Tony Catano
Bass, Vocals
My first memories of music are of my parents listening to old jazz standards and the Beatles appearing on Ed Sullivan. A little later, when I was about four or five, my parents gave me and my brother Mark, a couple of little AM Transistor radios and my musical world opened up. Soon after, my first memories of wanting to be a musician kicked in when I grabbing pencils to use as drumsticks. When Mom and Dad finally got tired of me dinging up the furniture, they got me my very own drum set. It was more of a toy really, but I was thrilled nonetheless. Then my neighbor jabbed the drumsticks through the heads.
Fast Fwd. to my teenage years. Missing something to beat on, I eventually went and got myself a drum set, and Mark got himself a bass. Now… how does John Bonham play like that? Soon, me and some neighborhood kids started making some noise when we formed a group called the “Serecea 3”. No really, we made noise. I then eventually got another drum set just like the first one and made a double kit. I later found out that Mark’s friend Dan L. played guitar. So Dan and I, along with my good friend and neighbor Nat, who I introduced to the bass, formed a group can “CLP”. We only jammed in the garage but I had fun, even though I pretty much sucked. One day my mom asked if I wanted to take drum lessons. At my first and only lesson I learned this basic 4-count thing, which the instructor said a lot of rock songs are based off of. That was all I needed to know, I thought at the time. Around that same time period I kinda adopted Mark’s bass as he never played it. As much as I wanted to have a band with my brother, like the Van ‘Jensen’ brothers, it wasn’t going to happen. I did however jam on it now and then, and loved that low bottom end, but I wasn’t into it too much at that time, because something else caught my eye… er… ear. Yes, a guitar sounded pretty cool. Bass for me would have to wait for now. So, I found this use piece of crap GS copy. It played ok and guitar was just plane fun. I found myself picking that up more than any other instrument. Then later I got a Les Paul copy. I still loved the drums though, so with me on drums, this dude from school on guitar, and Nat on bass, formed a band and we actually played at a high school kegger house party. I came out from behind the drums to sing lead on Purple Haze. It was kinda scary being front man. I think it was at that point that I realized that I really didn’t want to be out front anymore. I’ve got to hand it to Randy. He’s got the front man thing down. I don’t think we ever did come up with a name for the band. Because apparently guitar, bass and drums weren’t enough, I got a power mixer and a couple of microphones. Then later I got a 61-key keyboard synth, and then a little later, a full size up-right piano. After finding out the Jan Hammer hooked up a computer to his keyboard on the Miami Vice theme, I tried my hand at looping and sequencing songs. I later got rid of the second half of my drum set to my good friend Pat. I think Rick even played on my set. Bonham, watch out for Rick! He made sounds come out of that set I didn’t even think were possible. Hum… maybe it’s time to rethink drums
Fast Fwd. to the late ‘80s early ‘90s, where Pat and our other good friend Carl, from the early days, formed a group called PAC. With Pat on drums now, and Carl playing bass, I moved on over to guitar. I couldn’t play like Eddie as Kenny can. Hell, I couldn’t even play like Kenny. Eddie’s got nothing on you Kenny! Though this trio of ours wrote a dozen or so original songs, with a few having lyrics, we never played any clubs. Toward the beginning, shortly after we formed that band, Carl decided he didn’t want to play bass anymore and wanted to play guitar. So rather then have two guitarist or break up, we decided that I should move on over to playing bass. Though I always liked bass, it wasn’t until this time period that my love for the bass started to grow. Thanks Carl and Pat for guiding me to the low end.
I few years later in ‘92, I had a brief stint playing bass, at a few local clubs or dive bars in Fremont, with a blues band called Menn Ofv Earth. Not my idea to spell it that way. It was the first time I ever got paid to play.
Since PAC never officially broke up, we continued to jam off and on. In 2003, Pat told me that Rick’s, brother Ken, had a band that needed a Bass Player and wanted to know if I was interested in sitting in and playing a few songs at the Fremont Cabo Wabo. It was at that time, that SONE was finally a complete band. We played many a party there at the FCW. In fact, most of our regular practices turn into parties. Ah, I miss those daze! Later I hooked up with one of SONE’s fans at a FCW Halloween party. I ended up moving with her to the North Bay, which made practices more difficult to attend. With the band not being exactly thrilled with the location of my new crib, the band disassembled briefly in 2005 until they reformed later with a new bass player Dan H.
Fast Fwd. to late summer of ’07, Dan had moved on to another band. So, I asked the guys if they wanted to get together for a fun loose jam session, and if something more came out of it, which I hoped it would, then great! If not, well… at least I tried. Towards the end of that jam session, there was already talk of how SONE would now being able to play at the Halloween party. That was the beginning of my reunion as SONE’s original bass player, and the reunion tour.
