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On A Water Break With Neal Bright: Savannah Bananas Pep Band Drummer
139 Plays5 days ago
Welcome to On A Water Break—your sideline pass to the world of drum corps, marching band, color guard, and the marching arts! In this bonus “With” episode, host Stephen McCarrick sits down with Neal Bright, drummer for the Savannah Bananas Pep Band, to unpack six seasons of stunt drumming, pre-game pageantry, viral social-media fame—and the reality of balancing it all around a school-day teaching career.
Episode Segments
- 32-Count Life Story
Neal’s lightning-fast origin: Effingham, GA → Georgia Southern & West Georgia → middle-school band director → “one-off” summer gig → permanent spot in the Savannah Bananas Pep Band. - Inside the Show
How the Bananas blend choreography, crowd interaction, stunt drumming and TikTok-worthy antics into every plaza rehearsal and in-game routine. - Water We Doing?
A hot take on why marching-arts educators rarely mention paid entertainment-band careers—and why drumline skills can become a fun, income-generating side hustle. - Gush & Go
Great news: Neal’s first child is due this December (banana-onesie ready!), plus a reminder about Stephen’s July 12 drum clinic at Rowan University.
Watch the Pep Band in Action
- This Is Bananas: Banana Band ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEIWCpuwIoc youtube.com
- Pep Band Practice #Shorts ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uj-hjsZZKVU youtube.com
- Official Savannah Bananas Site ▶️ https://thesavannahbananas.com/ thesavannahbananas.com
Listen Everywhere
- YouTube Channel ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEIZAjFybvq_AzpFUXvNJDQ
- Spotify ▶️ https://open.spotify.com/show/onawaterbreak
- Apple Podcasts ▶️ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/on-a-water-break/id1653637341
- Google Podcasts, Amazon Music & more — search “On A Water Break”
Connect & Get Involved
- On A Water Break (IG & X) ▶️ @onawaterbreakpodcast
- Host Stephen McCarrick ▶️ @stephenmccarrick
- Guest Neal Bright ▶️ @nealdrums1
- Guest Signup ▶️ https://forms.gle/7GcpYZLfY8Uo54pp9
- Website ▶️ https://onawaterbreakpodcast.com
Sponsor
Guard Closet
Custom color-guard uniforms, flags & accessories—design your look at https://www.guardcloset.com and follow @GuardCloset for pro tips and new releases.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'On a Water Break With'
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone, Stephen here, and welcome to a bonus episode of On a Water Break With. Today we're taking our sideline chat over to a new sport. We're going into the world of baseball and marching arts entertainment. And if you've ever seen the Savannah Bananas in action, then you know that this is going to be good.
00:00:15
Speaker
Awesome. Eight off the mat and go. Welcome to On Water Break. The podcast where we talk everything marching arts.
00:00:30
Speaker
Everyone, bring it in. It's time for water break. stephen and i'm really excited about this conversation ah because if you don't all know by now i am a member of the eagles drum line and any chance that i get to talk someone about entertainment drumline i am thrilled to do it um so i'm in but before we get to our guests make sure you subscribe subscribe to on a water break on your favorite podcast listening platform please rate and review the show uh, share the episode with someone that loves sports, or maybe they love the Savannah bananas. There's a lot of Savannah banana fans out there.
00:01:06
Speaker
Um, and if you're interested in being a guest, you can fill out the form in the link in our bio or email us at on a water break podcast at gmail.com.
Savannah Bananas Phenomenon
00:01:14
Speaker
So if you're unfamiliar, if you've been living under a rock, I guess, um,
00:01:21
Speaker
And you haven't seen the Savannah bananas yet, then you're missing out on one of the most entertaining baseball shows on earth. Uh, the bananas are not just a baseball team. They're full blown entertainment phenomenon combining, uh, athletics with circus level, showmanship, dance routines, crowd interaction, and unpredictable stunts. It makes every game feel like a party.
00:01:42
Speaker
Um, They've gone viral for their videos on TikToks, stunt at bats, choreographed celebrations, and altogether they just really turned the game into a stage for performance.
00:01:53
Speaker
ah But behind that whole show is a drummer who is not just keeping time, he is keeping up with all the baseball shenanigans that the Bananas get into as well.
Neil Bright's Journey
00:02:02
Speaker
So finally, welcome to the show, Neil Bright.
00:02:05
Speaker
Hey, how's to going? Doing great, man. Thank you for coming on. I'm really excited to hear about kind of your role with the Savannah Bananas and how you got there, what your job with them looks like. But let's start this out the way we always do. And that's with a 32 count life story. So that'll give you about 30 seconds.
00:02:23
Speaker
It's eight bars at 60 BPM for you to bring our audience up to speed on everything from the moment you were born to today. All right, let's do it. You'll get eight off the map.
00:02:34
Speaker
All right.
00:02:40
Speaker
All right. Born in Savannah, raised right outside Savannah and Effingham, graduated from there, went to Georgia Southern, went to Vanderkoop, went to West Georgia, taught in Metro Atlanta for 12 years, went through the course, went back home, and now I'm teaching where I graduated from.
