“I’m more of a skim milk kind of guy, but I think the whole band consensus would be 2 percent,” said Chris Bernhardt, bassist and co-vocalist for the Chicago blues rock band The Buzz.

Life is good for The Buzz. The band has already reached its primary goal — to make music for a living.

“We’re not into the whole MTV thing. We are just happy to be making enough money to live,” Bernhardt said.

In 1994, The Buzz began as the house band for a blues club in Chicago known as Buddy Guy’s Legends, owned by renowned blues guitarist Buddy Guy.

“We started out playing with [blues master] J.C. Clemens and then eventually began playing our own material,” Bernhardt said. “We added some more band members in ’96, and about a year ago we added Mike Rodbard on drums.”

Now, the lineup is complete with Rodbard, Bernhardt, guitarist/co-vocalist Frank “Bang” Blinkal and Jason Moynihan on the reeds and keys. The Buzz has been playing all over the country with a variety of different artists to support the group’s first major release, “Highway.”

Playing with the likes of Everclear, The Flaming Lips, Cowboy Mouth, Chuck D, The Mighty Blue Kings, Otis Rush and Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, The Buzz has performed with a diverse range of artists.

“It doesn’t matter who we play with,” Bernhardt said. “All we look for is a happening night of good music.”

Although the bigger cities give The Buzz a lot of exposure, band members especially like the smaller cities because of the variety of groups put into one show.

“From what I know of the ’60s and ’70s, there was always great variety on the bills. Like putting Miles Davis on with a great rock band,” Bernhardt said.

Describing the group as roots rock with a blues background, Bernhardt emphasized that The Buzz tries not to copy the blues sounds from the past.

“We don’t want to sound like the swing bands that are trying to imitate the sounds from the ’30s and ’40s,” Bernhardt said. “We take a roots rock sound with a ’90s twist.”

The Buzz, which was once featured on “The Jenny Jones show,” is looking forward to its first appearance in Ames.

“College crowds are great to play for because they are into so many styles of music,” Bernhardt said.

Much of the band’s live show is improvisational with no strict set list.

“We love to feed off the crowd and just see what happens,” Bernhardt said.

Like most bands that have an eclectic sound, these friendly rocksters listen to absolutely everything. Bernhardt said the van CD player has pumped out new R & B, old blues, jazz, classic rock and, of course, The Beatles.

With The Buzz constantly traveling, the guys in the band have to use their time off more productively to write new music.

For “Highway,” Bernhardt and Blinkal had done a lot of the writing, but it has become more of a group effort as everyone’s talent evolves and expands.

“With our time off, we have to try to be creative in a 90 percent uncreative situation,” Bernhardt said. “But it’s going pretty good.”

Bernhardt and his bandmates enjoy being on the road and playing around in different cities because they never know what to expect, but they do have their favorites.

“We love playing in Chicago, but the scene can be pretty tough with all the shit going on,” Bernhardt said. “We like playing the Midwest a lot; we tend do pretty well here.”

The Buzz plays with the New Duncan Imperials Friday night at The M-Shop at 9 p.m. for the M-Shop’s annual Not-Quite-New Years Eve Party. Tickets are $5 for students and $6 for general admission.