Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Porter Natalie Fratino
Hi Dave Porter, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Dave: well the band name is The Smokey Lonesome, and along with that, I’m Dave Porter and I play guitar and sing…
Natalie: Hmm…
Dave: and…
Natalie: Good choice.
Dave: (laughs) And you are?
Natalie: I’m Natalie Fratino, and I play upright bass and sing.
Dave: OK!
Natalie: and I also play other things, but you don’t need to know that right now.
Dave: not right now; She does a lot of different stuff, and she also brings
percussion with rockabilly style slap on standup.
Natalie: I play with a lot of arm.
Dave: lotta arm.
Natalie: So for our story, do we start where we were born?
Dave : (laughs) We could, but that might be too much detail.
Natalie: We might have to start where we met and how we met.
Dave: Well, I was looking for a bass player to play with….
Natalie: And I miraculously was a bass player…
Dave: yeah, and you were willing to take a chance with a strange man with a handlebar mustache that showed up at your place of work.
Natalie: That was frightening. Yeah I had an ad out for a band, and he was hunting for a bandmate and that’s how we met. That was a long time ago
Dave : At that time, my brother was still playing drums with us.
Natalie: Yeah
Dave : And we were not The Smokey Lonesome yet.
Natalie: that took some time. Yeah, we were the Cuz What’s,
and almost exclusively all covers; a few originals….
Dave: Old ones….
Natalie: and besides falling in love, our band changed iterations about a million times. (laughs)
Dave : 1 million times. We had many other members and did many other things and yes fell in love, and now it’s come to more originals and more in a roots direction.
Natalie: Yep, and because we couldn’t keep (laughs) other band members, We ended up making it a duo, and I took responsibility for both rhythm and bass; that’s how I ended up on standup. Only a few years ago.
Dave: She takes responsibility. Yep, previously she’s an electric bass player. Yeah, the stand-up brought things more roots and country.
Natalie: Yep
Dave: Still pretty alternative-ish, Not too deep country; well, we cover old country songs….
Natalie: Yeah…
Dave : well our originals…
Natalie: before all the hipsters in the neighborhood were loving it we were doing it. Luckily, they saw their way to us.
Dave : (laughs) Some did. Parallel evolution.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Dave : Natalie, has it been a smooth road?
Natalie: (laughs) That’s funny! No, of course not. Nothing smooth about any of this.
Dave: Why hasn’t it been smooth?
Natalie: Lots of things getting in the way; having to work, because you have to pay bills, keep a roof over your head and take care of each other. And…. Sometimes you play well, and sometimes you don’t play well, and sometimes people love you and sometimes they don’t, and you keep going, and band members come, and they go, and you think it’s the end of the world, and it’s not and you try again and there’s nothing smooth about it.
Dave : Yep
Natalie: It’s like life.
Dave : Yeah
Natalie: Life isn’t smooth, why should this part be smooth?
Dave : True. Yeah, it’s very incremental.
Natalie: And I’d like the universe to listen to me right now and send me a smooth path…
Dave : A smooth path! We’re hoping for a smooth path from here on out!
Natalie: No, I’m not hoping. I’m going to get it.
Dave : We’re gonna get a smooth path from here on out. Any other struggles?
Natalie: I named them…
Dave : Guess you did. Personnel… (both laugh)
Natalie: Yeah, but even struggles with each other, trying to get stuff done, who had time and who didn’t, and who got discouraged, and you know, trying different things, it doesn’t always work out on the first go.
Dave : uh huh. And it isn’t always “go team” …
Natalie: no
Dave: sometimes there’s negativity…
Natalie: Yeah
Dave: and sometimes… we need to move on from that…
Natalie: I really wish you wouldn’t be so negative sometimes.
(both laugh)
Dave : I try not to be so negative (more laughs). Maybe one might be talking about themselves right now….
Natalie: My mirror is turned in the other direction, thank you. (more laughs)
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
(At this point, Dave and Natalie went off on a bit of a tangent, who they were and what set them apart, more of the second part of the question. As for what does the Smokey Lonesome specialize in, we call it Country Garage, or Garage Country, however, the mood strikes us, and it’s roots-ish and country but it’s got elements of rock and punk and alternative in it too. We try to have fun with it and keep it rocking most of the time.)
Natalie: Well, first, I think we should tell everybody we’re both musicians and artists.
Dave : Yeah, mmhm
Natalie: I’m a little more artist and you’re a little more musician….
Dave: Well, I’d like to say that, except you are more of a natural musician…
Natalie: But you’re a natural artist….
