A sound engineering course led to a musical collaboration for a Penticton teenager.
Nico Carboni, 19, was taking a one-year Audio Engineering and Music Production course at Okanagan College in Kelowna and formed a band that wrote, produced and mastered a six-song EP.
Carboni, who goes by the “character name” Don Carboni, joined with Connor Young (Big Mac O’Leary) from West Kelowna, Addison Hiller (Papa Dice) from Leduc, Alta., and Sean Wright (Kid Digipy) also from Leduc.
The foursome recently returned from a short tour, playing in Nanaimo, Victoria and Kelowna.
Carboni plays guitar and sings for the band. He spent time playing the piano as a youth but switched to guitar a couple years ago.
He’s self-taught and learned by listening to music and watching YouTube videos on the subject.
Young also plays guitar and his influences include David Bowie and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers; Hiller plays drums and Wright handles bass guitar.
Carboni said they started jamming between their classes and found they were having a lot of fun so they decided to combine a mutual love of music and creativity with the details they learned in their classes to put together an album.
They recorded the songs onto a reel-to-reel recorder because, according to Carboni, “the sound is so much better. It feels so much warmer and nicer.”
The songwriting process was a result of one person hitting a few chords on the guitar and then another person adding to that with their instrument.
They worked and reworked their sound until they came away with a sound they all liked.
“Lots of our songs were written while we were just jamming,” said Carboni, who explained the reason for the character names.
“We just like to have fun and make up stuff,” he said. “We’re always doing random and creative things.”
Although he’s having a lot of fun as a singer and musician, Carboni remains focused on a career behind the scenes.
“My aspirations are still to become an audio engineer and work in music production,” he said.
Their album will soon be available from a local music store. Those wanting to hear music samples can visit Facebook and search for The Carbonis.
