Artist Information

Instrumentation
Lori Keisler - Lead Vocals, Guitar (Railroad track and Sledge hammer)
Jay (Dr. Knobs) Valley - Vocals, Bass Guitar.
Jim Ellis - Vocals, Percussion.
(Uncle) Steve Haupert - Lead Vocals, Slide, Rythm and Lead Guitar.

Biography
Hide From Cleo. Original, Intelligent, sometimes experimental, music from the northern climes of the USA. In the short time that they have been together, since November 2004, Hide from Cleo have been drawing on their extensive song writing and performing backgrounds to produce music that ranges from Hard Rock to R&B, crossover folk, country and blues. Members of the band have shared the stage with Kid Rock, played the House of Blues in Las Vegas and have been a big part of the Michigan Music scene for years. Think about what would happen if Janis Joplin, Jewell, Tom Waits and Joe Cocker joined the Counting Crows... That's Hide From Cleo. Sort of...

November 19th 2005 H.F.C. took the three hour trip down to Detroit for the Emergenza Music Festival and did battle with 32 of Detroits best local bands. Even though they were not a local band, Hide From Cleo won anyway, scoring signifcanly more votes than any of the other bands over the four nights of the festival. (Which is a testament to the energy of their live show) The band will be continuing on in the contest on the way to one hundred thousand dollars in prizes and a fully paid tour of Europe.

Recently, Hide From Cleo was chosen, over all other entrants, by WQLB FM 103.3 (BROCK) to share the stage with GRINDER a band that featured local sports hero and Detroit Red Wing Darren McCarty. The show, scheduled for July 9th 2005 was held at the 1500 seat Northern Lights Arena in Alpena, Michigan. The band was chosen because of it's well known "local draw potential" and great live show.

Although the band is a strident advocate of recording and playing live, letting the people hear how it really is, it is interesting to note that their first attempt at a studio demo version, "You made love a lie" reached the top ten at BroadJam.com for three weeks straight in the months of December and January 2005. Hide From Cleo are currently receiving regular airplay on Northeastern Michigans' WKJC 104.7 FM and WQLB 103.3 FM these stations cover most of northeastern and central Michigan. These stations have proven to be stident advocates of the bands music. (for which the band is eternally grateful) The band has also been featured on WKJC's "CWJunction" a one hour show that features new music from around the entire Northeastern Michigan listening area. (This interview is available for download on Hide From Cleo's music page - www.hidefromcleo.com)

The bands live shows are dynamic, like a romantic candle light date with nothing to drink but Jagermeister. Everything starts out all calm, warm, and fuzzy, but by the end of the evening someone is always swinging around from the chandelier naked... (Hide from Cleo are an official "Jagerband" and are proud of the working relationship they maintain) Hide from Cleo’s music offers something for everybody… With Live shows just as well suited to coffee houses as rock and roll bars. This is versatile music, for music lovers.

Working on your second year now, would you say Hide From Cleo has the right chemistry to take it all the way to the success you seek?
HELL YES. I think we are different enough to be interesting and that we have our goals set to where we can achieve them. I think that some of these songs are going to out live us. They are just good stories.

Who formed Hide From Cleo?
Lori Keisler and I (Steve Haupert) are the controlling interest (How’s that for a business term) in the band. I met her on a Sunday afternoon she was bartending in a local (THE TAWAS BAR) bar – I was strumming on my guitar and crying in my beer after leaving a previous band. She ended up sitting on the bar playing and singing. (I thought “hhhmmmmmmmm”)

How did the rest of the band get together?
Lori and I started doing acoustic gigs together around town. All original stuff. We made it known to everybody we were looking for a drummer and a bass player. At first it was rough going, I think for some people it’s hard to believe that people will like “Original” music – especially in a small town like Tawas, Michigan. So we went through a couple of guys before we ended up with Jim (Drums) and Jay (Bass) at first it was kind of discouraging but we hung in there until we found some guys that believed in the music like we did.

What kind of musical backgrounds do each of you have?
We’ve all messed around in different bands and all of us seem to have dedicated ourselves to music in one way or another:

Jim’s been a drummer for various Detroit bands and has had a couple of studio projects that did pretty well. He really is an incredible drummer.

Jay’s been in every band in Iosco County. He also went to school for recording and engineering and has his degree in that kind of thing. He plays Bass, Rhythm and lead Guitar. He can also play drums in a pinch. He is truly an incredible musician.

I’m told Lori’s dad was one hell of a guitar player in his day. (One of the better players in Michigan) Lori has always been around with her guitar, she is always being asked by the other local bands to come join them. (They are jealous)

As far as I go – I’m pretty much self-taught at everything. Sometimes I make good mistakes though.

Were you all born and raised in Michigan? If not, where did you come from?
We were all from here or around here. Jim came up from down in the Detroit area. But I think he has always had family around here.

It’s cool being from this kind of a rural area, lately, because it is a small town, we are starting to feel like the community is behind us. Of course along with that comes the feeling that we’d better not mess up or their going to kick our ass. We are still the same dumbasses that crashed our cars last weekend or broke up with our girlfriends.

Here’s an example of the kind of treatment you get. Last week the check out girl (Jessica) at the hardware store told me her that her mom had been in to see us the night before. It was embarrassing because she also informed me that her mother didn’t like a couple of the new songs that we were doing, and that the mix wasn’t right. I’m standing there with a bag of dog food and some hinges for a broken closet door. Then as I’m loading the stuff into my trunk, the guy that was behind me in line wanders by and says he caught part of the show the night before and he agrees.. It’s funny – and you can’t pay anybody for that kind of honesty.