00:02:58
Speaker
and have joined up and had the opportunity to play with the Savannah Bananas, which is where I am at currently in life. And also have a baby on the way. Oh, nice. Congratulations.
00:03:12
Speaker
How'd you get involved with the the Savannah Bananas? I know you're from the area, but... Yeah, when I moved back home, um the band leader, Sean, was my supervising teacher when I student taught. So I taught with him for two years, and they were still doing college ball, just the summer tour.
00:03:29
Speaker
And it was a championship series, and the kid that was playing with them couldn't play. And so he just sent me text said, hey, do you want to come play drums? It was like, for what?
00:03:40
Speaker
And I remember being in Atlanta when they announced the bananas and I was going, okay. And but I said, sure, I'll come play. And it was a pretty, it was a pretty, you know, hoot of a time, so to speak. And next year I just went back and it's been what, six years now it's been going. So wow nice screen the transition from college ball into the banana ball into what it is now.
00:04:02
Speaker
and Into the banana ball. ah yeah Right. Okay. So you've really been there probably throughout the entire like rise of their um social media kind of growth. They've really, really, really gotten popular in the last, let's say what, two years?
00:04:19
Speaker
Yeah, two, two and a half. um We won the CPL, the college playoff. The two years I was there, we won them. And then that's when we did the One City World Tour and we went to Mobile, you know, and blew it out and had a good time. And then it started going from there. It was just taking off.
00:04:34
Speaker
Just been growing. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it's been meteoric. It's been really cool. I first heard about um Savannah Bananas from my girlfriend on TikTok. um I understand that seems to be how a lot of guys are finding out.
00:04:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's got to be.
Performing with the Bananas
00:04:49
Speaker
I was in Bethany Beach, Delaware right now at my buddy's house oh okay before i go to delt before I go to D.C. And we were on the boardwalk in a store like yesterday. And dumb as one of the employees, I mean, she had to be a 20-year-old said,
00:05:01
Speaker
you've been to a bananas game. I said, I've been to a few of them. She said, I'm going on Friday. I said to DC. Yeah. I said, all right, I'll see you there. yeah Nice. So that's cool. You're out there traveling to all these games.
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah. I go to, I probably play it close to half of them. We have another drummer, Micah, he lives in Atlanta. And so we kind of, we played together a lot, but if not, at least one of us is there. There's very few cities that we have a sub come in, but sometimes that hasn't happened because we're both teachers.
00:05:31
Speaker
Yeah, okay. That makes sense. So why don't you tell us a little bit about your role during a typical game then? Well, when we show up, you know, get everything set up and staged, we do some rehearsals pregame because the stage show, I mean, we start, we start the show three hours before the actual event happens.
00:05:52
Speaker
There's 20, 30,000 people in the plaza, maybe even more than that pregame when we're doing all the show with the cast. So we will back up princess Patastia. She's singing.
00:06:03
Speaker
We do opening number. We do some things and um just, then we have to stop. We go do some rehearsals on the field. um And then we do the big parade with all the players through all the mayhem.
00:06:16
Speaker
where we play Hey Baby, which is our big thing. We do that three times a game. And then we'll do a pre-show where the band will play 30 minutes as everybody's kind of going in. So that's our big spot.
00:06:29
Speaker
Outside is pre-show and post-show. We do two 30-minute sets. um Okay. Rocking, which I get to play drum set, but everything else is in the stadium. And that's where the marching drums come in and We either play on the field with some of the players, maybe singing.
00:06:45
Speaker
We have a spot in one of the half innings, and we play uptown funk in one of the upper deck. Normally we get up as high as we can. Yeah. And play that. And then we parade around, you know, we'll play happy birthday to little people and we'll just go in into tweets or whatever and just entertain people. Because we try to take the show up because these big stadiums, you know, with 60, 70,000 people, if you're not on that lower bowl, it's hard to watch, ah you know, a baseball game. And so we just try to go up there and entertain everybody.
00:07:13
Speaker
Nice. Okay. um So then it seems to me like you probably have like some... scripted, rehearsed sort of performances. You also have some more improvised, like on the spot, um different types of entertainment band things that you
Scripted vs. Improvised Entertainment
00:07:29
Speaker
do.
00:07:29
Speaker
um Yes. Our scripted slots are if we play in the air tonight with Dalton Malden, second baseman, he's the guitar musician. Oh, okay. princess we do that during the pre show on the field kind of warm up the crowd before the players run out that's the spot right there we get done and then they introduce the players and they run out um that's the scripted one The parade where we um throw out beads and get everybody hyped up before everything happens. That's a scripted moment.
00:07:59
Speaker
And then our slot in the middle is scripted. And if have to do anything else involving the field show, then those are all written into the script. um And we know every half inning what's happening. Every promo, everything. it's ever We get that before the day even starts.
