Ep 176 McKenna

From straightforward to blues based to that with a progressive touch, McKenna offers something for almost every hard rock fan. Helping separate McKenna is how it eschews the gravelly, mid-ranged male vocal approach to most hard rock bands in favor of a female vocalist. Their debut album "Are You Ready" makes you take the time and listen to the whole thing. Ray and Mike met with Brian and Kristine to se if they are ready for another album.

Transcript

Coming to you from the studios at the Illinois Rock and Roll Museum on Route 66, it's the Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. Hey everybody, it's Ray the Roadie. And this is Hollywood Mike.

Hi, Hollywood Mike. You know, I almost forgot your name, it's been so long. I know, it's been a few weeks.

We've had a number of reschedules going on, so we haven't been here in a while. Yeah, you know, that's been going on absolutely everywhere. Is there? Venues have been empty.

Yeah, you know, not empty, but you know, not as packed and not as crowded. It's January. People have been sick.

Yeah. We haven't had sun for like, I think they said it was like 14 days or something, 15 days. It's been even longer than that.

I think it's been even longer than that. Yeah. And we had negative zero, below zero temperatures.

That's no fun. Right. That's right.

That's no fun. But tonight somebody came to join us. I was surprised.

All day I was waiting for reschedule, reschedule. Yeah, right. It didn't happen.

Who do we have? Tonight we have McKenna. We have Brian and Christine. Brian was with us once before.

With who? Bum, bum, bum. I didn't bring the bottle of bourbon. Oh, there you go, and now I remember.

Right, he was with us once. How do I forget that? I don't know. Yeah.

I drank that bourbon. That's, you know, and you know, I think you were kind of quiet in that interview because there was somebody else that kind of dominated most of the talking. We won't say who that is.

That's why you asked me, hey, do you want to do my band? Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah.

I got a few things I didn't have to say. Get off my chest, you know? Yeah. Well, welcome to the podcast.

Welcome back again. Yeah, it's great. Thanks for having us.

Good to see you guys. Great to be here. So tell us about your band.

Our band. Well, we have been a band of many, many different names over many years. So husband and wife, and she's been singing.

We first met probably when we were both 16, and we've been married for 27, 29 years. Nice. Got myself in trouble.

This is why I don't talk, right? This is why I'm quiet. Yeah. But yeah, we've done, you know, music, you know, long time, whether it's acoustic.

This particular project was definitely in the hard rock vein. And that's certainly my passion. And all original music.

We don't do two every once in a while we'll throw in a cover live. But for the most part, we are doing original music. So being in Chicago, we usually will start playing for 12 to 15 people.

And then usually it's the bartender and the waitresses that are waiting for us to get our gear out. But welcome to Chicago live original music. Yeah, no kidding.

Yeah. Yeah. So was music always part of the equation when you met at the age of 16? Or, or no? Pretty much.

I asked him for guitar lessons. You know, and that was one way to, like, get us to hang out a little bit. But I never really learned guitar.

Okay. I'm gonna write that down. Hey, baby, you want to give me some guitar lessons? Pretty much.

Yeah, my dad was a little suspect. He's like, still play me a song. Oh, wow.

I can play some chords. Right, right, right, right. Oh, yeah.

And then we actually both stood up in friends of ours wedding. And we did some music for that. And, and that's really we had been friends for quite a while wasn't like, you know, we were dating or anything.

We probably close seven, eight years. And then after doing some music for the wedding, that's when that's when she dragged me in. I haven't been able to get away.

She caught the bouquet. Actually, I don't remember. Maybe I did.

That was actually the name of their first song caught the bouquet. Yeah. So so music wasn't involved.

So you guys met in high school? I'm assuming did you go to the same high school? Church? Church? Okay. Yeah. Good place to meet somebody.

Yeah. Some sane people, you know? Right. But anyway, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. We just kind of like, he was accompanying me as I was doing some songs.

