For each Charity Kiss member, there is a musical progression, through instruments and influences. Before he picked up a microphone or guitar Patrick Hansen learned the Ukulele when he was 15 to impress girls.
“I realized how easy it was to get girls when you play an instrument,” Hansen says half-jokingly. “I started singing and enjoyed it more and more. Then I learned guitar because I wanted to learn a real instrument. It’s hard to play Ukulele in front of a giant crowd… Ever since then I’ve playing and singing trying to write songs.”
Noah Linker expressed how much music has impacted his life and how it created the person who he is today.
“Basically, I’ve been pretty into music my entire life,” Linker said. “I was introduced to the Beatles at a very young age. It was very dangerous because I just fell in love to the music and everything before I even knew anything about what it was. Ever since then I just wanted to be a musician. So around age nine I got my first guitar and just been playing and playing ever since then. Played in a few other bands in high school. But now I’ve ended up here writing with Charity Kiss, writing with myself and yeah, the journey has just begun.”
Wyatt Ziegler, who is filling in for the bassist while Hendriks is in Canada is still fairly new to the music scene. “I actually started doing music stuff fairly recently, probably when I was 18, I’m 21 now so it’s been about three years,” Ziegler said. “I grew up loving music I never really played anything specifically, but when I went up to college I was in the search for something more. So I picked up a guitar started learning how to record and here we are.”
Nate Drum became a product of his biggest musical influences.
“A big part of the reason I started playing drums is because my last name is Drum,” Drum said. “I thought it would be funny. Also, growing up I listened to a lot of Led Zeppelin and watching John Bonham, Neil Peart, all those guys, Tommy Lee. Anytime I was watching a video of the bands playing I was obsessed with watching the drummers and so I’ve always been kind of attracted to that.”
Sitting the band down together for an interview was quite the experience. As soon as I greeted them I got this strong sense of humility and felt a very welcoming and joyful presence. There was no ego or looking bored at the time wondering when they could get in-and-out of the interview as soon as possible.
Watching the members interact with one another you could tell that they had a cohesion like a brotherhood. Witty jokes and backhanded remarks fly by, but they really add character to who the band is.
What peaked my interest about the band was I remembered most of the members because I went to high school with them at Spanish Springs High School. At the time their name was Color T.V. and it was only comprised of Drum, Hendriks, and Hansen. They performed one time during one of our pep rallies and the crowd was going crazy and they sounded really good. I had never gone and checked them out as I was really only listening to rap music at the time. Their band was the talk of the entire school.
In regard to how Color T.V. started, Hansen claims there wasn’t much serious intent behind it initially.
“We were just like, ‘Hey it’s fun to jam’ and then we wanted to play our own songs so we started making our own songs,” Hansen said. “From there the dream started growing and people actually liked us more than we thought and we were like oh this weird.”
After high school Hansen went on a mission trip to Panama and the band stopped making music. When Hansen returned, it was time to put the needle back down.
“When I got back from Panama we decided that we wanted to make a go of it again and be more serious with this next venture we’re trying,” Hansen said. “We decided on a new name and bringing in a new member with Noah, would kind of set the tone for what we wanted to do. Like we were no longer the old local band that was fun to go see in the backyard. We are Charity Kiss, a real band that we’re trying to do real things with.”
The birth of the name came from when Hendriks, Hansen, and Drum were up in a cabin. They had been trying to figure out a new name. They found a book called “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius. In the book there was a sentence that said “the kiss of charity”. Drum had initially offered that as the name for the new band, but shifted the words around to Charity Kiss. Hansen and Hendriks loved it.
While the band has been able to form a good following here in Reno, the band’s ultimate goal is to relocate to Los Angeles.
“We’ve established a lot here in Reno and we love it here,” Ziegler said. “But the scene is pretty small and we want to get to a place where we can reach more people. But home base will always be Reno, we love Reno here too. We just think there might something more we can hit in LA.”
“We didn’t realize there was all these different scenes in all these cities across the country,” Linker said. “Being in Reno forever, it’s up and down for a while.”
Another reason why the band wants to relocate in L.A. is to have a house where they can all lock in and focus on music together all the time. Other goals for the collective is to engage more on social media, try and reach more people, and make more music.
“We just try to chase the passion of music,” Hansen said. “The goal is to always be writing something new. Not have every song sound, not to bash on Green Day, but you know every song is the same and you’re like ‘Oh they have a system down.’”
The band also wants to release a bunch of songs that they have performed, but people can’t listen to it through their streaming provider of choice. When it comes to releasing music, it can be very challenging for them because they have to account for five different perspectives and opinions on how the song should sound. It also makes it hard with Hendriks out of the country right now.
On Feb 14 they released, “Polka Dot Girl” which is a two-song pack also including the song, “What I Like About You”. Polka Dot Girl was one of the first songs the band made and they have performed it for over a year. You can check out “Polka Dot Girl” and their other music here: linktr.ee/CharityKiss