything because the alarm kept going off because I thought the door was open.

The dome light wouldn't go off while I was driving because I thought the door was open. And every five seconds it's going ding, ding, ding, ding. The car is not in park.

And it was actually talking to me, like, what? Jeez. Freaked out. Anyways, I don't know.

That sounded like an adventure. Yeah, a little bit. I mean, it was the leftover one on the lot.

Ah, was it? That's a good thing you just said, leftover. Yeah, see, that's what happens when people don't wait until they're introduced. That's what we do all the time.

That's right. Everybody, and that's why Dino was in this band. He's one of the leftovers, everybody.

Welcome the leftovers to the studio. Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. Brought a bunch of dudes with them. So the leftovers, how you guys doing? We're doing great.

Awesome. Thank you. There's only three.

Where's the other ones? They're the leftover leftovers. Actually, one of our singers, Sin, is Mardi Gras-ing right now. Is she in New Orleans? Oh, nice.

I know Sin, and she ain't coming back. She's teeny tiny, and she might get lost in the crowd. She normally has either purple hair or pink, so it's easy to find her sometimes.

You've never been to Mardi Gras? Not Mardi Gras. I've been to New Orleans. Yeah, but everybody has purple or pink hair.

Yeah, forget about it. There she is. No, that's not her.

It's like trying to find a grain of rice in a bowl of milk. You're going to get pictures sent. She's going to be crowd surfing.

One person just kind of passing her around like a pizza around the crowd, crowd surfing and everything, and she's like, I'm done. We've had some reports. She's behaving, so it's so far so good.

So they report. Yeah, so yeah. Did she go with friends and family and stuff? Not sure who she went with.

You're going to get dear leftovers. We have fallen apart over these years. I now have two loves in my life.

That's right. Well, that's good. That's good.

And who else is missing? Chris. Chris is our drummer. Chris, your drummer.

OK, and I just decided we're not going to show up. No, he had something going on tonight. He had some previous engagements, so we weren't able to get him tonight.

So I really get it. That's completely OK. So Dino, you and I know each other, man.

We do, man. We're friends. We're buddies.

Yeah, and you know what the crazy thing is? I know you and I know you've done this, but I have nothing to do with us getting booked here. This was all serendipitous. I think you contact either Ria or somehow our manager, and when she told me, I was like, wait a second.

I know Mike. And then we talked. So it was kind of cool that it happened without me even having to either ask you or you ask me to do this.

Well, I've told him about it like a thousand times. But normally when I tell you stuff like that, we're usually drinking. We're usually at the Uptown and we just have this understanding that we're not going to remember what happened that night.

Correctamundo. So it didn't happen. But we're glad you're here.

Well, thank you for having us. We really appreciate it. So I kind of know your story, Dino, but why don't you start and tell everybody how this journey started for you? Because I know this is kind of a bucket list for you.

Yeah, it is. It's so a couple of years ago, you know, well, let's even go back. I sang a lot of karaoke throughout my life.

And in the last maybe five or six years, people will come up to me and be like, hey, Dino, are you in a band? And I'm like, no, I just sing karaoke. So they were bummed out. That's the karaoke sound.

Oh, I like that. I like that. So they kind of encouraged me and said, hey, why don't you join a band? And I'm like, you know what? I'm going to do that.

So for the last maybe year or so, I went to open mics, you know, got myself a little more involved with music. And that's kind of when I met you over at the studio. Yeah, right.

Out in Lockport. Was it at the studio? Oh, that's the first time I ever sang. At the location that will remain nameless.

Yeah, that's what we say from now on. It's the location that will remain nameless. So yeah.

And once I met you, you kind of like, you know, that was the first time I ever sang on stage with a band was with you. Yeah. And it was a really cool experience.

And the first time I did that, I was like, man, this is way better than karaoke. Was it hard to handle? Yeah. We're going to do that all night, aren't we? I honestly, I believe that was the first song to believe it or not.

It was hard to handle. So but yeah, man, once I hit that stage and when I was rocking with you guys, I was like, man, this is the best thing in the world. And I was sort of addicted to it.

