Southern California bassist Greg Boulet discovered the electric bass almost by accident after spotting it on a middle-school instrument list. Within a year, he was playing his first show at the Old Town Temecula Theater at just 13 years old—and headbanging through nearly the entire performance.

That early experience began a musical path through marching band, jazz band, Palomar College, original projects and regular trips to perform in San Francisco with Lunar Hand. Today, Greg holds down the low end for reggae-rock band Indica Roots and Eastlake Rhythm Section, a Temecula-based collective performing classic rock, funk, pop and yacht rock favorites.

Greg also teaches at Leading Note Studios in San Marcos, where he directs the Rock Band Program and helps young musicians become more confident performers.

Brian and Greg discuss what makes a rhythm section work, how bass and drums create the pocket, learning from live performances, recovering from mistakes and why the ultimate goal is always to make the audience feel the music.

In this episode

• How Greg discovered the electric bass in middle school
• Performing his first show at 13 at the Old Town Temecula Theater
• How marching band and jazz band shaped his musicianship
• The private lessons that changed how he approached the fretboard
• Finding a supportive original-music community in San Francisco with Lunar Hand
• Joining Indica Roots and helping expand the band’s sound
• Forming Eastlake Rhythm Section with longtime friends
• What makes a tight rhythm section—and Greg’s definition of “the pocket”
• Teaching students not to fear mistakes
• Learning from Marcus Miller, Jaime Preciado and Tony Kanal
• Recording social-media tracks for Ampeg and building his live bass rig

Connect with Greg

• Greg on Instagram
• Indica Roots on Instagram
• Eastlake Rhythm Section on Instagram
• Eastlake Rhythm Section website
• Greg at Leading Note Studios

Sponsor

The SoCal Setlist is sponsored by Tsunami Cables. Proudly built in Southern California and backed by a lifetime warranty, Tsunami Cables are made for musicians who care about clean signal transfer, reliable tone and gear that can handle real wear and tear.

Visit TsunamiCables.com and use promo code SOCALSETLIST for 10% off. Offer valid through May 29, 2027.

Gary Stanionis has spent nearly four decades building a life in music—as a drummer, world percussionist, vocalist, touring musician, record label executive and artist manager.

His journey began at 17, when his mother discovered one of his graffiti pieces and asked what it would take to make him stop. His answer was simple: a drum set. Within months, Gary had started his first band and was performing professionally by 18.

From the Southern California funk and acid-jazz scene to smooth-jazz tours, megachurch stages, recording sessions and artist management, Gary has experienced almost every side of the music business. He also helped musicians working with artists such as Stevie Wonder secure endorsements and build their careers.

Today, Gary has returned to the stage with SoleMusiq - a deeply personal solo project shaped by his late mother, her song recommendations and his desire to bring people together.

With hundreds of songs, no setlist and no breaks, Gary reads the room and creates what he calls a “soundtrack of connection.”

In this episode

• How a graffiti piece led to Gary’s first drum set
• Discovering funk, jazz and the idea that “everything has a groove”
• Starting the original funk and acid-jazz band Middle Earth
• Devoting five years to learning world percussion
• Performing on the smooth-jazz circuit and major church stages
• What Gary learned from working as a professional sideman
• Why he left his record-label position to protect an artist’s music
• Launching GÁM Representation and helping touring musicians build their careers
• How his mother’s song recommendations inspired SoleMusiq
• Why Gary performs for three hours without a setlist or break
• Finding a second chance in Temecula’s live-music community
• Why Gary believes musicians are ultimately there to serve the audience

Connect with Gary

• Gary Stanionis: https://www.instagram.com/garystanionis/
• SoleMusiq: https://www.instagram.com/sole_concert/

The SoCal Setlist is sponsored by Tsunami Cables. 🌊

When your signal matters, your cable matters.

Use promo code SOCALSETLIST for 10% off your order at TsunamiCables.com

“If you can’t dance, they can’t dance.”

That line really sums up how Anthony Necerato approaches performing.

Playing shirtless, standing on the drum throne, throwing sticks and pointing at people in the crowd, Anthony has the kind of stage presence that pulls people into the show.

His bandmates in Those Guys describe him as a “frontman drummer,” - he isn’t just there to provide a backbeat - he’s there to help turn every show into a party.

In this episode, Anthony talks about growing up in Murrieta, finding his feel for the drums through the video game Rock Band, getting his first kit from Kyle Hudson and his dad, and helping build Those Guys from their first show at The Cove into one of the most fun and respected bands in the local SoCal scene. He also talks about being a dad and keeping that balance, his bowling league, and how rewarding it’s been to watch Those Guys keep growing - playing bigger stages for bigger crowds.

