Quickie Q&A: The Newbees

The Newbees play York Street Cafe on Friday. (Credit: Provided)

Band: The Newbees
Members: Jeff Perholtz, lead guitar; Misty Perholtz, guitar; Tim Seiwert, drums; Alex Lusht, bass; Vince Scacchetti, viola; Greg Noland; viola, Carl Larson, violin; Ellen Nettleton, cello; Jesse Jordan, keyboards
Hometown: Covington
Latest Project: album, Live from the Southgate House
Sound like: orchestral and pop-infused alt-country
You may know them: Their song “Lost in the Taste” was featured in a Gold Star Chili commercial.

Misty Perholtz didn’t catch the song writing bug until college. Now, with her husband Jeff, they fuel the five piece band, The Newbees, and they have their own recording company.

After three studio records since they started in 2004 – and a Gold Star Chili commercial featuring their song “Lost in the Taste” – the Covington-based band, which sometimes adds a string section, throws a party on Friday for its new DVD/CD package, “The Newbees Live at The Southgate House” though the show is at York Street Cafe.

How did you start writing music?
I was a late bloomer, actually as far as music is concerned. I didn’t start until I was in college. I guess, gosh, that was 15 years ago, actually. Well maybe not that long ago, it was more like 13 or so years ago that I started at it. Jeff began writing when he was a kid. He was really fortunate to go to a high school that had a recording studio in it. So he’s been making records since he was 15 years old, which is really great. As far as Tim’s concerned, he’s always been a drummer and played all different genres of music. He started writing, not until just a couple years before we met him, maybe some time in the last decade. He never really sang much either, but he’s started singing with us and has just become a really strong song writer. I was not musical at all. I was in high school choir and dance, but I never really knew that I could sing well or would be able to play an instrument. So around the age of 20, I picked it up because I met Jeff, my husband, and he played. I was really enamored with this whole thing: like wow, someone can write their own songs, play their own songs and do all this cool stuff. So he showed me a couple of things with a guitar and it was like this process. I had to start writing immediately, because I wasn’t good enough to play anybody else’s music!  Hahahaha! I had to write my own songs, so I’d have something to play.

Tell me about the first song you wrote.  
The song I wrote, I wrote with a college girlfriend. We wrote this little ditty called “Security,” just a three chord song. And we got a little tape recorder out and I had my brand new guitar that mom had just gotten me for Christmas. We just sat on the floor of my house and played around with words and played around with melody. And we started to realize that, wow, this is a process. This can take a lot of time. You have to really commit to this, if you want to make a decent song. And it was just learning how not to be trite, hahaha, and how to rhyme well and intelligently, without lowering your standards with normal boy-toy kind of rhymes, or run and fun, you know those sorts of things. So we just hashed it out. Then after that, I was never someone who just produced songs. If it was there, then great. I had a couple of friends who were songwriters, and they would write a hundred songs a year. I was never that kind of writer. I just kind of, if it felt right, I had a guitar in my hand, and something came to me, then I went with it. I still to this day don’t say, “I’m gonna get up today and write a song.” If it comes to me I go for it. It’s actually a much quicker process now.  The first time was kind of drudgery, because we didn’t even know what we were doing. We were just experimenting and seeing what chords sounded right with what melodies and what not. And now being a better singer and a better guitar player, I have a lot more room to breathe and be creative because of it. Now I can focus on how can I challenge myself, what can I do to make it better, make it sound more interesting, tell a better story, work on the melody, So it really becomes the whole package and is developed.

When have you been a newbie at something recently?
I’ve been a newbie at the sport of racquetball. Hahaha. About 6 months ago. A gym near my house opened, and we went in and it had a pool, so we joined. But it also had racquet ball courts and we started play.

What’s it like being in a band with your spouse?
Great. It’s great to be able to share something like music with somebody. It’s amazing to share something that means so much to you with the person you are sharing your life with. Jeff and I share a lot of things, a lot of interests. I think when you are a creative person, there is nothing more dear to you and nothing more pure to you than creating something. Making music is something precious to me, it’s something I have a creative passion for and to be able to share that with someone is incredible to me. I never could have imagined that I’d be doing this with someone or that we could have so much in common. In addition to music, we have so many things that we do together. I mean we work together. But it is great fun and we do it well together. Thankfully, it has never been a problem for the band. It could be weird being in a band with a couple, but our members had open minds, and were like, we’re going to give it a shot anyway. There could have been a chance that we could be fighting or we could be too “couple-y,” but that’s not the case. Everyone has an equal part in the band. It’s like a soccer team, everyone gets to play.

If you go
What: DVD/CD release show. With Michelle Hammer, the Billy Rock Trio, the Shirt and Tie Stiffs and Classical Revolution All-Stars.
Where: York Street Cafe, 738 York St., Newport.
When: 7 p.m. Friday, March 26
Price: $5. DVD/CD set available for $10.
Contact: 859-261-9675 or www.yorkstonline.com