Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up With SLEDD 10-30-23

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One Leg Up With SLEDD 10-30-23 · OneLegUpAlex Media

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Oh yeah, we are live here on the Alex Scratt podcast Network, just
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a few minutes before my next guest go on stage at the Sene Center tonight
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here in New York City. I've got brothers Pete de Luke Junior and Dino
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de Luke of the founders and the guys behind Sled. And if you're a
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Sled fan, tune in right now because I got him in studio with me.
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Guys, thanks for joining my podcast. We're honored, Alex. You
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rock as a producer, and it's just an honor to be back home in
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New York and to be able to share the stage with you on the on
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the radio. Man, thanks for having us. Man. Yeah, it's
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good to be back home and have a New York brother interviewing us and doing
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a podcast. It's our privilege and our pleasure. Thank you so much.
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When I heard you guys were in New York based, I said, I
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got to get them on. We got got New York artists on the show,
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and you guys are started kicking that off. So tell me are in
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New York and what the tour has been like. Tour has been amazing.
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Chaz West, who was the former singer and Foreigner and Jason Bonham's band and
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Lynch Mob invited us out. We were doing a show in San Diego in
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April of twenty twenty three. He's like, I really want you guys to
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be part of our tour, and we're like, well, I don't know
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if you know this, but Pete and I both grew up in Westchester.
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We're both New York natives and he's from Jersey. So it's like we all
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get to come home and do what we love, share the rock and stage
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with the world and all our friends on the East Coast. So well,
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on that note, how did you guys get from the East Coast to the
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West Coast? Tell us your journey, Well it it starts with our dad
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and mom. Dad taught music in Hasty's on Hudson High School journlemans for twenty
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five years. We also lived in the city as kids too. Dad retired
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was out there in the late forties in the Navy, and they used to
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always tell me, as the edge closer and closer to retirement, we're heading
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to San Diego. Your mom and I'd love it if you guys came with
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us. If you want to stay in New York, we understand, and
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we went that way. And Mom had been nil for a long time,
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and unfortunately she only used to lived a few more years in California and then
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she sadly passed away from Crohn's disease. And but you know, we were
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at some point maybe thinking about coming back to New York, but we knew
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that Dad was out there and we couldn't leave him alone. And you know,
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we, being active musicians, pursued a finding bands and other musicians are
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playing, and we were in a couple of different bands. We form Sled
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in early nineteen ninety five and played our first show on Saint Patrick's Day nineteen
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I at a former club in San Diego which was a big, big club
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in those days, called the Bacchanal. And we've had the group now twenty
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eight years. This is our fifth album. This is our fifth tour.
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We've done four previous national tours. Actually we need one more. We did
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one with the Bullboys in two thousand and three. So you know, music
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is our life. Our father played with everybody from Buddy Rich, mel Lewis,
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I mean, Stan Gatt, Tony, Frank Sinatra and Julie. We
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grew up in show business, and it was evident I think at a young
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age that music was going to be our calling. Well, I saw that
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you have pictures with Jimmy Page of you know, led Zeppelin and then Trans
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Siberia Orchestra. So what were your inspirations all to start with you? Pete
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de Luke Junior. Well, as a keyboard player, my father is my
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first and foremost inspiration when it comes to music, even though he's not a
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keyboard or piano player. Dad gave me the talent and the ability and to
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drive and the know how from the keyboard department. Greg Alman, John Lord,
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Jan Hammer, Raymond Zeric, Billy Powell, taz Di Gregorio the one
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of the greatest keyboard players I ever lived. From the ban Yes, I
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mean, I mean Rick Wakeman and guys like that. You know, when
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I was starting to play keyboard at around age fifteen or sixteen, these are
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the cats, you know. Jon Hammer the live album with Jeppek that really
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inspired me to move me and I had a lot of inspiration on the jazz
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side. I got to see Bill Evans when I was eight year eight years
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old at a club here in New York City called It was a village.
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And I had a very close friend of mine who inspired me to play with
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the drugs. His name is Terry Lavitz. Everybody knew Miss t Labatts.
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I love Terry May rest in peace. He was such a good guy.
