Remember when Aaron Carter shared the stage with Hilary Duff? Thirteen years later Aaron is back and ready to bring the party to Madison, only instead of Hilary Duff, a local trio gets to make an appearance. Catch Kid are a band based here in Madison made up of front man Nate Rusch, guitarist Jeremy Van Mill and drummer Luke Osiecki. If that name sounds familiar it’s because they were rocking the WSUM stage at Freakfest this past November. I had the pleasure of catching up with these super awesome guys to see what their plans include for 2015—of course covering the upcoming show with Aaron Carter Thursday. The real question is: Who are these guys?
When I asked the guys how they would describe their sound, the response was not what I anticipated; none of them really had a solid description. The words “indie,” “pop,” “alternative,” “chill” and “rock” were thrown around. After spending several hours listening to their music on SoundCloud I think I’ve come up with the words to describe them. They’re like a super chilled-out version of Evanescence. Nate has a killer range and power-vocal sound much like Amy Lee as well as pretty awesome piano skills. Jeremy can shred much like Ben Moody used to, and Luke’s drumming rivals that of Will Hunt’s. Evanescence are known for their hard, emotionally straining rock songs; Catch Kid have captured the emotion, rock beats and crazy guitar solos but somehow chilled it out in a way that somehow resembles Coldplay or U2. Their unique sound is hard to explain, but do yourself a favor and listen to their songs at soundcloud.com/catchkid. My personal favorites are one of their newest songs called “By My Side” and the song they shot a music video for at the UW-Madison Arboretum called “Land Mines.”
How did they form? At first it was just Nate and Luke who met in Madison. Nate had won All-Campus Idol and was rewarded 100 free burritos from Chipotle. You would think he would be sick of Chipotle after that, but Nate assured me he still enjoys Chipotle to this day. Jeremy joined the duo after Nate reached out to him on Facebook. The trio currently doesn’t have a bass player, but if the opportunity presented itself they would happily add one. An interesting fact is that Luke is the only member of the band who can read sheet music. Nate and Jeremy both taught themselves how to play by ear, and they still continue to write parts by ear only. Catch Kid also produces their own tracks and shows, which is pretty neat if you ask me.
The question I was dying to know the answer to was what inspires their music. This question was mostly answered by Nate. The band informed me he writes most of the lyrics and melodies and they fill in around it. Nate said he writes from previous experiences mostly. A lot of Catch Kid’s songs are about break ups and life lessons learned. Their song “Jump” is especially neat because it talks about taking a leap of faith which is sometimes what everyone needs. “At our shows you can expect music that makes you feel good,” Nate said, “We like to have a good time and we hope our audience does too. There isn’t a feeling better than connecting with our audience on a deep level. We hope to give that to them.” I also asked what they are going to do after they become rich and famous and win many Grammys. They decided they would quit their day jobs then buy a T-shirt cannon that they could attach to the neck of Jeremy’s guitar so they could give their audience some free merch. I thought that was pretty awesome. It shows just how much they love their fans.
The final questions I bothered them with were about what we could expect out of them during the rest of the year. They mentioned they were working on a bunch of new music. Maybe we will be lucky enough to get to hear this new music at the Majestic on March 5. If you can’t make it that day, never fear: Catch Kid will be at Memorial Union on Friday June 26 as well. They look forward to seeing you all at a future show! I’ll be there, will you?
