I met Would You Kindly?, or at least part of the band, when I was photographing Sad Summer Fest at The Rave/Eagles Club in 2023. They were standing stage right and handed me a business card. As soon as I saw their name on the Summerfest lineup, I just knew I needed to interview them. They were such a pleasure to get to know and I cannot wait to see them just continue to grow as a band. They definitely know how to make a presence on stage. Lead vocalist Gina Marie has such a distinct voice and the band’s whole sound is so beautifully unique. If you’re a fan of Jinjer, Rivals, or even Sincere Engineer, you’ll enjoy them.

ME: If you could just introduce yourself and what you play in the band. 

GINA: Hi, I’m Gina, and I’m the lead singer of Would you Kindly? 

MEGAN: Hi, I’m Megan and I’m the violin player. 

PAUL: Hi, I’m Paul. I’m the guitarist. 

CAMERON: Hi, I’m Cameron. I’m the cellist. 

HAVEN: Hi, my name is Haven and I’m the drummer.

DANIEL: Hi, my name is Daniel and I’m the bass player. 

GINA: You can tell by that deep voice.

ME: All right, just tell me about the band. How did you meet? 

GINA: So the band started seven years ago on mine and Paul’s first date. Or not, first date, third date, I’m so sorry. We had been seeing each other for just a couple weeks, and there was an open mic in Kenosha that we wanted to go to, and he played guitar and I sang. So we learned a Justin Bieber cover, and did that at open mic, which was a time. Then through that, we actually met Haven, before she was ever in the band. Haven is an amazing R&B singer and all around musician. She plays like 16 instruments, and we got to meet her in the open mic scene. She runs open mics and we got to get acquainted, but the actual first person we had to join the band was Daniel, our bassist. We have been friends for 13 years now. We went to college together, and I was, like, “Daniel, will you buy a bass guitar and learn how to play it for me?” and he’s like, “what are you talking about?” And I was, like, “so that guy I’m seeing? We’re gonna start a band,” and he was, like, “uh fine, yeah,” and we went to music around and bought a used lefty bass and super super low budget amp and he spent the next six years learning how to play bass. And then, along that journey, we had introduced the violin into our sound. Our original violin player is no longer with the band, and so I asked a good friend of mine — who I had the pleasure of standing up at her wedding last week — I was, like, “I need a violin player.” And she’s, like, “well, my friend plays that I’ve known since I was six, just graduated from Carthage with her degree and she plays violin.” I was like, “do you think she’d want to play in a rock band?” She’s like, “I don’t know.” Megan shows up to audition for us. And um? I had, oh yeah, okay, okay.

MEGAN: So, like, I show up, I tell people. Hey, I’m gonna go to these people’s houses. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna get murdered or what so? 

*BAND LAUGHS*

MEGAN: I told someone just in case. I showed up and Gina had just had a ton of surgery so she couldn’t sing, and I was sitting there, thinking, I’m gonna join this band, and I haven’t heard the singer sing… okay, interesting. But everyone was nice to me. They fed me tortellini. They were dogs and cats. I was just happy to be there. And then, uh? Just kind of kept being here. 

GINA: Yeah, so I had a tonsillectomy, uh, four days before she auditioned for the band. And then we met Cameron, who plays cello with us on all of our Studio work, and for big shows, through a band he used to perform with, and when we were going into the studio to record our first album, I was like, “would you have any interest in just laying down some cello on our tracks?,” and now he’s on all of our recorded work.  We invited him out to join us today and be a part of all this. And last, but certainly not least — we considered four years ago — when Haven joined the band when this version of Would You Kindly really? locked in. When we became what we are today, is when she joined us because her unique style of drumming and harmonies is something that we were just looking for, and much like Daniel, she had never played drums before. I saw a reel on Facebook that was about 10 seconds long of Haven drumming along and I looked at her when we saw her at a show, like at open mic or something, and I was like, you all play drums? And she’s like I don’t play drums. I was, like, I mean, I’ve seen you play drums. She’s, like, no, I don’t play drums. I was like, you play 15 instruments. Although I didn’t know the number at the time — I just learned that — but I was like, you can play drums, and so she came and auditioned for us on her birthday. She showed up to audition, and our drummer, Jake, who we love dearly. He is a co-writer on most of our first album, but he is also an amazing singer, and he has a beautiful daughter who he needed to be around more, as we started getting busier.  And so, Haven auditioned for us and for Jake, turns out was the missing piece that we needed. And so, now, we have this amazing family, that I’m so, so grateful for. He’s still here. He’s running around. He just shows up, runs on stage, sings the songs he helped write and then runs away again.

