This is New Wisco Weekend. I'm Lisa Hale your host. There's a local band who doesn't
only share a love of music, but also their fondness for animals. So put songs and pets
together and you have a pretty unique story. Terry Bar returns to tell us more about
the group Radio For Pets, how they're helping animals in the community and the meaning
behind their music. Let's take a listen.
We're listening to the song about nothing. Now this song is by the band Radio For
Pets, the bands out of the Green Bay area and I am so lucky I have Billy Block. Billy is
the lead singer in the band. Billy, thanks for joining us. Yay! Oh of course I'm glad to
be here today. First thing I want to ask you before we get into the name of the band Radio
For Pets, can you tell us a little bit about the song about nothing? Yeah about nothing.
I think I like it because there's not a lot in that song that's buried in metaphor. Like
it is exactly what it says on the tin. It is just a out and out cheesy sort of like pop
punk love song and I think doing a song like that every once in a while, especially when
the rest of our catalog does tend to be on the darker sort of sadder side is I don't know,
it's just like a nice breath of fresh air to go out and do something just exuberant and happy,
you know. You got to love it because when you are listening to it you kind of start bopping
around and that's fun. Now from there I want to ask you about Radio For Pets. Do you target your
music towards pets? Because I have read that pets love music too. We write music exclusively
for animals actually and just the fact that people also like it is like a nice little surprise
every once in a while, you know. But really it's for your dog exclusively. No cats? Are you being
mean to cats? No. No actually this goes to something I was talking about. I've used to for a
long time said as a joke that like every sort of love song that I've ever written is about my cat
Lily. She did pass away last year unfortunately. She had a long, long happy life. She was 19. The
grain of truth to that joke I always used to tell was like she loved listening to me play music.
So whenever I'd pull up my guitar and sit down and start working on and writing something,
she would always be like right there curled up purring and sleeping and so as much as I joke like
every love song I ever wrote was for Lily. Every song I ever wrote for the most part in my entire
career was with her sitting there me just playing music for her. So it can be such an inspiration but
then when you need research about how much animals really can love music and of course vice versa
it's so good for us to listen to music too. But radio for pets where does the name of the band come
so there is a cartoon called Avatar Legend of Cora. I wish there was a cooler story behind it
but there's a gag where it's like the sleazy business guy and he's throwing out like business ideas
and you know he's like I don't know cars for children no that's not going to work. There's
the radio for pets and he just kind of throws that out in the middle of like a long list of
different business ideas and I'm like that's fun. It makes for a great band name and a great
discussion. I mean what a way to open the door to just be able to talk to anyone about anything.
Right right right. I do want to ask you you know since we are talking about pets and you opened
up about your cat. I have seen that all of you in the band have also volunteered to try to get
animals adopted to find their forever home. Yeah. That is so heartwarming. Why is that important?
I've always said like in general charity work is very important to me as an artist for any
organization really but again with the name radio for pets doing stuff with like the humane society.
We just did that photo shoot. I think you asked what you were referencing with Safe Haven here in
Green Bay. They're like a cat sanctuary. Just doing stuff like that just feels right. As an artist
you know we rely so much on community support for everything we do you know like the fans or whatever
and it feels important to give back as much as we can and if we can help some animals find a house
like especially I am a very big cat person. So working with Safe Haven was was a whole lot of fun.
If people want to see some of those photos I mean they are cute they're clever. This isn't
you guys just sitting around and there's some cats around. You guys are snuggling the cats.
Where do people check those out? Oh yeah I'm pretty sure they're all posted up on our Facebook page
which if you know give us a follow and a like that helps out local bands the whole lot.
But you get it because you did a cat portrait you know that that's pretty special.
So you get it you get the idea. What else can you tell me about your band? We've been playing
now for about three years. We are currently in the process of writing and recording our first
full-length album. Also for those of you listening if you live in the Fox cities area we are going
to be auditioning drummers relatively soon. So keep an eye on our social medias for that if
you're looking to join a band. So we are going to end this interview now with one of your other
songs called nervous looks good on you. Is this written about a pet? No this song the back story
is the vibe of the song like what it's about is like sort of the the feelings you get when like
you're in a brand new relationship and it's just starting and you know you're sort of crazy about
this person but you also don't want to seem like a weirdo. This is Billy Block. He is with radio
for pets. Let's take a listen to this song now. Nervous looks good on you. Billy thanks so much for
your time. This has been really fun. Thank you for having me.
I've spent the last hour looking for more stars who look like you. Now we're one in the shower.
The waters were cold. I'm not sure what to do. I'm two bottles in and I'm still drinking more.
New Wisco Weekend is produced and written by Terry Barr and Lisa Hale. Our executive producer is
Todd Michaels directed by Lisa Hale. Lead correspondent is Terry Barr with features by Conrad Krieger,
Brittany Merlot and Peach Schwabba. Our commentator is Amanda Nimmer and this week we had a special
appearance by Ken Thede. If you have a story you'd like to hear covered please feel free to email me
anytime. My email address is Lisa.Hale at civicmedia.us. You can also contact us through the Civic Media app.
I'm civic media Northeast Wisconsin bureau chief Lisa Hale for WISS and WGBW news.
The Unstoppable.
