Anthony Gomes (blues rock musician)

Anthony Gomes is a Canadian blues and blues rock guitarist and singer. His latest album “High Voltage Blues” features Ray Luzier (Korn) & Billy Sheehan (David Lee Roth, Mr. Big) and is available now via Rat Pak Records. We had a fun chat discussing songwriting, the blues, rock, playing with Sammy Hagar & Michael Anthony, his charity Music is the Medicine & more!

00:00 - Intro
00:37 - New Album "High Voltage Blues"
04:15 - Ending Up in St. Louis
09:30 - Non-Music Interests & Recharging
12:30 - Balancing Music And Going All In
14:38 - Taking An Ad Out &  Grinding
23:50 - Sammy Hagar & Michael Anthony
26:16 - Younger Musicians
28:20 - Kenny Wayne Shepherd 
29:20 - Listening to Music
32:15 - Writing Songs Happy or Sad
34:15 - Being White & Playing the Blues
35:35 - Master's Thesis on Cultural Evolution of Blues
38:42 - White Trash Princess & Other Perspectives
42:20 - Tour & New Album
43:20 - Music is the Medicine
47:30 - Outro

Anthony Gomes website:
https://www.anthonygomes.com/

Music is the Medicine website:
https://www.musicisthemedicine.org/

Chuck Shute website:
http://chuckshute.com/

Transcript

Charles Shute: 0:00

Coming up today we have blues musician Anthony gums. He currently has the number one blues record high voltage blues. And this album features drummer ray from corn. The basis Billy Sheehan, formerly Mr. Big and David Lee Ross band. And Anthony, I have a great discussion about blues rock being a music fan has interesting background, the cool charity started and more coming right up

Chuck Shute: 0:34

welcome, Anthony, it's nice to meet you. I'm excited to your new album, high voltage blues. This is the description is a BB King was an AC DC is.

Anthony Gomes: 0:46

Yeah, you know, I love all the nuances in the blues soul that BB King has, and I love the drive that ACDC possesses. So those were sort of two touchstones for me in making this album.

Charles Shute: 1:02

Yeah, so you reread these as this is an album where you rerecord some of your old songs because you have quite a career you've been going since the 90s. And you just re recorded like, these are like fan favorites, basically.

Anthony Gomes: 1:14

So what happened was, Joe Bryan, president of Rat Pack records, discovered our music during COVID. And thought that, hey, here's an artist that could be marketed to a rock world, but hasn't been done. So you know, we're a sort of a blues rock. So in that BB King AC DC mix, we were only marketed to the BB King people. So his idea was, let's introduce your past. But, you know, as I said, Hey, man, this can't be a money grab, we can't just remix these songs or whatever. So we got Billy Sheehan and Ray Loser on a couple of tracks, and I re sang stuff, I replayed guitar. So it's for our existing fans. It's, it's not a rehashing, you know, to me, it's almost like, this is my first album, part two, you know? So we wanted to go in that way and give this album some integrity by doing by doing that, and there's three new songs and yeah, I feel really good about it. I feel like it's cohesive, too. That way, you know, stuff that was four or five years old. Sounds relevant to what's happening today. Absolutely.

Chuck Shute: 2:27

Yeah. I mean, that's, that's a good description, because it is there's like some songs that are like just classic blues. And then there's others that are more just bluesy rock, which I love both personally. But how did you know I was gonna ask you about that, because I just saw that. Right before he came on. I was reading a review of the album. And I didn't even know that Ray and Billy had been done on there. So I was gonna ask you, how did you get them?

Anthony Gomes: 2:49

That was a record label. That's it's good to have friends in high places,

Chuck Shute: 2:53

man, I guess so the Rat Pack people got them? Yeah,

Anthony Gomes: 2:57

yeah. And raised in a band called kx. Sam that records, Rat Pack. And then, you know, he's friends with Billy. So things fell into place. And they dug the music. And I was so honored to have them on the record, man. I mean, these are, these are such heavy, heavy cats. So were you there

Charles Shute: 3:18

when they recorded? Or did they just record and send their tracks in?

Anthony Gomes: 3:22

They recorded and sent the checks because they were done in 2021. And everybody was trying to isolate as much as possible? Sure, yeah. But in the future, you know, this has gone so well. You know, we're kicking around the idea of maybe exploring this idea some more. And maybe we could do that in person the next time around.

Chuck Shute: 3:42

Yeah, or maybe even a show like probably not a whole tour because those guys are so busy, but maybe even like a one off show with like the three of you. That would be cool.

Anthony Gomes: 3:52

Well, Ray has said next time we're in Nashville, he's coming out of jam. And so that would be that would be killer man.

Chuck Shute: 4:00

Oh, you're in Nashville.

Anthony Gomes: 4:01

I live in St. Louis. But next time we're on tour, if he's in that, you know, he lives in Nashville, so

Unknown: 4:08

Oh, I see. So if you're in Nashville, so yeah, yeah.