ME: Are you really a pop punk band if someone or a fan doesn’t just hop on stage to sing?

GINA: Oh, absolutely! We have a friend who raps with us on one of our songs, too. We have a song “Last Cause,” it’s got a whole wrap bridge, by our good friend Knox. Unfortunately, he wasn’t available to come jump on stage with us today, but he is incredible. So from there, you know, we got Haven in the band. And that fall, Paul and I got married, so we went from dating on her birthday to fully married. Just a month ago, Haven and Cameron got married, and so this band is full of love and family. We still have family dinners. We still, as all of us, send our manager, Josh because I like to say that the thing I’m most grateful for is, instead of finding the best musicians which they ended up being, I’m really lucky. I found the best people and it turns out they were also amazing musicians. I’m so lucky they decided that, because I can’t play anything. I can just sing, so I’m really lucky that they chose me to be there with them. I don’t know. I feel like we’re all a little lucky.

BAND: You can’t just sing. 

MEGAN: That’s, like, okay, okay, this is Gina and Paul’s story, but like? 

*BAND LAUGHS*

PAUL: This is still question one?

*BAND LAUGHS*

MEGAN: Yes, yes, yes, it is. On Gina and Paul’s first day. This is a story that Gina’s told on stage enough that I know it a little bit because I wasn’t there. But Gina said, I sing a little bit, and she did that, with the fingers. Yeah, she said, she’s saying a little bit, and then they went to karaoke. 

GINA: And I sang, “What About Us?” by Pink. Like you’re a dirty liar, and I was like, listen, it’s a little. It’s also not a little.

MEGAN: It’s okay. Okay, we can talk. 

ME: How did you pick your band name? 

GINA: We’re nerds. No, so actually, Haven is the one that asked us the question at open mic. She walked up. She’s like, what’s your band name? It had been like three or four weeks that we’ve been playing at this open mic. I was, like, we don’t have a band name, we’re just two people. She’s like, no, no, no, you need a band name. And we were playing BioShock, the video game, separately, when we met. Daniel and I were playing a run through, and Paul was playing as well. It’s one of his favorites, and there’s a sleeper agent trigger phrase, and it’s “Would You Kindly?” and then, you know? Things go crazy, and in the moment, that’s what came out. Turns out- also a super dope band name.

ME: What artists inspire your music? 

GINA: Oh, that’s really different for all of us, so I’m actually going to pass the mic on this one.

DANIEL: My inspiration is, you know, I grew up with Coldpay. So, Guy Berryman influences a lot of my bass playing. But I listen to a lot of music. And you know, I just, I just pick up things I hear. So if there was one, it’s Coldplay. 

HAVEN: I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to answer this question because we will be here way too long because me and my husband both have a very expansive amount. 

ME: Top three, off the top of your head, go.

HAVEN: Yeah, this is not a Haven question. I’m gonna pass the mic. I’m telling you it’s the worst question I’ve ever got all the time. I always get asked that, and I’m like… 

PAUL: In your house, I’ve never heard the same song twice.

HAVEN: I’m like, right. You don’t hear the same genre twice either. Like, it’s always something different and I guess influence from childhood would have been that I was classically trained. I was. I am a classically trained vocalist, pianist, and French horn player. And then, when I got out of college, I was like screw this. I want to do what I want to do, and I just kind of branched out and did everything I didn’t get to do.

ME: So who were the first artists you listened to that were outside of your classical range that were like, oh my God, I love them. 

HAVEN: Mac Miller. Yeah, I literally have a tattoo of him, so that’s cool. And I’m gonna pass the mic now to my husband, which also, yeah, good luck with that.

CAMERON: If I had to pick the top three genres, I’d have to go with ‘80’s pop music, bluegrass music, and house music like, dance music, that’s my top three genres, I’d have to say. But there’s a lot of genres I like and listen to and pull from for inspiration, because music is a wonderful, beautiful thing.

