Maxing on civic media. We are local music Betsy aid and the well-known strangers there
That song is called get up. That was released back in November. It's a pretty cool song rocker Terry bar
I'm G.B.K. Thanks for doing something great to see it today. Terry is always to my dear a pleasure doing radio with you
Yes, and I'm excited that we're gonna be talking with Betsy aid and her guitar singer Joe
That's gonna be so much fun
Absolutely. Yeah, eight four four nine six seven two seven eight nine eight four four nine six party
I just hung up on Joe. I think I believe I have Betsy on the phone
Oh my gosh, this is Betsy
Hi, Betsy. It's Terry bar Jimmy K's along with me rocker is wandering the studio
Who knows what he's up to but I'm so happy to talk with you again. Oh my gosh
Really good and first of all I know you're a mom. So it's a big day for you big weekend. Happy mom's day to you
Thank you, and you as well? Oh cats
Okay, yeah, we have three cats
No doubt about it. Oh, thank you. Give us a little story on your background
For people who don't know you or haven't had the chance to enjoy your music the way I have
Tell us a little bit about what got you singing and playing music
Okay, um, well, let's see. I
Started singing I remember singing you know when I was little just here and there my my house is always full of music
This is back when we had record players
Aging myself. No, not at all record, you know vinyl's back
Yeah, oh, yeah
So I you know, I remember singing a little bit here and there, but I have an older brother
He's three years older than I am and he got into singing and choir
and I
I kind of followed him around as a kid and also through high school and
He went he was in an acappella choir and I wanted to do the same thing. So I
Did it and as soon as I
Got into a room with four or five-part harmonies and nothing else. I fell in love
I knew that was something I was gonna be a part of my life forever
The harmonies are so so awesome. Yes, and I can imagine how they could be so attractive for a young singer to come and try to do that. Oh, yeah
Yeah, yeah harmonies. That's where it's at for me. I just it's in my gut
So
So my brother was a part of a band and again, I followed a little bit
I did a little backup singing for his band and eventually became the lead singer there and had our first
live show as
Rainy day crush
Great name
Knowsha everybody knows that place, right?
Yeah, oh, it's like famous. Yeah. Oh, that's so great
So from there, how did you decide that you kind of wanted to lead your own band because your brother is not in this band with you?
Right, right
I think it was kind of a change of lifestyle for him. He had a family young young kids
There's a lot of things that he was doing and I didn't and I had the time and
You know, I I'm naturally an introvert and so
It was kind of weird for me to step into that position, but I
Did it, you know performing for me is more of like a like a kind of a therapy kind of thing
I turn into somebody else and just release all the stuff that I
Keep inside and so it's it's more more that for me. I've heard that from a lot of my musician friends
Yeah, sorry, I've heard a lot of my musician friends say that exact same thing that you almost become a different person when you step on stage
Yeah, yeah, that's how it is for me. I don't know maybe as there's some people that just kind of live that lifestyle
I think my brother was kind of one of those guys where he's he's always on stage. He's a performer
by nature, you know, naturally
So I
I think Joe was on the line with a joy. Are you here?
I am here
Hey Joe say hi to Betsy
So Joe kind of the
Kind of the same question for you Joe. How did you get started in music? What was your drum beat into the musical genre
Playing the guitar and also songwriting
You know, it started early for me my my parents
Encourage me to start really first grade on piano. Yeah, so I'd learn some you know the basic understanding of music
The chords the you know how the staff works and the notes etc
And then I only took that for a few years
But it really gave me a decent foundation. So I I appreciate my parents for that
In seventh grade or sixth grade I picked up the drums and I was in a kind of a high school band
Then it kind of continued to grade school until high school all the way through graduation
And then I joined the military after the military
Thanks for your service my goodness. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. I I didn't really pick up the guitar until after that
Which was I was in my early maybe twenty four twenty five and
Just started writing some songs it
It's just I you know really basic chords and
Just was in a chunk of bands through the years and then eventually got together with Betsy
So it's been a great ride and talk about how you two got together and how the well-nore and strangers got together as a band
Well, and the name is awesome. It is a moment
Well, we so
You knew of each other like we were in the
I guess this area, you know, there's very
Pite Nick group of musicians and even though you may not be close friends
You kind of know of each other and Betsy was in a group that was really
Going places and doing things and they kind of got back together and then in 2014
A mutual friend asked Betsy and I to play in a wedding together
So I played guitar during it. She sang and um
I just mentioned to her, you know, I was kind of looking at maybe doing something else
So I started practicing with her band a little bit and I had all this music
She had some stuff and it didn't work out there but Betsy said, you know, I'll work with you
And we'll do some stuff together
But wasn't committed towards anything, but next thing you know we wrote a couple songs it and kind of got some traction
One in a nice word
Tell for me and it went from there. It's really been a great great thing. Yeah, well you guys
I know obviously um, I had the opportunity to interview Betsy while she was on the voice
And I know Betsy part of what you and I talked about was the bigger goal too to be able to bring this back home
And then work with the band to go places
Things happen. We all had to stay home for a little bit
But do you feel like you are back to a place where you and the band can like really jack things up now?