And I'm like, I'm going to keep doing this. And I did this for a while. And I'm like, you know what? I'm ready.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, he's not ready. He's not. No, he's not telling the truth because he get up on stage.

He sang Hard to Handle at the studio with a live band. And about 30 seconds later, I get a phone call from him. Yeah, Mike, you know, I'm thinking about starting a band because it's always been a bucket list thing of mine.

The story is true. The timeline is different. The story is true.

The timeline is different. It might have been a little quicker. Because it wasn't like months or even close to a year.

It was significant enough where I took the phone away from my ear and said, what? You just learned how to walk. I got excited. OK, I got excited.

But yeah, after that, you know, I kept doing it. But then I'm like, you know what? I think I'm ready. And I went on these Facebook pages and I kind of like signed up, joined these Facebook groups.

And then lo and behold, I see an ad looking for a male singer in the Naperville area. So I'm from the Naperville, Plainfield, Oswego area. So I responded.

I'm like, hey, I'd like to sign up. So I went into Naperville and that's where I met Ria, our band manager, and did an audition. I went down into the basement.

They gave me a couple songs to sing. I sang three songs. After the three songs, they all looked at me and they're like, yeah, so what do you think? And I'm like, I think it went well.

They're like, no, what do you think? You're in the band. And I was like, oh, I was like, oh, cool. Yeah.

Yeah, you've got it. You got it. I'm like, wow, that is really cool.

And from there, it's history. No buyer's remorse or anything after the first three weeks? Sometimes I do have to wonder. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, so, so Ria, they're calling you the manager. Did you start this whole thing? Yeah, I actually started the leftovers. So to give you a background about me and my music experience, I self taught myself keyboard when I was 15.

That's because my brother, my older brother was in a band and he played keyboard. And obviously, I had to do everything my older brother did. So I decided I need to learn keyboard.

And when I was 17 in high school, me and my some of my closest friends, we formed a all girls band. And we actually did gig around a little bit for a couple of years. And then things kind of fell apart.

People went their way. And I didn't play music for a really long time because I was going to college and working and doing all the normal stuff. But about 10 years ago, I decided that I need to get back to music again, because if not now, then when? So I joined a music school because I wanted to learn keys better way from a teacher.

And in that school, they also had a program where they would put a bunch of adults together and they will make you go out on a stage and perform. So that's kind of like your band. That's School of Rock.

Come on. You can give them credit for it. School, give them credit.

Thank you, School of Rock. School of Rock is awesome for that. It really is.

Yeah, they're really good. The way they teach you, the way they encourage you to get up on stage and make mistakes. But, you know, have fun and do it and learn it.

So I was in that program for a long time and playing keys. But then I really got bored of playing keys. Like, I wasn't a part of the music and I wanted to do something else.

So I tried playing guitar for a little bit and failed miserably. And I guess it's true. Well, a failed guitarist becomes the best player.

A failed guitarist becomes your bass player. May, I'm not sure if that's a natural progression of things that happens in rock and roll, that the failed guitarist becomes the bassist. But yeah, just time out.

Yeah, this time it happened. So, you know, the School of Rock performance program, there's always people coming and going in the program. You may have people who have been there for three years in that program, like myself.

I enjoyed doing that. You will have people join for just like one in one session and they're gone. But I made a lot of good friends doing this.

And especially during COVID, only three of us came back because there were all these restrictions and we had to like wear masks when we were at practice. And I was playing music with them. And after a little while, when things got better, there were a lot more people joining the program.

But these two who I used to play with, they left and leaving me behind. And we had a show coming up. Did they form a band or they just left the program? I think they may have for a short while, but I know they're not together anymore.

So they left you too. Oh, yeah, yeah. So then a show was coming up and for fun, we would like to create a theme and a band name before the show.

And everybody's like, well, what should we call ourselves for this show? And I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like, well, those two kind of left me. So I guess we're the leftovers. And that's how it was formed.

Kind of as, as, as kind of like the School of Rock adult band. But then I really wanted to take off and kind of like separate myself and do my own thing because I felt like, you know, I was ready. I, you know, although that I love the teachers at School of Rock, they helped me so much, but I was ready to do this on my own.