And so you know, we'd get together and practice and it really wasn't until we got married that we're like, well, maybe we should write some songs. Right, right. And then that kind of he he was really wanting to get more into doing some music on a more serious way.

And so we started writing and came out with our first CD under a different name called Faceless. Okay. And that was what, 99? I think when we released that.

2002. 2002. Yeah.

She said 99. It was 99. Yeah.

That's when we started recording it. The actual release date was on a Tuesday. It was on a Tuesday.

Right, right. Well, it took us a while to, you know, put it all together. Right.

But and then we did another CD. What was it, three years later? Yeah, something like that. Under Faceless again.

And then we haven't done anything until 2020 when this latest CD was put out. Are You Ready, it's called. Yeah.

And it's, I've listened to it countless times. Love it. Just love it.

The whole thing. Well, I'm gonna have to because I didn't get this one the last time. No, I did.

Yeah. He likes me better. You know, I actually, you know, I have a new truck, as you know, I actually have a CD player in it.

Really? Yeah. A lot of new cars nowadays. Did you make that happen? Yes.

I have, I have no idea. Yeah. It came with one.

It came with one. Well, you know, I should be, you know, it's new to me. It's not a, it's not brand new.

It's a 2015. So they were still putting, they were still, they were still putting them in there in 2015, which I think is so cool because I actually found one of my, you know, black nylon folders where you put the CDs. Oh man.

You put it in the visor. That's right. That's right.

My kids are like, you are so old, but you have no idea how cool that is to be able to do that. It is. Well, now that we brought up, Are You Ready? I have, I have a question that's been just bugging the crap out of me.

Song number 10, Homecoming, parentheses, wild water. I listened to it and all of a sudden the song ends and then it's just dead air and then wild water starts. A minute later.

Why is it dead air? That's kind of a hidden track. Okay. You know, those first 10 songs, there's a continuity throughout, you know, pretty much this is guitar, bass, drums, vocal.

Nothing sampled, no pre-programmed, live musicians playing live. We went into a professional studio, record all the drums. We have a home studio where can record guitar and vocals, things like that.

So there's a continuity. That song, Wild Water, um, right. Is it the Ireland song really kind of doesn't belong on it.

So we just kind of buried it as a hidden track. Okay. It's a surprise.

I just, I mean, I just wonder if people, you know, when Homecoming's done, they just turn it off, you know, but probably when I was, when I was playing it at home, I had it in my CD players on my computer and it ended and I looked up at it and the timer's still going, still going. I'm like, yeah, something's coming up. I don't know if it was worth the wait, but it was, it was, I like everything on the CD.

And it's very different. Right. I mean, it is, it was a real different, uh, uh, kind of a driving acoustic song.

There's one song that has a keyboard on, otherwise it's just guitar, bass drums. And that was on purpose. Um, just raw rock and roll.

And you, you guys wrote all the songs? Yep. Everything. Yep.

Now, you know, I'm going to go write the track 10. I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to listen to it and see what you're talking about. You probably will.

It's kind of like the end of a Marvel movie, I guess, where the music ends and everything and everybody sits there to watch the credits because they know something else is coming up. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah.

But I think you're right. Probably a lot of people would be like, you know, it's done. It's over.

There's nothing going on, you know, unless they forgot. And it just plays on and plays on and all of a sudden it's quiet and then boom, it gets settled at the drums and bass. Yep.

But I like it. I like the whole old CD. Very good.

Right. Before we get ahead of ourselves, because I know our listeners are going to want to know a little bit more about you guys. You know, the, we always say, you know, if you want to find out what they do musically and you want to see what the band is like, I'm sure they can find you on, you know, the internet and, you know, YouTube and places like that.

But what they're interested in finding out is, you know, what was your inspiration? What was the thing that made you one day? You know what? I think I'm going to do music. Well, um, believe it or not, I, I heard you light up my life when I was seven, eight years old. I had that kind of an effect on you? Me personally? Wow.

She looked you right in the eyes. There was a connection. There was definitely a connection.

Maybe not then, but certainly now. Wow. Excellent.

