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The speaker is preparing to edit an audio for a podcast project. They have experience editing podcasts before. The speaker introduces themselves and their uncle, who is a musician. The uncle has been a drummer since he was eight years old and has played in various bands. When they were younger, they listened to music on albums, eight-track tapes, and cassette tapes. They would record songs from the radio onto cassette tapes. The uncle's parents were not musical, but he and his friends started a band when they were young. The uncle primarily plays drums but also tried to learn guitar and is currently learning how to play bagpipes. His favorite artists growing up were The Sweet, Peter Frampton, The Clash, and Kate Bush. His band started as punk rock in college and later transitioned to Celtic rock. They have recorded music and also perform live shows. They will be going into the studio to record a full CD in January. Hold on one second, where are you going? Hello, how are you? Good, how's it going? It's good. I love your hair. Thanks. I was going to say, before we start, like, I'm going to edit the audio because it's like a podcast project. So, like, don't worry about, like, messing up or whatever because I'm going to go back through and all that. I've done a lot of this stuff before. Oh, you have? Okay, cool. Well, this is my first podcast, so. Okay. When have you done other podcasts? Or do you do it, like, your own? Well, I edited my buddy Peter's for a while. I sat in on a few, like, several years ago. I did some interviews and stuff for different things. One was a music podcast. One was for pawn shops. One was for software development. It's just different things that I've done. Okay, so this is nothing new for you, I guess. No. So I'm going to start by introducing myself. I'm Paris Mather. I'm taking the history of rock and roll class at Case Western. And this is Ken Walker, my uncle. I chose to do chat. Okay, so this is why I'm editing. I chose to talk to you for this project because I feel like you give more thoughtful answers as someone who, like, music is a big part of your life rather than just picking anyone. So give yourself a short intro. Tell us about yourself. Sure. Well, I've been a drummer and musician since I was probably eight years old. And I've played in bands throughout my life, all different types of bands. And I've done a little touring and played in a lot of local bands as well. Everything from rock and roll to guys sitting in a pub playing acoustic music. And, yeah, it's just been a passion of mine for my entire life. Great. So first I'm going to ask you about listening to music when you were growing up. So I know for me growing up it was a lot of, like, buying CDs when they came out or, like, watching YouTube videos. But then it was, like, the iPod came and I was downloading stuff to that, and now it's streaming stuff on a side. What was it like when you were a kid and you wanted to get music to listen to? Well, first, when I was younger, we had, you know, albums, record albums, which, you know, my daughter, who's your age, first time I showed her how to use a record, it was really funny because she had no idea how to hold it, how to put it on, where to drop the needle. So I showed her the whole first side of the album, and then it was over, and she looked at me, and she's like, what happened? Where are the rest of the songs? And I had to teach her you have to flip the album over to play the rest of the songs and how to skip songs and things like that. I don't even know how to do that. So record albums were, like, really... Yeah, now it's funny because now she listens to albums all the time. She's got a big collection. Yeah, it was that and eight-track tapes when I was much younger, which was always fun because eight tracks played one side, and then it would hit the end of the tape and then turn around and play the second half backwards. Not the songs would be backwards, but the tape would run backwards. They never ended right. It would just happen in the middle of the song. So it would be here, like, this song would go da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. It's always very funny. But as far as, like, you know, kind of getting music, you know, when cassette tapes came out, that was great because you could record on cassette tapes. And we used to sit around. We would have our little cassette recorder next to the radio with a microphone pointing right at the radio, or if we were lucky, we'd have an integrated radio and cassette recorder. And you just have it record, pause, in place, and wait for your song, the song you wanted to hear to come on the radio, and then hurry up and hit unpause so that you could record your song. That was how we got music on, you know, from cassettes and things like that instead of having to go out and buy them because we were children and didn't have jobs or money. Yeah. It's like burning. Yeah. So it was always timing-wise, you know, you'd have it across. Yeah. Well, yeah, and then sometimes you'd be across the room, and the song would come on, and you'd have to run across the room to hit record. Okay. I was also going to ask about any music influence you had growing up. I don't know if your parents were musical at all or if you kind of found it on your own. Yeah. My parents were not musical at all. And I just