The Upstart

Eleanor Alexander from Olivet High School received the Sparty award for Journalism Excellence. Her feature story on Joe Hertler is below. You can also view her feature page design.

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“He can serenade me anytime,” Kimberly Childress giggled with a dreamy smile on her face as she swayed to the singing of Joe Hertler. In fact, the whole audience seemed to be entranced by Hertler, nodding and clapping along with the music and talking with him in between songs. He cracked jokes (the kind that actually make you laugh), handed out saltine crackers and acted like he was hanging out with a group of friends, not performing in front of an audience. And at only twenty four, the young music artist is excited about the long path that lies ahead for both himself and his band.

Hertler started by singing in coffee shops, than self-released his own record online, and shortly after he was signed by a small indie label based out of Michigan. Under this label he ended up with a gig at a local musical festival, where he met and became friends with another band performing there. At the time, none of them knew that in the not too distant future, they would come together to form Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers.

“Bands are sort of like dating really.” Hertler said about the formation of The Rainbow Seekers. “They just kinda happen out of nowhere. Woah, wow, we get along…in regards to a relationship perspective, we would like to get married one day. Hopefully it leads to that.”

When asked about the genre of the bands unique sound, Hertler struggled to classify the music.

“The stuff I played tonight, I would think most people would probably consider that to be folk. But with the band it’s a lot more rock and roll.” He went on to call it very energetic and flamboyant, with a hint of classical. The band has total of seven members, including Hertler himself, guitarist Ryan Hoger, a drummer, a keyboardist, a strings player, a violinist, and a saxophone.

The success of the band has done nothing but grow. Their first album, On Being, sold over 1,400 copies, with no outside help. Now the band is wrapping up their second album, Live at Russell.

“We were working on it for like a year. So I hope it’s good,” Hoger said with a laugh, “It better be good.”

With the release of their Live at Russell, the band will be focusing on promoting this new CD, traveling around performing their new songs. Other than that, there are no definite plans for the band.

“I have no idea, really,” said Hoger, when asked about what the band is planning on for the future. “Six months ago I couldn’t have told you where I was gonna be now.” Although there is a high risk in the industry of not making it big, Hoger described it as, “Kind of exciting and unpredictable.”

FUN FACT: The name The Rainbow Seekers started out as a joke. Hertler laughs about it as he recalls the story of finding a vinyl record with the title ‘Rainbow Seekers’ and joking about how awful it would be to be called the Rainbow Seekers.

About Jeremy Whiting

I am a journalism and broadcast media teacher at Ovid-Elsie High School. I'm originally from Lake Orion and now live in Lansing. I started out at MIPA camp as a student in Bobby Hawthorne's class in 1997 and haven't really left since.

See the 24 posts that Jeremy Whiting has written.