And so I kind of went out, ventured out with some people. And over time, you know, you know how bands evolve. So over time, I met these guys and yeah.

I mean, what else are they going to teach you at that point? I mean, you might as well go out and do it. Exactly, exactly. You had to graduate at some point.

Right, right, right. So who were the original members? Are all of the original members still in it? Or have you had some personnel changes? No, we, we had personnel change. We evolved.

Yeah. All right. How many people have been, how many members have been in the band since the start? Because, because you've only been together for what, about a year? Yeah.

You're looking at it. Right. But I know of at least two guitar players that kind of came and went.

Right. Wasn't it? Wasn't it? Yeah, there was a couple of them in there. Okay.

All right. So you've gone through some changes. Yeah.

And stuff throughout the, you know, throughout the year or so. Yeah. So when did this guy come around? Joseph joined us last February.

I believe so. Yeah, or springtime. It's been about a year.

Yeah, one anniversary, I suppose. Yeah. Wow.

Okay. And I wouldn't know the answer to that question about the other guitar players because I haven't seen any other guitar players since I came along. So that may, that may be a good sign, I hope.

Are you the only guitar player in the band? Correct. Because at one point in time, I know you guys were pushing to go for the two guitar thing. We did.

We did for a little bit. We had it for a little bit. That's a lot of people on stage.

Yeah. It can be. It can be.

Yeah. Yeah. Especially because you guys have another singer, right? Yeah.

Right. Yeah. So, but the more the merrier much of the time, but yeah.

So right now we're enjoying just the one guitar dynamic. Or at least you think they're enjoying the one guitar dynamic. I think that they're enjoying it.

Yeah. Right, right, right. I haven't heard any complaints.

How long have you been playing? I probably a little over 30 years. Yeah. 32 years now.

So you know a few songs. I know a few, I know a few numbers. Yeah.

Okay. What, what, what, where, you know, it's kind of funny because that's one of the things I like to torture Ria with when we, we'll get a, we'll make some suggestions of new songs and Dino will usually lead the charge and have a few numbers suggested. And he'll say, do you think we can have this ready by next rehearsal and next gig? And I, I always text back to him.

We, I can play the song right now if you want to. And then I'll get the look from, from Ria through the phone. Yeah, right.

But it's, it's just become a pastime for me to, you know, try to drive her crazy that way. Why not? You know, you know, you got nothing else. It's just one of the perks of it.

Yeah. Yeah. And typically I'll fume for a moment and then by the end of the night, I'll text Joseph.

Okay, Joseph, I got it. So like, I guess what, what's your background or what's your, what are your influences? I would say I've, I've kicked around for the last 20 years in different cover bands. I also do some original music, but I would say more recently, I've kind of gone back in time with some of the like dawn age of rock and roll stuff.

I've been just going crazy for some early Elvis stuff. Actually, Sydn turned us on to a Wanda Jackson version of Stupid Cupid that we've been playing from 1960. Wow.

And we're enjoying the heck out of that. But yeah, I would say my main influences on guitar are some of the classic rockers, Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top, Joe Walsh. I was a Page disciple for the longest time.

It's probably one of like, I think the two reasons I picked up a guitar in the first place were Jimmy Page and The Edge from U2. So, and I think that kind of gives me a kind of my spectrum. I'm kind of, that is probably one of the reasons I'm all over the place with things I like.

So when I play, when I plug in and play with the gang here, I think I try to pretend that I'm Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Okay. Well, that's probably my biggest influence.

That's a pretty, those are pretty big shoes to fill. Yeah. I love his guitar tone.

They're tone monsters. Yeah. Tom Petty and Mike Campbell with their gear, with their, with the axes that they chose, just total tone monsters.

Yeah. I have, I've always loved that, that whole Vox AC30 sound. It's a very distinctive sound.

Yeah, it sure is. And if you know how to tweak that sound just right, it's like the best of British. And the best of American sound all in one.

It's a fantastic sound. It's funny. I think you mentioned Joe Walsh because everything that I own was, is a result of chasing the tone from the opening intro to life's been good.

Oh, sure. You know, I chased to the tone of that guitar for probably 20 years until I finally decided, yeah, no, it's just, it's unattainable. I'm going to have to cut off Joe's fingers and bring them home with me in order to get that sound.

