Bothering Dennis is an indie rock band based in central Florida. The band started out in a garage during high school but has since moved to larger venues and released their debut album last summer. Although many of the band members have relocated or gone to college, they have overcome the distance and continue to write music and perform together. Read on to learn more about rhythm guitarist and vocalist Cat Kaiser and her experiences with Bothering Dennis!
Name: Caitlin “Cat” Kaiser
Age: 19
Year: Freshman
Major: Editing, Writing and Media
Minor: Film Studies
Hometown: Longwood, FL
Courtesy: Barry Nadler
Her Campus (HC): How would you describe your band or your sound to someone who has never heard of Bothering Dennis before?
Cat Kaiser (CK): We were actually just talking about that the other day, and I think the words we used were “loud,” “fast,” and “fun,” like garage band rock. We like to think that we’re punk rock but we’re really not. We’re just sort of fun rock.
HC: “Fun rock,” I like that. I know it said “punk rock” on your Facebook, and when I listened to the music I thought early Fall Out Boy. Some Blink-182 maybe.
CK: Well Blink and Green Day are our two main influences, especially since we started out doing a bunch of Blink and Green Day covers before we started writing original stuff. I guess that’s kind of what we were going for, but obviously we wanted to make it our own sound.
HC: So you all started this band when you were in high school, right?
CK: Yes. The summer before our sophomore year, Matt, the lead guitarist, got Austin, our lead singer, and they started jamming at Matt’s house in his garage. Then they got Rachel, our bassist, and then Aman, our first drummer, came, and they decided they wanted to go for Battle of the Bands. I guess they thought they wanted it to sound more full so that Matt could do riffs over top of everything, so they asked me if I wanted to join and play rhythm guitar. By the end of sophomore year we were playing Battle of the Bands, and we won.
HC: How long were you playing guitar before you started playing with the band?
CK: I’ve been playing guitar since about sixth grade, so about four years before I was in the band.
HC: Is it difficult to stay in touch now that you’re up here living in Tallahassee? How do you all practice and write songs?
CK: We’ve always written songs individually. When it comes to songwriting, each of us will write a song by ourselves and then show it to everyone when we have practice, and then we make it into our song instead of just one person’s song. Everyone contributes by writing their own part. For example, I’m a singer/guitarist, so I’m going to write the lyrics and the guitar part. I’ll show it to the band, and then Rachel will write a bass riff, and Sean, our new drummer, will write the drum part, and Matt will come up with a crazy beat. As for staying in touch, it’s been working out a lot better than we all intended. My first semester, I didn’t have a car here and the entire month of October we had a different gig like every weekend, so I had to take a bus home every weekend. That started getting expensive, but it worked a lot better than we thought. Any time we have a gig, I can drive home since I have a car now. We have gigs in Gainesville occasionally, so that’s not as horrible of a drive. At least once a month, we try to have something whether it’s a practice or a gig. We talk over social media as well so that we can stay in touch and plan ahead. It’s a lot of planning ahead, honestly.
HC: Is everyone else living in Gainesville or around the area?
CK: I’m here in Tallahassee. Matt goes to UF, so he’s in Gainesville. Austin, Rachel, and Sean are back in Orlando, which is where we’re all from.
HC: Well that’s not too far apart.
CK: Yeah, we all live within a four-and-a-half mile radius.
Courtesy: Barry Nadler
HC: Can you describe the other members of the band a little? What’s something that each of you brings to the table that’s different from the others?
CK: Matt is the dad of the band, the one that keeps us all in line. He’s the responsible one who makes sure that things are okay before we go for them. He’s like the manager. Austin is the energy of the band. He’s our frontman, so he brings a lot blind optimism and enthusiasm to our music, our performance, and our ideas. Rachel is the chill, level-headed, down-to-earth, calm person in the band. If we’re ever stressing about anything, she’ll be the one who’s like “Guys, calm down. It’s gonna be fine.” She’s also an amazing musician. She always has a lot of good ideas musically. Quickly going back to Matt, he’s the one who writes the majority of our songs. Austin has written some songs, I’ve written some songs.
HC: I figure it’s basically a collaborative effort.
CK: Yeah, they’re all very talented. Sean, our new drummer, isn’t very new anymore. He’s been with us since about September. Sean is also very enthusiastic, which is funny because he’s like the most enthusiastic out of all of us and he’s only been with us for about four months. He’s always very excited, very outgoing, a go-getter type attitude. He’s also one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. He’s an insane drummer. They’re all such talented musicians. It’s a pleasure to be in a band with them. As for myself, I don’t really know. I write some songs every now and then. I sort of feel like I help with conflict resolution? I’m usually a go-with-the-flow kind of person.
