It’s a tale as old as time. Boy meets girl. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Doesn’t matter. Boy plays guitar. Girl plays drums. They jam. Then they decide to form a band. They’re good. Really good. So they make some music, and they cut some records. And oh yeah, they fall in love. They get married. Have a couple of kids. But, as sometimes happens, things don’t work out.
So much for the band, right? But not so fast. The boy decides to reconfigure the band. He and the girl were a duo. He decides to move forward as a trio. The boy finds a couple new players, and they get together, and they start making music. And it’s good. Really good. So they head out on the road.
And this, my friends, is where we all come in.
You see, the boy in this story is a guy named Anthony “Tone” Catalano. The girl is Celeste “CC” Spina. And the band, from 2010 to 2024, was Little Hurricane.
Now there’s a new Little Hurricane, with Tone joining forces with drummer Ryan Kronenberg and singer/multi-instumentalist Hattie Craven. And next month, folks living in the northern front range of Colorado will have two oppportunities to see Little Hurricane perform live. On Friday, November 28, Little Hurricane will be performing at the Moxi Theater in Greeley. The following night – Saturday, November 29 – Little Hurricane will be performing at the Black Buzzard at Oskar Blues in Denver.
Earlier this week I spent time on a Zoom call with Tone. We talked about his musical journey, from his introduction to guitar in middle school, to his years working behind the glass in recording studios, to the formation of Little Hurricane as a duo in 2010, to the band’s current state, reconfigured as a trio. Read on…
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Rick: I understand you played guitar in jazz band in high school. When did you actually start playing?
Tone: I started in middle school. They give you a choice of electives, right? You know, Home Ec or guitar, whatever. I didn’t know what to choose. My mom was like, I played guitar in school, and it was fun. You can get a classical guitar and start with that. So my dad took me to the guitar shop and let me buy an electric guitar, a black Yamaha SG rip off kind of thing. My mom wasn’t happy about the electric guitar, but that got me into learning all the Nirvana and Green Day songs that were on the radio. And that’s how I got into it. I really didn’t care for it that much, but once I learned I could write songs on the guitar, that’s what kept me going with it. I didn’t really take it as seriously as I should have when I was younger.
But jazz band… I got into it in high school because that was one of the music programs. And the town of Santa Cruz has a program called Kuumbwa Jazz. There’s a center there, and I joined that band as well. That was fun getting to learn the new modes and chord structures, which obviously affected how I wrote songs and kind of the angles I took.
Rick: You mentioned Nirvana and Green Day. Did you have any other primary influences as you were learning guitar and figuring out what you wanted to do with it?
Tone: That was the music I listened to on the radio. My parents music was more like Van Morrison, James Taylor, The Beatles. My dad had one Beatles album that I kind of stole from him… the Rubber Soul album. And Revolver. So yeah, a lot of the songwriting from the 60s and 70s, combined with the kind of attitude and energy from the rock music of the 90s… that’s kind of where I was pulling from.
Rick: So you’re tinkering on the guitar, but not necessarily all that into it. Is that why you opted to go to work as a recording engineer, rather than in a band?
Tone: No, I was actually in a band in middle school. Then in high school I was in punk band, where I didn’t sing… I just played guitar. People kept telling us we had to find a singer. We kept trying different singers, but I finally stepped into the role, because no one else could do it. We did a little, not really touring, but little travels in high school and college, and played some festivals. But I never thought music could be a career for me.
One time we saved all our money and spent it on a recording studio. The recording engineer… He now runs a pretty big audio technology company, and he’s very successful, but back then he had a studio in his backyard. We paid him to record our album, and we’re there working on it, and there was a knock on the door of the studio. It was the animal police, and they’re like, your dog is not on a leash in the front yard. So he (the recording engineer) says he’ll put it inside. And they say, no, we need to see proof of rabies. And he’s like, I’m working on recording this band, so come back later. He was pretty rude, but they were rude to him too, and he shut the door on them. A few minutes later, two sheriff’s deputies knock on the door. Long story short, they arrested him, took him out of the studio. And we’re left in the studio, which we purchased for the day. We ended up getting a credit for it, but I was like, I wish I knew how to operate this equipment. We’ve got the day, we have a studio, we just don’t have an engineer. So that kind of led me on this path to start doing home recording and figuring things out.
