Shakey Graves’ hilarious past with Craigslist

Late-night greats from David Letterman to Conan O’Brien have sung his praises. Singer-Songwriter Alejandro Rose-Garcia, aka Shakey Graves, has been making the tour rounds in Canada for years.

“When I first came to Canada I felt that the people were actually more in tune with what I was doing then a lot of the places I would play,” Rose-Garcia told CityNews.

The 30 year old has sold out almost every show he has played in Toronto in the last 4 years, playing anywhere from Echo Beach to The Phoenix Concert Theatre. Before he was under the bright lights of the main stage his search for shows to play was unique.

“I used to look on Craigslist,” he said with a laugh.

“I was living in Los Angeles and I didn’t know how to book a show. I found gigs on there and I ended up playing at a Chinese restaurant on Sunset Strip to people eating Chinese food. Basically I was just yelling at them.”

But it wasn’t always awkward dinner theatre.

“I also got to play downstairs at the Viper Room where I had to pay them if I didn’t sell enough tickets,” he explained.

“The guy who booked me ended up liking my set so he just added my fee to the person playing after me. I was lucky.”

He says the only reason he has has a loyal international following is because of some great fans.

“I feel that if I put something out there that there is bound to be another person that has similar interests to me and they would hopefully share it with people they care about<" the humble artist said. "Word of mouth has really helped me.” With his latest album "Can’t Wake Up" he took an unusual but creative step to the albums cover -- he made a diorama. “It took me two weeks to make! It’s still up in the house and it’s a debatable good thing between me and my girlfriend," he said. "I’ve always liked miniatures and animation so that two weeks was extremely fun where I was just sitting around making paper mâché mountains and tracing things.”