Do you all write songs? Or do you have a chief songwriter?
Lori and I started with such a huge backlog of songs; we are really just now getting to the point where we are starting to write together as a band. For Lori and I it’s really cool to have a “rhythm section” I think we were both so used to just sitting around with our acoustics and writing, Jay and Jim keep coming up with these ideas that are really opening things up for us creatively.

How do you go about the creation of a song?
For me it’s all kinds of ways. Sometimes it’s a cool guitar part. Sometimes it’s a significant event in your life. Sometimes it’s a saying that gets in your head when you are really hung over – and you can’t make it go away. One time I even dreamed a song – I woke up and sang it to my wife. I dreamed I had hair… (Maybe not one of my best songs – but it makes my friends laugh)

Do you find it hard finding places to play in Michigan or are there a decent amount of clubs you can hit up regularly?
It’s hard – We know we are a good band. We know these songs are good. But some places in rural Michigan people would rather go Karaoke then see a band.. We guess they want to be stars too… Sometimes you get the crowd that only wants to hear some Bad Company, Bob Seager or Ted Nugent those nights are rough. Then, just about when you are about to give up, you find a place like this place Hoppes Hut we play in Stroud, Michigan. Out in the middle of nowhere, just a bunch of cows, corn and potato fields. We show up set our stuff up and everybody dances all night long. They all say they are so happy not to be hearing the same old cover songs that all the other bands play. (Go figure)

Has Hide From Cleo played anywhere else outside of Michigan and Chicago?
We’ve been taking show case gigs for record companies here and there. But we aren’t what the record labels are looking for. Those guys are looking for a bunch of 19 year old’s that they can mold in the image that is hot right there and then. I think the music industry has had it so hard lately with pirating and such that they are really-really tight with their money. It’s a sad situation for them, because as musicians we’ve learned to be almost self- supporting. We do all the recording, distribution, merchandising etc. For us it’s getting to be a “what exactly do we need you for?” kind of thing. Here we are selling our CD’s and stuff and we are quickly developing to the point where we are not going to want to cut anybody else in because all it would mean is that we’d be giving them a share of the profit.

Are there any places you have yet to play that you'd like to perform at yet?
We’d like to do a bit more touring, for short stints anyway. As the snowball gets bigger we’ll probably all take leave from our day jobs. We find that the best way to get our music out there is obviously to get out there and play. (Even if you do have to listen to a bunch of drunken guys yelling for Skynrd)

By looking at your past and current calendar, would it be safe to say that your strength lies in your concerts?
Yes- and I think we get better all the time. But the new CD just came out and it’s getting some pretty good reviews. I’d say we are pretty well rounded.

What forms of promotion have proven effective for you?
We played a thing in Grand Rapids, Michigan a month or so ago. NoCover TV – I think it’s NOCOVERTV.NET – This guy big AL runs it. It’s like a Waynes World type thing. A bit more upscale but the atmosphere isn’t at all stuffy. We noticed that after the show aired – the hits on our website more than doubled. That’s about the only way besides CD sales, that we have of measuring that kind of thing. (Contact BIG AL at Nocover TV he is a cool guy)

How did it feel winning Emergenza last year?
Cool! Last November we won the first round of the contest for Detroit. Which is pretty damn good for a band that hardly ever plays there. Then, April 22nd this year we won our second round! It’s funny, because we hear things like, “Those guys just came out of nowhere”. It’s cool. But the music competion thing is a bit of a two sided thing. It gets pretty intense – and people can get their feelings hurt if they don’t win.

Anyway, the final round of this deal is sometime this summer at The Metro out there in Chicago, which is funny because I lived about a block away from Metro when I was in college out there. I’m going to feel kind of like I’m coming home.

Do you think you'll be able to win a second year in a row?
We always think positively in this band Lori and I swat each other if we get all pessimistic. And she can hit pretty hard.

You seem to be getting a lot of acclaim, how did it feel playing at the Northern Lights Arena?
Playing big places in front of big crowds is what it is all about. It’s the same rush going surfing or jumping out of an airplane. You get so focused that sometimes it’s like everything slows down. I kind of think that you can get addicted to that – not in a negative way – I think it really is just being in the moment. Not thinking about anything but that one thing. Then you look up and everybody has left the building and your friends are putting your guitar cases away for you.

How have these great fruits of your labor influenced your outlook on the bands future and direction?
We aren’t gonna quit that’s for sure – we’ve been together for just over a year really. We feel like we are just getting started.

How do you think the Internet and digital music have changed music? Do you feel it is a change for the better or worse?
I think it’s worse. I think the glory days are gone. But that said, I also think that down the road people will start to realize hey “My coping that song for free is really stealing” – of course by then we might have all starved to death, and nobody will actually know how to play an instrument anymore.

Well, besides a ton of shows this year, what else do you have going on?
Well we are working on getting or first CD “Alabaster” out into the hands of the public. We are learning “distribution” ropes. (Buy the CD at www.hidefromcleo.com)We are working on our second CD. Which is going to be a collection of slow songs for a coffee shop type crowd. – So we have something to do during the week when that bars are not hopping. And we’ve already got the songs for our third CD lined up. It’s just a question of getting the time to record them.

We'd like to thank you for your time today!
WE LOVE YOU.
COME SEE US AT WEEDS. (OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY)

Steve, Lori, Jay and JIM

(Hide From Cleo)

Website
http://www.hidefromcleo.com

Discography
Check out www.hidefromcleo.com our music/clips page has many more of our songs posted and clips from radio interviews around the area...

Also, Check out www.cdbaby.com/hidefromcleo for "Volume One" Demo CD.

Current releases include "Live and Imperfect" a live compilation recorded and mastered by WKJC radio 104.7 FM. WKJC which serves all of North Eastern Michigan recorded Hide from Cleo for an hour long radio special that aired in January 2005.

The songs posted here are from the bands CD "Alabaster" which is scheduled for release mid Feburary 2006.