Music and Mom- Interviewing my Mom about the music of her life

 

[Sarah] Hi, mom. Thanks so much for being here.

[Mom] I'm happy to. It's my pleasure.

[Sarah] I'm just going to ask you some questions about music. It's not terribly formal. So, the first question is What is your earliest musical memory or experience with music?

[Mom] My earliest musical memory is when I was about three or four years old.

My dad always liked music. He liked jazz. And you know, we would have music playing- but speakers at that time were huge- So a speaker could be like the size of say, like our coffee table at home. I mean, they were just like a big piece of furniture. And I was about 3 and I was sitting right next to the speaker on the floor. And I was singing this song, and the song is about is called Winchester Cathedral. And it goes something like ‘Winchester Cathedral. You're bringing me down…’ something something, something. ‘My baby left town.’ It's like this kind of funny, jazzy song. And I was just singing it because apparently I knew all the words. And I loved that song. And I liked music. And I was sitting there and all of a sudden I looked up and. My parents had people over and everyone was looking at me.

[Sarah] Oh no!

[Mom] And that is truly my first memory of music. Even at that young of an age I guess I was just singing. You know, like how I sing as I'm walking around the house or something.

 

[Sarah] What kind of music do you associate with your childhood?

[Mom]

I don't know. I think probably whatever was being played in our house. You know, I think at a young age I wasn't really like into (music) in the sense of, like listening to the radio or something. But I was in junior choir in 3rd grade at Church. It was a choir for kids. So nothing really difficult if that makes sense. I used to walk there after school. I would walk from my elementary school to our church to go to choir practice every Wednesday afternoon.

[Sarah] You mentioned what you were hearing in the house- So do you come from a musical family? Did your family make music together?

[Mom] My mother was not particularly musical- now it wasn't that she was non-musical But she never expressed interest in music in that way. Now my dad, you know, he played the trombone. That was his instrument. And I think he might have played something else growing up. Maybe he tried something else, but the trombone was what he would play in the house. He loved jazz.

I do remember as a child listening to Herb Albert and the Tijuana brass. He was like a jazz guy, very well known at that time period. And my dad would put on records and we'd listen to that kind of stuff. Yeah.

Can I tell you one more thing that I just remembered us because you were asking about that elementary school age? I loved for some reason, probably when I was around 10 years old, I loved Jim Croce. He just had interesting kind of- well,  I wouldn't call him a folk singer, but he told like stories with his songs and stuff. And I just really, really liked him and he died in a plane accident. And I remember being really like upset that he had died. I have no idea where I heard of him first but I liked him. And then I started getting his records and stuff-Jim Croce. Yeah.

Sarah:

And you said this was like at the elementary school age?

Mom: I was probably around 10 or something- Yeah, something like that.

 

Sarah- Yeah, I can barely remember what I used to listen to (when I was a kid). It was probably like the one guy on the CD about, like, ‘if you go to San Francisco, make sure you wear flowers in your hair’

Mom:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Was that Raffi?

Sarah:

Yeah, I think so, yeah. But then like, Taylor Swift is the only other (musician) that I can think of from when I was a kid.

But anyway… Has your music taste changed from when you were younger?  What did you listen to as a teen, to a young adult, to now?

Mom:

It's funny because, you know, Dad is not that much older than me. He's like probably three years older than me or four years older than me and he listened to totally different music than I listened to.

I don't know if the music I listened to was just like not cool or his music wasn't cool. I don't know. But as a teenager  I loved Barry Manilow, Chicago, Boston. Just different groups or whatever.

 

Sarah:

What was your favorite band, singer or musician?

Mom: I don't know that I had a favorite. I liked a lot of music. 

I do have a lot of good memories about music that I used to listen to. We used to have parties as a teenager. We would have parties at our house, and we would invite friends over. And it was nothing like- nobody drank or whatever, but everybody danced. And we would play, you know, an equal measure of fast music and then slow dancing type music.

 

Sarah:

Did the style of music you listen to influence any other areas of like of your life, like how you dressed or who you hung out with?

Mom: I think that this might be a generalization, so I want to be careful saying this, but I think like the kids that I hung out with, I think we all liked the same music. I mean, there was a large group of music to choose from in the 70s and the 80s. There were a lot of different bands and stuff like that but we all seem to drive around singing to the songs and liking pretty much the same stuff.

