“I started drumming at the age of five – my father bought me a drumset for Christmas, and the rest is history. I’ve been playing ever since.” Watching Eugene McBride play, it’s abundantly clear that drumming is his passion. Today, he lives the life of a professional drummer, traveling the world and playing with a long-list of other professional musicians.
“Music is the one thing I’m good at, so I just kept doing it,” says Dylan Grantham with a laugh. Although he’s being modest, Grantham’s life has been surrounded by music. He began playing guitar at age nine, learning a lot of the country music his family listened to, and then delving into rock around the age of 12. Shortly after that, he started an indie rock band called The Wells with two of his cousins. His latest musical endeavor began in 2015, a solo project that goes by Young Ritual.
Members of the Flint band, Birdhouse, have a hard time describing exactly where they fall on the musical spectrum. “Whenever we post a date on Facebook or a flyer comes out for a show, it’s always a nightmare,” says guitarist, Keith Music.
Paul Owsinski, (lead guitar) and Horn have known each other since long before Owsinski joined JFQ. “Bruce and I go way back – we were college buddies at UM-Flint Jazz Band,” he explains. Aaron Reinhard, on drums and vocals, also went to UM-Flint, but it wasn’t until Horn reached out to him last November that the current group came together.
“Save Your Generation was only supposed to be one release,” says Tony Pacheco, the sole laborer of the Michigan music label. Pacheco had prior experience with other areas of the music scene, such as screen-printing, booking shows and networking with bands. “I grew up going to shows at the Flint Local 432 from 1997 onward,” he recalls. “Everyone I met in Flint had a band.” Starting his own label, however, was something he had always wanted to do. “I was about to get married and I knew if I didn’t do it before then, I would never do it.” Scrounging up the little money he had, Pacheco put out an EP in 2013 under the Save Your Generation Records label for his friend’s solo band, Nick Ciolino. The band, unfortunately, played only a single show and Pacheco was left holding a box of records. That didn’t stop him, though.
“People forget where they are, they forget what they look like, and just let themselves move,” says Krista Loutner, lead singer and guitarist of Flint metal band, Sweat, when describing the band’s notoriously bombastic live shows. “People are so worried about whether someone is watching them or how they’re going to look, but sometimes at Sweat shows, people forget.” For a brief moment, the rest of the world disappears and fans can be themselves and cut loose, whether that’s head-banging, moshing, or simply soaking in the music.
The Mott Community College (MCC) Jazz Band & Combo have delighted the Greater Flint Community with outreach performances everywhere from the First Frost event at the Flint Institute of Arts, to Downtown’s 2nd Friday ArtWalks. As a community college, MCC makes it part of their mission to bring music to the community through their music program. That is their outreach – and, the best part is that anyone can get involved.
He travels the world playing music, but Jonathan Diener got his start in Downtown Flint. He remembers, “When I was 14, my parents drove my brother and me to our first show at Flint Local 432, and Saginaw Street was all boarded-up windows. It was like a ghost town – and now, there is this progress happening in Flint.” Diener wants to see more progress and makes it his mission to give back to the community where he got his start, the place he still calls home.
Local Beecher High School graduate, William Toll, who received his first guitar from his parents at age 14, laughs about his former ‘‘big hair days” and how he used to play in a classic rock and 80s punk band called “Toll,” right after graduation. Thirty years later, his first guitar now hangs alongside 30 more in his custom-designed recording studio.
“A Day in The Life” by the Beatles has been the unchallenged No. 1 radio request across all ages through the years. It took 34 hours to record and was the final cut on their eighth studio album.
A flood of emotions overcame Jim Baade as he put the finishing touches on an exhaustive, all-encompassing effort to bring pioneering Flint disc jockey Peter C. Cavanaugh’s 2002 book Local DJ: A Rock “N” Roll History to life.
The members of Big Donut are building a musical myth that they hope to extend to the outer reaches of the universe. Their exploration is one of expansive storytelling, building off of a single word, character or concept for each of their three full-length albums and an EP. They can be found playing regularly at Downtown Flint venues.
