Musicians in a band, but on different continents? It sounds like a solution dictated by the pandemic but in fact it came together in 2018.
To put it another way, the Proclaimers had a minor hit with their anthem “(I Would Walk) 500 Miles,” but The Burnt Pines’ challenge is crafting a theme song based on the 3,187 miles separating their principal members, who are about equally divided between Boston and Lisbon, Portugal.
Guitarist Aaron Flanders is an Illinois native who came to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music where he met Miguel Sa’ Pessoa, a classically trained pianist who was expanding into jazz. After graduation, Flanders stayed in the Boston area while Sa’ Pessoa went back to his hometown of Lisbon.
By Jay N. Miller
For The Patriot Ledger
So, there you are, filming your latest music video, made up as a vampire floating around Mandy Moore’s swimming pool in Los Angeles. It’s a long way from a Stoughton teenager cutting his musical teeth playing innumerable gigs at the old Scotch and Sounds lounge at Westgate Lanes in Brockton.
But that’s just where Mike Viola’s musical journey began, a head-spinning trip that has made him one of the world’s most in-demand producers, as well as songwriter, and rocker in his own right. He’s worked with a long list of pop music royalty, from Moore to Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, Jenny Lewis, Ryan Adams and Lexington native Matt Nathanson. He’s been all over several movie soundtracks, including most prominently “That Thing You Do,” and also wrote many of the songs for the country music comedy “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.” Then there’s his current “day job,” as A&R (Artists and Repertoire) man for Univer
Right after graduating high school, Robillard and his piano-playing buddy Al Copley founded Roomful of Blues, which turned their love of rhythm and blues into an internationally acclaimed “little big band” that toured the world. Robillard left Roomful in 1979, embarking on a solo career, which also included stints with The Legendary Blues Band, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Robillard’s solo work, with his trio the Pleasure Kings, tended more toward primal rock, but he also loves jazz, and has recorded and performed with such jazz stars as Scott Hamilton, Gerry Beaudoin, Herb Ellis and Jay Geils.
The album reflects all of Robillard’s musical strengths, from the rollicking, Roomful-like jaunt through Ike Turner’s “Do You Mean It?” to Dave Batholomew’s rompin’, stompin’ swinger “Ain’t Gonna Do It,” to the easy rolling ballad from Al King, “Everybody Ain’t Your Friend.”