I'm not sure it influenced how I dress though. Like I was thinking, Boy George and Madonna and Cyndi Lauper and those kind of people were very flamboyant in the way they dressed or whatever. I don't think that the music made me want to emulate them. [thinking] Yeah, no.

Sarah:

So What did you listen to like as a young adult- like my age?

Mom:

I loved The Beach Boys, which were not new. But I remember my roommate and I like on a beautiful spring day, like opening up the window of our dorm room like the windows open, and we would, like, blast some music out into the the quad and stuff. And I love The Beach Boys. I've always been a person that likes- I don't want to say lighter music, Sarah- but I mean I like music that tells a story. I do like that and I do like music that makes me happy.

If I can dance to it, I'm happy. You know, if I can bop around.

Sarah:

I remember when I was a teen and I used to- well, I still do sometimes- listen to like really sad music. And you would always listen to happy music. And for some reason I was like, ‘she doesn't get me’ [both laugh] I was so emo.

 

Mom:

 Yeah! I also like ballads. Like, I was thinking, I liked Bread- Bread was a group back then- like I liked Barry Manilow, groups that like, you know, sort of had a ballad feel to them or were telling a story. Yeah.

 And Motown! I absolutely adore Motown. Like, I love to dance to Motown or sing, you know, ‘ABC’.

 

Sarah:

Oh! I've heard of Motown 

Mom:

 I'm not sure that that music was current at the time. Some of the groups I listened to were definitely, you know, of the time period, but then there was other stuff like Motown. I think it came a little bit before then.

Sarah:

I mean it's about the music of your experience. So if you used to listen to like Tchaikovsky symphonies or something that’s still a valid answer. It doesn't have to be just about like what was popular then, just your experience.

Mom: Yeah. Like when I took piano-I took piano for several years and looking back on it, I am disappointed that I didn't learn classical music. That was very much from my parents. My parents wanted me to learn show tunes and I don't know whether they thought I was going to, [laughs] like entertain at parties or something, but I don't know.

My dad had an uncle and he was he was really good at the piano, but it was all like stuff he could go and play somewhere, you know what I mean? Like, the kind of place where they'd go and they'd pay him to play different stuff. He had a fake book all memorized and he could just, you know, play whatever.

But I always wish that I had the basis of classical in my learning and I didn't, I played with chords- I didn't play with the left hand or anything.

Sarah: That was actually one of my questions [laughs]. Did you ever take music classes or lessons? So you learned the piano- Did you take any other instruments or lessons?

Mom:

No, just piano. I wanted to play the piano for so long and the piano for me was like- Our piano was down in the basement and it was like it made me relax. I don't know. I could go there and play the piano and just relax. Yeah. And I remember a boyfriend that I had, you know, that I've told you about, like, through the years. Like, he gave me a metronome for a present one time and I thought that was like the neatest thing that he, you know- He wasn't a musical person per se, so I'm sure his mother thought about that and told him that would be a good present for me. But I thought that was pretty cool.

Sarah:

So how long did you play piano for?

Mom:

Around 7 years is when well I took. I took lessons, probably from 6th grade or fifth grade through high school and then when I went off to college I didn't take it anymore. She (the piano teacher) was just an interesting person. So she had this studio- it was like just down the street from our house. But like, literally, you'd be taking your lesson and she would go into the bathroom- [laughs] and she'd be like calling to you as she went to the bathroom she'd be like giving you directions. [both laugh]

Sarah: [laughing] That’s hilarious!

 

Mom:

When I look back on her, I think, like Mrs. Carmichael was her name, and I think that she taught piano for a living and like, well she never cared, really, what I wanted to do. It was all about what my parents wanted me to. Well, I wanted to take lessons, but my parents wanted me to play this kind of music. And so she taught me, and it was very transactional. I never got from her that she had, like, a love of teaching or like cared about what a person wanted to do. Yeah. But she was a funny lady.

 

Sarah:

But see, it's so… it's so strange to me that your parents wanted you to do show tunes instead of like, classical stuff. Because, like, that's the opposite of what I would have expected.

