Yacht Rock Revue Rocks The Boat

Southern Indiana–bred Yacht Rock Revue continues to make major musical waves.
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Photo by Perry Julien Photography

YACHT ROCK Revue’s Nick Niespodziani and Peter Olson were just fourth graders at W.D. Richards Elementary School in Columbus, Indiana, when they first crossed paths. “I was a nerd,Niespodziani recalls honestly.Peter was way cooler than me, that’s for sure.”

Nevertheless, the nerdy kid and the cool kid ended up starting a band in high school with the help of a couple of guitars and aPA system with a microphone.”

“And that was the beginning right there,explains Niespodziani, who now serves as the co-frontman alongside Olson of the Atlanta-based Yacht Rock Revue.We played in multiple bands through college at Indiana University. I think by the time we both graduated, we had a bigger drive to play in a band than we did to pursue our studies.”

But what the band would ultimately look like or even sound like was the question. Both Niespodziani and Olson say they knew they would have a tough time playing original music in the Midwest, as their growing crowds seemed to adore theircover band stuff.”

The cover band stuff that became the foundation of Yacht Rock Revue, shining a worthy spotlight on the music of yacht rock legends such as Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, and Christopher Cross, but the band has also put out an impressive list of original material.

“The fact is that the genre has been bubbling just underneath the surface of pop culture for a pretty long time, so it doesn’t come as a huge shock that it’s bubbled over a little bit,explains Niespodziani of the growing popularity of the addictive genre, which recently became the focus of the HBO original documentary Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary.

“From the beginning, we thought this was going to be a fad and aone and done15 years ago. … It’s wonderful the notoriety that the genre is getting. Everything just continues to escalate the opportunities that we get. I mean, I don’t know that we always feel like we’re at the top,” Olsen says. He pauses, then adds. “But then, we level up.”

This leveling up includes touring with with Train and REO Speedwagon last year and the band’s upcoming 2025 tour, which includes a much-anticipated stop at Brown County Music Center in Nashville, Indiana, on January 31.

“One of my favorite things about being in our band is that we can change the set list all the time [to] not disappoint people,says Olson.There are hundreds and hundreds of songs for us to choose from that are just absolute bangers. Almost every show is different, and the set list is constantly evolving, which keeps it interesting for us and the audience.”

Among their Hoosier fans, the members often encounter people who knew them long before they formed Yacht Rock Revue.

Sometimes it’s fun to see the kids that wanted to beat me up when I was little out in the audience enjoying the music,laughs Niespodziani.I’m not a nerd anymore, I guess.”