Another Newsroom Live performance gearing up toward Eagle Radio Music Festival happened recently with local brother-duo, Holt & Cabe
In an interview hosted by Eagle Media Executive Editor Tori Foltz, the brothers shared what it is like to make music as siblings and the background behind the folk music they perform.
Read the full interview below:
Tori Foltz (TF): How did you guys get into making music together?
Cabe Rieck (CR): So we actually started on piano about 10 years ago or so, and we were doing some solo pieces, and then we got to do some duets together. And eventually, after I got fired by my piano instructor for no reason whatsoever. Actually, there wasn’t too much of a reason, but we transitioned over to songwriting and then stringed instruments, and then we’re doing what we do now.
TF: What were some of your early music influences?
Holt Rieck (HR): I would say our really musical influences we had a neighbor that lived next to us back then, and he gave us a couple of CDS. He gave us a Clancy Brothers CD, and he gave us a Flatt and Scruggs CD, and we listened to those actually quite a few times. An Everly Brothers CD, which was interesting because they were brothers as well. So, we kind of ended up finding a bunch of different country music duos and some folk music stuff, like Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger, and of course, Woody Guthrie. Then, we found we kind of merged, we kind of just continued going into more bluegrass stuff. We started listening to some stuff and got to see Billy Strings do some of his stuff. Yeah, it’s been cool to watch all that and then it’s kind of morphed over the years.
CR: When we were really little we’d listen to a lot of They Might Be Giants music, and they’re actually one of our favorite bands. Now, probably our favorite.
HR: And also, there was this show that we watched, “Malcolm in the Middle,” and I didn’t know the tracks on there. I mean, the tracks were super familiar on there, both those were They Might Be Giants tracks, like almost all of the soundtracks. ‘You’re not the boss of me, now,’ it’s kind of ingrained in the back of my head somewhere.
TF: What is it like being a sibling duo in the music industry?
CR: Well, it’s a lot of fun. We get to be with each other a lot and we don’t have to arrange band practices too much. Other than that, we go into the music room and play some music. So, that’s really, really, really fun.
HR: Also, we’ve been writing music together for so long that we started picking up on what each other is thinking and how things are moving with the music and what we’re doing- improvisation and stuff like that. So, that’s super fun. It’d be really hard to have that with anyone else.
TF: You said you started getting into music about 10 years ago. So, how has your style changed between then and now?
CR: So when we started out, we’re, of course, on our piano music, which was a lot of like Ragtime type stuff. But then when we moved over to our first songwriting pieces, those were almost all like folk, a little bit of bluegrass, but it was all, you know, ukulele songs. So you can only have so much of a bluegrass sound lately, but then, we did transition over to bluegrass from there. Since then, a little bit more over to swing and alternative rock, some of that type of stuff. And some 70s rock,
TF: You mentioned you play ukulele. What other instruments do you guys play?
HR: I play guitar and questionably banjo, accordion and not as questionably harmonica. Though that’s been I don’t play it out publicly that often.
CR: He also plays foot tambourine, a very skillful instrument when we used to busk.
HR: I would play harmonica and foot tambourine and guitar, and that was super fun. We would go out on the streets, just in like, totally random places where we were allowed to we actually had some like, different, like, business permits and stuff for various things. And we would just, you know, like, out to the open air for, you know, a tip bucket, but also just for fun.
CR: I play mandolin, and, of course, a little bit of ukulele still. And then I’ve really gotten into electric mandolin recently, which is really just a very fun instrument.
TF: What is your songwriting process like?
CR: So we actually have a lot of different methods of songwriting. One of the main ones we’ve had fun doing is just putting a bunch of song titles in, like a hat or a bucket, and then we just pull a couple out. Then, whatever we think we want to write at the time, we’ll go ahead and write. And so we’ve got a lot of most of our recent songs through that method. But then, of course, just random notes. And then sometimes we just really sit down and go, Okay, we’re going to write something fresh and new, right? A lot of different things.
TF: So, you guys are students and you are musicians. So, how do you guys balance school and music?
HR: It’s pretty interesting. We pretty much just do music whenever we’re not doing school. But, we work things in. Cabe and I have been having some fun this semester organizing our schedule so we can fit in some video editing and some extra songwriting, so we can put out some fun content. It is hard because sometimes there’s a fun festival that we get to go play, and then there’s an exam on Monday morning or whatever. But I think it’s all worth it in the end, if it’s more tightly packed all together, but at least we got to do it also.
TF: You guys go to a lot of festivals. What is that experience like for you guys?
CR: Well, we’ve gone to a lot of folk festivals here in Florida, and those are really, really fun. They’re just most of the festivals are like camping experiences where you are in a tent for a couple of days. Then, you perform once or twice a day at different places, and it’s just fun to like see all the different like other acts and musicians there, and then also, we know a lot of the people at those festivals now, since We’ve been going to the movie The last three years, something like that.
HR: There’s also midnight jamming and stuff around campfires with other musicians and stuff. So honestly, that’s probably the best part about festivals just getting to meet other musicians and make music.
TF: You’re going to be playing one of your recent releases “Paid in Pennies” today. I wanted to ask you guys, what was the inspiration for that song?
HR: Well, there are many interpretations and there are many layers to the song, but I think Cabe can give you at least one of the explanations.
CR: Yeah, so at least the like, the pennies portion of the song, why we seem so obsessed with pennies, especially in the music video, is that I actually do a thing called coin roll hunting. So that’s when you go to a bank and you get a big box of coins, pennies, nickels, half dollars. , Then you search for rare coins. So I like coin collecting a lot, but yeah, so that’s kind of where that came from. I collect a lot of pennies. And there were some other inspirations as well.
TF: Do you guys have any upcoming releases?
HR: We have been trying to put out a mini song episode every it’s usually Monday, probably Tuesday, is the latest we put one out. Put a mini-song episode out yesterday, and then, on YouTube is where we put those. But there we put them on all of our social platforms. But that’s the kind of the easiest way we built them for that platform.
CR: A couple of things are in the works. We don’t have any exact dates yet for new releases, but we definitely have a lot of stuff in the works.
TF: Where can viewers find all your music?
HR: So we have a YouTube page that’s Holt&Cabe, (@holtandcabe) and we also have an Instagram page that’s the same, the same handle.
If you want to hear more from Holt & Cabe, join us at Eagle Radio’s Music Festival on March 20 from 6-11 p.m.
On March 3, the next Newsroom Live video performance, featuring local artist Jet Just Landed, will be available on YouTube, @entveaglemedia.