But yeah, I mean, I totally, I totally get what you're saying there. So awesome. Excellent.

So where was your first gig? Was it, was it at Uptown? No, no, no. We actually, our first gig was at Ballydoil and Downers Grove. Your first gig was at Ballydoil and Downers.

Okay. So like people play for years trying to get into Ballydoil and you just fart and you're at Ballydoil. Our first gig together with the new lineup was at Ballydoil.

And yeah. Yeah. We love that place.

We have played there a few times now and we love, we're actually going back there soon. Wow. You should come watch us.

If I'm ever off, I will. I've played there many times myself. It's one of my favorite places to play.

Ours too. Definitely a favorite of ours. Actually, our, our upcoming show is, is an early, not early afternoon, but late afternoon performance at Ballydoil at 3 p.m., which is interesting.

Is it like a Sunday? It's a Saturday, Saturday from three to five 30 on the 28th, February 28th. So. Boy, that's weird.

I've never heard of that before. Yeah. They just wanted to try something different, get an afternoon crowd.

And yeah, you know, we've called a lot of family, friends and our, and our, you know, followers and hopefully we're going to get the place packed up and have some fun in the middle of the day. That's pretty cool. Actually, I've never heard of anybody doing that.

You know, sidebar, because you know what's happening nowadays? You and I met in an open jam. A lot of people meet at open jams. They're dying, like left and right.

They are. It's like every single week I'm hearing about another place. Nope.

We're closing. We're, we're, we're dropping the open jam. It's not happening anymore.

So that could be something that's along the lines of, we got to try something else to get some people in here. Let's do a rock roll show on Saturday afternoon. Yeah.

Yeah. That might be a two. And then, you know, the audience too, you know, some people who might be, you know, not night owls.

They like to be out during the day. And so they come out during the day and, you know, party, chill, and they go home at night and, you know, get an early nap or whatever. And you're done at five 30.

Gosh. Yeah. And you're home by six.

I don't know if, I don't, I don't know if I know what to do with myself on a Saturday night after a gig and I got home and it was still light outside. Still light outside. I don't know what I'd do.

I'd be, I'd be done and I'd be driving home and I'd be like, now what? Well, you know, I thought it was a few years ago. I thought it was weird that Thirsty Beavers started having bands on Sundays at three o'clock. And I thought, well, that's really strange.

That's biker day. Now everybody's doing it. Everywhere you look, they're doing Sundays.

Well, biker, biker bars traditionally always have. Right, right. Biker bars.

Yeah. You go, you go to, you go to, and Thirsty Beavers is a biker bar, I'd say, but you go to a lot of those, you know, uh, places that are around here, like, especially the ones that are on the water, like, you know, two o'clock in the afternoon, there's a band playing. Oh, absolutely.

Especially in the summertime. That's a lot of fun. But even non-biker bars are doing it.

People are coming out. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that's good. I gotta look into that. It's pretty cool.

You know what I think it's time for? I think it's time for a little break. I think it's time for a break. And I think we're going to come back.

We're going to have these folks play something in the studio. Oh, Jesus. All right.

We'll be right back. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Your Sunday nights just got a whole lot bluesier.

Get ready for the Bus Stop Blues, a show that takes you deep into the soul of the blues with classic hits, road stories, and live jam sessions. Hosted by blues man Kevin Purcell and me, the one and only Road Bill. The Bus Stop Blues is two hours of nonstop blues, banter, and badassery.

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And for the first time tonight, live in the studio, we have The Leftovers. And I feel it Where you've gone to tomorrow Where you've gone with a mask of found And I feel, and I feel when the dogs begin to smell her Bell of love And I feel so much depends on the weather So is it raining in your bedroom and I see These are the eyes of disarray So would you even care And I feel it And she feels it Where you've gone to tomorrow Where you've gone with a mask of found And I feel, and I feel when the dogs begin to smell her Will she smell alone When the dogs define her Got time, time to wait for tomorrow To find it, to find it, to find it When the dogs define her Got time, time to wait for tomorrow To find it, to find it, to find it Yeah, baby. Yes, sirree.