Yeah. Well, after I heard Debbie Boone sing that song, I was like, I want to be a singer and, uh, probably drove my family crazy because I was like singing that song all the time. And then fast forward high school, uh, decided to get into voice lessons and, um, some classical voice.

So of course that was a very far cry from rock and roll. Um, but I was into it for a little while anyway, and then, um, started getting into bands later on that, uh, were away from the operatic type style singing. Um, and then, uh, I, I was very drawn by, uh, the way Sade sang.

Wow. Um, so that's how old I am. And, um, her... Listen to her.

Her, you know, very, um, smooth, cool way of singing. I was like, wow, that, that is awesome. And I'd never heard anybody else sing like that.

That was, you know, in the top 40. Um, and yeah. And then there was just, you know, singers along the way, they're just, um, pretty awesome.

Not so much in the, I would say the rock world, but of course, you know, can't deny Whitney Houston and, and those types of singers that just built it out there. Um, not that I can do that like them, but that was, um, inspiration for me as a singer. And, um... So, I mean, your influences definitely weren't hard rock though.

I mean... No, not really. Yeah. No, he, he pulled me more into that genre.

And, um, but I, I mean, I, I do like it a lot and, um, I like the drive of it and the power of it. So, um, can't really like name off bands that people would be like, yeah, okay, that's great. She's into it.

That that's his department. She's not wearing the Iron Maiden shirts or the Black Sabbath shirts, but, uh, but that was certainly my background. Right, right, right.

You know, fun fact. Um, my, my father, um, gosh, I was maybe about eight years old. My sister was about four or five years old or so.

And, uh, he bought a brand new stereo. Um, before that he had what we would refer to as a hi-fi. Remember the big oak cabinets and the red velvet speakers and you lift the lid on the thing and there's a record player under it.

And that thing finally, you know, took a dump. So he goes out and he buys this Fisher stereo, right. It was top of the line at the time.

And he says to my sister now, he says, okay, you know what, we're going to, we have to make sure that the record player works. So I'm going to take you guys to Kmart and you guys are going to get to pick out a record, you know, a 45, right. And my sister picked out You Light Up My Life by Debbie Boone.

I will never, I will never forget that. I actually still have that. I have the collection of 45s that my father had, you know, that we had sitting in the living room underneath the stereo.

So that was a, that was an interesting story that it was. What did you pick out? You Light Up My Life. I can tell you, but then I might have to kill everybody here.

Alvin and the Chipmunks. We won't hold it against you. You were young.

You know what, you know what I picked out? I write the songs by Barry Manilow. That was popular at the time. When I tell, when I tell people that man, I am the huge, I am the biggest Barry Manilow fan you will ever meet.

They're like, get out of here. And then they make fun of me for the next two hours. I imagine.

Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's it.

Barry Manilow was freaking awesome to me. My first song was Downtown by Chris. I was like all over that song.

Yeah. Yeah. I can totally get that.

Cause there was actually a driving beat to that song. Yeah. You know, that's actually a very popular song at like open mic nights and open jams and stuff like that.

Cause it's not a difficult song to play. And whenever there's a woman in the crowd that decides, Hey, you know, I want to get up and sing. I've never sang in front of people before.

They always seem to know Downtown by Petula Clark. Yeah. But the sixties and seventies pop music, there was actually words.

You can hear stuff. The music was secondary. The, you know, the singing was up front.

So that's why you picked that stuff. Yeah. Right.

Right. Right. So that, I mean, I find that very interesting that, that your influence were, your influences were something different than what you're actually doing.

A lot of times that makes for a better musician. It makes for a better singer and more well-rounded. Yeah.

Right. Right. You know, our music is very guitar driven, lots of guitar, heavy, some, and some songs very heavy, even a little bit of black Sabbath type guitar.

And then when you have a real singer that can sing, she's very melodic. It kind of gives it a different twist, which really gives us a unique sound in our opinion. Just the vocals that she brings.

