Who Benjamin Cartel and Courtney Kaiser were as past selves is very much alive in the music make. Kaiser's extensive vocal training in the choirs of Indiana (and as a back-up singer for John Mellencamp) and Cartel's years of playing in DIY bands imbued in KaiserCartel the ability to do a lot with little; they are inveterate professionals on shoestring budgets, musicians so technically proficient they seamlessly switch instruments throughout the course of a show. Both Courtney and Benjamin spend their days ensconced in music and the arts. Courtney is an elementary music school teacher and Benjamin is an early childhood art teacher, their day jobs are centered on inspiring creativity and then, in turn, they take that inspiration and weave it breathlessly and beautifully into their own music.

The strength of KaiserCartel doesn’t lay in the fact that they are a couple; it lays in the fact that they are musicians and friends who work symbiotically. Whereas some couples invite you into their bedroom, KaiserCartel invite you into their living room, where the full scope of their lives can be seen.

"I always liked the idea, when you meet a couple, and there's something about them—and you wonder what it is they do at night. I feel like because we're comfortable just being real and how we are, and there's no artifice, you get to know what it's like in our house," says Kaiser. "Seeing looks that we give, or music that we write – it's seeing us in our living room."