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Pete Devlin-Local Musician Profile

May 28, 2007

Pete Devlin

Pete Devlin is a native man born in Yellowknife(NWT), but raised in Owen Sound Ontario. By the age of 4 he already knew that he wanted to play music. His parents had a record collection full of Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Santana, and a lot of Blues. At 5 he started piano lessons. At 12 he started with the drums but his true calling was guitar. At 14 he got started with a few lessons but then taught himself, putting guitar before most everything else. During the summers he worked as an extra on Degrassi Jr High and Degrassi High and got his first guitar with money earned through this work. Nothing would ever be the same.

At 17 he helped form Blue Dog Pict with Keram Malicki-Sanchez and recorded two albums, “The Picture Album” and “Anxiety of Influence”. Blue Dog Pict played most of the Toronto scene by the time they were in their late teens. In the early 90s Blue Dog Pict got a song on the TV-movie “Degrassi: School’s Out”. After three years with Blue Dog Pict Pete hitch-hiked to BC and jammed at the Yale pub every Sunday in Vancouver for about 10 months. At this phase of his career he was practicing constantly. Pete identifies this as the point at which he earned his chops.

After this journey in the west Pete returned to Owen Sound to form Juice, a trio featuring Dave Mathews (aka Solomon) on bass and Jevon Austin on drums. They played every Sunday at the Crossroads bar for a year and a half. Juice went on to play gigs opening up for Wide Mouth Mason, the Headstones and some shows for the MP of Grey Bruce. After a few years Juice took a hiatus from which they have yet to emerge, but these long-time jamming buddies are always open to projects together.

Pete then hooked up with Joel Morelli and Rob Elder. The group evolved through several band names but have settled on “Hungry Life”. The band features Morelli on bass and vocals, Elder on drums and vocals, and Pete on lead guitar and vocals. At this time Peter was also working with an acoustic duo in Toronto. “Blue Orange” eventually forming into a 6 piece band playing in the Toronto area. Blue Orange is still in existence, playing gigs in the GTA and running a recording studio called Grey Fruit.

Pete DevlinIn a leap of faith Pete quit his factory job to pursue music. He scraped by hosting an open jam at Jazzmyns Tapas and Taps in Owen Sound for two years. His experience running the open stage honed his special ability to entwine his voice and guitar within the sound of most any performer he encounters. At this stage in his career he developed a close rapport with singer/songwriter Brian Moniz and an acoustic group Farmer, Devlin, Reese & Morelli. Pete was accompanying a lot of people and recording demos in his home studio, but his emphasis was gigging with Joel Morelli and Rob Elder. “The Hungry Life” have been playing gigs for the past five years in the Owen Sound area and hope to expand into Barrie and Toronto. Just last summer they won the Last Chance Saloon and got a spot at Summerfolk 2006. Located in Barrie now, Pete is open for new projects or collaborations. The music posted is mostly instrumental, but Pete is always working and recording. We will be posting his new material as it appears.

Pete’s Influences

Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC, the Tragically Hip, the Doors, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, the Band, Big Sugar, Pink Floyd, the Police, Motown Funk Brothers, old R&B, the Grateful Dead, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Santana, EVH, Angus Young, Jimmy Page, the Edge and Gordie Johnson.

Pete’s Bandmates

Rob Elder:Drums,vocals guitar(robelder.ca), Joel Morelli:Bass,vocals,accoustic guitar, Dave Mathews (aka Solomon):Bass, guitar, vocals, Scott E Farmer:Keys,bass,vocals, Adam Reese:guitar and vocals, Brian Moniz:vocals and guitar, from Blue Orange Joe Dosanjos:ryhthm guitar and lead vocals, and Santino Degasparis:Bass, guitar and vocals. Other musicians from the Owen Sound area that you might see on stage with Pete include:Ed Morrow(drums), Tommy Brown(drums), and Mike Malone(drums), Beaker(drums), Trevor Mackenzie(guitar), Tommy Gilham (singer/songwriter), and Lars Jensen (guitar/singer/songwriter)

Listen to Pete’s Music

Track 1: Ordinary Day

Track 2: Motown Groove

Contact Pete Through Myspace

  • www.myspace.com/petedevlin

    A massive thanks out to Peter for lending us his tunes, and a little plug to remind you that it’s easy to find more local musicians or create profiles at theOwen.com!!

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    Written by adam · Filed Under Local Musician Profile, Music, Audio, theOwen 

    Comments

    3 Responses to “Pete Devlin-Local Musician Profile”

    1. theOwen.com/go : Blog Archive : Joel Morelli-Local Musician’s Profile Says:
      June 7th, 2007 at 8:41 am

      […] then moved to Toronto to play guitar for a band called Blue Orange, filling in for Pete Devlin on guitar for a few years. Eventually Joel and Pete would collaborate with Rob Elder, another […]

    2. theOwen.com/go : Blog Archive : Brian Moniz-Local Musician Profile Says:
      June 18th, 2007 at 10:47 am

      […] There will be special appearances by many of the musicians who appear on the album, including Pete Devlin, Joel Morelli, Tommy Gilham, Paul Farrow and also appearances by Neil Towers, Adam Reese and more. […]

    3. theOwen.com/go : Blog Archive : Summerfolk Anecdotes & Insider Reports! Says:
      August 21st, 2007 at 5:13 pm

      […] most of Owen Sound’s best young musicians were staying at my campsite. Our roster included Pete Devlin, Dave Solomon, Andrew Carr, Joel Morelli, Tyler Wagler and myself. The results were incendiary as […]

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