Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast exploring the topics of business, education,
technology and design.
I'm your host, Mr. Jason.
Join me weekly as my team and I produce content that's informative, positive, fun and uplifting.
Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders and inspirational stories
with an international flavor.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International
Community School of Bangkok.
Hello, I'm Mr. Jason.
I'll be your host today.
I'm joined by my co-host, Premi and Rebecca.
We also welcome Mr. Christopher to this episode as our guest musician.
This episode has been titled Music is Life and we're excited to dive into the life and
journey of a musician along with some music fun at the end.
So stay tuned as we get into our first segment right after we get our quote of the day and
hear some headline music news.
Our quote of the day comes from Edward Bower Leighton.
He's quoted as saying, Music once admitted to the soul becomes a sort of spirit and never
dies.
This quote communicates that music has the power to deeply affect our emotions and can
create lasting memories.
It has the ability to transcend time and connect us to our past, present and future selves.
When we listen to music, we invite a piece of the artist's soul into our own, creating
a connection that resonates long after the music stops playing.
And that's our quote of the day.
A significant event that happened early last month was the 2024 Grammys, where most of
the attention was directed towards Taylor Swift winning the Best Album Award for her
Midnights.
Additionally, most of the major awards were won by a woman, with Billie Eilish's What
Was I Made For from the Barbie Movie winning the Best Sound of the Year Award.
While there were many outcries during the event overall, the event went smoothly without
any major disturbances except maybe for interest.
Following the battle that modern songwriters face against the rising use of AI to produce
music and also copying artists' voice, many prominent music artists such as Nicki Minaj
and Cardi B have voiced their support of the No AI Fraud Act, which promises artists to
defend their fundamental human right to their voice and likeness.
By establishing a federal standard preventing the use of AI to copy voices and likeness
of artists without consent.
Coming all the way from Japan, the four-man band Rat Whimps, which has produced a variety
of well-received music from movies such as Your Name and Weathering With You, will be
performing at UOB Live at M'sphere on May 23 as part of their 2024 tour, The Way You
Yawn and A Cry of Peace, which will cover seven different Asian countries.
The event went on sale last week, so if you're interested, hurry up and snag a spot.
Thank you for the quote and the news.
To kick us off in this first segment, we'll get some insight into Mr. Christopher's journey
into music.
Also make sure you stick around for our second segment as you'll have a chance to enter
our Guess That Song contest.
Now let's get into our first segment.
Premi will start us off with our first question.
Hello and welcome to the show.
Thanks for bringing your guitar to the studio as well.
To get us started, could you please introduce yourself and tell us what you are doing?
Hi.
Thanks for having me.
My name is Mr. Christopher.
I'm a middle school art teacher here at ICS.
This is my second year.
I teach middle school art and I also help out with student ministries and mentor the
student worship band for middle school.
I play music on the side, so earlier this year I started a band, so we've been playing
some gigs around Bangkok and really having fun with that.
My free time I really enjoy live music and going to concerts, so I attend a lot of shows
and concerts and stuff like that.
Thank you for your self-introduction.
We're honored to meet you, Mr. Christopher.
Can you share with us how your journey in music began?
What were some of your earliest inspirations?
Sure.
I've always loved music.
One of my first memories of music was being back in elementary school.
We have these UIL competitions and one of the teachers recommended me to go for music
memory.
It was like listening to old symphonies and you had to be able to name not only the name
of the song but also the composer.
I scored the gold medal in it because I was really able to remember everything.
Music's always been really important to me.
It's kind of how I process my own emotions and everything.
Growing up, I've always been interested.
I always wanted to learn how to play guitar.
I took some lessons when I was a kid but it never really stuck.
But I really started getting into music in middle school and high school and I was playing
around with friends, trying to play in bands and going to concerts and stuff like that.
I remember growing up we had cassette tapes and my first cassette tape was the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack.
And I can still remember some of the songs from that.
When I was in middle school, I joined band in middle school so I played tuba, trombone
and baritone all the way through high school.
Was in marching band and all that fun stuff.
Did you take music through your high school year?
I did not and that's one of my biggest regrets.
As someone who plays music, I learned how to play music but I didn't really learn the
theory behind it, how to write melody, how to just kind of sit and jam and then just
kind of figure it out.