Anthony Gomes: 4:11

And you know, rocket, so that'd be great. What St. Louis,

Chuck Shute: 4:16

like, I've never been there. I've just heard things I've heard good. I've heard bad, but what's your take? You must like?

Anthony Gomes: 4:22

I love St. Louis. You know, because that's why I live here because I really love it. St. Louis is interesting because it's right in the middle. So to me, it's either the most northern southern city or the most southern northern city or the most western eastern city. It's definitely a gateway. Right. The Missouri Compromise went right through St. Louis. So yeah, it's a very interesting place to me. It's very America. I think it's under valued and underrated. You know, it gets a bad rap in some ways. And I really see this The growing it's had a great musical legacy. Albert King lived here, the great blues man, Chuck Berry's from here, Miles Davis. You know, fifth dimension. You know, there's been a lot of great music people out of the city. And I think it really gets overlooked because Paul is right next door to Nashville, and Chicago. So yeah, it's a great city, man.

Charles Shute: 5:28

Is there still, like music scene? Is there blues clubs there and rock clubs and places to go and live music?

Anthony Gomes: 5:34

Absolutely. I would say it has one of the richer music scenes in the country. Really? Yeah. Yeah. It's really cool. You know, the unfortunate thing is, you know, Nashville is about a four and a half hour drive. Chicago is about a four hour drive away from St. Louis. So a lot of great musicians end up getting work in these cities. And sometimes they transplant there because it's so easy to do that. But yeah, there is a rich scene with a lot of really great players. And yeah, it's very, you know, it's a no Nashville. I mean, but, you know, I mean, we're that's attracted everybody or Austin, you know, but as far as a natural organic city, I love it. I love the people in St. Louis. They're so friendly. I immediately was taken aback as just how cool place was is, and it's kind of real Midwest vibe. So yeah, really dig it. Man. It's a credit. You

Unknown: 6:38

end up there, though. Because Aren't you from Canada originally? Yeah, well,

Anthony Gomes: 6:41

you know, I've been avoiding the cops. So as they would chase No. I moved to Chicago for four years. And I wanted to get an education in the blues. And I hung out with all these masters and got a lot of great opportunities. And after four years of being there, I felt like okay, I'd soak that up. I moved to Nashville for about eight years to learn more about songwriting, and be in that amazing environment. For those who aren't too familiar with Nashville, it's not just country music. It's a it's a really rich music environment. And I mean, you can hear such amazing talent you ever go to karaoke? In Nashville? It's freaking scary, right? I

Chuck Shute: 7:28

haven't done that. I've only been to Nashville twice. I saw live music ever. But I've never been to karaoke. That's a good idea, though.

Anthony Gomes: 7:34

Oh, dude, check, man. It's so crazy. It's, it's, it's like these riggers are coming up. You know, I mean, just everybody there half the people that live in Nashville are affiliated in the music business in some capacity. So either they work for a label, or, you know, their stage crew or so you're just you're just surrounded. What I loved about St. Louis was, it was the exact opposite. You know, I could never turn off in Nashville. If I went out for dinner, oh, there's some record producer, or there's some guitar player I know. Or it's, it was music 24/7. And that was great when I was there, but now I kind of I want to have a balance, you know, so when I'm off the road, or when I'm being creative, you know, my friends. Half my friends in St. Louis aren't musicians, you know. And so it's sort of like, that's very important. I find, you know, just to have some sort of balance. It's really good for your art.

Chuck Shute: 8:35

No, absolutely. You gotta like retry. No, for me, like as a podcaster. Like, just, I love doing podcasts. But sometimes you just need to recharge, and take a break, and then you come back refreshed. And you're like, Okay, I'm ready to go. It's probably the same with music.

Anthony Gomes: 8:49

Exactly. And then I think it's an artist or podcaster, whatever. If you don't have that break, you get, I think you start making bad creative decisions, just because you're not fresh. Because, you know, you're sort of, you know, I won't say burnt out, but you have no real Touchstone or perspective or, you know, so, yeah, I hang out with my non musician, friends, and we talk about stuff that has, you know, nothing to do with music, and then you come back and you're like, oh, yeah, music. This is the coolest thing ever. Okay, you know, so yeah, that's really important.

Charles Shute: 9:27

What are your other interests? That are non music, like you're into sports and things are,