As Anthony put it, “We stuck with it.”

Anthony plays in the pocket. And a big part of that is the connection he has with Steven - locking into accent hits, catching each other’s changes, and sometimes looking at each other mid-song like, “that was sick.”

He plays for the room. He watches the crowd. He wants people to dance, forget their problems for a few hours, and feel like they’re part of the party.

“The reason I’m having such a good time is other people are having a good time.”

Meet Anthony Necerato.

Follow Anthony on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/anthonynecerato/

The SoCal Setlist is sponsored by Tsunami Cables. 🌊

When your signal matters, your cable matters.

Use promo code SOCALSETLIST at checkout for 10% off your order at TsunamiCables.com.

“I can’t stop. I’ll stop when I die.”

That line sums up Sean Maier’s story.

Known to many as Shred Sean, Sean is a guitarist, songwriter, teacher, and performer whose life with music started the way so many great stories do: with one song that changed everything.

For Sean, that song was Bush’s “Glycerine.” He heard it as a kid, picked up the guitar, and never really put it down. What started with a seventh-grade guitar class and a few power chords quickly turned into hours of practice, a deep dive into players like Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, George Lynch, Nuno Bettencourt, and Paul Gilbert, and a lifelong obsession with getting better.

In this episode of The SoCal Setlist with Brian Jensen, Sean talks about growing up in Long Island, working in his parents’ deli, trading sandwiches for VHS shred guitar lessons, building confidence through small wins, and eventually joining Blessed by a Broken Heart after answering a MySpace bulletin looking for a shred guitar player.

By 21, Sean had left New York to join the band in Montreal, and by 22 he was touring Europe, signing record deals, recording in major studios, and touring with the band globally.

But this conversation is not just about the highlight reel.

Sean also talks about the grind: sleeping on floors, touring out of vans, dealing with criticism, watching opportunities come and go, and learning that a career in music requires serious thick skin. As he puts it, people are going to doubt you, and you have to really believe in yourself.

From playing large stages in front of thousands, to finding new ways to keep his original music alive, Sean’s story is a reminder that the path is rarely straight, but the people who last are the ones who keep finding a way.

This is the story of someone who has passion, purpose, and relentless drive.

In This Episode

• Sean and Brian talk about:
• How Bush’s “Glycerine” sparked Sean’s love for guitar
• Growing up in Long Island and working in his parents’ deli
• Learning guitar in seventh grade and getting laughed at during an early performance
• Building confidence through small wins
• Discovering Van Halen, Yngwie, George Lynch, Nuno Bettencourt, and Paul Gilbert
• Trading deli sandwiches for VHS shred guitar lessons
• Joining Blessed by a Broken Heart through MySpace
• Leaving New York for Montreal at 21
• Touring Europe and signing international record deals
• Recording Pedal to the Metal Playing in Japan
• Why musicians need thick skin
• Why Sean says he’ll keep playing music no matter what
• His current work with Those Guys and his own original music

Follow Sean on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shredstarz/

Watch the official video for "Megadrive" on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9MZlI5Ux94

SoCal Soundcheck is sponsored by Tsunami Cables.

SoCal Soundcheck is proud to be sponsored by Tsunami Cables. These are high-quality, dependable cables built for working musicians, serious players, and anyone who values gear that performs night after night.

When your signal matters, your cable matters.

Use promo code SOCALSOUND at checkout for 10% off your order at TsunamiCables.com.

“For me nowadays, when we get together and play, it’s like a celebration of just being together.”

For Michael D’Santi, that togetherness has lasted for more than 30 years.

The Southern California blues-rock guitarist started D’Santi with his brother and friends he met in high school. After decades of gigs, changing music scenes, families, careers, and everything that can pull a band apart, they are still playing together.

They know each other so well that they rarely need to make eye contact onstage. Everyone already knows where the music is going.

As Michael put it, “People pick up on that. They see that we’re enjoying it rather than trying to make money or be famous.”

But before D’Santi, there was a house filled with instruments.

Michael’s father was a guitarist who played around Los Angeles during the late ’60s and early ’70s. He introduced Michael and his brother Paul to everything from jazz, R&B, and funk to Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jeff Beck, Albert King, and B.B. King.

Michael originally started on drums, but while accompanying his brother to drum lessons, the guitars hanging on the music-store walls kept catching his attention.

Once he picked one up, everything changed.

By 13 or 14, Michael was already gigging with older musicians. By 1989, D’Santi had begun taking shape, blending guitar-driven blues rock with elements of funk, reggae, R&B, and the sound of ’70s bands like Humble Pie and the Faces.

