PLUGGED IN: YACHT ROCK REVUE'S DREAM TOUR WITH KENNY LOGGINS SWINGS HOME TO GEORGIA. 'IT'S A RUSH!'
Welcome to Plugged In, our digital interview series on GPB.
GPB's Kristi York Wooten talks with members of Yacht Rock Revue, an Atlanta band known for playing hits of the 1970s, '80s and beyond. The band is currently on tour with one of its musical heroes, Kenny Loggins, and will perform May 13 at Ameris Bank Amphitheatre in Alpharetta. Frontmen Nick Niespodziani and Peter Olson are here to talk about this once-in-a-lifetime gig.
TRANSCRIPT
Kristi York Wooten: Welcome, Nick and Peter. How are you?
Nick Niespodziani and Peter Olson: Great. Thanks for having us, Kristi.
Kristi York Wooten: Excited to talk to you. So I want to get started with something that's in the news today, and that is that while you were on the Kenny Loggins tour in Texas, you had some things stolen, your instruments and things. Do you want to give us a little bit of an update on what happened?
Nick Niespodziani: Yeah, we came off stage with Kenny Loggins in Fort Worth on Friday, our first show with Kenny, and it was amazing, incredible energy from the crowd, everything you would hope for. And we woke up the next morning to discover our entire trailer had been stolen off the back of one of our vans. It was wild. Very high moment, followed by a very low moment.
Kristi York Wooten: So I know that's disconcerting for musicians to not be with their instruments, some of which I believe you told me earlier you've had since high school or college. So what are you going to do about the next couple of shows? I know you said you might borrow some instruments and things like that to get those shows done, and until you find out what happens to the others.
Nick Niespodziani: Yeah, the show goes on.
Peter Olson: That's right. Yeah. We've had incredible support from the musician industry. All of our friends have reached out not just to offer, you know, emotional support, but lots of offers to borrow gear, anything that we need to. To keep the show going. Just Saturday night, the night after we had the gear stolen, we were fortunate in that another band was on the bill and they allowed us to play some of their gear in order to make things happen. So we cobbled it together with some rented pieces and pieces borrowed from other musicians. And that's how we'll make it happen here until we can get things replaced.
Nick Niespodziani: And I just want to make the point, you know, we're lucky we have insurance and we're also lucky that we're big enough and our organization is established enough that we can take a hit like this and keep going. Like, if this happened to an indie rock band who's not playing on the same scale as we are, it can be a deathblow to a band. So just next time you see this happen to a smaller band, find a way to get out there and support them. Like, we're lucky we're going to be okay. But not everyone is so lucky.
Kristi York Wooten: Good advice. So take us back to the beginning. Nick, we'll start with you. Take us back to the beginning: You're putting your band together. It had to stem from a childhood love of these — these songs that you heard on F.M. radio in the '70s or '80s. So can you take us back to the beginning of the idea for the band?
Nick Niespodziani: I mean, the band kind of came about on accident. It was never intended to be a band. It was supposed to be a one-off show that we were doing in a series of other one-off shows, and this one-off show connected with people in a completely different way than any of the other ones did. And ever since that moment, we saw the way it connected with the audience and the feelings that this music gave people. And we've been kind of chasing the head of that snake ever since.
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Interview by: Kristi York Wooten