Flights Over Phoenix

Mark McKee, Keith Longo and Chris Santillo of Flights Over Phoenix at Basin 141 in Montrose

FLIGHTS OVER PHOENIX 

At Basin 141
2265 Honolulu Ave., Montrose (818) 236-4810

I hadn’t met a music group who initially came together through Craigslist and possessed the talent, natural chemistry and genuine affinity for one another to actually form a lasting partnership. That changed after meeting Los Angeles-based trio Flights Over Phoenix.

“I was in a different band when I met Keith [Longo, singer-songwriter] via Craigslist. We jammed, and the music he was doing fit what I like and what I wanted to do better, so I quit the other band and went full force with him,” shares guitarist Chris Santillo. “Everything just felt right, and that was two years ago.” 

“I moved here in 2013 as a freelance musician/producer and spent the first year working with lots of different artists. Keith and I first connected via Craigslist then played phone tag for a long time. Three or four months had gone by, his music had stuck in my head and I wondered if he was still looking for another band member, so I hit him up,” recalls keyboardist Mark McKee. “Their keyboard player had just quit, so that’s how it all started.”

“I remember thinking about my favorite bands, how they all started as high school friends. They had this relationship already, grew as musicians together, and I felt that translated to their sound. I always wanted that but when I moved out here I was 26, so it was pretty late for that to happen. But it’s funny because when Chris started to come over to jam, we became pretty quick friends. Then when we finally started jamming with Mark, it all happened so organically. We would jam and write, and I don’t think we even said, ‘OK, we’re a band. So maybe technically we’re not even a band yet,” laughs Keith, who moved to Los Angeles from Boston on a whim three years ago.

“Maybe this interview is the official document. Are you a notary public?” Mark asks me, and I realize I’m in for a fun evening.

We’re gathered at one of Chris’ neighborhood haunts, Basin 141, a busy gastropub along Montrose’s quaint main street, Honolulu Avenue, offering standard bar fare but with a modern edge. There’s Fish & Chips, Fried Chicken & Waffles and Steak Frites but also Braised Short Rib Tacos, Truffle Mac N’ Cheese and a Pan-Seared Shrimp Wrap on the menu. Brews from Craftsman, Angel City, Smog City and Modern Times are on tap, and specialty cocktails range from the Olvera (Grey Goose Pear, cranberry, lime and simple syrup) and the East Los (209 Gin, cucumber, mint, lime, simple syrup and soda) to twists on a mint julep and margarita.

I order a Strawberry Fields (Nolet’s Dry Gin, house-made strawberry cordial, lemon and sparkling wine), while Keith gets an Old Fashioned, and it’s vodka-sodas for Mark and Chris.

“I usually get a vodka-soda or whiskey neat. I live within walking distance, so this is my go-to place,” says Chris, an L.A. native who grew up in the area. “I’m lame because I don’t like driving anywhere else because of traffic and having to find parking, so I just walk here. In The Wedding Singer there are some bar scenes, and Avignone’s, which is down the street, is where they filmed them. It’s a dive bar, and I probably go there more than I should.”

He is happy to add that he is moving to Keith’s area, Eagle Rock, soon. Mark, who lives in the Valley, admits to being an avid craft beer lover and frequent patron of Golden Road.

“I live in the Valley, but I’m out this way a lot,” he says. “I love Golden Road – where I’m from, North Carolina, beer culture is so healthy there. Before I moved here, there would be a new brewery opening up every month. We’d go and try all the new beers.”

We sip our drinks as the three members of Flights Over Phoenix talk about their unique backgrounds and eventually coming together to create their debut EP, Runaway California.

“None of my family or friends are musical or really into music, I was the only one, so I never went to shows,” replies Chris when I ask if he went to many concerts growing up. “I don’t really go to shows that much now, either. We played the Whisky a while ago, and it was the first time I’d ever been there.”

“I probably know Hollywood better than he does,” adds Keith.

“Guitar is my first and one and only instrument. In sixth grade every guy was taking guitar lessons, so I wanted to, too, but I stopped two years later. When I graduated high school, I wanted to be a firefighter. I was a Fire Explorer for two years, and before that I was a Sheriff’s Explorer. I went to the academy, visited jail and realized how much that would not be fun at all. I didn’t go to four-year college and party, but I somehow wanted to still have fun,” Chris says with a grin. “I ended up getting back into guitar. It was fun again, and I just wanted to try and fulfill my dreams. I thought I would be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t try and do something I was really passionate about.”

Everyone laughs as Keith deadpans, “You picked the stable job of being a guitar player.”

“I wanted to be a piano tuner,” interjects Mark.

“That’s thrilling,” replies Keith sarcastically.