Mom:

My dad was never a classical music person, and it may be the way he grew up. I didn't have grandfathers because both of them died before I was born. And of course, my Mom’s father died when she was 9, so I never knew them. So I don't know if they were musical. I mean, I know my dad was musical and loved jazz and all that kind of stuff, but I don't know where that came from. But that was what he was. That was his interest. And you know Grandpa Woolsey, he was a wonderful person and I loved him and I miss him dearly, but he was an only child, and being an only child he was kind of used to having things, you know, his way so-he had no interest in classical so that's how it happened. [laughs]

Sarah:

So you did enjoy piano then.

Mom:

Oh, I loved piano. Yeah, yeah.

And I mean the show tunes and stuff were fun. Like I still remember some of them and stuff, but like, it didn't have any meaning to me. You know what I'm saying? Like they were a means to learn the piano, sort of.

 

Sarah:

How did your parents feel about the music you listened to when you were younger?

Mom:

Huh, I’m trying to think about that- I can't remember whether they let us, like play the radio in the car or whatever as we were driving around or not. I don't think they were into it. [both laugh]

Sarah:

[Jokingly] Typical parents.

Mom:

[laughs] Yeah, I don't think they were into it. Now Kristen’s father, I mean, literally, we would drive around town and he would let us listen to music on the radio. And I look back and think maybe he did this on purpose, but we would just die laughing because he would sing every song with the wrong words. It was either like he didn't know it or he was messing with us and we didn't get that, but yeah.  I have a feeling we probably weren't allowed to listen to like, our music on the radio as we drove around with our parents.

(Kristen is my mom’s best friend)

 

Sarah:

Did you and Aunt Leanne listen to the same type of music?

 

Well, you know, she's four years older than me. She was very into like the Carpenters and The Beatles. She had like these Beatles albums and so, I mean it wasn't that we listened to like drastically different music. I would have enjoyed the music she listened to, and she would have probably enjoyed the music I listened to, but even with just a four year difference, we had distinct groups and things that we liked. Yes. And I remember one time this is off the topic, but it is kind of funny. For Christmas she wrote out lyrics a for present. She gave me the lyrics to a song by David Cassidy from the Partridge Family. And it was like the song was, I think I love you. Or something. And she wrote out the words and rolled it up in a scroll with like a bow and gave it to me for a present. [laughs] It couldn't have been that old. But then. But you know, that was her present to me.

[Sarah]Along the same lines of the previous question like before this when I asked about how your parents felt about the music you listened to, what do you think about the music I listen to?

 

[Mom] Whatever you play for me I usually really like. I'm always kind of- taken aback is too strong of a word- But sometimes when you play me something I think like, wow, that's so interesting that she likes that. Like, I don't think you're a mainstream music person for your age at all. I think you're like an old soul in some ways. Even though the people are doing new things, there's a vibe to it that is kind of-it's mature or something, more than I then some of the stuff that's out there.

[Sarah] Well, like I do listen to a lot of music, right? So, I have a hard time like categorizing what I listen to.

[Mom]Yeah, you have a very eclectic taste, I think.

[Sarah] Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like not many people listen to like the radio, like Radio Pop. At least I don’t think they do in my music class. I don't know about like outside of the music school. We were talking about this for a question on a blog post about music that we just didn't find appealing and multiple people said like pop radio songs.

So I think also with the birth of the Internet- It's opened so many pathways to access music so there's definitely mainstream music that you hear in like social media and stuff. But there are so many different areas it's like-

[Mom]Yeah, that's a really good point.

[Sarah]I don't really know if there is like really a mainstream.

[Mom] Yeah, I think you're right. It's totally different. Like think about that, there was no social media and it was what you listened to on the radio, or you would be very focused on like an album would come out and you would purchase the album. You know, the actual physical album. And yeah, I see that, that's really interesting.

[Sarah] I'm so surprised. I really thought you were going to say that you just weren't a big fan of the music I listen to.

[Mom] Oh no, I like it. Now I can tell you I wouldn't be a fan of the screamo stuff and you've never played that for me.

[Sarah] I get that. I will say, I do like metal and screamo. (my brother) Ian sometimes listens to it when he's like mad, right? But for me, I can only listen to it when I’m in a really good mood. Because that's the type of music that I'm gonna jam out to.

[Mom]You don't take it seriously or something. You don't take it in.

[Sarah]Or I'll take it in in a positive way. Ian does that too. I don't think there's anything wrong with him listening that music, but I get where you're coming from.

