CLINTON, Iowa – Five musicians from Midwestern towns – each with their own musical journeys – collided one day and decided that they didn’t want to stay out of each other’s way.

Country hooks, hip-hop swagger, and community pride were fused into something louder, stranger, and unmistakably local once Alex Fischbach, Tanner Skiff, Ro Pesci, Travis Ray and Jose Rodriguez became a band in late 2024.

Formed by chance meetings at Skiff’s studio in Clinton, Loess Hills isn’t a band chasing a sound, but becoming its own. They are discovering when the right people share a room, genres loosen, egos disappear, and songs start moving faster than anyone expected.

They’ve been described as “Country Beastie Boys” and “Funtry music” (a portmanteau of fun and country), and it’s a blend that has given them accolades and presences on large stages throughout the Midwest.

Fischbach, a Morrison native, might have the biggest resume bullet point of them all, having been a Top 50 contestant on American Idol in 2014, but being in a unique band with friends has been a place where he’d rather be.

“I’ve always been a solo act, and I’ve dabbled in bands here and there but nothing that’s lasted a tremendous amount of time,” Fischbach said. “Then these guys hit me up and wanted to give our ‘one last ride and see if we still got it’ kind of thing in the studio.”

Upcoming events for Loess Hills in the Sauk Valley include dates at Poopy’s in Savanna on June 5 and 20, Sterling Streetfest on July 25, and the World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova International Dragway on Aug. 29. Updated schedules are posted on its Facebook page.

Their first song was “Cowgirls For Life,” about confident, independent women, recorded in November 2024 and released on Jan. 6, 2025. It took just that one song to solidify the band’s minds on believing Loess Hills was going to be a fun endeavor.

“Then ‘Cowgirls for Life’ happened, and it was magic,” Fischbach said. “We decided to go all the way with it.”

Fischbach and Skiff team with Pesci, of Davenport, on vocals. Ray, of Fulton, plays drums, and Jose “DJ Smoke” Rodriguez, also of Davenport, is behind the turntables during concerts. Their roots go back further: Skiff had worked with Fischbach, Pesci and Rodriguez on projects in the past. Fischbach and Ray have known each other since childhood.

Skiff, who once had a solo act as Random Tanner, had been making music for roughly two decades before stepping away in 2023 to open the Rivals Sports sporting goods store in Clinton’s Lyons District. The business scratched the creative itch just fine. Then the music called him once more.

“I was content and cool with [Rivals] being the creative side of my life,” Skiff said. “Then there was a random meetup with Ro in the studio, and we got a hold of Alex, and we were like, ‘Let’s make a country song.’ We made ‘Cowgirls For Life,’ and here we are.”

“Cowgirls For Life” moved faster than anyone expected, and “we realized that it was way better than we ever thought it could be,” Fischbach said. That realization also applied to the idea of a group itself. Fischbach had spent 14 years chasing music largely on his own. He’d tasted national attention early, learned the grind, and kept going long after the Idol cameras were gone.

After more than a decade of grinding, Fischbach didn’t think music could feel new again. Then it did.

“I’ve never been more in love with music than I am now,” Fischbach said. “I’ve never had more fun. I’ve never had any of it just flow so naturally, as far as the songwriting goes to the performing and everything. This is everything that I ever wanted music to be.”

With more voices in the room came more range.

“Being a group turned all of our strengths and turned them up to 11, and took all of our weaknesses and really sharpened them and turned them into strengths,” Fischbach said. “It really made us all well-rounded at things that we didn’t think we could do. [Tanner and Ro] were rappers, and then you listen to our songs and they’re singing. They’re great. They never would have ventured in that direction hadn’t we gone the ways that we were going. It’s made us all evolve.”

Loess Hills is a country band, but not in the narrow sense. The songs pull from hip-hop, blues, rock, and pop, layered over country structures that feel familiar without feeling confined.

“We’re a country band, but we tiptoe on almost all genres,” Pesci said. “There’s a lot of hip-hop influence, a lot of blues, rock, and folk. It’s like a big ‘ol pot of musical gumbo, and country’s the base.”

Pesci, whose real name is Rolando Dennis, grew up in Davenport surrounded by music. His father, Joe Peña, and his uncles were members of the Peña Brothers Band, a blues group inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. He was just 16 when he first pitched a song idea to Skiff, and years later, that connection came back around.

“Tanner hit me up one day and told me about the idea to make a country song,” Pesci said. “I was a little skeptical at first because I hadn’t done that before. We got in the studio, knocked it out, and ‘Cowgirls For Life’ was born. Now we’re growing by the day.”

Growth has been the defining theme ever since. The band recently rehearsed and performed roughly 10 songs, and are releasing new singles about every six to eight weeks. An album has been discussed, but not rushed.

“We’re just doing what makes sense,” Skiff said. “We’re kind of in overdrive right now just trying to get our catalog up there that we can choose from at shows.”

Putting out singles “keeps us fresh,” Fischbach said.

Some of the songs in the group’s catalog include “Hundred Proof Whiskey,” about going through a troubled relationship; “Bad For Me,” about falling for a woman who might give a man trouble; “My Kind of Party,” about having a good time with friends; and “Country Girl,” capturing the feeling of being in love.

