Local band Isabella hits the road for first tour

The local alternative five-piece band Isabella is making its debut on the road, touring across the country in June and into the middle of July. The band formed two years ago and after touring throughout the Midwest and making a few changes to the lineup, became the Isabella on tour this summer: Tim Godlove as lead vocalist, Colt Buehler on bass and backup vocals, Alex Bettinger on drums, Joel Kapp on guitar and Cole Buerkle on guitar. The band's new EP, "Dressed to Kill," was released Tuesday with six songs.

After a couple of weeks in the Southwest, Isabella will swing through Missouri for a June 16 show in Cape Girardeau and a June 17 show in St. Louis, then head back west for shows in Colorado, Utah and Nevada before performing its last week of shows closer to home.

Before Isabella heads to Lubbock, Texas, for the first show of the tour Saturday, Godlove and Bettinger sat down with the Southeast Missourian to talk about the band and the tour.

Southeast Missourian: Where do you guys get your inspiration for the music?

Tim Godlove: There's a wide range of tastes we try and bring to Isabella. The other guys write the music together, and then I write the vocals separately.

SM: What do you hope to accomplish from this tour?

TG: Have a good time, travel the country and break even.

Alex Bettinger: We've been in a lot of debt over the last two years, and I think we want to do this tour to promote our music to sell enough CDs to get out of that debt. And it'll be fun to see what we've been working on all this time come together.

SM: Who is Isabella touring with?

AB: Two bands from Texas, This City Alive and This Year's Fashion.

Colt Buehler plays bass and sings back up vocals for Isabella. (BAILEY REUTZEL)

SM: How did you get the tour?

AB: Mario Mitchell of Breaking the Silence Music Productions had been to one of our shows in St. Louis and liked what we were doing. He asked me if we wanted to tour and then sent me the tour dates and towns.

SM: What town are you most looking forward to visiting?

TG: Las Cruces, N.M., because there's this song by one of my favorite bands, Two Gallants, about spending the night in a Las Cruces jail. I hope I stay out of jail, but I'm looking forward to visiting the place.

AB: Las Vegas. It's Vegas! Who wouldn't want to go to Vegas? We're playing at a pretty big venue there called The Farm.

SM: What about the driving and sanitation situation?

AB: That's a good ... question. Hopefully we'll have a van and trailer by Wednesday, and we have some places to stay with friends.

TG: When we were in Cleveland recording the new EP we had to wash in the sinks at the studio for a week.

AB: And they thought since there wasn't showers, it would be a good idea to write all over each other with permanent marker. There was black smudges on everything.

SM: I hear the bass player, Colt, hurt himself the other day. What happened?

TG: He jumped off a big rock [into the water] at Pink Rock and hurt his foot, but the doctor says it's not broken so I don't think he can hurt it anymore.

AB: He doesn't really do much, plays bass and bring his friends to shows so we let him stay.

SM: What's one thing that's got to come with you on tour?

AB: My MacBook because we talk to most venues through e-mail.

SM: Is a life on the road appealing?

AB: I would love to do this all the time, but the way the economy and the music industry is going, there's no money in it.

SM: How has the music changed since Isabella first started?

AB: At the beginning we played much more hard-core, heavier music, because that's what we had to do to appeal to our audience. Our first EP had no acoustic songs and there wasn't a song that didn't have screaming.

TG: We're more diverse now with a mix of styles. It's fun to not have to give in to a style that we don't want to play.