Moonshiners play original music by MHS graduate

Posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2010

In the past year and a half, a new local band has come together that features original music written by Madison High School graduate Alex Haiar.

Alex Haiar and the Moonshiners was formed as the result of Haiar meeting Brady Bothwell. Haiar plays the guitar and writes music. Bothwell plays the drums.

"We played together once and just started to click," Haiar said.

The search began for a bass player, whom they found in John Gibson of Brookings. Soon the band also included Adam Jungemann of Huron on lead guitar and vocalist Tracy Olson of Egan.

The band's debut performance was in the fall of 2008 at a Battle of the Bands competition sponsored by South Dakota State University.

"At the time, we had two songs and we needed to fill a 20-minute set," Haiar said.

In the weeks leading up to the competition, Bothwell said, songs came together to fill the set, including one song which was written the night before the competition.

"One of my personal favorites was written in a crunch to fill up time for the Battle of the Bands," Bothwell said.

That song is "Livin' Free," which has continued to change since that first competition in Brookings.

"It's a great, fast-paced, in-your-face song," Haiar said. "It has evolved through the shows we've played. It's more of a finished, developed song now."

Another challenge was coming up with a name for the band. Bothwell and Haiar said they picked Alex Haiar and the Moonshiners for the competition and it just stuck.

And what happened at the competition?

"We won the Battle of the Bands," Haiar said. "It was a lot of fun. It was our first, so we went on from there."

Over the past year, Haiar and Bothwell said, the focus of the band has been to learn more songs and play more shows.

"Last summer we focused on writing songs and playing a few shows," Haiar said. "We're now ready to play as much as possible."

Bothwell said the biggest debt they owe is to the owners of the Nunda Bar, Mary and Mike Flatten, who have given them several opportunities to perform.

"We owe it to a few places," Bothwell said. "They took a chance on us, like Mary at the Nunda Bar. She took us in under her wing."

Other local performances have included the MHS after-prom party.

Haiar, who graduated from MHS in 2006, said the experience was different, but he enjoyed being back.

"I personally love coming back to Madison," he said. "Going back to high school prom was scary but fun."

Asked about their style of music, Bothwell and Haiar explained that the music is classic rock and rock country.

"It's classic rock with a country influence," Bothwell said.

"We're trying to fuse rock and country," Haiar explained.

"There's a branch of country that's a direct descendant of classic rock," Bothwell said. "It's a good mix."

For Bothwell and Haiar, their music is all about providing good entertainment.

"We want bars to have a good experience and fans to have a good experience," Haiar said. "We're not trying to blow the doors off. We want our fans to want to listen to us, not make our fans listen to us."

Bothwell said that playing for an audience makes him feel alive.

"You're always on your toes. You see how much fun everyone else is having, and you see the collaboration between five people who make it work somehow," he said. "It's really fun to see people have fun."

For Haiar, playing live music is always thinking about what's coming next.

"That's how we live," he said. "We're always looking ahead."

It's also an opportuntiy for friends to have a good time and forget about their worries for a while.

"It's a good surrounding to be in when you're with your friends," Haiar said.

And the band wouldn't be what it is without each performer.

"It's been awesome. We all get along great," Haiar said. "Everyone understands their role and performs their role."

"We definitely wouldn't be where we're at without the rest of the band," Bothwell said. "Everyone brings in their own style and personality, and everyone just naturally gets better because of everyone else."

Haiar is the son of former Madison residents Mike and Trudy Haiar. Bothwell, a 2004 graduate of Colman-Egan High School, is the son of Todd Bothwell of Colman and Kris Thompson of Volga. He is currently pursuing a graduate degree at Dakota State University.

The band will perform at Rumors on Saturday and has upcoming performances in Nunda, at the Trojan Tap, the Shamrock in Brookings, the Fredrick Street Dance and the Nunda Firemen's fund-raiser.