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John Cox
My parents bought me a guitar when I was 16. The Beatles and the Stones were top of the charts and I tried to copy what they were doing vocally, and started learning a few chords from a Beatle book. I always wanted to be in a band, but I was too into sports. Besides, I didn't have a clue how to put a group together. When I met Pete Culverhouse at Trent U., Pete was a lead guitar player and needed another vocalist and rhythm guitar player to start a band. Pete really taught me how to play. We formed Mona's Boys, and had a lot of good times. I traveled west in a van in 1980, and ended up in Edmonton for 5 years. During this time, I played in a folk band, and then formed a rock band in law school. We broke up when I graduated When I moved back to Ontario in 1985, Pete and I revived Mona's Boys with Eric Jonasson on keyboards, and my brother Pete Cox on drums. We played the GTA bar scene until 1995. Eric and I have been playing together for 21 years. I met Darren in 1995 and I couldn't believe that a guy this talented was not performing. Darren came out to a practice one night in 1997, and although he doesn't know it, he was in the band after the first song. When Pete moved to France in 2002, and my brother moved up north, we were fortunate to find Jimmy Sutcliffe to play bass. He is our voice of reason. Eric Swan (Swanee) is a fellow lawyer. We played hockey together for 2 years before I heard him playing guitar at a family BBQ. There, for the first time, we talked music, and I found out about his years of playing in the Kingston music scene. I convinced him to give up his Thursday nights for rock n' roll. He is a great vocalist and front man. After 19 years, my brother was a hard guy to replace on drums. Mike Moore had seen us play. He knew we were on our 3rd drummer since Pete left, and I knew he had a lot of gig experience. Mike bugged me for 6 months to jam with us. I called him one Thursday at 4 PM for an 8 PM practice. "I'm on a bus, but I'll be there." This guy is pure energy. The thing I like about this band is that we are all friends that love playing classic rock. I think it comes across in the sound. |
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Eric Jonasson
My musical roots are from classical piano lessons in public school. I started in Grade One. I kept getting in trouble for syncopating Bach, and not playing what was on the sheet music. My teachers did not share my enthusiasm for disagreeing with the Masters. At the same time I was singing for a number of school choirs. I was really into Billy Preston and Chuck Levell. In high school, I took trumpet and played in an eighty piece concert/marching band. When we played the Santa Claus Parade, we always had a great time. We had a rock drummer on snare and he added a bit of swing to the Christmas carols. Somebody from my hometown of Peterborough named me Eric The Half a Bee from Monty Python. Over the years, it has been reduced to The Bee. After high school, I went back to playing boogie woogie piano (aka Jerry Lee Lewis, Ian Stewart), and started jamming with guitar players. Gradually I moved into electric keyboards, electric piano, synthesizer, organ, etc.. I played in a bunch of different bands. I have been playing keyboards and singing backup with Mona's Boys since the 80's. ...The beat goes on and on and on and on... |
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Darren Kral
I started playing guitar at age 12 by chance as I registered for lessons when my brother signed up for piano lessons. I started out on the acoustic guitar then a few years later moved to the classical guitar. I learned how to read music, theory, classical finger styles etc which was a great asset for later playing. I really liked the guitar from the start, you never had to push me to practice. When music/video took off in the early 80's I switched to electric guitar which was bought from saved paper route money. My first electric guitar was a very beat up 1973 Fender Stratocaster purchased from a pawn shop on Church Street in Toronto for $325.00. I grew my hair really long and dreamed of being a rock star. I was in several bands in high school and played in 3 battle of the band shows. It was a lot of fun back then, playing live for the high school was really cool even though we never won we did well and learned a lot from it. When I started college I got a part time teaching job at the Hi Note music store in Oakville. This is where I met John Cox as he was one of my students for several years. School took a lot of free time so I did not play in any bands for ten years. John asked me one day if I would like to come out to jam one evening to see if I would be interested in joining the Mona's Boys crew. I accepted the invite. The first practice went well, John Eric and Pete were all good friends and there was none of the crap going on that eventually split my previous bands up from high school. I was offered the lead guitar spot in the band, I accepted and in true Mona's Boys fashion John told me " Here's 40 songs you have to learn because we have a gig in a month" And as they say the rest is history and in December of this year it will be 10yrs since joining Mona's Boys. The band has been a lot of fun over the years, its great to get out once a week and make some noise and release the stresses from life. |
