It’s the year 2011. Three high schoolers, Kevin Krauter, his younger sister, Katie Krauter, and her friend, Nina Pitchkites, drive to a Feist concert in Indianapolis. Cruising in a white 1989 convertible, gifted to Kevin by his grandmother for his 17th birthday, they’re the picture of Indy’s “alt-kid contingent.” Although they don’t know it yet, Kevin and Nina will be traveling to a concert of their own years later. And this time they won’t be cruising in a convertible– they’ll be in a tour van, taking turns driving with their bandmates to play packed-out shows across the U.S.
The brainchild of Indianapolis natives and singer-guitarist duo, Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites, Wishy blends power pop and shoegaze by layering buoyant vocal melodies over chunky guitar lines. The indie rock five-piece hit their stride last year after releasing their punchy, sentimental debut album, Triple Seven. The day before their Baby’s All Right headline show in Brooklyn, New York, I took Pitchkites and Krauter to an Irish pub in midtown. They had just played a free show at Rough Trade, an outfit of the legendary UK-born label and record store chain, after driving 7 hours from Pittsburgh. Between sips of Guinness, Krauter and Pitchkites recall their small-town upbringing in Indianapolis, where their love of music began.
Krauter says he and his siblings were homeschooled until high school, giving them a lot of time to delve into creative interests.
“I’m one of seven siblings. Right in the middle. Most of my siblings sang and we were always doing theater. I started off wanting to be a professional drummer. And then I realized I wanted to play guitar and sing in a band. That was always my dream,” Krauter says.
Pitchkites describes the childhood eureka moment that kick-started her musical aspirations.
“Do you know the 1960s cartoon series “Josie and The Pussycats”? They came out with a live-action movie of it in 2001 and I wanted to be just like Josie. I remember thinking, she’s so cool. She’s a girl playing guitar and she’s in a band. So I started playing guitar in middle school, migrated to the piano, and then spent most of my free time covering Regina Spektor songs. I had a binder full of her sheet music in middle school that got lost in a flood. I wasn’t that good, but I kept playing.”
Pitchkites and Krauter had high hopes for their futures in music but they had to start somewhere. Pitchkites suffered through stints in her high school’s uber-competitive show choir – coincidentally the same choir that inspired Ryan Murphy’s hit TV series, Glee – while Krauter felt stifled in school bands. “I quit choir during the second semester of my senior year because I didn’t want to dance with the caked face and shimmery dress. I just wanted to sing. I wish I had a picture of my get-up: dark red lipstick and spider-leg eyelashes. Oh my god,” Pitchkites exclaims. While neither particularly enjoyed practicing music in academic settings, Krauter concedes that the classes taught them discipline and technique at a young age.
The two budding musicians crossed paths throughout their high school and college years, but it wasn’t until 2021 when Pitchkites moved home from Philadelphia that they finally decided to form a band. Calling upon their extensive network in Indianapolis, Pitchkites and Krauter wrangled guitarist Dimitri Morris, drummer Conner Host, and bassist Mitch Collins for the project, dubbed Mercury. They then rebranded to Mana, a name Krauter soon realized had already been taken by the world-famous Mexican pop-rock band, Maná. On one occasion, Maná fans arrived in troves at a concert venue in Indianapolis, confused to find Pitchkites and Krauter’s indie five-piece in place of their beloved group. Even so, Krauter didn’t feel the mix-up warranted undergoing another identity metamorphosis. Playing house shows for friends and taking on local venues, the band eased into their new formation and quickly gained traction in their hometown.
In 2022, the band hit a turning point. Pitchkites took a few vacation days to travel to L.A. to record the song “Triple Seven” with her co-songwriter Steve Marino and their friend and producer Ben Lumsdaine. She invited Krauter along, who had several songs tucked in his back pocket that he wanted to record. Jared Jones of the indie label Winspear caught wind of the L.A. demos and expressed interest in releasing them. Jones told Pitchkites and Krauter they had to decide – was this a Mana project or something new? They went with Wishy – a catchy, simple name that wasn’t already taken – but didn’t forsake Mana entirely. Their debut album, Triple Seven, is an effortless combination of Mana’s hard-hitting rock and Wishy’s power pop sensibility. The pair agrees that this layered personality is what makes Wishy special. Pitchkites says she’s glad the Wishy songs got in front of the right people at the right time.
“When we started recording in L.A. a lot more doors opened for us. Ben and Jared got the ball rolling. But so much of this game is just about luck.”
Although they’re playing some of their biggest shows to date, Wishy hasn’t abandoned their usual routine. Krauter divulges that the band’s pre-show ritual consists of a hacky sack session and in the case of Pitchkites, a shot of fernet and some good old-fashioned vocal warmups. On stage at Baby’s All Right, Wishy is confident and cohesive – a mark not only of deft musicianship but also of genuine camaraderie. Krauter and Pitchkites attribute the bond to their shared passion for making music, which has always triumphed over any desire for fame. The band cracks jokes and quips with the audience during tune-ups before launching into tracks like “Honey,” which sounds tailor-made for live performance. Comprised of indie boys and audiophiles, the crowd is captivated by Wishy’s quirky stage presence and nostalgic sound, reminiscent of early 2000s pop-punk. Wishy now has over one hundred thousand listeners in cities around the globe, but to Krauter and Pitchkites, they’ll always be a small-town band from Indianapolis.
