Caitlin Krisko & The Broadcast looking forward to Rhode Island debut

Certain bands have a knack for forming a dynamic with their music where it creates a wide sonic scope. A stellar example of this is Caitlin Krisko and The Broadcast from Asheville, North Carolina. This band has a blend of soul, blues, rock and Americana that’s made them a must-see act in today’s live music circuit. Folks in South County will get to see what the fuss is all about when Krisko and her band take the stage at the Ocean Mist on Saturday night at 9 p.m. Krisko and I had a talk ahead of the show.

Rob Duguay: Last year you released two singles with “Blue Monday” and “Oper

ator”, so were these songs both recorded during the same session or at separate occasions?

Caitlin Krisko: They were done on separate occasions. We actually built an in-home studio throughout 2020 and it’s still a work in progress, but it’s become a really beautiful space for us to be able to create more consistently on a regular basis. We’re not tied down to having limited studio time, so it has truly been one of the best investments that we’ve ever made. We recorded both “Blue Monday” and “Operator” in our in-home studio and then we got the drum tracks done at Echo Mountain Recording in Asheville. We wanted to have a really big church style drum and we don’t have a room that big in our house, so we had to record the drums in the chapel at Echo Mountain, but everything else was recorded in my house.

RD: “Blue Monday” has an acoustic foundation while leaning more towards a ballad while “Operator” is more rhythmic and funky. What would you say is the vision you and The Broadcast had for both songs?

CK: Well, I love that you identified those sort of contrasting sounds that we have because it’s very much a part of what we do. My co-writer Aaron Austin, who is the guitar player in the band, and I come from very different backgrounds. I was raised in Motown Detroit while being very much brought up on funk, R&B and soul music and Aaron was raised in the farmland in North Carolina. He grew up listening to the Allman Brothers, so there’s this really beautiful juxtaposition in the way that we approach music. When you hear certain songs, I think you can hear where Aaron has had a great influence and there are other songs where I come to the table with a little bit more of my idea in mind.

Then there are also songs where we have a really nice blending of the two, so we’re definitely a soulful roots rock band.

RD: The music video for “Operator” has an abundance of bright colors with you portraying different characters. What was the experience like making the video?

CK: The way the idea for the video came about was really funny and very, very last minute. We were really lucky to have “Operator” perform really well in the United Kingdom last year and we ended up going over there on tour in support of that single release. It was an incredible experience and we’re actually going back over there again at the end of the summer this year. We were working with a publicist over there and he was really demanding of wanting a music video for it. He was like, “I need it, people want it, we gotta have it, I need you to make a music video for this.”

We were like “Ok, I guess we’ll make a music video” and we literally had no budget, no director and no camera. We had nothing, so one day we sat down and dreamed up an idea for a music video that was really accessible and something we could actually pull off. Then we rented a camera lens from a photography rental studio in Asheville, which is why the quality of the video looks so great. It was this really nice camera lens that we rented for $80 for the day and we just made this video. I played these different characters because we didn’t have time to find someone to cast as one of them, so I was just both.

RD: That makes sense. I really like all the visuals and colors in the video, it kind of reminds me of the one for Deee-lite’s “Groove Is in the Heart”.

CK: Yeah, there’s also a little bit of an Austin Powers vibe. You’re definitely feeling the aesthetic, for sure.

RD: Being from Asheville, North Carolina, what are your thoughts on performing at the Ocean Mist?

CK: I’m very much looking forward to opening up a new market and region for the band, we’ve only kind of gone as far North as New York City. A friend of mine lives in Rhode Island and she was just really encouraging while saying that there’s an incredible music scene, people are very hungry for live music and she thinks that they’d love us.