As I've gotten older, I'm starting to pick up those skills and everything but I'm really
good at reading music and I can even sit down a lot of times and figure out the key and
start playing along.
But sitting down and trying to write my own melody and stuff like that tends to be the
bigger challenge for me.
So you have perfect pitch, right?
I don't know if I would say perfect but there was one time I was in a store and I was just
humming along to the song and a lady said, oh you've got perfect pitch and I was like,
didn't realize that but thank you.
You definitely aced the course.
But funny thing is I love to sing now but I did not know that I knew how to sing until
probably I was I think 21 or so.
I happened to, I was going to a concert and we were waiting for the band and they had
a karaoke room and I'd never done karaoke before and they were like, just try it.
Was that how you figured out?
That's how I figured it out.
That's crazy.
So one of my big regrets is when I was in high school, my favorite musical of all time
is Little Shop of Horrors.
It was a movie from the 80s with Rick Moranis and we did that my senior year of high school
and I wanted to try out for the Dennis part but I did not have confidence and I was like
so shy.
So I ended up doing stage manager and it was great but I always regret it.
And I could have been a great dentist if I'd known that I could sing.
Crazy how you figured out though how you found out.
That is one story.
And we also understand that you're also an art teacher.
How does your work as an art teacher influence your creative process in music or vice versa?
I think for me any art and I try to connect this with my students as well is that art
has to mean something, it has to reflect some part of your life or some part of your experience
to make it meaningful.
The best art in my opinion connects to the life of an artist.
Me as an artist if I sit down and I try to work on a piece of art and I'm not connected
to it emotionally in some way then I will never finish.
I have a portfolio of probably a hundred different artworks that I've started and only halfway
finish because I just had no connection to it.
But then when I am connected to it there are those times where I can just sit down and
hours will go by as I'm working on it.
I did a portrait last year and I was just so intrigued of like the curve of this person's
ear and the flow of the hair and because that person was really meaningful to me it made
the artwork that much more important to finish.
So I think the same thing with music.
If I don't connect to the music in some way then I lose interest and I get bored and when
I do connect to something it becomes really meaningful and really valuable.
That's insightful and I've always admired those who are teachers and can create masterpieces.
Could you tell us about any artists or bands that have helped influence your musical style?
Sure the band I play in now we play kind of a mix of what I call Texas indie folk and
country since I come from Texas I come from a city called Houston which is a big city.
I grew up with country music but when I was in high school I got really into punk rock
and a lot of rock bands and stuff like that going into more heavy metal type stuff.
Around the early 2000s it was kind of when a lot of indie rock first kind of started
hitting and that completely changed my musical tastes.
So I have like a wide variety of things that I really enjoy but I would say these days
mostly lean towards indie folk and country.
Some of the greats like George Strait who's known as the king of country from Texas Willie
Nelson who I've seen many times in concert.
He's 91 this year I think and still putting on concerts which is awesome.
My favorite band of all time is a band called Tool which I've seen many times.
I used to love a band called 311.
There was around 2004 is probably when I was reflect is like my favorite year for music
which is kind of that indie explosion and there was a label called Saddle Creek that
had a lot of my favorite bands at the time.
Bands called Rhylo Kiley, Bright Eyes but those were super important to me.
Things like Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service because it's not just the instrumentation
but it's the words behind it and it was a really meaningful time for me so that influences
a lot of my music as well I think.
That's a lot of genres.
Here's a follow up question.
Are there specific ways you incorporate that into your own music?
So like I said I like to play music that I connect to so I learn to not only play in
a certain style or technique but I learn kind of the structure and progressions and really
how to build dynamics and I think dynamics is one of the things you really have to learn
as a musician or as an artist.
It's not just the words, it's not just the melody but how are you kind of creating an
experience for somebody.
Like if you're saying words that are you know really sad and you're trying to convey a sad
emotion then how is the music building towards that emotion?
How are you drawing the listener in to be able to experience the same thing that you're
trying to say?
I always try to tell my students when they're finishing their artwork that you know you
as an artist you put your artwork out there and you have your experiences, you have your
worldview, you have your understanding of what your art piece is but then somebody that
is not you is going to come and look at it and they're going to come with their own experiences
and their own worldview and their own thoughts about life and they might have a completely
different interpretation of the art or the piece and that's part of the fun of art and
music is you can connect to it in different ways and something that is very meaningful
to me in one way might be completely meaningful to someone else in a different way and I think
music kind of transcends that idea as well.
