Advocacy Through Art: The Fray’s Isaac Slade and The Flobots’ Stephen Brackett on Music, Mental Health and Youth Empowerment
Isaac Slade and Stephen Brackett
Description
Immerse yourself in the friendly banter and deeply moving words of longtime friends and Colorado rockstars Isaac Slade, co-founder of The Fray, and Stephen Brackett, CSU alum and co-founder of The Flobots, in the second episode of CSU’s The Next 150.
From the importance of mental health to finding common ground in a polarized world, Isaac and Stephen share insights on how music and arts education can serve as powerful tools for self-expression and advocacy for today’s youth and CSU students.
Plus, hear some one-of-a-kind CSU stories, including an anecdote about the founding of the CSU Breakdancing club!
Transcript
Amy Parsons [00:00:04] Hi, I’m Amy Parsons, president of Colorado State University and host of “The Next 150” podcast. We have so many remarkable people in our community, and this is where we’re going to hear their stories. We’re going to get their perspectives on CSU’s next 150 years and gather their very best advice for today’s CSU students. Let’s get started, Rams.
Amy Parsons [00:00:25] Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of CSU’s Next 150. I am thrilled to be here today with a couple of true rock stars. Two of Colorado’s most inspirational music icons and educators. Welcome Isaac Slade and Stephen Brackett.
Stephen Brackett [00:00:42] Really glad to be here. Thanks.
Amy Parsons [00:00:43] And thank you both for being at CSU today. Thank you for spending a little bit of time here with me in the studio. First, I’m a fan of yours. A fan of your work, fan of The Fray and The Flobots, and what you all have going on today, and really working to advocate for youth and music and the arts. So, it’s awesome that you’re at CSU today, leading this work and doing what you do. So, you’re on campus today specifically to lead key sessions at a conference that brings together hundreds of music educators for inspiration, professional development. We’re proud to host the Modern Band Summit here at CSU, also sponsored by one of our key partners, the Bohemian Foundation. So we’re excited to, to have them on campus today, and we’re all honored to have you speaking at the conference.
Isaac Slade [00:01:29] They’re great. You’re great. We are great.
Amy Parsons [00:01:31] You are great.
Stephen Brackett [00:01:33] This is great.
Amy Parsons [00:01:35] Well, Stephen, I’m going to actually start with you because you’re a CSU alum.
Stephen Brackett [00:01:41] Yes, I am.
Amy Parsons [00:01:41] As am I. Go Rams!
Isaac Slade [00:01:43] So Buffs go last.
Stephen Brackett [00:01:44] So as far as we.. we’ve already made really great life decisions, other people on this podcast, podcast, maybe not so much.
Amy Parsons [00:01:52] Not so much. And I think, I think, Stephen, we figured out you and I were here at basically the same time at CSU.
Stephen Brackett [00:01:58] Yeah.
Amy Parsons [00:01:59] Which is pretty awesome,.
Stephen Brackett [00:02:00] Very awesome.
Amy Parsons [00:02:00] And both as liberal arts majors, I have a feeling that we were hanging out together in the Clark building.
Stephen Brackett [00:02:04] Yes.
Amy Parsons [00:02:04] For some period of time.
Stephen Brackett [00:02:06] Had to have been. Yeah. Which I love. So Stephen Brackett little, little bio on you. Stephen Brackett, also known as “Brer Rabbit.” Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, has dedicated his career to music in the arts, grassroots movements, and education. He attended CSU. Go Rams! Graduated with a degree in philosophy, concentration on religious studies and minored in sculpture. That’s quite the combination.
Stephen Brackett [00:02:28] That’s where the money’s at, man.
Amy Parsons [00:02:30] That’s clearly that’s an awesome combination that you. But you started with something different. You said.
Stephen Brackett [00:02:36] Computer science.
Amy Parsons [00:02:37] That’s a big shift.
Stephen Brackett [00:02:38] It is a big shift.
Isaac Slade [00:02:38] There’s no future.
Stephen Brackett [00:02:39] And there was none. There was none, man.
Stephen Brackett [00:02:43] Yeah, I, I’ve been doing computer science, actually, since the sixth grade, and it was actually a hobby for me. And then I actually went to high school that had a computer magnet program. So I was like, well situated. And then once I had to actually do it for assignments, and when I had to spend 48 hours writing a program that generated tax codes, I’m like, this is not for me, this is not for me. So I went back to like my yeah, my great loves, which is philosophy and sculpture.
Stephen Brackett [00:03:06] Yeah.
