Paul and Dana Schile pose for a photo in their Medicine Hat home. Sixty-five years ago Paul was Medicine Hat's New Year's baby in 1959.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
Sixty-five-year-old Paul Schile was Medicine Hat’s New Years baby in 1959, two years after the new hospital officially opened.
According to a Medicine Hat News article Paul was born 9 pounds, 6 ounces at 11:24 a.m. New Year’s Day.
“My mom kept on saying that it was a special day and everything and we had our picture taken.”
Paul was the youngest of six siblings and was raised on a small farm 30 minutes outside Medicine Hat. He had four sisters and a brother.
Paul grew up in a musical home. His mother Dorothy sang while Paul and his older brother played guitar.
“It was inevitable that I was sooner or later going to get into music myself, too.”
Paul was introduced to rock and roll by his older sister who had a large collection of LPs and discovered Kiss, who quickly became his all-time favourite rock band.
Paul says Gene Simmons was is idol growing up.
When he was six Paul’s family moved to Medicine Hat. He would later go on to graduate from Monsignor McCoy High School and find employment working with his friend who ran a local cleaning service.
It was during this time, his first years after high school, Paul and his buddies started taking their jam sessions more seriously and formed a rock group called “Spire.”
The group had their music video appear on local Shaw TV programming.
However, Spire would eventually break up and Paul would join a cover group named TKO. TKO played songs from Foreigner, Lover Boy and Pat Benatar. The group would end up hitting the road to tour for more than a year and a half before they disbanded.
At this time Paul decided he was going to start his own Kiss tribute band after finding inspiration watching other bands online.
“And I thought I could do that. I started getting things together and slowly called friends of mine.”
Following in Simmons’ footsteps Paul played bass, and after a short time searching he found a guitarist, drummer and lead singer. The four would form a Kiss tribute band named after their single ‘Psycho Circus’ but changed the spelling of the name to ‘Psycho CirKiss.’
The rockers dawned the iconic Kiss makeup and outfits and put on electric shows for their audiences.
Psycho CirKiss found success after playing a gig at the Corona Tavern and took their show on the road.
They also played at several local festivals including Spectrum and at the Stampede.
“We got together and we did a show at the Corona and it went over like crazy. After that show we decided to take the act on the road and played for another year and a half.”
In 2015, Paul would met his future wife while his band was performing during the Spectrum Festival.
Paul’s wife Dana took notice after Paul walked into the Royal Bar wearing his full Gene Simmons outfit.
“I walked into the bar and I looked at him and I went, ‘Oh my gosh, what is that?'” Dana tells the News.
But the costume would eventually be the ice breaker. Paul and Dana started talking and the two quickly fell for each other.
“It just blossomed into a conversation, with her and before we knew what was happening, Gene was making out with her,” jokes Paul.
Six months later the couple was married following Paul’s on-stage marriage proposal during the Stampede’s Best of the Best music festival.
Paul says during a break in the show he took the stage and got on one knee and asked Dana to marry him in front of more than 1,500 people while dressed as Gene Simmons.
“And then when she got on stage, and when I got down on one knee, the place went crazy.”
Paul and Dana are celebrating eight years of marriage and currently live in Medicine Hat.
After a short breakup Paul says Psycho CirKiss is back together. They occasionally jam throughout the year at small events and birthdays. He says his all-time favourite Kiss song is ‘Cold Gin.’