Stone Temple Pilots was always one of my favorite bands. I absolutely love them. Little STP.

Yeah. And there's another. I feel like I'm so, I feel like I'm mellowed out now after that song.

Yeah, me too. Me too. Gosh, we can't have, we don't have a liquor license.

We're at a coffee house. Yes. Well, I love that song.

Can we use a gummy now? We normally don't play it in acoustically, you know, we play it, you know, hardcore, but that's one of our gringier quote unquote songs. So, but we love it. And we love the experience of doing acoustic.

So it turned out good. Well, you should do it at your show every once in a while, because I mean, they did it acoustic. They, yeah, they, they released a version of it.

It's very close to what you guys just did. All right. Yeah, we, we remained faithful to the, to the version that's actually very, you know, that's very popular in itself, that acoustic version.

So, and speaking of tone monsters, like we were before Dean DeLeo. Oh yeah. From Stone Temple Pilots just, and another Vox AC30 guy.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.

One of my, another one of my favorite guitar players. Yeah. You know, my, my Stone Temple Pilots story.

I, oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Did I doze off? I'm all ears.

I thought you, I thought you farted. I'm sorry. I didn't know what that was.

I looked over here. I was like, everybody take cover. No, I was in Madison, Wisconsin and I drove right past their tour bus and Scott Weiland was probably dead inside it when I drove past it.

Oh wow. So December of 2015. My gosh, you even know the date.

I'm a huge fan, huge fan of STP. And yeah, that was, I, I was, that was hard to take that news. It was.

I mean, he was an amazing front man. He really was. He was.

Very, very, very energetic and artistic and eclectic. I mean, any, any word you want to throw out there, he was, he was. And, but yeah, I was, I was in Madison, Wisconsin on business.

I was working at the, on the campus at University of Wisconsin there. And that's where they played their last show or were supposed, they were supposed to play their last show there. And I remember driving past the amphitheater and there was all these tour buses there.

And I didn't think anything of it. I thought maybe there was a basketball team in town or whatever the heck it was. Didn't realize it was them.

And I get back to my hotel room and I'm watching television. I hear, you know, on the local news, Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots was found dead in his tour bus. And it dawned on me, holy shit, that was their tour bus.

That's who it was. And Scott was, Scott was probably dead in the tour bus as I drove right past it. Oh, yeah, that's right.

You know, I hadn't, I'd seen them so many times over the years. I hadn't seen Scott Weiland solo because I know they were kind of doing their separate things towards the end. But they had just passed through Batavia days before.

Yeah, yeah. They were, you know, as you, as you know, you know, Chicago can be a hub for some of the midwestern dates when you're touring around. So, right, right, right.

They had passed through and some of the Chicago burbs a couple times during that winter and just days before. I think maybe even the performance before they were in Batavia before they went up, you know, to the final stop. Do you ever see him live? Do you see him in concert? Yeah.

Yeah, that, unfortunately, that's, unfortunately, that's one of the bands, I wish I would have seen them before he passed away. But yeah, that sucks, man. I went through a period where I didn't buy any concert tickets because the ticket prices got so ridiculous.

And now I'm just like, okay, you know what, I guess now I'm gonna have to go and see a few of them because now I'm gonna regret never seeing him live. But yeah. Yeah.

Unfortunately, so. Talking about the acoustic version of that, but of any song, we've had a number of bands come in here and we tell them, bring your acoustics, you know, you can't have all the heavy duty stuff. And they play it and they're like, wow, we've never played that acoustically and it sounded great.

Yeah. You'd be surprised. Yeah, for sure.

Try it with absolutely anything and it gives it a, it takes on a whole different vibe and people, people experience it right here sitting at the table. It's crazy because we probably, you know, and that's why we really appreciate you guys having us on here because honestly, we probably would not have done that. And since we've done it, I've almost fell in love with it.

Like I'm going to try every song we have in acoustic just to see what it sounds like. So yeah, thanks. Thanks again for having us out here, giving us a new experience.

What's the next one? You said you had two or three prepared, right? Yeah, we got two or three. We actually prepared for five, six, but you know. What are the other ones? Creep by Radiohead.