Anthony Gomes: 9:32

but yeah, man, I you know, I'm from Canada originally. So I'm a big hockey fan. And I keep cheering for the Toronto Maple Leafs and it's really just really, really sad. Yeah, I love I love sports man. I you know, St. Louis has a rich baseball history. And so yeah, so I think that, you know, when I'm off the road, I tried to be as uncool as possible. It's like a Uh, you know, I try to do like the most mundane, non crazy things, you know, like going for walks, grocery shopping, checking out a movie. Just because I find that's really really important, you know, especially when you're on the road and you get a lot of adulation and you know, a lot of support from your fans, and they're so awesome. And they're great for us and to us, you know, but if you stay in that world too long, it's again, you know, nobody cheers when you do the dishes, right? I mean, nobody cheers when you scrub the toilet, and that's sometimes a lot harder than the, you know, doing a gig. No, I'm joking. But, you know, the point I'm trying to make is just, yeah, I tried to be as unrack star and it's almost like, you know, when you're an artist, it's almost like you have the superhero thing. You're not trying to be a superhero, you just have, you've been blessed to have this gift. And, you know, to make a superhero analogy, Superman is actually Superman. And when he's not Superman, he has to put on the glasses, and the suit and so nobody, so nobody recognizes, well, we're, I'm not famous, but I have to do that. But the idea is, you sort of have to, like, you know, be I try to be in touch with my inner nerd as possible. You know, it'd be as uncool as possible, just so I recharge me, you know, so maybe I shouldn't say that in an interview.

Chuck Shute: 11:41

Oh, I love it. No, that makes sense. Because it sounds like I mean, that's like, like you said, that's your gift. So that's probably how you get a high like being on stage. And that's like, amazing, but then you'll take it for granted. If you're just always doing it, you don't have those breaks and the recharging and

Anthony Gomes: 11:57

Yeah, exactly. Appreciate it

Charles Shute: 11:59

more, because you know, you're if you're doing the dishes, or you're scrubbing a toilet, and then and then you go from that to being on stage and have people cheering, it's like a It's complete 180 And you can really appreciate whereas if you always are just on stage and always being worshipped, and you know, adored, then you probably don't appreciate it as much. I mean, that's what you see these people that are on that high, high level that probably never scrub a toilet. Maybe they don't appreciate it as much.

Anthony Gomes: 12:23

Yeah, you know, and I found for myself, like, early on in my career, when I wasn't gigging, I was still trying to get that high, I was hanging out of music clubs and schmoozing. And, and after a while, I felt like, wow, this is kind of an empty existence, you know. It's sort of like, it was not balanced, you know, we keep coming back to this balance thing. But, you know, I like a good steak, but you got to have your vegetables too, you know, so sort of, like, you got to, you got to mix everything up and have the right balance. So yeah, and that's been, I feel, I'm 52. Now I feel at 52 I am making the best music of my career, I am performing to the best of my ability. And I feel like I'm just scratching the surface. And if I didn't have this balance, I don't think I'd be able to do that. You know, and I think it really gives me legs to, to go. And it's exciting.

Chuck Shute: 13:25

Do you think though, when you're starting out, though, maybe you you, you kind of do need to go all in, in a way because it's so competitive with the music business. And if you're, if you're balancing too much, then you're not going to be able to be successful because you do have to kind of do the schmoozing and be hanging out the music clubs and you almost have to live and breathe music 24/7 to get to that point, right.

Anthony Gomes: 13:48

That's a good point. Now. How can I say this? I'm always thinking of music. It's always in the back of my mind. I'm always schmooze it like that doesn't get turned off. Okay, you, you try to direct that, because anybody that's an artist is is probably borderline obsessive, right? They're always thinking about their music that you know, and it's important to put yourself out of that. So yeah, so maybe I'm over emphasizing the balance, maybe for my own best interest, you know. But yeah, I think you're right early on. It's very important. And but throughout your career, you know, just trying to find ways to get your your music heard, you know, especially in today's world that's ever changing.

Chuck Shute: 14:38

Yeah, didn't you say that? One of the biggest things that helped your career was your first couple albums, you were struggling and then your third album, you took out this like double page ad or something, and that is one of the things that boosted your career the most.

Anthony Gomes: 14:52

Yes, so, man. One of our fan favorite albums is our third one. It's called Unity. It's sort of got The ball rolling. And I financed that album myself. And back in those days, there were no home studios, this was 2000. So I saved up $30,000 To record a record, that's a down payment on a house, you know, I bought this red crappy old van. So I could start touring and it was breaking down. You know, people in the blues circle were like, Yeah, you win the award for the worst van. You know, so I did all these things. And I'm just, you know, I'm not making any money, you're playing for 400 bucks a night, and you got to pay your band, 500 bucks, you know, for all the guys and hotels. And I get this review in this sort of the leading blues magazine. And it said another day, another hotshot leather pants wearing blues rock wannabe, like something like that. And this magazine was notoriously positive, like, you know, and I was like, Whoa, and I, I was so upset, because we were getting tremendous reviews everywhere. And I thought, man, whoever this writer is, I still know who he is. But whoever this person is, wow. They're not doing all these hard things. They're They're not investing all this money and working 70 hours a week and not, you know, living on a dream, you know that they're not doing this. And then a couple of words from somebody who maybe only gave this album a quick listen, can shatter whatever we've done. So I took out a two page ad, I took out a loan, I borrowed money. And in the magazine that crucified us, interestingly enough, and I didn't

Chuck Shute: 16:51

know that a part of it that it wasn't the same magazine. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So