HC: So, supportive? I know you do vocals and rhythm guitar. I guess that’s a supportive role.
CK: Yeah, I’m open-minded and willing to try new things.
HC: In what ways has being part of a band changed your life? Do you look at music differently now, or do you have different goals and dreams that you didn’t have before?
CK: I could go on for hours about how being in a band has changed my life, but I will try to keep this as straightforward as I can. I went through a really rough time in sophomore year and when the band formed, it really helped get me out of that. Being in this band has saved my life. I used to be terrified of speaking and doing things in front of people, and there was a song I wrote where I took the mic and I sang. I would shake; my knees would shake, and I would get so nervous. It would be awful, but now here I am. I just grab the mic and go. It’s so easy now and so comfortable. I’m a lot more confident in myself as a person and my abilities, and a lot more outgoing. There are things I would feel comfortable putting myself out to do now that I wouldn’t even have thought of a couple years ago. I can’t imagine what life would be like without a band. It’s out of the question, honestly. It has made my love for music increase. I’ve always loved music, but having been in this band and being able to write our own music- there’s nothing more satisfying than writing a song, being onstage, singing that song, and having the audience sing the words you wrote back to you.
HC: It’s a whole different experience compared to just listening to music.
CK: Exactly, I honestly can’t think of anything better in the world than that.
HC: I know you’ve had several gigs, including the Big Orlando and Florida Music Festival. Is there any particular place or experience that was most memorable for you?
CK: Definitely the Big O. We’ve all said it multiple times- The Big O was the best day of our lives. We’ve played at a couple festivals here and there, but nothing beats The Big O. I think it was mainly because how we got the spot was a voting contest, so people had to vote for their favorite local bands and only three local bands could make the local band stage. So we had to get all of our friends, all of our families to vote every day, and it was a huge thing around school. We have so many people who support us and love us, and we love them so much too. I think that was mainly what made it so special- that we got the spot based purely off of the support and love of our friends and family. The whole day was great. We showed up, we had a killer set. Afterwards, we had people come up, and we sold over 400 dollars in t-shirts, gave away all our EPs at the time. We had people coming up and wanting to take pictures with us, wanting us to sign their stuff- it was insane. There was like a solid hour and a half where we felt like we were famous. Then we got into the Big O for free, so we got to see Young the Giant, Fall Out Boy, and Weezer for free afterwards, which was pretty awesome. All in all, it was just a really good day.
Courtesy: Jesse Walker
HC: You mentioned your debut album. What was it like putting that together?
CK: It took about three months for us to record all ten tracks. It’s a self-titled album, so it’s called Bothering Dennis. It was super fun, countless Saturdays, countless school nights spent in the recording studio. Matt did most of the work, honestly. He recorded the majority of the guitar tracks. There were full ten-hour days where it was just Matt recording guitar tracks, and we were just there for moral support. It was an amazing experience, and I can’t wait to do it again. I’m sure in the future we will definitely record some more stuff.
HC: I also noticed that you have a new video out for “Chewing Ice,” so what was it like shooting that video?
CK: That was fun, too. We went to this really cool studio, this big white room where we just set up all of our equipment and played our song. Our friend, Jesse Walker, shot the footage in the studio, and our other friend, Barry Nadler, shot live footage from our New Year’s Eve show at West End Trading Company, and he edited the studio and live footage together. It turned out really well, and I was happy with it.
HC: You all have had a lot of exciting things happen since the beginning. Is there anything else coming up that’s new?
CK: We have a couple new songs that we played. One of them we’ve played three times now, and the other we’ve only played once because we’re still hashing it out. We’re probably going to end up recording that in the next couple of months just to have another single that’s been recorded. It’s called “Bedhead.” I wrote that one, and it’s probably my favorite song that I’ve written. On February 11th, a Thursday night, we’re playing at the High Dive in Gainesville. I’ve been trying to get us some gigs around Tallahassee, so hopefully we’ll be able to come here within the next month or so.
HC: Yeah, that’d be really awesome!
CK: Definitely. I’ve been looking at that. Other than that, we don’t have anything specific lined up yet, but I’m sure that will change soon.
Bothering Dennis will be performing on February 11, 2016 at High Dive in Gainesville, Florida. Check out the band’s music on Bandcamp and SoundCloud, and stay up-to-date with their events by following them on Facebook or Twitter and Instagram @botheringdennis!