No, don't play that one. Everybody plays that fucking song, please. No.

Yeah, but not, not, not acoustic. Oh yeah. Here they do.

Here they do. Oh, they do? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, nevermind.

I thought we were going to be of tribute though. What was he? Oh, so we were going to do a Brad Arnold from Three Doors Down. You know, he just passed away.

So we, we thought about doing a kryptonite by Three Doors Down. I don't think anybody's ever done that. That would be completely appropriate.

Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Whip it out. And it's not, you know, I don't, whoa, I thought this was a family show. No, it's a podcast.

We can say whatever we want. That's right. Yeah, we can.

We are not regulated. Yeah. Yeah.

It's like you guys are all warmed up. You might as well do it. Yeah, for sure.

I remember exactly where these were set. Look at that. So we're not going to even know.

Wow. So this is a tribute to Brad Arnold. Yeah.

That's a, that was a heartbreaking one. I read about, I read about him quite a while ago when he first announced his diagnosis. And I was like, oh shit.

I mean, I, I kind of worked in the medical field. So when they read that, when they told everybody what the diagnosis was, I was like, oh shit, that sucks. You know? Yeah.

But yeah. So this is for Brad. Yeah.

This is for Brad for sure. I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind. I left my body lying somewhere in the sands of time.

I watched the world flow to the dark side of the moon. I feel there's nothing I can do. Yeah.

I watched the world flow to the dark side of the moon. After all I knew had to be something to do with you. I really don't mind what happens now and then.

As long as you'll be my friend at the end. If I go crazy, then will you still call me Superman? If I'm alive, then where will you be there? Holding my hand, I keep you by my side. My superhuman, my kryptonite.

You call me strong, you call me weak. But still your secrets I will keep. You took for granted all the times I never let you down.

You stumbled in and bumped your head. If not for me, then you'd be dead. I picked you up, put you back on solid ground.

If I go crazy, then will you still call me Superman? If I'm alive, then where will you be there? Holding my hand, I keep you by my side. My superhuman, my kryptonite. If I go crazy, then will you still call me Superman? If I'm alive, then where will you be there? Holding my hand, I keep you by my side.

My superhuman, my kryptonite. Yeah, if I go crazy, then will you still call me Superman? If I'm alive, then where will you be there? Holding my hand, I keep you by my side. My superhuman, my kryptonite.

That's for Brad Arnold, everybody. Yes, sir. Yeah, very nice.

Very nice. See, another one that sounds good acoustically. Absolutely.

Yeah. So you guys are just going to experiment with all kinds of stuff now. Yeah, we do.

And it could be the leftovers acoustic when you can't book the whole band, the leftovers acoustic show. Well, that's real. It can and it will.

Yeah. Yeah. And you know what? That's kind of our theme as far as like song selection.

So we don't do a specific genre per se. We just pick cool songs. Absolutely.

It doesn't matter if it's from the 50s, 60s, 70s. We do everything from the 50s to like today. Yeah, yeah.

So Friday night at Uptown for their acoustic night, Black Dog Vinyl Cafe. They do the acoustic thing. Yeah.

There you go. Man. Yeah.

Yeah. No, it's a lot of fun. Because you know what I do.

It's so refreshing and fun to just do an acoustic solo show every once in a while, you know, without being on stage with nine other guys or three other guys or four other guys and loud and hauling all that gear around. It's so nice to show up with some type of a tower system and an acoustic guitar and just do your own thing. For sure.

Yeah, absolutely. You said you had some original music. Yes.

Yeah. I do. Yeah.

I had over the years, I've kind of come up with some different things. I was in a band or I still am in a band called The Perfect Morning that primarily focuses on original music and recording the music, not as much live performances. Between, I think, 2018, 2019, we were doing some live, but I've had a songwriting partnership with the other fella in the band and we just focus on the recordings, which is kind of liberating, you know, just to know that we're going to do the recordings of themselves.

And I've also, I went through a period during COVID where I had something called Conjure. And it was, it was more or less me playing my guitar, trying not to sound like a person playing guitar. So just coming up with different soundscapes with the guitar.