Isaac Slade [00:03:07] Yeah. Well, we’re all glad that you did. It’s an awesome story. So you’re, so you’re known for co-founding the hip hop and rock band The Flobots. Also co-founded and is on the board of Youth on Record, which we’ll talk about, a nonprofit that supports kids by advancing their academic success and career opportunities and strengthening community connections. And in 2020, Governor Polis named you as the Colorado Music Ambassador. That’s an awesome title. Congratulations on that. And now you’re the executive director of the Foundation Music School.
Stephen Brackett [00:03:35] Yes.
[00:03:35] So we’re so proud of you as a Ram. Just your alma mater is proud of you. I’m proud of you. Even the Buffs in the room are proud of you.
[00:03:43]
Isaac Slade [00:03:44] I don’t like to make a habit of it, but we applaud you in private.
Amy Parsons [00:03:47] Yeah, that’s exactly it. So, anyway, thank you for coming back to your alma mater. And, Isaac, you’ve also accomplished so much on both the music performance and the education rounds. I, I wish everybody could see their antics right now.
Stephen Brackett [00:04:00] I’m just being overshadowed.
Stephen Brackett [00:04:04] But Isaac, you’re a community leader and musician, was the lead singer of Grammy-nominated multi-platform rock band The Fray. Their debut album, “How to Save a Life,” sold 3 million copies worldwide. The band toured the globe for 20 years, releasing four albums and a greatest hits record. Amazing. Isaac co-chaired the music education initiative Take Note, alongside Colorado Governor Jared Polis and our own Chuck Morris. We’ll come back to. Isaac also works with several organizations in the fight to end human trafficking, and is also working on a variety of other projects, including running a vinyl record shop just outside of Seattle. It’s definitely going to be a stop-by for me next time I’m in the area. Yeah, so we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. We typically start these podcasts with a little random fact icebreaker, so I want you both to choose a little chip out of that bowl right there here on the table. And then. And then that’ll tell me what question to ask you. The CSU Ram gets to go first.
Stephen Brackett [00:05:06] Always.
Amy Parsons [00:05:06] Of course. Number three. What was your first concert?
Stephen Brackett [00:05:14] Oh my goodness. It was the, uh, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When they dressed up as turtles.
Stephen Brackett [00:05:22] Live?
Amy Parsons [00:05:22] Live!
Stephen Brackett [00:05:23] Yeah.
Isaac Slade [00:05:24] They sing?
Stephen Brackett [00:05:25] They sing.
Stephen Brackett [00:05:25] “We’re the turtles. You can count on us!”
Stephen Brackett [00:05:29] Mikey played the drums with his nunchucks and such.
Stephen Brackett [00:05:33] It was legendary.
Isaac Slade [00:05:35] Where was that?
Stephen Brackett [00:05:35] It was at McNichols.
Amy Parsons [00:05:37] McNichols Arena in Denver?
Stephen Brackett [00:05:38] Yes.
Amy Parsons [00:05:38] They could sell McNichols Arena.
Stephen Brackett [00:05:39] They sold it out. They packed it. Yeah, man.
Stephen Brackett [00:05:42] Okay. All right. That’s excellent. I’ve never heard that answer before. All right, Isaac, you go.
Isaac Slade [00:05:48] I don’t know if that counts. I mean, it’s like a musical element to a circus…four, number four.
Amy Parsons [00:05:55] This is going to be a hard one for you since you run a record shop now, but what’s your all-time favorite record?
Isaac Slade [00:06:00] Oh, Lord.
Isaac Slade [00:06:01] Oh.
Isaac Slade [00:06:01] Which is your favorite kid? Just pick one.
Stephen Brackett [00:06:04] Everybody has a favorite kid, though.
Amy Parsons [00:06:06] What’s your favorite..? We can revise it to say…
Amy Parsons [00:06:09] What’s your what’s your favorite record like today?
Isaac Slade [00:06:12] Like. No, I, I would say my favorite record is “Punisher” by Phoebe Bridgers.
Amy Parsons [00:06:18] Okay.
Isaac Slade [00:06:19] I’m just trying to be honest, like what my Spotify would say, because I could be like, oh, “Rumors” by Fleetwood, my Spotify would be like…
Amy Parsons [00:06:25] Yeah.
Isaac Slade [00:06:27] But yeah, that’s the one. I’m like. It’s morning. Play.
Isaac Slade [00:06:30] All right. Cool.
Isaac Slade [00:06:31] It’s afternoon. I’m sad. I’m happy. I’m. I’m bored. Play.