Anthony Gomes: 16:56

interesting. And, you know, at the same time, we had some opening shows with BB King, that those tour dates were in the magazine. You know, Dan Ackroyd, that's something nice to say about us. You know, and, you know, other people said, you know, like, one of the 30 best blues Albums of All Time, like, in complete contrast to what the magazine had said. So, that really, really put us on the map. And we were doing a big blues festival. And there you go, there's tower. No, sorry. There's this magazine was called blues rock review, and who later became champions, and the editor is sitting there watching our show at this big blues festival. We sold 350 CDs after our gig. The line was, I can't tell you, man, it went on forever. And he was in the booth right next to me with every CD I was signing, and his significant other part of CV two, which I thought was like great vindication. Now he was the editor, not the writer. Sure. But yeah, you know, so these are the struggles as a young artist that you know, you have to do and nobody cares, man, when you're starting out, they don't care. It's like, you know, they still don't care. You know, you have to fight for every every inch you get. And you do it, because, you know, you're almost paternal about it. You know, these songs are your babies, man, and nobody's gonna mess with your kids, you know? So yeah, it's there you go. I don't think I've ever shared that story checks. Thanks. Thanks, man. I feel great, dude.

Chuck Shute: 18:42

Yeah, no, that's so cool, though. I love those kinds of stories to understand how people, you know, become successful, like how you get to this point where you have the number one blues album, right now. I mean, that's just kind of, it's kind of neat to hear that that struggle. I think that stuff is inspiring, because, like you said, the for you. I mean, you're, you're, you're having this junky van or whatever. I mean, you were really it wasn't like, coming easy for you at that point.

Anthony Gomes: 19:06

No, you know, and, you know, I've always had this funny joke, you know, somebody asked me, you know, what would if they ever made a movie about your life, what would it be like, you know, and I was like, Okay, here's what it'd be like, I'm playing this club. I'm a young kid. And there's like, eight people in the club. And I'm just playing my heart out. And you know, if people are going really crazy, you know, at some guy comes up to me, and goes, keypad, a kid keypad. And then the next thing 20 years later, the same thing. You know, I mean, I've had to sleep on couches. I met the, you know, early on lung, you know, for many years. It's not in the position that we're at now, man, it's taken a long time and a lot of personal sacrifice to get here. And we haven't fit into a neat box. I played blues and I'm from Canada, like that's not really the thing you think of when you think of blues. And then I like to play a Flying V and turn it up to 11. So all the blues purists go running for the hills, whenever we show up, it's like, they think we're going to, we're a degradation to the music and we're going to pervert whatever wholesomeness that music has, you know, because I do love AC DC, and I do love Ronnie James do as much as I love John Lee Hooker, you know, I mean, to me, they're interchangeable. It's not, I don't have that dividing line. And when I sing, you know, I'll rip off a notice reading line, and a BB King line, and then I'll rip off a Paul Rogers or do thing you know. So whatever. And that doesn't fit in a neat box. So nobody wants to invite you to the party. Now, the fans, and supporters and music listeners, they're on board. So you kind of have to sort of fight the tastemakers early on and say, No, man, this is my lane. This is the lane that I want to be, if I want to play blues song and finger tap like Eddie Van Halen, or try to be like, I'm gonna do it, man, just because, you know, Howlin Wolf, didn't do it. I'm gonna do you know. So anyway, that's, that's, that's been the challenge. And if there's an artist or up and coming, people watching this, you know, early on, people are going to look at what makes you different as a negative. And that is your superpower. What makes you different, is what will make you lasting and endure and rise above, it's just, you're going to have to kick the crap out of the out of the door to walk in through it if you are a little bit different. So to any artists out there, that is feeling and experiencing these things, keep going, man, keep going. Because because you're gonna get there. And what makes it different is what sets you apart. But nobody likes different in the beginning.

Charles Shute: 22:06

That's interesting, because I've definitely heard that before, too, that you know, being different is your superpower. But it's interesting when you say that it's harder in the beginning, which makes sense. But then in the long run, if you stick to your guns and you keep, you know, being true to yourself, then being different is going to be a strength.

Anthony Gomes: 22:24

Yeah, yeah. You know, so I mean, you know, the joke is, you know, for the industry. Who else BB King? Oh, no, we don't want to have something like T bone Walker. Hey, man, that BB kings making a lot of noise, we should sign him. Then the third thing is, hey, let's find somebody that sounds like BB King, you know? Right? That's, that's the, that's the journey it's got to take. And sometimes the path is relatively quickly, because you have people in your corner really pushing for you, you know, and other times, those people haven't discovered you yet. And you have to make a lot of noise on your own. To get those people and especially more and more in the industry that we are in today. It takes a while, you know, it took 20 years for us to get a label to really that we felt was okay, this is a great partner for us. This is this is a label that believes in what we're doing and is on board. So you know, and then you get things like Billy Sheehan and Ray loser and, and you know, all these things that are happening to us now. Because this lady leaves in us it took 20 years to get there. So wow, that's cool, though. Yeah, it is.

