May 1, 2022

MUSIC MATTERS: Interviews with Music Partners

JACK WAGNER, Grant Writer, Atlanta Music Project

How does music inspire you?

“Music inspires me to see the beauty in the smaller things in life. The emotional response that people have is inspiring”.  Jack discussed how performing allows the audience and the performer to take a journey with each other and create a vulnerable space.

When was the moment you knew music was something you wanted to do or be a part of?

“There are a whole host of moments and I remember certain performances as a kid that I felt really good about and I got good feedback from. As I was performing I had sort of an outer body experience. This is why I do it, the intangible feeling you get when a piece of music is really moving”. Jack also speaks about a time when he was in college and he was a dual major in Political Science and Piano performance he discusses the moment in his junior year when he had to make a decision to choose one path and he knew that politics would be more of a stable route he stuck with his passion and chose to pursue music instead. I had to trust that I had something artistic to say.

What are your role models in music and why?

“Prince, I think he was a musician and an artist, a visionary on his own level and I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who has had the talent that he had. He always knew what he wanted to put out and if people didn't receive it, he didn't care”. Jack talks about how he holds  respect for any artist who goes with their passion and doesn't necessarily care what anyone thinks.

How do you feel about arts being involved in education ?

“There is no holistic education without the arts, music is a medium to help students connect the dots in their other courses. If you're memorizing a music piece you can connect that to another course. It's more than an extracurricular. The arts allowed me to explore different parts of who I am and how I want to express myself and kids aren't always allowed that space in their community or home. Working at Atlanta Music Project makes me realize that it's a lifeboat for children”. 

How did Covid impact your ability to continue to do what you do at Atlanta Music Project and personally?

“When everything shut down [due to the pandemic] the energy you get from performing in front of people was zapped away. It was a huge hurdle, with arts education it was a barrier to keep the children engaged. Mainly because the community the students had built was taken away from them. Thankfully AMP did a good job of keeping them engaged and providing  the resources to build community even if it had to be done virtually”.

“It was difficult to be an artist during that time personally with all the things going on in the world. The uncertainty created an artistic block for me and as  an artist I struggled with creating music; not having any inspiration in the world because there were so many overwhelming things happening”.

How do you feel music builds community?

“Music is a form of communication that transcends language. The tangible feeling It helps to create bonds and open up avenues for deeper connection and deeper conversation because you're rebuilding trust. Whenever you're talking about art you're being vulnerable and discussing your emotions in the moment”. 

Gladius (Andrew Connors), Guitarist

When was the moment you knew music was something you wanted to do for the rest of your life?

“I had some friends who had two brothers who were into electric guitar; and they would be jamming out ; one on rhythm and one on lead and it looked like the most fun thing in the world and I knew I had to do it I bugged my folks to get me a guitar and my uncle got me my first guitar so we can blame him or thank him (laughs) It was a few years before the obsession took over and knew this is what I'm doing for life, by the end of high school I was pretty committed. In his connection with classical music Gladius speaks about how he inherited his taste from his dad: “My dad would play Chopin and sonatas on the piano and it caught my ear and I would go through his whole collection and I inherited his love for the classics. It connected me to different kinds of music, more technical and crazy guitar playing”. 

Who are your role models in music and why?

Beethoven has always been a role model in music for Gladius and he discusses his time studying classical guitar from Professor John Sutherland at Georgia State University, Gladius speaks about how honored he was to work with someone who was a pioneer in the field. Gladius states that he was one of the greatest guitar instructors in the state and how much of a privilege to study with him. Scott Plateau, also a Georgia state graduate is also a teacher that he remembers that made an impact on him. 

How does music inspire you?

“I don't know where I would be without music. There are so many different kinds of music for different occasions. You have wake up music, wind down music”. Gladius talks about how there are so many facets to music and how that inspires him to mix genres and create more music. Gladius feels that he is a vessel and is always preparing himself to be ready for when inspiration comes. He states “ I believe that when you're doing your part and taking care of the logistics and technical stuff staying in shape and your focus is right, then inspiration will tend to visit you more often and you'll never have a lack of creative juices and if I ever do I have tons of memos and ideas that I can go back to.”

How did Covid impact you as a performing artist and how did it affect you?

“Initially it was bewilderment and not knowing if I should be paranoid or pissed off. All my venues are being canceled and there was a lot of turbulence. Professionally 75 of my gigs were gone. It made me realize how totally dependent on that [performing] I had become professionally and my income was directly tied to that. I don't think I could ever put my eggs in one basket again. It forced me to look outside the box and branch out a bit. I started a digital marketing agency and I have my official website up: themediatide.com.” Gladius also talked about how having an audience when performing was pivotal to him pre-pandemic and how when the pandemic hit it opened his eyes to how dependent he was on the validation of an audience. And he learned to not always place his value into receiving instant validation. Nevertheless, he marvels at how the pandemic opened his eyes to how valuable having a live audience is and the importance of people's real reaction in real time and how that impacts his art. 