I will say, there are, like a bunch of Christian metal bands. Like there's a relatively old band now called Flyleaf and I don't know if they were necessarily metal, but maybe Hard Rock or something like that and they were Christian and they did songs about like being Christian. And I think that music was really interesting.

[Mom]It might be interesting, but see my first gut reaction to that is that it seems so disrespectful. Like, are you screaming the word Jesus or like, what are you doing? I don't know. It makes me feel uncomfortable.

[Sarah] That's valid. That's fair, obviously. But I'll have to share it with you later, because I think-I don't think you'll like the music- but I think maybe you might find a way to appreciate it.

 

What music from your youth do you think was overrated?

[Mom] Probably that Cyndi Lauper stuff or the Madonna stuff like ‘Material Girl’. All.

That stuff. 

[Sarah] And how do you feel about your childhood music from today's perspective?

[Mom] How do I feel about it? It brings back good memories and stuff. Most of it, yeah.

[Sarah] You mentioned in the answer one of the very first questions I asked you, you said you had to listen with these like big speakers or something like that. So for this next question, what kind of tech did you use to listen to music at various points in your life?

[Mom] Oh, well, the radio. Or a  Walkman-that was huge-

[Sarah] What’s a Walkman?

[Mom]It was like your first sort of personal device that you would have, basically a kind of little tape recorder. And you’d play cassettes in there and put on some ear earphones and walk around with them, so that was very cool at the time to have a Walkman. The record player too, definitely. That was a big thing. Buying albums and stuff.

[Sarah]Were those all at around the same time?

[Mom] Yeah. There was a time when we went from cassettes to CD's, but that was later- I think that was probably when I was a little bit older.

[Sarah]How do you listen to music now?

[Mom] Pretty much on the radio, some CD's- I don't really do the streaming thing because I don't really know how to do it. I don't really like the idea of- and this may be me not understanding it- but like with Spotify, I don't like the idea that it's choosing what song to play for me. And maybe if I purchased it or something I could do want to do, set up playlist or something.

[Sarah] For Spotify, the way it works is if you don't pay for the premium account, you can put together playlists of your music, but you can't choose a specific song in the playlist .

[Mom]Yeah, that annoys me.

[Sarah] If you buy Spotify Premium, then you can play whatever you want. It also mixes together like playlists based on the music that you like.

[Mom] OK, for some reason I don't like that, I don't know why. I mean, I'm being very honest there- I have no idea how you purchase music. Like I don't have any idea. Like if somebody has a new “album”- which makes me laugh, cause it's not an actual album- but like a new album that comes out, I have no idea how you purchase it and how you then access it. I mean, I guess you keep it in some kind of account somewhere, and then you listen to it? Do you purchase music?

[Sarah]I remember well back in like the 2000s-

[Mom](Sarcastically) Oh my gosh, that was so long ago.

[both laugh]

[Sarah] Ian, he used to have an MP3 player remember. Back when I was a kid, what we’d do is at least Ian and I- I don't know if this is the case for like everyone else- but Ian would go on to iTunes and he’d buy music through iTunes, and then he’d transfer it to his MP3 player. And that's how I remember I would listen to music- on his MP3 player. The way I listened to music besides that like was just through YouTube. I would just go on to YouTube and binge watch all the Taylor Swift music videos.

[Mom]Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll do that too. Like, if a new song comes out that I heard on the radio and then I want to see the video or I didn't quite catch all of the lyrics, I'll look it. Up.

[Sarah]Yeah, that's how I used to listen to most music.

[Mom] But I truly don't understand how an artist makes music makes money off their music now. Because they don't sell you an album, they don't sell you a CD for people your age.

[Sarah] I’m actually not sure. It might be based on like how many streams they get. So like people will sign up for a Spotify account and if you're listening to an artist, they're getting a teeny tiny percentage of the money? I think that’s how it works. I'm not sure.

[Mom] OK. So it's not like if you download it you're paying $0.99 for somebody’s song or something.

[Sarah] It's also like record deals- like if they're not an independent artist- if they have a Label that they're signed on to, I'm pretty sure the label will pay them a certain percentage based on how much they're bringing in. But I'm not sure. That's a really good question. I should ask some of my music friends, like the ones who are in music and business, cause that’s my best guess, but I'm not quite sure.  [Laughs] This has turned into you interviewing me!

