photo by Jason Schumacher

Adam Tucker: I came into music early as my parents were both music majors (teaching and musicology) and my dad was still a performing jazz drummer. My desire to play and make music definitely stems from my parents acquainting me from a very young age with both the listening and performance aspects of the art – I’ve carried more than my share of my dad’s drums! I did the standard piano lesson thing for years, then picked up bass my freshman year of high school and guitar in the middle. Since then there really hasn’t been a time when I haven’t been in at least one band. Once you’ve played live or heard a song you wrote played for an audience you never want to let that feeling go, be it heavy metal or jazz or whatever.

Without playing jazz piano and bass for four years in high school and classical/jazz bass for four years in college I would never become as comfortable with and knowledgeable about music and performance as I am now. The strictly technical aspects aside, being able to sit down with lots of musicians, both older and younger, over the years of my schooling in many different formats was one of the most valuable parts of my arts education experience. I definitely wouldn’t have had the chance to play and learn with so many talented people, or have had the opportunity to meet other musicians through them without school assistance. So thanks music teachers, I wouldn’t be myself without you, keep fighting to keep the arts alive in schools!

Kyle Vande Slunt: Like Adam I came into music from a very young age because of my parents. Both played instruments (clarinet and trumpet) and were avid music listeners. My mom would always make up and sing her own harmonies to songs we listened to in the car, while my dad would not turn off the engine and get out of his car until a song he enjoyed was over. Both have stuck with me as I continue those habits today. I wanted to play drums in middle school but when I auditioned my skills on the snare drum my instructor said “have you tried the trombone?” It was a love hate relationship but the trombone carried me all the way through high school and my BA in music. While it wasn’t really making music, I’ve been manipulating sound for as long as I can remember. I would run and hide from the loud vacuum cleaner and cover my ears only to discover that if I press and release my lobes I could create an analog low pass filter. This is how I spent the majority of my childhood, along with making sound effects with my mouth for imaginary movie trailers and cartoons. I realized at a very young age that sound was my life. Sound is music and music is sound.

Oddly (or sadly) enough, Adam and I went to the same University for our music degrees. I can’t stress how my experience shaped my life and thus Nobot’s. I had the opportunity to learn and be challenged by incredibly gifted and talented professors. I was able to perform in Jazz Bands, Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and other group ensembles. It also gave me a platform to experiment and give the first electronic performance by a student in the school’s history. My knowledge and teachings in theory, analysis, composition, and history are present in everything I do that is related to sound (composition, recording, performing, sound design, mixing, etc). One brief example: If you listen to our song “Drinking Progress” you’ll hear a sample of a Renaissance motet (Machaut’s Mass) being manipulated in the beginning. This piece was part of my required listening and analysis for one of my history classes. I wouldn’t be where I am today without it, and I wouldn’t have the skills I have now. I’m a dedicated life solider in the front lines for keeping music and the arts alive in schools and other community organizations.

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This post is part of our 60-hour blogathon in support of music development and literacy within the Twin Cities. We appreciate you visiting the site – but before you go, we ask that you consider clicking the Donors Choose banner below and giving what you can to help enrich the lives of a number of local children through music and reading. Thank you. – Culture Bully

Also: (Nobot “Electricity, Electricity (Schoolhouse Rock)” Premiere)