Dave : Yeah, in a way…
Natalie: Yeah
Dave : It started so early it seemed to come easy
Natalie: yeah, so that’s a good fit, and we’ve been playing music together and been doing it a long time so there is synchronicity; I don’t know if that’s the right word.
Dave : I think it is. A…. harmony…
Natalie: A harmonious blend (laughs).
Dave: (laughs) Definitely a harmonious blend! We’ve been playing together for….
Natalie: 18 years.
Dave : 18 years. Holy moly.
Natalie: Yeah. So I’d hope there’d be a harmonious blend. (Dave laughs and Natalie adopts Russian accent) otherwise I’d have to kill you.
Dave: (laughs) What are we known for?
Natalie: I think we’re known for our quirkiness, goofiness… ya think?
Dave : Definitely some goof and quirk comes through…
Natalie Yeah, we’re serious musicians but we’re having fun on stage.
Dave : yeah, we have fun. And is there anything you’re most proud of, that we’re most proud of?
Natalie: I don’t know, what do you think?
Dave: I’m proud of finishing this five song EP and getting it all packaged and put together and everything. I’m loving the sound of it!
Natalie: it’s a long time coming, brother.
Dave : Yeah, long time coming brother for sure (laughs). And… What sets us apart from others?
Natalie: Well, being unconventional….
Dave: mmhm. Yeah, right now we’re set apart being a duo, I don’t know if that’ll always be, but definitely makes us different right now.
Natalie: Yeah, and in this time of history we’re seeing more women popping out and doing more things that are considered “male jobs”; Maybe this is my age talking, but it’s nice to be in that spot where we defy those conventions.
Dave : mmhm, breakin’ out.
Natalie: Yeah, breaking out of that. I don’t think people are accustomed to seeing a woman playing a stand-up bass, let alone slap the heck out of it, definitely surprises them.
Dave : Yeah, some powerful bass abuse going on….
Natalie: Yeaaahhh!
Dave : and singing at the same time.
Natalie: Yeaahhh!
Dave: You know what, I also think we like a lot of musical forms that were male dominated, like old country and rock and blues, and even punk; well women were in all of them; I guess I’m glad that we too have the feminine represented in our project.
Natalie: Plus, I don’t want to say I’m not a girly girl, but I’m not especially a girly girl…
Dave: you’re especially sometimes….
Natalie: Well, privately…. (both titter nervously)
Natalie: Well, I mean, I’m strong, I’m not super frail or super small…. I’m not afraid to yell.
Dave: You can bring the strength when needed. She’s not afraid to yell, people!
(Natalie giggles)
How do you define success?
Dave: So Natalie, how do you define success? This is something we discuss, me and you, sometimes heatedly….
Natalie: Yes…
Dave: I know a lot of times I feel success would be supporting myself solely with music, and you often argue against that…
Natalie: Well, that would be nice, that would be very nice, but I’m not exactly sure that’s the definition of success; I mean, we could define it by how much money we make doing music… At which point we would be considered failures (both laugh) I mean…
Dave: Is there someway we could talk about success so that we actually have some?
Natalie: Well, I mean, I can also think about success as just being able to express creatively, I mean that we do that and so many other people don’t or are stifled, I’m proud of the fact that we are creative.
Dave: We get it out there!
Natalie: We get it out there and we keep looking forward and keep trying things.
Dave: We’re making room for it.
Natalie: Yeah!
Dave: It’s a little easier considering we don’t have kids.
Natalie: This is true.
Dave: we have to give it up to the bands with kids….
Natalie: But we have responsibilities, maybe not the same responsibilities, but we have responsibilities.
Dave: True.
Natalie: And letting your creative life dictate to you what comes next is something I’d call successful.
Dave: We do sometimes…
Natalie: That we do successfully; Yeah, absolutely!
Dave: we do follow our muse.
Natalie: Yeah!
Dave: I also want to add that I feel successfully creative when I like what we are doing, when the music feels good to me, when I feel it’s got the drive and it’s got the sound, when all the practice and all the writing come together and it’s rocking, like the way I like to hear music, when I like what we’re doing as much as the things I’m a fan of. Any agreement?
Natalie: Yeah, that’s all great, You get to feel that way if you want to (both laugh). But I was going to say when it sort of dictates success outside of me, like after we play and people come up to us and tell us we’re their new favorite band or they think we’re so great or when they recognize us somewhere, and that’s always…
Dave: mmhm
Natalie: that always tickles me.
Dave: yeah, positive feedback, for sure for sure.
Pricing:
- CD at shows: 5 bucks or compliment us after the show
- Ep and single songs are on all the platforms at fair prices.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thesmokeylonesome.com
- Instagram: thesmokeylonesome/ instagram
- Facebook: thesmokeylonesome/ facebook
