While they dream of playing Wembley Stadium one day, a member of Skoni, Regina's newest rock band, remembers more humble beginnings - at the drummer's 3rd birthday party.
"It was one of the first times I heard Chris playing drums," says Skoni guitarist/vocalist Stephan Lentzos about his Godson, Skoni drummer Chris Dimas. "It was his birthday party and he wanted to play a song for all his guests."
Lentzos remembers Dimas playing along to a song beat for beat to the amazement of those in attendance at the birthday party.
"He was just a little guy so no one could believe it. But the part that really caught my attention was when there was a dramatic pause about halfway through the song."
At that point, Dimas stopped like a savvy veteran would, put both drumsticks high in the air, smiled and looked around the room, then hit the cymbals right in time to continue the song.
"That is the moment I knew that music - and showmanship - was something that came naturally to him," Lentzos says.
A lot has happened since that time.
Lentzos and Dimas formed Skoni and recently released their debut album, "The Rhythm Flow", a collection of five high energy and melodic blues based rock songs written by the duo. The album was recorded in Yorkton native Brad Prosko's b-rad Studio in Regina.
"Chris is 14 now, and very serious about establishing himself as a career musician, so initially, I just wanted to take him through the recording process," Lentzos smiles. "But incredible things started happening along the way."
Not the least of those was securing the services of Garry Tallent, the bass player from Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band, who played on all 5 tracks on the album.
"It's hard to believe that the bass player who plays on 'Born in the USA' and all those amazing records is playing on our songs!" Dimas adds.
While they have only been a recording band for less than a year, Skoni has already written, recorded and released an album, released the single "Nothing Leads to Nothing" to North American radio, and also released a video for the song. All 5 songs are available on iTunes.
So what does Skoni have in mind for an encore?
"The album is still in its very early days so we want to play a lot of shows and promote it," Dimas says. "And we already have more than eight new Skoni songs that we need to fine tune and record in the near future."
"There are no limits; we like to dream big, and we are going to reach for the stars with this band."
For more information about Skoni visit their website: skoni.ca.
Stay tuned for more from Skoni. Yorkton is on the list of venues at which the band hopes to play.