remember my friends and I, my other kids in the neighborhood, we all decided at, like, seven, eight years old, nine years old, we were going to start a band, and we all picked our instruments. And for whatever reason, I picked the drums, and I have been playing ever since. And we were, like, just making it up as we go along. We bought little toy instruments and stuff, but then I just kind of, you know, fell into it. Luckily, my mother recognized that I really did have a passion for it. I started taking lessons. I had practice pads. And she was the biggest encouragement in my life to keep going to the point where, at one point, she bought an old drum, a used drum set from somebody she worked with, and that was a gift, one of my birthday gifts or Christmas gifts at one point. And that really helped me, solidified me into playing and continuing to play on drum set, not just playing on practice pads. Did you ever do – sorry, what were you saying? No, I was just going to say I wish I still had that drum set. It was awesome. Did you play any other instruments, or has it always just been, like, drums from the get-go? It's always been drums. About three or four years ago, I tried to learn how to play guitar. I bought an acoustic guitar, and my fingers are fat and short, and I just struggled. So I sold that, and now I am learning how to play bagpipes. Oh, cool. But, you know, yeah, yeah. I was in percussion. I was in a concert band in high school where I learned to play more melodic instruments like marimba, xylophone, things like that. And so I learned about music and notes, because drum notation and music notation are different things. So I learned how to read music playing that in high school. And now I'm learning it again, relearning it, to play bagpipes. But luckily, there's only seven notes in bagpipes, so it makes it a lot easier. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, there you go. Before we get into more of, like, the band you're in now and the kind of music you play, I wanted to ask about when you were growing up what some of your favorite artists or songs were. I know my mom said that you listened to Kate Bush. Is that true? That's all I've heard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I loved Kate Bush. But, like, early on when I was a kid, I was listening to what my dad was listening to, which was, like, bands called The Sweet, Peter Frampton, some of those 70s stuff. And then, yeah, when I kind of went away to college or actually really in high school, I really got more into, like, the punk rock scene. I was listening to bands like The Clash, The Ramones, The Cramps. And then when I went to college is where I really kind of got ñ I met some people and got opened up into some really interesting stuff, like Kate Bush stuff, you know, stuff from Australia and just a lot of different more interesting things, like Hanoi rock. So it tends to be a little more harder rock stuff to really more Tori Amos and some more melodic, very, you know, interesting stuff like that. So going away to school really broadened my musical interest by meeting large different types of people from different types of backgrounds. And can you talk a little bit about the music that your band has played? I know that you're in a Celtic band now, right? Yeah. Yeah. I remember you didn't play that kind of music for a while, but, like you said, how was your progression kind of? Yeah. Well, it started in college. It was sort of punk type of bands. My college roommate and I and some friends had a band. So a little more, yeah, more punk rock, more like stuff like The Alarm and a little more goth. We would play stuff like Bauhaus and stuff like that, so kind of a weird mix of punk and goth. And I played that all through college. And when I graduated college, I didn't play for a couple years, and then I hooked up with some people here. I started listening to really two types of music started to influence me in my late 20s, which would be I kind of found Celtic rock, sort of this idea of a rock band, but with fiddle and bagpipe as the lead instruments. And then I also started, like, swing dance music. My wife at the time, she and I started taking swing dance lessons, and so I sort of put together a band called The Vodka Knots with some friends, and it was more of a loungy swing thing. So it was a very different style going from hard rock and punk rock to almost jazz, which is, from a playing perspective and music perspective, completely opposite, literally using different arms to do different things when you're playing drums. So it was like the idea of that band was like sort of this 1960s Vegas lounge act that was transported to now. And we would do modern songs, like modern rock and rap songs, but we would do them like the Rat Pack would do them. So I went from kind of one extreme, you know, hard rock and punk rock to this other. And then when that band fell apart, I just decided, you know, Celtic, I was really interested in Celtic rock, so I got together with some guys, and this is almost 20 years ago now, and started playing this Irish Celtic rock, Irish-influenced rock and roll, and I've been doing that pretty much ever since. I mean, I've played with other guys for different projects, but I've been in a Celtic rock band pretty much one form or another ever since. Do you guys record at all, or do you just play live shows only? Both. Yeah, I've