Chicago area musician Joe Di Zillo spreading love and joy through new album, "Bringing It Back"

By ERIC SCHELKOPF

 

On the song "Lotta Love," the opening track of his latest album, "Bringing It Back," Chicago area musician Joe Di Zillo  aims to spread love and joy to everyone.

He is doing just that as the song – and the album – continues to gain listeners. "Lotta Love" has been included on a Spotify list of best power pop songs of 2024 and the album is at number 21 at Chicago-based CHIRP Radio for the week of Aug. 5.

Di Zillo has a couple of shows coming up, including at 6 p.m. Aug. 17 at Kelsey Road House, 352 Kelsey Road, Lake Barrington and at 6 p.m. Sept. 13 at Sketchbook Brewing Co., 4901 Main St., Skokie.

I had the chance to talk to the Glen Ellyn native and fellow Glenbard West High School grad about the album.

Q – It's good to talk to a fellow Glenbard West grad. Of course, you recently performed in your hometown. 

You played at Two Hound Red, which had been Schmid Pharmacy when I lived in Glen Ellyn. Was that a weird experience?

It's strange when you really think about it. I used to walk there and buy baseball cards and go there for all of our prescriptions.

So yeah, it was different.

Q – Of course, "Bringing It Back" was released in June on vinyl. The album is at number 21 at Chicago-based CHIRP Radio for the week of Aug. 5.

Yeah, that's pretty amazing. 

Q – Did you think that it would be embraced in that manner, that it would be so popular? 

I didn't know what to think. The stuff that I write is just kind of very much based off of everything that I love when it comes to music or just people in my life.

 

The lyrics are pretty heartfelt. You really want people to just feel it and hopefully like it.

Q – I see that "Lotta Love" has also been included on a Spotify list of best power pop songs of 2024. What was your inspiration for the song?

I wrote that song during the pandemic. You would go on Facebook and see all these people just hating and bashing each other.

And I was inspired by Stevie Wonder's song, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)."

Q – Like other musicians, you weren't able to perform live during the height of the pandemic. Has it been good playing live again?

I would think that playing live you would feel more of a connection to your audience than if you were doing a Facebook Live concert.

Yes, 100%. It was great that we were able to do that as musicians. But yeah, there's nothing like playing a show and people getting into it and coming up to you afterwards.

Q – Speaking of power pop, one of the well-known Chicago power pop bands was Material Issue. Were they an influence on you?

I would say yes, because almost anything that I listen to and that I really dig into and like, it influences me.

Everything has been influencing me. And I think that comes out especially fairly well on the album because there's so many different genres that I touch upon. 

Q – I know that you're a self-taught musician and you fell in love with rock 'n roll as a freshman at Glenbard West. Speaking of Glenbard West, do you remember any of your high school music teachers?

Dr. Richard Whitecotton. He was such a jovial man. 

He just always seemed like he was in a good mood. I signed up for a music theory class for a year.

It really helped out with my songwriting because I learned about all the keys. Even today, when I write a song, I think, this is going to be in the key of A, what else can I throw in there?

Dr. Whitecotton was a great guy. He made everything fun.

He got as much joy out of it as we did. 

Q – I was listening to a few of your other albums and it seems like with this album in particular, you wanted to convey a lot of energy.

That's very true. There's more of a flow on this album than the other two albums, that's for sure. 

One of the reasons I call it "Bringing It Back" is because some of the songs happen to be a little bit older. The song "Copper," I started writing that in 2002 and this was finally the right time to record it.

"Copper" is the only song on the album that's really that old. Most of the songs I wrote between the pandemic and when the album came out.

The title refers to bringing back some older songs that I had never recorded and bringing back musicians that I hadn't played with in years.

Q – Do you have any short-term or long-term goals?

Short-term for me right now is just continuing to get people to listen to my music and just get different audiences to come out to shows and enjoy what we're doing.

And the other thing is to continue to have consistency in our band. A long-term goal is to release new music.

Right now, I have about 15 to 20 songs/song ideas written and I would definitely like to start recording again sometime next year.

 

Aurora native Noah Gabriel returning to The Venue in Aurora with new album in tow

By ERIC SCHELKOPF

 

Ever since writing the song "Peg-Leg Killer Jonez" 12 years ago, Fox Valley musician Noah Gabriel has wanted to record a blues album under that name.