I love that, that's really true though with all the interpretations as a writer myself
I hear this a lot and I get this a lot too with writers when I'm writing my own pieces
and then versus how other people see that work and then how they interpret it and I
think there's a long-standing question I love to ask whenever I'm analyzing literature.
One of the questions that comes up is like so what is the meaning behind the piece?
Is it the meaning that the author intended for the piece or is it the meaning that readers
take away from it and like what is valid or like what should be the way it is?
Where does the line intersect and is there like a right meaning or right interpretation?
Right or wrong, that's a tough balance on that one.
I kind of feel like any character that's out there kind of carries a piece of the author
within some ways because it is an author that's kind of coming up with their thoughts and
their behaviors and their ideas but sometimes you know you're creating this thing and then
you put it out and when you put it out you do have to let it go and you have to let it
breathe and become its own thing so I don't think I could give you like a black or white
answer on that.
It is not black and white.
It's kind of all mixed in.
Sometimes it is nice to be able to separate the art from the artist.
Yeah that for sure.
Yeah I hear that too a lot.
There are a lot of songs that I like that I probably would not like the person who made
them very much so.
Yeah that makes sense.
Okay next question is could you describe your creative process?
How do you go from an initial idea to a finished song and what challenges do you face along
the way?
I usually start with the words.
I was a big writer in my younger days so I used to love writing poetry and to me writing
lyrics is kind of like writing poetry and many times I get inspiration that just kind
of comes from I'm a big people watcher and I love that you know interactions and stuff
and something might happen or I might rhyme something and then I try to sit down and write
it down or keep notes but then I'm like if I don't have anything to write it down I'll
be like oh I'm gonna really remember this one I usually forget which is kind of sad
but I like to start with the words and I feel like that's kind of the easiest part for me
is being able to figure out you know the stanzas or the verses and the chorus.
The challenge for me I think is really trying to figure out the melody.
I might be able to figure out like a chord structure but trying to come up with a really
really nice doesn't have to be intricate but nice flowing melody to a song that's trying
to capture that emotion or capture that feeling that I'm trying to go for becomes the challenge.
I might start with like a chord progression and then I'll try to like either hum or sing
a melody on top of that chord progression and I tend to record myself so I have a lot
of these recordings of myself where it's just playing guitar and I'm you know on top of
the guitar so yeah and then later you kind of have to take those things and it's almost
like a puzzle putting them together and trying to get them to fit and that's probably the
most challenging part is trying to you know take that idea with the emotion and the melody
and trying to mix it all.
Wow that's a lot of work whenever you imagine the amount of work that goes into each song.
Can you share a memorable live performance experience you've had?
I'm a big concert person so I love going to concerts and I have gone to this music festival
called Coachella California which is probably super famous.
I went to Coachella eight times but the first time I went was 2004 which I was talking about
kind of my indie era you know and at that time was the first like super huge music festival
we did a road trip like I live in Houston which is about 22 hour drive from LA so we
did a road trip and drove from Houston to the desert of California we camped in the
desert and went to the festival for a few days and at the time was the lineup was probably
the most amazing lineup I had ever seen at the time.
Headline the first night, the Cure headline the second night and pretty much every indie
band at that time that I had wanted to see was there and it was just one of those moments
that like just really impacted man like I really love this this moment right here make
you feel alive you know and I have Coachella kind of kind of now has become this really
over commercialized thing and they used to get really you know interesting artists or
reunions like I think that was I saw a band called the Pixies who hadn't had a show in
maybe 15 years and they reunited for that.
When I saw Radiohead they're notorious for hating their song creep because it got so
so famous so they just never play it live and they actually played it live there and
Tom York just completely wrecked the song it was it was hilarious you know and then
the Cure it's like one of them you know most well-known bands of all time did a greatest
hit set where they played some songs that they hadn't played live in 20 years and it's
just like those special moments you know being able to to be there for that and all the different
times I went to Coachella I had experiences like that like seeing Prince or going to see
Daft Punk and it was the first time that they did the pyramid or the flaming lips and flaming
lips are known for you know putting the singer in this big inflatable ball but it was like
the first time they tried it was like I was there at that at that moment and you get to
meet all these cool celebrities and stuff a funny story about meeting Danny DeVito if
you ever have time we'll tell you about that.
