The Kreellers - Féile Artist Introduction

In this episode, Kevin sits down with Paul Wikarski of the Kreellers, to spend a few minutes getting to know more about the band and what audiences can expect at this year's Féile. We'll also share a couple of their songs to give you a taste of what's in store.

Website: https://thekreellers.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Tides That Tie, a podcast about all things Aaron Moore in Beaver Island. I'm Ron Gregg. Over the next few weeks, as we're counting down the days to the Emerald Isle Irish Pala on Beaver Island, we'd like to introduce you to some of the incredible artists who will be taking the stage this September. It's a chance to hear a little bit about their music, their stories, and what inspires them before they arrive on the island. In this episode, Kevin sits down with Paul Wakarski of the Creelers to spend a few minutes getting to know more about the band and what audiences can expect at this year's Fala. We'll also share a couple of their songs to give you a taste of what's in store. You can find more information about the Pala and purchase tickets at the Beaver Island Irish Heritage Group website, www.bihg.com. Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

So I'm Paul Wikarski, uh founding member of uh the band called uh Bruno's Boys with my brother Derek Wikarski. And uh it's where it all started uh a bunch of years back. And uh we've been doing this since 2002 now. So that's a long time. Twenty twenty-four years this year. Um definitely a different year for us this year. My my brother decided to retire from music. So uh we we moved on. We found ourselves a fantastic new singer, uh a young guy named Jack Hoover, and we've already been playing the festivals and things are going fantastic. Uh so we're so looking forward to bringing this new lineup to uh Beaver Island. But uh going back to our history, yeah, my brother and I started this, and uh we were playing around in Detroit, and uh there was a bar here called Tipperary Pub, and uh uh man owned it named Tommy O'Heller, and he was kind of the godfather of all Irish in Detroit. Anything. I mean, it was it was a norm to see the Clancy brothers or Tommy Macon or any of those people when they were in town, they would they would stop in and hang out at the bar and play a couple tunes. So when he came up to us one night, we were just just uh starting out, and he said that he would love us to play the bar. Now we couldn't understand a thing he said at the time. It was kind of interesting. Between his accent and the drinking, we weren't sure. Someone came up and said, Do you know who that is? And I said, No. They said, That's Tommy O'Hallard. If he asked you to play his pub, you play his pub. You want to continue in this in this uh area. So we did. And uh things were going well. We were it was my brother two of my brothers, actually. My brother Jeff was on drums at that time, and we were called Bruno's brawlers. So the the funny story is we we Tommy ended up, he like I said he knew everybody. He took us, called over to Cleveland Irish Fest, which happened to be our very first Irish festival, and we were new into this whole thing, and uh we got there, and immediately uh John O'Brien, who ran the festival, uh, he looked at us and he said, I'm so glad to have you, but I will never have Bruno's brawlers at my festival. You are now called Bruno's Boys. We were shocked. He named us right there on the spot, and being new, we're like, okay, we'll take it. So from that time on we became Bruno's boys. Unfortunately, at that festival, at that time, there was a a top 40 band playing Cleveland at that time that were called Bruno's Boys. And they called the festival Screaming why they were everybody was calling them wondering why they were playing an Irish festival. But anyway, we we remained uh uh Bruno's boys and as a duo until we we picked up a third member, and then we changed the name to the Krillers, which is the current name now. And as time progressed on, we ended up adding fiddle players, bag vifers. We we we grew. We grew at one time with a 60s fan. And uh and then we ended up playing all the festivals and the shows all the way through through 2012, and then uh at that point uh we decided it was just time for a break, and and uh my brother Derek and I uh decided to just become a duo for a while and give it a try. And uh it actually took off more than we thought, and we became Brother Crow, which the island knows us for because we've done all the festivals and things as Brother Crow. We have not been there with the full band, which is why I'm so excited to show those guys the island and and to bring them out there. So uh, but yeah, this will be the first time to the island with the full group. The reason we went back to the name, uh we we have such a big following under that name of the creelers. So we decided to go back. And if you go to Spotify and and look at at times, we have over 60,000 followers, and that that's a big thing to get on on Spotify and under under the Kreeler's name. And uh we're getting really excited because we're getting close to uh putting together a new album. Uh we just finished three songs and there's three more in the works, and uh we hope by mid-summer to late summer we should be able to push that album.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