definitely done some recording. As a matter of fact, the new band is about ready to go into the studio in January. We're going to record a full CD. But I've also done some – I've sat in with a lot of different people. Because of this genre, Celtic Irish rock has sort of an ecosystem to it. Almost every city, major city in the country has some sort of Irish Celtic festival, Highland Games, things like that, and they always fire bands like us, so we tend to play – you know, we can tour and play a lot of these festivals. And through that, I've met a lot of other Celtic Irish musicians. So I've gone in to record one song with this person, one or two songs with that person, and two of my bands have done full CDs. So I'm a performer. I love being on stage, and I do all the crowd interaction. So I really love playing live shows. Recording's nice, but I love playing live shows. And in our class, we've been kind of talking about the history of rock and roll, and I might have already answered this, talking about how it's kind of like just Irish-inspired rock and roll. But we've been learning about how rock kind of started with the blues and R&B and country, and then moved into the 50s, Elvis in the 50s, and then British Invasion, and then psychedelic music in the 70s. The music that you play right now, which of those do you think is the closest to, or has a lot of similarities to? Yeah, definitely. So one kind of area, maybe, I don't know if you guys have touched on it, but there's a lot of this, which people would say is either Americana or immigrant kind of music, using a lot of traditional instruments, violin, mandolin, accordion, banjo. This sort of kind of comes out of country, but country music really derived from the Scots-Irish and the Celtic, because they were the ones that moved into the Appalachian area and West Virginia and all those areas and brought their music and style and their clogging dance style and things like that, which is where a lot of that country music is derived from. So I would say it has roots in sort of that immigrant style, but what we're playing now really is influenced more by the Elvis, the rock and roll. So you kind of take this idea of a rock band, a traditional rock band, and infuse it with traditional Celtic instruments, and you end up with this sort of genre of music. So it really has that rock derives from blues, so it's definitely got that foundation behind it, and then you sort of sprinkle the traditional instruments on top as sort of a spice and a flavoring, and you end up with this kind of style. You guys, does your band write all of your own music? We write about 60, 65 percent. This band's only been together a year, so we play 40, 45 songs, and I think we've got, I'd say, 25 to 30 of them are original. Okay, cool. When you think of songs that you really like or songs that mean a lot to you, do you think more about the music or the sound of it or about the message or the lyrics, or is it just kind of a mixture? Lyrics. That's actually a very good question because for me it's actually both or multiple things. I would say some songs lyrically just get me. One of my favorite artists is a gentleman named Alan Doyle, and he's in this sort of Celtic genre sort of, but he also does a lot of just straight a cappella stuff. It's just him singing, and it's very impactful. His lyrics, I love his lyrics. I think he's one of the greatest romantic songwriters of all time because it's not cheesy at all. So for him, a lot of that, but there's also sometimes there's a song that's got a great groove to it, you know, a drum groove, and I'm not even listening to the lyrics, but it's just this I love playing that song because melodically it works well with, you know, the drums and bass locked in or the melody just sits really nicely over the groove. And sometimes it's just I love a drum fill. Some drummer comes up with a great drum fill, and I'll listen to that song 100 times until I learn how to play it. Yeah, I think that's always an interesting question to ask people, especially like my own friends because we listen to music so differently. Like I have a friend who listens to EDM, and that's like old music. And I don't know, growing up I always thought more about the lyrics, and I've kind of switched over where I appreciate the sound more now, I think. But yeah, I just I love that question. Yeah. Another question I was going to ask is you, I probably should have said this in the intro, but you grew up in Cleveland and you live in Florida now. Yeah. And Cleveland claims, I don't know, some people think it's Memphis. I don't know. But Cleveland thinks it's like the home of rock and roll. Do you think that that had any influence at all? Or was the rock called like there before you moved to Florida? No. Yeah, that didn't come into play until years after I had left Ohio. Okay. Cleveland claims to be the birth of rock and roll because of the DJ, Alan Friedman. I think his name is Alan Friedman, came up with the term. Yeah. So, and in a lot of ways, I mean, when I played up there, and this was in the 80s, you know, there was a great scene. You know, there was, I mean, in Akron, Kent, Cleveland areas just had a lot of really interesting music. Some really creative bands like Devo came out of that area. You know, so there was some very artistically focused music that kind of came out of that area, which is, you know, which is