The Battalion I 4.2.15
4
LIFE ARTS
Aaron Stephens
A big thing for me was to just try
to listen to everything that I could
in the Motown genre. But seri
ously listening to it and being
into it — it was something
I was fortunate to actually
like in music. Just listen
ing to stuff like jazz and
soul and blues — I just
kept listening to that stuff.
Especially being from the
Valley, there was definitely
a huge Hispanic influence
and culture but it was also very
diverse and other people listen to
all types of stuff. So I just have all this
music melting pot I guess.
John Marc Kohl
“My music is pretty much
my soul. I have to be authen
tic with my art or 1 really
can’t write anything. My
music to me is extremely
personal in that it’s snap
shots of my soul in vari
ous stages of my life. The
main thing that inspires me
to write is probably how
God has impacted my heart
and how Christ has impacted
my life. Those are probably
the main things that cause me to
write.”
Cody Franklin — THE BATTALION
Austin and Blake
“As far as music is concerned, inspiration comes in
the weirdest ways. You kind of playback who your
favorite artists are and go back and listen to them.
: When you’re making music, you want to stand
apart but can’t help but put yourself into that
sound. You want to sound like those who inspire
you. I think just outside of our general everyday
happening the people who come before us are
our biggest influences for sure. Avert Brothers are
our biggest inspiration. Yep, they’ve done a lot tor
us. It comes directly from the fact that it’s just the
two of us, an acoustic guitar and a banjo.”
Daniel Thomas Phipps
and the Kinfolk
“I think we have a great band —
the songs are compelling, and they’re
catchy. Performing is just the one thing
I’m decent at and I’ve been doing it for
a while, but you just do it because it gives
you joy in your heart. People hear it and
it makes people happy, or it doesn’t, but
that’s the whole point I guess — to make
people smile. ”
Modest House Sessions
By Jack Riewe
f\. Modest House Sessions will host its second showcase at the Grand
Stafford Theatre in Downtown Bryan at 7 p.m. Thursday. The above
four artists will be featured and tickets are $8 online and $10 at the door.
PROVIDED
"Making Movies'"
band members
are Panama and
Mexico natives
who have a large
fan base in the US
and across Latin
America. Enrique
Chi is pictured
second from the
right.
Q&A: Speaking through the rhythm
As part of MSC Tomi Hall’s
Lunchbox Series, the Kansas City-
based band “Making Monies” will bring
its unique blend of language and rhythm
to Rudder Plaza at noon 'Thursday.
The band’s members, Panama and
Mexico natives, incorporate standard
rock and roll elements into the Latin and
African vibes in their music. Enrique
Chi, guitarist and lead vocals, spoke
with The Battalion Life & Arts Editor
Katie Canales to discuss the band’s
multifaceted sound.
THE BATTALION: A lot of your music
is in Spanish, but a big part of your fan
base is people who can't understand
your lyrics. What aspect of the music is
so compelling?
CHI: When I was in Panama, which
is where I was born, and before
I moved to the U.S. there were
songs from bands that I loved in
English. And I was a little kid, I had
no idea what they were saying.
The U.S. as a whole is a minority
in being a country where most of
the entertainment is in its own
language. Most other countries
of the world — entertainment
comes from all kinds of languages.
Most movies are in English; the
rest of the world doesn't speak
English. So really, our work is a
way of connecting without spoken
language being the primary thing.
For me, I noticed with the whole
idea of the band is that we grab
ancient African rhythms, the
rhythms that showed up in Latin
America that kind of showed up
through the slave trade and got
mixed up into indigenous music.
They got mixed up into Spanish
guitars, and then you have Latin
folk music which is kind of like
the folk genre, the music that
later birthed all the other genres
— cumbia, salsa and all that kind
of stuff. So we dig as ancient as
we can with the rhythms, and
something that we've noticed is
the deeper we go with that and the
more universal the music is, the
less it matters what language the
artist speaks and what language
the song is in for the connection.
And so for me, that is the main
thing. I think also all human beings
gravitate to melody. And so it's
important for me to be melodically
interesting. That may be one of the
differentiators in our band — we
compose our music adhering to
the laws of the African Clave, the
tempo meter for African music, and
we write our music to that tempo,
which is a little bit different from
the traditional rock and roll band.
THE BATTALION: What sets the music
industry in Panama apart from that in
America?
CHI: There is a deeper appreciation
for the traditional folk genres, and I
don't mean in like a hipster trendy
way. I mean that being a musician
with fame is almost an impossibility
in Panama, like it's just not really
something that happens for people.
