David Tessier

On the Fourth of July, a lot of people are going to be wearing red, white and blue, grilling burgers and dogs, having a few drinks and lighting off some fireworks when the sun goes down. It’s a proper way to celebrate the birth of America.

But at Dusk, located at 301 Harris Ave. in Providence, they’ll be taking things to another level.

Starting at 3 p.m., Revival Fest will be putting on a wild time with 11 bands gracing the stage and serious amplification being exhibited. The David Tessier All-Star Stars will be among them, performing at 8:20 p.m.

Tessier and I recently had a conversation about getting into classic and progressive rock, working for a certain renaissance faire, his connections to the local theater scene and his thoughts on the upcoming festival.

ROB DUGUAY: How did you go about forming the All-Star Stars?

DAVID TESSIER: It really goes back to 2011 when I released an EP titled “Taurus.” I got a band together to play some songs at a 75orLess Records showcase at The Apartment, which used to be on Richmond Street in Providence. I grabbed my friends Brandon Capaldo and Paulo “Zeus” Sousa, the latter who played with me in a production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Perishable Theatre, to come play with me. Mark MacDougall, who runs 75orLess, played in little league with Brandon, knew Paulo from a ton of other bands, and he made the joke that it was “The David Tessier All-Star Band of All-Star Stars.” We played that one show and that was kind of it for a while.

Then a couple years ago, I had this idea to form a Monkees tribute one-off and I just called the friends I knew that I thought would be good at it. Nate Goncalo, who was in The Crashland Band, which at the time was right before they turned into Zoink Zulag & The Galactic Shag. My buddy Jon Brennan, who I’ve known for years, we used to work for the All Children’s Theatre in Pawtucket and he’s worked with me on some theatrical stuff that I’ve done. I just knew these guys, I knew they could sing, I knew they could play the right instruments and I was kind of going on a Monkees kick. In doing so, we realized that we needed another tenor voice, and I recruited my friend Justin Grankewicz from King Richard’s Faire who I was working with at the time.

RD: The band definitely has a ‘70s classic and prog rock influence, so how long have you been into that kind of music? Did you grow up listening to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd on vinyl?

DT: Absolutely, I came into it secondhand from my older brothers who had an extensive collection. I was listening to all of the soft rock of the time on the radio with my sisters and my parents. At the same time I was listening to The Beatles, Alice Cooper, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Who, and I could go on and on. They didn’t have a lot of Pink Floyd albums, I kind of got into that myself in high school, but you’re absolutely correct. The classic stuff came when I was a kid. It was in high school that I discovered more prog rock and I really got into the Peter Gabriel era of Genesis, King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, pretty much all of them.

RD: That’s a lot of great music. You alluded to it earlier – you’re the music director for King Richard’s Faire, which happens each fall in Carver, Massachusetts. How did you get that gig, and what’s it like working with people who act like they’ve been transported to the age of the Renaissance and medieval times?

DT: I got that gig through the Rhode Island magic of happening to know somebody. In this particular case, the king at the time, Thomas Epstein, who regretfully passed away last year, knew me from working at The Gamm Theatre, which is currently based in Warwick. We worked together a bunch of times and when their music director of many, many years also regrettably passed away suddenly just before the season started, he recommended me. Coincidentally, the stage manager there knew me from stuff I had done in my 20s at the Attleboro Community Theatre. I got two thumbs up at the same time and I was called by the entertainment director, given a brief interview thinking I wasn’t the guy they were looking for, but it turned out to be a really good match. There’s a lot of arranging songs for satire, which fits my wheelhouse in a way.

What’s it like working with people who’ve been transported back to the Renaissance? It’s funny, when you go backstage, not too many people are in the Renaissance anymore. We’re just working actors and musicians. When you go out, it’s a game that you just fall into. I don’t interact with people too much, but my actor friends do. They go around all day entertaining people, and I think it’s just a different part of their personality. We all fall into it really easily.

RD: When you go to King Richard’s Faire, it’s just one big show. It’s all entertainment all over the place, which makes it a lot of fun. With your experience in theater, do you consciously make an effort to include the theatrical side of you into the music that you write and perform?

DT: Yes and no. Not initially consciously, it came into my mind kind of in my 20s that there was no line between the two. I realized that even the most indie rock, shoegaze kind of band still performs in a theatrical fashion. Everyone is wearing a costume, even the ones who say they aren’t are. The line blurred for me sometime in my late 20s and I realized that the music I write could also be more than just songs, they could be soundtracks to ideas and they could be soundscapes to visuals.

Maybe it’s something only I had seen, but it’s still valid art in my opinion. I think it all mixes together pretty naturally for me at this point. Even when I put together setlists, I see no difference between when we play covers and when we play originals because I’m just trying to pick the best songs for the audience I know I’m going to have. A lot of it to me is a theatrical kind of thing that sets the pace for the show along with setting an emotional arc. I think that’s all kind of the same, so yes, it has been an influence.

RD: What are your thoughts on playing Revival Fest at Dusk?

DT: We’re really looking forward to it. This is our second time, we played in 2019 and it was kind of a last-minute thing. I think we only had a couple of weeks notice on that and we put together a pretty odd set. We’re looking forward to planning our attack this time around, we got some really bizarre stuff to throw in that we hope will be really different and entertaining as kind of a side note of the day. There’s going to be a lot of different styles of music and different bands playing that day, and we want to make sure that we are also interesting. We don’t want to get lost in the crowd.

To learn more about David Tessier, visit davidjtessier.com. For more on Revival Fest, check out the event’s Facebook page. - Warwick Beacon

“It’s rare that an album name sells a mood so well as David Tessier’s Dreams in Hyperspace. Crunchy synths, metal-inspired guitar riffing and rapid-fire drumming give way in turn to gentle, swelling, thoughtful ballads like “Hey Mary.” Tessier’s harmonized vocals traverse the sometimes-unruly, sometimes-majestic backing music. Somewhere between Queen and King Crimson, deep into hyperspace you’ll find the sound that Tessier has managed to lock down so well.” – DS - Motif Magazine 2019 - Motif Magazine