If Skiff chose one word to describe what he would like listeners to take away from the band’s music, “relatable,” he said.

“We just want people to relate, whether it’s fun, serious or a bad situation,” Skiff said. “That’s what keeps me going.”

Pesci echoes that idea, pointing to the range within their catalog.

“We have a nice variety of songs that fit for every occasion,” Pesci said. “If you’re going through a bad breakup, you can listen to Hundred Proof Whiskey; if you want to have a good time, let it loose and having a couple of guys over for your football game or whatever, My Kind of Party or Bad For Me. If you have a song that you just want to dance to with your ol’ lady, you can do that with Country Girl.”

During their live performances, Loess Hills has leaned into momentum. Shows have stayed mostly in the Midwest so far. They’ve filmed music videos – available on all streaming platforms – within a 100-mile radius of the Quad Cities, often involving local businesses and organizations. “Cowgirls For Life” was filmed at The Crooked Roof bar and grill in Lanark, “Hundred Proof Whiskey” was at the Almont Tap north of Clinton, “My Kind of Party” was at Poopy’s in Savanna, and “Bad For Me” was shot at the Rusty Barrel Lounge in Clinton.

Keeping their music videos local, and often having customers who are at the businesses in the background, has been a point of pride for the band, Fischbach said.

“A big thing for us is that we really wanted to tie in the community and bring everyone along in the journey,” Fischbach said. “Every single music video that we’ve done has involved a local business or a local organization. We really want, not just us, but our whole community to shine. It’s not just driving through cornfields, there’s so much cool stuff to showcase.”

That approach paid off in unexpected ways. A video for “Whoa Mama,” filmed at the Rust Belt with the Quad City Steamwheelers’ Deckmate Dancers, led to a halftime performance during the Steamwheelers’ Country Night at Vibrant Arena at The MARK in Moline. From there, the stages kept getting bigger: They performed at The Field of Dreams’ Velocity Festival in Dyersville, Iowa on Aug. 30. They have been invited back to the Field of Dreams this year, opening for Shinedown and Lynyrd Skynyrd, a return trip that still feels surreal for a band barely a year old.

For Ray, those moments are the reward of a lifetime of playing. He started tapping on pots and pans at age 7. He’s played with a wide range of artists while building a reputation, and his connection to the band is both professional and personal.

“I’ve known Alex since we were super young,” Ray said. “When he was getting his music career started, we reached out to each other and connected. I’ve done some projects with Tanner as well with drums, and when they decided to do this project together and asked me, I was very thankful for the opportunity. It’s been a wonderful ride.”

That ride has already exceeded expectations.

“The opportunity to be with these guys, together, has been incredible,” Ray said. “We’re on bigger stages than I thought I would ever play on, and bigger bands than I ever thought to open for. Hopefully we’re going to be one of those bands who have people open for us. The brotherhood of being together, and knowing that it’s not all on you – you have the other guys with you on stage.”

Rodriguez adds another layer to that variety.

“There have been a lot of opportunities, and bigger stages,” Rodriguez said. “I was the first DJ to open at Field of Dreams, so that goes down in history for me. Everything’s been great and it’s been a vision I’ve seen, and it’s happening.”

The band’s growth became more validated in November 2025, when Loess Hills won Best Original Band in Iowa at the Iowa Music Awards. It was an honor the group didn’t see coming. Recognition aside, the band’s internal compass hasn’t changed much. They’re chasing connection more than classification.

“We went in with the expectation that we didn’t know,” Skiff said. “We all got dressed up real nice for the sole reason to just have a good time, then when they called us, we’re like, ‘No way!’ It was cool and genuinely surprising.”

For a band centered around Eastern Iowa, its name actually has much to do with Western Iowa, where the Loess Hills – a range of bluffs near the Missouri River – are located. Fischbach landed on Loess Hills after a Google search for iconic Iowa landmarks. After a while, he realized that what he thought was the pronunciation of the name wasn’t actually that: The band pronounces it “lois hills,” but the real pronunciation is “luss.”

“If anything, it just gives us a little more engagement when people see us and go, ‘That’s not how you pronounce it,” Fischbach said.

Loess Hills actually wasn’t the band’s original name. “We wanted a name that sounded really cool when it gets announced on stage,” Pesci said. “We were originally going to call ourselves Holler, and after a day of thinking about it, we all agreed that it was absolutely horrible.”

The band seems comfortable living in that in-between space. They’re not copying anyone. They’re not trying to be the loudest thing in the room, but rather the most honest version of themselves.

“It’s nice that we kind of have our own lane in a way,” Ray said. “We’re not really copying or mimicking anyone’s sound. We’re doing what we think sounds cool and fun to us that’s high energy. As long as we enjoy it, that’s what matters.”

For Fischbach, that enjoyment is the point – and the payoff.

“I want people to feel something,” Fischbach said. “Our music has enough variety that you’re going to find what you need, whether you’re happy or sad.”

Find Loess Hills on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and other streaming platforms to learn more about the band and listen to its music.