00:08:17
Speaker
That's actually honestly sounds really organized compared to what I hear about a lot of entertainment band. It seems like there's so much thought and it makes sense because you guys have such a great social media presence and you're always putting together new things that people enjoy. um So it's really all curated by like,
00:08:36
Speaker
a team of people that are trying to plan these events well in advance. Like even all the, the run sellies are in place. Like if the bananas win an inning and they're going this big run sellie that they put on Tik TOK.
00:08:49
Speaker
Yeah. Those are all laid out for if it happens. Okay. so There's nothing that, there's nothing that really catches them by surprise. There's always kind of a scenario for if someone hits on run, if someone gets hit by pitch, what ending it is, it's all, everybody knows exactly what's going
Savannah Bananas' Social Media Growth
00:09:06
Speaker
on. wow And yeah it's cool. So if we're,
00:09:09
Speaker
in section you know 304 up at the very top of the stadium we know where they're at in the game so when we have to do hey baby in the mid-fourth and go get on a dugout we can get down there because we're like oh we're in the middle of the third we're gonna have to get down there and make some time so we know where we're at all times during the game wow yeah that's super coordinated um And it makes sense, too, why you guys have such great content. There's actually a lot of effort going into it.
00:09:35
Speaker
Oh, yeah. like That's for sure. That's probably been their bread butter. That's been what has made it happen. um So for all the players out there, too, are they like rehearsing there their entertainment slots essentially during the week when they're not in games. Yeah. Their practice, I think their practice is laid out like an hour a half baseball, an hour and a half entertainment, what they're doing. Wow.
00:10:04
Speaker
Our two to two, I don't know what their timeframe is, but I know that half of their rehearsal is practicing and doing baseball and half of their rehearsal is how they're going do all this stuff.
Unique Rules of Banana Ball
00:10:12
Speaker
Wow. That's, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or whatever our, whatever our schedule looks like for the week, whether we're traveling or their home, that's what they're doing.
00:10:21
Speaker
That's wow. Yeah. That's so crazy. That's so never heard of anything like it, but they're having so much success with it. It's clearly a good idea. And the baseball is fantastic. I know they get, there's a lot of hate and they get ragged on for it being in a circus, but they can play baseball. How many people you seen do a backflip catch?
00:10:38
Speaker
out now you know um many pro And I'm not saying the pro ballers can't do it, but how many times have you seen that happen in a game? I've seen it at least twice in every game. It's crazy. It's crazy. At least twice.
00:10:49
Speaker
It's crazy, actually. It is. It does it doesn't make any sense. Take me through the backflip catch and take the audience through the backflip catch if they've they haven't seen it. Well, you know, I've tried to learn how to do it because I'll go do batting practice and go out there and I'll check balls because, I mean, who doesn't want to play baseball in a baseball stadium if you're a baseball fan?
00:11:07
Speaker
So I'll go out there with DR and do some trick plays, but I can't do a back flip. I'm 44 years old. So that's going to be like that's a little bit beyond me. But, I mean, he he's waiting on it, waiting on it, and then he goes up.
00:11:23
Speaker
you know, and grabs the ball on the way back around, lands it. It's just, that's so crazy. You know, coach rack does it now. That's like the thing. That's the staple. Yeah. That is an insane thing. My girlfriend has showed me a lot of Savannah bananas videos and she's showing me the wrong ones.
00:11:39
Speaker
I want to see that. hey I could catch a fly ball behind my back, but like Reese, the right fielder, he does it spinning in a tornado fashion because, you know, he's the super Reese. So it's just they do a little bit of extra stuff to make these things work, you know?
00:11:54
Speaker
Uh-huh. Yeah, the showmanship of it all is is so impressive, especially to still be playing baseball in all of it. Yes. um it's a real The game is not scripted whatsoever.
00:12:05
Speaker
Just um all of the innings. And what's happening in between the play. How they'll react to the game. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So those things are, those things are, but the game is not, it's a real baseball game. is entertaining because they're good.
00:12:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And then ah the actual baseball league, you you mentioned earlier, are they a college team or is this minor league? or No, when it was a summer college team after it got from minor league with the Sand Nats. It was a summer CPL college team, Coastal Plains League, and it was just a two-month summer Woodbat League.
00:12:36
Speaker
But now that it's banana ball, there's four teams. They all play banana ball, and there's two more teams being added in October, and there's actually a championship happening in October between all four teams. So, yeah.
00:12:47
Speaker
it's you know It's our rules. It's the banana ball rules. Yeah, okay. No bunting. If you catch a foul ball as a fan, it's an out. That's a pretty cool rule. That's probably my favorite rule. That's the white end. I didn't even know about that. When they catch it, they bring them down on the field and they celebrate. It's crazy. I've seen games end with a fan catching the ball. Game over.
00:13:06
Speaker
Done. Game over. He caught it. yes He caught the ball. It's out. Two outs in ninth inning. done So it it, but the league is really starting to develop because it was just primarily the bananas and the party animals.
