That band, consisting of Rod Scheitel, Tom Bauer, Rick Christiansen and Brad Anderson, started taking gigs after that and shared their music with a wider range of people. Fifty-four years later and now out of a garage in Janesville, the band has four new ambitious musicians and a rebirth courtesy of Scheitel’s grandsons Carter and Carson Quast, who now proudly carry on that AZBY name with fellow band members Joey Burns and Mike McCue.

“We definitely took a lot of time to try to write down [band name] ideas, brainstorm, and we had a bunch of ideas right away,” Carter Quast said. “We could not settle on anything. … AZBY was one that was kind of always there on the backburner — obviously with the history of that being my grandpa’s band from the 70s.

“We thought that would be really cool and we ended up kind of getting the approval from the different band members, ‘Hey, is it fine if we inherit this name?’ Me and Carson being the grandsons of one of the members of the band, we thought that was pretty cool so we decided to go as AZBY.”

Carson Quast said carrying on the AZBY name was a special way to honor his grandpa, who is still performing today with Carter Quast in the grandpa-grandson duo band Generation Gap.

From left to right are the current members of the band AZBY, Carson Quast, Mike McCue, Carter Quast and Joey Burns.

“There’s a lot of different names we could have chosen, and it’s just nice to have that extra thing that it actually does mean something, it’s not just some random thing,” Carson Quast said. “I know he [my grandpa] is really happy that we chose it. It’s just a cool thing to have and not just some random thing, and that’s like the main thing.”

The AZBY name may sound like random letters thrown together, but it was originally constructed by taking the first and last letter of the alphabet, followed by the second and second-to-last letter of the alphabet.

Both Quast brothers sing and play guitar, while McCue drums and sings and Burns plays bass.

The Quast brothers and Burns all graduated from Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton High School, with Carter Quast graduating in 2017 and Carson Quast and Burns graduating in 2019. McCue graduated from Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial High School in 2021.

“It kind of originated as an accident in a way,” Carter Quast said. “My mom wanted to get a band for my dad’s 50th surprise party and she decided to hire me and Carson. She happened to work with Mike’s mom, so that’s how we got to know Mike.

Submitted photos The original band members of the band AZBY, founded in New Ulm, were Rod Scheitel (top-left), Tom Bauer (top-right), Brad Anderson (bottom-left) and Rick Christiansen (bottom-right).

“So as a band, and we’ve known Joey for a long time, so we got together and played that show and then we were like, ‘Do we want to keep this going?’ So that was kind of how it originally started. We kind of booked a few shows and it just slowly built from there.”

The current members had their first show together as AZBY at the Lucky Lure in Madison Lake, Minnesota, last year in April. At the time, Burns had been a member for less than two months.

“I officially started practicing with them in March and that show, I believe, was late April,” Burns said. “I played guitar and I played drums, I never really played the bass. One morning, Carson called me and said, ‘Hey, you want to learn how to play bass?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘Cool. You want to learn in like a month and a half for the show?’ I was like, ‘Uh, yeah, I suppose.’ And I guess here we are, I don’t know. I wouldn’t say I’m good by any means, but I can maybe fake it a little bit [laughs].”

Carter Quast said while the current band performs songs from the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s, it also plays some of the same hits from the ’70s that the original band played.

“We’re doing some similar or the same songs we’re covering, too, which is kind of funny,” he said. “Obviously at the time that was what was popular when those songs were out, but they’ve obviously held and we do some of the same songs even that they played back then.”

The blend and variety of music heard at an AZBY show will be easily apparent to concert-goers, and it’s not surprising considering the band members’ biggest influences and favorite bands.

Carter Quast’s early influences of The Beatles, James Taylor and Neil Young, combined with his younger brother’s love of the 80s in Mötley Crüe and Poison, set the stage for AZBY. Behind the drum set, McCue mixes in his musical inspirations in Led Zeppelin and Greta Van Fleet. Burns is the metalhead of the group, being inspired by bands like Alice in Chains, Pantera, Slipknot and Slayer.

“What’s really cool about our playlist that we do play is it is such a variety from ’70s to ’90s rock, even in the 2000s, some 2000s stuff,” Carter Quast said. “The older crowd, they can stick around and hear some stuff that they like. Younger people know older stuff, too.