Ah, I think so you know, we've we've kind of gotten over this little
Hyper-nation phase. There's some personal things that we're going on with us
Uh
So this summer is pretty chill for us, but after this album is finished
I think we'll you know, we're gonna start writing a little more
Some different types of music and um, you know, well, we'll start booking more shows
Oh, yeah, but I think I think we're ready. We're ready to go. Oh, I'm so glad
We're ready to you know the one thing I've noticed I mean obviously the music is really good
But I've seen a couple of YouTube videos and the performance level
Is off the hook. I mean you really bring it Betsy with the stage performance
Joe you two and the whole band really but you you don't put on just a music show you put on a spectacle and I like that. Yeah
I
Was telling Jimmy K the first time I saw you guys was a flannel fest fundraiser here in Madison
You were you were the headliner and I just love the attitude of the band and chatted with you a little bit
But then you guys got up on stage and I think we're all like our hair was blowing backwards like
What is happening? Where did this all come from and I've been a fan ever since Jimmy K. Did you know
Betsy and the well-known strangers played on a Melissa ethridge cruise. I did not know that
You guys what was that like?
Oh, that was fantastic see you're set up to go
We well that was like I was sitting at the computer once and you know just kind of shot in the dark
Let's let's try this out and see what happens and so we entered this contest and
um
You know they how the voting rounds go so we
All of our fans did an amazing job paying attention to where we were at in this competition and gave all sorts of love
And uh, we ended up being the top three
Nice to like top ten then it went to five and then there's three got to to um do
Three shows on the cruise. Yes. How far just in the it was just amazing. Oh, you can eat buffet on that cruise show
Ha ha ha
Well, yeah, it was
Yeah, Joe go ahead
No, I was just I was agreeing it was absolutely amazing and we got the set in need to you know all the
Major artists there. They treated us like VIPs there. So it was so pretty special. It was it was so much fun
Well, just knowing that I feel like okay, that's a step in the right direction and you guys are just gonna explode when you guys are ready
You know, absolutely if not anything on cruise ships everywhere with those good buffets
We got Betsy aid and uh Joe Joe what's your last name sir
Adam Adam and did I see her that right Adam and Adam Mick
Joe from uh uh the well-known strangers uh now uh you have some cool people that are working with you to
In the well-known strangers introduce us to the band real quick and then also tell us about this new album
That's coming out you guys are working on that we're actually gonna hear a song about in just a couple minutes
um
Yeah, I guess I'll take that one
Like I mentioned earlier Betsy and I kind of knew each other through the years. There's a
person in our band
That recently just uh joined us her name's Katie Todd. She's a fantastic
musician in her in her own right. She has toured with uh or done some shows with Jimmy Lewis and others
She's just a fantastic musician
So she's done keys and doing back-up vocals and some lead vocals as well and then
John Kulas is on base john and I went to high school
He's been a staple in the band. He is uh just an amazing guy fantastic
Scott Fox who again has just spent just an amazing performer musician. He's been in the band for several years
He's our drummer and then Ryan Anderson on cello has recently joined us
Oh the cello
Yeah, we right when Betsy and I put this thing together
We kind of both looked at each other said yeah, we need a cello
Oh, that's so great. He's kind of cool to have that in in rock
Yeah
I that's a great
Under a based instrument to have is a cello. Yeah, mixing strings with guitars and stuff kind of underappreciated until you hear it
And then it's like whoa, where is that coming from?
You guys are working on this new album and I think did I hear correctly?
Maybe by summer it's coming out
Yeah, yeah, we're trying to so we're we're buttoning up the the rest of the album. We got
Luckily joe joe is an amazing guy with the with the pro tools and he's
God is a little home studio going
Yeah, yeah, so he's you know through covid we trying to we learn some things
And he he really took this this like project and and took over
And tried to do these things are you know
himself
So that we don't have to drop a you know million dollars. Yeah recording studio time and things like that and um
So but yeah after we got about two more songs to finish up and
mix and master and we kind of send we
So he records in
his
studio and then we send the songs to
Nick Radevanovic who's been mixing for us mixing and mastering for us for
I think since we began right joe
Yeah, yeah very beginning
And then we have Steven Cervey
Is doing some of the mastering too so we got we got a team full of people that it says a lot to do
To do the dyi route when you're doing your mech and really if it sounds good too
You're saving yourself so much money and you're probably lorging a lot of stuff too joe right
Yeah, we've we've heard from Nick and Steven and um
That so many bands like not so many bands are doing it this route. So if you can
You can do that at home
You get a mouth of a good setup where the sound is decent
We and then you send it off to the people that can really edit it
Makes you make it a little more perfect or close to it and then send it out from mastering
It's been fantastic and we've done this whole album
Like that way and have like a few more songs like that you said so well strategic release those
strategically release those over the next
Couple months, but we've done by summer as far as the release is excellent
And you've got some good shows lined up can you tell us real quick about the schedule for the summer
Yeah, uh, so May 18th
You're you're playing one drops on May 17th. We're actually going to be releasing it officially. So
uh, around 20 and uh, start of in is going to be May 18th. It's our first show in about six months
Oh, wow, okay, we're super excited and rusty, but we're looking forward to it
Uh, June 22nd. We're back up in Appleton, which we absolutely love
Love Appleton. We're at the fax valley
Fox Valley pride
Celebration. We're going to be playing that and then July's kind of busy July 23rd
Skyline music series at Cadish Park in Milwaukee, which we've played for many years in a row
It's like playing up to a hill
Where people just sit on it's amazing and I'm sure all the show dates and everything are on your website
Give that website the dot com
Well known strangers we have about 10 seconds here. Uh, we're going to debut this song right now is called one drop
It officially releases next Friday. Uh, Betsy tell me about this song. Okay, so uh, one drop. This is kind of a song that
Started writing a long time ago and it turned into something completely different by the time we got into
The studio and uh, it's kind of about
letting someone go a little bit at a time that you know aren't good for you
So that's our one drop. That's a great job. It's relatable. Guys, thank you so much. Appreciate you Joe. Thank you, Betsy
Thank you, thank you
World debut on maxiq on civic videos called one drop Betsy aid in the well-known strangers maxiq on civic media. We are local music