WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Story Behind the Song: The Legacy of a Student Band at Hillsdale College with Gavin Listro and Isaac Green

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Join Lilly Faye as she interviews Gavin Listro and Isaac Green, members of the Schizmatics. Hear about their fun memories writing, performing and recording songs as students at Hillsdale, specifically how they wrote their campus hit, "Strangers in Seattle." 

Hey y'all, welcome back to Story Behind the Song. I'm your host, Lily Fay Kramer, on Radio for Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Today, I'm excited to interview Isaac Green and Gavin Lestrow. They're both 2025 graduates of Hillsdale College, and they left a legacy on campus, Elastic One. They were both two members of Schismatics, a very popular student band, so popular that they had original songs and they recorded them and produced them. And now Strangers in Seattle is a campus anthem at this point. So I'm excited to see what their process was through songwriting, recording, producing strangers in Seattle.

Please welcome Gavin and Isaac to Story Behind the Song. Hello, hello, this is Gavin. Hello, this is Isaac. We're in the union. And our friend groups had started merging because two of our friends started dating each other. And they're married now, which is crazy. But you had a guitar. and I had seen you around with the guitar

and then you were like, oh, I write songs. And then we showed each other each of our songs and we're like, I think developed respect for each other at that point. Yeah,

I think I remember, I think it had to have been a desk shift for Gavin probably late night desk shift 2 a.m. Union Friday night or something like that. And yeah, passing some songs back and forth

because I remember the first time I saw Gavin was you played what? Was it hit me maybe one more tire or something like that? Wouldn't it was like a concert on the quad? Yeah. So I remember seeing Gavin doing that. I was like standing with some of the dorm guys.

I was just like, dude, this kid is, that's a crazy song selection, but he's good. So I was like familiar for sure. And then I saw you at Battle of the Bands with like your first freshman year band and everything like that. But yeah, I really really started getting to know him sophomore year after two of our friends started dating. I forgot about hippie baby one more time. I only did because Ed Shearin did a cover of it.

And I thought, if Ed Shearin can do it, that means I can do it. What are you about to say? It was the first song y'all wrote together. I remember you came to our dorm because we lived in Simpson and he lived in Needfeld. And we wrote some sort of progression but never wrote words over it. I think that was the first thing we wrote together. And it was pretty fun actually. We took it to the union that night for another death shift.

And we had like Matt bring like an amp and a bass. How did y'all's friendship evolve as musicians? Did y'all just keep on writing songs together? How did y'all? I would say we lived together. So that really helped because there's not much privacy in a house with nine guys. You've seen our living room. It's very small.

There's nowhere to go unless you're in your actual bedroom. And so if you're playing guitar working on something, chances are someone's going to walk by him. Like, oh, what's that? Let me hear it. And so, Isaac is, I envy Isaac because he's always writing something new. Always. And I will have an idea and work on it for like six months maybe and not work on anything else because I just can't. And you have tons of projects going.

So I was always hearing Isaac write. I was kind of doing the same thing. and he would weigh in. He's really good at me taking an idea to him and him just like finishing it, making it perfect. So pretty nice. I think it's really funny that Gavin says it because I feel like I too will take one idea

and fix it on it for way too long. It's exactly like he said. Ended up kind of last minute getting the opportunity to live together, junior year and we're the same side of the house, everything like that. So just spent a lot of time hearing each other play, hearing each other work on ideas and things like that.

I remember very distinctly like, I think it was Inborough House hearing Gavin work on his smile. Were y'all ever in a band together or was it, Isaac, you were more of the songwriter and then Gavin was the singer. How did that work? Isaac didn't live in the same dorm as us. So this was basically defined the first two years of our friendship because we weren't in a band together because I was in a band with guys that I lived with.

