Restored

Local band, Restored, releases first CD July 1


Gina Covelli
Associate Editor

By Gina CovelliAssociate EditorA little more than a year ago, six members of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Sun Prairie combined their musical talents to form Restored, a contemporary Christian rock band focused on the praise and worship of God. After about 15 months of writing music and practicing, their first CD will be available on July 1.See the Light by Restored features 10 original songs written by all of the band members: Dan Oleszek, bass; Dennis Dary, lead vocals; Jim Frisque, keyboards; Dena Schlitz, violin; Earl Schalk, guitar; and Craig Cheney, drums.“We all write in one way or another, whether it’s words or music,” Schalk said. “We’ve all had this desire to make music our whole lives, and for whatever reason, we got together a year or so ago. I don’t think it was our own doing. I think it was somebody else’s.” That “divine intervention,” as Dary called it, led the band members to a recording studio in April with 10 songs of hope. After three months of recording in the studio, the master copy of the CD was finalized on June 7. “It’s been pretty amazing. Our songs are life experiences, real stuff, and we hope that they reach somebody in a way that brings them closer to God,” Schalk said. “We’re just normal folks, we go to work every day and face the same stuff a lot of people face, but we’ve got hope and we’re trying to pass that hope along.”The band debuted last summer as part of a music contest during Lifest, and is once again playing at Lifest this year, July 7-11 in Oshkosh. Restored will play on Friday during the competition, and has a set on Saturday, July 10, at 2 p.m.Restored meets once a week on Sunday nights to rehearse and write new material. “We’ve got a lot of material. So hopefully we can sell lots of CDs so we can make the next one,” Schalk said, adding that the band hopes to play more live gigs this summer. Outside of the Lifest concerts, Restored has played at a Relay for Life benefit and in Edgerton. They also perform at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Oleszek joined the Restored in October 2009, and has been “a great addition to the group,” Frisque said. At Lifest, Restored will join bands from all over the country to praise God through song. At last year’s event, Restored was given their own classification – Boomer-Rock. “They gave us our own little genre because we’re pretty unique,” Schalk said. “We’re the only band with a violin.”The band’s list of influences also makes them fairly unique – ranging from rock ‘n roll to gospel.“I was more of an Eagles fan growing up, the Doobie Brothers, that type of music,” Dary said. “I didn’t listen to Christian music growing up because there wasn’t any rock options at that point.”Schalk on the other hand was more into earthy rock and roll music, such as John Mellancamp, as well as the blues.“It’s really hard to not pull that in” to the music writing process, Schalk said. “Jim is classically trained, Dena is classically trained, and I am very far from classically trained. When we sit around the piano, which is usually how it starts, Dennis will hum a few lines of whatever, and we build off it. We all add our own idea of how it’s going and what our parts should be.”The members of Restored have committed to the band and its mission for different reasons – but the number one reason is to reach out to others and to share in God’s love through song. Oleszek said using his talents to reach out to the lost is what makes being a part of Restored important to him. “Giving my music abilities to make songs and music for others,” he said. “I like being in the group, I joined in October, and it’s been a learning experience for me, being in the recording studio was a first for me, so that was exciting. And we’ve got a lot of great musicians here.”“I would echo a lot of the same things,” Dary said. “Using our gifts to praise God and reach people that might not have really thought about how God can fit into their lives. We’ve gone an extra step now that we’ve been doing this—I know a year ago, I never thought we’d be playing at Lifest and now to have a CD coming out, it’s been one step after another, and God has been leading the way. As far as I’m concerned I can feel him pulling us to do more. I’m interested to see what he has planned for us next.”For Frisque, Schalk and Schlitz, the experience in Restored has been a dream come true.“I really respect each of these folks here, they’re really good musicians each one of them, and they’re really good friends as well,” he said. “We have the opportunity to perform for God together and to try to bring that music to other people. It’s always been a dream of mine anyways to be able to write—I’ve always written music but to actually have something, a CD come out with songs that you’ve been a part of – to have that come to fruition is a nice addition to working with this group.”“Music has always been so much a part of my life,” Sc - Sun Prairie Star