Queenswright comes to mind because I always thought that Jeff Tate is one of the greatest technical singers. Lady wore black. Oh man.

What an amazing singer. And you have this fantastic metal band behind him, which is, which is just awesome. Yeah.

One of my favorites. Yeah. So where was high school for you? Are you from, from around the area originally? I spent most of my younger days in Hillside, Illinois.

And yeah, it was actually homeschooled through high school. Right. So that was another very different experience in my life.

Sure. Sure. Much more common today, but back then that was not heard of.

Right. Yeah. I went to LT LaGrange.

Oh yeah. Okay. Nice.

Nice. Yeah. Yeah.

Back then, if you were homeschooled, they were coming to get you. Yeah. They were.

Yeah. Right. Really.

They didn't agree with that. The schools did not agree with that. No, they, they didn't.

Yeah. You were taking them away jobs. Yep.

Right. We're still paying the tax money regardless. That's true.

Right. Right. Right.

So you guys obviously then like, you obviously went to the same church then. So you were from the same area as well. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Cause Hillside, LaGrange, not too terribly far from each other.

Right. Right. So I'm looking at a hard rock, heavy metal guy, but yet you were still playing in church.

So how does that happen? God works in mysterious ways. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, in high school I was always the long haired, a little bit of a jock also. I played hockey.

So big time into that. Me too. Yeah.

These front four are late from high school. Oh wow. So yeah.

So, but you know, most people look, oh yeah, that guy is, you know, definitely a pothead. Yeah. And I never touched it.

Yeah. You know, so I was kind of a little bit unique in that way. I would hang out with the burnouts, but, but yeah, so it's just, yeah, I don't know how that affected us as far as musically, but, but yeah, you know, like when you get that rock and roll bug, you know, and Van Halen, you know, I was, you know, I was a few years before I think they came out in 78 and I think we got on our radar probably in 82 and just get tired of my having an older brother.

He was a big Zeppelin fan. So Zeppelin became what we tried to be, you know, between Robert and John Bonham and yeah. Well, the first two CDs you're talking about that you guys put out, what was that? Was that acoustic? Was that? No, it was, it wasn't as heavy as this, but it was very much a variety.

So we would have something that kind of had a heavier edge to it. And again, you know, Marshall, Storrsen, but there was more acoustic stuff involved in it. So it was, they had a little bit more pop to it and we would even stretch out a little bit in some jazz type stuff.

Probably that, who you had mentioned, Sade. And one of the, we don't do a lot of covers, but one of the songs we do cover is from Sade. Oh, Ordinary Love.

You know, we kind of do a heavier version of that. Oh, nice. Yeah.

Cause I, I, I swear, I thought you were going to say Smooth Operator and I was like, everybody covers that song. It was refreshing to hear you say something else. Yeah.

Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah.

No, it's a little different take on it, but yeah. Yeah. Have you guys ever done anything as a duo or anything? Oh yeah.

Yeah. I mean, for probably through the nineties you know, we did, we would do a lot of coffee house type stuff and we traveled, you know, Indiana, Wisconsin doing just acoustic, but my passion is more full band. Yeah.

I think we're, I think we're about to see an example of, I was hoping we would see an example and not only see it, hear it, hear it, hear it too. Yeah. So what about grabbing your guitar and playing one for us? And we're going to just take a real quick break right here.

You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. Hi, I'm Rick Anthony. I'd like to thank my radio brothers, Ray, the roadie and Hollywood Mike for allowing me to tell you about my podcast, the someone you should know podcast.

We spotlight musicians, authors, and interesting people. And we like to say, we're making a difference one artist at a time. The podcast is heard twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays, and you could check it out on your favorite streaming platforms and on the web at someone you should know podcast.com. That's the someone you should know podcast with me, Rick Anthony, making a difference one artist at a time.

And now here's McKenna. So the Excellent. Very powerful.

Wow. Yeah. Nice.

Figured I wouldn't throw in the background vocal and ruin it. I was going to be all over the place. I'm like, nah, don't even bother singing.

Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, sometimes it's what you don't sing is what sounds so good, right? That's what he says every time I open my mouth.

I must say, outstanding acoustically as well. Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you. That guitar sounds fantastic with these microphones. Yes.

By the way. It does. Yeah.

Excellent. Excellent. So what was the inspiration for that song? I guess who's the lyricist? Are you the lyricist? 95% of the lyrics are coming from her.

All right. So this was kind of a late one that we wrote while we were recording. So we'd had quite a bit of the songs done.

And this was a little late in the process. us. So I think it was just going into 2020, there was a lot of tension in our nation already.

And then this was, you know, the pandemic was coming up, but we didn't know it at the time. But I think it was just like, oh, man, I need a breather. You know, I just like, I need some grace to get through this day.

Because it's just like, I'm a bit of a news geek. So for better for worse, he's like, well, you just turn that on. And I just wasted so much time in my life listening to CNN listening to Fox.

It's just like, so, you know, sometimes I just I get a little too into it. So but anyway, I some of this was affected by that. And, and then just hearing stories about how people are struggling in life, hearing more of it all the time, but just how we, we need each other.

And we need that support group. And just talking, you know, listening to people is is such a great healer to is hearing people's stories and just not and just shutting up now, you know, you don't even have to give your opinion, right? It's just, I want to listen, you know, and they have an ear that someone will listen to them. So, so yeah, that was kind of the major part of it, too.

You said it was kind of a late addition. Was this like, sitting at home in the living room one night? Or were you guys in the studio and said, Hey, we need another one. And well, he usually will come up with some chord progressions that he'll save and come back to and and then he'll be like, Hey, can you listen to this and see what you come up with? And so listening to it, like he'll make me a recording of it.

So I can hear it in the car, because I'm in the car a lot. And I was like, Oh, yeah, you know, I hear this and this. And so I sang him some stuff.

And he's like, Okay, yeah, let's, let's work on that some more. So yeah, so he does a lot of all of the, the music part of it, right, progressions and stuff. So, you know, the car is the best place for all that stuff.

Whenever I have to learn new music, whatever I put it in, you know, wherever I'm driving around, you subliminally learn it. Yeah. Interesting.

So the whole recording process was everything completely done. I mean, I'm assuming the rest of the people in your band were involved in the recording or tell us a little bit about that. We, we had originally went into the studio and recorded six, because again, we wanted to get that big room drum sound that you just can't get in your own home studio, right? Or at least we haven't been able to get that.

And, you know, we wanted real, real drum. So we've had a drummer that we've played with for years that Steven Tabor. And anytime we're writing new songs, we'll bring him in.

He used to be part of our going out and doing gigs. He kind of retired from doing shows, but likes to do studio work, things like that. So we would bring them in with songs.

And we went into a studio, recorded six songs just to get some decent drums. And then probably a period of time went by seven, eight months, maybe a year, we had another batch of six songs that we wanted to go and we went into another studio. And we really liked how the drums turned out.

You know, we would rent a studio for a weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, track six songs and do several takes and go with the best take. So after we were going to try to marry the two different studios, and we just were not happy with the drums from the first studio. So we went back and we re-recorded those six songs.

I think we did six in the same studio. And the studio owners is the person that we ended up using for doing the mixing. Joe Dillio, I don't know if you guys have ever run into Joe Dillio.

Heard the name. He's been around a long time. Unfortunately, after we recorded it, within a year after that, that studio had been around for 20 years, and closed their doors.

Oh, wow. Okay. Unfortunate.

It happens, you know. Happens a lot. Especially around COVID.

But so we, so I think, so that's kind of how we did it. We did six songs, and then we did another six songs. So at that point, did you just have the drum tracks and you were... Yeah, so I would, we would do guitar bass live with it, with the idea that we're most likely going to re-record those again, as getting that live band feel, but really focused on the drums.

If we were able to keep some stuff, great. But the main objective was just to get the drums, to get that sound. Make sure they didn't sound digital, I guess.