There's a cream for that. That didn't, is it? I'll keep that in mind, you know. Prescription.

It's harder than it seems sometimes, you know, to bring some of that to fruition. So I'll keep that advice in mind. So thank you.

Any aspirations to maybe write something with these guys? I don't think we've ever talked about it before, but, you know. We've never talked about it, but we're open to anything. And you didn't play any acoustic stuff until tonight either.

So, you know. That's exactly it. That's exactly it.

You know, take some of the songs you wrote and you're not really fond of the leftovers. Exactly. Yes.

I'm going to, I can bring my leftovers. Yeah. So Ray, what's, I guess, what's on the calendar? What kind of dates and stuff like that you guys have coming up? Are you also the social media person as well as the band manager? Well, we work together.

Yeah. The three of us, we're always working together to get gigs and socials and, you know, posters. Each of us have our assigned tasks.

We know who's supposed to do what. We do have the calendars. It's pretty booked for the next six months, but we're open.

We're pretty much playing almost every other weekend until like July. Okay. So some upcoming gigs, we're going to be at Valley's Oil.

We're going to be at Uptown again. Embers, Papa Magoo's, just a couple of other venues. Yeah.

Nash Vegas Saloon on Oswego. We're going to be out there in March. Awesome.

And then in the summertime, we're going to be playing at the Plainfield Fest, the festival. Yeah. Yeah.

So we're going to be out there as well. You guys did that last year too. We did.

Yeah. You were in uniform. Well, that's different.

That's different. That's National Night Out. Oh, that's what that was.

That's right. That's right. I actually didn't, I wasn't there for the Plainfield Fest because I was out in Europe, but these guys covered.

So Syn actually sang for Plainfield Fest. But yeah, we were National Night Out. I was in full uniform.

Oh, that's pretty cool. So yeah. That's cool.

That's cool. Yeah, that's awesome. I think whenever you do that, I think people in the community absolutely love that.

Yeah. You know, well, we let the secret out of the bag. He's a police officer.

Maybe we should all wear some type of uniforms. Yeah. Oh, that would be great.

Yeah, possibly. You know, I think Dino should wear a French maid uniform this time. Oui, oui.

Yeah, maybe. That's probably one thing that would be exposed. Yeah.

I'll stick to my handcuffs. He looks very fine in his uniform. I don't know if that would, he would be any finer than that.

He doesn't have to dress up as a maid. Well, he said that as if his handcuffs wouldn't go with a French maid uniform. Yeah, exactly.

Handcuffs can go with almost any uniform, I suppose. So you mentioned the cat's out of a bag. And so, yeah, so I am a police officer.

You know, I've been doing this for 22 years and I absolutely love it. Yeah. We just talked about it a couple of days ago.

Like, you know, it's kind of unique to have a police officer be in a band and, you know, go out and gig every two weeks. But I love my job. I love doing what I'm doing right now.

So everything is going great. And I tell you, everybody in the community is proud of you for doing it. I think they absolutely love that you do.

So that's fantastic. Thank you. Really appreciate it.

They do. They sure do. He's famous.

He's famous in the South Burbs as being in the singing policeman. Yeah, yeah. Well, everybody knows his name, too.

He's like he's like a single person named like Madonna. If you're walking around or whatever, it's like, yeah, you see this band? You see this band called The Leftovers? Yeah, my buddy Dino. Oh, yeah, I love Dino.

Nobody knows how to pronounce his last name for crying out loud. So so it's just he's just Dino. If I were a soccer jersey, it would just be Dino.

Dino. So on social media, you guys are on Facebook. Yeah, yeah.

All right. Yeah, we are on Facebook. We're on Instagram.

You can follow us there. We just opened up. A YouTube channel will be posting materials there.

So and TikTok. So please do subscribe. Like and subscribe our social channels and stay tuned for all the videos that we post.

Awesome. Sounds good. Well, Leftovers, Leftovers, thanks for coming out.

Thanks so much. Thank you for thank you guys for giving us the opportunity to be here. We really, really appreciate it.

Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you.

Thanks. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin. Theme song courtesy of MNR Rush.

The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show. The music is used to promote the guests that are featured.