On April 18, members of WSUP including Rygar Carvajal, Lauren Bonnell, Alexander Morales, Annabelle Wojahn and I had an amazing opportunity to interview the band Good Kid. The event was held at Memorial Union at UW-Madison and was WSUP’s first in-person interview since COVID-19. 

Back during WSUP’s fifty-eighth birthday, I had the bright idea at 3 a.m. to contact Good Kid on a pure whim. Our outgoing manager, Gustavo Morales, interviewed the band back in March 2019, a year before COVID-19 hit. For some reason, I was really inspired that night to contact as many people as possible. We had done so many interviews pre-COVID-19 that maybe these artists and bands might possibly remember WSUP. Somehow, out of the blue, while contacting every member in the band, I got a response back that night. 

Michael Kozakov, the band’s bass player, instantly agreed to help me further a plan into making this dream a reality. He was soon getting me in contact with the band’s manager, Crispin Day. Looking back, I barely slept that night just out of pure shock and excitement. I never actually thought I would get any kind of answer. 

After months of planning, the whole WSUP squad geared up and drove to Madison. The hour drive was spent listening to the band’s many albums, while also avoiding hitting the thousands of robots that roam the streets of Madison. 

I was quite nervous the entire ride there as I focused on the interview and how it was going to go. I had only done one interview before. It was with Raine Stern from The Voice, which was done over Zoom. But in this interview, I was in front of Nick Frosst the lead vocalist, Michael Kozakov the bassist, and with Jacob Tsafantinos and David Wood who play guitar. All of us were crammed into one small room as Lauren and Alex had three separate phones out live streaming the entire interview. 

We were in a university room that was being used as a “green room.” Students repeatedly kept walking into it. I mean, there were about four students, I kid you not, who opened the door fully, walked in, stared, and realized the room was occupied. We also had Dennis, a stuffed white unicorn we keep in the studio, there in the room. Obviously, this was an instant hit with the band who just passed him around as they each gave him a hug. 

This was an extraordinary night in general as the band was just ending their Speed Run Tour. The band had a show the previous night, April 17, in Chicago, Illinois. Madison’s show was a last-minute wrap-up for the tour. I knew for sure this was a perfect time to question the band more in-depth about the future and their thoughts and favorite moments so far. 

One of my favorite moments from the interview had to have been when I asked the band, “If you could go on tour anywhere, is there any state you really want to visit?”

 In response, Michael Kozakov stated, “I can’t wait for the day when we can play Austin, I really want to go there, and I also want to go to Portland. I spent the summer in Seattle and Portland is so close, and I made all these plans to go there, but I really want to play there one day.”

 David Wood mentioned, “Mexico City. When we first started out, there was only one song out and there was an Instagram page for our fans. There were a few kids from Mexico City that made a bunch of posts about our band. We still talk about it even though the page stopped being active in 2018, but it was interesting to see people who enjoyed our music.” 

“So, are you guys excited about tonight, seeing that this is a very interesting venue?” I asked.

Nick Frosst mentioned, “Since we haven’t played at a university in such a long time, we were thinking about maybe adding like an opener or maybe doing a lecture.” 

After our quick interview with the band, we made our way downstairs to the cafeteria where we had the opportunity to watch the band perform live. The experience was something else, especially seeing as COVID-19 restricted concerts in general. Getting to dance and jam up close to the band was something one normally never gets to do at most concerts. Usually, the audience is shoulder to shoulder with tons of people, but here we were feet away from the band using the whole floor. 

Getting to interview the band really was something spectacular. Back in 2019 when Gustavo interviewed the band, he was so stoked and excited to do this. It drove him to work hard as the manager for WSUP. Having this same opportunity truly opened my eyes to all the opportunities we have as an organization. 

If you’re interested in getting involved in radio, whether to interview bands, to make podcasts, to be an on-air DJ and more come down to Pioneer Tower room 42. You can also find us on Pioneer Link or contact us at [email protected] for more information.