They also developed a reputation as what Michael calls a “B-side cover band,” choosing deeper cuts instead of playing the same familiar songs audiences hear every weekend.

The goal was not to follow the crowd. It was to stay true to themselves.

In this episode of The SoCal Setlist, Michael talks about growing up in the Los Angeles and Inland Empire music scenes, watching Albert King and B.B. King as a kid, seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan twice, and learning guitar by listening closely to the musicians around him.

He also shares stories from his years as a full-time working musician, including opening shows for major artists, performing on USO tours, recording and touring with Nickelodeon star Drake Bell, and spending years driving between San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, and the desert for gigs.

Michael also talks about D’Santi’s original music, playing with the Honey Lickers, teaching guitar, building a simple but expressive guitar rig, and why tone has far more to do with a player’s personality and touch than the equipment they use.

As Michael explains, five guitarists can play through the exact same rig and still sound completely different.

The episode also gets into one of the hardest parts of making music: keeping a band together.

Even after decades of friendship, Michael says it still takes patience, trust, compromise, and a shared commitment to keep moving forward.

From touring the country to returning to the stage with his brother and lifelong friends, Michael’s story is a reminder that a successful life in music is not always measured by fame.

Sometimes it is measured by the people still standing beside you when the next song begins.

Meet Michael D’Santi.

🎧 Full episode out now.

Link in bio.

Follow D'Santi on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063541774004

The SoCal Setlist is sponsored by Tsunami Cables. 🌊

When your signal matters, your cable matters.

Use promo code SOCALSETLIST at checkout for 10% off your order at TsunamiCables.com.

Country-rock artist Chris Lozano didn’t come from a music industry family. He grew up in Paonia, Colorado, a small coal mining town where his graduating class had just 40 people - and where hard work wasn’t a slogan, it was a way of life.

In this episode of SoCal Soundcheck, Chris shares the story behind his journey: singing Motown and classic country as a kid, getting pulled out of middle school detention by a choir teacher who heard something in his voice, meeting the woman who would become his wife, serving in the Marine Corps, and eventually finding his way into country music.

Chris also talks about how his military background shaped his songwriting, especially on songs like “Boots on Sacred Ground,” written for the Marines, military members who never came home, and the Gold Star families who carry that loss every day. In one of the most emotional moments of the conversation, Chris explains that he doesn’t write to impress everyone — he writes so the people the song is meant for can feel seen.

The episode also goes deep into Chris’s Nashville recording experience at Historic RCA Studio C, working with producer Eddie Gore, and learning from the kind of session musicians who have played with major artists across country, rock, and Americana. Chris shares stories about walking the same halls as legends, tracking with Nashville players, and learning how small changes in songwriting, phrasing, production, and performance can turn a song into something that connects.

Chris also opens up about the grind of booking, building a band, getting rejected, and staying persistent:

“For every yes I’ve got, I’ve gotten probably like 20, 30 no’s. So don’t take the no’s as you’re a failure.”

That mindset runs through the whole conversation - from Paonia to the Marine Corps, from karaoke nights to Nashville, from local shows to national stages.

In this episode

• Growing up in a small coal mining town in Colorado
• How Chris first discovered his voice
• Meeting his wife in middle school
• Serving in the Marine Corps and learning guitar while stationed in Hawaii
• Writing songs with emotional weight and personal meaning
• The story behind “Boots on Sacred Ground”
• Recording at Historic RCA Studio C in Nashville
• Working with producer Eddie Gore
• Nashville takeaways, session players, and songwriting lessons
• The reality of booking shows and hearing “no” again and again
• Building the Chris Lozano Band and taking country-rock on the road

Featured/mentioned: Chris Lozano Band, Eddie Gore, Historic RCA Studio C, Bekka Bramlett, Tim Buppert, Steve Mackey, Dane Bryant, Tyler Cain, Jared Kneale, Erik Peterson, Toby Keith, Jason Aldean, Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, Elvis Presley, Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson.

Follow Chris on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrislozanocountry/

Website: https://chrislozanoband.com/

SoCal Soundcheck is sponsored by Tsunami Cables.

SoCal Soundcheck is proud to be sponsored by Tsunami Cables. These are high-quality, dependable cables built for working musicians, serious players, and anyone who values gear that performs night after night.

When your signal matters, your cable matters.

Use promo code SOCALSOUND at checkout for 10% off your order at TsunamiCables.com.

“I have three hours to convince everybody in the room that they love country music.”

That line says a lot about Brian Gaylord.