Amy Parsons [00:06:35] All right. I’ll go look that one up. And bonus icebreaker for both of you: how do you know each other?
Isaac Slade [00:06:40] We don’t.
Amy Parsons [00:06:40] Or do you know each other? When did you first meet?
Isaac Slade [00:06:43] I googled you ten minutes ago.
Stephen Brackett [00:06:45] Man, I when did I first meet you? Did I see you?
Isaac Slade [00:06:48] On the dance floor.
Isaac Slade [00:06:49] Possibly the dance floor, or. I think I remember seeing you at a coffee, like doing a gig at a coffee shop. No Andy. Yeah, like someone like Arvada or something like that.
Isaac Slade [00:06:58] We had a mutual friend named Andy Guerrero, who’s sort of like, the music social political version of like, Liberace maybe.
Stephen Brackett [00:07:08] Wow.
Stephen Brackett [00:07:09] The Mexican Liberace.
Stephen Brackett [00:07:10] Dang, that’s a solid comparison.
Isaac Slade [00:07:12] I mean, he is like.
Stephen Brackett [00:07:14] Fabulous.
Isaac Slade [00:07:15] He’s fabulous. And he, like, in college, you. And he’s like, “You gotta check out my band, it’s amazing!” And I was like, wow, that’s a lot of positivity about your own music. Let me see it. And he’s held on to that and deep into his 40’s.
Stephen Brackett [00:07:26] But that was like. But not when I met you. It must have been over 20 years ago.
Isaac Slade [00:07:29] Oh, yeah. No, we were and I was in, I was at CU, Denver in 2000, so it would have been just after Y2K.
Stephen Brackett [00:07:40] Yeah.
Amy Parsons [00:07:41] Well, I love this coming back together with both of you around the table, going down memory lane. Stephen, let’s go back a little bit to your time coming into college and coming to CSU. What brought you to CSU and your journey here and through, through college?
Stephen Brackett [00:07:57] So I was bound and determined to go to a bigger city than Denver. Like, I just had to. And the college that, I mean, the high school that I went to was probably one of the most diverse in Denver at that point in time. And so I also wanted to make sure that I was going to a place that was going to be as or more diverse than where I went to. So I was applying to Morehouse, Loyola, Howard, got into all of those schools, and then my dad was like, “Well, how do you know college is for you?” “I’m guessing it would be!” And he’s like, “Well, why not try it in-state first to make sure that it’s for you, and then see if it is for you. Then maybe go to one of those other schools where it’s far more expensive?”
Amy Parsons [00:08:37] It’s good advice.
Stephen Brackett [00:08:39] And. But then he did the most dangerous thing. He put it in my court. He’s like, “Do whatever you want, son.” Which always meant that I actually did the the wisest choice. So I went to CSU. CSU was not more diverse than my high school. Fort Collins was a much smaller city than Denver and I could not have had a better time. By the time, like, maybe two weeks into my first semester, I’m like, “This is exactly where I need to be.” And just for many, many different reasons. But I also felt that, like with CSU, I had the opportunity to try everything on. If I had gone to, like, an Ivy League school I wouldn’t have had the chance to be a lead in a play, because I’d be going against drama majors and all these things. But like, I had the chance to be in “West Side Story” and like it was the first play I was ever in kind of a thing. I was just playing basketball with one of the cast members this morning, kind of a thing. So like CSU, like was the best kind of playground for me to be able to explore the dimensions and the parameters of myself. I don’t think I would have become a professional musician without going to CSU, because CSU also let me dabble in music and form a freestyle club, and then form a breakdancing club and a hip hop club and finding roommates who we couldn’t go to bed must we freestyled for a half hour every night. That was the rule. Like it was the…
Amy Parsons [00:09:58] Nice
Stephen Brackett [00:09:58] …It was the perfect place for me.
Stephen Brackett [00:10:00] Oh that’s fantastic. What a great, what a great story and all the things that you studied, too, at CSU. I have to think that that was really helped informed your path as an artist.
Stephen Brackett [00:10:10] Oh, absolutely. And as an activist and as an educator. When I finally settled on philosophy and some of my other friends would be like, “Well, why would you do that?” It’s like I come back every day after full course load with a headache from thinking so much. Every day I’m improving how I think and what kind of person I am. That is well worth the price of admission. I don’t think I could have gotten a better deal as far as my what I got out of my education at for me entirely and made me into a lifelong learner and helped me use my questions to interrogate the reality around me, and then from that, be able to approach everything with a curiosity, even if it’s oppressive structures. If you approach it with this curiosity, you can learn from it and then also interface with those people and then transform things. That’s all the stuff that I learned here with folks like, Professor Dr. Bernard Rollin. Yeah, like people like him. Jim Boyd, Dr. Edward Ty, like, forever have changed the way that I think.
