Skinny Bros

SKINNY BROS is a songwriting duo from Montréal. Christopher and Paul Cargnello have been playing music together for 25 years. From sharing their parents' basement, to their first four-track recorder, and now performing stages across Canada, every step on their musical paths has been taken together. Christopher and Paul are both prolific and eclectic. Paul is self taught and has traveled through punk and rock, while Christopher is a jazz-trained musician who favours funk and r&b.

Paul: "We were brought up on 60s music, but while Christopher was trying to croon along to Smokey Robinson tunes, I was basically trying to play guitar like Jimi Hendrix."

Christopher: "We both became big hip hop fans in the 90s, but while Paul was absorbing the production of artists like Wu Tang and Beastie Boys, I would be quietly transcribing the melodies in Digable Planets samples."

Influenced by such diverse yet important songwriters as Cole Porter and Joe Strummer, brothers Paul and Christopher bring two distinct and complementary forces to their compositions; grit and grace.

CHRISTOPHER CARGNELLO received a Master's degree in 2009 from McGill University in Jazz Performance, where he studied under fellow 7-string guitarist Jon Gearey as well as saxophonist Frank Lozano, and stayed busy composing for chamber ensembles, big bands, and the McGill Symphony Orchestra. Christopher has also garnered a reputation in Montreal as a hard working and versatile musician who has played with many notable artists including African reggae legend Alpha Blondy, the "King of Latin Soul" Joe Bataan, Jamaican reggae icon Ken Boothe, and Roger O'Donnell, keyboardist of the renowned British rock group "The Cure."

PAUL CARGNELLO has more than a decade of rock experience. While he has no formal training he has toured Canada and Europe several times, and is a pillar in the Montreal music scene. Since his days in the trailblazing punk-reggae group The Vendettas, he has been hard at work. With eight studio albums under his belt he's managed to balance commercial and critical success with a series of songs in the top fifty charts in Canada and across the province of Quebec including a #1 hit with his song "Une Rose Noire."

Paul has been nominated for, and won several songwriting awards in Canada. He has written songs for many Quebec artists in both French and English. He stays true to his activist roots as spokesperson for several causes he holds close to his heart. Known for his honest lyricism, as much as for his connectedness, Paul is a songwriting force to be reckoned with.