[00:00:00] Fuzz Martin: Hello friends, it’s Fuzz Martin. This is Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz. I’m happy to be with you here in the studio today. I’ve been in my car. So much this summer that I enjoy these few minutes that we get to spend together. Though, I guess there’s a good likelihood that you’re listening to me in your car right now, but I’m in the studio.
Uh, we’ve had a good summer. We drove out to South Dakota earlier this summer to see Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park and a bunch of other things. We saw the Dignity Statue, the Jolly Green Giant, statue, Wall Drug the, Corn Castle place. A whole bunch of places. Last week, I went to Milwaukee Irish Fest, then to Green Bay to drop off our daughter and our dog.
Then we went to a wedding an hour west of Minneapolis, and then we went to Door County to pick up our daughter and our dog again, and then we drove home all within a weekend, well, from a Thursday through Sunday. But we’re back now and I’m here with you. Thank you for listening to Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
This week, Jay Tamez joins me to talk all about the West Bend Music Academy, and The West Bend Music Academy is very actively involved in our community. They’ve taught many people, young and old, how to channel their love of music. And they have cool programs, like the Summer Rock Band Program. Rockin ain’t no walk in the park, lady.
School of Rock reference. With that, here are Fifteen Minutes. I’m the West Bend Music Academy with Jay Tamez on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
Jay, thank you for coming in the studio today. Can you first tell us about West Bend Music Academy? It’s part school and part store, right? So you can give us a kind of background of what it is.
[00:02:01] Jay Tamez: Yeah. So it’s a, Of course, the West Bend Music Academy, because it is an academy for learning how to play instruments.
And that’s where we started, so it was really more of a learning environment, you know, institution. But then, we of course started carrying instruments and other things, accessories. So that’s kind of, yep, it’s blended.
[00:02:23] Fuzz Martin: It’s a blended, so yeah, so when you, when you’re downtown West Bend, you can see that you’ve got a, you know, there’s guitars and all this cool stuff and Right, right.
But also a place to learn, right?
[00:02:32] Jay Tamez: Yeah, we thought about changing the name, but we were already too far into the game when we started really expanding into the sales, you know, music industry, retail, they call it. And, but yeah, I think people get it when they come into the store because they see that we have instruments for sale.
[00:02:48] Fuzz Martin: So speaking of being a little too far into the game, can you tell us how West Bend Music Academy got started? Where, where did the idea come from? How, how did it all come to be?
[00:02:57] Jay Tamez: Yeah. Okay. So it was founded in 2000 and it was, John and Magdalena, forgive me, I can’t remember their last name now, but anyways, they founded this, store.
This academy, and at the time I was working at, GW Music, which was here in town, and later on that was, sold to White House of Music, and, we really didn’t think it was any sort of threat to our business, it really didn’t seem like it was, you know, So, but I did want to find out what it was about.
So I walked in there and introduced myself and I had a conversation with the owner, John, and, it was really interesting how he got into it. It was basically his wife was a teacher and wanted a place for her to teach. So he, you know, formed this company and he, apparently was an entrepreneur and it started, other businesses.
He owned a bunch of different businesses. So anyways, I ended up, later on, I left music and I decided that I didn’t want to be involved in music anymore and thought I was going to change my career and that didn’t work out so good. So I, I had to fall back in my music career and the day that I came back to West Bend to, you know, just, I guess, start, over, I got a call from this, gentleman and he introduced himself, as the new owner of the, of the Music Academy of West Bend, it was called.
[00:04:10] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:04:10] Jay Tamez: And. He said, he told me every time he talks about music involving anything to do with the music industry, my name kept popping up. So, he said he thought it would be a good idea to reach out and talk to me. So he did, he was calling out, and it was really serendipitous because it was the day that I came back to West Bend.
I had moved away and tried to make it in other industries, and Anyway, so it was the day I came back. So that was really interesting. It was 2006. And I said, okay, great. So he bought this store from John Magdalena, and he said, I don’t know how we can start this, whatever work relationship, you know, what would you like to do?