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We were friends, and I've had the honor of becoming friends with guys like
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him and Derek Shrining, and shout out to Derek. I love Derek and
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God right now in rock and roll, in the world of keyboards, I
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don't know if there's anybody more talented or gifted than Derek Shrining. He is
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a virtuoso and man, he's a very inspiring guy. So these are guys
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that I've always looked up to, still continue to look up to strive for
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excellence like they do. And and one more, a good friend of mine
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from Irvington, New York, Parker Riley, who is a brother who's helped
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us so much. And thanks Parker. We love you for that, Yeah,
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we do, man. And you know, we have a lot of
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really good friends here in New York, in the city and the Bronx and
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Manhattan and Westchester County and on Long Island and our family in Upstate New York
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and Schenectady. The Luke family and many of my cousins up there, and
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we're gonna actually stop in and see them in a couple of days. So
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this is where it all came for me and my brother. Dino's on the
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same railroad track with maybe a track number two. So you know, well,
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I mean, Alex, did you have any particular questions you wanted to
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ask? So Dina, how about you because you're the drummer of the band
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and you've you've been a big part of this. But as drummer, Buddy
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Rich, anybody comes to my own. Here's a great story. June nineteen
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seventy four, my dad was having a jazz benefit for the Jazz Band and
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Hastings on Hudson, New York, and the drummer at the time was a
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kid named Clint Degannon, who is now New York's number one or number two
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session player. He's played did the Carol King Show. Recently, he's playing
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with Manhattan Transfer currently love the Manhattan Transfer. I mean, he's done it
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all. Stevie Wonder, Jeff Lorberfuse. He plays with the guys from The
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Letterman Show, Will Lee, Paul Schaeffer, and Osnoy, and you know,
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Clinton was one of my first teachers and one of my major influences.
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But in June nineteen seventy four, my dad had Buddy Rich come up to
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the high school and do the benefit Gene Kruper had been doing him previously he
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died. So I got bit by the bug. I saw the most incredible,
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greatest of all time drummer, Buddy Rich, got to meet him,
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got to see him play, got to know his daughter. She sang that
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day, Kathy Rich, who still has the big band going. She's leading
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the Buddy Rich Big Band to this day with her boyfriend Greg Potter. And
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so that's how I got into drumming. Wow. Well for the both of
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you, obviously you're both brothers, so you both had this musical bug from
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the beginning. But when you decided to form a band, what was it
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like getting people, you know, to support, both investors and even people
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to join the band as well. You know, we had had a big
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cover band in San Diego since nineteen eighty seven, and we decided you can
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only go so of oar playing cover music. If we're going to really take
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this to another level, we have to write songs and make records, and
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that's what we did. Al Petrelli from Trans Siberian Orchestra, also of the
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band Sabotage Mega Death, Alice Cooper's band, decided to get involved with us.
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We were on a tour with Bloyister Colt and he was filling in for
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one of the guys and he liked me and Pete so much and the music.
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He's like, let me take you guys to Paramount in Los Angeles and
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work on this record with us. And so Al, who's now the musical
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director of the Trans Siberian Orchestra, put us in a studio in Los Angeles
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and it was on the first Sled record, which was called Dopamine. Well,
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from that point on it was just about we started working with Great White,
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which we're on tour with Jack Russell this week, and Mark Kendall,
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his guitar player at the time, decided to get involved with us. He
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produced our second record and he managed our band for four years. Pete,
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you told me there are three different genres that sort of intersect in your in
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your music. Can you talk about that for a moment. Yeah, So,
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well, I'm really primarily a rock keyboard player, and even though I
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was inspired inspired by guys like Bill Evans and I mean some of the jazz
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greats. I had a chance to meet and see people like Billy Taylor and
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Bill Evans as a kid growing up. And why I'm really not a jazz
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player. I'm I'm a huge fan of jazz, especially beepop. I'm not
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really that type of player. So getting back more and more into the rock
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roots, I just you know, I just heard a guy like Greg Alman,
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who was probably my biggest influence. You know, the live of the
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film Moreast album was such a gem for me, and and listening to him
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play hamm and organ and sing and just god, man, he really moved
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me so much. And a guy like Billy Powell on the piano side,
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playing hockey talk, ragtime southern rock piano, a huge Southern rock and roll
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fan, you know, two of those guys. And then I got into
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Ray man Z Eric Man, and you know, what can you say about
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the Doors and god, I've been just a huge stores fan and and guys
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like those guys like that, And then you know, as I got more
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into heavier and hard rock, John Lord was my total influence. And then
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I have a fusion side to me with guys like t Labbatt and Jon Hammer,
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who you know and only did Miami Vice, but he did a live
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album with Jeff Beck in nineteen seventy six, and most, you know,
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most really schooled, well educated rock musicians who loved guys like Jeff Beck loved
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that album, cherished that album with songs like Freeway Jam and Blue End,
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and you know, he's making a monophonic synthesizer sound like a guitar, and
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that really turned me on. Man. I was like, how is he
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doing that? I've got to find some way to be able to do something
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like that. You know, I could never put myself in the category of
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these types of guys, but they were such large and big influences on me.