So tell about the two previous times you played on the island. Right.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

So uh the first time we we came, the first time I've actually ever went to that island. I've always thought about going. Somehow it just never happened. Um we got a call and they asked us to do the uh the I think it was the first pirate fest they did. We were Brother Crow as the duo, and uh I don't know, it couldn't have been a better experience for me. That that's all I know. Because of my work schedule, I was uh uh working at that time. I was uh I'm retired now, I was a firefighter. My brother was working. We I was just getting off duty the the day of the festival, so we had a race out to Charleboy, and they said, Oh, don't even worry about the boat. We have a plane waiting for you. We get there, and then there's a uh a car they have a car there for us and a waiting. Uh it happened to be uh uh a pickup truck, and I believe it was Paul that uh uh wealthy with the airport, it was his truck. But they they they asked us anybody the other bands were arriving and they asked us if uh anybody could drive a stick, and apparently I was the only musician who could drive a stick shift, so we got the truck. But uh yeah, what what a what a great first impression to to fly to the island, you know, and get off and have a car waiting for you. And then we came back and we did um uh uh Beaver Island uh music festival like a year or two later. And what what a fantastic experience. Same same thing, just just treated like old. Although uh they did put us on the boat. They said everybody coming to this island has to experience that boat at least once. We didn't get the airplane again, but uh but yeah, that was uh uh just uh uh a great experience uh to come over and do that and like uh love love be around the music fest. Uh what what a what a great time. Hope to be back again. If you have any poll over there, you know but uh yeah, and then we came back another time. I'm trying to remember what that was. There was we did a ceremony there on the island. We played a couple places and we did a couple shows. And I can't remember exactly what the details of that were. But they ended up flying us out for that one too, and it was fantastic. So uh but yeah, th three times performing on the island, and then uh I've been back many times now. I had to bring my family back, and my son and I have hiked it, and uh I've flown there, I've flown back on my own a couple times, and then spent our anniversary there with my wife, and uh just just one of my favorite places. Uh I try to tell people, I said they don't understand the beaches on that island. The the beauty of even just uh Donegal Beach to me is uh it rivals some of all the beaches in Florida and everything else. I I think you know, just absolutely beautiful. Yeah, and then we have our favorite spots on now, you know, of course. Uh one of my favorites is uh is the brewery. Absolutely love the brewery. So it's always been a tradition. As soon as we get off the boat of the plane, we head over there and uh have a pint and decompress. All festivals are fantastic, most festivals treat the bands fantastic. Uh I'm gonna say with Beaver Island, the difference is it's it's the island. And until someone experiences that island and and and the way the people are and everything, I think they wouldn't understand. I'm trying to explain it to the guys right now, and and I said it's just not gonna be your ordinary show. There's something different about being on that island than just than just you know going to Cleveland and you know and and and doing your shows and going back to the hotels, and I don't know, there's just a feel to it, you know. Uh uh one one of my great experiences on the island, we were uh after the show is one of the Irish Fests and um Tommy from the Burns Brothers were there, and uh he was out, we we saw him at a bar and he was looking for something to do, and we we all jumped in that little pickup truck and we uh there was a bar somewhere close by the Circle Lemon. I can't remember the name of the bar, but we went in there and we said we'll get a beer, and they said uh no. And we we were taken back for a second. They go, You have to sing for it first. So we ended up singing for our beers, and I think we shed three or four while we were there. Every time we'd sing a song, they'd bring around. So that was just just little things like that. It was just a great experience for us.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

So that's awesome. Well, talk about the band and uh um the music, you know, for some of the listeners that may not know for you. How would you describe your music?

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Uh I would describe our music um powerful. It's high-energy Celtic. It's not really full rock like I would say, flogging Molly or Dropkick Murphy's not hard like that, but it's but it's very energetic, full, uh mixed with fiddle and uh accordion mandolins and and banjo even. So it has almost uh like a tint of bluegrass to it mixed in, mixed with uh with the Celtic rock and s and so forth. So it's different.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

When a stepdaughter's born online, I'm far away from my family.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

You do have a unique sound. So that I was curious, like, where did your influences come from?