And I said, well, I don’t know. I did everything in music industry retail. He wasn’t really heavy in music industry retail at the time. He said, well, I’ll tell you what, why don’t we start with, teaching? You know, you were a teacher. And I said, Oh, that sounds great. So I started teaching and that year I met my current business partner, Rich Roschelski, who also started teaching there that same year.
[00:05:10] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:05:10] Jay Tamez: Yeah. Well, long story short, the business went through some challenges and ended up going bankrupt and the owner had completely left the business in 2013. Well, Rich, of course, him and I had become friends and, we, we both had a huge amount of personal money invested in, the music academy of West Bend, and we were already committed to the teachers, just the culture, everything about it, and so Rich said, Jay, I think I’m going to take over the sole proprietorship of the Music Academy.
And I actually tried to talk him out of it. Because it was, it’s not an easy industry. It’s very challenging. I’ve been working in music stores, you know, a long time and I knew how tough it was. Margins are tight. He didn’t want to listen to me. He just was headstrong. He says, Nope, I made up my mind. I said, Okay, well, then if there’s nothing I can do to dissuade you, then I fully support you and I will do everything in my power to make sure you succeed.
[00:06:10] Fuzz Martin: And here you are today. That’s 11
[00:06:13] Jay Tamez: years ago then?
[00:06:13] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.
[00:06:14] Jay Tamez: Yeah. That’s about right.
[00:06:15] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.
[00:06:15] Jay Tamez: And so, what happened was, I was partnered with the business. earlier, but I didn’t go official until I think it was 2016 when we finally decided that we actually, you know, we were able to turn this business around and then we realized that we had to start doing things, you know, by the book.
And so we decided to, create an official partnership, LLC, and then we ended up, relocating to the downtown West Bend and things just took off from
[00:06:43] Fuzz Martin: there. Sure. And, yeah, so it’s a great location, right downtown West Bend. And what’s the cross street there? It’s, That’s Hickory. Hickory. Yeah. And, obviously, if you’ve been downtown at all, you’ve seen it.
It’s right there on the corner. So, Yeah. You offer a lot, obviously, besides the retail side of that, from lessons and programs and such. What kind of lessons can people take? What kind of instruments and such? And, training can people get at West Bend Music Academy? Sure.
[00:07:09] Jay Tamez: Probably the most popular ones.
Of course are the big four or three. You have the guitar. That’s one of the most popular. We have four or five guitar instructors. I lose track now. There’s so many. And then piano is also one of the most popular ones. We have, I think, five or six piano instructors. And so then you have, bass guitar.
You have drums, you know, we have, I think, two, drum instructors. Music. and we have, some of our other instructors are, are multi instrumentalists, so, we, you know, they’re able to actually fill in if we have an over demand in a certain, instrument, then they can, cross over and teach that instrument.
But then, we have violin, then we have other types, let me think once, there’s a couple of them that, are, are just, I guess band instruments, you know, a couple of band instruments that, I can’t remember the exact ones. Flute, I know. I think clarinet. Okay. Yeah. So there’s a couple of the band instruments some of the teachers, teach as well.
Sure. But then we also have these, auxiliary programs that wouldn’t be defined as just one instrument, like the rock band program, for instance. Yeah, I saw that. Which is happening right now. And so what we do, it’s kind of like the School of Rock, but we started out actually before the School of Rock.
Yeah, we started way before, but we basically, it’s called Summer Rock Band, and we take open enrollment to our student base. And then we opened it up to the general public though. So you don’t have to attend the music academy to be in the summer rock band program. Okay. Yeah. So, we have about five groups that we, we put together, right.
And they go on tour and play all these, you know, prominent, locations. So it’s really cool. They play Summerfest, at the, they play the Bend Theater. That’s, that’s our, end of year performance. We do music on Main.
[00:08:51] Fuzz Martin: Awesome. And is, is it all. Like kids, like high school age? It is. Well,
[00:08:56] Jay Tamez: actually we start them out probably in the middle school.
