SOUTHERN ONTARIO—They’re back! Following on their successful album titled ‘Little Northern Boys,’ lifetime friends and Haweaters John Tustian and Christian McMillan of The Studebaker Props will be releasing a new song on January 1 and a full length-album next summer. The song to be released January 1 will be the first recording they have published since their album in 1993.
“We formed in the late 1980s with four of us, with Christian, myself, Ron Kelly and Jason Dunn. We were in Grade 12,” said Mr. Tustian. “We all went to high school from about 1985-1990 and we kept the band together through university; we would come back to the Island in the summers to play. Then Christian and I kept the band together as a duo. We added Dale Wallace on bass in 1993 and released the cassette ‘Little Northern Boys,’ which we released in stores in Little Current, Mindemoya and Gore Bay. We sold between 200-250 copies.”
“In December 1993 John Maskevich (who owned the Twin Bluffs Restaurant in Gore Bay) did a big record release party for us,” said Mr. Tustian. “Then in the summer of 1994 we played again on the Island during the summer.”
“John and I have been friends forever and we have always kept in touch, and had a lot of fun with the band, particularly on the Island,” said Mr. McMillan. “We tried and did keep the band going down south, mostly playing in bars. When we moved south, we changed the name of the band to Relics Toque.”
“John and I both grew up in Mindemoya, and my wife and I are building a camp close to the one he now owns in Mindemoya,” said Mr. McMillan. “My wife and our kids just love it on the Island.”
Mr. Tustian now lives in Brooklin (Whitby) and Mr. McMillan lives in Toronto.
The band broke up in 1997.
“John kept playing with a bunch of bands, and we always kept in touch,” said Mr. McMillan. “I didn’t remain in bands, but I would write songs and play music for my own enjoyment and for my wife, and some dumb little songs for special occasion events.”
“When COVID hit like everyone else I was spending more time at home,” said Mr. McMillan. “This got me into writing more songs. I talked to John about the songs I had written and we talked about playing them together. I could use a drum machine and they aren’t all that bad, but they are not like the real thing. And John is a great drummer. He has a great ear for music.”
“We and a couple of the others talked about putting the band back together and recording the new songs,” said Mr. McMillan. “Then at John’s birthday a couple of years ago all the members of all the bands he has played with were there and played.”
“We were kids when we first started the band and we stayed good friends all those years,” said Mr. Tustian, explaining, “about two or three years ago, we were at my place jamming and Christian said he had been writing a bunch of new songs.”
Mr. Tustian, who is also in the band 30 ODD 6, said “we got together and were jamming, when COVID-hit. Christian has a basement studio and I do to, and we started sharing files and songs, and I would put drums to it.” “Dale is not involved in the band anymore although he is still a good friend of both of us,” said Mr. Tustian. “So now there are just the two of us in the band,” he said, noting, “Christian is quite the musician; he can play just about any instrument and is fantastic on bass guitar and singing. I play the drums and can sing backup.”
“With the way social media is these days, we see and talk to each other all the time,” said Mr. Tustian. “I saw him at the cottage in mid-July and then we had a photo shoot this fall.” “We talked some more after our jam sessions and decided to put an album out there. Our friends, families and fans might get a kick out of it,” said Mr. Tustian.
Mr. McMillan said the band is also getting assistance on the new release and album from Jason Davis, “who has always been ‘almost’ in the band and is a sound engineer. He is from Sudbury, he is a bass player and plays multi-instruments. He did all the mixing, arranging and sound engineering for the album, taking our rough work and turned them into polished songs. He plays bass on one song on the album and sings on another song. Christian plays bass, sings guitar and piano. John plays drums and percussion and they both sing on the album.”
“When we originally started the band we played more of an alternative rock kind of music, but now our sound is more like the Blue Rodeo sound and feel,” said Mr. Tustian.
Mr. McMillan said “John and I considered between 20-25 songs for the album and I kept sending them off to John for his thoughts. We ended up picking the top 12 songs for the album.”
“No, there is no big theme to the album, some of them are just little stories, and some relate to real life,” said Mr. Christian. “’Tell Your Friends’ (the single to be released January 1) tells the story of when we were all trying to be a band and we would travel to Sudbury and unpack all our music gear and play at the Townehouse with other bands until closing at 2 am and then drag our backsides back to Manitoulin Island and go to work the next day,” said Mr. McMillan.
The band will be releasing one song per month until June when they will release the full album, said Mr. Tustian. “This way people get the chance to hear the songs one at a time, no songs get lost in the shuffle, and hopefully people will enjoy the music.” “Definitely, we would love the chance to get a couple of shows together on the Island next summer,” said Mr. McMillan.
The release of ‘Tell Your Friends’ will be available on Apple Music and Spotify plus other streaming platforms, said Mr. Tustian. He is also setting up a Facebook page where people can find ‘Props’ updates.
Manitoulin Expositor, in 1993.
