The Cargnello brothers are gifted multi-instrumentalists. Singer-songwriter Paul Cargnello was frontman of 90s punk reggae band The Vendettas before charting with his successful solo career, then with his brother Christopher Cargnello as the Skinny Bros crafting some of the best funk, pop and rhythm & blues to come out of Montreal.
A who’s who of the Montreal music scene has recorded at Paul’s Upper China Studios, including soul legend Alan Prater, Fredy V, Grim Skunk, Stefie Shock, Anna McGarrigle and Martha Wainwright, Satellītes, Wesli, Jonathan Emile and such roof-raising soul singers as Sarah MK, Wayne Tennant, Aiza and Clerel.
Just in this past year alone, Skinny Bros co-wrote and produced songs for British reggae legend Maxi Priest and Grammy-nominated Jamaican artist Etana, and their classic 2016 album Party Gras featured such international icons as Danish harmonica virtuoso and War co-founder Lee Oskar and American rapper KRS-One.
When I ask the Cargnellos – who’ve been making music together for some 35 years now – if they get along better than that other pair of musical siblings, Noel and Liam Gallagher of Oasis, Paul and Christopher laugh out loud.
“We’re brothers, we’re family, so obviously there can be tense moments,” Christopher says. “But the music binds us and will forever bind us. I can’t imagine ever not making music with my brother.”
As Skinny Bros, their new 11-track album The Beginning & The End (with album artwork by yet another Cargnello brother, artist Julian Cargnello) is an homage to their many musical influences, including “seggae” which is a fusion of traditional Mauritian sega and reggae.
There is plenty of seggae on this album, notably “HPSTR HLL” (Hipster Hell) featuring Clerel. And “Goodbye Sorrow” featuring Aiza echoes 1960s Gladys Knight.
Other musical collaborators on the album include James Challenger (singing lead on the single “Trouble”), beloved Montreal saxman Vincent Stephen-Ong and 2020 Polaris Prize winner Backxwash.
Skinny Bros recently sat for a candid Zoom Q&A about recording their new album.
Curtains Up: How did you boys discover seggae?
Christopher: Paul sent me a YouTube link one night and said, “Holy shit, check this out!” That’s literally how it started. Like most of these things, we get obsessed with it, then we ended up recording a couple of tracks. Paul was inspired by a visit to Toronto to write a song called “Hipster Hell” and asked our buddy Clerel to sing on it.
Paul: I remember discovering sega ages ago and thinking, “Okay, this is like the final frontier of world music for us.” I like music from other places that push us to think about different time signatures, which is great about seggae. We decided to do a session right away. When we discover new music, we have to understand it and the only way to understand it is to play it.
Christopher: We probably have a couple of other seggae rhythms that didn’t actually make it onto the album. But it was a pretty productive session. We were literally trying to learn how to play a certain genre of music by recording an entire session worth of that music. It speaks to our obsessiveness. Once we hear something and get it in our head, then we just have to find a way to make it happen.
Curtains Up: Scooch over Andy Warhol, meet the Cargnello Factory! Your new album features an all-star lineup. You recorded much of it in Paul’s Upper China Studios, one of the top recording studios in Montreal. How organic was the creation of this album during a pandemic?
Paul: You invite a lot of people and it takes the callback. Then they’re like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” Then it takes seven months to put it together. And that’s pre-COVID! Recording this album was herculean during COVID.
Christopher: We have our go-to people that we really love to work with, whose voices just work really well with the way we make music. Even putting shows together the past couple years for summer concerts, we often have people join us onstage whom we have a good vibe with and get along with together backstage behind-the-scenes.
Curtains Up: Is it easier to produce another artist than produce your own music and album?
Paul: Yes and no. Chris and I are very, very productive. It’s easy to produce myself because there’s so much material to choose from. But I will say that is always easier to work with more talented people than yourself. When you get somebody like (singers) Clerel and Aiza in the studio, then it’s magical.
Christopher: An interesting theme with Skinny Bros is getting people to sing songs a little bit out of their element. Like, Aiza’s career is largely this Afro-pop thing she’s been doing, but a lot of what she does with us is this 60s and 70s-style soul stuff. It’s a totally different vibe than what she normally sings. Aiza and I have been together for many years, I’ve heard her sing just about every genre of music, and every time she sings an old Dinah Washington tune, I say, “Wow, we got to do something for that.”
Curtains Up: Clerel too. He is such a wonderful singer.
Christopher: “Hipster Hell” is not necessarily the track that one would associate with him right away but it just works. He’s the perfect voice for that.
Curtains Up: I also love the horn section on this album, The Allergic Crop Horns featuring Roger Charleston Pilch on trumpet, Portia R. Schleglöchern on trombone, G-C Pharillons-Torchère on Alto sax, Leigh Chan Colporter Sr. on Tenor sax and flute, and Charlé “Che” Gris-Poltrón on Bari sax.
Christopher: Every single one of those names is an anagram of my name, including the title of the horn section!
Paul: We have actual real horn players on the record, but during these COVID times, there is no way in hell we can record a horn section together in one place. But Chris is a creative arranger and this section is probably the craziest thing that he’s ever done and recorded.
Curtains Up: How much do you miss performing live and in the studio with other musicians?
Christopher: It’s been so difficult. I really miss the stage, really miss being in a studio and feeding off of other people’s energy. Thankfully I have a home studio and the love of my life – Aiza – is a musician as well, so we can jam together at home and make music together. That has been a saving grace for me.
Paul: I don’t miss the stage that much – I dislike touring – but as a producer I had a lot of stuff booked. I was on a roll and then COVID happened. Everything is canceled. I’m not as creative when I’m not interacting with other people. I’m writing less poetry now because I’m not going to a bar at night and watching human nature pass me by and just taking notes.
This has been a crazy year for the independently employed, for musicians and anybody working in the creative fields. Part of it is figuring the financial shit out to coast for a full year of nothing. This year is going to be the litmus test. This is like being an artist on steroids. You know that you got to make this work out somehow.
For more about Skinny Bros, visit skinnybros.com. Surf to paulcargnello.com for more Paul and to christophercargnello.com for more Christopher. You can also purchase the Skinny Bros album The Beginning & The End on the Skinny Bros Bandcamp page.