Okay. Yeah, so we always have the entry groups that are younger. So we have the middle school groups, and then we have, the high school groups. And then by the time they hit sort of at 18, 19, then we gotta give them the boot. Sure. You know, yeah, but it’s not like we are forcing them out. They are, we train these bands to become professional bands.
So if you look at some of the bands locally, like Fallback, I know they play music on Maine. I think it’s this Thursday. Yeah, tomorrow. They’re a Music Academy band. We created that band. Awesome. Yeah, and so, So they were part of that rock band. Band, org, our program, right? Yes. Yes. And there’s a lot of other prominent bands that are performing professionally that we created.
So it’s, it’s really cool how it starts. The younger bands, the, let’s say the middle school bands start out. We, we put them together. Mm-Hmm. . Well then they re-enroll. And those, that group almost like, because they build a bond.
Yeah. You know,
and they get to know each other, so they insist on being enrolled in the same group.
Sometimes we have some, you know, because there’s too many of one instrument, we have to, you know, create a different group and move them over a little bit. Sure. But for the most part, by the time they hit the high school, because they keep re enrolling, once, once you, participate in the rock band program, you’re hooked.
Sure. Yeah. And so you guarantee you’re coming back next year. That’s awesome. And they keep getting older and older and more experienced. And the band itself starts to become this unit, this, this band, this bond. And by the time they hit adulthood, they’re, uh, they’re on their way to start booking shows and performing professionally.
[00:10:25] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. Yeah. That was a good, good base, background. Cause otherwise, if you’re just starting off with a few people, you got to figure it out on your own. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
[00:10:33] Jay Tamez: You know how hard that was? I mean, when I was in bands in high school, I mean, you had to learn everything, tripping over yourself, figuring out like, what do I do?
How do I, and yeah, it’s all trial by error.
Yeah.
Where in this program, you know, we have, of course. Our experienced team, which, I mean, we have backgrounds in performance, in recording, in electronics, in, of course, instrument education. There’s so many facets that we have, you know, our team is so high level experienced.
that we pretty much give them the farm and the training. We mentor them, and they just kinda monkey see, monkey do, you know, and learn all the things that we take for granted.
[00:11:11] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. Yeah. Because you’ve had the experience and already, and have already taken the steps that they, they haven’t had yet. So that’s, that’s really cool.
Yeah. I also saw that you have a thing called the Technology Enhanced Music Program online, which spells out Tempo, which works perfectly. Yeah.
[00:11:28] Jay Tamez: Yeah. Can you tell what, what is that? So that is is an online program. It actually augments our in-lesson environments., So the idea, TEMPO was born, was born out of this desire for better education, better music education. Okay. Um. I guess whenever I was teaching music, I always found myself crossing things out in the books. I just thought that they weren’t, I don’t know, I can’t explain it. They weren’t innovative enough. After teaching for so many decades, you start to get an idea on what, you know, the feedback loop from students and you see what works better and what doesn’t work.
A lot of these books, I don’t feel like they kept up with the innovation.
[00:12:10] Fuzz Martin: Sure.
[00:12:10] Jay Tamez: So I just found myself crossing things out and writing it in constantly and hearing feedback from the other teachers on the complaints. Of the current, you know, materials that are available to teachers. So I said, I just got tired of crossing things out and writing it in.
I said, you know, maybe I should write my own guitar method.
[00:12:26] Fuzz Martin: Okay.
[00:12:26] Jay Tamez: And so that’s where that started. In 2011, I started writing my own guitar method. So, and I used the same tools that we were just talking about a little bit, a little bit ago. Like Google? Google Docs. Yeah,
[00:12:36] Fuzz Martin: yeah. You know,
[00:12:37] Jay Tamez: so all the free available tools to create, I wanted to use, you know, any available tool that was free to anyone to be able to create this method.
Sure. And that’s where it started. Eventually, in 2015, it evolved into, the lesson environment as we were innovating, you know, the, Music Academy. I put in these, 50 inch, you know, screen, high definition TVs, and, and of course connected to a small form factor computer. And then I attached cameras to them.
