Hi! Today, I have the pleasure to chat with Guy Poulin, lead guitar from Les Tabarnacos Surfers 3nd wave band! Thank you Guy for taking time to answer us. Let's surf and start the interview if you please. ?
SRR: What year was Les Tabarnacos Surfers formed?
Guy Poulin: Around 2003 I am not exactly sure.
SRR: Who are the members of Les Tabarnacos Surfers?
Guy Poulin: At the beginning it was me on guitar; Andre Poulin, drums, Patrice Myette, bass. Later Francis Letourneau join us for the last active year.
SRR: From which city did Les Tabarnacos Surfers originate?
Guy Poulin: Quartier Saint-Henri in Montreal at my place back then.
Where did the idea to form an instrumental band come from?
Guy Poulin: Patrice was always talking about surf instrumental music to me then I had the idea to form one just for the fun and to do one single show actually, cause we had also the opportunity to play at a small local festival.
SRR: How did you meet each other?
Guy Poulin: Andre is my brother and Patrice is a childhood friend. Francis also a youth friend.
SRR: What were the influences of the band?
Guy Poulin: At start we had absolutely none, since we started to listen to this type of music. We knew basically nothing about this music style, it was a discovery for us. We started to play Ventures, then Dick Dale, Ghastly ones, Link Wray and everything we could find as we go. I personally really loved Slacktone.
SRR: How did you guys described the band at the time?
Guy Poulin: We called what we were doing power surf. Keith Moon drumming style with a more fuzzy guitar sound because I did not simple have the right gear to play surf. Over the time I got the gear more proper like Fender tube reverb amp unit that I asked anything he could give me to crack him up. All this played with all the intensity we could give. Our thing sounded sometime like punk.
SRR: When was your first gig?
Guy Poulin: Venise marina at a mini-festival of local band in Laval.
SRR: What year did you do your first recording?
Guy Poulin: Same year in 2003. It was mostly made with 8 covers and 4 original songs. We self-produced our recording with $51. We printed our own cd. Patrice who's a professional cartoonist did the cd cover.
SRR: Which instruments did you use?
Guy Poulin: A cheap black drum bought by me and Andre, especially for our rehearsal place. Later Andre bought a Sonor. What a change. I used my Kramer guitar that I modified over and over, a Marshall amp, a Fostex reverb, that's all I had when we started. That was not the proper sound at all. Then over the time I bought the right gear. A friend of mine, Nico who's electronician built me a Fender Reverb Tank 1963 model. This thing is just amazing to hear. I still have it today. Nico also built me a Fender Blackface amp. Patrice used a Fender Jazz bass and also had a Fender Bassman amp that Nico built also.
SRR: Can we know about which tube you used?
Guy Poulin: The least costly I could found.
SRR: What are the effect used on the guitar?
Guy Poulin: At the beginning was using Boss Overdrive/Distortion with an old Solasound Wah Wah that was always open, which gave a special vintage sound since I was using a humbucker pickup. Later on I let go that kind of sound to get a purest surf sound but was still playing louder to get a crunch from the amp. I've also put single coil on the guitar.
SRR: What type of strings did you use, flatwounds or roundwounds?
Guy Poulin: I use .10 roundwound.
SRR: How long has Les Tabarnacos Surfers been active for?
Guy Poulin: At least 10 years. Not bad for a band that should of made only one gig.
SRR: Was there any reunion?
Guy Poulin: Any reunion seems to be almost impossible with Patrice but me, Andre and Francis still play together. We are more blues-rock nowadays but we still have a few surf tunes on our set list.
SRR: Were there any band(s) after Les Tabarnacos Surfers?
Guy Poulin: Yes we formed with same members Little Guy & the Damn Machine a blues-rock band. We have to remember that Andre who was a keyboard player before Les Tabarnacos Surfers era, started to play drum for the band. He had the talent to do it. Later Andre took more seriously the drum because of the band to finally end up playing drums only.
SRR: Where can we buy and follow Les Tabarnacos Surfers?
Guy Poulin: You can simply contact me via Facebook. Am working to put our music on Bandcamp soon. You can still watch few videos of us on Youtube.
SRR: Where can we listen and follow your actual band?
Guy Poulin: You can listen to Little Guy & the Damn Machine on Facebook, Youtube and Bandcamp.
SRR: Thank you very much Guy for taking time to answer me today.
Guy Poulin: It's been a pleasure.