Will you bring a notebook and a pen with you when you go to concert or like music shows?
Actually I used to so I kept I keep all my concert tickets so especially when I was younger
I used to have to go to Ticketmaster to buy them and you got ticket stubs now it's just
kind of like an email confirmation so it's not as cool you know but I have a couple photo
albums that have all the concerts I went to all the way from I think 1996 up to present
day and had some cool experiences where I got to meet a lot of the musicians I have
a lot of autographs and I met Chris Martin of Coldplay you know one time backstage but
actually when I first started going to big shows like that like I have a notebook that
I took to Coachella where I like wrote down stuff that I wanted to remember and sometimes
I forget it so it's nice to go back and look at it and be like I remember this moment I
remember that you know which is really cool.
That's really sweet that must be like a whole bunch of pages of concert tickets.
I mean that's a big storage box.
I kept all my concert t-shirts too so I have some concert t-shirts that go all the way
back to the 90s.
That's crazy.
Okay now for our final question in this first segment looking ahead do you have any upcoming
projects or goals that you're excited about?
Yeah actually last year I ended up starting a band here in Bangkok and it was one of those
things where I think I was just feeling kind of down and just a little bit lonely where
like we just kind of moved to Bangkok and I wasn't really connecting and finding friends
and I was like I'm just gonna like always wanted to do a band so I'm just gonna do it
and I put out some feelers on Facebook like hey this is this is what I'm looking for anybody
interested in getting together and playing and then had a handful of guys that reached
out and we ended up meeting together and playing and really connected so we ended up starting
a band and I happened to be at a show at a place called Speaker Box.
I went to see this Thai band called Wicked Lights which is kind of like a Thai version
of Bon Iver but I was really excited to see them and I just happened to talk to the owner
and it was right when I kind of started the band at the time only had like one committed
person and I was telling the owner about it and he's like well if you ever want to play
here you know let me know and I was like really and I was like I took that as a sign of let's
just do it you know so kind of stepped out and in faith and we just had a concert this
last weekend which was kind of our biggest crowd to date I think is about 40 people that
was there and it was super fun.
So the band's called Lone Star Lament we play a mix of Texas indie folk and country.
Right now we're just kind of playing cover songs so we're kind of trying to learn to
jell as a band but we're going to start working on some original music and stuff like that
but we tend to play about one gig a month it's about what everybody can commit to but
it's just been really fun to just get out and play you know.
I've had so many experiences being like in the crowd and like man I wish I could be on
stage and now it's kind of like making that dream come true a little bit so.
Okay there you have it that's the end of segment one and yes we'll be right back after this
short PSA.
Listen up people the concert season is upon us here in Bangkok there have been some big
names already like K-Pop NCT 127, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Novo Amor, Rod Stewart and others.
Don't worry if you've already missed these groups here's a list of upcoming shows in
March.
Wave to Earth at Union Hall in Bangkok on March 9th, the famous Tom Jones will be performing
at M-Sphere March 14th and if you're into head-banging heavy metal Slash will be in
Bangkok performing on March 15th at Centerpoint Studio.
And finally on March 30th Bruno Mars will be performing at the National Stadium here
in Bangkok.
Get your earplugs and your friends together and go enjoy a concert this month.
We are back with part two and we still have Mr. Christopher in the studio and he's brought
his guitar.
To start off this segment we're going to have a little contest not for the podcast team
but for you our listeners.
Here's the rules Mr. Christopher will play a few seconds of a popular song in a specific
genre.
If you know the song make note of it.
After he has made it through all the songs we will announce a way for you to respond
back to us with your answers.
The first two responders who have the most points correct will win a special prize from
the Students Incorporated podcast team.
Here's how we count up the points.
You get one point for getting the title and artist correct.
You get a half point if you get one or the other correct.
There are five regular songs worth one point and one bonus song at the end with two points.
Let's start.
Over to you Premi.
Okay this sounds fun.
The first song falls into the music genre of classic rock.
Mr. Christopher are you ready to play a few seconds of our first song?
