WiNK
by: Ioanna Aspras
For the next three weeks, I will be sharing four out of the total 12 teachers' stories per week. While listening back to the interviews and sorting through them, I found that it worked best to keep everyone's stories intact, summarize them as best as I can, and group them together with some other teachers who shared somewhat similar stories.
This week's edition includes: Mr. Johnston, Mr. Kendis, Mr. Newbury and Ms. McLeod.
Mr. Johnston:
Mr. Johnston's mom, as a classically trained musician, played a big part in introducing him to the genre and to learning the piano. By the time he entered middle school, his musical tastes began to evolve and he realized "the bigger the better;" the more instruments he learned, the better. That was the beginning of him learning all the instruments he plays now.
In high school, persuaded by his friends, he did "rebel" against his classical upbringing and started learning bass to better fit into the emerging jazz culture.
In college, he further widened his musical awareness in listening to both esoteric and mainstream music. Through Mr. Johnston's extensive sampling of different music styles, he seemed to continue to go back to jazz. In fact, one of his favorite places was Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village–where he also brought his wife for their first date. He and his wife share a love for music and have a collection of vinyls, although Mr. Johnston tends to turn to YouTube to listen to music these days.
Having gone to see them twice, he particularly enjoyed the instrumentally driven Tower Power band in addition to liking Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.
Perhaps the fact that his first exposure to music was within the classical genre, Mr. Johnston is more inclined towards the instrumental aspects of songs rather than lyrics.
Overall, Mr. Johnston appreciates "any kind of music that's well executed." He said, music is like architecture; it is easy to pinpoint when a building (or in this case, music) is well made or poorly made.
Mr. Kendis:
Mr. Kendis has always had an eclectic music taste. At first, as a kid, he enjoyed pop, but as he moved up into middle and high
school, he started to get into alternative music, such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Then, he got into hip hop, rock and jam bands; specifically, the band Phish, who would play long songs with the majority consisting solely of instrumentals and very little singing. Mr. Kendis has seen Phish perform about 30 times. Although he does not listen to them much anymore, he made a lot of great memories with his friends going to Phish concerts. During college as he met a lot of people with different music tastes, his repertoire widened to include jazz, blues, and indie. He never personally sought out music, but was recommended musical pieces by friends and he would be drawn to them on account of their musical and instrumental elements rather than the lyrics.
His all time favorite band is Radiohead. He and his wife had been at a variety show in which there was a cover band that performed the entire In Rainbows Radiohead album which is a very technically interesting album with around 40 different instruments.
Although Mr. Kendis is not a Metallica fan, he and his wife saw an all-female cover band of Metallica in Brooklyn which he really enjoyed:
"Everyone's decked out in their Metallica gear, all black leather with spikes and stuff; you could tell they were super into the music. And the band came out, and it was 4 women and the lead singer was standing there chatting with the crowd, smiling and laughing, tuning her guitar. Then, the lights dimmed and they went to start the concert and her face just completely changed and she got super serious, started swinging her head back and forth; was just jamming. It was loud, and it wasn't any Metallica songs that I knew, it was nothing I'd ever heard before, but the crowd was just so into it and the band was so into it, it was tons of fun."
During his time in the Peace Corps, he was introduced to Cape Verdean music since his host family would constantly have music playing, and he discovered Cesarea Evara–one of his all-time favorite musicians.
At the present moment, Mr. Kendis listens to a lot of indie rock, similar to his college and post-college years, as well as Cape Verdean music especially when he needs to be focusing on something.
Overall, Mr. Kendis believes that music (as well as food) is a "great way to learn about culture."
Mr. Newbury:
Mr. Newbury's musical tastes were heavily influenced by his mom's record collection which included Earth, Wind and Fire, Bob Marley, The Police, Stevie Wonder, soul, reggae, funk, and David Bowie. He said that he "had a pretty mean cassette collection when [he] was in Kindergarten in [his] ninja turtle lunch box, 'cause you could fit like 30 of them in there."
In middle school, his family started listening to CDs which allowed him to listen to multiple albums more easily. From those CDs, Tragic Kingdom by No Doubt; Weezer's self-titled Blue Album; Californication by Red Hot Chili Peppers; and Sublime's self-titled album were the standout ones.