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Man. You know, I've always aspired to try maybe a conglomerate of
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all the two have combined into me. You know, and I am who
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I am. I'm a proficient song I wrote to a lot of songwriting,
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I produced, and I range and at all elements of music move me,
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man, And you know, I've just was given a talent and a great
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year and and a keen insight to be able to do things like and you
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both write songs for these different albums. So did did it start in the
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band knowing that, yeah, we can't just be a coveran we have to
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write. Did that both wake up your writing gene or have you been writing
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songs for a long time even before? It's like well, actually, funnily
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enough, our other band, Nemesis, which we've started in like eighty seven
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nineteen said had some honorous success with its own set of original music, and
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we were playing at places like FM Station Hollywood and Reno Avaut and we I
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you know, I've been writing for I don't know, probably thirty thirty five
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years, man, and I wrote a bunch of stuff and music for that
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band, and I had some co writers and Paul mcclennon and people like that,
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and you know TJ. Bryn Jack and You're Folk and Drew Folk and
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yeah, I mean for some reason or other, you know, for me,
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I don't know, how do you get the talent to write music?
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I always tell people it's like a little like a little record player spinning in
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your head. The needle comes down and a melody comes into your head,
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and I finally how to translate or transport that melody in through my hands?
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And that's how I write. So I started with a band up in Westchester
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as a kid. I was fourteen years old and I played with guys like
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Garrett the k Parker, Riley Drew Foll, Chris Costello, Vinita Toro,
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and then I got into rock drumming kind of after I was a jazz player.
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John Bonham, Joey Kramer from Aerosmith, those were my twos biggest influences.
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It was something to me which it became contagious, and I played all
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over Manhattan at the Underground, I played at the Rising Sun, I played
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the fore and Aft and our band did real well, and that band was
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called Up in Arms. It consisted of Barry Harrison, Rob Mendola, Drew
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full Gareth de Kay and myself. Mike Grogan was part of that band,
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a guitar player, great player, and to this day I still keep in
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touch with a lot of those band members and they've all been invited to the
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show tonight at the Sheen Center at the Loretto Theater. And that's Ian Pace.
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Another big influence to me is a rock drummer and all the different bebop
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drummers, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, but my favorite drummer right now was
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Jeff Beck's drummer Vinni Kya Luda and Jeff Beck for the last thirty years of
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my life has been my favorite musician, guitar player, just an extraordinary player.
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Steve I another guy I've always cherished and we've been grateful enough to be
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able to do what we do. Man. So it's been nothing but good
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stuff, you know, absolutely. Well. You know you mentioned you have
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a radio show as well, and that's why you're in the city. So
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tell about the radio show in San Diego. Yeah. So during the pandemic,
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Carrie Rothman, who's also the co founder of SLED Swell Radio r F
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you A along with Gin and I. You know, Carrie has some investors
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contact him in reference to doing something with the band while it was a lot
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of downtime, and they said, hey, would you guys be interested in
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like going on here and doing a radio show, And we were, well,
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we've never done anything like that, but you know, and something bad
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comes something good, and we just came up with Swell Radio r IF you
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And we have our friend Steve O'Rourke or resident Musicologist. He goes by the
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name of Ozzy, hence the name Swell Radio r F you A and Oz
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is a friend of ours from high school back into Westchester County days and he
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does the show normally only he was available today, but you know, we
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just started doing it out of our love for music, and we share headlining
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names and when we share up and coming artists. You know, it's an
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hour show from seven to eight pm Pacific day at a time ten to eleven
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on the East coast here and it airs every Saturday evening. And what we're
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really doing is we're just trying to get Really it's radio for unique artists,
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right, So what is unique? How does that that covers a wide and
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boundary of a different type musicianship. But we feature all different style of music
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as well, and a lot of times it's bands you never would never have
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heard of them, and we're giving them a chance to be heard on the
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radio. And where can you guys be heard? Just give us this.