And so schismatics existed as our cover band thing that we did. And then Isaac played a lot of acoustic sets and he was really good. And then when we started living together, we would recruit him for things. And so if we needed an extra guitar player for a song that needed two guitars because we only had one guitar, Isaac would get recruited for that show. Or then there was a welcome party where one of our guys just didn't come for a welcome party. He didn't get to campus on time. And so he rearranged and Isaac was in the band for that. He's definitely like the seventh schismatic. He's writing credits on all the songs. So he's definitely a writer as well. You know, you guys had already kind of established

what you were doing, but I was very thankful that you guys always let me hop on for songs and things like that because it was just really fun to be able to play and develop and all those kinds of things. And especially like, I mean, I played acoustic guitar a ton growing up. Like that's kind of but I didn't play a lot of lead or electric. And so I got the opportunity to work on some stuff that was kind of fun and new with them, whether it was welcome party or whatever. How did you write Strangers in Seattle? How long was that in the works?

So that was one of those ideas where I had it for six months and couldn't figure it out. And then I think we finished it in an evening. I had the acoustic guitar part, which was just the four chords. And I was just kind of sitting on that for a long time. I was like, I want to do something with this. I don't know what to do. And I would be sitting in the living room. And Isaac would walk by and like, oh, yeah, we got to finish that.

Like, as I was playing it and we never would. We sat on it for like six months and it just kind of became thing that I would, like the first thing I'd play when I sat down. It was just the go-to riff. And then we finally started writing it. And Isaac actually wrote the chorus, which I have a very distinct memory of this. We were sitting in the living room. And it was at the point in the night where people were starting to come over, but we were still working on it. And so the living room was very full.

People were talking a ton. And we had kind of spitballed what. Oh, spitball. There you go. Reference. We had kind of sketched out what we wanted the chorus to be like. I remember we figured out the melody before we figured out the, because I was like I wanted to go up like that and then come back down.

And so he was sitting hunched over with the guitar in the corner. And then he was like, oh, I think I got it. And he sang us the chorus. And it was jaw drop moment. He was responsible for the chorus in its entirety, I think. And the reason it's Seattle is because that same couple who that hell with our friend groups integrate. She's from Seattle. And we had recently heard of the concept that you should be really try to be specific in your lyrics and then be general as well. And so like, we need to be

specific here. We need a city. Our friend MC walked in. She's like, why don't you do Seattle? And so that's why it's Seattle. I've never been to Seattle. I very distinctly remember that night is very vivid. I think we still had the beanbag in the corner of old side. I think I was sitting on the beanbag. You and O. And we're on that ratty couch. And we have been messing around and kind of going back and forth some lyrics for a little bit. Didn't have anything that we liked a ton, just like some basic ideas. Yeah, I want to get a city in there, something like that. And maybe some ideas for what we wanted the vibe of the song to be.

But yeah, I just remember like a bunch of people were coming over. And yeah, just kind of sat hunched over like you said. You know exactly classic. Classic guitar strumming lyric writing position for the crew. And just started going on a little bit. I was like, I think maybe this is something we can work with. And they liked it. And then over the next few days, maybe weeks,

just kind of spent some time on the verses. and Owen and Gavin specifically kind of going back and forth on stuff. It was a very fun night because we had people come over then. And we just started working on the harmonies in that point too with the chorus. So we were like, guys, guys, you got to listen to this. And we started like seeing three part on it. And it was a ton of fun. How did y'all weave in like Draven's drum solo and then the sacks and all the other instrumentation?

Wow, the drum solo is his two seconds of fame. That was the actual arrangement. It happened when we brought it to practice because we were still rehearsing for. all of our other gigs that we were doing. I recorded somewhat of a demo on my computer, and I sent it to everyone. I'm like, we're going to play this at practice today, and no one contested it.

So we did. And those little hits at the end, like, da, da, da, da, da, da. We did that like three times. And then Draven just on his own was like, pro bu, bo bo, boom. Like kind of this delayed, syncopated thing. And we're like, ah, everyone freaked out.

So it stuck. And it became a part of the song. The problem with our band is that we have one guitar, piano, and sax and trumpet. So there's not really like any, I don't know, it's not very traditional. in terms of a rock band or pop or whatever. So we had to figure out the way to get the lead lines communicated with sax

instead of guitar because I was playing chords. So not really any chance to do lead guitar. Yeah. So the other guy who helped us write the song, Owen, he plays saxophone. And so we figured out a way to work. She's got a friend's calling. Can we just leave the behind? When did you first record it?