When Mr. Newbury started playing guitar, his perspective on music started to evolve:
"I think when I was a kid it was probably something simple like a lyric or melody that stuck out to me, but when I actually started playing music, you just experience it in a totally different way, even songs I didn't necessarily like to listen to; if I learned to play something and connect with it, it made a big difference."
In the beginning of playing guitar, Mr. Newbury focused on listening to and playing classic rock since it was the "be all, end all of guitar playing." However, in college, when he was introduced to people with different music tastes and sharing and streaming music was getting easier and easier with platforms like Napster, Mr. Newbury began to broaden his horizons and now is open to any music... besides pop country.
Growing up in East Hartford gave Mr. Newbury easy access to Hartford's summer music festivals in which music would be played on the green at least once a week throughout the summer.
Around the age of 17 or 18, he formed his own bands and tried to open for other performers at local shows. As part of a rock band, Mr. Newbury got to play at festivals like Bamboozle in New Jersey which allowed him to see live performances from bands like Protest the Hero and Animals as Leaders. He and his bandmates had also played at Bomb Fest in Hartford, giving them backstage passes, on the same day that Snoop Dogg had headlined and the day after, Weezer had headlined.
Now with YouTube, Mr. Newbury appreciates the ability to experience these types of performances almost live since the added benefit to watching on YouTube compared to a live concert is the overall less cramped and sweaty experience, as well as being able to hear the sound more clearly.
Beyond those mentioned above, some more of Mr. Newbury's all time favorites include: Between the Buried and Me - Colors ("not for everyone, they're a combination of progressive metal and other weird things, but that album is amazing; it's one complete song–60 minutes nonstop"), Josh Dion Band - Live! (Mr. Nerbury saw this performance in college. He says it's "one of the best live performances and it was only just a college band." Josh Dion is both the singer and the drummer).
Here are a few local bands that Mr. Newbury recommends people should give a listen to: Gone By Daylight, The Midnight Renewal, a band made up of Mr. Newbury's fellow music students called Mark of Cain which was a progressive metal band–sweatpants metal, who didn't care about their appearance but they sounded really good.
Ms. McLeod:
Ms. McLeod's experience with music was inspired by her father's Scottish heritage which meant that her childhood was filled with Scottish music and learning about the culture's traditions. Her family also listened to a great deal of classical music.
Through high school and college, Ms. McLeod was drawn to folk music, most notably Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, likely as a result of the Scottish music exposure. At the same time, she was learning to play guitar which was also a factor in what music appealed to her.
Over the years, Ms. McLeod has collected country music, continues to listen to classical music, specifically Vivaldi and Beethoven, listens to Scotia which is contemporary Scottish music, and she currently listens to artists such as: Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks, Enrique Iglesias, among other mainstream artists.
During her childhood, Ms. McLeod listened to music on stereos and record players which evolved into walkmans. She continues to marvel at the advancements made to make it possible for kids these days to listen to music so easily and so individually. It is especially great because she believes that lyrics and music carry their own power and comfort to each individual. For example, for Ms. McLeod, bagpipes are one of her "most comforting things," even if it may not be as such for others. Overall, music usually stands out to Ms. McLeod based on the event that she often connects it to.
More generally, Ms. McLeod believes that music has the power to portray what is important to people and it is a reflection or an emblem of what is important to a given generation–the trends that are popular, the issues that arise, the rhythm of everyday life.
Stay tuned for next week, as I will introduce the next four teachers I interviewed.
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Intro to the project that Ioanna shared last week:
For the past few months, I thought it would be a really fun project to interview Wooster teachers and administrators to learn more about their tastes and experiences with music. This was inspired by my new found interest in various music genres ranging from current all the way back to the 60's. As I've mentioned before, during COVID, I found myself spending much more time experimenting with different kinds of music. Especially since we were all home, my family started listening to music together which introduced me to more of the music my parents grew up listening to.
Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing stories from: Mr. Johnston, Mr. Hutchins, Dr. Sullivan, Mr. Pannone, Ms. McLeod, Mr. Rexford, Mr. Wolfson, Mr. Newbury, Mrs. Thaler, Mr. Kendis, Mrs. Herrmann, and Mr. Sacco.
It was really interesting and fun to discover this different and personal side to all of these staff members. Music is a part of everyone's lives and is just as much something that brings people together as something often very private and solitary.
Stay tuned for the first installment!