“I know, that’s why it only lasted a month,” laughs Mark, before adding, “Both of my parents are music teachers, and my brother is a drummer in a band so we grew up playing music together. I took violin for eight years, but I always played piano. I kind of dropped off for a while, played guitar for a lot of years, moved back to keyboards then did both. I sang a little bit. I was the frontperson for a band for a little while, but I never felt like a singer. I’ve always been a multi-instrumentalist, but when I moved out here I started playing keyboards. I have more of an intimate relationship with that instrument than I did before. 

“I grew up playing in bands and going to shows – that was my whole life. Even out here, 90 percent of my friends are musicians,” he continues. “Growing up, all of my friends in the neighborhood and I were terrible at sports, so we started bands. It was like the movie The Sandlot but with bands. Our house was the central house, everyone would come over, and my poor parents had to listen to this racket for years – terrible Green Day covers!”

“They loved it,” interrupts Keith.

“Yeah, my mom always laughs about it now. She could always see the future better than I could, my brother and I doing music full time. That’s what all that racket ended up becoming. I’m definitely indebted to my parents for having that background. They forced me to practice. It was a little rigorous, but at the end of the day I was still in love with music. I owe a lot of my musical work ethic to that,” admits Mark. “Both my parents are classical musicians, so it was always on in the house. My dad was a big Beatles fan as well, so I learned about the Beatles from him. Keith and I both have an older brother, so we always wanted to listen to what they listened to.”

“I’ve always loved music and singing – I sang Disney songs when I was a kid – but I didn’t come from a musical background. My older brother played piano and was into music, but I grew up playing sports. Then in fifth grade you had to pick an instrument, and I picked drums. I had a couple of friends who were drummers, and we got into rock and my brother’s music – Nirvana, REM, ‘90s bands – I would drum along to those, but it was just a hobby for me. I played hockey, and that was my whole life until my early 20s,” Keith reveals. “In college all of my friends would be in the hockey house partying, and I would be out in my car singing along, doing vocal exercises. I didn’t know why, but I remember hearing this quote: ‘You should do what you wake up feeling you have to do every day.’ I had this drive to sing and write, but I wasn’t very good at it to be honest, so I would just do it on the side. Then I reached a point where hockey had come to an end, and I wasn’t ready to get a normal job, so I threw myself into music. It was something I always wanted to do, but I never owned it. I wouldn’t hang out with music kids because I would feel inferior. They played music, and I kind of played music. But I definitely feel like what I missed in musical education I made up for in what I learned in hockey, which was work ethic, drive. Things I consider my strengths actually came through life experiences and not music lessons.”

“It took me a while to get right in the head with, ‘You’re good enough to hit these people up with your music. I would respond to ads online just to see if they would get back to me, not because I actually wanted to form a band. I just wanted to see if people that weren’t my friends thought I was good. After some time I joined some cover bands back in Boston,” he remembers. “Those experiences of having people that don’t know me say, ‘You’re good enough to play with,’ then getting that playing experience gave me the confidence to move out here and try it. Chris was in a similar spot where he was like, ‘I do this, but I don’t really do this,’ and I think Mark just liked the material I showed him. He was probably like, ‘You guys are rough around the edges, but there’s something there.’”

“The North Star for me with anything is: It’s already really good, but I want to help make it better, be a part of it,” agrees Mark. “Producing, my job was taking something that wasn’t very good at all and making it presentable, but if something was pretty good I could make it really good. When I heard this music, I knew immediately where I could fit in, where my strengths fit.”

“I write songs, but I knew couldn’t do it on my own,” adds Keith. “Everyone brings something to the table that makes Flights Over Phoenix what it is.”

“Keith was a captain without a ship, and I was a ship without a captain,” says Mark. “I had these resources and abilities, but no ‘hey, here’s what we’re doing’ – I’m not an artist in that regard. In a band situation, that’s where it thrives.” 

Although it took a bit for Keith to grow the confidence to sing at the front of Flights Over Phoenix, listening to the band’s Runaway California EP there’s no doubt that he has an incredible set of pipes. In fact, Disney selected him to record vocals for “Live the Magic,” the theme for Disneyland’s 60th Anniversary that plays every night in the park.

“It’s funny that those were the songs I would sing when I was little – ‘A Whole New World,’ ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ – and here I am singing for Disney,” he reflects. “I just went down to the park for the first time to listen to it, and it was surreal.”

Escaping the mundane monotony of his old life in Boston is what originally lured Keith to pack up his car and move to Los Angeles, and it seems like all three musicians eventually found a place where their talent could flourish together in the City of Angels. 