interesting and creative, very creative and artistic. You know, Memphis is, you know, got that blue thread to it. So, you know, of course, it makes sense that something like that would kind of come out of there. But, you know, like a lot of things, these things come organically and they're spread and there's no, you can't pinpoint to one spot. And trying to do that is just trying to market your city. Yeah. And this is going to be my last like formal question. We can keep talking about stuff as long as you want. But I'm going to give, or I'm going to get one Spotify recommendation from you, either like an artist, a song, or just like a playlist that you really like. Like if you wanted me to listen to something that you just think is really good, like what would you recommend? I would recommend Alan Doyle. I mean, just because, and he's from a band called Great Big Sea. So, both of those. They're more on the fulpy side of things. You said Alan something? Alan Doyle. D-O-Y-L-E. And what was the band? Great Big Sea. Cool. Yeah, D-O-Y-L-E. And then Great Big Sea. They're out of Canada. It's a more soul, less rock. They don't really use electric guitars or stuff. Alan does in some of his newer stuff. But just, I mean, especially the lyrics there. I love his voice. That's great. And then there's always another one of my, I would say, favorite bands. This is blogging, Molly. I mean, everybody loves them, but they are just, they're fun, the music's great, and they put on an amazing show. All right. Thank you for all your very thoughtful answers. If we want to do, like, a little outro. I don't know how to do this. So, what do they usually do on podcasts that you've done? Like, how to wrap it up? Oh, yeah. I don't, yeah. Usually some, like, when I was at, he would always just talk about, because it was an episodic thing. So, he would say something like, you know, well, hey, great, thanks for having me. And next week we're going to have blah, blah, blah, blah on, you know, whoop. I think I lost you. Did I lose you? I can hear you. But you're frozen. Much like myself, my internet is. Okay. You there? Okay, I think we're good now. Yeah, I think, I just got a message. Much like myself, my internet is unstable. Yeah, so, I don't know. It says that when I edit it, it says I can put, like, intro and outro music. So, you have a choice. Yeah. Like, if I can import a song. I don't know if I have to use, like, royalty free music or if they let you, like, put a song in there from Spotify or something. You're not publishing this, right? It's just for school. Yeah, it's just for school. Yeah, then you can, you're fine. For educational purposes, you don't need to worry about royalty free. Yeah, we'll grab an Alan Doyle song since we talked about him. Yeah, I was going to say, if you have any recommendations. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. That's the name of the song. All right, well, thank you so much for jumping on this call. I really appreciate your answers and just learning more about our family and any music history. Yeah. Yeah, I really appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. Anything you need, man. How's school going? It's going well. I just had, it's, like, midterm week. We have a fall break coming up, like, we get next Monday and Tuesday off. So, I had exams yesterday and, yeah, it's going all right. I just have one more semester after this and I'm so excited to be done. Good. Oh, just one more semester and then graduate? That's awesome. Hey, you're the last one of the Walker clan. I know. That's right. Yeah. Because Cal, my mom said that Cal had a, he got a job around Columbus, I think. Oh, really? I remember when we were all at dinner in Florida, like, over spring break. He said that he wasn't really sure what he was going to do after he graduated. But now I think he's in Columbus. Okay. That's good. I mean, from what I hear, Columbus is not, it was a shithole when I was there. From what I heard. Did you go to OSU? Yeah. Okay. That's what I thought. Yeah. Yeah. I've never been to OSU this year, but, yeah, I don't know. But, yeah, school's going well. Lexi's getting, good, good. Lexi's, I think, looking at moving to New York City sometime next year. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So, I'm trying to get into, like, publishing or editing and, like, I was talking to some of my professors, and they're like, yeah, like, you should go to New York. And I'm like, I'm scared to do that. So, I was, like, going to maybe talk to Lexi and see, like, if it, just ask her about that and what she, like. Yeah. Because, like, I don't know. He was like, yeah, like, this summer after you graduate, you should move to New York and try to get a job. And I was like, I cannot afford to live in New York fresh out of college, but. No, so, you end up living over, you know, usually in New Jersey and, you know, kind of commuting in. But Lexi's going to start looking for a place. So, yeah, talk to her. I mean, you guys maybe live together for a while, try to live cheap as hell, you know. Honestly, yeah. I don't know. I'm excited to graduate, but I don't know exactly what I'm doing after graduation. So, I'm, like, kind of, ooh. Yeah. I don't know. I'm good. But how are you doing? I am good. You know, I just, I spent last weekend up at camping up in Tennessee. Oh. Which was great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.