“For me nowadays, when we get together and play, it’s like a celebration of just being together.”

For Michael D’Santi, that togetherness has lasted for more than 30 years.

The Southern California blues-rock guitarist started D’Santi with his brother and friends he met in high school. After decades of gigs, changing music scenes, families, careers, and everything that can pull a band apart, they are still playing together.

They know each other so well that they rarely need to make eye contact onstage. Everyone already knows where the music is going.

As Michael put it, “People pick up on that. They see that we’re enjoying it rather than trying to make money or be famous.”

But before D’Santi, there was a house filled with instruments.

Michael’s father was a guitarist who played around Los Angeles during the late ’60s and early ’70s. He introduced Michael and his brother Paul to everything from jazz, R&B, and funk to Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jeff Beck, Albert King, and B.B. King.

Michael originally started on drums, but while accompanying his brother to drum lessons, the guitars hanging on the music-store walls kept catching his attention.

Once he picked one up, everything changed.

By 13 or 14, Michael was already gigging with older musicians. By 1989, D’Santi had begun taking shape, blending guitar-driven blues rock with elements of funk, reggae, R&B, and the sound of ’70s bands like Humble Pie and the Faces.

They also developed a reputation as what Michael calls a “B-side cover band,” choosing deeper cuts instead of playing the same familiar songs audiences hear every weekend.

The goal was not to follow the crowd. It was to stay true to themselves.

In this episode of The SoCal Setlist, Michael talks about growing up in the Los Angeles and Inland Empire music scenes, watching Albert King and B.B. King as a kid, seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan twice, and learning guitar by listening closely to the musicians around him.

He also shares stories from his years as a full-time working musician, including opening shows for major artists, performing on USO tours, recording and touring with Nickelodeon star Drake Bell, and spending years driving between San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, and the desert for gigs.

Michael also talks about D’Santi’s original music, playing with the Honey Lickers, teaching guitar, building a simple but expressive guitar rig, and why tone has far more to do with a player’s personality and touch than the equipment they use.

As Michael explains, five guitarists can play through the exact same rig and still sound completely different.

The episode also gets into one of the hardest parts of making music: keeping a band together.

Even after decades of friendship, Michael says it still takes patience, trust, compromise, and a shared commitment to keep moving forward.

From touring the country to returning to the stage with his brother and lifelong friends, Michael’s story is a reminder that a successful life in music is not always measured by fame.

Sometimes it is measured by the people still standing beside you when the next song begins.

Meet Michael D’Santi.

🎧 Full episode out now.

Link in bio.

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