When did you decide that you wanted to record it? I think our friend Kenda asked us at least. once a week to record it ever since that night we wrote it. That was always a good motivation when people would be like, oh, you're going to record that? And it made me want to record it. That was the song we worked on all summer, last summer, not last summer, but like summer of 24. Yeah.

And so I would go to work, do my internship here at the radio station, and then go home to my bedroom studio, and we would work on it. We had everything pretty much recorded, but I was mixing for months, learning how to mix, basically, teaching myself how to mix. And I think we got somewhat of a decent product. So, but it was a long process. Actually, we ended up getting what was my room senior year because we moved stuff around when Owen got, got hitched and moved out.

But Owen's room junior year, we spent like a, what is probably a Saturday where it just completely redid his room to like set up his like his mattress against the wall and put blankets up and everything just to like make the acoustics in the room as good as possible. And then Gavin and I sat on like two sides of a condenser and condenser microphone. Oh, it was a ribbon mic. Oh, was it? Ribbon mic in the middle, and then two condensers on each guitar. Oh, that's right, yeah.

Playing at the same time, pan-hard. That's right, yeah. So playing at the same time, and we just both had our own acoustic guitars, and we're trying to play it together at the same time. Took a few takes. Ended up working out pretty well. And then, yeah, I remember I went back to Montana for the summer, so I wasn't here with the guys, but I remember hearing, you know, Gavin would send little clips of it

here and there. And I was, this is nice. Gavin. We also recorded the drums in that room as well. Same technique, just putting, like, the mattresses up against the wall and hanging sheets and blankets. And we did all four songs on the EP in one day because we only had one day, basically. It was like the day before graduation, and Draven's like, I have this time to this time to do these songs. And so we just recorded all of them with the span of like four hours.

And we even did Isaac's song too, which is on Spotify too. Gone Out by Isaac Green. Oh, shout out Isaac Green. Everything was pretty much recorded before everyone went away for summer. And then I stayed with Owen and we mixed it off. But yeah. How did campus react when you all released strangers in Seattle? No one seemed angry, which was good. It was all pretty good feedback. I don't remember any specifics. I remember a lot of people being like,

oh, this is actually decent, which is a nice compliment, but also kind of says, I was expecting it to be trash, and so we're glad that, you know, you delivered a little bit. So that always makes you feel good. Well, I mean, I remember the first time released it,

even though you hadn't released the song, was what was, CHP? Yeah, junior year, CHP played it, and it went over pretty well. So it was like, okay, like people aren't going to hate it probably. So, you know, that's probably worth doing something with. I remember, too, like certain people who were like, kind of the first time I heard it, it ended up going over pretty well, I would say, yeah.

That was a really cool experience is when we played it. For some reason, we're like, yeah, let's do originals at CHP. People will love that. Original, though, they've never heard either. And so we played it junior year and everyone just kind of stood there. And we had a lot of fun because it was like, we're playing our original song at CHP. It's a cool stage.

I were like, yeah, no one really reacted because they didn't know the song. forward to senior year and everyone was singing it and that was a really cool experience to have like hear the song sung back to you his uh definitely top 10 experiences of my life talking out the window watching strangers in Seattle full circle when it was also played at AJ's when y'all'd walk into the student union yeah that was at some point it felt like it got like a meme identity to it a little bit which is fine you know if you're streaming it you're streaming it I'm getting paid, so it's fine. Big bucks.

You know, about a pennyish dream, so less than a penny. So I think that's cool. I think it's really sweet that people would listen to it seriously. Owen and I both whenever we talk about it, we're like, I still can't believe that people like this song for real. Like, they're not just saying it because it's our music. There are people that I've never met on campus who listen to our song. And I just, I can't believe that,

that they would actually care about our music. But that's really cool. Yeah, ditto. When we were driving back for spring break, it was my mom, David Ballet, and my friend Elbelo, and David's like, Lily Fay, you got to play this for your mom. And now my mom added it to her playlist. We've noticed that for some reason people will show the music to their mothers, and it seems to go over well. So I don't know what that is about, but Joe's mom, a lot of people's mom, my mom, your mom, probably. Probably.