It's not a career choice that you
can really go down because it's just
such a small country that it doesn't
have the economy to support a
whole lot of artists. And there are
exceptions to that rule but the
general idea is that it's such a small
place that it'd be like trying to be
a local musician in one city in the
U.S. You have to travel all over
to become an artist that is well
known. So Panama is so small that
you can't do that, so when people
play music they often do is more
as a hobby and as an appreciation
for the art form. And I feel like
we carry that with us and we try
to dig into the old roots. Being a
famous rock band isn't possible,
so because of that, when you play
music, you don't even worry about
that being an end game, which is
kind of nice.
MORE AT TX.AG/BATT26
Mary Reyes — THE BATTALION
Interim President Mark Hussey receives a hat as
part of the recognition ceremony Wednesday.
Hussey recognized
for service to A&M
By Josh Hopkins
Interim President Mark
Hussey and his wife
Melinda were recognized
in a ceremony Wednesday
for their service to Texas
A&M University as Hussey
prepares to step down from
his post.
Hussey has served as
A&M’s interim president for
just over 14 months. Once
Michael K. Y oung takes
over the presidency, Hussey
will return to his position as
the dean of Agriculture and
Life Sciences, which he has
held since 2008.
Hussey said serving as in
terim president has been an
incredible experience.
“Melinda and I are both
incredibly honored to be
serving in this role,” Hussey
said. “I’m extremely appre
ciative to the chancellor and
the Board of Regents for
their confidence in me, and I
truly enjoyed the faculty, the
students and the former stu
dents we’ve gotten to meet
during the past year.”
Quince Adams, distin
guished history professor,
said working with Hussey
has been a pleasure.
“Could we work with
this man? God, yes,” Adams
said. “He was wonderful to
work with, and I think our
incoming president, Presi
dent Young, looks splendid,
and if he is as easy to work
with as Dr. Hussey was we
are all in high cotton.”
Student Body President
Kyle Kelly said Hussey did
not just keep the seat warm
as interim president.
“He has led us through
transition,” Kelly said. “And
he will continue to lead as we
welcome Michael Young at
A&M. In his time at A&M
he has not just kept every
thing, but he has bettered
everything from our mis
sion, teaching and research,
to the A&M experience for
students. So I am very appre
ciative for having the oppor
tunity to serve with him.”
MORE AT TX.AG/BATT27
USIP president to discuss world conflicts
Andrew Natsios says talk is especially
relevant to those in foreign services
By Evan Flores
hv The search for peace in a number of
worldwide conflicts will be the focus of a
discussion Thursday.
Texas A&M and the Scowcroft Institute of
International Affairs will host Nancy Lindborg,
president of the U.S. Institute of Peace, to dis
cuss international affairs and USIP’s involve
ment with countries in conflict.
Lindborg will present on topics such as civ
il wars in the Middle East, the Islamic State
group and other “conflict zones,” said profes
sor Andrew Natsios, director of the Scowcroft
Institute.
“Nancy will be talking about bringing peace
into conflict areas of the world,” Natsios said.
“She’s going to focus on what’s happening
right now in the major trouble spots of our
world.”
Natsios said the presentation is relevant to
the student body as it affects the future of A&M
students — especially members of the Corps
of Cadets.
“You have 2,000 cadets who, many of them
may go into the military and then go into a war
zone,” Natsios said. “ You would want to know
if there are actually some people thinking about
you and your people back in Washington —
doing research on the area you’re in.”
Natsios said outside of military involvement,
Lindborg’s topic applies significantly to those
who desire to serve in public or foreign service.
“Everybody should know that USIP is one of
the bigger think tanks in Washington,” Natsios
said. “For people who are going into any kind
of international affairs position in Washington,
USIP is essential and hearing [Lindborg] speak
will further prove that.”
Lindborg’s speech will be informative to
any students regardless of major, said Reyko
Huang, assistant professor of international af
fairs at the Bush School.
“I think that this is an important topic, giv
en what’s happening right now in the world,”
Huang said. “We read so much about violence
in the news — it’s all over, it’s always in front
of us and students need to be informed further
about topics like this. Whether they are study
ing it at A&M or the Bush School or novt, it’s
still extremely important.”
Lindborg will present her topic at 5:30 p.m.
Thursday at the Bush Library Presidential Ori
entation Theater as part of the SI IA Interna
tional Affairs Conference series. The event is
free and open to the public, although reserva
tions are required through the Scowcroft In
stitute.
"You have
2,000 cadets
who, many of
them may go
into the military
and then go
into a war
zone."
Andrew Nasties,
director of the Scowcroft Institute
t