Wanna learn about one of the band members? You've come to right place. Click on a person and learn all about their torrid past, where they've slept and why, how many politicians they bribed, and where they think Nostradamus and Pericles went awry (not together, obviously).
Lead Vocals
In fact, acting is pretty much what he does for a living these days. Let us make it clear, however, that Bo does not cook with Accent (it's mostly just MSG, after all). He cooks with, primarily, garlic and ginger, which keeps him very healthy, although people tend not to stand very close to him, especially women, who, for some reason, tend not to get very close to him at all. Dogs, on the other hand, love Bo and tend to stick to him like shadows. "Everything's a trade off," says Bo (he says that a lot).
Bo went to UW Eau Claire, where he majored in Theatre Arts. It was a while ago, but the experience launched a career with Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and Milwaukee Shakespeare Company. In addition to playing rhythm guitar and percussion for Random Maxx, Bo plays percussion with award-winning folk artists the Mambo Surfers.
Bo's age, by the way, is 12 (behaviorally) on most days, though it can range as far as 80, usually on days after long gigs. His chronological age is "none of your bee's wax." (Bo was behaviorally 6, apparently, the day we asked him how old he was) We can tell you that he has been involved in music in some way since before he can remember and there are very few things in this world that make him as joyous as those moments when Random Maxx lands on one of those beautiful 5-part vocal harmonies. In fact, there is only one thing he can think of that makes him as happy, but, since women tend to not get very close to him, it's a good thing we sing a lot of-5 part harmonies.
Lead Vocals
Jamie is cursed with an eye and ear for proper grammar. You know people like this, right? So – her profile will be loaded with all sorts of grammatical mistakes just to irritate her (starting… now!) Plus, it’s easier this way than it would be to write in a way that we’d be held accountable for. So bear with us.
Now what do you want to know about Jamie? Well, she graduated from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse with a degree in Music Education with a choral and general music emphasis. Which means she will always be teased about not having a real major. And can you blame us? Playing next to bandmates with degrees in Organic Chemistry and engineering, it's really not too hard to do. Esprechen-zie “outshined”? Oh, yeah, that, reminds, me, did you know Jamie speaks in German? Not all the time, ‘cause that’d be like having Nena in your band, but I should say, only some of the time. But where was I? That’s right...she teaches elementary and middle school general music at a Catholic school in Milwaukee now that she is finished with college…which if she went to school to teach, and now teaches at a school, can you say she’s finished school, ever?
Of course, Jamie’s love of teaching stems from the years she has been spending teaching Irish dance in La Crosse and Milwaukee. If you’ve seen our shows recently, you know that Jamie is plenty capable in this field, having taken lessons for nine years, and performed with Trinity Irish Dancers and Glencastle Irish Dancers out of Milwaukee. To keep her dancing skills at peak, she counts her steps when she walks. I wish I was kidding about that. Yeah, she’s got some OCD in her – she will let you know (incessantly) when the time on the clock is a “math problem.” For example, 2:46 is a math problem, since 2 + 4 = 6). And that’s not her only OCD charm – she also alphabetizes all her DVD’s she owns or lives with. And she goes insane if you mix them up. Completely ballistical. I suggest swapping the discs and cases in addition to mixing up the order of them, so she completely loses it. But really, what do you expect of someone who says “I like analyzing music for fun. Tonicizations are my favorite.”
What else? Her favorite letter is “L” – it might not be readily apparent, but words containing L, or a double L in particular, most often tend to be things she adores. For example she loves Ella Fitzgerald and Diana Krall. Her favorite TV show is I Love Lucy,and her cell phone ringtone is the I Love Lucy theme song. And the list goes on. It’s a good thing we already had a band name before Jamie joined us, or we could have ended up being dubbed “Random Mall.”
And now we return you to your regularly scheduled, good-grammar-containing website.
Lead Vocals
Mark Redlich, Random Maxx's lead guitarist, is one of the founding members of Random Maxx (along with Bo Johnson). Mark's musical development is a long and boring history, which shall not be recounted here (just too many hair bands).
On the plus, Mark is an alumnus of the Kids from Wisconsin, and continues to perform regularly on weekends as an improv "actlete" with ComedySportz in Milwaukee. Outside of performance Mark is a Ph.D. chemist with a lovely wife, cat, little girl and a baby boy. During performance he is a dangerous, volatile, and cunning conduit of musical sensation. True story.
Backup Vocals
Anyhoo... Mark was in this band called Random Maxx, and Mike would frequently go see them at their weekly gig at a small bar in St. Francis. Then one fateful night, there was a terrible storm and half the band couldn't make it to the gig. [ed: Actually, I'm not sure there was a storm... mike: Shhhh! It's more dramatic this way.] Troopers that they were, Bo and Mark dug deep and played every song they knew. Then they invited Mike to come up and sing a couple of songs with them. Well, it was Mike's stage debut and he was pretty much hooked.
Over the next few years, the guys were kind enough to regularly invite Mike up to do Pearl Jam songs with them. Mike had always dug the bass, so he picked one up and learned to play. He joined the infamous Scrap Band, which later opened for Random Maxx at Conway's in Milwaukee. And now, a decade later, he finds himself a member of the band that started it all. The sublimity of this is not lost on Mike.
To further demonstrate his awesomeness, Mike has (in no particular order): taught martial arts, drafted the mechanical systems of some of Milwaukee's most interesting buildings, taught boy scouts how to shoot guns, narrowly come in 2nd place in a regional Frogger tournament (curse you Matt Hamilton!), worked 3rd shift for a local newspaper, and built an electric upright bass. All but one of the above are true.
Backup Vocals