And everything was recorded digitally, of course. Of course, yeah. But yeah, I mean, it's real, you know, we had a drum on top of the snare, we had one underneath, you got overheads, got a room mic.

And so yeah, it was great. Right. No, that's, that's, that's good.

Because I, for one, I can hear when the drums aren't real. There's a lot of people that don't, that can't, I can hear when the drums aren't real. So it's good that you did that.

And stuff we've done, I mean, being musicians yourself, you know what it's like recording. It's so hard to capture the sound, right? I mean, we don't have Ted Templeman. Right.

We don't have the budget of that. But I think you'll probably agree, because you've listened to it. I mean, the drums.

I mean, it's on a budget, because we'd certainly had a budget. But it really sounds pretty professional. Yes, it does.

Right. And that has so much to do with Joe. So the musicians on this album are the guys that you play with live? So David Brown, he'd been with us for the last 10, 12 years, he moved to, and I'm gonna say it wrong, North Carolina.

So Barry Clyber, who you met with TD Clark Band, being that I've played with him forever, he was the obvious choice. So he's been with us for the last four years, four years. Something like that.

Yeah. Yeah. So Dave played on the CD.

He played on the CD. Yep. And then, and we've got, because our gigs are sometimes spotty, and sometimes they're really short notice, like we, you know, open for Ace Frehley.

And, you know, got to call Friday night about opening for him on Saturday. So we've got a couple different drummers that we use for gigs, because one might not be available. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, hold out hope, keep hope alive. One day, maybe you'll open up for some, you know, for somebody who's more popular than Ace Frehley. Everybody, they're sitting here talking about, yeah, you know, we open up for, you know, this guy, Ace Frehley, and everybody's.

That's pretty cool for a last minute gig. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

How did that come about? Well, that one was, because who did we do at The Forge right here? Crowbot. Crowbot. Are you guys familiar with Crowbot? I've definitely heard of them.

Yeah, they're kind of a newer, you know, obviously, everybody knows Ace. Right. But so Ron Onesti from Aricata, he's used us for, you know, doing some open slots.

We were able to do Last in Line, Vivian Campbell, and, you know, Ronnie Teal's band. So we've been kind of fortunate with that. Oh, that's pretty cool.

Yeah, he's been a big supporter of us. So yeah. I think we're gonna have a lot of local musicians listening that is just like jealous.

For sure. There was something on, I don't know what it was. On YouTube, it was just a few days ago, whenever I went to YouTube, the first things that would pop up were like searches for Ace Frehley.

So that's kind of weird that you were saying, I don't know, did he have a birthday or something like that? I don't know exactly what it was. Oh, you know what? He, I think he just released, maybe last Friday, a new album came out for him. It's probably why he's popping up.

That's probably why. Oh, okay. And I think he, maybe he released a single or something like that recently, too.

I've always thought, I've always been a KISS fan. When I was like in sixth grade or something like that, remember when we had the snow boots, the moon boots, snow boots, right? So I would put on the moon boots, snow boots, right? And I painted my face like Ace Frehley, like every Halloween until I was too old to go trick or treating anymore. But man, I always thought he was, nobody ever really talks about Ace Frehley as a great guitar player.

And I've always thought that he was a great guitar player. Was this before Barry Mell? Yeah, no, this was after Barry Mell. After Barry Mell.

This was after Barry Mell. I just want to get the timeline. This is when it became cool.

He had the boots on. That's right. Barry wasn't wearing the boots.

No, he wasn't. Well, I mean, he was, but they weren't, they weren't the cool boots. No, no.

Oh, that's great. That's great. But no, Ace has influenced so many people to pick up the guitar.

And again, he was before, my introduction was Jimmy Page. So yeah, kind of go down that path and it's like, Ace, okay. You know, but like John 5, you're familiar with.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, unbelievable guitar player. I mean, Ace Frehley is a big reason why John picked up the guitar.