MEGAN: I’m classically trained, I suppose. As a violinist, that’s not super shocking? But besides that, I think there’s been some really amazing influences outside of classical, too. And that’ll always be a big place in my heart, and I still play with a few local symphonies and all that. But if I had to pick something that’s not classical, maybe? Well, Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon (*CLAPPING*) was probably the first album that I listened to front to back and just like, loved the flow of it, and everything. Django Reinhardt, I love the way that he uses the entire length of his instrument, and that really opened me up to possibilities of my shifting and my technique. There’s just a lot of really wonderful artists, local artists that we play with. Violet Wilder was a big one for me. They have a viola player and it’s just so lovely, and they also sing while playing, and that was a really big inspiration for me as well.

PAUL: I couldn’t tell you. I’m kind of feeling the same way as Haven and Cam over there. I have got a laundry list of musicians. My influences change consistently on account of the fact that I am seeing new musicians every single weekend, some that I’ve heard of, some that I’ve never heard of, and every single band that I play with has something to teach us. I was just speaking with the guitar tech, Matt, from Jinjer backstage, just kind of dorking out about gear stuff and seeing some of the stuff that some of those larger bands do and trying to pick up some of the stuff from things they do. I mean, some of the tricks I pulled out on stage today, I learned from other musicians, some of them from the musicians in this band, even. I mean, I grew up listening to all sorts of things. My dad was listening to 38 special and Foreigner and Styx and whatnot. And then my mom was Sam Cook and Smokey Robinson, (*GINA LAUGHS*) okay, like all over the place, and then as soon as I found out how to acquire music, I was listening to things like Pantera, Metallica, and Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden was the first band that I sat down and I learned how to play through “The Number of the Beast.” That was my first self-challenge to learn on guitar and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. Coheed and Cambria is one of my top tier and August Burns Red. Yeah, I’ve seen Coheed and Cambria 12 times and August Burns red 10 now.

GINA: The influences I’ve had in music fall a little closer to home. So, my grandfather sang on my dad’s side. My mom sings. But all of the music that I grew up on came from the different people that were in my life. So I got country music. The first song I ever learned the words to was “I Try To Think About Elvis” by Patty Loveless. But like, as a baby, my dad was driving around, and we were rocking out to “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC. AC/DC was mine and my dad’s band my whole childhood. My mom was into country music, so I grew up singing the likes of Martina McBride and Faith Hill. And then, when I was in choir and things like that, I learned Opera and Jazz. And that’s where, like, Jazz really felt cool and kind of transitioned me more towards pop.

Now people I listen to, people I practice to. I mean, I study. We were talking about this earlier yesterday, I study the performers that capture rooms because that’s the dream. So, regardless of if you like their music or not, I’m watching performers like Taylor Swift, Brendon Urie from Panic at the Disco, who I have seen live eight times, and Fall Out Boy, Haley Williams of Paramore. The people that I’ve looked up to my entire life musically and performance wise. It just pulls so much out when you see these amazing performers, but when we take it back towards home, what Megan was saying about the local artists. Playing with Violet Wilder inspired us to take more risks with harmony and use more harmony live because they do it so eloquently.

They actually played Summerfest a couple weeks ago. Seeing the likes of Ben Mulwana who also played Summerfest. He is when he comes to our shows because he likes us. I am fangirling over him just being there because he’s so talented. I mean, every musician in this room adds something to what I think a song should be when I write lyrics or add lyrics that I didn’t know belonged in the song in the first place. We share a story, our three albums that we have, we share a story, and I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than that for me. 

ME: What is your favorite or biggest thing you’ve accomplishment?

GINA: Now.

BAND: Today.

GINA: Right now.

ME: What are your feelings right now?

GINA: For about two hours after we got off stage, I cried. Every time I hugged someone, I cried. It’s surreal. I don’t even think I’ve really processed it all yet. This is a dream come true. Actually, I kind of want to hand this to Cameron. So he can tell the story. 

CAMERON: Well, I heard of Summerfest when I was in middle school. I made the decision that day that I wanted to play Summerfest, so I kept with music. I made decisions to keep doing music and not do certain other things like athletics and other ways that life may take you and I kept with music and here we all are today. 

MEGAN: If we’re gonna talk about a non-performance aspect of our accomplishments, I really think that recording and releasing our own music is a pretty big accomplishment. We don’t have a label, so everything that we do, every gig that we book, every piece of merch that we sell goes into funding our equipment and the ability to record our albums, to fund our albums, and to license and distribute, and all that stuff. It takes a lot of resources, money being one of the big ones for recording, so that’s something that I’m really proud of for us. Like, when we were recording some of these albums, we were having two or three gigs every weekend, trying to raise the money for those albums. And I’m really proud of that. We’re able to do all of that and be self-sufficient as a band, and we’re able to take our music in any direction we want to. There’s no one telling us how to sound or who to be, and we have made that the dream. We make it work, and we make it happen. 