00:13:20
Speaker
But then they added the firefighters. That's who we're playing this weekend in DC and the tailgaters. And it's just, you know, it's blowing up and he's going to have a league. i don't know if, I don't know if it's going six or eight teams. I have no idea, but it's going to be a banana ball league.
00:13:34
Speaker
A banana ball league. yeah Yeah. And these events are huge. Oh yeah. Like, yeah, they're, they're selling out probably when they go to any of these cities. Right. It doesn't take – honestly, it will take two to four hours to sell out a Major League Stadium. like It's done. As soon as they go on, they're gone.
00:13:52
Speaker
That's so crazy. The Phillies don't even sell out the Phillies stadium. No. you know And I've heard the argument and I get it. Some people say, well, it's just a show. It comes into town for two days.
00:14:03
Speaker
Sure. But people that are buying these tickets just say, I'll get in the lottery. They get in the lottery and they don't know what game they're going to get. So we will be in DC and there'll be somebody from Arizona that's at the game because that's the game they got. And so they plan a vacation and they come to the game. So that's how it works. You don't know what you're going to get.
00:14:22
Speaker
And then I'm going to have to get in early on ah whenever I go. Me and my girlfriend were talking about going. When I told her that I was doing this interview with you, a she was mad. She's like, I can't believe that you're talking to someone from the Savannah Bananas day and you didn't tell me.
00:14:39
Speaker
I like, yes. and but It's been definitely a wild thing. My 14-year-old and my 11-year-old, they've loved it. And I mean, they're here because they're going to this game, but they're kind of ah not over the... They love it that I'm the drummer and I'm a part of it and that they can do it kind of when they want to. But they're like, you know, it's it's cool, Dad, but... but you know Yeah, exactly, right? so But it's okay.
00:15:07
Speaker
They still like to be around it, just not as much as I do it. Yeah, they take it, they they ah get what they want, and then yeah they so they still really enjoy it. Yeah, so they get swag. Do you have any idea like what's been your favorite moment or or maybe interaction with fans or something like that?
00:15:24
Speaker
My favorite moment is probably when we played with Gavin DeGraw last year in Nashville. and That was... That was a cool, cool, cool moment because they got Gavin DeGraw to come and we ran the drum set out on the field, put it down in like 30 seconds because we had a spot that was this big because he was walking out one of the pitchers and we played I Don't Want to Be Live with him and it was nice awesome. It was so cool.
00:15:51
Speaker
It was great. It's cool how like entertainment band, I've actually had some similar situations with Eagles where you'll end up interacting with some big like Yeah. Headlining music artist or whatever that's involved in the same gig.
00:16:05
Speaker
And you look back on it and you're like how did I get here? ah just was a band nerd from high school that played a lot of bass drum. And now you're like, right. I'm back here with old dominion.
00:16:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool. I mean, I talked to Dierks Bentley in Nashville for a little while. He's cool guy. Yeah, nice. You know, I met dude from Sandlot. You're killing me, Smalls. I met him in Anaheim.
00:16:30
Speaker
And the crazy thing, this is probably the craziest interaction. In Anaheim, I met the guitarist from Neon Trees. He was just there with his family. just hanging out.
00:16:41
Speaker
And I went to sign his daughter's ball. And mom was like, you got to sign that dad's a professional musician. And I'm like, what, what do you mean a professional musician? He's guitarist for neon trees. I was like,
00:16:53
Speaker
What? So, you know, I saw them in Atlanta before they were even got signed. And so that was really cool. So I talked to him and hung out with him and he was a super cool guy. So you just never know who you're going to meet. Honestly, you never know.
00:17:04
Speaker
Never know is right. No. That's one of the cool things about ah entertainment band, man. That definitely isn't present at all in the regular side of the marching arts. Oh, yeah. So. and We did a wedding in Sugar Land. like We married two people on the mound and the band was there to play the music as they walked through. It was crazy.
00:17:23
Speaker
Nice. A whole Savannah Banana wedding. Yes. So talking about the fans, that was a cool fan moment because they got married because their wedding was on the day they got the tickets and they didn't they didn't know. They just wanted tickets to that game.
00:17:35
Speaker
So we married them there.
00:17:39
Speaker
When duty calls, got it. That was cool. Well, here's one last question I have for you here before we pop into our next segment. um But is there anything that you think that the marching arts maybe could learn from sports entertainment or from entertainment band?
Marching Arts vs. Entertainment Bands
00:17:56
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, obviously, I mean, those dudes can play, you know, it's, it's, I love it. I mean, I was wearing my shirt from last year. That was a great show. oh I see. That's the Boston shirt, right? That was a great show. But yeah,
00:18:11
Speaker
And I think they're entertaining. I don't, I was just, I said something three days ago, cause I was looking to take my kids to a show and it's just so daggone expensive now, even to go to a super, region you know, to go to a super regional, see everybody.