Let's do it.
Anything you want to say before you play this?
No.
Alright so let's get started.
Thank you.
Hopefully our listeners are up on their classic rock music.
Okay our next song falls into the country music genre.
Mr. Christopher we're ready if you are.
Thank you and a quick message to our listeners if you need to hear the song again just rewind
and replay.
Easy.
Okay our next song falls into the genre category of hard rock or rock and roll.
Go ahead and play the next song Mr. Christopher.
We're on to our next song.
The next song is the genre of pop music.
Mr. Christopher go ahead and play when you're ready.
That was fun thank you.
And our next song genre is indie.
Typically indie music is produced and released independently from a commercial record label.
Mr. Christopher go ahead when you're ready.
Thank you our last song of this contest is our bonus song and it's worth two points.
No hints on this one.
Mr. Christopher go ahead and play our bonus song when you're ready.
Now that we have made it through all our songs here is how you can send in your answers to
us.
So please send us an email with your answers to studentsincorporated at gmail.com.
Make sure you include your name.
Again send your answers to studentsincorporated at gmail.com.
That's s-t-u-d-e-n-t-s-i-n-c-p-o-d-c-a-s-t at gmail.com.
Now moving on we've asked Mr. Christopher to help us in this last segment with some
music.
Anything you'd like to share about this song before you play it?
So one of the big ideas of my band is that we play music that has a tinge of sadness
to it.
Not in like a boring way or a melancholy way but in kind of the way of where we think of
misery brings us together.
You know brings us together to kind of celebrate the things that are kind of sad in life.
So it doesn't necessarily mean that when something's sad it's just like depressing and really just
down right.
There are so many songs you can think about that have fun or like a positive message but
just has that tinge of sadness to it.
It's kind of based off of a movie that I used to love called High Fidelity that had John
Cusack and Jack Black in it.
And one of the quotes from the movie he's talking a little bit about is depression and
he says,
Do I listen to pop music because I'm depressed?
Or am I depressed because I listen to pop music?
Or is it like one of those cycle things?
So the idea behind the band is to celebrate those songs because everybody I think can
figure out a song.
So this song is like actually when you think about it quite a happy song but it's actually
one of those things that takes something that's really happy and really beautiful but it's
also got a tinge of sadness to it.
It's kind of you guys seen the movie Up?
I will never forget watching the first five minutes of Up and then just crying my eyes
out because it's the story of that love story and where the old guy, his wife passes away
at the end.
So this song is kind of about that where it's a beautiful marriage and everything but how
much time do we have together?
Maybe 40 years, something like that.
Eventually one of us is going to have to live life alone.
So beautiful song but has that kind of tinge of sadness to it.
So it's called If We Were Vampires by Jason Isbell.
Stop the lawn flow and dress a chore, old light coming off of your skin.
The fragile heart you've protected for so long.
Oh the mercy in your sense of right and wrong.
Snatch your hair and search it slow in the dark.
Hold your nails, leave in love's watermark.
It's not the way you talk beyond the rules.
Your questions like corrections to the truth.
It's knowing that this can't go on forever.
Like me one of us will have to spend some days alone.
Maybe we'll get 40 years together, one day I'll be gone, one day you'll be gone.
If we were vampires and death was a joke.
We'd go out on the sidewalk and the smoke.
And laugh it all to love us in their plans.
I wouldn't feel the need to hold your hand.
Baby time running out is a gift.
I work hard to the end of my shift.
And give you every second I can find.
I wouldn't be the one who's left behind.
It's knowing that this can't go on forever.
Like me one of us will have to spend some days alone.
Maybe we'll get 40 years together, one day I'll be gone, one day you'll be gone.
It's knowing that this can't go on forever.
Like me one of us will have to spend some days alone.
Maybe we'll get 40 years together, one day I'll be gone, one day you'll be gone.
Thank you.
As we end this episode, Mr. Christopher has reminded us that music can take on a life of its own.
It's something that has the ability to connect to our hearts and souls.
It can also connect us together.
Thanks again for sharing your talents with our audience and for helping remind us all that sometimes
we just need to stop and listen to the music.
As always, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of Pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives
sharing copyright free images, videos, and music.
And we are signing off until next time.
We are Students Incorporated, because your voice matters.