“The older people, they kind know what they know a lot of the times and kind of what they grew up on. But that music has all stuck around, so the younger people know all that old music, at least a lot of it.”

While Carter Quast is considered the lead singer of the band, Carson Quast and McCue both sing a fair amount of songs also, giving the older Quast’s vocal cords a break.

As the band continues to rehearse and put on shows, Burns said his bandmates have been impressing him more and more.

“All three of these guys, even from practice to practice, from show to show, just seeing how they improve and every time it’s like, ‘Hey, look at this,’ and they’re doing some sick guitar lick or something like that or drum fill,” Burns said. “And I was blown away, too, at Mike just being able to drum, keep a beat, sing, all of the above. I think all three of them are just insane in their own way.”

McCue said being with a group of musicians that are all equally talented and being able to share the bond they have is what makes everything work so well.

“I think all of us are equally as very gifted musically, but we all do different things, and I think it’s once you bring all that together, that makes us have that special sound.” McCue said. “We just naturally understand each other on stage. It’s really hard to find a band where you just kind of get it with other people. So I think, yeah, just once you bring that sound together, all of us very, very musically talented.”

The band members do write some of their own music, but the wide variety of musical influences and what each member writes makes it hard for them to implement into live shows.

With that in mind, the band has no current plans to try mixing their own songs into live shows.

“Just sticking to that genre that we play, I think we all write a little bit different genres individually,” McCue said. “So it’s like if we try to implement one of Carter’s song and then later in the show one of mine, they’re just different sounding genres, so it’s kind of still trying to fit the genres that we play for covers, of course, and fitting those [originals] in with it is kind of tough.”

AZBY will return to New Ulm this Friday night on July 19 when it plays at The K Bar, the remodeled addition next door to the Kaiserhoff on 221 North Minnesota Street. The show begins at 7 p.m.

For booking information or upcoming shows, visit AZBY on Facebook or contact Carter Quast at 507-380-1775 or carter.quast@gmail.com.

WHO IS AZBY?

Travis Rosenau: Who is the funniest

member of the band?

Carter Quast: It’s between Mike and Joey.

Mike McCue: Me and Joey both crack jokes quite a bit, but I would say Joey, for sure, over me.

Carson Quast: It’s probably the same answer for me, but I grew up with Joey, so I think he’s hilarious.

Joey Burns: I just kind of say what comes into my mind [group laughter]. I’ll say me and Mike, when we get together, it’s just kind of a storm.

Who is most likely to coach/teach

others in the band?

Joey: [Points to Carter].

Mike: Carter.

Carson: Carter.

Carter: Yeah, me [laughs].

If Carter lost his voice in the middle of a show, who would be best to fill in for him as lead singer?

Carter: Luckily I can rely on Mike and Carson. They’re both starting to pull a lot more weight. If I get more shows, I can’t use my voice as much because we have three shows on a weekend, I can’t be screaming 30 songs every night, I need some separation on that.

Mike: I would agree, I think it’s a split between Carson and I. I think we’re starting to get to the point where we’re getting similarly close to how many songs each of us sing, like me and Carson combine, but Carson definitely’s been picking it up a lot with more of the songs that he sings.

Carson: I don’t know if I should say myself or Mike, but it’s between us. If Carter lost his voice one day and we had to sing it, me and Mike would probably take on just the weight, he would sing one, I would sing one, whatever, we would figure it out. We all can sing, so it’s fine.

Joey: To answer your question, it would not be me [smiles]. I got one song, I got one.

Carson: Yeah, Joey does sing one song.

Who dresses the best?

Carter: I’m going to say Carson.

Mike: I would say Carson.

Joey: Yeah, he’s got some style.

Carson: Thanks, guys. I’ll take that.

Joey: He’s always got some fancy flannels with a nice band shirt and necklaces. I respect it.

Who is the worst driver?

Joey, Carson, Carter: [Look at Mike]

Mike: [Laughs] Yeah, I would say it’d probably have to be me.

If you had to have one band member give a public speech on behalf of the group, who would you least want giving that speech?

Mike: Me or Joe?

Joey: I can speak publicly.

Carson: Yeah, I would say I don’t know how it would go with Mike, he might do great, but he might be a loose cannon [group laughter].

Mike: I will say personally for myself, probably not me. I’ll play publicly but I don’t like speaking publicly, that’s why I hide behind a drum set [laughs].