By: Tosin Faseemo

Kids Ski Free is a Minneapolis-based indie rock band. The band is composed of singer/drummer Brandon Tang, bassist Brandon Burmeister, singer/guitarist Logan Penny, and guitarist Harrison Yarwood. Keep reading to find out about the origin of the band’s name, their creative process, and their recent Battle of the Bands victory at the University of Minnesota.

How'd you guys meet?

BT: We went to school together. Me, Harrison and Logan played in jazz band together in eighth grade. In high school, Kids Ski Free was formed. Then sophomore/junior year Brandon started playing with us as well.

What is the meaning behind your band name?

LP: I saw it on the back of a guy's shirt. He was a guy who went to our school. I wrote it down. We were trying to come up with band names later on and I threw out Kids Ski Free.

What do you guys like about the Twin Cities music scene?

HY: I feel like there's a lot going on. Like there's always a show or something that you hear about. And that's exciting; I feel like we found that we're always playing with new bands. We aren’t playing with the same bands, over and over, because there are so many to choose from.

What is your creative process like?

LP: Usually one of us has the start of a song and we just go from there. We’ll jam on it a couple times and start to say, “Oh well what should we do?” There's a lot of coming up with a chorus as we're jamming and going, “Well, what if we did this for the chorus?” So, it's a lot of stuff like that. But it's hard to even say how our creative process happens. I feel like once we've written a song I have no clue how we did it.

What inspires you guys to make music?

BT: I just feel like doing it a lot of the time. And then being in the band I'm just like, I should make music for the band.

LP: Yeah, being in a band definitely helps you be like, “Oh, I should write something for the band.” If you just only answer to yourself it's a lot harder to be happy with something. But, I will also say that I saw Rush when I was like seven years old, and I was like, “This is the greatest thing ever.” Since then, I've done nothing but think about and write and listen to music.

What genre would you say your music is?

BT: I feel like it's mostly based in indie rock.

I know you guys recently performed at Battle of the Bands at The Whole Music Club. What was it like winning that?

BB: It was really cool.

HY: I know me and Brandon have been to shows at The Whole, so it was cool to play on that stage. It's a cool space and having sound people was cool, because we don’t always have that.

BT: I've seen a couple of my favorite artists [there] so it's cool to be on the other side of that. Also, I don't know if we've ever played to that many people. That was really fun.

BB: I feel like the audience was a lot more willing to get really into it. Everyone seemed very, very energetic from the get go, which is really cool because sometimes you kind of have to encourage that.

What do you guys aspire to as a band? What are your goals?

LP: It’s hard to say long-term, but our goal for this year is to get a show at 7th Street Entry.

BT: Also, I think, just to make music that we're really into.

Who would be your dream collaboration?

BT: I feel like I would really want to play with Snail Mail.

LP: I think I'd want to play piano on a Bright Eyes album or something. Or Car Seat Headrest.

BB: Jeff Rosenstock.

HY: Built to Spill.

Kids Ski Free will be performing at the University of Minnesota’s Spring Jam on April 30.

Kids Ski Free Q&A

By: Tosin Faseemo