The Chaser Story

We started off as friends just playing music. Now we are still friends, just playing music. But we’ve also started taking ourselves slightly more seriously, basking in the childish boastfulness of possibility all bands go through, while having a few band practices and playing at a few open mic nights (OMN’s).

A bit of a background: I never had any musical talent whatsoever. I tried the guitar when I wanted to become worldly, but much to my demise, it’s actually a hard instrument to play. Like learning a language, saying you want to do it is much cooler than actually sitting down to play it. Jeff Koelzer gave me tons of tutorials, but ultimately I found the most pleasure when he riffed on Snow and I just freestyled over it, albeit horribly. Once introduced to musical talents and friends Brit Bush, Andrew Hirschel and Jon Van Duinen, we had the pieces in place. At first, plans were I’d be the manager. Fast forward, (to 4:26, exactly), and I’m screaming The Orientation at the top of my lungs.

Any party is more fun, always, when you kick a freestyle and get new people into it and just build on top of that energy, but don’t ask me here, well, because I told this to the Michigan Daily. When we come together we’re Chaser (As in Chase-her) and we just experiment and act wacky (e.g., we have a song called morning wood). We’re all about inclusion: any kid who can play an instrument—and most can play a tambourine—is welcome to jam, no matter what skill level. (My friends put up with a rather excessive amount of awful freestyling).

Andrew Hirschel has left us for the semester to pursue beautiful women in Chile, leaving us devoid one musical genius. This brings back the memories: The time when we were sweating coming up with a chorus in the EQ basement. The time when we engaged in one particular cypher where creative and specifically vulgar rhymes were uttered, to which I responded, repetitively and over beat boxes far too euphonious for my rhymes, advocating for creative collaboration and intellectual stimulation.

Music has just begun to enter my life in a way that I—or anyone who has known me for a long period of time—never could have imagined. And I'm just riding the Chaser train.