Name: Ricky Hill

Birthplace: McKinney, Texas

Currently residing: Princeton, Texas

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: When I’m 14 I give up my dream of being a race car driver, sell my go-cart for $300 and buy a homemade bass guitar and worn out Fender Bassman amp (wish I still had that amp!) from our church youth director, teach myself to play and start banging around in garage bands until high school ends when I decide playing bass is boring, so I start singing for a cover band, the guys are 40ish and I’m 19 but they are cool with it because I am young, blond and energetic, I’m cool with is because I get to drink beer, play the guitarist Goldtop Les Paul and get paid a little, a year + later I then decide playing other people’s music sucks even worse than playing bass so I go back to bass and hook up with childhood friend Dave Williams (late of Drowning Pool) over the next 7 years we play in 3 bands together Crazy Jane, Mr Luvdog and Fugly, Fugly gets a record deal and promptly implodes, I am distraught and quit music for good, or so I think, 2 years later a former Fugly bandmate talks me into joining Vibrosound, an Emo band, I like the songs and again I am playing  bass but also get to sing a lot, so it’s ok, but doesn’t go anywhere so just as always I become bored and quit, but this time knowing I’m not done with music I am then approached by a friend about starting a new band where I am the lead singer, we write some weird hybrid pop/punk/country/southern rock stuff, call ourselves The Atoms and start playing shows, the music is interesting but not always good, after 2 years we split up, then a year or so later get back together, then add some new members, write some new songs, then lose another member, add another member, rename the band Reverend Leon & The Repenters, the music is really good this time and I like being Reverend Leon, so we record a new EP in 2011, release it in 2012 and just like that…here we are today.

Website: www.revleonandtherepenters.com

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Tom Petty

Cheap Trick

The Ramones

The Clash

Van Halen

Janes Addiction

Ryan Adams

Foo Fighters

Lemon Heads

Hayden

Beck

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Stem, by Hayden. The entire song is only 1:47 seconds, but I think it may be one of the best love songs ever written. If you’ve never heard it go find it and listen to it. And just about anything by Cheap Trick, who my wife turned me on to years ago, those songs still remind me of when we were first dating.

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

On a beach with my wife, toes in the sand, cold beer, and nothing but the sound of the ocean. Maybe I’ll play a little guitar and write some music too. Can this be every day please?

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

I really have no idea…maybe that I’m ok with whoever or whatever you are, you don’t have to change to be my friend.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

Anything related to my son’s childhood. I hold on to those things like gold. I would rather lose a guitar than one of his kindergarten finger paintings. Everything else is pretty much just stuff.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

No one. I have never been starstruck. The only time I ever really get nervous is when I have to perform in front of close friends and family. I hate to let them down.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

See answer to question 3. Maybe there will be Mexican food involved, which I can pay for in Pesos! Is it wrong that I keep blinking. I don’t think this question is working right, I am still in front of the computer.

Please report this problem to the help desk.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Spend time with my family, record more records, write more songs, play more shows, run more races, travel more…enjoy life! Basically everything I don’t seem to have enough time for right now.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

In ten years I hope I am in the process of selling most everything I own, packing up the few things I keep and looking for a little house on the beach somewhere where my wife and i can just relax and enjoy getting old. I can dream right!

Name: Salim Nourallah

Birthplace: Alton, Illinois

Currently residing: Dallas, Texas

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: Recorded Nourallah Brothers with my brother Faris with boxing gloves and occasional instruments six years later solo debut Polaroid met with words like “discovering a singer-songwriter who can stop time is rare, but Salim Nourallah is such a find…” (Rolling Stone), still trying to stop time but it keeps whirring past Hit Parade is record #5 released by the world’s finest indie label Tapete Records from Hamburg I want to go to Spain and play in July then Germany too with the wife and kids which would be our Euro tour #4

Website: www.salimnourallah.com

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

the Beatles, the Kinks, the Clash

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

“People are Like Suns” – it’s about how temporary we all are and it’s one of Neil Finn’s greatest moments as a songwriter

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

I would spend it with my wife Jayme and our kids. I’d be mentally “present” for the duration. Meaning: absolute peace from the incessant chatter in my head – worrying about bills I failed to pay, emails I failed to return, things that need fixing or tending to, etc., etc., etc. – you know, free from all the useless things our minds get tangled up with on a daily basis.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

That I’m not an asshole

5. What is your most valued material possession?

Could my life be my material possession? I suppose it’s probably not, so then I guess I’d pick my recording studio…

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I wouldn’t be nervous about meeting anyone now that I’m all grown up and middle aged…people are people no matter how much we admire them or how well-known they are. I wish I could meet John Lennon but the chances of that happening seems to be nil!

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Santorini, Greece – I’d preferably like Jayme to be there with me in a bathing suit

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

I’d like to have more time to work on my own music, more time to write songs, more leisurely days of carefree fun with my family too. I suppose I’d also like to be naked more often but definitely not in public.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Mainly alive…oh and happily married with my kids close by. I’d like to find myself still involved with playing music too.

photo: charity vance

Name: Shannon Labrie

Birthplace: Lincoln, NE

Currently residing: Nashville, TN

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: Started writing classical piano pieces when I was a little girl. I can’t remember a time I didn’t sing. Never read music, just felt it. Got my first guitar around 10 years old, when my dad got cancer. He showed me EM, G, C, D, and F before he passed away. I couldn’t put the guitar down after that. I kept writing music on piano and guitar and before I knew it, I found myself in Nashville, TN writing my honest heart out. My Mom has a beautiful opera voice and my Dad was an incredible guitar player and songwriter. They taught me along with James Taylor and Lauryn Hill albums:-).

Website: www.shannonlabrie.com

 1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Bob (my dad)

James Taylor

Lauryn Hill

Bob Dylan

Van Morrison

Tom Petty

Beatles

Miranda Lambert

Norah Jones

Eagles

Alison Krauss

Just to name a few:-)

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Killing Me Softly

Any song from Lauryn Hill

Any song by James Taylor. I especially love Copperline and The Frozen Man

My Morning Jackets: Thank You Too

Bob Dylan: Gotta Serve Somebody

Miranda Lambert: House That Built Me

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

Laying in a hammock with a man on a cool fall day.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

My honesty and sense of humor.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

Everything is replaceable. In the end when I’m on my death-bed, it’s going to be the love and relationships I had that I most value and I try to remember that every day.

If I had to pick something, it would be my dad’s guitar strap. I never play without it.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I was Jack White’s server at a restaurant I worked at two years ago. That was the first time I was ever star struck. I was also pretty nervous when I met John Oates…..than again, I was most nervous to meet my mom after I had taken the car out all night without calling (back in highschool). She was pretty pissed.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Heaven, with all the people that I’ve had to say goodbye to.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Read. I’m continually losing time to read.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

I hope in ten years I’m not regretting the last ten years:-) I’d like to be sitting on a porch in the early evening with my close friends and family drinking bottles of wine and eating cheese!