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Mike Moore
I started playing drums in my hometown of Montreal when I was ten years old. My parents bought me set of reflector red Stewarts. We had an old record player in the basement, and I played by the hour to April Wine, Deep Purple and Aerosmith. I guess if I had to choose a major influence it was Dave Brewer of Grand Funk Railway. In 1974, I joined the band Wiantt out of Montreal. We toured extensively and played the Montreal nightclub scene. After taking a hiatus from rock and roll when the kids were young, I got back into rock and roll and played in two bands in Toronto. In the Fall of 2006, I saw Mona's Boys play and became a fan. I knew that they were looking for a drummer. I pestered John for six months until one night when I jammed with them at the studio. Everything clicked. I love this band, and at 1:00 a.m. I am always saying "Can't we do another set?" |
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Jimmy Sutcliffe
For me, it all began when I started hanging out with my older sister and her friends around 1980. A couple of them had guitars and would bring them to parties, playing Neil Young or Bruce Cockburn or just making up songs on the spot. I wanted to be part of that and after six months of saving, I was able to buy my first real guitar - a Strat knock-off. Over the next few years, I started to learn how to play and accumulated a couple more guitars and two keyboards. Around '83 I bought a Fostex 4-track recorder and began learning the ins and outs of recording. At the same time, my circle of "musical" friends had begun to widen, which had two large impacts on me. Firstly, it introduced me to a couple of excellent bass players who inspired me to make the jump to bass as my primary instrument (Rex/Glen I owe you big time!!). At this point I was still at home and my folks were the coolest. They put up with their living room being co-opted for jamming & recording, including a drum kit in the middle of the floor most of the time. Sunday afternoons became drop-in recording sessions, with my mother often cooking up a pot of chili or something for all that came by. Those were good times - thanks Mom!! Secondly, the increased amount of time that I spent with the Fostex, helped me to realize that I'd rather spend my post-secondary years in Trebas & Full Sail learning recording engineering and sound production instead of attending Waterloo for a Math or Electrical Engineering degree. Later I'd find that computers were far more lucrative and abandon my recording career. As time went by and life got busier, there was less time for music and by the early 90's I had pretty much stopped playing and recording other than a rare jam with a friend over a case of beer, and a short stint learning the basics of the fiddle. Then came the phone call from Darren. The conversation started with, "So, ya wanna be a rock star?" - now who would refuse an offer like that!! |
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Eric Swan
It all started in Kingston where Eric was born and raised. After several years of Neil Young strumming during High School Swanee traded the acoustic for a Hagstrom Les Paul copy and a Peavey Bandit. He was now ready for some serious garage rock! After bribing his way into Queen's University, Eric became a regular at the local Blues Jams. There was definitely a very cool vibe going on in Kingston in the mid 80's and out of this The Groove Messiahs were born. This band was a big hit with Swanee on rythym guitar and back up vocals. The band was fronted by Jim Brebner who was a natural band leader. Kevin Young, who went on to play with Moist and David Usher was on Key Boards. Tim Holy on lead guitar, Jim Carleton on bass and Tim 'Ev' Williams on drums. The band focused on a late 60's groove. After everyone some how graduated from undergrad, The Groove Messiahs disbanded which made way for the next band "The River Rats". This was a lean, mean, four piece gigging machine. After winning a local Kingston battle of the bands, the band bought its own PA and gigged around the Kingston area for a few years. Eric's cousin, Scott Tingren, was on drums with Stu Johnson on lead and Scotty Dwyer on bass. Eric fronted this band and the favourite venue was always the Toucan. As all of Swanee's friends started to get real jobs, he was desperate to put this off for as long as possible. That is when the second miracle happened, he got accepted to Queen's Law School! This was another opportunity to form a new band, "The Bora Laskin Experience". This was a six piece funk machine. The band frequently gigged with at least one horn player and again played a lot of local Kingston venues. In 1993, the band recorded "Mora Bora For Ya" in Toronto. Just as Swanee thought his gigging days were over, he met up with Coxy who was looking for another vocalist after Pete Culverhouse left the band. It has now been over 4 years and the spirit of rock is still alive. With each gig, the band gets better entrenching itself as a local classic rock favourite! It is great to still be playing live music. The old Peavey Bandit has moved aside for a tube head with a 2 - 12 Cab and a 10 pedal board. After the Caledonia Canada Day show we are now setting our sights on highly sought after gigs such as the Burlington "Rib Fest"! |