Amy Parsons [00:11:13] And here you are back on campus.
Stephen Brackett [00:11:15] Back on campus.
Amy Parsons [00:11:16] All these years later giving back.
Stephen Brackett [00:11:18] Oh, have to, have to pay it forward.
Amy Parsons [00:11:19] Coming up through on CSU. So thank you for that. Isaac, let’s talk about your personal journey and through college and your, you know, early impacts that formed your artistic abilities.
Isaac Slade [00:11:34] Yeah. Well, I started out playing music in church, pretty much. So I had, like, a weekly gig on Sunday mornings as an 11 year old. That’s where I kind of cut my teeth. And I think I also learned that music is for the room. Not just to elevate you or something. Not to, like, get you a girlfriend. It’s it’s to, like, transcend collectively. And the good songs that really kind of give the feels were these kind of awkwardly simple, dumb tunes that that just, like, bypassed your critique and went straight to your kind of longing. So those songs, I mean, they’re still in me, you know, these hymns and these 1970s kind of Jesus movement tunes that were a little John Denver, a little, a little, Dylan-esque, a lot of, like, brimstone and fire, a lot of weird image, you know? So I just got this weird education and then, I had some vocal problems, so I had to stop singing for a year when I was, 13. And that freaked me out so much, I realized how much I wanted it. That was the year I started, like, really getting good at piano. I mean, I use good loosely. Pretty good. I would have gotten fired from The Fray as a piano player, like, day two. And they go “I guess he’s the singer, we keep him.” But, then kind of, I got my voice back. I had these blisters, they kind of went away. I started writing songs, and, when I was probably 16, I had so much abuse, so much trauma, so much like layers of soil and silt and coal all like burying me alive, almost. Music was sort of the only place that I could, um, figure out who I was and like what I think and what I want. And, you know, kind of like writing message in a bottle to myself. Like, okay, you know, while I’m writing. So it became, like, 100% my therapy, my catharsis, my lighthouse, my map, and all the sort of the biggest songs I’ve ever had were all, you know, front lines of what I was figuring out personally at the time that I was stuck. None of the songs I wrote, they’re like, “I am awesome, but my t-shirt!” Everybody’s like, “Okay, what else you got? And then I play is like, “I am a mess, a super hot mess.” And they’re like, “Oh my God, it’s a hit!” So that was a weird thing. But yeah, I remember in college, starting The Fray and realizing as hard as the Denver scene was, it was so many cover bands and Freebird-yelling, people yelling for Freebird all the time. Hickenlooper, the the mayor, like, kicked my butt. I was interviewing him for my little Wayne’s World TV show I had on Comcast channel five. And, I was like, “you know the problem?” I was the camera crew and the mic and the audio guy and the interviewer, I’d like ask him and then, like, put the camera, and I said, “You know, the Denver music scene is really tricky and the cover bands and you don’t get paid and love sports,” and I had all these reasons. And he just, like did me in. He’s like, “We have more venues per capita than Austin, Nashville combined, and you have no business here!” And he kicked my butt and basically said, like, “Get over it, get out there and write some originals.” And I was like, “Geeze, okay.” So we, we like put out our EP and and it all started from there. So the Denver music scene and church basically like cradled me and and put us on the map.
Amy Parsons [00:15:06] Yeah. I’ve never founded a band, but you both have. And I have to imagine there’s a fair amount of entrepreneurism that goes into it. It sounded like starting a business.
Isaac Slade [00:15:13] It is.
Amy Parsons [00:15:13] Your business partner are, and how you’re going to brand yourself and all of that.
Stephen Brackett [00:15:17] They don’t tell you that it is. They don’t tell you how much time you’ll be looking at like a P&L document. It’s it’s a lot.
Amy Parsons [00:15:23] Yeah.
Isaac Slade [00:15:23] No, I was like 90% email, 10% music for ten years. I mean, it’s like it’s absolutely a business.
Amy Parsons [00:15:31] Well, you know, we’ve got a program now at CSU that we didn’t have, unfortunately, when you were here that Chuck Morris started here, right, his music business program. And that’s a big focus that Chuck wants to bring to students who want to go into the music business, whether they are artists and musicians themselves, or they just want to be part of the business and, and really training that next generation of music professionals. We’re really lucky to have Chuck here, I think, bringing up the next, generation of students.
