Local indie rock band ginger powertrip is in the early stages of its life, but they’ve already released a single and have an EP releasing later this year.
Hans Reitmeyer and Alex Ruzicka are the masterminds behind ginger powertrip, with the former playing bass and singing and the latter playing guitar and drums. Both members currently attend University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.
How did you guys meet?
Hans Reitmeyer: The first time we met was at a Pixies concert at Summerfest. We were talking on the Facebook group chat.
What drew you to form the band?
Alex Ruzicka: I think we both have similar interest and taste in music. We’re on the same page. We work together really well.
Reitmeyer: I would say I wanted to start a band, like coming to college I wanted to start a band. In high school, it’s hard to find someone with the same taste in music. So, I wanted to start a band, and the first thing Alex said to me was: “Hey you wanna start a band?” and I was like alright sure.
Going off that you said you guys have similar music tastes, what would you say your influences are?
Ruzicka: I really like a lot of surf rock stuff like The Frights, The Buttertones, just a lot of stuff like that, or like psychedelic stuff.
Reitmeyer: I’m into bands like The Strokes, like that’s what initially got me into music like Arctic Monkeys. As far as like for my music playing, I started off playing jazz bass. So I’m influenced by Miles Davis and things like that. I would say for our music we’re most influenced by modern indie, like The Buttertones.
Ruzicka: We have a lot of bedroom pop kind of vibe.
Reitmeyer: Mile High Club and The Walters – cause it’s got some bedroom pop influence.
How did you come up with the name “ginger powertrip”?
Reitmeyer: It was actually because of an RA here. He’s like this tall ginger guy. I don’t know why but one night we were trying to come up with a band name and one night there was a fire drill, and he was the guy at the door telling everyone to go outside.
Ruzicka: He was like screaming.
Reitmeyer: He was like tweaking out and we were like this guy is really on a power trip.
Ruzicka: (yelling) Get out! Get out of the building!
Reitmeyer: He was on this ginger power trip. It was just like, it’s kind of goofy and it doesn’t mean anything. That’s where the initial thing came from.
Can you describe your songwriting process for me?
Ruzicka: For the main part, it starts with the instrumentals and then we throw in the vocals later.
Reitmeyer: We kind of like to have a progressive writing style. We just put together parts that sound good. As long as it is in the same key and it flows.
Ruzicka: We have a few parts that do repeat, but for the most part we like to have our songs be progressive. It starts here, and it ends here.
Reitmeyer: I like our songs to feel like an experience, rather than just a four-bar of each section.
So you are both students here at UWM. How do you balance your school-work with your band-work?
Ruzicka: For the most part, I get the school stuff done and then eventually work on music.
Reitmeyer: I would say school is definitely a priority but so is music. A lot of times I will pick editing a song over hanging out with friends. So, I would say the music cuts out of other things, but school is always going to be there.
What’s one musician you wish you could work with?
Ruzicka: We went to this one guy’s concert, Fellow Kinsman. He’s a local Milwaukee guy; he’s a chill guy. He’s coming out with new songs as well.
Reitmeyer: A little more lofty than that, but there’s this guy Still Woozy that I completely admire. I love his music and I just wanna be Still Woozy. I feel like working with him if we somehow were able to would be like a dream.
If you could ask your pet anything, what would it be?
Ruzicka: What do you wanna eat? Like you’re kind of a picky eater so like what do you want to eat?
Reitmeyer: I feel like if another species could talk, you could get some deep answers. Do dogs believe in God? Do dogs have an ego?
Ruzicka: I would ask if dogs understand other dogs.
Reitmeyer: Do dogs understand death? You could get a lot of answers about humanity from dogs.
If you could have dinner with three famous people, dead or alive, who would they be?
Reitmeyer: I would say, Andy Warhol, because I think he would be like so interesting.
Ruzicka: Hunter S. Thompson, that’d be chaotic but worth it for sure.
Reitmeyer: They would give you enough entertainment for sure.
Ruzicka: Who’s another weird guy we would throw in there?
Reitmeyer: Karl Marx. Just mix it up. I want some entertainment.
ginger powertrip’s upcoming EP is set for release later this spring. You can listen to their debut song “3 in the morning” on Spotify and Soundcloud.
You can find ginger powertrip on:
Spotify
Instagram
Soundcloud