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Um boy, where didn't they come from? All over the place. So all of us have been uh uh musicians for years, and and uh a lot of my music and when when I write the songs, it's funny. I I have a lot of uh I you know I grew up uh an 80s kid, so I have a lot of uh the 80s uh alternative new wave influences, and for some reason a lot of my tunes start to take on that, and I have to check it. You know, I I tend to to to write like uh I was I was uh a big fan of you two growing up and and things like that. Uh with the guy is pretty much the same thing. Um but as far as the Irish stuff is me and my brother, uh I can give you a quick story on that. My uh my father was a police officer, his partner was uh born and raised in Ireland, and in fact he got his citizenship by coming over here serving in Vietnam. But they were uh partners on uh police force together, and uh they were both runners, and every week they were off they would train and they'd run their 13 miles. The last part of the run was probably to the party store grabbing a case again, and they'd come back and they would uh put on these Irish rubble tubes, and it just through osmosis, it grew into our head. And one day my brother and I were sitting around a campfire and we started singing these songs, and people were like, Oh my god, that's good. You guys should do this. And the rest is history from there. But uh that that's where it came from.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Well, what what about that? Definitely uh bluegrass is huge around here, right? It was definitely picking up on some of that too. Uh how did that work its way in? Was it just organic or was it their uh static uh impetus that you got?

SPEAKER_03 17:09

I I've always been a fan. Oh, always, always been a fan of uh, you know, folk and bluegrass and country. Uh I I I don't know about the other guys in the band, they're not so much country lovers as myself and my brother were at the time, but uh when when I started picking up the banjo and learning, I just um realized that we could integrate that sound a little bit within our own music, and uh I think it works well. And I just I absolutely love playing the banjo. Um in fact I was just asking, I think I'm gonna probably be doing a banjo workshop at the festival. So teaching a little bit of uh my stylings and how it integrates into uh our style or even the Irish Celtic style of music. Because I I play a different style. I do not play if you if you go to you know all the traditional uh Irish and Scottish state, they use the uh tenor banjo, the four-string, and they and it's done with uh a pick. Uh whereas bluegrass is done with uh you know on the five-string banjo and the scrug style with the finger picks. I I play a little of that, but I but most of my sounding is is the claw hammer, the old Appalachian style. So I think it's fun to integrate in. And you'll notice it on one of our songs, uh, it's called the Cuckoo. It's probably almost a 300-year-old song. Actually brought back by Jerry Garcia from The Grateful Dead, who was uh an amazing banjo player. But uh yeah, we we we brought that song back and and we integrated it into our set, and it's actually one of our most popular tunes. So driven with the with the drums and the bass and the fiddle, it's it's different. And I don't think anybody's doing it that way.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Do you uh do you have a particular song of yours that seems to always grab the crowd to resonate more than others, maybe?

SPEAKER_03 18:47

Yeah, probably the one I was just mentioning, the the cuckoo with with the banjo. That seems to. Um we we wrote that last year, and uh that one's been uh every time we play it, it grabs traction. But we do have a song that I wrote oh back in 2004 now. And uh it was about the Irish who built uh Detroit. We we have a uh intersection, uh an area down in Detroit called Corktown. It was a heavy Irish community, and it's down where Old Tiger Stadium was off of Michigan Ave, and and within that vicinity. And in that uh area there was an intersection, uh uh 6th Street and Porter, and on there was a bunch of uh row houses where all the uh the workers that immigrated over from Ireland would come and work, they would put them up in these row houses. So I wrote this song called Six and Porter. It's kind of become our anthem. Everybody, every festival we go to knows the words and they'll start shouting it. So actually, I would say that's our most popular. So uh I'll send it to you. Uh I have a recording with with my brother Derek singing it, if if you want to uh listen to it. Or you can find it on our website, it's it's right up there on the on the song.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Uh Six and Porter, it's called. Um How would people find you if they wanted to dig in and listen to more of your music?

SPEAKER_03 20:01

Uh the best place is uh the Creelers.com. Now it's Creelers with two E's and two L's. It gets spelled, sometimes we get called a Kreller. No matter what band name I have, there's always somebody changing. Brother Crow always had the E at the end, and nobody could get the E. Or we'd be Brothers Crow. But this is Creelers. K-R-E-E-L-L-E-R-S.com. And it'll bring you to our website, and from there you can uh listen to our music, read all about us, see all the pics, uh links to all our social media. You can find us on uh Facebook under the Creelers and on Instagram also. Uh also check us out on Spotify, uh, Apple Music, any anywhere you stream your music, we're we are there.