Party punk rockers have grand ambitions

Tish Meeks has a lot of irons in the fire.

The party punk rocker, a San Antonio transplant to Big Lake, is playing just about everywhere she can with her band 3 Kisses. She’s all over the Internet, is filming a music video and has her eyes on a public-access cable reality show.

“It’s difficult to be a full-time musician anywhere,” Meeks said in an email interview. “If this were easy, everyone would do it. There is no truer statement that if you have a true passion, you should love it enough to do it for free. I’ve done that, and now the money is slowly starting to roll in.”

Music, she said, isn’t quite a full-time gig yet. She and her bandmates all have day jobs and she does music consulting work for a company out of Sugar Land, Texas.

“Persistence is key and music is in my blood. I can’t just decide to stop playing. May as well put me in a padded room if that happens,” Meeks said.

Her publicist, Patricia Reis, said the reality show is a work in progress. They’re still trying to sell the pilot. The show would center around Meeks, her family and bandmates.

“She moved to a cabin in the middle of Big Lake with no heat,” Reis said. It was a tough transition for Meeks and her kids, Benji, 12, and Hannah, 10.

“This is, and has been since June, an extreme character-building time for them in all ways as an individual family unit and them growing up individually and finding themselves,” Reis said.

Meeks said she’s enjoyed Alaska thus far. Visitors from Texas have allowed her to do the tourist thing, like flightseeing around Denali and hiking the Matanuska Glacier.

“I’m loving the organic appreciation Alaskans have for live music. I moved from a city of 1-and-a-half million people and hundreds of bands,” Meeks wrote. “The crowds in the Lower 48 are wonderful, too, and I have fans all over the country, but I have really enjoyed getting to know the people up here who value live music a little differently. The venues have been fantastic, too. Really, everyone has been so nice to us and I feel very blessed to be so new up here, yet have so much support.”

She said her band has its sights set high. She’d love to see the act go national. She says people should expect a live 3 Kisses show to be fun and to melt away some of the stress of daily life. The music draws influences from across genres.

“We write some funny, silly songs and I kind of write all over the map. You’ll even hear some pretty, melodic stuff with keyboards from time to time on our recordings,” she said.

Unlike a lot of punk, though, it’s rarely, if ever, political.

“I just do the best I can at being me and if you like it, great, if not, then move along,” Meeks wrote. “Being a follower is not punk. Punk is an attitude and a way of life. I am a free thinker defined by no one.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

During March there are several chances to catch 3 Kisses in concert.

• March 10 at 10 a.m., at Big Lake Power Sports and Marine to shoot a music video.

• March 22, at the Silver Fox Inn in Meadow Lakes.

• March 23 and 24, at 4 Corners Lounge. Bring a video camera to the March 23 show to help shoot an audition tape for LuLu Smalls’ attempt to be on NBC’s “The Voice.”

• March 29 at the Silver Fox.

• March 30 at Chilkoot Charlie’s in Anchorage.

• March 31 at Klondike Mike’s Dance Hall and Saloon in Palmer.

Tish Meeks and her band

3 Kisses is finding an upbeat home in the Valley.

Photos courtesy Tish Meeks