Stephen Brackett [00:15:54] Yeah.
Isaac Slade [00:15:55] I might have even gone here.
Isaac Slade [00:15:56] It was. Yeah. I’m not, I’m just saying, but.
Amy Parsons [00:15:59] You would have for sure. We’ll take well, we’ll take that. Yeah. So, so pull that through for me, Isaac, and that work that you do today, um, your community organizing work with Take Note. How does, how does your experience inform what you want to give back today to, to use and the next generation of musicians?
Isaac Slade [00:16:21] Actually, Stephen was a big part of that. And, um, John Hickenlooper was a big part of that. A couple of kind of people in the scene, that sort of, had this concept that if you do get a platform, it’s, it’s for something and you can’t lose sight of your main thing like, um, but as long as you hold on to your main thing, you can do a second thing with it. And, that really challenged me to start thinking about what, what are my things? And, probably 2010, 2011, I started noticing I was just spending a ton of time thinking about what everybody else’s experience was like. And up to that point, I was just like, gotta pay my mortgage. Gotta feed my kids. Got it. You know? Then I was like, oh, I have just enough money to not worry about that. I’m still like 45 grand in debt, but, I can look up here and be like, “How is that guy doing?” And in that space, I just started noticing a lot of passion for, um, equality, I guess, and freedom. All my, all my right nutjob cowboy friends are like, “Freedom!” And all my lefty, latte friends are like “Equality!” And both are good. Both are true. Both, and I say like I’m like, “Oh my God!” Neither one realizes how important the other one actually is. Cowboys would love lattes. Lefties love horses already. Come on, people, let’s meet in the middle for a beer in Fort Collins. And I just started noticing, like, room after room after room, I, I just found myself in the middle of, like, crossfire. Like, sometimes I’m jovial, sometimes, like, guns out. I’m like, now, now, let’s just get some brisket and calm down a little bit. And I just, I just I just love it. I love that space. And, I love that people, like, never see me come in there, like. Yeah. You got nominated for ….Come on. That’s right. Well, who are you? It’s like, well, you made a huge mistake inviting me. So that’s led, to a lot of work in anti-human trafficking, um, a lot of work in, like, community building on both sides, you know, the left and the right, um, and then a ton of stuff and just entrepreneurial kind of nonprofit space.
Amy Parsons [00:18:25] Well, I love that you say that because that’s that’s the space that I love to live in, as well as a political science major here at CSU. And, you know, we just wrapped up here at CSU a thematic year on democracy where we just focus on democracy all the time, bring in speakers left, right, every different party, different views, people really engaging in what we hope is productive dialog on tricky issues, and modeling for our students. Tens of thousands of students that we have here that you can sit down with somebody very different from you, have a productive dialog about issues, and if our students can’t do it, we don’t have a lot of hope for the future. Right? They’ve got to be the ones who who can do that. So I’ll pivot to that just for a minute, because, you know, you’ve both had such great things to say about democracy and that intersection of arts and culture and politics in this country, kind of what you would want us to be doing here at the university to move that forward, right? What, how can we bring our students together in a way that makes them the leaders of the future in the country that we need them to be and not be so polarized like we are in society right now. I think that universities play a big role in democracy and strengthening democracy and doing just what you said, Isaac, of, of bringing those people together, so, I would just love to hear your thoughts on that and what we ought to be doing here.
Isaac Slade [00:19:42] I think we should teach Republicans how to freestyle and Democrats how to shoot a gun.
Stephen Brackett [00:19:48] Good work, man.
Isaac Slade [00:19:49] I mean, they could start there.
Stephen Brackett [00:19:50] Yeah, well, so much of it, for me, comes like even my activism a lot of it came out of play, like, I was, as a teacher, I was shown the kind of activism that I wanted to see. When I was teaching second graders it wasn’t so much that I wanted them to think like me, I wanted to create a playground where they could explore their thoughts safely. So where anything that you need for kids, you need even more so for adults. So where do adults have a place to explore their thoughts safely? I think when I put it like that, you start saying like those parameters do not really exist.
Stephen Brackett [00:20:29] So then that means that every time you open your mouth that you’re in danger or at risk. Or you’re fighting like so if that’s what the the field is, then what’s the opposite? What creates a medium for people to be able to play and explore their thoughts? One of the things that I reject outright, I don’t think that there are difficult topics. I don’t think that there are negative emotions. I think it’s how we use them and how we talk about them. There’s a point in time in my life where I was working at this camp called Face to Face, Faith to Faith. It brought kids from Israel, Palestine, Northern Ireland, South Africa, and America to a camp in a YMCA camp in upstate New York and giving them the conversational technologies to hear the voice of the other for the first time. When I signed up for the camp, I’m like, “I do this because I believe in it. My faith compels me to try to be a servant, but it’s not going to work.” And then at that camp, I saw kids coming from situations where they were literally told that the best thing for them to do was to kill the other person on the other side having a blast playing dodgeball.
