Kidfetti - Kicking Daisies

Kicking Daisies

Take infectious punk-pop hooks, teenage enthusiasm and jaw-dropping musical skills, mix them all together and the result is Kicking Daisies. This 17-and-under four-piece, born in a Milford, Connecticut basement, is already selling out rooms with capacities in the hundreds. Band members Caitlin and Carly Kalafus, Duran Visek and Ben Spremulli are now marching steadfast towards the destiny of their rock-n-roll dream.

With hair flying and heads banging, guitars shredding and mind-blowing drum solos, the band has quickly gained a reputation for their energetic live shows, which usually end with the roar of a crowd- wide sing-along. But this is no run-of-the-mill kid band; Kicking Daisies is a fully-realized musical movement. With songs like the hard-driving "Go," an anthemic call to arms encouraging listeners to "go until you crash and burn," to "Big Bang Theory," a tour-de-force of harmonies, to the reflective ballad "These Days," the band shows songwriting maturity way beyond their years.

It all begins with 13-year-old guitar prodigy Ben Spremulli, a throwback to the guitar heroes of rock's golden age-with the skills to back it up. The Bethel, CT native has become a favorite of both fans and the press, as influential magazine The Fader recently reported: "Crowd favorite was 13-year old Ben Spremulli, or as my friend Vanessa calls him '1,000 Year Old Vampire Child,' of teen-rock band Kicking Daisies.... He played with his tongue and at one point screamed to the Gods of Rock while his waist-length hair spewed diamond tears from its roots."

Ben was eventually introduced to Grammy Award-winning producer Mike Mangini, who's worked with everyone from Joss Stone to the Jonas Brothers. The two hit it off immediately, and began their search for a singer who could keep up with Ben's frenetic pace and skills. Mangini helped find Duran Visek, whose charisma, vocal chops, guitar playing and natural frontman swagger were the perfect complement to Ben's explosive playing. The two musicians instantly gelled, and little did they know that their future rhythm section was right under their nose, three towns over.

17-year-old Caitlin Kalafus has already been hailed as one of America's fastest (and youngest) female drummers. She has rhythm in her blood, thanks to her father Chris, a middle school music teacher and veteran band member who is often found playing with his wide-eyed little girl looking on. At age eight, Caitlin was pounding Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" on a borrowed drum set, and setting her sights on a kit of her own. By nine, she had it, and was soon playing along to her favorite band Rush and their renowned drummer, Neil Peart. Fast forward six years and a million YouTube hits later, and Caitlin had become somewhat of a local legend after demonstrating her drumming chops at NAMM, the annual gathering of music merchandisers, where she scored an endorsement with Gretsch Drums. No sooner had Caitlin returned home than she met her match in Ben & Duran. The three virtuosos hit it off immediately, and all that was left was to find a bass player.

"My mom suggested Carly try the bass," Caitlin recalls. "Because she's super smart and pretty much good at everything. So I taught her a song we were working on, and within an hour, we were all jamming. We just clicked." Carly, who until that point was a competitive gymnast, remembers it differently. "At first I was, like, 'No!' I'm shy and I get nervous easily, but Caitlin begged me just to try the bass, and I gave in, like I usually do."

That first jam would prove to be a pivotal moment for all. As Ben explains, "It felt good to play together. It might not have sounded great, but we felt great." Soon after, all four began being home- schooled so they could rehearse as much as possible, and eventually tour. For Duran, it was his first chance to truly appreciate the seriousness of their endeavor. "We practiced every day, we were playing shows, meeting new people, and I was, like, 'Wow, this is hardcore,'" he recalls. "Luckily, I got it all together pretty quickly."

Also wasting no time was Mangini, who had set in motion a detailed schedule that involved time in the studio and writing sessions with the likes of Peter Zizzo (Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton) and S*A*M & Sluggo (Katy Perry, Cobra Starship). "I wanted the band to work with people who I consider amazing songwriters and great guys," he explains. "I knew they would show them the fundamentals; and what was amazing was how, after coming up with five songs with the co-writers, Caitlin went home and banged out 20 more songs."

The outcome? Undeniably hooky tunes like "Promises" and "The Big Bang Theory" (used for a series of webisodes chronicling their daily lives on www.kickingdaisies.com), the radio-ready "U Keep Me Shakin'," and the evocative composition "Masquerade," written by Carly. "It's about a girl who refuses to dress like everyone else," she reveals. "She's got a bunch of tattoos and crazy hair but she knows who she is. It's saying, 'to be different is not a crime.'"

But when it comes to their influences, Paramore is about the only band they can all agree on, and ranks at the top of their dream tour wish list. Duran cites Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead as having made a huge impact on his musical development, while Ben is on a steady diet of '80s shredders to go with his Steve Vai and Slipknot obsessions. Caitlin loves Avril Lavigne, but she also cried when she sat in the seventh row to see Rush.

Kicking Daisies has a simple philosophy towards growing as a band. "We love recording, we love to tour, we love playing music!" says Caitlin. "We all had to sacrifice to get here, we work really hard, and we want to stick together no matter where this goes." And like all things Kicking Daisies, getting there is the fun part. Says Duran: "That's pretty much the moral of this band: 'as long as you're having fun.' "