He fulfilled that goal in April with the release of his 14th studio album, "Peg-Leg Killer Jonez and the Pitchfork Pine." On Aug. 9, the Aurora native and a few of his musical friends will perform songs from that album along with other songs from his career during a hometown show at The Venue, 21 S. Broadway Ave. in downtown Aurora.

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. 

General admission tickets are $20, available at themusicvenue.org.

I had the chance to talk to Gabriel about the upcoming show.

Q – Great talking to you again. How are people responding to the new songs?

Every time we perform them, people seem to dig them. The songwriting is very unique to that album.

 

Q – I know that "Peg-Leg Killer Jonez" was originally released on your 2012 album, "Austin Bound" and that ever since you wrote that song, you've wanted to record a blues album under that name.

It's been something that I've been talking about and kicking around. Slowly throughout the years, I've been writing these songs that seem to be in that vein.

 

I've just been setting them aside. It's just a fun way to approach things.

I like to do different things every time I record.

Q – Of course, you grew up in Aurora, a city that has strong connections to the blues community as a result of Sony Boy Williamson, Henry Townsend and other notable Bluebird artists who made recordings at the Leland Hotel in downtown Aurora between 1937 and 1938. Is the album also paying homage to Aurora and Aurora's connection to the blues community?

Yeah. That was the whole idea, to create a modern blues album for Aurora.

When I first started playing guitar, one of the first shows I got to see was the early Aurora Blues Fest. I remember my dad taking me down there and we went and saw Shirley King, B.B. King's daughter, perform.

I'm pretty sure Kiss the Sky had a tent there and they were selling CDs and I found Jonny Lang's "Lie to Me" album, which is still one of my all time favorite blues rock records.

It all spawned from Aurora's connection to the blues. And I've gotten older and learned more and more about it, I find myself even more intrigued and drawn to it.

I was trying to hook up with David Karademas, who owns the Leland Tower Apartments. We were in talks to record some stuff at the Leland Tower for the record.

But schedules never worked out and I finally just had to finish the album on my own. But that's still a goal, to get into Leland Tower and try and get something recorded there.

I thought it would be cool to go in there just with my guitar and record a bunch of songs, kind of like Robert Johnson and all those guys used to do back in the day.

One day I still hope to make that happen. 

Q – I've seen you perform solo as part of the songwriter series at The Venue. To me, I felt more connected to your songs because it was just you and your guitar.

I love that stuff. I do a lot of solo acoustic shows.

For me, it's always been about the songwriting. I know a lot of people think of me as a guitar player, and I am, but my guitar more than anything has become a vehicle for songwriting.

It's my means for expression. 

Q – As I understand, the upcoming show at The Venue is going to feature you with other musicians.

It's going to be the Noah Gabriel Trio with Ryan Carney on cello and Chris Palmerin on percussion. And the Noah Gabriel Band and Noah's Arcade with special guests Dave Nelson and Dave Ramont followed by a set with just the Arcade.

 

So it will be four different groups of people. I wouldn't be the musician that I am without the musicians that surround me.

It's a good group of guys that I've been able to surround myself with.

Q – It seems like that is what makes the Fox Valley such a great music scene. Musicians in the Fox Valley truly want to learn from each other and be around each other.

It seems like Fox Valley musicians really want to collaborate with each other.

That's the only way that a scene happens. You look at all the major music scenes in the past and it's all because the bands would collaborate.

For example, look back at the '60s and '70s and see what was happening in San Francisco and Laurel Canyon. 

Q – As far as how your latest album, "Peg-Leg Killer Jonez and the Pitchfork Pine" turned out, did it exceed your expectations?

I like doing these conceptional things. It's part of this journey as a creative person.

I started out wanting to learn how to play a song. When I figured out how to play a song, then I wanted to learn how to write a song.

You write enough songs and then all of a sudden, writing a song isn't enough. You have to figure out how to produce those songs.

Now it's not just about songs. I'm trying to create bodies of work.

I was very pleased with how it turned out. For the very minimal budget that I had and the fact that I did most of it on my own, I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Q – Is it on vinyl as well? 

Yes. Kiss The Sky owner Steve Warrenfeltz financed the pressing of it. The only reason it's on vinyl is because of Steve.

Hopefully when people buy the record they will sit down and put it on, they'll read the story and they'll look through the jacket and they'll disappear for a while.