00:18:26
Speaker
It was going to cost me like almost 300 bucks to take my family of four. a yeah my kids love it. My 14 year old about to be a metal phone player in March of man that I teach, which is awesome.
00:18:37
Speaker
And my 11 year old coming into my band. She's going to start on saxophone, but I think she's going to as a percussionist because she's leaning in that direction. For sure. A little further. Yeah, right. and they And they love it. They love drum corps.
00:18:49
Speaker
um But I'm like, 300 bucks? Golly. and And it's ah it's a four-hour drive for us to get there. So it's like, holy cow. So, I mean, I get they got to make money, and but I don't know.
00:19:03
Speaker
this Yeah. But can they learn? I mean, I think everything is pretty entertaining the way they do things now, the way, but it's so much different, right? It's just not like 95, 96 Madison where they just come up to the front. They're like, here we go.
00:19:19
Speaker
Maligua, all the way out. We're going to play the last note for 35 seconds and just play the drums as hard as we can. It's not like that now, you know, it's the whole storyline and everything's got to make sense.
00:19:30
Speaker
Well, that's almost where I feel like it, it could learn from entertainment band where like an entertainment band. A lot of the time we're trying to just do something fun. It's not trying to be high brown, trying to make sure that the people that are watching are like, that was cool.
00:19:44
Speaker
I like, yeah, sometimes I feel like band gets just a little too caught up in trying to be really artistic and it might forget some of just let's have fun. Let's make a fun product. Yeah.
00:19:55
Speaker
Well, as a as a singular snare drummer, when we're playing, um um I'm not there. i mean, i do some cheesy stick tricks, the the bare bones are what I did, because I was a quad player.
00:20:07
Speaker
Okay. but I'll do them just so people, you know, kind of smile and go, oh, it's cool snare drum. But my job when I'm playing snare drum and we're parading or just entertaining some people is to let them know pretty much where two and four is at and keep something going. Yes. Yes. I'm not out there, you know, ramming book reports and Radam McKee. I'm just playing to cryp talk good just so they know where to at.
00:20:27
Speaker
Uh-huh. So. Yeah. The easiest songs that we play in Eagles drum line are the biggest bangers. Yes, exactly. Right. Everybody says you can inject neck in my veins and all I'm doing on neck is going pop.
00:20:41
Speaker
But that' all exactly you know that's all you need. And it's all that it's all you need. It's all they want to yeah that's where keep all those inner beats to yourself. That's right. But all right, we'll be back in a minute here.
00:20:54
Speaker
Neil and I got to practice what we're going to do if they smack a home run in the next inning.
00:21:00
Speaker
We'll be back after we get a little couple of reps on that one.
00:21:14
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:22:08
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00:22:21
Speaker
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00:22:34
Speaker
All right. And we are back. And before we actually get on into what are we doing, cause I actually was curious, Neil, because sometimes with entertainment band, too, it can be long hours. It can have its own challenges, and they're totally different from the things people are familiar with in the regular
Balancing Commitments
00:22:50
Speaker
band world.
00:22:50
Speaker
What would you say is maybe some of the more challenging aspects of being the drummer in the Savannah Bananas? Well, traveling, since I'm a middle school band director and I have normal, you know, middle school band work hours, um sometimes I'll – and the travel team is fantastic at accommodating when I need to get in and out, and the band in general, because most of us are teachers or whatnot.
00:23:15
Speaker
Yeah. But I'll fly out on a Friday night at 6.30, 7 o'clock, get to wherever I'm going. And it's possible that I might fly out on Saturday night on a red eye after the game if I have to get back for some reason on Sunday.
00:23:31
Speaker
Or there's been twice I haven't slept and pulled up to the airport and drove straight to work. Wow. Yeah. Straight to school. Yeah. That's challenging. We had the opening series at Arizona and I was at my Georgia music educators association. I was at convention. I was at conference and wasn't originally planning to go. Cause I knew I was going to be out of town.
00:23:55
Speaker
And then Sean said, are you going to Arizona? you know, it's the opening series. We want you there, blah, blah, blah. And I said, Okay, so I left Athens, Georgia, drove to the airport at 6 o'clock um Friday morning our Saturday morning. maybe It was Friday or Saturday.
00:24:12
Speaker
Flew to Arizona, which we know is a time change. Oh, my gosh. um Pulled up to the stadium right at 2 o'clock to throw the drum on, do the thing. Did two games. and left Sunday morning or Sunday night from Arizona at like seven or eight o'clock and flew into Savannah about eight o'clock in the morning and drove straight to my school to teach. Oh my God.
00:24:34
Speaker
On a time change with no sleep. It was wild. Yeah, you're like the Energizer Bunny. You just keep on going and going and going. Hey, you do what it takes. but it's ah it's It's well worth it. It's so much fun that sometimes no sleep is not a big deal.
00:24:48
Speaker
Now, I know what you mean there, because some days like ah for at Eagles, for instance, if it's a 1 p.m. game, that's actually a very early start for us. We have to get in a lot earlier than then. Yeah. um So those days can be long, but entertainment band definitely is is worth it.