Amy Parsons [00:21:30] Yeah.
Stephen Brackett [00:21:31] Right? So in that, I got to see, in a very real way, if you create the actual container for people to be safe, and that safe shows that that safety lets them play, then these difficult things just become conversations that you’re having between somebody that you care about. Are we creating an actual place where people can see each other as human beings, and then the disagreements just become stuff that you discuss over a beer or dodgeball or something like that. But I think so many times we overestimate what it means to be an adult and somehow think that folks can step into situations where they’re fighting for their lives and thinking that they’ll be able to listen to somebody compassionately. So, in so many of these things, I think we have to, like, kind of step back, and I do think I’ve seen this happen in college classrooms, because I think people come here with their ideas, but also the idea that’s going to be challenged. And I think that’s one of the great beauties and resources of it, and then how do we get schools and colleges to kind of teach adults and create spaces for them to do it? Because I just don’t think that we have that right now.
Amy Parsons [00:22:37] Yeah. Not a lot of great melting pots left where we have those safe spaces for people to exercise their muscles, right, in democracy and then really put them to use. I mean, you think about this fall, thousands and thousands of students here, this is their first election ever. First time voters, first time experiencing voting, experiencing elections and debates, and how do we use that moment to really allow those safe spaces, especially in something that’s this contentious?
Isaac Slade [00:23:06] I think I would add to, right in line with what you’re saying about, um, bringing the pleasure back to it.
Stephen Brackett [00:23:13] Yeah.
Isaac Slade [00:23:14] There’s a really interesting article which I have not read, but the headline was, um, “The Pleasure of Politics,” and somebody very reputable told me about it. So I’m trusting that it’s a good article, but I’ve thought about that headline, like nonstop for the last year and a half and I think my, uh, uninformed non-poli-sci, non-CSU experience, kind of gives me this, um, advantage over the experts that I can kind of just, all I can see is like squinting, and I see this very kind of masculine and very feminine energy in the political climate. And one is arguing very loudly, and this kind of these are the facts, and the other is sort of, freaked out and scared and, and like, saying very emotional statements, and this just reminds me of a couple, like, fighting and, sort of on the brink of, um, divorce. And the kids are freaking out and in that space, you know, in the I’ve done lots of marriage therapy, like the, the good therapists are able to sort of like validate each one, protect each one from, like, killing the other one for 20 minutes and then, helping them remember, like, they like each other. Like, this is kind of a cool thing. Like, you guys are, you know, and in that pleasure space, I think it can be this, uh, it can really it can devolve quickly to an arm wrestling match or the Super Bowl or Civil War battle, but it could also be a dance. And I’ve taken one tango class, and the guys I was talking about like, you got to have this feel this tension or you’re holding their weight, but you’re not pushing them, but you’re not limp. There’s this engaged kind of balls of your feet, like, attunement and attachment and connection, and when you’re in that zone, when I was dancing for 40 minutes that one time, it was electric. It was so magical. I kind of didn’t care about, like, the move and the tempo and the song and the blah and what everybody else thought. It was just like this moment of connection. And I think we know it when we see it. When a right and the left can kind of do that dance and like, get into this sort of like, “Oh,” like almost like a little flirty, like, “Oh, you don’t like what I think, do you?” “All right, What are we going to do about that?” You know, “I’m staying. You staying? Anybody immigrating? No? We’re staying? Okay, great!” Let’s, let’s dance. Let’s have some tacos and hash it out. Like, bring your full self. But it can, I think you can kind of be sexy.
Amy Parsons [00:25:51] That’s probably the most beautiful description of right and left politics that I ever heard. That’s a, that’s an amazing way to think about it. But I think finding those connections between people like you said is key. And especially our students coming in now who already might be kind of polarized coming in, depending on what they’re seeing on social media.
Isaac Slade [00:26:10] Depending on if they own a phone or not.
Amy Parsons [00:26:12] Yeah, exactly. How we sort of break that down and find that, that beauty and that joy in those connections.
