Meet Kevin Sgarro

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kevin Sgarro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I’m not sure, I suppose music was the only thing I was ever really drawn to and extremely driven about learning and improving at and it eventually became ingrained in my everyday life to the point that I couldn’t imagine wanting to pursue anything else!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My Art is music performance and writing. I’ve been playing music for 19 years, I first started at 11 and started writing music at around 16-17 and my first band was an instrumental funk rock band called Shaftsquad that lasted maybe 18 months?! Like Cream! my first serious band started around five years later, that was a I guess you would call a blues rock band named Gaktuse but I don’t think that accurately describes what we did there were alot of different avenues of inspiration going on there. I’ve been going solo under my own name for 6 years now since the Dissoultion of Gaktuse, it just seemed easier to have a project where I would be in charge of everything rather than having a democratic situation. having a band and keeping it together and keeping everyone happy is so hard and truly almost impossible and I applaud and honestly admire anyone who has found a working balance.
I have so much to be excited about and looking forward to I’d start with the music plans I have this year I just put out an EP for the new year that was themed around some of the melancholic but hopeful feelings of starting a new year and I’m about to start releasing a remixed and remastered version of my Debut solo EP “Do What Feels Right” being done by my dear friend/ Musical Genius Roger Houdaille of Ex Norwegian and head of Think Like A Key Records. Although I was super proud of the performances on the recording I always knew I kind of rushed the mixing of the album. that takes so much time to take it home, sit with it, hear it a bunch, walk away from it. I thought it was something I would have to live with until Roger remixed The Title Track for a Compilation of music from students of Doug Burris and he really gave the song a whole new energy that really made me excited at the prospect of him adding his magic touch to the other five tracks. It took a while to make it happen and that’s finally gonna be finished and I’m gonna start releasing those over the summer/early fall. After that I also have the basic tracks of 4 songs for another EP with my previous lineup that I need to add some overdubs and vocals to. I’m looking forward to putting that one out because I’ve been sitting on it for a while and once I have these 2 projects out I’m going to hopefully make some vinyl copies and THEN I can start working on a big project I have of a double album I’m going to record and put out in 2 separate parts. This all on top of trying to play as many shows as possible everywhere and start building our following and live reputation and find a way to start playing bigger shows and festivals! I have a new lineup thats been playing together for about 10 months now and we are really clicking and just starting to get crazy, its alot of fun playing with them and its only going to get better, they also play in a great band called The Mad Archaic.
What I think sets me apart from others is just a unique blend of inspirations and a constant growing and changing repertoire with performances that always have space for spontaneous moments, we might play a part longer or different than we planned, we might go into a song we never discussed beforehand, or we might have an old new friend come up and jam with us, you never totally know what’s gonna happen.
Being a musician and pursuing a music career is most certainly not easy and there are many challenges just about everyday. There’s many ways to overcome them, sometimes patience and persistence, other times leaning on your circle of friends and family for support or advice especially from my friends who are also pursuing the same career.
There are many lessons learned as well, I’d say the main one for me would be to have faith in the goodness of people, you would be surprised how nice and willing to help people are, folks get jaded,including yourself and it’s important to remember not to get stuck in that. Another lesson is you can never be too prepared because anything can and will happen.
If I had to think about what I want people to know about what I do I’d say, if there are people who are fans of good fun music, from real people, about real things and love a spontaneous touch with a range of styles I promise if you give us your support and come out and see us play our music and allow us to do the things we want to do, we will make it worth your while and will deliver a damn good rockin’ time.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh man if I had a friend visiting for a week there would be so much to do in San Francisco. We would definitely have to walk along the water checking out the embarcadero shopping center and the different piers and tourist stands, you have to check out the popular boudins bakery Clam chowder sourdough bread bowl. There’s also the many bars and restaurants of the North Beach area, you have classic spots like Vesuvios next to city lights bookstore with jack kerouac alley or newer places that always have music raging like Tupelo’s. There’s Tony’s pizza that’s voted one of the top pizzerias in the city although my personal favorite in the city for pizza is Outta Sight Pizza in the tenderloin and Chinatown. There’s also caffè sport which is a nice underrated restaurant. There’s also the mission district with puerto Allegre the best frozen margaritas in SF and El Farolito’s off 24th and mission for the best burritos around. There’s also picnicking and the people watching at Dolores park if the weathers nice.
Then you check out the Haight ashbury where you can find the iconic Grateful Dead 710 haight ashbury house and the ever present hippies on the famous corner my go to food spot there is the local market called Gus’ that does great sandwiches sushi and all kinds of other stuff. You could spend an entire day in Golden park walking from the entrance on haight all the way to ocean beach, visit the Janis tree and hippie hill, you have a flower conservatory, a botanical garden, Japanese tea house, buffalo, so many things. We’d definitely have to check out any number of the museums, the de young, the MoMa or my favorite the Legion of Honor and you can go to lands end from the there and catch the unreal sunsets! And if there was a car involved you can drive across the Golden Gate Bridge to Marin or Stinson beach. You can take the trains for a day trip to Oakland or Berkeley and enjoy the great food out there and there’s no way you don’t get some killer ramen or bahn mi’s on Polk st.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
While I would always thank my parents for their support and another person in my life who helped me start taking this serious; If I had to shout out any one person or organization it would have to be to my highschool music teach Clark Douglas Burris who started and ran the Miami Beach Senior High Rock Endemble the countries first real school of rock from 1972-2012. He taught me sound engineering, being a roadie, classical guitar, and provided me an avenue to develop my skills and love for rock n roll and music in general. He had MS (multiple sclerosis) for most of his teaching career but taught me better than just about anyone with his deep understanding of the techniques and subtleties of music. He taught me for 4 years and I was honored to work for him as personal home aid on and off for a few years after graduating. He was an excellent teacher, a great band leader, and a wonderful friend whom I miss dearly and think of everyday. also a special shout to his class aid/assistant Director Michael “Mac” Mcnamee he also played a huge part in teaching all of us.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kjsgarro?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KJSgarro?mibextid=wwXIfr

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@kevinsgarromusic?si=26c7lDYaoSQmF9CX

Other: https://kevinsgarro.bandcamp.com/

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Image Credits
Photo credit:
Rosemarie Sgarro
Diego Jones
Dana Slattery