How have you built your personal community through music?

Gladuis talks about his unique experience with building community as a solo artist. “You realize that you do need community and a team especially when you're a solo artist because there is so much weight on your shoulders. I'm not a drummer but I love drums and I want drums on my records and thankfully I know drummers that I can collaborate with. “When you have that common ground with other people that's like your community”. 

What are you looking forward to the most and what are your goals/dreams for the future?

“Global domination, ruling the world living like a prince [laughs].  In the very best way I want to tour the globe with my music. There are so many unexplored territories out there for me.” Gladius also went into detail about how he plans to focus more on being a recording artist, even though he loves performing,  and he has a plan to be more productive and consistent so that people can hear more of what he is composing and creating. 

Tyrone Webb, Production Manager, CHALLENGE THE STATS

Challenge the stats is a non profit organization that exists to empower BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artists and use music as a tool for social justice both inside and outside of the concert hall.

Tell me about your background, what connects you to music?

“I grew up in South Georgia, the part of Georgia that borders Alabama and the upper Florida. Music was always a part of my daily life. I was never immersed in it from the performance aspect but it was a part of what we incorporated in almost everything we did. I discovered I had a passion for singing and a talent for it but never pursued it until my last semester of high school. I had a free semester and I took a chorus class and I fell in love with it. Also that same semester the Morehouse glee club came to town and my step-dad got us tickets to their concert and I was completely blown away. I've never seen young black men singing in that kind of way, with that high level of excellence. I was just drawn to that. I had no knowledge of music theory or anything academic.”  After seeing that performance Tyrone decided he wanted to go to Morehouse and study music. Tyrone also spoke about how surprised his family was to see how involved he wanted to be in music.

When was the moment you knew music was something you wanted to do or be a part of professionally?

“I developed a whole lot as an artist at Morehouse and that really inspired me to pursue my Masters in Music and then to be a music teacher and so I did that for a couple years and then I transitioned into a career that I didn't even really know existed which was arts administration. In my mind and in my heart what  I really wanted to do but all I knew as far as the options were for people who study music either you're going straight into performance or teaching. So I wanted to have the aspect of being involved in music education but also curating special types of arts experiences.” Tyrone discussed how working at the challenge the stats merges all of his interests together. 

How do you feel about arts being involved in education ?

“I have strong opinions about that. I see it and experience it from so many vantage points. I do believe that any successful person should have a full arts experience. It's essential to every student and should be essential to every program that considers itself to have any type of quality. The arts reflect the quality of education programs.” Tyrone went on to discuss the comparison of sports programming and arts programming in schools and how he believes there should be the same amount of emphasis on arts. Tyrone also discusses how we as a community need to invest more into the arts when it comes to education because teachers and students will thrive.  

What is one of the most rewarding parts of working for Challenge The Stats?

Honestly it's just living and seeing and experiencing the mission of Challenge The Stats to celebrate and highlight living black artists who are highly skilled in many different aspects of music and art. That is the most rewarding thing to me when we can produce any type of event and we have black excellence. The term black excellence has been thrown out a lot …..Black people thriving isn't anything new.” Tyrone talks more about how his favorite thing about Challenge The Stats is that excellence is something that is already understood and they are able to highlight the great things that black artists have always been doing but who never had the opportunities to showcase their excellence.

Where do you get your inspiration from for your personal music projects?

Tyrone talks about his days at Morehouse and how he would apply what he learned in class and combine that with his everyday experiences to find inspiration for new music. “I love R&B and hip hop and soul music so I was like applying that theory to what I take into everyday and it fed my creative spirit. This is how chords work and how melodies go and transition and what music instruments you can use.” Tyrone discussed how he experiences life and that everything is connected. He also discussed that his wife is also a singer and how that also allows him the opportunity to continue to create music. 

How does music play a role in building community for you and the children you serve ?

“In general, I always relate music and the arts to my upbringing. I always draw back on what it felt like to experience art and knowing now along the years you see how important and crucial it is to have art in your community that's defined by the community created and produced by and for the community. I see how it elevates the human person to have some sort of art experience. I think it elevates our mind in differ ways and it connects us more as humans cause it's such a raw feeling that people have when they experience art.” Tyrone also discusses the importance of being able to participate in art regardless if you're good or not and he praises how essential art experiences are needed for a community or family. He believes it is the source of life.