Chuck Shute: 23:49

Now just gonna say like you You played with you played with a lot of these blues artists, but also you've played with with the rock artists. So that's got to be kind of cool, because like you've you got to meet Jeff back. You got to did you did you share a stage with Sammy Hagar, too.

Anthony Gomes: 24:04

We opened for Sandy at Summerfest. And that was really really cool. Such a nice guy, man such as him and Michael Anthony. Both were you know, it was funny because I was running with a band. It's not my current band that was about five years ago. And these guys weren't really versed in rock. They came from more r&b gospel, you know? And so they're like, Hey, man. I talked to one of the techs, and they said, We can stay for Sammy Hagar show, you know, because the venue was trying to get us out. And I said, Oh, yeah, I said, What did you get a name or something? Yeah. Michael Anthony.

Chuck Shute: 24:48

The bass player for Van Halen. Yeah.

Anthony Gomes: 24:51

I said, this guy sold 50 million records, but it's not a tech. No. But as a testament to Michael he was so so down to earth, and so nice. I hate to use the word nice, but he was he was just like a good and Sammy was great. We got done. Our cities like, Are you the guy that's making all the noise up there? And I'm like, yeah. Hey, if you tried to like to drink Have you tried my new room? I'm like, join an infomercial with Sammy Hagar. Yeah, you know, and I gave him a couple of CDs and, and, and I said, Hey, man, here's, here's a couple of CDs for the bus. You know, that's the kind of, you know, as an industry thing, you say bus, you know, and he goes, Oh, man, we don't take buses. Because he flies right.

Chuck Shute: 25:43

And private jet. Yeah, he's from Van Halen, and the Cabo Wabo stuff.

Anthony Gomes: 25:48

Yeah. And I was like, Yeah, man. We don't do a bus either. Yeah, we're in. We're in a Mercedes Sprinter van. But it was. It was cool. He was so down to earth. So great. And, and, you know, I've been fortunate enough to meet a lot of these people along the way, that have been that way. And so supportive, and just cool people, you know, wow. Yeah. Wonderful.

Chuck Shute: 26:15

A lot of the legends now what about because now you heard, you're kind of at that point where you can start helping out and mentoring some of the younger up and coming musicians. Like, I just had Tyler Bryant on. I don't know if you're familiar with Tyler Bryan and the Shakedown, I love those guys. I think he's super talented, super young, nice kid. Have you ever had any interactions with him? Or?

Anthony Gomes: 26:35

I haven't. But I'm aware of what he does. And I really love what he's doing. And it's it's very exciting. Is there

Charles Shute: 26:43

other other younger bands or musicians out there that you're a fan over that you've interacted with?

Anthony Gomes: 26:50

Oh, well, you know, I have a couple of folks that are like teenagers, and they've come to the show. I've got this guy that I've known since he was like, eight, and his parents were fans. And now he's starting to things named Sean McKee. And he's starting a band. And I've had other people that I've even given guitar lessons to like, Skype for a couple of things, or given them some advice, or, because I've had people that have done that for me, you know, through the years, and when you're starting out, that's a big thing, you know, just for somebody to have to take, you know, and it's so important. And, you know, we you realize that you're only here for a minute, in the grand scheme of things. And I'm so honored to be a part of this thing called music. And my generation is just going to take it down the field 10 yards, and then we're going to pass it on to the next generation, and they're going to take it down. And that's such a cool thing when you, I think, when you look at yourself less as an individual, and not only as part of the collective, but as part of the greater collective of a part of music as it's existed and will exist. It's such an honor. It's such a very, very cool

Chuck Shute: 28:14

thing. Very cool. Yeah. So besides the older musicians, and then the newer ones, and then there's kind of those ones that are kind of maybe came up around the same time, like, I don't know where you'd put Kenny Wayne Shepherd, but I love him like, I mean, he's not really old school, but he's not really a newer because he's been around like 20 years or something. But you played with him, too, right?

Anthony Gomes: 28:33

Yeah, great, great guitar player. You know, a great singer in that band to Noah hunt. And Kenny took the Stevie Ray Vaughan thing and applied more of a mainstream songwriting approach to it. And, you know, sort of I think what Green Day did to punk music, you know, that, yeah, pop in it. And I love it. I love I have all his albums. I listen to them. I think he's a great artist. And, you know, the only thing I've realized is that there's not there aren't simply enough hours to listen to all the music I want to listen to. I go to the record store and I buy like three albums and I go when will I listen to these kinda it might be like, in a month, I'll be able to put this one on the turntable because I have other stuff I want to listen to. And you know, it's what a great problem to have. But it's I wish I had more time just to listen.

Chuck Shute: 29:26

That's good to use to listen to music. You'd be surprised how many musicians I interview and they say, Oh, I never listened to music because I'm always in music all the time. It's like when I have a break. I don't want to like I who would have on a camera who was who was telling me they go to the gym even and they don't listen to music at the gym. They'd rather just hear silence. Right shocked me.