Probably. How Skis doing now, now that you've all graduated. It's kind of... Reunion? No, it's not really reunion because we're all over the country. So we got someone in Florida. We got someone in Boston. We got two guys in D.C.

I'm in Chicago. Isaac's in Lansing. Yeah, so we're all over the place. Especially Owen and I will send each other ideas. But the logistics of trying to record music together is kind of daunting. So until we write something, maybe we really, really like, and we think it's worth going through those hoops. I don't know if reunion's really going to happen.

But it's nice. It's fun to think about it. It keeps like the fire alive, the dream. Yeah, I'm working on some of my own stuff. But you guys, yeah? We do. So sometimes they'll get the band back together guys and have some fun. So, yeah, no, they do a good job.

Yeah, we're playing Matt's wedding in a little bit, so in about a month. So that would be fun. First time we played together since grad, no, since like after graduation. You want to talk about the lyrics at all? I mean, how did they come together? I feel like a light smoke is pretty common at Hillsdale. Yeah, that's the thing. I'd never been to Seattle.

I've never smoked a cigarette when I wrote that song. I've now smoked many cigarettes. Sometimes you've got to like speak it into existence. I don't even know where that phrase came from, a light smoke. I don't know if that is a phrase. It is now. I think it was because we were listening to a light smoke.

lot of silk sonic and there's a song smoking out the window and i think that just kind of was maybe in the room you know i wrote it with the idea of checker records in in mind i don't know if you know like the high table right next to the window so the whole idea of the song is a conversation between two people who are falling out of love at a coffee shop and one of them's looking at the window and seeing people walk by and be like and hillsdale not in seattle but yeah well yeah yeah it's two places at once yeah He's in Seattle in his mind, maybe. I don't know. Yes.

So we really used Checker Record for the cover of the art, the single cover, which is cool. And we got our friend Jack Cody, who we also lived with and our friend Josiah to model. Josiah for some reason just became like the model for all the single covers. I don't know why. He's technically our manager, which is a generous term, I think. I don't know. So that was really cool. Everyone in our house was really involved.

And then our friend Danny, even, he didn't play on the music or do anything like artistic with it. but he would also, he would offer all of his criticism, and he would hype us up a lot, which was really sweet. Shout out to my mom and my dad and Hillsdale in general. Great place to play music. Great place to go to college. Yeah. Oh, did you ever show Chris from jazz?

We did show Chris from jazz. What do you think? And he really liked it. He didn't say that's swinging, but I think he would have if he got the chance. We also sent it to Fred Radke. Oh, yeah. which is pretty exciting. John Schaefer, our trumpet player,

he was just like, I have Fred Radke's number. I'm just going to send it to him. And apparently Fred Radkees sent it to some guy in Nashville, and we just got like a thumbs up. Like, that's a good song, I guess. Nothing happened, but it felt cool for a professional musician to say, you know, we had something.

Yeah, no, I completely agree. I think this is like the, especially with the sentiment of just like the community musicians on Hillsdale's campus. I grew up playing a lot of music, but didn't really have a lot of people I was playing with and having the opportunity to just, you know, consistently multiple times a week, sit down and play with people who are very talented and who make you better, who are also good friends and all that kind of stuff, you know.

It was just a really, really sweet opportunity. Lots of really good memories from that. I could leave it with a cheesy word to people who haven't graduated yet as a graduated, you know, senior. Don't. Yeah, my months of experience out of college. Basically, take the opportunity to play music with people and be creative with people because it's so hard to, like, manifest.

that once you get out of college. They're just all built in. They're all right here, and they all are super talented. And I bet it was a good outlet for your schoolwork, too. A good break. Yeah, for sure. And maybe it replaced some of my schoolwork a little bit. Perhaps. I graduated. And I was president, which doesn't say

much about my grades, but says something about something, I guess. I don't know. Thank you all for listening to Gavin Leastrow and Isaac Green's story behind strangers in Seattle. On Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM, I'm your host, Lily Fay Kramer, and this has been Story Behind the song.