“Keith was talking about how he was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m good enough. Oh, I am!’ For me, it was, ‘I thought I was good enough then I moved here and got my ass whooped.’ In North Carolina I played with everybody, had tons of gigs and felt like I could hang in L.A. Moving out here, going to shows and seeing the stuff other musicians would do so effortlessly, it was a big rude awakening – in a good way. Being around greatness creates new ways of challenging yourself,” begins Mark. “Living in a big city where there’s a lot going on, you get to see excellence in every way. I love being around innovation, but there’s also a weird, ambiguous side when it comes to the entertainment industry. I love people from California not in the entertainment industry because you get to live in a really great place with amazing weather and don’t have to deal with all of this nonsense. My relationship with L.A. is like a marriage. In any relationship at first it’s amazing, full of fire, then it’s like, ‘What you want to do tonight, watch Netflix?’ I still love the mystery of the city. I’m obsessed with Hollywood lore from the 1920s, when show business was first starting. I still love the city wholeheartedly, and I’m never going to leave”

“When I go on vacation, I just look forward to getting back to L.A. You can go to the beach in 40 minutes and the mountains in 40 minutes, and there’s a whole different vibe in L.A. I’m a homebody, I guess,” says Chris. “I’m not in the thick of the hustle and bustle in Montrose, hanging out in lonely dive bars. I’m sure if I lived in Hollywood I would be over it.”

“Hollywood is so overrated,” interjects Mark. “At first I wanted to move to Hollywood, but when I actually hung out in Hollywood I was so glad I didn’t live there.”

“It’s sad when people move to Hollywood thinking it’s so glamorous and wind up having horror stories of how dirty it is,” agrees Chris. “Everyone has this idea of what Hollywood is.”

“I definitely see the underbelly of Hollywood, but at the same time I love it. I wouldn’t want to live in the heart of Hollywood, but there’s an energy there, being around other artistic people who are pursuing their dreams. Someone could be 48 and say, ‘I’m an aspiring actor.’ You just don’t get that everywhere,” argues Keith. “I’ve always been a dreamer. I love my family and friends in Boston, but when I come back from visiting, I feel like I’m home.”

“It happens after a couple of years,” says Mark, “you go home to visit, and when you’re flying back in, you realize, ‘Oh, I live in L.A. This is pretty sweet!’”

“I was at the gym that Keith works at in West Hollywood,” tells Chris, “There’s a huge window, and up on the hills are these beautiful houses where some of his clients live. It’s inspiring to me to see that.”

“It’s more attainable because you see those houses on the hill, you see an actor from TV at Starbucks, and you feel like dreams are more attainable,” replies Keith. “Before you move here you put those people on a pedestal, they’re untouchable. Then you move here and realize they’re just people doing their jobs. You say, ‘Oh, that could be me.’”

The Runaway California EP is currently available. Flights Over Phoenix perform Dec. 8 at the Hotel Café. For more information, visit flightsoverphoenixband.com.

Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho

 

MARGARET CHO

At Pho 22

2230 Honolulu Ave., Montrose

Margaret Cho is an addict. But it really isn't her fault. Los Angeles is littered with outlets catering to her dependency; some are even open 24 hours. I have friends who are addicted to the substance, and I am even guilty of sitting by while she fed her habit from a steaming hot bowl. That's right, comedian, actress, author, singer-songwriter and social rights activist Margaret Cho is totally hooked on pho.

"I've been kind of obsessed with pho for a while," she admits as she places her order at one of her neighborhood pho establishments, Pho 22.

The restaurant serves standard Vietnamese fare (noodle bowls, summer rolls, fried rice), but is definitely better decorated than most pho cafés. When Margaret's bowl arrives less than 10 minutes after ordering, she remarks on the quickness: "That's what I like about pho. And that you can personalize it. I use almost a whole bottle of Sriracha!"

Who knew that a bowl of noodles would serve as an apt metaphor for Margaret's life? Since winning a comedy contest to open for Jerry Seinfeld and moving to Los Angeles around twenty years ago, Margaret has blazed her own unique career trail that's been full of bumps in the road – yet, she has maintained the same fiery passion every step of the way. Whether it's performing stand-up, acting, singing or writing, she throws herself into each project with gusto. She has starred in numerous one-woman shows that have spawned concert films, best-selling books and Grammy-nominated albums. She is about to embark on an international tour for her new stand-up show, "Mother."

"My mother has been a popular thing in my act for so long. I wanted to do something that was all about her and about being an immigrant," she says. "Also, I want to be a mother at some point. I'm 43, and it's harder as you get older. Motherhood is an idea of what you're supposed to do when you're a woman, what you're supposed to be. The show is a chance for me to put a lot of material about my mother together in one place, and it's about what are you if you don't have any children – are you a mother of the world?"