I worked for an audio technology company out of college just to get deals on equipment, and worked my way up a little bit in that company. I started meeting some pretty high end producers, and I would send them my demo tapes. Eventually my band fell apart, and I moved to San Diego, where I worked with some of the producers I met through the audio technology company. I spent a few years traveling to different studios all over the world. It was fun, and I learned a lot from each engineer I worked with.
Then in 2008, I had been doing this recording studio stuff for about eight years, but it started to slow down with the recession. I was thinking, Oh, wow… The phone’s not always going to be ringing. There was a time when I didn’t have time to do laundry… I was buying socks, you know, on my way from gig to gig. But then it slowed down. And so I thought, maybe I should put out my own album.
I had worked with this band… I shouldn’t name them, but they were very successful. They had houses up in the Hollywood Hills, and here I was, up late, working hard for them, working on an hourly rate. And I was like, well, these guys can put out albums and make money. Surely I can too. Even if I make 1% of what these guys make it will be fine.
So that kind of put me into this mindset of, I should find a drummer, because I feel like that’s the most important part. So I tried out six or seven drummers, and they were all trying to sound like someone else. I just wanted an open minded kind of drumming to go with my music. And so I finally found Celeste (CC) in San Diego. She worked at a bar a few blocks from where I lived, and we jammed. She had an electronic drum kit, but she’d never been in a band, so she didn’t have a particular style. I liked that, because I thought we could create something, and not try to sound like someone else.
And what was interesting… I started booking shows, and she was upset at me. She’s like, what are you doing? And I’m like, well, this is what we do… what bands do… we write, we play music, we play shows. She’s like, I thought we would do that later, you know, someday down the road. And I’m like, well, no better day than today or tomorrow. And so I booked a show at the Soda Bar in San Diego, which I actually played just two weeks ago with this new lineup, which was kind of a full circle moment for me.
Rick: But through all of this were you still working in the studio?
Tone: Yes, but it came to a crossroads. I was doing studio work and was doing the Grammys, the TV show. Every year they do live performances, and I’d be part of the team to do the audio. And one year, I had a Little Hurricane gig that conflicted with the Grammys. And obviously the Grammys would pay much more, but I believed in Little Hurricane. I think it (the Little Hurricane gig) was like a $500 gig or something. But I decided that I was gonna focus on Little Hurricane. I called them (the Grammys) to let them know I couldn’t make it. They couldn’t believe it… it didn’t make any sense to them. And they don’t call you back after you say no to them.
So I made that choice, and I’m glad I did, because it led me on this path with Little Hurricane for 12 years. I remember that clearly… that moment of, okay, this is the path I want to follow now.
Rick: That’s awesome. It was a bold choice. So where did the name Little Hurricane come from?
Tone: So, I know there’s no such thing as little hurricane. It’s technically a tropical storm, but whatever. I was driving up from San Diego to Santa Cruz, and there was a song I remember playing by the band The Kills. And there’s a lyric that goes, “little tornado, little hurricane.” And I thought, little hurricane… that’s kind of cool. (For the record, the song is called “Last Day of Magic.”)
I didn’t realize there was another band called Little Hurricane at the time. I didn’t know for months after I’d already had T shirts made and put out music and advertising for shows. They were up in North Bend, Washington, and they reached out to us. They were really cool about it. They were a cover band, and they said they’d change their name to Little Hurricane North Bend Washington, since they don’t leave their town anyway. I don’t think they’re a band anymore, but we worked it out.
Rick: And what about your nickname… Tone? What’s the story behind that?
Tone: The story behind “Tone” is short.. Just shortened my name from Anthony to Tony to Tone. And since “tone” in the audio sense is a lifelong passion of mine, it seemed fitting.
Rick: So tell me about the lamp. You know, the lamp in the logo. It’s on the cover of the first album… very prominent, right there in the middle. And now it’s a part of your logo. What’s the story behind it?
