Paul Szmal: There you go, our WGVA listeners just heard the ad. This has been so much fun this year doing all these interviews with artists at the Vista. It's the final Vista Concert Series Preview and it's a Friday show this week with the band Bad Alibi and Robert Romano is with us. Good morning.
Robert Romano: Good morning. It's great to have you here. Now one of the things you guys picked up on right away is that there are a lot of classic rock bands out there and they all play the same stuff and I gotta blame that on classic rock radio, frankly, because that's what we do in our industry. So tell us how Bad Alibi is a little bit different.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, certainly. We started a band about 15 years ago and one of the things when I came on as the lead singer when we started the band was we're not going to play the same old, same old. For example, like Bob Seger, he's put out 18 albums. The man had nearly 30 top 50 hits and bands will play old time rock and roll. Love the song, great, but there's a lot of other songs that he played and that was kind of the mission statement of the band when we first started out. We didn't want to play the same old three chords, the same songs that everybody else did. We don't play those deep cut B-side kind of things. We play songs that were top 40 hits, but a lot of bands don't play. Maybe they don't have the instrumentation. We have keyboards, I'm the keyboard player, so maybe there's a song that has keys and they can't play it. Or maybe it's a bit too complicated for skill levels or something like that. But we strive to get those kind of songs because we love to see that look in the audience when we're playing that song. We see their eyes light up and think, oh, I remember that one. Oh, wow, or they're playing a band that might not get as much respect as they should deserve. We play a lot of Duke Jupiter, you know, Rochester Boys did good.
Robert Romano: So tell us about the guys in the band who have the chops to pull these songs off.
Paul Szmal: Well, I started out, the two original members that are still with us is myself, I'm lead vocalist in keys. We have Scott Hollister, he's on percussion. We have Sergio Pedro, he is our phenomenal bass player. And Steve Kern, he's our guitar player. We're all just regular guys. I work up in Syracuse. I'm also in the Army Reserves. Scott's a truck driver. He works for Lansing. And Sergio was a college professor and now he's a high school teacher. And Steve is a graphic artist at Cornell. So just basic guys who just came together to try to make really good music.
Robert Romano: So let's talk about you and your keyboard playing. You list some of your influences. Benmont Tanch, who is with Tom Petty's band. Roy Bitton, of course, with E Street Band. Neil Dowdy with REO Speedwagon. Talk about your gear and your philosophy of playing the keys.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, you named three of the greats there. I guess my primary function in the band is I'm the lead singer. So I use that, I consider my voice an instrument in the band. So my keyboard playing, I kind of take, unless the song really has a very distinct keyboard part, I try to be the rhythm guy. I try to sort of set it back and I try to do that fill. Since we only have one guitar player, there are certain songs that might require that rhythm guitar. And I fill it in. I do pads and fills. Tastefully, I settle back and I let Steve be in the spotlight with all the solos. But of course, if there's a song that's very keyboard centric, I'll come forward with that.
Most of my stuff is vintage, like me. Old but still usable. The rest of the guys, same sort of thing. We blend extremely well. We practice the harmonies that the songs have, the original songs. And we add things subtly when they need to. If you listen to any of the artists, you on YouTube, an artist that's been out there for 34 years, they'll have maybe 15 different concert versions of the song. So we like to take a listen to all those versions and maybe pull some of the really cool things we liked. Maybe that certain live show they did somewhere. Bring that element out of it. Throw that solo in or bring that extra chorus or that extra verse or that extra solo.
Robert Romano: For the most part, with the exception of a couple of breaks for Parenthood and Real Life stuff, you guys have been together for a long, long time. How do you keep it fresh and keep it fun?
Paul Szmal: Well, Parenthood as well, but also the Reserves. I've got to give a shout out to our drummer, Scott. Very short notice, many years ago, I was told, hey, I had to take a one-year vacation by Uncle Sam over to a place with lots of sand. And instead of breaking up the band or hiring somebody else, he stuck by me. And right from the beginning, that was that foundation that we were going to stick together and work it through. And the other two members of the band, Sergio, who's been with us eight years, Steve for four, we've all come together with that mindset that we're a team and we're going to work together. And we work through everyone's schedules. As I said, I have my military service. Scott has a second job where he does firework shows. Sergio travels internationally. We work around everyone's schedule. That's key.
Secondly, we're constantly trying to add new material or rotate out what we call, on the set list we have it in the bullpen. So we have about 10 songs that we'll rotate one in, rotate one out. So if you come and see us this show and then you see us two months from now or a month from now, there'll be different songs in the rotation. And then typically in the winter, we slow down. Will will go in there and we'll try to add about 10, 15 new songs just to keep it fresh. I've got the list, and I won't give it away, but you're going to love it. And like you said, it's not songs people aren't going to know, but it might be ones they haven't heard from another classic rock band.
Robert Romano: The band is called Bad Alibi. It's the final Vista show of the year. It's Friday night. And the food truck this week is Mama's Got You, 6 to 9 p.m. at the Vista, Seneca Lake Resorts at Samson State Park. And Robert Romano, thanks so much. We appreciate it. It's been great to meet all these artists this year, and maybe we'll do this again next year.
Paul Szmal: We certainly appreciate it. And thanks to Vista for even having us. This was an additional show that wasn't originally on their schedule, and they added it. We're hoping to be back next year as well. So please come and see us throughout the Finger Lakes region.
