by Tammy Peacy
Click here to listen to the Radioactive Squirrels
John Schuld performed two shows the night before our meeting at downtown coffee shop Carolyn’s Coffee Connection. He walked in wearing a black t-shirt with a white peace symbol on the front and a backwards baseball cap. On his feet he wore brown Birkenstocks and he carried in his hand a can of soda. Not exactly the attire or accessories one might expect on a man who would prove to be a super hero in less than one hour. But we’ll get to that.
One of the shows John and his band The Radioactive Squirrels performed was at the Kenosha Yacht Club. “Private parties all have the same common denominator,” John began, giving me a little lesson in the life of a musician, “and that is that you’re background music for the first two or three hours and the last hour they don’t want you to stop. Always.”
Their second show of the evening was for Jammin’ for the Arts in Racine, where they followed a band playing Iron Maiden and Motor Head. “And then here come the Radioactive Squirrels playing Violent Femmes and the Ramones and stuff.” Did they do their cover of Prince’s “Purple Rain”? “We stayed away from that one.” They were able to keep the crowd pacified by playing the Doors and Rolling Stones. “We try to adapt, so we don’t get hurt,” John laughs. “When we walked in there were four fights happening.”
Tammy: When I went to your website and realized you guys were a cover band, honestly I was like, “Oh, a cover band.” Kind of disappointed. But then when I listened to it I said, “Yay!” because you took the songs and made them your own.
T: How did you come up with that concept?
T: How did you all get together?
The one thing he said, and we both agreed, was that we wanted to play Summerfest. So that was kind of the whole idea. That we would create a band that was gonna have marketability, that would be different. And with a logo and the t-shirts and the bumper stickers. All that stuff.
We met Pat, he’s our bass player, he came in maybe six months later. We were playing with a couple of other guys and it was like any other local band, a lot of standards and stuff. There was really nothing special about it. As far as Pat’s musicianship and his vocal ability, he’s probably the most talented guy in the band. But he’s somewhat of an introvert. He’s got a better voice than any of us, but we only get to hear it on rare occasions. He sings back up, but he doesn’t really sing any songs lead.
We were looking for a new guitar player and Aaron was available. He was just coming out of this other project. He was good and he had a lot of energy, which is what we were looking for.
T: You guys have a ton of energy on stage. What do you do to prep for a show?
A lot of it, especially locally, has to do with the people who come to see us and the enthusiasm and the people that are cheering and screaming. We’ve played a lot of big cities, but I wouldn’t trade any of them for the local clubs. It feels like home. That feeds the energy, too.
T: Do you guys play any original songs?
T: How many years have you been doing this?
T: What made you decide to be a musician?
I had a friend that I’d known in the military who would invite me out every year to North Platte, Nebraska, literally in the middle of nowhere. I’d fly into Omaha with my guitar and all my clothes and stuff and he’d pick me up and it’s like a six hour drive from the airport to where this guy lived. There would be a bonfire on the beach and it felt safe because I knew if I messed up a song I didn’t know these people.
I learned a lot of songs on my own. I took guitar lessons after college. A friend of mine, a Deadhead, he showed me a couple of chords and that’s how it started.
Then fast forward ten years. We relocated to Kenosha. Me and a good friend of mine were looking for a place to go to have a beer. We stumbled into Captain Mike’s. They had an open mic and there were tons of people, a lot of energy up there. People would go up and play two or three songs. My friend was encouraging me to get up there and I said, “No, no way.” But I did and people went crazy. I walked out of there and I had my first shot of that adrenaline rush you get from a crowd responding to something your doing in a positive way. And that was it. I became an addict. That was four years ago.
T: What was your involvement with the Bloomin’ Days festival?
T: So, what is it about musicians?
As we were wrapping up our time spent together, a shrill scream called our attention to the coffee shop on the other side of the street.
“Help me! Help! He took my purse!”
John stood, and perhaps I imagined the superhero stance- fists at waist, barrel chest thrust proudly forward, red cape flowing majestically behind him- but this next part is true. He kicked away his twelve-year-old Birkenstocks (“Played most of my gigs in ‘em, even in the winter. They finally blew out that day.”) and he ran, with bare feet, at top speed after the purse snatcher. Before I could fully absorb what had just happened, John rounded the corner and out of view.
After a quick call to 9-1-1, I waited. And waited. Maria Caravati pulled up on her bike, stopping by to say hello after seeing John’s car.
“He’s chasing a purse snatcher,” I told her. She went looking for him and returned a short while later. She didn’t see John, but she did see “the whole Kenosha Police Department.”
John arrived minutes later, shoeless and now sunglassesless.
“Did you catch him?” we inquired.
“No, but I almost did. I broke my sunglasses. They were my favorite.”
I received this update from John via email:
“I wanted you to know that they caught the kid that stole that lady’s purse. They caught him climbing the fence in and out of the construction site where they later found the lady’s purse, her wallet, money, etc. I spoke with her afterwards and she was very grateful. She even knew me from the band. She raised her hands and said ‘Squirrels rock!’ A small price to pay for my broken sunglasses.”
Yeah. Well. Hmmm. To continue writing after this seems anticlimactic.
John Schuld, you have been “Exposed”
John and the Radioactive Squirrels can be contacted at info@radioactivesquirrels.com
Tammy Peacy finds time to write between loads of laundry in the basement of the home she shares with her husband, Steve, and their three children. Her writing has been published in AntiMuse, Chick Flicks Ezine, The Write Side Up, and Wanderings Magazine, and ExposeKenosha.com
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4 comments ↓
About 4 years ago, I was working with John Schuld’s wife and mentioned that my 15 year old son was a very talented saxophonist. She told me about John’s band and said that I should contact John about having my son sit in with them sometime. John was very gracious and agreed to let him play a few blues tunes with them at a local gig. The crowd loved my son so much that he ended up playing for a couple of hours with the Squirrels. John also hooked my son up with other musicians that lead to many more gigs over the years. John has been a wonderful mentor to my son, as well as a great friend to my husband & I. My son is now a sophomore at Columbia College in Chicago earning a music degree, and I know that when he wins his first Grammy Award, John Schuld will be one of the people that he will thank.
John is not only a superhero, he’s a great lead singer and a plain old nice guy. He made my recording for opera audition applications completely free of charge, and did a super job. Thanks, John! And I love the superhero story. We’ll know who to call next time there’s trouble brewing (or if we just want to share a brew)…
Tammy ~ super! This interview is entertaining and informative, all the way through…and oh - I am so happy to see chivalry alive and well in a man.
I could picture John in that superhero pose “Halt wrongdoer!” John Schuld is a great, funny and compassionate guy…his stepping in on a purse snatching to help someone fits right in with the type of person he has impressed me as. The Squirrels are a great band…I’m even prouder to be their artist that I was before! Interesting side note: rural Pennsylvanians are confused by Radioactive Squirrel stickers :>)
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