Whoever I happened to be playing music with....let's see...Greg Powers, Stet Howland, Brett Zell, Steve Lutke, Dan Lyons, Blaine Perry, GoG, John Ferriera, Gary Pelletier, Al Santiago Sr, Chris Keefe, Kevin O'Keefe, John Proctor, Alan Hager, Dan Lawson, Paul Cooper, Richie Grace, Shawn Needham, Tim Cusack, Mike Martin, Neill Byrnes, Donnie Noyes, Doug Giles, John Piatelli, Mike Kaes, Dennis Martin, Steve Wood, Kevin Stallings, Chris Sear, Tom Webber, John Gay, Tommy Theodore, Joey Romeo, Jon Evans, Jeff Byers, Glenn Sargent, Don Huard, Stu (the keep), Darren Boisvert, Randy Enticer, Tod Duarte, Jimmy Johnson, Greg Antone, Gary Aguilar, Bobby Aguilar and many many more...
Influences
Whatever turned me on musically influenced me......I can't just point at one band or artist, one or two albums that had the most influence on me.....I can say this much; my Father does hold the torch that lit the way for me musically speaking......He played lullabyes on his guitar to me while I was just an infant, my first words were La La La La, and I sang along with Beatle's songs (Please Please Me, She Loves You, Love Me Do, I Want To Hold Your Hand, This Boy, etc.) and I would wander upstairs in the apartment building we lived in and sing to Vivian ( the woman who lived up there ) for cookies at the age of 4!.....His band rehearsed in my brother and my bedroom, down in the basement of our house and we would lie there listening to their practice sessions......Those were definitly times I'll always cherish......I loved singing from a very early age (3 years old) and his ( my father's) playing style had a much larger impact on me later on in my life (once I learned the guitar)......I would play rhythm guitar while he would play the lead parts to portuguese songs like Maria Lana, Never On A Sunday, Wheels, and Country - Rock songs, etc......I enjoyed that......I wanted to write songs and writing lyrics/words have been my specialty since around 1974-75 when I wrote poetry......My main problem was getting a guitarist to write the music to a melody I had and either they were too stoned or drunk to figure it out so I grabbed a guitar, a chord chart and an Eagle's Greatest Hits sheet music book which had chord notations such as G, D, A, E, Am, Em, etc., and started learning chords and songs......frst song I learned and played was "Tequila Sunrise" then "Take It Easy", "Lying Eyes" and I immediately started writing music to my past poems that were in notebooks from my past........My FIRST musical creation, {completely my own composition of words and music} is called; "It's Been So Long", in which the words were written in 1983 and the music in 1984......I had another self composition written on the same day which came out as "Stay With You" those words came in 1980, music 1984......I then started writing almost every other day (music) and it just seemed to get more and more difficult...."I Know", "Lady Of My Life", "You And Me", "Melody Of Love", "Angela", "Most Of All", "Finding Love", "Destiny Of Tragedy" followed in 1985.....I wrote many songs that were just the music without adding words-lyrics and I never did anything with them.....they were on a cassette tape which was taken from my car along with some very rare recordings on cassettes in my tape case in 1986......I recently added "Melody Of Love" to this site in its original 1984 demo form.....I do have a recording of it somewhere in which I performed it 'Live' in 1989 during my solo stint in 1989-90, I hated doing the solo gig, it was alot of pressure.....it was nerve wracking.....and it made me appreciate being in a band more......my ultimate goal was to be a Lead Singer-Guitar Player ( more of a Rhythm player with occasional solo's ) and I found it to be very difficult at that time with so many Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Stevie Ray Vaughan wanna be's....so when the Bass Player opportunity came along I grabbed it......Bass Guitar was almost a confusing riddle to me, I mean, going from uptempo guitar to down-beat Bass guitar had me doing a 180 turn around in not just my playing traits, but completely a different playing style change.....I was very fortunate that my first Pro-Bass outfit was Blues Based, Blues is truly a unique form of music.....it helped me enormously with scales, walking bass lines etc., it helped me to realize just what the drummer was doing besides keeping the beat......I had good teachers like Paul McCartney, Billy Sheehan, Jaco Pastorius, Geddy Lee, among just some of the masters.....my guitar slinging band mates turned me onto some great Blues Recordings which helped me out alot.....my main problem was I played with a pick......when I switched bands to a Classic-Rock and Blues format I started to learn the use of my fingers and the rest is history........
Sounds Like
I guess my originals sound like whatever I want my songs to sound like! I have tried to be as original as I can be, but when influenced by Kiss, Aerosmith or AC/DC I guess some small fluctuations happen. I have written mostly ballads, soft rock tunes and slow rockers.
I was one of millions who in 1971 were 10 year olds playing records on the turntable and listening to their favorite teenybopper artist or band. Mine were the Osmonds; to many of my friends it was the Jackson 5. I idolized them and sang along with them. I wanted to be like them onstage and be screamed at. I wanted the attention and admiration. I am a Leo, Leo’s demand to be noticed and heralded as the leader. I did not want to be just a fan anymore right before my 11th birthday. I got up onstage with my Father’s band in June 1972 and sang Donny Osmond’s hit ‘Puppy Love’ to a crowd of more than 100 people and it hit me right between the eyes, that I knew what I wanted to do for my career.