Local band, Restored, releases first CD July 1


Gina Covelli
Associate Editor

By Gina CovelliAssociate EditorA little more than a year ago, six members of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Sun Prairie combined their musical talents to form Restored, a contemporary Christian rock band focused on the praise and worship of God. After about 15 months of writing music and practicing, their first CD will be available on July 1.See the Light by Restored features 10 original songs written by all of the band members: Dan Oleszek, bass; Dennis Dary, lead vocals; Jim Frisque, keyboards; Dena Schlitz, violin; Earl Schalk, guitar; and Craig Cheney, drums.“We all write in one way or another, whether it’s words or music,” Schalk said. “We’ve all had this desire to make music our whole lives, and for whatever reason, we got together a year or so ago. I don’t think it was our own doing. I think it was somebody else’s.” That “divine intervention,” as Dary called it, led the band members to a recording studio in April with 10 songs of hope. After three months of recording in the studio, the master copy of the CD was finalized on June 7. “It’s been pretty amazing. Our songs are life experiences, real stuff, and we hope that they reach somebody in a way that brings them closer to God,” Schalk said. “We’re just normal folks, we go to work every day and face the same stuff a lot of people face, but we’ve got hope and we’re trying to pass that hope along.”The band debuted last summer as part of a music contest during Lifest, and is once again playing at Lifest this year, July 7-11 in Oshkosh. Restored will play on Friday during the competition, and has a set on Saturday, July 10, at 2 p.m.Restored meets once a week on Sunday nights to rehearse and write new material. “We’ve got a lot of material. So hopefully we can sell lots of CDs so we can make the next one,” Schalk said, adding that the band hopes to play more live gigs this summer. Outside of the Lifest concerts, Restored has played at a Relay for Life benefit and in Edgerton. They also perform at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Oleszek joined the Restored in October 2009, and has been “a great addition to the group,” Frisque said. At Lifest, Restored will join bands from all over the country to praise God through song. At last year’s event, Restored was given their own classification – Boomer-Rock. “They gave us our own little genre because we’re pretty unique,” Schalk said. “We’re the only band with a violin.”The band’s list of influences also makes them fairly unique – ranging from rock ‘n roll to gospel.“I was more of an Eagles fan growing up, the Doobie Brothers, that type of music,” Dary said. “I didn’t listen to Christian music growing up because there wasn’t any rock options at that point.”Schalk on the other hand was more into earthy rock and roll music, such as John Mellancamp, as well as the blues.“It’s really hard to not pull that in” to the music writing process, Schalk said. “Jim is classically trained, Dena is classically trained, and I am very far from classically trained. When we sit around the piano, which is usually how it starts, Dennis will hum a few lines of whatever, and we build off it. We all add our own idea of how it’s going and what our parts should be.”The members of Restored have committed to the band and its mission for different reasons – but the number one reason is to reach out to others and to share in God’s love through song. Oleszek said using his talents to reach out to the lost is what makes being a part of Restored important to him. “Giving my music abilities to make songs and music for others,” he said. “I like being in the group, I joined in October, and it’s been a learning experience for me, being in the recording studio was a first for me, so that was exciting. And we’ve got a lot of great musicians here.”“I would echo a lot of the same things,” Dary said. “Using our gifts to praise God and reach people that might not have really thought about how God can fit into their lives. We’ve gone an extra step now that we’ve been doing this—I know a year ago, I never thought we’d be playing at Lifest and now to have a CD coming out, it’s been one step after another, and God has been leading the way. As far as I’m concerned I can feel him pulling us to do more. I’m interested to see what he has planned for us next.”For Frisque, Schalk and Schlitz, the experience in Restored has been a dream come true.“I really respect each of these folks here, they’re really good musicians each one of them, and they’re really good friends as well,” he said. “We have the opportunity to perform for God together and to try to bring that music to other people. It’s always been a dream of mine anyways to be able to write—I’ve always written music but to actually have something, a CD come out with songs that you’ve been a part of – to have that come to fruition is a nice addition to working with this group.”“Music has always been so much a part of my life,” Sc - Sun Prairie Star

Acting on a momentary thought of "we could do that," five members of the parish at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Sun Prairie formed a band and entered a competition to perform at the 2009 Lifest in Oshkosh.

Now called Won by One, Dennis Dary, Jim Frisque, Earl Schalk, Dena Schlitz and Craig Cheney made it through the first round of the competition and will take the stage at Lifest on July 11.

"We've been in our church's praise band for years," Schalk said. "We've been playing together a long time, and we were at Lifest two years ago and last year, and we listened to a few of the bands that were playing, and we thought, 'You know, we can do this.'"



Shortly after Lifest 2008, Dary and Schalk began writing songs, adding to the songs Frisque has already written, and "one thing led to another and we have several songs and entered this contest and were chosen to play at Lifest against 24 other bands," Schalk said.

The group has only been playing and writing together for about a year as Won by One, but have participated in Bethlehem Lutheran's Praise Band for many years.

"We decided we wanted to do a little more," Schalk said

The contest started with over 50 bands putting songs online to be voted on by listeners and visitors to the Web site.

"We ended up putting four songs online in total and they were voted on. It's kind of crazy," Schalk said. "We really cut it short because we did a benefit concert for relay for life in April with our praise band, so our focus was on that and we only had a few weeks to get our songs online."

Won by One will play at Lifest July 11 as part of the contest that runs from 10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., and depending on how they rank, the final round of the contest takes place at 3:30.

The group will be judged on song writing content and ability, style and audience participation.

"It's like Christian Idol," Schalk said.

Not only will they perform during the competition, but they will also perform a 45-minute concert starting at 9:15 p.m. July 11 because they were chosen as one of the 24 bands to participate in the second round of the contest.

"It's kind of been a whirlwind for us the last couple of months because we have be ready to perform. It's one thing to play with the five of us in a room than to actually put it out there," Schalk said.

Though a little nervous to perform at Lifest, which is toted as one of the largest Christian music festivals in the Midwest, Schalk said they were more excited for the opportunity to play.

"Hopefully it encourages folks to never give up. And no matter the road you travel, no matter how bumpy, the struggles you face, there is light at the end of the tunnel. That is the message that kind of comes through" our music," Schalk said. "It's pretty exciting. For Christian music, anybody that plays it goes to this festival."

"That's what really drives us. We want to share our faith," Frisque added.

"I'm not one to knock on doors to talk about Jesus, maybe I should be, but this is my gift, our gifts. We're not beating on a door, but we're sending a message through a song," Schalk said. "It's not about us, it's not about any one of our gifts or talents. It's about spreading the word."

Though not about their own gifts, the experience has helped each of the band members to explore their own gifts a little more as they write their own songs and let their contemporary style evolve.

Most of the song writing is done by Dary, Frisque and Schalk, and they said they all have different styles of writing.

"But [it's] definitely message driven," Frisque said.

Dary said some current Christian groups Won by One follows and admires are Casting Crowns, Third Day and Chris Tomlin. Their style is more along the lines of rock with an electric guitar that rings through, but with the Schlitz's violin coloring the top, making the sound and style very unique.

"It's hard to explain our sound, but it's different. Different in a good way," Schalk said. "I didn't hear anybody in the contest that sounded like us."

And since Christian music has evolved, Won by One will be competing against musicians from all genres, even rap and hip-hop.

"If this is all we get to do, it's been pretty cool," Schalk said.
- Sun Prairie Star