Tone: It’s the mascot! The lamp comes with me everywhere. It’s part of our lighting rig. It started when I was at a swap meet in San Diego. I saw the nightstand the lamp sits on, and I thought it was really cool. I thought it looked like an old vinyl cabinet, maybe with speakers built into it. And I thought that would be a cool little piece of furniture with speakers. But it was just a regular nightstand… no speakers. So I put two ten inch speakers in it, and plugged it into my amp. And it was cool. It had some rattles and buzzes that added to the tone.
But something was missing. I thought it needed something to go on top, like a lamp. So I went to a lamp store, and found one. And actually the lamp I have now is the second lamp. The first lamp was too lightweight. It would tip over and wasn’t electrically safe. This one has a marble base and is more sturdy. But, yeah, it just felt incomplete without the lamp on top of the hutch.
Rick: So, let’s shift gears and talk a little bit about the new band. How did you end up connecting with Hattie and Ryan?
Tone: Good question. When CC quit, I was kind of at a loss. The band was such a huge chunk of my life. I’d spent a third of my life in Little Hurricane. And I wasn’t thinking about playing music again right away. I’m like, I don’t know what to do. I have two small kids, so I was focusing on them, and not on putting out new music. Then I got a text from my cousin, who lives Wyoming. She and her husband put on a music festival in Ten Sleep, Wyoming (The Nowoodstock Music Festival), which is out in the middle of nowhere. We’d played it a few years ago, and she wanted to know if we would play it again. I told her I’d love to, but I didn’t have a band right now. And she asked if I thought I could get a band together by August.
The last Little Hurricane show I played with CC was at the Golden Road Gathering in Placerville. I’d never met the guy who puts on that show, but I guess he found out that we weren’t playing shows anymore. He’s a drummer, and he emailed me to see if I might want to get together, grab a beer, and maybe jam on some songs. This is months before my cousin texted me. I was like, thanks, but I wasn’t pursuing music at that time. I just needed to take a break.
But I kept that in the back of my mind, and when I got the text from my cousin, I thought maybe I should reach out to that guy. That guy was Ryan. And so we jammed a couple times, and he seemed committed, and that gave me the motivation to see if we could book some more shows, because it doesn’t really make sense to go out to Wyoming for one gig. You know, might as well do some other gigs.
But the thing is, I didn’t want to just replace CC with a new drummer who would end up being the new CC. This guy Ryan, he’s 45 and has a beard. I wanted this to be a new iteration of the music. And on the Little Hurricane recordings, I play lots of instruments. Sometimes it’s too much to try to transfer to the stage with just a guitar. And there’s some songs with female vocals, so I thought, what if we added a female vocalist, like a female bass player or something?
Ryan asked me if I had anyone in mind, and I told him that there was a local musician named Hattie Craven, who I didn’t know, but I’d seen her around. I’d seen her videos, and she’s got an amazing voice. Turns out Ryan knew her… was friends with both her and her dad. He reached out to her to see if she might be interested in joining the band. She was very excited to join, and that’s how it all began.
(FYI… the newly reconstituted Little Hurricane did, in fact, play the 24th annual Nowoodstock Music Festival in Ten Sleep, WY, this past August.)
Rick: I’ve been following your gigs over the past couple of months, checking out your setlists. It looks like most of the stuff you’re playing is from the Little Hurricane albums released between 2011 and 2019. But it also looks like you’re starting to introduce some new, original tunes as well. What’s the future look like on that front? Are we going to be seeing some singles, or an EP, or maybe an album anytime soon?
Tone: That’s a good question, and yeah, I’ve thought about that. I’ve never put out an EP. Doesn’t mean I won’t in the future, but I’m more of an LP person. I have 20 songs that I’m working on, trying to organize them into groups now. You know, what songs might go together for each release, for this band. It’s a trio, but maybe we’ll add a bass player at some point. For now, on the Little Hurricane songs we’re playing, I play the root notes, so adding a bass player would be tricky because we’d be basically playing the same parts. And I’ve been playing the songs for so long, it’d be hard to change what I’m playing.