And then, so it kind of became, it turned into this learning management system. Sure, yeah. Yeah. And so we, you know, we built a website. Yeah. And then we had it interconnect with that website, and, and that was sort of where the ideas of Tempo started, and then when we did the build out and we moved to the downtown, we just made all the rooms the same, because we were piloting them in the old, in the old location, but, you know, all the rooms weren’t retrofitted.
Sure. Yeah. But then we finally decided that every room needs to have this, because it is, such a force multiplier. Mm hmm. Yeah. So, yep, that was the beginning of Tempo, and it was funny because, I have to credit one of my employees, Sam, Rodman, he, at first it was Tech, Technology Enhanced Music Program, and so I came up with TEMP.
Yeah, it’s online, so there you go. Yeah, well, Sam’s like, you know, it would be really cool if we had something that sounded more music oriented, like, maybe if we could put the word online in there than to be Tempo, and I’m like, wow, that’s pretty cool. Brilliant!
[00:14:01] Fuzz Martin: And temp sounds like it’s temporary,
[00:14:02] Jay Tamez: so this is permanent.
Yeah. It’s online.
[00:14:06] Fuzz Martin: That’s great. That’s excellent. So you’re obviously in music education, you see students come through all the time, young and old, I assume, but a lot of mostly young. Why do you believe music education is important for kids, students, other individuals? Sure. What makes that important?
[00:14:24] Jay Tamez: Yeah, that’s a great question.
I guess through my journey starting when I was young, I started at the age of eight, and my mom and dad actually were musicians. They met on the stage. So, there’s a lot of music in the house. And so, that influence helped me kind of decide that I was going to have, you know, a career in music. Well, what I come to learn later on, was that I had a hunch just from witnessing the effect of music.
Because, you know, you ask anyone, hey, do you like music? And most people, they’ll look at you like you’re weird. Well, of course I like music, you know. It’s almost to be human. Right? So, but I love asking that question and I’ve never had a single person in the past 30 years that I’ve been asking that question.
Say, no, no, I don’t like music. It’s not for me. Yeah, no, I haven’t had a single one. So I think we take it for granted how profound music is as an influence in our lives. Well, that’s one thing, the effects of music. There’s a book called, Your Brain on Music. I can’t remember the author, but it is such a great read.
This neuroscientist was looking at brain scans. And notice these, anomalies where all the areas of the brain are firing off at the same time, which doesn’t happen in humans. And he was trying to understand why, you know, these come about every once in a while, and he wanted to find a link. He found the link was that they were all accomplished musicians.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And so he began research into that direction to study musicians brains and what he found out was very profound. And apparently your brain, when, aside from just listening to music, but actually engaging muscle, you know, memory with music, so actually playing an instrument. You are firing off parts of your brain at the same time and developing areas of your brain that normally are not developed.
So really what you’re doing is building a super brain. Sure. Yeah. And so it’s a, it’s a metamorphosis that occurs. Well here’s the cool part. Once you go through that metamorphosis, your brain never returns to that original state. So it’s transformative. It’s transformative. And that’s why music education is important.
It is extremely important because imagine a young person going through this metamorphosis and ending up with, so you’re actually making new neural connections when you’re learning music. And I tell parents that when I’m in the group classes and I’m like, you know, they’re learning something and they achieve something.
And I tell parents now, the, your kids just grew, their brains just grew, you know?
[00:16:48] Fuzz Martin: And this, I mean, even just taking the classes that I took in high school, like, or in, Right. Like, I still remember those things, and Paradiddle, flam, all that stuff that I would never, I don’t play an instrument anymore these days, but you’re totally right.
You learn those things and they stick with you forever.
[00:17:04] Jay Tamez: Oh, it’s like riding a bike. You know, someone gives you a drum set and you’re there for 20 minutes, it’s gonna be like yesterday. Yeah,
[00:17:11] Fuzz Martin: exactly. Absolutely. Yeah. So on that, with obviously kids learning, just like learning a language, kids learn, it’s easier for kids to learn things.