Anthony Gomes: 29:46

Well, you know, look, whatever works. You know, like some bands do Christmas albums, and other bands don't I don't think Led Zeppelin would ever do a Christmas record but you know Rob's Stuart might, maybe the Beatles did a Christian or elements. You know, it all depends on who you are right? For me, I am still that 16 year old kid that, you know, my first rock concert was was deal. You know, I still listen to Ronnie James deal. I love it. I just he's got a couple of live things that just came out from Donington. And you know, Vivi Campbell was playing the heck out of that guitar in 1983. And then then there was a show from 87 with Craig Goldy on guitar, and that's an amazing show and Ronnie singing like, what, you know, so that was yesterday, when I was hanging out, that's what I was listening to, you know, and I got so charged about that, you know, picking up my guitar, and, you know, trying to do my best Vivian Campbell impersonations, you know, because I was so inspired by that and, and tomorrow, probably listen to BB King record, and, you know, work on my Broto. And that to me, I've always tried to keep connected to that 16 year old music fan. I think that's very important. And I had the privilege of meeting Jeff Beck and I noticed he was just so excited about music like, and, you know, just generally, and I was speaking with guys in the band, and they're like, oh, yeah, man, he's just, he loves music. He's still super charged about this. So you gotta be man, you gotta Yeah, that inner kid man that that wide eyed kid and, and maybe the balance I've tried to create allows me to do that. Because in my normal Clark Kent life, it's really being as nerdy as you can be. And, and then it's like, you know, watching Lord of the Rings and listening to do I mean, that's about as nerdy as you can get. Right. You know, so that's my thing. You know, so yeah, yeah, I tried to do that. And and I love music. You know, I just love it so much. It's the it's the greatest thing that's ever been created, in my opinion.

Chuck Shute: 32:13

Yeah. Does it help when you're creating music? Or when you're listening? Do you feel like it's cathartic? At times? Like to help get out emotions? Like, if you're having a bad day? I mean, does it have that kind of effect on you? Because I know it does for me.

Anthony Gomes: 32:28

Yeah, playing my guitar, is really a good release. If I'm having a bad day, I have to be happy. Or to write a song I have to be in a good frame of mind to song right. Or I have to be really upset about a specific thing. Or, you know, moved by a specific event that channels and emotional response. And then later on, I write the song when I'm in a better frame of mind. But yeah, I have to be, you know, some people. It looks like, you know, I, from what I understand Eric Clapton, when things are really hard. He writes great songs, you know, I'm not that kind of person. I have to be in a good, good frame of mind. Right using.

Charles Shute: 33:20

So you've never tried, like, when you're having just like the worst things happening emotionally. You've never tried to sit down and write a song

Anthony Gomes: 33:27

I have, but nobody would listen to it. Because it's horrible. Yeah, it's, it's just, I guess, because I'm so such an emotional person that I can't. I'm not in a place to communicate. You know, and that's what writing a song is. You know, some people that get Yeah, I just sort of shut down I think. But I'm able to remember that feeling. And then later, I'm able to express it when I'm in a better place.

Chuck Shute: 33:59

So what if you're in a really good and you're just having an amazing day, then you can then it's easier to write like a song and you can write a really fun happy song.

Anthony Gomes: 34:07

Yes, exactly. And then. Well, when I was starting out, in Chicago, there were certain venues that would not hire you. If you were Caucasian, to play the blues. In Chicago, there was a strict Nope. For years and years and years. And the reason was, a lot of people were tourists and they wanted to see authentic blues bands authentic. And, you know, a pasty face Canadian is really what you know, they wanted to see somebody from Louisiana or Mississippi, you know. And I wrote blues in Technicolor, just because I was very upset. The lion came to me when I was upset when I didn't write the song. You know what I mean? was like, Whoa, oh, that's Wow, okay, I'll remember that. And then I'll revisit it. You know? I think maybe you write your first. A lot of times your inspiration comes from the heart. And then you need your head to finish the draft to finish the second draft him. It's so I guess when I am emotional, yes, I have all these things that I kind of take them with me to a later place and play Tetris with all the ideas when I'm in a better frame of mind. Okay,

Chuck Shute: 35:33

that's interesting. You bring up the race thing with the blue bloods interesting because isn't that like, explain to my audience, your education, like I don't know the whole story, but I know that you went to University of Toronto, kind of more to get your parents off your back that you Oh, I'm gonna go to college and get a real job. I'm not going to be a musician. But then you did your master's thesis on what was the the racial cultural evolution of blues music. So explain to me what that was about. It sounds interesting to me.

