Splinterites play too (volume 2): A week end with Sweet Lou!

Fellow Splinterite Louis Edward Hallwas was born in Chicag IL USA on February 10^th, 1973.

Surrounded by his Parent’s records from the beginning, Bob and Margie encouraged him to play them, and play them often.

“My folks weren’t like a lot of the other kid’s parents. From what I could tell from school and the neighborhood anyway. They treated me like a human being from the beginning, and were always interested in what I did and what I liked. I’m sure I took it for granted, but not for long. They’ve been the biggest support to me. There wasn’t really any money to be doing so, but they’d take me 45 record shopping at least every other week. My first singles, which I still have, were “Let Em In” by McCartney and Wings and “Fox on the Run” by Sweet. My third was “King Tutt” by Steve Martin. I don’t know where that is now, but I still have his album “Get Small”, which is still brilliant!”

Pretending to be in bands and pretending to play guitar since 1978 at the very least, Lou tried to get other friends on board to be in these fake bands.

“I grew up with some brothers who lived across the street, and we would pretend to be KISS when I was five. From there, it was the Beatles. My older friend Max got me into the early 80’s British thing, and we had a long lasting fake band, Rapid Fire. We’d record ourselves singing other people’s songs, and even take credit in who wrote what in what song. Even at that age, being a songwriter and playing in a band was what I wanted to do. Eventually, as I’m a late bloomer in every sense, I started writing my own tunes around 1988…1989. They weren’t very good, but it was a start. I took lessons from Jeff Copeland from 1987 to about 1990. He had an ad up at the Guitar Center; no one else at school was doing it. He was a great teacher. I learned the lot from him. Keys, Chords, Scales, but really only digested what I needed to write and play the basics.”

Eventually, Lou joined his first band, at the invitation of his child-hood friend Max Jordan. It was 1989, and the band was eventually named “The Big Bang”. “Going out to Hoffman Estates every weekend to play with Mike and Chuck Lopez along with Max was it for me. The end of 1989 into the middle of 1990. Every weekend was spent out there working. We were playing covers, and it was great fun. Best way to get your feet wet playing with other people. It was so exciting to do, and the first time I played with anyone other than myself.”

In the Fall of 1992 Lou formed The Differents with two High School friends. “This was the start of everything. The culmination of playing by myself or along with records or the Big Bang. This is where I found my voice. This incarnation lasted about a year and a half. We put out one EP on tape, and I think it still stands up today. Not bad for 20 year olds I think.”

Lou's Myspace

In October 1994, Dan Garrity joined the band and became Lou’s foil for the next 10 years. “It was the 2^nd time I felt an instinctual and non-verbal bond between a musician and myself. It took us awhile to let it run itself, and how to run it, but once we put in the time, we were playing all kinds of music; Latin, Soul, New Orleans styled Funk, Reggae and putting it all together in our own blend. Never a conscious effort to do something in this style or that, but just playing, and then later on seeing that we were. It was amazingly fun and gratifying!”

Any Lou's demos. The kitchen and Basement Tapes.


(Splinterites play too: Volume one, The Badge)