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I interviewed a musician who had played drums and sang vocals in a few different local Connecticut bands throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. I was interested in gaining insights about his experience writing and performing in these groups without much formal music training, and how his artist identity was shaped by changing groups and instruments.

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John had started with doing vocals in a few punk rock groups and then transitioned into playing drums in the last band that he was involved in. I was interested in learning what drove him to participate in music and what bands were his biggest inspirations. He said, “I would see the bands on MTV when it first started, and I would just see all those you know, those old-time bands like AC/DC and Kiss and Dio and all that stuff, and I thought it was awesome.

And I thought I could recreate it. So that's how I got into it. So basically I would have to say I’d have to give a lot of props to MTV.” It was interesting to me how the mainstream medium of MTV led him to more niche interests within punk rock. I related to his story in the way that I also wanted to get involved with music after seeing artists on TV. I believe that the element of seeing performances and the style of artists and bands can heighten our passion about them and make it a more personal thing that we want to pursue.

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In my musical experience, I’ve always been given a piece of music to perform with a band. Because of this, I was curious to find out what the process was like for him in creating original songs in bands. When I asked John what the process for songwriting was like, his response reminded me of the characteristics of a participatory performance. He described the process as, “It was pretty much one person would have a basic idea. And you know, you would just play, you’d jam on that same kind of riff over and over again and then other people would just naturally kind of tweak something or add something.” The elements of a participatory performance with improvisational beginnings and members joining in and creating small variations were reminiscent to me of this process. Additionally, in “Creating the Music of the Na’vi in James Cameron’s Avatar: An Ethnomusicologist’s Role,” Dr. Wanda Bryant stated, “At our first meeting, I played about 20 brief sound samples for Horner and we discussed their suitability for our purposes.” I thought this was interestingly similar to the process John talked about. They needed to start with a sound or a riff that would be suitable for the representation of the band. I was unfamiliar beforehand with how experimental and improvisational the songwriting process is across different genres.

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An important takeaway from my interview was the shift in his artist identity that he faced when switching bands and instruments. His first experience was being the vocalist of a comedic punk rock band. The tone of this band called for an equally goofy and ridiculous frontman that established a local and devoted fan base off his outlandish performances. He performed every show in boxing gloves, a Halloween costume “which actually (John) had found out years later that it was found in the garbage”, and food to throw at the audience. John always looked forward to performing and felt that his true identity was even reflected to an extent when performing. When I asked about how he related his identity to his character in performances, he told me, “I mean, I think that I'm kind of silly and stupid like those things anyway, but it was definitely more extreme.” I thought it was interesting how he embraced these wild performance traits rather than being in a band centralized more on the actual music. In “Making Monsters: Lady Gaga, Fan Identification, and Social Media,” Melissa A. Click, Hyunji Lee & Holly Willson Holladay write, “By embracing a range of qualities normative culture has rejected, Lady Gaga and the fan community built around her reconfigure “monster” as a term of empowerment, and send important and influential cultural messages about the value and pleasure of difference.” I was interested to see the presence of artists embracing qualities that haven’t been normative to use to their advantage. These unconventional performance traits become a key staple to the fans and identify a more specialized fanbase.

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As ridiculous as his performances were, he gained a local following and performed frequently with other bands. He recalled that his favorite and most notable performance was the time that he got the opportunity to open for a band that was an inspiration to him. John stated, “My favorite one ever was we got to play with Nuclear Assault at the Briar Patch and they let us on their tour bus and I had loved at band anyway, right they were a famous national band and here they were in little Carmel, New York, and we got to play with them and hang out with them”

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This differed much from John’s next experience, being the drummer for the punk band Terror from the Year 5000. The songs written and the overall impression of this band was more serious. This tone called for a different persona to be presented to audiences when performing. His character had to be much more reserved – ridiculous costumes and outlandish performances weren’t a part of this act. He embraced wearing the outfits of his day-to-day life and grew accustomed to being a bit more in the background behind the drumset. However, this isn’t to say that he didn’t still interact with the audience and contribute to background vocals.

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John’s interview provided me with insights into the experience of playing in different bands and switching roles. Even in these small local bands and without much formal training, he expressed themes about the songwriting process and his stage identities that have also been mentioned in these articles.

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Click, Melissa A., et al. “Making Monsters: Lady Gaga, Fan Identification, and Social Media.” Popular Music and Society, vol. 36, no. 3, 2013, pp. 360–379.

“Creating the Music of the Na'vi in James Cameron's Avatar: An Ethnomusicologist's Role.” Ethnomusicology Review, ethnomusicologyreview.ucla.edu/journal/volume/17/piece/583.