Do you have adults that come in and, and learn new instruments, guitar, drums, those kinds of things?
[00:17:25] Jay Tamez: They do, and it’s very exciting when people do because I think a lot of times for a, for a late learner, they think for some reason they didn’t learn. It could have been either financial reasons. It could have been time, maybe just lack of interest.
There’s always, there’s this, sense that they regretted not doing it. And so there’s this excitement, but yet it’s cautious because they’re like, You know, they ask sort of, do you think I can learn? And I’m like, absolutely. . Absolutely. Mm-Hmm. . So I think they’re, they get very excited that they can now begin this journey.
And I do feel like, you know, we feel like we shouldn’t, we, we wish we wouldn’t have waited so long, you know? Right, right. Yeah. But it is very exciting when we do, and we do have a large, amount of people that are adults that come in and, and you know, if you wanna call them late learners, but it’s never too late.
Sure. Yeah. It’s, yeah.
[00:18:18] Fuzz Martin: You get a lot of like retired people that are like, Hey, I’m finally going to take it now that I’m not
[00:18:23] Jay Tamez: working. We do. We have, one of our students, he’s in his, I think mid to late eighties and, he gets, he gets, you know, brought in, in a wheelchair by his caregiver.
[00:18:33] Fuzz Martin: Sure.
[00:18:34] Jay Tamez: And, we, you know, Put him there in the room and start doing his guitar lesson, and he performs at the recitals.
Awesome. But he loves it. He looks forward, it’s the one thing they say that he looks forward to the most each week.
[00:18:46] Fuzz Martin: The well, you’re talking about the brain activity and such, and that’s super important for aging adults, right? To keep their minds busy, those different kind of, neurological games and things you can play and I can see where music would absolutely enhance that.
[00:18:59] Jay Tamez: They found now there are correlations and links between, learning or, playing an instrument and, Alzheimer’s. Okay. Yeah. Being able to, I don’t know what the word would be, but to, you know, avoid Alzheimer’s.
[00:19:10] Fuzz Martin: Sure. Sure. Absolutely. You’ve had a number of students come through, obviously in, in your, you know, decade plus, here at West Bend Music Academy.
Do you have any success stories of people who’ve gone on to, bigger and better things, or I guess bigger things as they’ve graduated and, become, you know, musicians, professional musicians, or, has anybody come through the doors that kind of stands out?
[00:19:32] Jay Tamez: I think, on, I would say on a national level, I’m not really sure, but we do have some local legends that are world famous in West Bend.
So, I know we have some younger students actually that just won a scholarship. It was the WAMI Cares scholarship for recognition in music. And just seeing that some of these younger people are being recognized, you know, for their potential and their passion in music is exciting. We also have, you know, some of the teachers that we have are, are kind of local legends.
We have JJ, who is in a band called Versus Me. Okay. And they are unbelievable, man. They’re touring, they’re, yeah, I saw, their videos are amazing. You gotta look them up. Awesome. And we’re talking world class, platinum grade stuff here. Okay. Yeah. It’s good. Yeah. And then you have Andrew David Weber, who is in American Progress.
And, of course, all the part time problems, all these, you know, local artists. bands. And he’s on tour right now as well. So, of course he’s like, he’s a legend, you know, locally. Yeah.
[00:20:31] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. That’s, that’s great. And by the way, WAMI is the Wisconsin Area Music Association. Uh, music industry. Industry, industry.
Okay. Yeah. They’re weird. When I was, back in when I was in radio, we did a lot of stuff with Whammy when they were doing like the, they had the Hodag Country Music Festival thing that they had, that kind of, regional contest that they would feed to every year. It was, it was great organization, and like, bringing, bringing all the people together.
You’re involved with a lot of community events. In fact, the reason that we’re talking today is because I had Buck Blodgett on from Love is Greater Than Hate Project. I know you’re working with them at an event at the Shower Center in September. I’ve worked with you at the, Guitars for Vets at the Bend.
That’s right. But you’re involved a lot with the community. What, what makes that important to you?
