After playing at some of Montreal’s most prominent venues like Club Soda and Le National, the boys of Descalso still consider their shows in Regina some of their best, and they hope to make more memories now that they're home.
“Nothing like playing a show in your hometown,” lead singer Cristian Moya said.
The Regina-based band has been a prominent force in the local music scene for years, and after a two-year stint in Montreal, they are back in the Queen City for good.
Descalso, which means “barefoot” in Spanish, formed out of jam sessions of high school friends Cristian Moya (vocals, guitar), Paul Lucyk (guitar), Neil Robinson (bass), and Gaelan Malloy (drums).
The band quickly became known in Regina for their lively shows, reggae/pop sound, and their trademark of playing barefoot.
“There were a lot of milestones then – the golden age of what we were doing,” Moya said, laughing. “We did an album back then ... played a lot of shows, we were playing every second week, and people were starting to notice us.”
Their first full-length album On My Feet was released in 2012. With it came a sold-out CD release show at the Artesian, one of their most memorable shows, says Moya.
Shortly after their CD release, Descalso moved to Montreal to pursue their musical careers full time.
“We just wanted to beat the shit out of a music scene,” Moya said. “It just felt right to go to Montreal. We talked about it, and we just said forget it, let’s just pick up and go.”
“We just wanted to kick it for a bit. Live that musician’s life and see if anything could rise out of it. We wanted to test the scene, test the waters and see what we were made of,” said Moya.
Descalso spent a total of two years living in a two-bedroom apartment in downtown Montreal. They were living the musician’s lifestyle. Besides part-time jobs in the food industry, they spent most of their time playing music, and partying.
The band was also able to do a cross-Canada tour, giving them the opportunity to do a couple of homecoming shows in Regina.
“Regina is the only reason why we made a single cent. We did two months of touring. We had to pay for food and gas, and by the time we made it back to Montreal we would have been crazy broke, but we played those two shows in Regina and we had just enough to make it back and pay rent,” said Malloy.
After their tour, the prospect of moving back to Regina began to grow.
“It was pretty chaotic at the time. A lot of things were falling apart,” said Moya.
The band’s truck was impounded for unpaid parking tickets which, caused Moya to go into debt.
“On top of that, as a band, we just weren’t producing anymore. We were so static. Everyone was just living their own life,” he said. “We just got fragmented after a bit. We’re like a big family and when one part fails, it just stops spinning the right way. We started distancing from each other to the point where we weren’t even talking anymore.”
Moya, Malloy and Robinson all agreed to pack up and come back to Regina, but Lucyk decided to stay in Montreal.
The trio has been back in Regina for three months, and even though they have lost a member of the band, they have been hard at work getting back to the “glory days” of the past.
“Saskatchewan is great for music for now. The scene here is cool. We’ve only done a couple of shows since we’ve been back but each one has been cool,” said Malloy. “I think the scene is more potent than in Montreal. It’s a bit more watered-down in Montreal. Everyone is playing this and that, and there are so many musicians around.”
The band hopes to release an LP which was recorded in Montreal in 2015. Besides that, they hope to make it into some festivals and write and play more songs.
“When I first started writing songs, my life hadn’t given me enough experience to write about anything interesting other than I got a crush on a girl, or that I’m pissed at my dad,” said Moya. “Now we have a lot more experience and a lot more to talk about."