Stephen Brackett [00:26:18] Well, I think that’s actually the role of the arts. That’s what the arts are, is technology. They’re a way to bring people from different situations and thoughts together to have a similar experience, to have something that comes together, and then from that you can build something, like, there’s this book called “Party Music.” It’s about the funk band that played every single event that the Black Panthers had. Right? That’s an essential part of it. We hear about the politics and all these things and speeches, but having music be there for the people, and there was also food, right? These meeting these kind of needs that allow people to come together is something that I think we’re leaving out of the equation so many times. These technologies have been with us for millennia. These connective technologies food, dance, drink, music, like.
Isaac Slade [00:27:04] Yeah.
Stephen Brackett [00:27:06] And I think just applying those in the right way also helps us get a lot further along. But if we just get a bunch of angry people into a room in a library, that’s not going to go well.
Isaac Slade [00:27:15] It’s not interesting, either.
Stephen Brackett [00:27:16] No.
Isaac Slade [00:27:17] It’s there’s no tension there. And all the good stuff happens with tension. I mean, If it’s all sweet and it’s just like, okay, I kind of got it. You know, if it’s all salty, like you need, like the all the good stuff is built on tension and tension, like, can rip you apart, I mean, it’s really hard. It’s a lot easier to be like, “It’s this. I’m right. Trust me. Who’s with me?” But, but it’s… It doesn’t produce answers, and it certainly doesn’t produce pleasure and play.
Amy Parsons [00:27:47] Stephen, I want to make sure that we, we get to, talking about the organizations that you’re involved with, like Youth on Record. The Foundation Music School. Talk to us about that and the, the work that you’re engaged in now.
Stephen Brackett [00:27:58] Absolutely. Because of how I grew up, with my, my mother died from cancer when I was 12, and my father died from a brain tumor right before I turned 21. And there’s lots of different types of things that could be described as trauma, but also as far as surviving would allow me to do so was, like, incredible friends and amazing teachers. So during those times, I never felt a lack. And it’s not a coincidence that me and most of my friends ended up becoming educators because we wanted to kind of, in so many ways, like, almost karmically, pay forward what had been there for us. And so in creating Youth on Record with the band Flobots, we’re just like, “How can we be a part of this network of support that helped us become professional musicians?” Because when we were in Denver Public Schools, band programs were all over the place. All of us were able to take music and all of these things. And by the time that we formed, um, Youth on Record, that was not the case. So, so much of this was not necessarily based out of any kind of great innovation. It’s more like, okay, let’s do what was done for us. And so we were very, very lucky to be a group of musicians who had this, like, civic orientation, to be able to go to the city and be able to find other folks who could take this germ of an idea, the seed of a dream, and then actually implement it because it was just left up to us it wouldn’t have happened. But being able to like, have that goodwill, all of that trust, we’re able to build it into an institution that serves 3000 kids a year. And that’s the most proud thing for me of my, like, music career, is that I was able to use that. And then the addendum was, okay, all of these kids are able to be helped. Like, that felt like it kind of completed the document for me. And I’m always seeking different ways to kind of complete that document. So Youth on Record in that way, and then Foundation Music School trying to do something similar, like, for here in Fort Collins and, like, the Front Range is like, how do we start introducing young people to the right of self-expression, the right that is music? And especially when we’re dealing with a mental health crisis, especially with young people and especially in this region. And then studies show that there are two things that work best for young people with a mental health crisis: it’s music and pets, right? It’s not therapy right now because a lot of young people aren’t necessarily ready for it, and we don’t have enough therapists for it for them. But this is, music can be a beautiful, like, stepping on point to a different orientation of mental health and a different way of being. And so like, how who are we to withhold that? So I’m excited to be here in Fort Collins with Foundation Music School, trying to move that needle when our kids need it most.
Isaac Slade [00:30:38] It’s cool.
Amy Parsons [00:30:39] Yeah, that’s amazing work. And just thank you for that work. You know, it’s very challenging right now. We see that the mental health crisis here at CSU as our students are coming in. And I think you’re you’re absolutely spot on, on what they need, and, and I just love that you’re pulling in that direction and using your platform to make that kind of difference, so, thank you.
Stephen Brackett [00:30:59] It’s an honor to be here. It really is.
Isaac Slade [00:31:01] And somebody needs to figure out musical pets.
Stephen Brackett [00:31:04] Yes they do.
Isaac Slade [00:31:06] We can workshop that one.
Stephen Brackett [00:31:07] And maybe you can start with ravens or something.
Isaac Slade [00:31:10] Just dogs and a little piano.
Stephen Brackett [00:31:12] Of course. Or cats and pianos.
Stephen Brackett [00:31:13] You know.
