Pheaturing Sam & Luke

Hello, kids, welcome to another entry of the Phile. How are you? So, one of Charlie Sheen’s “goddesses” broke up with him because she wants to live in a less dangerous environment. So she moved into the puma exhibit at the San Diego Zoo. The same day that Charlie Sheen loses a goddess, all of a sudden, Katie Couric announces that she’s leaving CBS News. Coincidence? Donald Trump is now attacking President Obama’s grades, suggesting that he was a poor student. First it was the birth certificate, and now the grades. Trump won’t be happy until he proves that Obama doesn’t exist. President Obama finally showed his birth certificate and it turns out he was born in Hawaii, of all places. I’m surprised Donald Trump isn’t investigating whether Hawaii is an official state. A lot of vowels over there and not enough consonants. So, who watched the royal wedding? I had to work, but I DVR'ed and watched the exciting parts when I got home. Anyway, the royal wedding had a minor hiccup when they realized another couple had Westminster Abbey booked for the same weekend, so the royals have to be out of there by 2:00. I thought William and Cate should of blew of the wedding, flew to Vegas and got married at the Graceland Chapel where I got married. Anyway, I was watching the wedding, and I didn't think they looked like the best looking couple. Take a look and see what I mean.

Everybody was looking forward to seeing them come out on the balcony at Buckingham Palace and kiss, but then Cate surprised everybody. And all I could think of was lucky prince.

LOL. I feel bad for that little girl there. Well, it's Sunday, and when I post a Phile on Sunday's I like to show you a crazy church sign. So, here's a pheature I call...

And here it is...


And now for sad news...

Phoebe Snow
July 17, 1950 - April 26, 2011
Snow falls.

This is the 15h book to be pheatured in the P.P.B.C.
The author, Christian Cawlay, will be a guest on the Phile soon. Meanwhile, you can purchase the book at kasterborous.com.

Today's guests are two brothers whose fantastic new blues album "Standing in a Room" is available right now on iTunes. They'll be next appearing on May 6th at Media Club in Vancouver, BC, British Co, Canada. It's a pleasure to have them both here, so please give a warm welcome to... Sam and Luke.

Me: Hello, guys, welcome to the Phile. It's so cool you are here. How are you?

Sam: We’re doing doing awesome, thanks for having us.

Me: Okay, you guys look so young, how old are you both? Are you twins?

Luke: We’re not twins, though we do get that a lot. Sam’s 19 and I’m 16.

Me: So, let's get this out of the way, do you guys ever get compared to Justin Beiber? Not in music wise, but by being so young and talented.

Sam: Yeah, John Tanner of the Vancouver Observer referred to us as ‘Justin Bieber meets John Mayer’ in a review of our new album "Standing in a Room". We take that as a compliment.

Me: If I had a band with any of my sisters we would always get into arguments. You two must, being siblings, right?

Luke: Yeah we do argue quite a bit when it comes to musical choices but we’re both fighting for what is best for the song. Otherwise we get along okay.

Me: Do you both write music together?

Sam: Usually one of us will have the chords and a melody line and will bring to the other to hash it out.

Me: You guys do a Bruno Mars cover in concert, right? Are you both Bruno Mars fans? You kids need to cover a Foghat song.

Luke: Foghat is amazing! And Bruno Mars is awesome. We love his work along with the work of many others including: Hendrix, John Mayer, R. Kelly, Usher, and Mile Davis to name a few.

Me: You both are amazing guitar players... take that Beiber. LOL. Did you both start playing guitar at the same time?

Sam: Thanks, man. We picked up the guitar in early 2005 but actually Luke picked it up first and I picked it up a couple months after him.

Me: How old were you both when you started playing? Did you take lessons?

Luke: I was 10 and Sam was like 13. We never took any kind of lessons. I learned how to play guitar by watching Jimi Hendrix videos on YouTube.

Sam: I learned how to play from listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan records.

Me: You guys are from Vancouver, Canada, right? I have asked every Canadian I interview if they are fans of The Barenaked Ladies. They are one of my favorite bands and from Canada. So, are you fans of The Barenaked Ladies?

Luke: We’ve lived in Vancouver since 2004 but actually we were both born in California.
And yes, the Barenaked Ladies have some really cool songs.

