Military Special: Peter Blomgren, Danell Norby, Joe Schweigert & Charlie Smith

How did you get into making music, and how did arts education (or lack thereof) affect you and your music?

Charlie Smith: Like any toddler who stumbles upon things that make noise, though my ear is a little more refined today.

One of the defining moments of my musicianship was when I joined St. Paul Central High’s jazz band in my junior year. I was just starting to get my feet under me and needed someone to encourage me to take risks. Without Central’s music teacher, Matt Oyen, I wouldn’t have decided to go on to study music in college and undertake this ridiculous pursuit of making it my profession. He actually taught many fine musicians in the local scene today in that jazz band: Peter Leggett of Heiruspecs on drums, Lucy Michelle on bari sax, Chris Graham of the Velvet Lapelles on guitar, our bassist James Shaff, and Joe played a pretty mean trumpet back then. Studying music in Italy was a pretty big eye opener too.

Danell Norby: I actually just kind of fell into making music. I’ve spent a lot of my life thinking about music, discussing it with friends, going to shows, reviewing albums for my college’s music magazine, but never seriously thought about making it myself. I had all but abandoned the handful of instruments I’d taken up as a kid, but when Joe asked me to join Military Special, it was a chance to put all of those hours of music lessons to good use. It’s been really great to learn how a piece of music comes together, and I’m now trying to get more involved in that process.

Music education gave me an appreciation for music that I might not have been exposed to otherwise. I wouldn’t say that it influenced my current tastes, but it definitely helped to develop my passion for music in general. Beyond that, it laid the foundation for everything I currently know about music. I probably wouldn’t be playing an instrument today if the opportunity hadn’t been presented to me earlier in life.

Joe Schweigert: Um, really, my mom forced me to take piano lessons. And my Fisher-Price xylophone. One of my first memories of Peter is seeing him walk on the bus in first or second grade with his little guitar case. It was the cutest thing in the world.

I was fortunate to have a lot of arts education in my life. My grade school music teacher getting me to sing “Brother John” in a round was huge. Really though all I learned about music came from public schooling, no joke. I would be jacked without it.

Peter Blomgren: I started playing guitar when I was five—classical guitar. The first few numbers included “Hot Cross Buns” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” It was pretty real. And I still remember how to play them. Though, I don’t really know how much you can rock out “Hot Cross Buns.” Yeah, and I took classical lessons ’til I graduated from high school. And then I stopped, but I think the main turning point in my musical career was when Joe and I were sitting in his parents’ old house and he showed me what a power chord was. And then I learned how to rock. And that kind of changed my whole outlook on music.

I went to Perpich for a little while and I learned a lot about how music works that I wouldn’t have otherwise known,, like some jazz theory and stuff like that. I’m not as good at the jazz as I’d like to be, but… just gotta keep playing I guess.

(Official) (MySpace)

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: (Military Special “We’re Science (Chris Heidman Mix)”)