Joe Wheeler

Music is a all inclusive community comprised of many different cultures and genres of music. Being that as it is my interviewee, Joe Wheeler, has used music as a catalyst to shape his life for the better. Joe has been involved in the community ever since “...started playing the violin in middle school for the school orchestra.” but has played many instruments since then. The main focus for Joe’s musical abilities is his mastery of the guitar, and how using that skill set can land him a gig or just a jam sessions with his friends or wife. Saying that music hasn’t shaped Joe into the man he is today is just completely untrue.

As stated Joe has been playing instruments since middle school but decided to continue with it unlike many other kids at that age. But like many other kids he was encouraged into it by his parents. His grandfather gifted him his first violin that had been in the family for a while. When Joe went to the music shop to get it tuned up and all of that jazz, “...the latches on the case must had been faulty because the violin came out of the case and fell on the ground, shattering the face making it completely unplayable.” Some people would have taken that as an act of god telling them to not pursue this instrument  but not Joe. He instead decided to get a new violin and keep pursuing this even though he would end up putting the violin on the backburner while putting the guitar on the forefront of his musical desires.

With age comes new opportunities and new ways to express yourself, the same thing happened to Joe in high school. Meeting new people caused Joe to find people that had the same interests as him. His friend group decided to form a amature band, adeptly name Adolescent Behavior, writing their own music and even doing covers of already made songs from popular bands. This gave Joe and outlet to express himself in music even more than he had before, his band even played at one of their high school events that celebrates rock and indie music all day long. With that being said this help Joe grow more as a person than just an artist, because it gave him to light to see what music has the power to do and help one grow.

Joe had told me that his interest in music goes far beyond playing it, he provided some insight on the indie music scene. Such as how most of the people apart of the community really value original music rather than remixed and remastered songs that have already been produced. Unlike the EDM or Techno communities, the indie scene is a place where people can post their original songs and get fair criticism on how to improve and what could be changed. While the EDM and Techno scenes just glorify anything that comes out without bringing anything to the table. With the rise of the internet and microphones in the consumer market only getting better and better as time goes on, Joe thinks that this will have a great impact on the music scene as a whole not just the indie community in particular.    

Over the course of his life the instruments Joe was playing at the time definitely shows the character in him at that point. The violin would have shown patience and determination in the young Joe due to the breaking of his first one and not quitting the instrument instead getting a new one and pushing forward. Picking up the guitar would have taught individuality and diversity to Joe due to the guitar being a versatile instrument being able to play most songs ever made spanning all genres of music. It could be said that other instruments that Joe has played could have taught him more values to hold in his life. But these two definitely were the most influential and the values you see the most when having a conversation with the man himself.

Seeing the world through Joe’s eyes is really an enlightening thing, he is able to notice small things that will end up making a huge difference in the community he is apart of. Such as the sudden rise of the internet culture and the microphone quality rising bringing new headway for small time artist to get their music heard by thousands rather than hundreds at a small time gig. Even is Joe’s early life he saw past the “sign of god” of his grandfather's violin breaking and ended up getting a new one to play instead of just quitting right then and there. I think Joe will end up being a very influential in the community he is apart of as long as he sticks with it and doesn't quit which I don’t think is a thing he will do. Being that as it is, I would highly recommend sitting down with Joe Wheeler and having a conversation about his views on the indie music scene, his life story dealing with music, or even just a normal conversation on things happening in the world or just small talk, you should come out a better person or with a new way to see the world even if it's just for a little bit.