What is your favorite and least favorite genre and why?

[Mom] Well, my least favorite has got to be the screamo heavy metal stuff. I've never understood that and it- it feels like evil to me. And the reason it does is cause like there's discord there. And I feel like all of God's creation is like, It makes sense and it comes together and like there's a harmony there. With that kind of screamo heavy metal-y stuff, like, you know, people screaming into a microphone, it just doesn't seem like- This is my opinion, but - I don't see that it brings anything good to the world personally. So that's my least favorite genre.

I don't think I have a favorite genre, but I do I think honestly, like as I get older Sarah, I have things that I feel very deeply about and things that are very important to me in my life. But I also like to fun, so I like fun music. And, you know, like when we went to that Chicago concert that was just so fun, that was very fun. Being there with you and just, you know, I loved it.

So I don't have a favorite genre, that I would say, but I do like stuff that I can dance to and the stuff that I can dance to obviously would be very different from, like when you went to the prom.

[Sarah] People don’t really play good dancing music anymore for parties. It's really sad. I just don’t like the music people play there. They do always have the line dances or whatever, like the cupid shuffle, which is fun.

[Mom] Ohh yeah, right, right. Yeah. That was big with me growing up. The hustle and all these dances that we would all do. And it was so much fun. Yeah.

 [Sarah] Yeah, there's like maybe three or four of those that they'll like play. I've never really been a big party person anyway. But like the music they play at the parties I've been to- Like prom. It's just not my cup of tea. It's just kind of loud and it feels like- I guess it's like the way you feel about Metal, I guess. And usually the content isn't very nice.

[Mom]Yeah, yeah, I understand.

[Sarah]It just doesn't seem like it's saying anything meaningful.

 

[Mom]Yeah. Hey, I just thought of somebody that- I don't know if I can go back to your question real quick- but somebody that I really liked growing up. Now I don't know whether that was like teenage years, but George Winston was a pianist and his music was all instrumental and he would do like different like albums of like different seasons. You know, he'd have the winter, the spring, you know. Not like Vivaldi, but I mean, you know. A group of things like that. And I just loved his music and that may have been what interested me in playing the piano, I don't know- but George Winston is another one.

[Sarah] You mentioned a couple times earlier about our faith, right? So were you involved in music at your church? And how did you get involved if so?

[Mom] I was just in choirs all my life, Sarah. Like now I'm not because we don't have a choir and also my voice- I don't think I could do it now, but I started like probably in 3rd grade in the junior choir. And then sang in choirs in High school. In college, I sang in a choir where- you know, I went to a Christian college- we went out to different churches.

And then also like the Lutheran Church now, I mean, you probably don't even recognize this because you've been around it all of your life, but I mean, your Godfather Dr. Brown wrote a book called Singing the Gospel when he went to Harvard. I think he wrote this book for part of his doctorate, and it is about the Lutheran Church and the way it's very distinct in the Lutheran Church that we sing so much.

 

[Sarah] You mentioned earlier about how we went to go see Chicago. One of my questions was, have you ever gone to any big music concerts?

 

[Mom] Ohh yeah, when I was a teenager. Absolutely, yeah. I went to see The Beach Boys one time. And got to see Bryan Adams too. It's hard to for me to remember exactly who, but that was a very big thing. Like if, like if a group came to town and you really liked the group like you would try to get tickets and go, yeah. When we wanted to go to concerts or go to things like, we had somebody's parent come with us. What I do remember of it is like, oh, it was great fun but it was all pretty innocent. Like nobody was drinking or drugging or doing anything like that you know. We just had fun.

 

[Sarah} How big of a role does music play in your everyday life?

Well, I always have the radio on going to work. And it's pretty much the classics station, so it's like not new stuff, but it's stuff that I would know and I listen to that on the way to work. And on the way home, I usually change to a different station- there's one called the lake, which is more like, I wouldn't say pop, but I mean it's like uplifting, kind of, and on the way home I listen to that. So that’s in my everyday life. I mean, well, obviously like at church, the hymnody that we have, Sarah, is tremendous. Like, I think about how on my phone, I have a list of my favorite hymns, and sometimes I tell Dad if something happens to me, I have a list of my favorite hymns- Make sure everybody sings a lot.

