Reno Spalding

Born in 1954, Reno started Classical piano lessons at the age of five with Russian ex-pat Sheva Strapponsky, whose claim to fame was being the student of a student of a student of Tchaikovsky’s secretary. Despite choosing to study Paleontology, Reno never lost his passion for music, and had learned to play styles ranging from Jazz and Swing, to Rock and Prog, to Funk and R&B, to Samba and Bossa Nova. After choosing to abandon a life of academia, Reno began gigging around his native Southern California with several bands and was a particular favorite amongst the yacht-renting, coke-snorting yuppies of West LA.

His embrace of the smooth and rough, the sophistication and rawness, the old and the new, appealed to their refined, upper middle-class sensibilities. He had just hit the scene near the start of the disco craze and the beginnings of what would now be known as “yacht rock” when another movement started bubbling under: Punk Rock. Being a vocal critic of the movement, he had made a few enemies amongst the spike-haired cynics and suburban dropouts. This feud peaked in September of 1977, when a gang of leather-clad punks stowed aboard a yacht where Reno was set to perform one night and accosted him on site (an attack now known as the “Upending of Dinosaur Rock West of Hollywood”). Reno was pushed into the ocean, whereupon he was taken into the arms of a sea-witch and transformed into a Pacific lobster. Since lobsters can actually live forever as long as they feed, he survived for decades on the California coast.

Not able to accept a life without music, he taught the creatures of the sea to perform by just the clacking of his feet on the ocean rocks. After many years, the sea-witch, touched by his commitment, reversed the curse, transforming him back into a human at the exact physical condition he had maintained all those years ago. This turned out to be its own kind of curse, as he now had to adjust to life as Boomer with a 22 year old body, and during a worldwide pandemic, no less! Reno’s floating body was discovered by Jacques Le Strappe who, over the course of six years, caught him up on the rest of music history he missed, including technological achievements in synthesizer and digital keyboard technology. And while this may explain why he still doesn’t really have a hang on social media platforms, these lessons have turned him into a Swiss Army man of music.

After introducing him to the lads in Lover Buoy, Jacques tried to have him explain his origin story. Everyone laughed heartily, while Tommy said “hey man, what kind of stuff is THIS guy smoking?!” Before he could explain that he actually doesn’t partake in drug use, Chad cut in: “Hey it’ll be so funny to have a younger guy in the group. We’ll call you Spalding, like the boss’s son in Caddyshack!” They all thought he’d be too young to know the film, but ironically, he was too old… and also was a lobster when it came out. Anyway, Reno aims to send funky, groovy, elevated, and tasty jams directly into your mind’s ear, so catch him with his various Hawai’ian shirts with Lover Buoy!