Making It

In the third of our series, we look at how MKE musicians are tracking toward success.

Meadowers

After receiving praise last year from local outlets for their debut album “Nothing Wrong and I Trust You,” the four-piece band Meadowers are excited to venture into even greener pastures.

“We’re all married with full time jobs, so this project is very much less of us trying to strive for some kind of popularity or success, and more of something we’re just really passionate about,” says singer-songwriter Ethan Radtke. “Playing shows with friends in the music scene has been such a fun experience, and we hope for opportunities to do that more.”

The band’s sound pulls from a variety of different influences, including “a fair amount of Midwest emo/indie rock angst, with a good deal of twang and folk/Americana tendencies,” as Radtke says. He namechecks Pinegrove, Pedro The Lion, The Hotelier, Ruston Kelly, and Milwaukee’s own Field Report as some of their biggest influences.

“Our songs are guitar-driven, with syncopated and intentional arrangements,” he says. “We bounce around from breakdowns to fingerpicking rather quickly.”

The band’s proud of the sounds they got recording the album entirely DIY. “We think we created a unique sound, and we’re thankful to our friends who lent us some great gear to help with that,” Radtke says. “The songs are largely written out of early-20s insecurities, but we hope the songs are accessible and relatable to anyone.”

Favorite Places to Play in MKE: We love playing DIY shows with our friends, whether that be backyards, breweries or warehouses. We’re also big Cactus Club and X-Ray Arcade fans. We’d love to do an opening slot at The Pabst [Theater] or similar someday.

Another Fact People Should Know: We’re all big dog people. We all have dogs and love ’em.

Corey Pieper

Born and raised in Milwaukee and proudly half-Hawaiian, Corey Pieper creates music without boundaries. He creates an eclectic sound by merging the various worlds of music he comes into contact with — a blend of top 40, island, pop and rap, he says. His biggest influences include Fiji, J Boog, Common Kings, Rebel Souljahz, Drake and Tory Lanez.

“What makes my music stand out is the island melodies intertwined with catchy rap,” Pieper says. “And most of my music is viewer-friendly, which appeals to a larger demographic.”

That diverse and inclusive sound has led to much success for Pieper in and out of his Milwaukee home. He’s been featured on MTV, Bravo, and BET, and hit two million collective streams on singles “Truly Do” (featuring Sean Kingston) and “Who Are You” (featuring Kirko Bangz). He also performed at the Fiserv in front of 17,000 people for the Milwaukee Bucks halftime show and co-headlined Summerfest three times.

His goal with every release is to reach bigger audiences and new markets. This past year, his music was added to over 20,000 new playlists, and he credits consistency as the biggest reason his momentum continues to grow.

“I’m not the best rapper and I’m not the best singer, but every day for the past 10-plus years I’ve continued to work on my craft and learn as much as I can about the industry,” he says. “I also don’t get discouraged easily. I’ve been told ‘no’ a million times, I’ve made countless mistakes, I’ve sent thousands of emails that never got a response … but I still keep pushing.”

Last year Pieper spent time in Dubai where he filmed the music video for his new song “Soak It Up” with Milwaukee director Phillyflyboy. The song’s beat was produced by his friend Chackson, who is from Berlin, Germany.

Favorite Places to Play in MKE: My favorite place to play in Milwaukee is the Miramar Theatre. It’s the perfect size — you can fit a ton of people but still small enough to feel close and connected to the crowd. I’ve had some of the best performances of my career at the Miramar going all the way back to when I was in college at UWM and staying at the Riverview dorms down the street.

Favorite Side Projects: At the moment some of my favorite side/pet projects include working on movies. We just finished two films, “Operation Hope” and “Sole,” both coming soon. It’s been amazing to tap into the movie and film world and it’s opened up so many more doors. On both projects I was hired to help edit the movie, but ended up also securing acting roles as well as placing music in each film.

Another Fact People Should Know: I was born and raised in Milwaukee, but I’m half Hawaiian with strong family ties to the islands. I have an enormous amount of family in Hawaii that I try to visit at least once a year. They’ve been beyond supportive of my career and play a big role in helping spread my music. MKE