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So it's a SAM eleven seventy FM, ninety six to one on the answer
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casey BQ, San Diego on Swell Radio and then all it's www all one
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where Swell Radio RFUA dot com. It airs online every every Saturday evening as
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well as seven to eight Pacific ten to eleven Eastern Standard or daylight time.
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So you know, we've had the show. We're going into our fourth year,
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and man, we're just having fun. Right it's talking music and sharing
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stories and giving exposing people and exposing people some very big names in the business
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and giving them a rundown of what they're doing right now. You know,
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the pandemic was a horrible thing in so many ways, but in some aspects
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it might have been a really beautiful thing because it turned the ship and it
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gave so many of us in the industry other opportunities besides just playing our instruments,
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hence our radio show. Do you know what you were gonna add?
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You know, it's a blessing and an honor to be able to continue spreading
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the gospel of music. If we're not on stage doing it and putting records
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out, we're doing it on the radio and exposing great new artists. And
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I mean, there's this something really special about that. Well, you guys
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seem like teachers, so I feel like you latch onto that teaching and that
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up you know, to the up and coming artists, teaching them how to
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break in, right, that's kind of my other passion in life has been
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martial arts. So you know, I've had a really good, really good
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life, and I teach the art at Tang Sudeau, which is a Korean
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style of martial arts karate, and you know, it's been a blessing for
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me. It's just been a blessing. And it's one of those things where
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a lot of what I take from in life is through my experience in music
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and my experience in martial arts. And I had open heart surgery. I
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was on stage five weeks later, and everybody thought I was out of my
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mind. But because of all my martial arts training and the strength of my
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mind, everybody saying, oh, we're going to cancel the show, We're
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going to cancel the show. Well we didn't cancel the show. Old Dino
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de Luke strolled out on that stage five weeks later, and I played that
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show and I was back in black and I never looked back. And that's
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what it's all about, man, having that passion to continue making music,
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being an artist and going forth in life. Man, all right, one
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last thing before I let you go for sound check. Today, it's Halloween
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week. It is not one of the best times to tour because I think
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rockers and heavy rockers and you know metal they all love the Halloween time to
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go to a concert. So what's that like. Every it is your first
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Halloween tour, you've been on tour for Halloween before, Well, you know,
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a second Halloween is as a big party night, right for not just
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the kids running around getting candy, but for a lot of kids who never
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grew up. And I guess guys with long hair that play heavy metal rock.
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We're all hard rock and roll. We're included in that category. And
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the people that are in our world, even the people who are the nomin
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to follow our music and our musical group and stuff like that. Halloween's the
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second biggest party in that next to New Year's Eve. Right. Well,
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I'll tell you this much. The first time we actually really ever played with
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Sled on Halloween was at Seneca Niagara Casino when Niagara Falls with the amazing Tesla
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great band, and it was a really good show. But you know,
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being able to play in Manhattan where our roots are, and be able to
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do what we're doing tonight, I'm really looking forward to rock in New York
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City tonight, man, and but an honor and a pleasure. Where can
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we get tickets? Where can people buy tickets tonight at the Sheene Center.
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It's Justchenecenter dot com s a teen leaguer street. Yep, It's are on
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sale right on their website. And also I would just want to add both
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Dino and I being native New Yorkers coming home the falls the most beautiful time
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and the most beautiful season in New York State and New York City, so
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it makes it extra special. Actually be here, we haven't been in New
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York on Halloween in thirty nine years. That's not true. Not in the
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city. Oh you're right. We played in Niagara Fall Team, so that's
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technically being in New York state. But I'll say this much. We're at
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the Loretto Theater. The show starts at seven sharp tonight. It's at the
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Sheene Center, eighteen Bleaker Street. You don't want to miss the show.
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And remember our motto, don't forget to rock. All right? Well,
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that was sled. That was Dino and Pete de Luke Junior and Pete.
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I love the way you took out your segments to each second. Can you
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take me out of here? One of your songs and your signature to break.
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I love the way you do that on radio. We've gotta go to
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a commercial break. You're listen to One Leg Up with my brother Alex Garrett
19:00
in New York City. Will be right back after station identification