MuzicNotez: First off, it’s an honor to be doing this interview with you, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us.

What motivated you to start creating music? What age did you begin?

• Chris Kroeze: I guess creating music for me, at the beginning it was just kinda recreating what I was hearing, you know from a lot of the tapes that my dad gave me when I was a kid and my dad played guitar a little bit sitting around the campfire and it was just something I really wanted to do and ending up working out that way. I started when I was six years old, I got a guitar for my birthday and yeah I didn’t look back after that.

MuzicNotez: Who were your musical influences, idols, or bands growing up that have helped mold you into the musician you are today? Or helped mold the music that you create?

• Chris Kroeze: You know one of the big ones, for sure one of the first ones was Lynyrd Skynyrd, just as a young guitar player and just to hear those songs, I mean the guitars were like top of the mix and super guitar heavy stuff, I always wanted to play that music. Then later on, in early high school the Zach Brown Band had come out – I think it was in 2007 and yeah I just dove into that hardcore and learned all their stuff, that was a big one.

MuzicNotez: What’s the ultimate goal you want your music to achieve, or for you to achieve in your career as a musician? Any particular message you wish to send?

• Chris Kroeze: You know, I get that question a lot like, ‘where do you see yourself in five years?’ and it’s so hard to say y’know I guess my goals are kinda vague. Which more along the lines of if in five years I’m still creating music and still playing music for a living then I think I’ll be happy. Y’know I’m incredibly lucky doing what I’m doing right now and there’s always room to go up and I wanna keep taking those baby steps and all that but yeah, really it’s hard to put a concrete goal on it, but I would say the closest thing I have is if I’m still playing music in fives years I’ll be happy.

MuzicNotez: You nearly won the 15th season (airing in 2018) of The Voice, what was that whole experience like for you? How’d it change your music career?

• Chris Kroeze: That whole experience was crazy, you know I grew up in the tiny town of Barron Wisconsin. But going out to LA as a small town guy, you know I had been playing in the bars for years. I kinda never really told stories, I didn’t like talking just kinda sat in the corner of the bar and played songs for four hours a night and then got out to LA and it’s like you’re getting interviewed and they’re asking you questions and you’re supposed to talk on camera and it was like a lot of growth had to happen really fast. Overall, it was awesome and it definitely changed my life.

MuzicNotez: You’re from our great state of Wisconsin, it’s always a huge pleasure pushing local talent from here. How strong do you think the music scene is here? What are some other local artists you would like to plug?

• Chris Kroeze: You know I’m gonna lean on the front part of that, you know the music scene, I don’t know what to call it. There’s a lot of bars and stuff that has bands – they’re a great place to start playing out, there’s a lot of opportunity, there’s some good bands, and yeah, a lot of bars to play music in.

MuzicNotez: I always see you proudly pushing Kwik Trip, so when you go in there, what are you typically walking out with?

• Chris Kroeze: Man, we do like a lot of short notice grocery shopping right there! Like milk, eggs, butter – that kinda stuff, the essentials, that’s typically what we’re doing there.

MuzicNotez: What else are you working on? What can we expect to see and hear from you in the future?

• Chris Kroeze: New music always, always trying to write songs and I’m heading down to Nashville this spring to record some new music and yeah so watch for that in the future.

MuzicNotez: Anything else you wish to say about yourself or your music? Any message for your fans?

• Chris Kroeze: Really what it would boil down to, I’m incredibly grateful for all the support from everybody and the fact that I get to do this, I’m a lucky man so thank you.

Find some other Wisconsin artists like Chris Kroeze below.

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