I remember getting an acoustic guitar from my dad and learning how to tune the thing turned me off. I reluctantly gave up. I started writing poetry at the age of 12, half-heartedly at first. Trying to make words rhyme was quite a challenge to my lacking-patience mind. This was the 1970’s; many things happened in the 60’s that fueled what the 70’s were all about. Self-expression was very evident with almost every band, artist etc.....................................................................
.....................................................................................................................Right before my 15th birthday on August 2nd, 1976 my friend and schoolmate introduced me to this live album that had these four guys posing on a stage with costumes and white and black and silver makeup on. They all had long hair; these enormous boots and these cool looking guitars. It was KISS. I was too young to see them live, but heard from friends who had seen them. It blew my mind that no one knew what they really looked like. The music was heavy. I fell in love with the opposite of the Osmonds. When Paul Lynde had his Halloween Show on TV in 1976, it featured KISS and Donny & Marie Osmond!.......................................................................................................Everyone watched that show. It was just awesome. It became common that many did not care for KISS, and that was okay with me. They were different, so am I. I would go to high school with a KISS T-shirt on, makeup and stick my tongue out at girls. Many did not understand me, called me crazy or ignored me. That was okay; it only made me more popular. I wanted to be known as the one and only Alby. I was nothing like my father. I wanted to be less recognized as his son, and more recognized by my crazy attitude........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Looking back at the ‘hair years’ when heavy metal had such an impact on a young society of teenagers in the 70’s whom were 20 something’s involved with colleges, jobs, careers, marriages, families etc. I found myself looking for my niche in modern music-life after disco-during early rap self............................................................................................................................................................................................................................It was not as easy as it may seem now. There was no Internet, cell phone or beepers yet. Email what is that? To many of us CD’s were not yet invented. Records and cassettes were the norm. There were no indie labels, but there was still a recording industry. Being signed to a label was not easy. There were many reasons why it was so difficult to be found by a label. Many artists went through phases and managers to be found and signed.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................My first lesson was that ‘being creative does not mean that the masses will agree’. It was a lesson I did not learn easily. To appeal to the masses means giving up ‘things’. Before we identify the ‘things’, lets be less pessimistic and more logical. Things are what add up to who we are ideally as entertainers, I mean, that is your goal if you want a gold or platinum record right? In the 1980’s videos were a fresh new way of getting to know the entertainer. Some songs became little movies. Look at “Thriller” and you see my point. Being an artist and or entertainer, you must be willing to give up things that are yours alone. You created this ‘persona’ for the masses to accept welcome and love. It does not mean that is how your manager or agent wants you...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................Lets look at it in its simplest forms, giving up your personal time; that’s a thing, your rights as a songwriter to others, that’s another thing. Your wardrobe because it lacks style, professionalism, it was not hip or cool, those are things. The fan does not know what the artist must endure to get to where they are discovered. It is almost as if these artists were just waiting in line. I was in garage or basement bands in the early 1980’s. I could sing and swing a microphone stand professionally. I lacked the ability to give up things, as if I was afraid I was being robbed. I thought things had to stay. I couldn’t part with things I cherished..................................................................................................................................................................................................................I was less interested in making a bold statement and more interested in instant fame. It was all a dream. I couldn’t foresee the future and realistically refused to. Was I crazy or just plain stubborn? Having to make sacrifices is normal when you want something bad enough. Parting with things is part of the process. I had to teach myself guitar in order to write music that I felt, wrote and made. I did it for my own gains. I respect many who write their own music. I still write. I admire what I have done in the past. It is who I was, who I am. I made it known that I can sing. Many don’t know me as the front man. They did not see me in my early years before the bass guitar fame. I call it fame, many things happened because of the bass guitar.