On this episode of SoCal Soundcheck, Brian Gaylord joins the show alongside Eric Davis of the Brian Gaylord & Country Star Band for a conversation about country music, rodeo grit, original songs, Nashville recording, and the standard behind building a serious live band.

Before he was fronting a country band, Brian was a professional rodeo cowboy — traveling, competing, and living inside the culture that would eventually shape his sound. Country music was always there, playing on the radio, becoming part of his voice, his style, and his identity.

After knee surgeries and being told he might never ride again, Brian had to figure out what came next. Music became more than a side passion. It became the next arena.

That same competitive mindset carried into his recording career. Brian talked about flying to Nashville, working with high-level musicians, recording at the home studio of a Rascal Flatts member, and building songs with players connected to artists like Morgan Wallen and Tim McGraw.

That standard also defines the Brian Gaylord & Country Star Band. Brian is intentional about the musicians he brings onstage — players who can deliver a polished, full, real country sound.

With Eric Davis on guitar and a lineup that includes top-tier players, pedal steel, multiple guitarists, and backing vocals, the band is built to sound big, professional, and unmistakably country.

The episode also digs into the challenge of bringing country music into Southern California venues, especially rooms that may not think of themselves as country audiences. Brian’s goal is not just to entertain the crowd. It is to win them over.

Brian and Eric also performed live in the studio, giving the episode a stripped-down look at the musicianship behind the stories.

In this episode, Brian Gaylord and Eric Davis talk about Brian’s rodeo background, the knee injuries that tested his determination, trading a saddle for his first guitar, recording original music in Nashville, working with top-level producers and session players, building the Brian Gaylord & Country Star Band, winning over non-country audiences, playing original songs live, Eric’s guitar approach, and live in-studio performances.

Brian Gaylord on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brian_gaylord_music/

Brian Gaylord & Country Star Band on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briangaylordcountrystarband/

Eric Davis on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericdavissd/

SoCal Soundcheck is sponsored by Tsunami Cables.

SoCal Soundcheck is proud to be sponsored by Tsunami Cables. These are high-quality, dependable cables built for working musicians, serious players, and anyone who values gear that performs night after night.

When your signal matters, your cable matters.

Use promo code SOCALSOUND at checkout for 10% off your order at TsunamiCables.com.

Matt Rivera’s story starts with a box of cassette tapes.

Growing up in Southern California, Matt discovered bands like Van Halen, Aerosmith, Stryper, and Scorpions through his dad’s music collection. His dad played guitar, the songs hit hard, and somewhere in that mix of classic rock riffs and cassette-era discovery, Matt found the thing that would stick with him for life.

In this episode of SoCal Soundcheck, Brian Jensen sits down with Matt Rivera, guitarist and backup vocalist for Press Rewind, a SoCal dad rock cover band playing classic rock, ’90s, and 2000s alternative rock around the Temecula Valley.

Matt talks about growing up in the Wildomar, Lake Elsinore, and Temecula area, starting on piano before switching to guitar, learning early songs like Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” and Papa Roach’s “Last Resort,” and forming his first band with longtime friend Chris Merchant.

The conversation also gets into the story behind Press Rewind, playing with a live band at local open mic nights, learning songs on the fly, and the musicianship that comes from being able to support different singers, players, and requests in real time.

Of course, there’s plenty of guitar talk too. Matt breaks down his EVH guitars, PRS Custom 24, LTD George Lynch model, Martin acoustic, 5150 amp, DigiTech Drop pedal, EVH effects, noise gate setup, and why tube amps still have a sound that’s hard to replace.

But at the heart of the episode is something every musician can relate to: confidence.

When asked about the hardest obstacle he’s had to overcome as a musician, Matt said:

“Believing in myself and enjoying what I do. If you’re having fun doing it, that’s all that matters.”

That’s the thread running through the whole conversation - from a kid digging through cassette tapes to a guitarist still chasing that same feeling on stage.

Follow Matt on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicnerd/

Follow Press Rewind on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pressrewind_band/

SoCal Soundcheck Sponsored by Tsunami Cables

Great tone starts with great gear, and great gear has to be reliable. Whether you’re on stage, in the studio, or setting up for a podcast, your cables are the last thing you want to worry about.

That’s why SoCal Soundcheck is proud to be sponsored by Tsunami Cables. These are high-quality, dependable cables built for working musicians, serious players, and anyone who values gear that performs night after night. When your signal matters, your cable matters.

Use promo code SOCALSOUND at checkout for 10% off your order at TsunamiCables.com.

Offer valid through May 29, 2027.