[00:21:12] Jay Tamez: Well, I think if we start looking at why we do anything, you have to have a reason for it. And we didn’t set out to own a music store because we wanted to be millionaires. You would have picked something else.
Exactly. It’s, uh, so, you know, we often, laugh, Rich and I, like, why are we doing this, man? This is hard work. It’s not a lot of money. But, I guess the way that we came up. with a sort of this quantification that, you know, it’s not monetary. It’s, we call it a calling. Okay. Yeah. And it really, when you see, like, for instance, the rock band program, we have these families that are showing up for these events and we have practices and all, you know, everything involving rock band.
Well, they end up getting to know each other and the families end up becoming friends. So there’s community building involved. Yeah. And so, you know, The joy that comes from being a part of something, I think, is, it’s like being a part of a team. It’s exciting, and you feel like you belong.
[00:22:10] Fuzz Martin: Sure, yeah, absolutely.
And that’s, you know, being a part of the community is important to any business, I think, but when you have talents and ability to bring people together like that, directly in the community, that’s really important. Yes, music does that. Yeah. Easily, doesn’t it? Yeah. I mean just, yeah, music on Main, right?
Oh, yeah. All these people come here just to listen to music and, and, have a good time. Have a good time and thereby also supporting local businesses and such. That’s right. All through music. If somebody’s If somebody wants to get their kids involved with music, or if they themselves want to get started, but don’t know where to start, what’s the best way to jump in and start with music?
[00:22:48] Jay Tamez: Well, you of course can do the thing like on YouTube. That’s the, I think that’s a big gateway for people. You know, we see, we hear a lot of people that come and start lessons with us, and they’ll say, well, you know, we kind of started watching some YouTube videos. And. They’ll get so far and they’re like, okay, maybe I need some guidance here.
So I encourage you to do anything you can just, you know, get an instrument first and foremost, or access to an instrument, and then just start engaging with that instrument. If you’re a parent. have, buy instruments or acquire instruments, leave them around the house, you know, and kids instinctively will walk up and start playing with them, you know, they may not, you know, maybe it might be short term, you know, just to, you know, play around with it and put it back down.
But having it present is important.
[00:23:31] Fuzz Martin: We don’t see a lot of homes with, you know, just pianos hanging out anymore these days, but that used to be huge in the 80s and 90s. Yeah, I am probably way back to the 1800s. Exactly. So, If somebody wants to learn more about lessons at West Bend Music Academy, or getting started, or they’re interested in purchasing an instrument, what’s the best way to get in touch with the guests?
[00:23:49] Jay Tamez: Of course, you could go onto the website, and that is westbendmusicacademy. com. If you just Google West Bend Music it will come up probably number one. Let’s hope. Yes.
[00:24:00] Fuzz Martin: It came up for me when I searched. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and again, you’re located downtown on, um, Main Street and Hickory.
Main
[00:24:05] Jay Tamez: Street and Hickory in the historic downtown.
[00:24:07] Fuzz Martin: All right. Very good. Uh, Jay, awesome what you guys do for the community and for helping kids fall in love with music and people of all ages, of course. And for coming on the show today.
[00:24:16] Jay Tamez: Hey, thanks for having me.
[00:24:18] Fuzz Martin: Thank you so much to Jay Tamez of the West Bend Music Academy for joining me on this week’s episode of Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
If you ever have an idea for a guest for the show, suggest a guest. Go to fuzzmartin. com slash guest and fill out the form. That is fuzzmartin. com slash guest. Or you can email me fuzz at fuzzmartin. com. That is fuzz at fuzzmartin. com. I love to hear about events, nonprofits, interesting businesses. You know, cool stuff that people want to hear about happening in and around Washington County, Wisconsin.
New episodes come on on Tuesdays. Next week, Maria Gutierrez Gurrola and Jessie Plahmer of Casa Guadalupe will be joining us to discuss Casa Guadalupe’s Fiesta Latina, which is going to be two days this year, which is super cool. So tune in again next week, right here on Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz.