Sometimes I listen to these old recordings and wonder why I never went into a real recording studio, bring some friends along and make gems out of them.......I know in June 1990 I started performing and rehearsing with Dr.Harp’s Blues Band regularly and I did alot of practicing alone on the bass guitar...............................perfecting it was quite difficult at first, as I was a guitar player that was starting to learn lead guitar..................my guitar talents were self taught, I asked my Dad questions here and there, but getting a chord chart helped me a whole lot, plus jamming with my favorite bands (at the time)......I bought a Peavey Backstage 50 watt amp and lots of used pedals and my Dad and I made a pedal case out of spare wood.....playing the bass was just for my original songs while recording them onto a 4 track machine......................................................................................I never ever thought about playing bass guitar for a living.....that’s what totally baffled me............................................My Dad said this to me (and it’s so true): "You will never be without work because you can play bass and sing".................................................So my journey as a musician (not just as a Lead Singer) started in June 1990 and I thought that would just be a phase in my career, when I quit Dr. Harp’s Blues Band in December 1990 I started looking for work almost like a "gun-slinger for hire" type of search, my guitar playing became secondary to my bass playing, but I had so much to learn still!............In January 1991 I got hired by Greg Powers to join his band playing blues, but classic rock also......I did not know a bunch of those songs and they had a lead singer so my career took another wild turn as I became a harmony vocalist-bass player, Paul Borsari was the rhythm guitarist of the group and he helped me with the bass alot.....as Paul played bass before and he knew what I was doing wrong, or not at all..........I had bought a BC Rich Warlock bass guitar in 1990, it was a heavy metal bass for sure and it was neck heavy also!!!........That thing (the bass) was killing my shoulder and back and I went to the music store looking for something lighter and in good shape......I tried a Rickenbacher 4001 bass and it was also heavy, the neck was too thin and it was not my sound-too thin sounding......The only other bass that I actually liked was made by Yamaha, a bright yellow colored 4 string bass made out of Basswood which is much lighter (weight-wise) and it was also a frettless bass!.......I tried it, and figured that I could learn how to play it........Greg just did not think I could master it.......it took me a couple of month’s and I pretty much had it mastered only because there are lines where the frets would have been and that made me learn it faster.......all of this in under a year of playing bass guitar!..........................................In February 1992 Paul left the group and the lead singer joined up with Tim Cusack in a band called "Down n Dirty".....Greg began a search for a new lead singer and I begged him to just give me a chance to show that I can sing lead vocals and after we rehearsed and split up the vocal chores between us (as our drummer Brett Zell did not sing) it sounded very good except Greg did not do alot of harmony vocals as his guitar job got more intense (as losing our rhythm guitarist will do that to a band).......we played as a 3-piece for about 3 months and I grabbed Steve Lutke and it filled up two large holes....rhythm-lead guitar and another harmony vocalist. My ultimate goal was achieved as THE frontman of the group!
I took my song over to Greg Antone’s house and re-recorded it there. He added a Harpsichord to it but never did the drums, which kind of bummed me out, I wanted real drums but he only added bass guitar and harpsichord. The end result sounded so airy...open sounding. I wanted it to sound fresh and this version is faster in tempo than the other version. I hope you enjoy it, as I have never made this version available to the public before! I have kept it locked away in my vault. The lyrics are included, so just click on "lyrics" and read along
.......2).........INSIDE OF YOUR LOVE......Written by Greg Powers and Alby Santiago in 1992..........................................................................................................This is a version off of the radio station Pixy 103 FM’s "Homegrown Series" featuring "the Rock Babe: Suzanne Tonaire"........The announcement was my joining of the Nationally Known ONLY Tribute to AEROSMITH "Draw The Line" in early October 1996, it shows that my song on that CD "digital mystery tour" was my business card and it helped me secure the "gig of my life!" and it was so true!.....................................................................................................
While playing a few chords on my guitar I stumbled onto a pretty sounding melody.................After finding more chords that helped link the other chords into a ’group’ I had a very pretty instrumental with no title............................I recorded it in several different tempos and finally decided on a slow-ballad type of tempo and started adding lead guitar passages and then I started singing random words................I sat back and wrote the lyrics in ten minutes and called it ’Everything To Me’........................I recorded it onto my 4 track machine and thought that I wrote a masterpiece.....................................
.......WRITTEN IN 1986, THIS PERFORMANCE WAS MAY 21st 1987 AT THE RANCH HOUSE IN MARSHFIELD MASS.......ROBBIE JARVIS PROVIDED SOUND AND LIGHTS AND WAS ALSO THE ENGINEER, ALL I DID WAS SUPPLY A MEMOREX CASSETTE TAPE AND HE DID THE REST......THE SONG WAS (AT THAT TIME) A GREAT ROCK N ROLL TUNE.....I WAS JUST A LEAD VOCALIST AND AS YOU CAN TELL I DEFINITLY DID ALOT OF HIGH PEAKS WITH MY VOICE....ROBBIE USED 128 MILLISECONDS OF DELAY ON MY VOICE!..........
IT’S SO FUNNY THAT MY DREAM SPAWNED THIS GEM......................THE WORDS PRETTY MUCH DESCRIBE WHAT I DREAMT ABOUT..............ALAN GRABBED HIS GUITAR AND WE WROTE A SONG AT 5 IN THE MORNING................MY VOICE WAS SO CLEAR AND DEFINED BACK THEN.................
..............THIS VERSION WAS RECORDED IN MARCH 1987 IN MARSTONS MILLS, MASSACHUSETTS..........THAT WAS ACTUALLY MY FIRST TIME IN A REAL STUDIO.......I WAS SO NERVOUS....I TOOK MAYBE 5 TAKES BEFORE I FINALLY CALMED DOWN!...........I ACTUALLY HAD THE ENGINEER TURN THE LIGHTS OFF IN THE STUDIO SO I COULD RELAX.......DURING THE RECORDING OF THE DRUMS AND GUITARS I WAS IN THE CONTROL ROOM AND WAS LEARNING HOW TO ADJUST EQ, EFFECTS, LEVELS, COMPRESSION, ETC, I WAS ASKING QUESTIONS AND TAKING NOTES!.............
Rock4Alby.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Alby Santiago Website
you are my sunshine my only sunshine you make me happy when skies are grey, you never know dear how much I love you... rain rain rain please go away.....