This concept is something that Margaret has really taken to heart. She is constantly at the forefront of social discourse pertaining to the rights of women, Asians and the LGBT community. Her humanitarian efforts have been honored by organizations like GLAAD, the AALDEF and American Women in Radio and Television. She uses her comedy to encourage debate, inspire change and, of course, to just make people feel good.

"The best thing is to go to a comedy show and just really laugh. It's so rewarding to make people laugh. I want to feel like I've done something good for the world or affected people in a positive way," she says.

Pho 22 in Montrose

As Margaret digs into her bowl of pho, we talk about her childhood memories of her mother cooking at their home in San Francisco.

"It made our house stink because she was always fermenting things in clay pots. I was really ashamed of it growing up because every time white kids would come over they'd be like, 'What's that smell? It smells!' It was so embarrassing. But as an adult, I don't have any of those skills and I wish I learned more about it when she cooked stuff like that. That's sad, to not be able to cook like she did," she confesses.

Although she can't prepare dried squid like her mom, Margaret likes good food. She is the host of a new Food Network show, "Blind Dinner Party," launching this fall.

"I'm not a great chef, but I like to eat. But I did make some stuff for this show. I made pigs in a blanket, which is really simple but fun to make," she shares. "I like the show a lot. It's a great idea to bring strangers together to eat dinner and have to talk about themselves. Often, even if they have really different cultural views, they come together because they're eating. People are nicer to each other despite their ideology. It's really interesting."

If she was to plan her own "Blind Dinner Party," whom would she invite?

"I would love to invite M.F.K. Fisher. She was a great food author from the 1940s. James Beard, he would be a good one too. Julia Child was tight with them, so she would be a great addition," she says. "Anybody who is really interested in food is fun."

Aside from preparing for the premiere of "Blind Dinner Party" and the start of the "Mother" tour, Margaret just received news that she is nominated for an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy for her portrayal of Kim Jong Il on "30 Rock" (Click here for a video clip.) She also continues her role as Teri Lee in the fourth season of the hit Lifetime show "Drop Dead Diva," which films in Georgia. All the touring and months of filming away from Los Angeles conjure up one craving for her.

"Pho! My favorite place to get pho is in Chinatown. It used to be called Pho 79, and now it's Pho 97.  I also like Ocean Seafood for dim sum in Chinatown. I think Chinatown is great, they have really good food there," she says. "If I get a chance to go out at night I go to Largo, a really great music and comedy venue. If I go to dinner around here, I like Carousel. The food is amazing, and they have belly dancing shows on the weekend. I was a belly dancer for years. I studied in Cairo and danced in restaurants here. I love it, but it's not something that I have time to do anymore."

The world got to see some of Margaret's dancing prowess when she competed on Season 11 of "Dancing with the Stars." Another of her passions is music.

"My father and mother were both musicians and were really active in the church, so they were in the choir. My mother has a really great singing voice, so I got that from her. I did a lot of piano for years. I play guitar now," she says.

In 2010, she released a musical comedy album, Cho Dependent, featuring collaborations with Fiona Apple, Andrew Bird, Tegan & Sara and more. Some of her favorite L.A. performances have been music-related ones.

"I liked doing the Greek Theatre for the True Colors Tour with Cyndi Lauper and Debbie Harry. That was really phenomenal," she says. "I also loved playing the Wiltern and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, where I did a music show with Bob Mould, Dave Grohl, Ryan Adams and all these other folks last November. It was tremendous."

Margaret is also an avid lover of tattoo art. People might be surprised at how many tattoos cover her body, and a lot of the pieces were done by L.A. artists.

"One of my favorites is Craig Jackman. He has a shop called American Electric on Sunset Boulevard that's really good. Memoir Tattoo is amazing. I've been tattooed by every person in the shop. When I have a lot of money, the best is Mister Cartoon who has this whole compound in Downtown. He's really phenomenal. High Voltage Tattoo, which is Kat Von D's studio, is great. I also love Eddy Deutsche who has a private studio here in Los Angeles. He's an actual legend of tattooing. I'm real lucky with the people that I'm able to get work from because they're the best in the world."

Margaret loves Los Angeles for many other reasons besides the tattoo shops.

"It's where everybody comes eventually. If I need Korean food or pho, there are many different immigrant communities, and their food is so good. When I'm out of town I miss my understanding of L.A. – like the weather, the history of cinema and television. I love the way the cities are laid out, the culture," she says. "L.A. has become so special to me because I spend so little time here. Comedians never have a real home, they're always traveling. You almost don't know what to do with yourself when you're home … It's always going to be special for me to be here."

"Drop Dead Diva" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on Lifetime. Margaret Cho brings the Mother Tour to the Wiltern on Dec. 6. For more information, visit margaretcho.com.