Right, right. You know, and my favorite guitar players have always been rock guitar players where you can hear their blues influence, right? And Ace is certainly one of them. And you know, guys like Slash would be another example of that.

Yeah. Angus Young would be another example of that. So yeah, I've always gravitated.

One of my favorites, Angus. Oh yeah. Right, right, right, right.

I think it's time for another song. You think so? Yeah. Because I'd like to get maybe two more.

Okay. Yeah. Well then let's take a quick break right here.

All right. You're listening to the Rock and Roll Chicago Podcast. I'm Christy from Crime Cave Podcast.

I've had a huge interest in true crime since my days of watching marathons have snapped back in the mid nineties. I needed an outlet to talk about the cases that have haunted me for a very long time. With each episode under 20 minutes, I shine a light on some of the most bizarre cases in the last 50 years.

Join me in the Crime Cave. And for the second time this evening, McKenna. Oh, holy shit.

I know you're going to be listening to that CD now. Wow. That one, I'm sorry to say is not on that CD.

One of the faceless CDs. Oh, okay. Oh man.

But I'm sure we can find that someplace though. Oh yeah. It's a man.

Is that on iTunes? No, I know this one is, but I'll bet you we can YouTube you somewhere or something like that. Is that guitar going to be okay? I saw sparks and flames and everything coming up and that was great. Oh, wow.

That was powerful. That was awesome. Well, this is the CD here.

Are you ready? Looks like it came out in 2020. Yeah, it's been a few years. We're working on some new guys.

You can see you've got a few years to be putting something together. You got something? We're working on some new stuff. Love doing it, but there's lots of other stuff going on.

So finding the studio time and things. And finding just the time in general? Time in general and, you know, again, we don't have some big people behind us, so. Right.

But you're writing them? Oh, yeah. Yeah, always writing stuff. And so I would love to say that early part of next year that we would have a new one, but kind of yet to be determined.

Yeah. So when you guys aren't opening up for legendary guitarists like Ace Frehley, where are you guys playing? Right now we don't have anything on the calendar, but I hope to, I don't know what were you talking Hope to do some festivals. The challenge is playing a few different bands.

And of course, cover bands is kind of, you know, we're probably gigging three, you know, three shows a month, four shows a month in the summer. Right. So.

Yeah. So where are the, I guess, what are the venues that you guys are, that you have played or will play where they're more accepting of the original? We used to do more down, you know, like the Elbow Room and the Double Door, which I think that's closed. I think.

I think so. I think it is closed. Yeah.

We would, you know, sometimes do the Cubby Bear. Okay. So really the place is now Displains Theater.

We've done some things again. That's part of Ron Onesti Arcata Theater. We did, what was it? They had a Black Sabbath female tribute band.

Yes. What was the name of them? Sabatha? That's the other one. This is the one that was from California.

Sabbath. Sab. Sabbatch.

Sabbatch. Yeah. Sabbatch.

Okay. From California. Right.

Yeah. So, I mean, it's, it's, it's interesting to open up for some of these national acts because that does give us more exposure and then people are like, oh, where's your, you know, where we can get your stuff and listen to you. And so we'll, we'll get a request from people that are, you know, across the states.

And so that's always nice that our stuff is somehow, you know, getting out there. Brower House is another place right off of North Avenue. Didn't I just, didn't I just hear something about Brower House? It closed.

It's closed. Yeah. They closed, but somebody is under new management.

It's going to be opening up again. Yeah. I think it's going to be a different name.

Right. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, what you said at the beginning of the podcast is so true. I, for my, my day job, I do a lot of traveling.

I go, I travel coast to coast and it is so sad that we live in arguably what the third, fourth largest music market in the country. And the fact that I can go to, you know, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and see more original music venues than, than you can in the city of Chicago, you know, and like you mentioned, you know, you're opening for a national black Sabbath tribute band and you're an original act. You think it should be the other way around.

Right. And if it were someplace else other than the city of Chicago, it would be the other way around. But it, it just always has amazed me how, if I want to see original music, I have to leave the city that I live in.

