“Are you in a band?”

“Sort of? Sometimes people want to hire an ensemble to record, not just one guy, and so there are musicians that I partner with quite often. Marissa Sommers and Tonio Ortiz. I guess there’s a YouTube going around of the three of us playing a pretty wild party. That was before I started to get steady session work.”

“We have a recording of you playing in a commercial,” said Oberon. “Let’s hear it.”

He touched the tablet to launch the clip. A folky acoustic guitar melody filled the room, while a man with an attractive, gravelly voice said, “It’s summertime in Alberta, and the oats are ripening beneath the morning sun.”

Ángel was laughing when the clip came to a close. As usual, they had outlined what they wanted to talk about on this episode, but they hadn’t actually scripted the conversation. “Okay, so. If you’ve ever seen this oatmeal commercial,” he said, the giggle probably coming through on the recording, “you know there’s this really handsome guy sitting in front of a barn, playing a guitar as he surveys his field of oats. That is not me. He’s an actor, and they’ve got him wearing farmer clothes, like, overalls? But he’s making that shit look good.”

“So you enjoyed this job?” asked Oberon, his voice warm with humor. He actually sounded flirty.

“Not like you mean,” chided Ángel. “I never met the guy. I was in a sound studio in Florida, and he was in an oat field somewhere. He’s not playing that guitar. The guitar is me. Also, I’m pretty sure that’s not him talking, either. That’s a voice-over actor. So there’s actually three of us, but they layered it all together to make it seem like the hot guy is playing and talking.”

“I find that rather strange,” said Oberon. “Why not just hire one person to play and talk?”

“I don’t know. I’m glad they didn’t, though, or they wouldn’t have hired me. I don’t look anything like an oat farmer.”

“Tell us some of the other work you’ve done.”

So Ángel talked about some of his other collaborations, and they played a few more clips. They wrapped up the interview with Oberon saying, “Ángel, why aren’t you a famous recording artist?”

“Because I didn’t want to take that path. Everyone pays attention to the celebrities, but the music industry is full of people like me, you know, who love to play music, but don’t want to be big stars. I look at the stuff that famous people put up with, and it’s too much. It’s not for me.”

“You mean fame.”