00:25:05
Speaker
I've had a ton of fun with it. um All right. Well, let's get into things here. Let's let's get into our water we do and What Are We Doing?
00:25:20
Speaker
What are we doing?
Opportunities for Young Musicians
00:25:22
Speaker
All right. So this is the part of the show where we let loose a little bit or could be a lot depending on what sort of hot take you have, Neil. But... It's your chance to rant about something in the marching arts or entertainment world that just doesn't make sense to you. And I'll kick it off actually. So you could kind of see how it works.
00:25:39
Speaker
Okay. I'd say, uh, what are we doing? Not telling students about these sorts of entertainment band opportunities while they're marching age. Um, feel like no one ever, ever literally ever mentioned to me that there are paid drumline gigs that are out there after you age out and that you're literally building a resume.
00:25:58
Speaker
the entire time to do band that pays that is, i was about to say more fun, but it's at least very, very fun in a different way. Um, compared to the competitive side.
00:26:10
Speaker
And it literally, I view it like it is the payoff for all those years of literal tuition that you were paying to develop a skill. I, ah while I was marching, people would always say like, oh, it's this useless skill you're developing that once you age out, it's going to be a useless skill.
00:26:26
Speaker
It's literally not. I get paid. It's a very valid part-time job of mine that gives me real income and like is the most fun thing I do. True. um But what do you think about that? And kind of,
00:26:40
Speaker
Were you even aware of like entertainment band as an option when you were marching? I know, and I don't know if it's become more prevalent and more relevant probably, you know, in in more recent times, especially with drum lines and whatnot and the entertainment value of that. But i I didn't know that the Bananas had a band.
00:27:02
Speaker
um Sean is one of the high school band directors in the county I i teach at, and he just kind of put together ah high school mini band. to do things with kids and because that's what Jesse wanted and I don't know it wasn't even paying it was just a bunch of kids that went got free food you know and they had some entertainment but then when it started getting serious and we started being more integrated in the show and more a part of the show that's when it started but I had no idea about it like I said when he called me I said play drums for what
00:27:34
Speaker
I'm like, the baseball team? Yeah. but Okay. and Yeah, right. So, ah but my kids at my school that I teach, they know, you know, and oh yeah yeah the parents, they know.
00:27:48
Speaker
And um I tell the kids, I know you're in sixth grade band, and it may be frustrating, but there are things you can do. Way down the road, not teach band, but play and still enjoy this when you get older in a way different capacity than you ever imagined. You know?
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah, I never imagined it. And I was the same way, really, with you, where you were like, this the bananas, the banana band? and then I didn't know the Eagles drum line. I had a drum line.
00:28:18
Speaker
It's existed the entire time I was marching. It's older than my marching career. Yeah. Wow. That's one thing that's crazy, man. The Eagles drum line. There's four dudes on it left that were OG members and they've been there for all 16 years of it.
00:28:34
Speaker
um So the guy that plays bass too, I'm still an alternate for him. He's been playing bass too at Eagles drum line longer than I've been playing bass drum. Wow. And I've had, those I've had what I feel like is a long bass drum career that he's been doing just Eagles drumline long. And he was probably marching cadets before I was born.
00:28:56
Speaker
shit That's crazy. Well, they did a Falcons drumline one year or they did a Falcons drumline for a small run and ah bunch of the kids and that were, were teaching at quest Atlanta quest.
00:29:11
Speaker
Or some of them that were marching because I was marching Alliance at that point in DCA. a lot of those guys did it. When would that have been? real that was That would have been 08 and 09. We won the A-class gold medal in 08 and then went to open class in 09.
00:29:27
Speaker
um A good friend of mine marched Alliance, but he probably would have been in like the 2014-ish time. Okay. okay Yeah, but it was – I couldn't get away to do that. I had just – I was just having our first kid, and it it was it didn't work out in the cards for me. But, there I mean, they had some players on that line. i mean, like Dave Cox played on the quad line. you know He was on 98 BD.
00:29:49
Speaker
There were players on that line, and um it was it was cool, but I couldn't do that. And I'm like, that would be really, really neat. <unk> I'm not at football, but I am in that industry now.
00:30:01
Speaker
Yeah. And it's cool, man. It's I definitely I bet you probably feel similarly, but I'm so happy that my diet, my dominoes fell how they did. That brought me to Eagles drumline. It's like definitely the the most fun, cool thing that I do.
00:30:14
Speaker
If I hadn't, to and you know, always, you always try to look at where life takes you and why it takes you there. But if I hadn't ended up getting divorced and moving back home so the family could help with the kids, now this wouldn't have been a thing. Cause I was in Atlanta, I was in right outside Atlanta teaching yeah and that would have never even happened.
00:30:31
Speaker
Right. Wow. So yeah, things happen for a reason. And at the very least, you know, one it's a very cool thing that you get to do, man. um And my, my wife now is my assistant band director sister. So now it's all crazy. Yeah.