You think about the Chicago bands that have made it, how many of them had to go to California? Right. You know, I mean, even Disturbed, I don't think, I think it was when they went to California. I could be wrong about that, but it wasn't like they got found here in Chicago.

Right. Right. Right.

Right. Right. Chavelle was another, another band from, you know, gosh, Spacing Pumpkins.

Yeah. Right. Yeah.

All these, yeah, they, they had to go someplace else and then they, they get, you know, not necessarily famous, but better known maybe, and then come back and they're out and they're able to kind of set up shop here in Chicago. You have to go someplace else. The only way I can think of would be Sticks.

They did all the recording here. Right. That is true.

Pumpkin Studios. They did all their stuff here. Yeah, that is true.

So, if there's any live music venue owners out there, we would love to have you entertain having original music. And if you're looking to sponsor a podcast, we're always looking for sponsors. We'll help you promote it.

Yeah. So, how can everybody find you? Tell us about your social media and everything. So, website if people still go to websites is McKennaBand.com. The, what is it? Social media part is? Yeah.

Yeah. That one. Thank you.

It's McKennaMusic. Yeah. I mean, McKenna, I guess it's a pretty common name.

You know, who knew? I mean, I know that's our last name, but. I have a cousin named McKenna. So, you have to like put on these, you know, other words to make it yours.

Right, right. So, I was like, oh, shoot, someone already has McKenna on, man, you know. So, yeah, we have to remember one is McKennaBand.com and then it's McKennaMusic is the Facebook, Instagram.

And, and then we stream. We're on Spotify and Apple Music. If people like to do that and they don't, they don't have CD players in their vehicles anymore.

You know. Right. Everyone has to stream their stuff.

Yeah. And with the CD, we did three videos. So YouTube.

On YouTube. Okay. Excellent.

Yeah. Time to go. And if they go to the website, the links are there too.

Okay. And if somebody actually wants to buy a copy of the CD, is there a place where they can actually buy one? They can. Reach out to us.

And we will. DM us on social media and we'll, we'll get one out to them. Excellent.

Yeah. I've got one for free. Or come to the shows that aren't scheduled yet.

Yeah. We'll throw them out to you. All right.

Well, how about taking us out with one more song? Yeah. And for the last time this evening, day, or whenever you're listening to this podcast, McKenna. And there you have McKenna.

Gets better every time. Every time. Every time.

Well, thanks guys for coming out. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having us.

Fantastic. Thank you. Yeah.

It was a pleasure. Well, I was looking forward to this band. You're a fan.

I am. I got that when Brian was here last time with T.D. Clark and he provided me with a CD. I've been listening to it and it's just fantastic.

Gosh. Those guys, it was all starting to come back to me as we were interviewing them. Those guys are like a turnstile.

We've had a combination of Poisoned Crew and T.D. Clark and then McKenna through here. It's like we're going to... Right. We're picking apart the bands.

Yeah. But man, what a voice she's got on her. No kidding.

Holy crap. I mean, I've listened to the CD countless times and acoustically it's just as good. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I hope the quality comes across.

Oh, I'm sure it will. On the recording. I'm sure it will.

Sitting here listening to her in headphones was like, I mean, almost like hearing a voice from the heavens. Right. It was so powerful.

And his guitar playing. That guitar sounded fantastic. Yeah.

You know? Yeah. Amazing. Just wonderful.

I love when people come in and play original music in here. Yes. And it's that good.

Fantastic. Unfortunately, not a lot of original bands out there because there's nowhere to play. So, yeah.

Maybe something will change in the coming years. Hey, keep the faith, everybody. That's right.

And while you're keeping that faith, don't forget to join us every week, every Tuesday for another exciting episode of the Rock and Roll Chicago podcast. See you next week. The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast is edited by Paul Martin, theme song courtesy of M&R Rush.

The Rock and Roll Chicago podcast does not own the rights to any of the music heard on the show. The music is used to promote the guests that are featured.