If you’ve been to enough local shows, you’ve surely seen Quinn Scharber and Justin Krol on stage. The veteran Milwaukee musicians have spent years playing together in Hugh Bob & The Hustle and in Trapper Schoepp’s backing band. Individually, they have been part of a range of accomplished area acts, such as Rx Drugs, The Championship, The Wildbirds, and more. While their on-stage pedigree is impressive, the longtime bandmates have experienced a great deal of success in recent years composing material for use in television, film, commercials, and pretty much any conceivable medium in need of musical backing.
This Super Bowl Sunday, hundreds of millions of viewers will get to see Krol-Scharber‘s work in the form of a commercial for Busch Light that incorporates some of the duo’s compositions. The 30-second spot, which also features the iconic Sarah McLachlan, is actually the second Busch Light Super Bowl commercial the Milwaukee musicians have worked on in as many years. Before their work is once again heard on the world’s largest television event, Milwaukee Record asked Justin Krol how the opportunity came about, how it feels to technically collaborate with McLachlan and Kenny G, and what else Krol-Scharber has been working on.
Milwaukee Record: How does it feel to know you’re going to be part of the Super Bowl viewing experience again?
Justin Krol: It’s a thrill for sure. It’s still crazy to us.
MR: How did the opportunity with Busch Light come about initially, and when were you approached about working on this year’s Super Bowl ad spot?
JK: One of the music houses we regularly work with brought us on board about a year and a half ago to work on the new Busch campaign and it kept turning into more work. Initially, we brought in Milwaukee’s own Hayward Williams to be the new voice of their classic jingle that we arranged and re-recorded.
A couple months later, the first Super Bowl ad came up with Kenny G, which was an all-hands-on-deck situation, as we recorded and arranged the music for him to play over. In addition to that, there were a few other spots that we put together, ranging from orchestral to muzak…which brings us to this year’s campaign.
MR: For those who will be watching at home Sunday, what specific part of this year’s commercial are you guys responsible for?
JK: For the Super Bowl ad specifically, we’re just covering the intro signature harmonica and the ending bumper orchestral score, as Sarah [McLachlan]’s actual song is the feature within this spot. There are other spots that are part of this campaign that have other varying degrees of music.
MR: Speaking of Sarah, what’s it like to know you’re technically collaborating with Sarah McLachlan?
JK: I guess if you would have told our mid-‘90s high school selves that in our early forties we’d have associations with Kenny G and Sarah McLachlan within the same year…well, we’d probably be pretty confused.
MR: What are some other things you’ve worked on recently—or stuff that you’re presently working on—that you’d like readers to know about?
JK: The last year and a half has been a whirlwind of awesome opportunities for us. Sitting in a movie theater to watch Questlove’s Summer of Soul and seeing and hearing the musical mnemonic we put together for Disney’s Onyx studios play right before the Twentieth Century Fox theme definitely stands out.
We also wrote and recorded the original score for our good friend, Vera Drew’s first feature length film, The People’s Joker, which debuted at TIFF. That’s a whole other story. Other than that, it’s becoming more of a regular occurrence for us to hear our work in the wild, which is totally bizarre. There’s lots of things forthcoming this year.
MR: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
JK: Quinn and I have had quite the interesting journey over the last decade. When things can get incredibly stressful with deadlines and revisions, it sure makes a difference being able to work with your best friend every day.