[Sarah] Yeah, sometimes you’ll tap me in church and you'll be like ‘I want this hymn at my funeral’.

[both laugh]

[Mom] Yeah, it plays a good background to my life. You know, I don't play an instrument now. I don't practice a craft every day, in the same sense that you would or someone in the music department would. But I love music.

 

[Sarah] Well, along that same line of learning an instrument, would you like to learn a new instrument and if so, which one and why?

[Mom] I wouldn't mind taking up the piano again, but I feel a sense of pressure about that. I mean, I might like to get back to playing the piano, but I don't want to be pushed into it or like you know what I mean? Like it's an idea. But I'm not, like, totally committed to it. I think, like, could I even do it now?  Would I be able to sit down and remember it and would I be able to learn the left hand at this point? I don't know. I wouldn't want to be embarrassed.

In terms of another instrument I, I mean, I've always loved listening to like brass. I love brass like saxophones and stuff like that, but the idea of like putting my mouth on there and all, like with the clarinet, the reeds and everything, that kind of grosses me out. I remember my sister like, licking the Reed- there’s something that had to be wet for the clarinet. All that kind of grosses me out.

But Maybe I’d pick up piano again? Yeah.

[Sarah] Yeah. I really think you should. One of the things about music that I was learning in one of my music therapy classes is like- it's so memory based and it was such a meaningful thing to you. I really think it would come back pretty quickly. Especially if you didn't pressure yourself.

[Mom] Well, I'd probably just have to get like a little keyboard or something and just mess around with it.

[Sarah] I think it might help you de-stress too. I think that it would be a good outlet for you to, like, sit down and take a breather and yeah. Admittedly, my experience with music with cello is not calm at all. Because it's my serious instrument. But then for singing, like that's- that's a way to center myself. I love singing because it's like where I'm really happy. You know, like with cello being my serious instrument I almost can't be as happy with it as I am with singing, you know?

[Mom] Yeah, I understand that.

 

[Sarah] Speaking of singing, Do you and Dad have a special song?

[Mom] That's interesting. I don't think we do. Which is kind of weird, I don't know.

 

[Sarah] Well, what kind of music did you have at your wedding? And what was your first dance?

[Mom] Oh well, that is a fun story. We went to a hotel to hear a band that was playing at somebody's wedding. We wanted to hear what they sounded like to maybe choose them for our wedding. And we were not impressed by them at all. And we realized, like, oh, we don't really want just some wedding band that just plays whatever. But there was a trio in the lounge area of the hotel playing, and they were a jazz trio and they were just phenomenal. We had such a good time listening to them and after we heard that group we were like, ‘oh, do you ever do weddings?’ and they were like, “well, we could”, and that's what we had at our wedding. I wouldn't trade that for anything. It was so fun. It was so classy too.

after we heard that group we were like, ‘oh, do you ever do weddings?’ and they were like, “well, we could”,

[Sarah] What was your first dance?

[Mom] This is kind of scary that I don't know. Dad did have them play this one song. There was a series of books that I liked as a child. Alexander Lloyd. And they were about like, a Prince and a Princess. And there's a whole story, but someone wrote a song out of the story and it was like ‘the child inside you found the child inside of me, It took a Prince to make a Princess’ something like that. There was this whole song and he had them learn it and play it. And we danced to that. But I don't know if it was like a first dance. So we might not have had a first dance, per se, but I know that was really special that dad had them play that. And we did dance to that just by ourselves. Like, maybe other people didn't know what that piece was. But dad told me he did that, so that was neat. Yeah, something like the child inside you found the child inside of me. Something like that. I don't know.

There is one song that I think of like when you guys get married, I'd like to dance with my children to the song. It's a Rod Stewart song and it's Forever young. Every time I hear that on the radio, it makes me cry and I think of my sons getting married or you getting married. Do you know that song?

[Sarah] I don't but now I'm really intrigued.

 

[She calls over my dad]

Do we have a favorite song?

[Dad] My favorite Psalm is 8.

[Mom] No, like, do we have a song?  

[Dad] Ohh, song, no.

 

[Mom] Do you have any other questions for me?

[Sarah] Nope, that’s it. Thank you, Mom, I really enjoyed this.

[Mom] Yes, I know I did too. It was very fun.