Me: Speaking of ladies... I bet you get a lot of girls chasing you kids. A lot of groupies at your shows?

Sam: We could always use more...

Me: My son Logan is learning to play guitar as he wants to follow in his granddad's footsteps. He's only eleven, and we are going to back him up all the way. Your parents must be very supportive as well I take it. You are finishing your education though I hope.

Luke: Logan is one lucky dude having Lonesome Dave as a grandfather. It’d be so cool to meet and jam with one day. And yeah, it takes a lot of support go down this path. We’re very grateful
that both our parents back us 100%. As for school, Sam’s on leave from the University of British Columbia and I’m finishing grade 11 through online schooling which gives us the freedom to tour.

Me: Let's talk about your new CD "Standing in a Room", that's a very Stevie Ray Vaughan sounding title. Who chose the album title?

Sam: First we wrote the title track, "Standing in a Room Without Words" and that’s where the title came from.

Me: Doesn't part of the album sales go to Feed the Hungry? Whose idea was that? That's really commendable of you kids. You are a lot less selfish than I am.

Luke: Yes. We donate part of our proceeds from CD’s sold at some of our live shows to Feed the Hungry. We had a show planned around the time of Canadian Thanksgiving which seemed like the perfect time to raise funds for the local Food Bank. That turned out to be very successful. And then we were invited to perform on TV for a program called "Fill the Food Banks" broadcast nationwide. It seems to be our karma to help feed the hungry and we’re proud to be associated with that.

Me: I just played the album again which I downloaded from iTunes. You guys have an amazing sound, which I love. Who performed on the band with you? Is it the same band who tours with you kids?

Sam: Thank you very much. We’re really happy with the way the album turned out. We recorded it at Sound Stage Studios in Nashville with killer session players who included: Kevin McKendree on keys, Steve MacKay on bass (some tracks) and Bob Babbitt on bass (some tracks). Babbitt is one of the Funk Brothers and featured in the documentary called, “Standing in the Shadows of Motown”. He was awesome to work with. After he did our session he flew to L.A. to work with Phil Collins. Tom Hambridge was on drums. You should check Hambridge out. Besides being an incredible drummer, he’s also an award-winning songwriter, singer and Buddy Guy’s producer. Our backing band is from Vancouver. We are currently touring as a duo due to economic constraints.

Me: Who produced it the album?

Luke: We were very fortunate to work with 7-time Juno award winning and Grammy nominated Canadian producer, Colin Linden who now lives in Nashville. Colin’s
an incredible musician, songwriter, producer and all-around awesome human being.

Me: This is yours second release... you had an EP called "First 4" first which I also downloaded. That must of wetted your appetite to do more music I am guessing? Are you guys working on a third release?

Sam: Definitely. We’ve almost finished writing our new album and we can’t wait to get back into the studio.

Me: I mentioned touring... you guys are currently on tour now. Do you like to
tour? Any chance you guys will be hitting Florida?

Luke: Yeah we’re on tour right now and posting videos and photos from the road on our facebook band page : www.facebook.com/pages/Sam-and-Luke/2974842
4587. We’re having a blast with that. All our tour dates are posted at samandluke.com. Unfortunately we’re not heading as far east as Florida this time because we’d love to meet you, but sure hope we can do that the next time around.

Me: Thanks guys for being on the Phile. We'll be seeing you all over the place real soon I imagine. Please come back, no matter how big you guys get. And don't lose who you are. Go ahead and plug your website and anything you wanna. Thanks again, and continued success. Take care.

Sam: Thanks for having us! Music is everything to us, and we’ll definitely come back, Jay. Like Luke said, we’re posting updates on the tour on our facebook band page facebook.com/pages/Sam-and-Luke/2974842
4587 and our individual Twitter accounts: www.twitter.com/sam_remedios, www.twitter.com/luke_remedios. Our live tour dates as well as live music videos are posted at samandluke.com.

Well, that about does it for another great interview. Thanks to Sam and Luke and I hope they come back again, and I think they'll be huge stars one day. The Phile will be back next Saturday, which makes it two entries this week. The guest will be a woman named Max who is the lead singer in the Australian band The On Fires. So, spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.