For the Pocono Record
November 19, 2010
While most teenagers are hanging out with friends and playing video games in their spare time, there are a few working hard to make it big in the music industry.
Just ask Caitlin Kalasus of the band Kicking Daisies. The 17-year-old Fairfield, Conn., drummer, along with her sister and two friends, started the band that Radio Disney fans know well.
"When Ben was 12, he started playing in a band. Our manager told our producer to go see him. They got in touch with Duran, our vocalist and guitar player in Florida," said Kalasus. "They found me on YouTube and came over one day to jam, but we still needed a bass player. My sister wasn't into music, but I told her she was going to play bass. She picked it up in just an hour."
Kalasus is the oldest in the group. Her sister the bass player, Carly, is 14 years old. Vocalist and guitar player Duran Visek is 15 years old, and lead guitarist Ben Spremulli is 14. But don't let their ages fool you; they know what they want and are working hard to get it.
"We really fit so well together. We just clicked. It had to be meant to be," Kalasus said. "We're four pieces of a puzzle."
The band is opening for Hanson at the Sherman Theater tonight and excited about the opportunity.
"I was playing with my dad at 12 years old, and now I'm opening for Hanson," she said. "My friends were all freaking out when I told them."
The excitement doesn't stop for the foursome at opening for Hanson. The band is competing in a contest at Radio Disney.
"We are one of five artists in the Radio Disney's Next Big Thing contest. It's on the Disney channel and on the radio," Kalasus said. "You can vote from Nov. 24 to the 29th online, and the one with the most votes wins."
Everything happened so fast for the band, and Kalasus said every now and then she ponders how far they've come.
"Every once in a while I'll stop and think, 'Oh, wow.' It happened a few months ago in California and I started getting teary-eyed when I was in a car full of well-known producers doing Radio Disney's 'Next Big Thing,'" she said. "I picked up a drumstick at 8 years old and now this. I can't believe this is all happening. I really wanted to be famous or on TV, and thought it would never happen."
After the contest, Kalasus said the group hopes to "keep walking up the long staircase of awesomeness, and get to the top and scream, 'This is what I was hoping for!'" They also have plans to finish their first album and go on their own tour.
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