Anthony Gomes: 36:02

Well, you know, yeah, so basically, my parents were very strict. So I got my mat, I got my bachelor's degree. And I was just killing time No, Mom and Dad. Yeah, I'm back going into music. No. It hasn't happened yet. Oh, I'm gonna go get my master's degree. So I'm taking, you know, history and stuff. And we start talking about the blues in history. And I was like, I could write a research paper on this. This is amazing. And basically, what happened was in in 1960, blues music was essentially an African American form, performed, listened to by African Americans. By the end of the decade, it was integrated. There were bands, audiences that, you know, we're tooting it. Why did this happen? You know, why? What happened? What were all the factors that happened here? And I think for myself, I wanted to understand how did I fit in because I started off loving rock and roll. But I love the blues rock and roll. I didn't know that it was blues, rock and roll. I love Led Zeppelin. And I love Jimi Hendrix. And, you know, and then somebody told me about this guy that played Hendrix's as well as Hendrix and his name was Stevie Ray Vaughan, you know, and as I got into the Stevie Ray mine guy, you know, and it was saying, all this rock that's actually blues based. And then one day, I bought a BB King album, and my world changed. Because, you know, I tell people, it's like, loving apple pie. But you've never had an apple. And now you've gotten to the, you know, he's like, Hey, man, I've been eating this apple pie, because I really liked this apple. And when I heard BB King, Jimi Hendrix made more sense to me, because I was going back to where they got it from. It man, I just fell in love. And then I bought a Buddy Guy album The next day, and I love Buddy Guy, and I just got so deep into all this music. And I just had to find out, man, you know, what's up with this? You know, why do I love this music so much? Do I have a right to play this music? You know? And then, you know, I would joke and say, you know, being Canadian, and white is sort of like being white twice, you know, and I'm trying to play the blues. And it's like, how, you know? So,

Chuck Shute: 38:40

yeah, that's interesting. Well, it's funny because you have a song on your latest album, called white trash Princess, which is, again, that's a re recorded song. But just finding that term. I remember I had written a Yelp review on a restaurant or something, I use the term white trash, and it got taken down. So I'm like, yeah, so we can't say white trash anymore. Because I'm white, I can't use that term. So it's an interesting world we live in with the with the racial things, it's a can be touchy sometimes,

Anthony Gomes: 39:06

well, you know, things have evolved, and they continue to evolve and what something meant to certain groups, five or 10 years ago may not be relevant, you know, it's sort of like, it's, you know, I'm on board, whatever, you know, if we want to change of an angular if we can't say something, you know, my trash princess was a funny song is supposed to be funny. And in my opinion, what makes something funny is if you get close to the edge, but you don't cross it, and a really low, oh, but you haven't crossed that edge, but maybe five or 10 years later, the edge of the line has changed and now your toes over the line. But you know, that I think if we can be tolerant of understanding what things meant, and then also be tolerant to accept change, then I'm on board with that.

Charles Shute: 39:58

That's that's I like that. It wasn't a tolerant to accept change. Yeah, that's that's true because things change. And that's okay, too. There's nothing wrong with that.

Anthony Gomes: 40:06

Yeah. And, and, you know, you know, not to get too deep, you know, cause too much controversy. But, you know, there's these folks that get very upset with something that they think is intolerant. And, and I understand, but they act in such an intolerant manner. It's like, what No, no, hey, buddy, what you doing is wrong. Let's let's not do that, you know, but anyway. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 40:34

Well, I think the issue that I think that, for me anyways, that people don't do in this world right now is they don't try to understand other people's perspective, they only understand their own. And they can't understand why anybody wouldn't think exactly the same way as they do. And so I think if we all just tried to listen, and even if you disagree, I think that you don't have to necessarily agree with the person, but you could try to understand where they're coming from. I think we'd all be a lot better off.

Anthony Gomes: 40:59

Yeah, you know, so I saw this great cartoon illustration, like, let's say, you and I are standing in front of each other. And I draw six. I'll go six. And you'll go nine. To me. Exactly. And you know, it's like, yeah, you know, yeah,

Charles Shute: 41:17

I said that before. That's a good one. Yeah, I

Anthony Gomes: 41:20

think we have two things of what we should use. And one thing that gets us in trouble so we got two eyes, two ears and one mouth and maybe one something else. And those one things get us in trouble. But we have to have two eyes for a reason. You know, they got we don't have two mouths, you know what I mean? But two years. Us, you know that. Yeah.

Chuck Shute: 41:44

And that's, that's part of the reason I do the podcast is to hear different perspectives from people from all walks of life. I think that's what's most fascinating about America is like, you got people from all over there that have moved here from all over the world and grown up in different parts. Even different parts of the country are so different. California is so different from Arizona, and Washington is so different from Tennessee, you know, so

Anthony Gomes: 42:07

Oh, it's fun. Definitely check it out.

Chuck Shute: 42:10

Yeah, good stuff. Well, I'm loving the new album. I just discovered you so I'm doing a you know, deep dive of listen to some of your older stuff, too. So I'd love to see a live now you're going to be on tour.

Anthony Gomes: 42:20

Right? Absolutely. We're starting to get out of the cave, man.

