Student musicians impress Loyalist audience

Vanessa Tignanelli singing in front of students at the Shark Tank Pub. Photo by Katie Perry, QNet News. 

By David Mallory, Katie Perry and Ashley Clark

BELLEVILLE – During this Wednesday’s Universal Break, two Loyalist College students, Kevin Young and Vanessa Tignanelli, performed live music at the Shark Tank Pub.

Starting at noon, Young played a combination of covers and a few of his own country songs. At first, the crowd wasn’t paying much attention to the musician. But as he continued on with his set, and when the student government turned the lights on halfway through, he quickly attracted the attention of the audience.

Before the show, Young told QNet News that he had to stop playing music for a few years to support his family with a full-time job as a truck driver. But that began to wear on him and he decided to focus once again on his passion for music with his band, Ramblin’ Fever. The main reason behind his decision to go back to music was that it is extremely important for him to be creative, he said, adding that for him, “Music is like breathing.”

While he seemed to be enjoying himself during the Loyalist show, he admitted that he tends to be nervous at the start of a show, even though he has performed in front of more people before. After the first song was done, though, he felt more into it, he said: “It’s a great feeling, especially when the crowd is into it and you can feed off that energy.”

The last song he sang was one he wrote for his wife when they were having difficulties with their relationship. Once the song ended, the audience exploded with applause, leaving the stage ready for Tignanelli.

Her music was very different from Young’s. She calls her genre “indie folk/blues.” Tignanelli seemed to be enjoying singing and playing the electric guitar in front of an audience of students, which is impressive since she didn’t start learning the guitar until she graduated high school, nine years ago, and she’s been playing a lot in the last four years. But that wasn’t her first foray into music; her parents put her into piano lessons when she was only five years old. Before going solo she had been in three different bands – a rock cover band, a country/bluegrass band and a blues/rock band.

Her last song, like Young’s, was in honour of someone. In her case, she sang a song that a musician she used to be in a band with, who had recently passed away, loved to sing.  At the end, the crowd went wild with applause, and whistles came from throughout the pub.

QNet News talked to the two to learn more about them.

Kevin Young, first-year student, social service worker program

Age: 48

Where are you from?: “I’m from Belleville and the area, but I grew up in Madoc. But I’ve lived here as long as I can remember.”

What inspired you to start playing music?: “That would be my family. I went to a family reunion and I saw my uncle playing and singing and I was just sitting in front of him in awe. And I really wanted to do that and I saw how it captured everyone’s attention and I just really wanted to do it. So I bugged my mom to get me a guitar and she got me this cheap little thing. And when I first got it, I started playing it at the school I was in.

“I couldn’t play a chord at all. But I was doing it like I’d act and I’d have crowds of kids that would come up to listen – until another kid came up that could play, so he blew me away and everybody started listening to him instead of me. So I figured that I should start taking lessons.”

What was it like performing in front of a live audience?: “It changes. I still get nervous to this day, and I’ve performed a lot. When you first get up on stage, it’s the first 10 or 11 seconds into the song, you get really nervous and you start wondering what the crowd is thinking and stuff like that. And then I get lost in the music and it all goes away.”

Vanessa Tignanelli, first-year student, photojournalism

Age: 26

Where are you from?: “I’m from North Bay, then I moved to Guelph for school, but I moved to Belleville now.”

What inspired you to play music?: “I grew up with music. My parents were always blaring music in our house. It’s so funny – when people meet my family, they always comment on the fact that we sing 40 per cent of the time and talk 60 per cent of the time. When I would be left alone at home and I had the whole house to myself, I would just sing Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, like huge vocal ballads to sing at the top of my lungs to try and sound exactly like them. And (I) kind of taught myself how to sing like that.”

Have you ever performed in front of an audience before?: “Oh yeah. The biggest would probably be (former band) the Galacticats. We toured two summers ago – we went across Canada … from Vancouver Island up to the Yukon. So we played a couple (of) festivals while we did that. Hillside Festival in Guelph was probably the biggest audience, I’d say. I don’t know how many were there – I was too busy playing. Maybe 3,000 or 4,000 or maybe more, I can’t say.”

What is your favourite genre to play?: “Solo, I really like, I guess it would be classified as indie folk/blues. With a band, I really like rock, punk. Because … it’s a bit uplifting with a band and more fun to see people dancing. And they’re not going to dance when I’m just singing.”