00:30:45
Speaker
ah Keeping the family close. That's right. That's right. Do you have
Financial Challenges in Marching Arts
00:30:50
Speaker
a what are we doing? Maybe like some type of hot take either in the band world or the ah sports or entertainment world? it, it, uh, again, it kind of stems back to the tickets. Cause I mean, my, my oldest loves drum corps and she's like, dad, I'll go March blue devils. I said, are you going to March blue devils straight across?
00:31:07
Speaker
Okay, cool. But it is, it's, it's so expensive to, I mean, those kids are paying, some of them are paying five, 5,500 bucks yep for the, for the season. And I'm not saying it's not worth it because I know there's a lot of good instruction,
00:31:25
Speaker
I know what they're doing. The product now is, you know, more again, expensive than the parking below system, but it's expensive. And I'm like, ah how am I going to figure out how that's going to happen? You know, i wanted to do it.
00:31:41
Speaker
I think it would be incredible. But on the other hand, It's like, honey, um I don't know how this is to happen if you make something. Who knows? So I don't know. but That's been a topic on social media. And i you know yeah again, everybody's got to take on it. And i don't i don't know what the answer is to that question.
00:32:00
Speaker
what I would call a problem. i don't know what the answer is. um i know people play or pay a lot of money to do travel sports. They've equated it to that, you know, but what you just said, the end game from drum corps experience versus the possible end game from a travel sport it could be way different.
00:32:21
Speaker
You can be done when you age out or you could end up in the professional baseball. So it's a way different end game. And so I don't know.
00:32:32
Speaker
um if is not, I think it's worth it, but you know what I'm saying? Is it? We talk about it all the time. Cause that's like a big thing that people always are talking about in the marching arts nowadays.
00:32:44
Speaker
And like, I think a lot of our conversations end up going down the road of thinking like it's drum core is going to have to change. Like maybe BD will still go on tour for 80 to 90 days or whatever. But for all these groups to be able to,
00:33:01
Speaker
afford to go on tour and to find 150 people that are going to pay them the money that they need to go on tour. Yeah. It just doesn't seem sustainable, unfortunately. Well, and schools are different now, especially after COVID. More expensive. And so a lot of people are leery to either let you stay or you're going to have to pay.
00:33:18
Speaker
And um yeah you know a lot of that expense, I don't think they accrued earlier on because people would just let you come stay. bandwagon would reserve the gym and the band room and you, because we hosted Blue Stars when I was at Carrollton.
00:33:31
Speaker
Last year, they hosted Boston. Um, And we've had, you know, Spirit has done their camp at Carrollton where I was being ready for our move for couple of years. That's where their all days have been.
00:33:42
Speaker
yeah But when you having to pay that, that's a whole extra cost on top of the gas and the food and everything else. It is. And the gas. Gas is a lot now, too.
00:33:55
Speaker
I remember like two summers ago, it was real bad. It was the revolving uniform is a newer cost as opposed to having the standard. You know, yeah when I was in high school and in college and drum corps, you knew who was coming on the field.
00:34:12
Speaker
You knew who it was. Yeah. ra Without seeing a show, without hearing it, you're like, oh, that's cadets. I know what they're wearing. They got maroon on Oh, you know, that's BD. They got the blue and the black sat. You knew what it was.
00:34:25
Speaker
Now, if i don't see a show announcement, I'm like, who's that out there on the field right now? And the show announcement too. They'll be so secretive about it. you all yeah You won't have even seen the show announcement because they put it out like two hours before the show.
00:34:41
Speaker
Well, i saw I think you were talking about that the other day. I was watching the podcast couple of days ago, and Blue Devils was the first one to come out with it. And, man, I'm a huge Blue Devils fan. I love Blue Devils. I don't ever understand what they're doing until figure it out and put it together. So from their announcement, I have no idea what's going on their show. this It's going to take me a month to figure it out. But it it the production of the video was awesome.
00:35:03
Speaker
um I saw Crown put out their point of no return. Is that what they're doing? Yeah, i think I've seen that. Yeah, point of no return. And i um <unk> I've seen Boston drum clips from McNutt, but I don't know.
00:35:15
Speaker
You know, we don't know what's going on in the world, I guess, until they start coming out. Yeah, we'll see it soon. It's finally time. And ah you could catch the podcast. I'm sure we'll keep a beat on what's going on this summer.
00:35:27
Speaker
But it also starts much later. Great job, everyone. Set your equipment down. Cush and go.
00:35:34
Speaker
You were just going to say that the announcements and all that stuff, what, starts later? It seems like the tour is backing up, too, because I thought they used to kind of come out the first or second week of June and start getting going. I know everything wasn't completely finished or polished or anything, but they would start getting out in front of people and playing, and that's fact you know that's backed up also now.
00:35:55
Speaker
Yep, so tour is shorter now, too. I think that's probably a cost-saving measure, but it didn't save a lot of costs on the member end. Yeah. Yeah, probably. tough I still love it. I mean, yeah, I love it, but I think they're going to have to figure something out to sustain it. And that's where it's probably going to have to, that's what might end up being more like weekend band again, just.