Chuck Shute: 42:25

Okay, so I didn't see Arizona on the list. Will you be coming through this way? And if so, if you don't if you've been here before, which venues would you play? Cuz I'm thinking maybe like the rhythm room, or I don't I don't know

Anthony Gomes: 42:36

if there's a room in the past. So I'd be okay. Be Coming back to Phoenix for sure. I love Phoenix. It's a great great town. Yeah. Yeah. Especially

Chuck Shute: 42:44

in the winter. It's the place to be

Anthony Gomes: 42:46

is. Yeah, very

Chuck Shute: 42:49

cool. Well look for that. So people can get they can listen to the new album, they can stream it or they can could buy a hard copy. Right? They can buy vinyl or CD

Anthony Gomes: 42:57

or vinyl CD. If they go to our website, Anthony gomez.com. There's a click on the homepage and it takes you to every place you can buy this album Amazon from Rat Pack direct to get signed stuff. You know? Yeah. FYE, Barnes and Noble it's ever at Find a record stores.

Chuck Shute: 43:20

Okay. Yeah, great. And then I always end each episode promoting a charity and I love this, you actually have your own charity music is the medicine. And people go to music is the medicine.org. We'll put that in the show notes. But yeah, explain to my audience what this charity is, is very cool.

Anthony Gomes: 43:35

Well, music has given so much to me, that I wanted an opportunity to give back. And if it wasn't for music, I don't know if I'd be here I had, you know, a real challenging teen years. And you know, my mom was diagnosed with paranoia, schizophrenia, and it made growing up really, really challenging. And music was my refuge and it was my rock and it became the parent that I couldn't have while my mom was dealing with what she's dealing with it. She's in a much better place today.

Chuck Shute: 44:13

Are your parents still together? I

Anthony Gomes: 44:14

was gonna ask me they're not they're not that would

Chuck Shute: 44:17

be really hard to be married to somebody with paranoid schizophrenia.

Anthony Gomes: 44:21

They lasted a long time and interestingly enough, my mom sort of the one that walked away just because she wanted to be alone. You know, it's not an easy it's not easy, you know? So

Chuck Shute: 44:35

no, I had a I have a friend who the Believe it or not, because I have a master's in psychology. So I studied this stuff. And I have a friend who was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, and he beat that he actually got a call clear diagnosis of no signs of paranoid schizophrenia, which is like almost unheard of. But what about it? It's it's a really fascinating thing because it's that's a very hard thing. disease because it's not a very good prognosis usually no,

Anthony Gomes: 45:03

no, no. And, you know, let's rewind 40 years ago, and you know, our understanding of things and society's understanding was, was not what it is today. So anyway, what we've done is we've in this we've given to given guitars to kids with nonverbal autism, we've raised money for scholarships for music education. We provided listening stations for St. Jude's Hospital, so kids could listen to music. You know, all sorts of things.

Chuck Shute: 45:41

Wasn't there. You give a guitar to a vet with PTSD that like it was like, verbally didn't hadn't talked. And then he got a guitar. And then he started like talking asking, How do I play those?

Anthony Gomes: 45:51

Yeah, yeah. So we've given Yes, guitars to veterans with PTSD. And this guy wasn't speaking man. And so and they were giving guitar lessons. And after not speaking for a decade or something, he said, Hey, man, can you show me how you did that? And it just, it was the gateway. A friend of mine said, yeah, a friend of mine called me up and said, Hey, man, there's a hospital in Montreal, that has a paranoid schizophrenic, people in acquire, it's acquired, run by a hospital, and they do gigs, and they make CDs. So we raised money for them to get their own PA. And then we gave them, you know, they gave us a little concert. And they were so grateful. And we thought, Wow, we got to do more. So with the help of our fans, we raised enough money to get them a recording studio in the hospital. So yeah, I'm sure the hospital hates us on drum track. But anyway, look, you know, it's a small foundation, but every dollar that's donated goes directly. There's, there's because it's a very humble thing. There's, you know, no full time staff. It's all volunteers. So if anybody makes a donation, you know, every penny on the dollar is going to help somebody or something. So, yeah,

Charles Shute: 47:13

very cool. I'll put that in the show notes along with your website and people get the new album and check the website for tour

Anthony Gomes: 47:20

dates. Thanks so much, man. I appreciate that.

Charles Shute: 47:23

All right. Well, thanks, Anthony was nice chatting with you. And hope to see you on tour.

Anthony Gomes: 47:27

Yeah, man. We'll see you in Phoenix brother.

Chuck Shute: 47:30

All right. See you then. Bye bye. My thanks again to Anthony check out his new record high voltage blues, it's the number one blues rock record. And check out his website for tour dates. This is the kind of music I love to see live personally, if you really want to experience the blues, I think you have to see it live. And I think a small venue is best not some big festival or stadium, but a nice small club where you can sit back have a drink, an alcohol drink or non alcohol drink. But somewhere you can see the band and play and really observe the guitars, the drums, the bass, the vocals, and really be able to see and hear it all. I love it. I love music. And even though I can't play, I'm a fan. And hopefully I can help these artists by promoting their music on my show. If you want to show your support for the artists, by their merch, by their music, go see a show. And of course your likes shares and comments on social media helped them out. And of course that helps me out as well. So it goes the same for me in the show. If you want to do those things. Make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you listen. Thank you for your support. Have a great day and shoot for the moon.