STREET BEAT FEATURE
DRENA REIGN:
Keepin’ It In The Family
by Ernie Thomas
What happens when two
pair of husbands and wives form a band?
“You have a special
bond that is almost psychic,” says Hobart native
Gail Kukulies,
the husky-voiced lead singer for
Drena Reign.
“When we’re playing, we just seem to connect in a way that is almost
like we are reading each other’s minds.”
Gail is married to
the band’s guitarist/keyboardist
Herb Kukulies
of Valparaiso. “We met when I auditioned for Herb’s band 23 years ago
and we’ve been together ever since,” she recalled. That first band did
not last long, but the marriage survived even when both Kukulies were in
separate bands for a spell. “Herb played in the band Duchess for a
while and I was in one called North Star,” she said. “We’re at our best
when we are working together though.”
The story is almost
carbon copy for Chesterton bassist
Sue Cole. While running in the same music circle 21-years-ago, Sue
met her future husband and Drena Reign’s lead guitarist,
Kelly Cole.
She and the Dyer string-bender eventually formed their own band,
Inspector B-4, and have made beautiful music together ever since. Kelly
also doubles on synthesizer and blows a little flute from time to time
on stage.
“We’ve got like a 125
years of musical experience in this band,” laughed Gail. “I’ve been
singing since high school and so have the guys. Sue has been playing
her entire life. She can play many instruments – clarinet, keyboards,
guitar, etc. – but the bass has always been her main thing.”
The Kukulies first
met the Coles five years ago, when Gail was recommended by a mutual
friend as a possible vocalist for a project the Coles were forming. “We
bonded in a big way that first night,” she recalled.
As an entity, Drena
Reign, has been rocking region clubs for nearly five years. “We take
the band very seriously and are very professional,” said Gail. “We
don’t play drunk. We make sure we have quality sound. We make people
feel welcome and that they are a part of the show. Our job is to
entertain people and we take that job seriously. We give one hundred
percent at every show, no matter what kind of day we have had or what
might be going on in our lives.”
This past June, Drena
Reign recruited new drummer, Jesse Klemz, a
Valparaiso resident who they say has already become “one of the
family.” Klemz is the band’s fourth drummer in as many years, but it’s
expected he will be the last.
“We’d auditioned
drummer after drummer and had little hope of finding anyone who would
work out,” explained Gail. “Then Jesse walked in and got behind the
drums. In just a few minutes we were all smiling. He was a perfect
fit. Jesse is the one we have been waiting for since starting this band
four and a half years ago,” said Gail. “Like the rest of us, he doesn’t
get drunk, he’s drug free and he’s very dedicated when it comes to
playing music. There’s a lot of positive energy that comes from Jesse
and having him in the band has lifted us all up tremendously.”
Formerly with the
region band, Voices Of Reason, Klemz had stepped away from playing for a
couple of years. It was not until meeting up with the kindred spirits of
Drena Reign through a mutual friend at a house party, that he considered
doing a “band thing.”
“We write original
music and we have a home studio we work in,” said Gail. “We plan to
record our own stuff and release a CD very soon, but our show is
strictly covers. We don’t play any of our own songs in our show.”
A typical Drena Reign
show is equal parts classic rock favorites and modern-day radio hits.
“We do stuff like Stevie Nicks, Heart and The Beatles,” concluded Gail.
“But we also cover new songs by artists like Jimmy Eat World, Garbage
and Dido.”
Catch Drena Reign live
@ Midwest BEAT’s “Chick Rock Bash”
on November 13 at
Soprano’s in Griffith, IN with
ZODIAC, X-GIRLFRIEND and THE LONESOME JUBILEE |