GINA: Yeah, that’s way better. Good job. It is, I mean, we do. I mean, I’ve got to give a shout-out to our manager, Josh. When I say manager, you think someone who gets paid to help us? This man shows up at every show, loads gear, runs merch, and books 90% of our shows. I book the other 10%. He does all of that and makes zero money off of it. He just does it because he believes in what we’re doing, and that is one of the things that I’m so grateful for and having him there for us because I don’t know that we’d be sitting here right now if he wasn’t pushing us to keep going.

CAMERON: Shout out to Eric labras over at Cherry Pit Studios. He helps all of us record all our music and he is a phenomenal Studio in Menomonee Falls.

ME: Last question, any last words to the audience? Upcoming shows? Upcoming music? 

GINA: That two to three shows a week, that’s still happening. We still do, we play a lot, but I guess the next real big ones we’ve got… we’ve got a lot of local shows in Kenosha at summertime, so we play a lot of festivals out there. Like the Taste of Wisconsin, we are headlining. On the 25th of this month, we’re playing Friday night on the main stage. It’ll be our third year on the main stage, and that’s always one of my favorite crowds to play to. It’s all of our hometown people, the people who helped us when we were coming up. But other than that, September 25th is, we won the right to have an Edelweiss River Cruise here in Milwaukee. It’s dedicated to us in our performance, so we will perform for two and a half hours on the water and tickets are on sale. We don’t do a lot of ticketed gigs. When we do, we make sure that they’re going to be really special. So we’ve got a couple really cool things planned for that one and then I think the other one would be August 8th. Oh, before that, we’re playing the Grand Central stage at the Illinois State Fair, in Springfield. So, it’s a Summer full of amazing accomplishments. 

PAUL: I just want to backtrack, this Edelweiss we won. We won that because of our fans truly, we didn’t even know that it was an event, and we just started seeing our names getting tagged on a post randomly, and it was more than one person. And some of the names we recognized, some of them we didn’t, and I just really want to thank every single one of you. We would not have gotten that cruise without you. Your support means the world to us, and it’s why we are able to keep doing this, and we are going to keep doing this for you.

GINA: As long as you guys will have us? Yeah, that’s, I mean, that’s the ending point. There are our fans, our friends, our family. They keep showing up on days when it’s 96 degrees and sweltering hot and stand in the sun. They show up on the days when it’s pouring rain, every time we’ve ever played. Casey’s cabin in Illinois, it’s been pouring rain. Every time they show up and they’re there. And there are some people who… I kind of expect my mom and dad to be in the crowd a lot, right? But I don’t expect people we’ve met doing this to keep showing up every day. Danny and Billy, you guys have been there for us, every step of the way, and we are so grateful. But there are so many fans that I could think of by name, and that is a beautiful thing that we get to know you all and know your stories and we’re a band about writing stories and telling stories about being human.  Every song is something about being human. It’s one, it’s a story from one of us, or many of us, like the song, why we do it, and there’s nothing greater than hearing someone say they resonate with what you had to say. The aftermath. Our first album came from a really special place and a really painful one. And then, from there, we started writing music about power and femininity and chaos. Our most recent album, which came out October of last year, is all about finding home in your body. In the people you surround yourself with and in the four walls that you call the place you live and I’m really lucky, and I think we are all really lucky that our community has embraced us and is helping us live our dreams. Yeah, that’s it. I figure you probably want some info about our music. You can find us on social media at Would You Kindly Band on Instagram, Blue Sky, Facebook, Youtube, Spotify. Well, those are all the places you can stream.

ME: Tik Tok?

GINA: We are on TikTok, but that’s WYK Band, I think. Something like that. We don’t do a lot on TikTok. We also have a website wouldyoukindlyband.com that has all of our shows and links to all of our channels. And you can stream, Would You Kindly? anywhere you can stream music. Our three albums are The Aftermath, Queen of Hearts, and home. They are the product of everything we and our community have put in. Our trigger phrase, you know, “Would You Kindly? Thank you, thank you.” Because then our crowd says, “drink, drink”, and they’re all very happy to be there.