Moving forward, I can write songs with a different lineup in mind. We’re doing a couple of new songs live. We have a bunch of new covers we’re doing, which is cool. Hattie’s doing one song on her own. It’s an old traditional song called “Working on a Building.” She does a cool version of that. But I don’t think I want to record with this band until we’re tight and gelling together. We’re getting there, but it takes time with us playing together on stage and learning intuitions with each other.
I don’t want recording to be a tough thing for anyone. I just want it to feel right. So I think playing together, not rushing it, would be good. But I do want to start putting out some singles if I can, because then we’ll start moving in our new direction.
Rick: The gigs you’ve been playing, or have scheduled, are all pretty much on the west coast, with the exception of your trips to Wyoming and Colorado. It looks like you don’t have anything scheduled after the two late November shows in Colorado. Are you guys just gonna pull back a little bit and let things happen as they will before maybe going back on the road in 2026?
Tone: The booking agents I’m working with now, they’re out of Texas, and they’re working on a game plan for 2026. I definitely want to focus more on recording this winter. And I do want to try to play some shows… maybe some solo shows. If I can sneak some in this winter, I’ll do that.
The thing about music is, it’s also a business, and while I hate the conflict in that, it does have to make sense, where I’m not losing money playing shows. So sticking close to the West Coast makes sense right now. I’d like to venture further, like I had great times in Chicago, New York, Florida, Atlanta, many cool places to visit and go back to, especially Europe, but the cost of things is way up there.
Rick: Before we wrap up, I’d like to ask you if there’s anything I missed that you’d like to mention? In other words, if you were interviewing you, what would you ask yourself that I didn’t ask you?
Tone: I don’t know about that, but there’s one thing I should say about the old songs. You know, I never wanted to be in a duo. I thought we’d add more members, but CC was a fan of the White Stripes, and wanted to keep it like this (duo). For me, it was fun to get to turn my guitar up, turn the bass up and play all the parts, and so I just went with it. And the songs are such a part of me. The lyrics and the emotions… it’s hard because there’s this conflict that these old songs carry memories of a portion of my life with a person I was very close with, but not anymore. But the songs are still with me, and I think that’s kind of the reason for getting going again with a new version of Little Hurricane. I don’t want to ignore these songs that I wrote, that are important to me, and that are important to other people too. That’s the great thing about being in this position, where you can write a song for yourself, and you don’t know its impact until you get out there and tour and meet people. And they tell you that this song helped them through a breakup, or when they were going through a hard time in their life, and the song really resonated with them. You get letters from people. I never considered that aspect of it, but that’s the most rewarding part of writing music and playing guitar. I don’t think I’m the greatest guitar player in the world, but it’s a tool for me to write music and convey thoughts through songs.
Rick: That all makes perfect sense. I think it’s just logical and natural. Your music is your art, it’s your expression. Thank you for having the courage to share your art with the world, because it means something. It’s not trivial. It means something to you, and it means something to the people who are going to come and listen to you. So, damn, dude… play it. Just play it.
And with that, I’m going to let you go. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today, and we’ll see you, with the new band, at the end of November.
Tone: Yeah, thanks, Rick, for the interview and helping to promote the shows.
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Little Hurricane released five albums between 2011 and 2019. Although there’s been a lineup change since those albums were released, foundationally things really haven’t changed that much. Anthony “Tone” Catalano – the man who wrote the songs, sang lead vocals, and played all the guitars – is still out front. And trust me on this… the man simply kills it on stage. The additions of Hattie Craven and Ryan Kronenberg inject a new kind of energy and excitement, without stepping on the toes of what made the original band successful.
Fans of the original band can rest assured that the sound and songs they love are still there, and will be on full display when Little Hurricane hits Colorado in late November. If you’re not familiar with the work of Little Hurricane, you can check them out on whatever streaming platform floats your boat, as well as on YouTube.
You can pick up tickets for either or both of Little Hurricane’s Colorado shows on the Little Hurricane website, at https://www.littlehurricanemusic.com/tour-dates. Come on out, people! I plan to be at both shows, so chat me up if you see me.
Many thanks to Anthony “Tone” Catalano for being so generous with his time.
Story by Rick Witt www.rickwittphotography.com
Photo credits as noted and/or used with permission from the artist
