George Tolias (A Monkey Shine)

Performance Anxiety

Today’s guest has done so many things that I would like to do. And he tells us all about it. Welcome bassist and founding member of A Monkey Shine, George Tolias. George joins us from Athens…Greece, not Georgia. He got a late start in music. He didn’t start playing until his wife bought him a bass about 20 years ago! But he’s a quick study. Once he got comfortable, he started playing in a cover band. But they had an unusual set list.

George describes what it’s like to play non-Greek rock music in Athens and how he wound up in New Orleans. After staying quite a bit longer than expected, he moved to France…to become a chef. But no matter where he goes, he’s joining bands. After moving back to Greece, George decided to get serious about his own band, A Monkey Shine. But then COVID hit so it essentially started as a solo project. But it has grown by leaps and bounds. George also gives up the origin of the band’s name, the difficulties of finding a singer who could sing well in English, and the secret origin of his bass. He also talks about the most special song on the album that he wrote for his mom, which also features Duke Garwood.

A Monkey Shine’s debut is out and there’s a vinyl version, too! Check it out on Bandcamp. He’s also working on some tour dates in the near future. So follow him @amonkeyshine_official on Instagram or look for them on Facebook. Follow us @PerformanceAnx on socials. Our merch is at performanceanx.threadless.com. Slide us some coffee money at ko-fi.com/performanceanxiety. Now it's time to get up to no good with my friend George from A Monkey Shine on Performance Anxiety on the Pantheon Podcast Network.

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