00:36:15
Speaker
like yeah think yeah no I used to show up, you know, Friday night, Saturday, Sunday morning. And that was that. I could see a world where that ends up being what more of drum core is. All right. Well, let's wrap it up with some good vibes here. We've got our gush and goes.
00:36:30
Speaker
Um, This is just a quick segment where you could talk about anything that you want, something positive, something good happening in your world that you want to share with the audience. doesn't even have to be band related, but it's your opportunity, what you got.
00:36:45
Speaker
Sure. I've got, a like I said, I've got a baby on the way. My wife is pregnant. She's due in the beginning of December. So hopefully it'll be coming up to the break so I can have some time off.
00:36:58
Speaker
And um it's our first child. And it's going to be very interesting, you know, to have a sixth grader, a ninth grader. And then here we go. And a baby. But it's going to be fun. You know, the first outfit already bought them was a banana onesie.
00:37:13
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Nice. Get us started right. I don't know if it's going to a boy or a girl yet. I think we'll find out a couple weeks. But either way, they got their bananas onesie and ready to go with that. I'm hoping that – He or she can be banana baby one of the games when we get started in February March next year.
00:37:31
Speaker
that would be a fun little celebration of a newborn. So we'll see how that goes down. I hope that they're able to do that. Either way, I'm sure that that little baby will be the biggest banana fan. That's for sure.
00:37:42
Speaker
She said there's no banana stuff going in the room as of yet. I haven't got her on that tray. You know, the colors are not yellow and blue, but we'll see. yeah you Keep on putting the good work. Yeah, you'll get exactly.
00:37:55
Speaker
All right. Hey, it's called Gush and Go, not Gush and Stay. Let's go. Well, I'm going to hold this one up. Hold it hostage, Jeremy. Our producer wants me to get on with it, but I have a good Gush and Go that I want to share with ah the audience real quick.
00:38:10
Speaker
Um, it's only really relevant to people in my neck of the woods ish. Um, but Rowan university is hosting a drum clinic, uh, with yours truly and the good staff over at Rowan. Um, but the reason that you should send your students is Roger Carter is also going to be there.
00:38:26
Speaker
Um, it's on July 12th. You could find information about this clinic online. Um, I'm sure Rowan university marching band, ah has some information about it on their website.
00:38:39
Speaker
um I think it's about $35 if you register prior to the end of the month. um It's a two block day. Lunch is provided. They get a t-shirt too. um And it's going to be a great way that you could kickstart some passion for the marching arts in your students, especially if you have any of those high schoolers that maybe would know who Roger Carter is, like their big blue coach drumline fans or Broken City. It's great way to get them really motivated and involved. So,
00:39:06
Speaker
If you can't find anything, just shoot me a message on Instagram and I'll help you. But please go sign up if you're in the ah Philadelphia region. but Absolutely. That's a cool opportunity. It is, man. i'm I'm actually pretty excited about it. to have to take off a weekend band for a Saturday to do it.
00:39:20
Speaker
ah But that's pretty crazy that we're getting Roger Carter to come out to the East Coast for a little clinic. I like it. Awesome. Well, thank you, Neil Bright, for joining us today. That's all we've got planned on our show. But it was awesome speaking with you.
00:39:38
Speaker
Where could folks find you online and follow your work? Neil Drums1 is pretty much my handles. um I think I'm just Neil Brad Facebook, but yeah. ah call And me and my sister-in-law, assistant band director, we make funny, stupid middle school band content because there's plenty of that out there.
00:39:58
Speaker
And it' so on top of the drumming and the banana stuff. We just have a good time. Social media. it I've never been a big, I've always just posted pictures and cool stuff. yeah It's been fun to reach out to people you know, people talk to you and just interacting with the band community. There's so many people out there that don't think band is the exact way everywhere. And it is.
00:40:21
Speaker
yeah Middle school kids are middle school kids. They're going to do the same thing everywhere. That's that's funny. Yeah, that's that's been a that's been a fun time to, you know, interact with people say, oh, my gosh, are you in my bedroom? I'm like, no, I'm a thousand miles away, but it's the same exact way here. It's the same thing here. Yeah.
00:40:40
Speaker
Well, they should check you out online, find your videos, check them out. um You can follow us at on a water break on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook as well. You can subscribe, review, share it with your friends.
00:40:53
Speaker
If you've got any marching art stories, videos, or questions, you can send them to on a water break podcast at gmail.com and ah might see it on the show. We'd love to talk to you guys soon. And until next time, we will see you at the next rehearsal on a water break.
00:41:11
Speaker
The On a Water Break podcast was produced by Jeremy Williams and Christine Ream. The intro and outro music was produced by Josh Lida. To learn more, visit LidaMusic.com.
00:41:23
Speaker
And until next time, thanks for tuning
00:41:30
Speaker
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