Isaac Slade [00:31:14] Yeah, let’s do it let’s work on it.
Amy Parsons [00:31:15] Okay. Next time. Next time. That’ll be the hot topic. So, unfortunately, I’ve got to start wrapping up, and know that you’ve had to get on to the conference today, which is exciting. I’m going to come over and listen to you both this afternoon, so, can’t wait to, to see you share this wisdom that you have with, with our young people and with our music educators today. I always end the podcast with the same question ,so I’ll do that with you guys today, too, because students are our number one priority.
Stephen Brackett [00:31:43] Yeah.
Amy Parsons [00:31:44] Student success is our number one priority. And so, I just want to ask: What advice would you have for today’s college students? Just a few weeks from now we’ll have five, 6000 brand new, fresh-faced freshmen starting out their college careers at CSU. What advice would you give to them as they launch into their academic careers here?
Isaac Slade [00:32:09] The first thing that comes to mind is actually, um, around navigating modern life. There’s this little kind of tempting shiny object we have right now of your virtual life, but I think it’s equally damaging to lose sight of the real presence of a person in a room with a person in a room. And that temptation has been with us since, like, the caveman art thing, like, “That’s me! Not this, that!” But it’s, it’s more now than it’s ever been. My kids are ten and seven, and there’s this new challenge that we’ve, I don’t think we’ve ever had at this level of, you can be this person you put out and then hide who you really are, even from yourself. And it’s not a thing, that, that doesn’t happen, that’s not real. And, I, I would say if I had to guess, one of the main seeds of mental health unrest right now is that we are divided from ourselves, and that’s, that’s the division we have in our culture. That’s the division we feel in our families. That’s the, you know, but it starts with ourselves. And at that core of the division, you know, is at this temptation will be like, “I’m freaking out, but I’m going to put on a happy face. I’m going to post that happy face photo on Instagram, and I’m going to fill in the blank, do this and get my job and get my money and get my car and get my boat and get my thing. And then if everybody else thinks I’m good, maybe that’ll trickle down to me.” Actually, that’s not a thing that doesn’t happen, ever. And, actually, it’s the opposite. The more boats you get, the, the worse that disparity feels. It’s because you cannot be divorced from yourself and keep going. So that, that, that challenge and that temptation I think is unique right now. It’s almost as simple as turning your phone off and holding still for 20 minutes a day, letting it just happen. And most of us can’t do that because we freak out. So we just turn the phone back on. But that’s what I, if I had anything to say, that’s the first thing that comes to mind. And, that’s that’s all of us. But especially if you’re 18 or 19 right now, it’s like, “I could just, just tell people who I am, and then they maybe they will believe me. And, oh god, it will be great!” And it’s like it’s like, nah, that works, the people that buy that are not the people you want to be friends with. The ones where, like, “What are you why are you doing that?” Those are the people you want to find. Okay, I’ll stop.
Stephen Brackett [00:34:46] Okay, um, one of the things I’m always sensitive about when I’m trying to come up with advice is I want to first, like, look at the difference between my life and theirs. So when I went to CSU, I graduated with very little student debt. And in general, most people would, would be graduating with more debt. So that means they’re dealing with something… They’re feeling even more pressure. So in thinking about that, you know what kind of classes you’re taking. You know what your major requires, all of those things. What are your requirements of yourself? And what will make your time at school worth it?
Isaac Slade [00:35:29] That’s so good.
Stephen Brackett [00:35:30] So I, even when I was at CSU, I kind of created a list of things that, like, well, you know, I would maybe like to be in a play. Why? Because it seems difficult. But, the difficulty of it would make me grow. I would like to maybe create a student organization. I want to test myself in these ways. I want to learn how to cook this many things by the time I’m done. I think if you can kind of in some ways, like, generate a list of things that you’ll be able to do by the time that you’re done, and then also at the same time, be incredibly open and be willing to be surprised by some of the challenges that will also show up. I don’t think you, but if you can be open and ready for it, the time of life that you’ll be in college is, like, of all the other times in your life you will never be with a higher percentage of people who are there for the exact same reason. There’s a huge advantage in that, knowing that everybody’s exploring the parameters of themselves. So then how can you make some goals and also find those sweet spots of, like, experience that you never could have thought of, and make sure that the the matrix of those things is worth whatever the debt will be. But it’s, it was right. Like, all of these ridiculous things, like forming a streaking society while I was here and convincing, convincing all the students at CSU was like, “Yo, do you know it’s a tradition? Whenever it snows the first time of the year, everybody, everybody runs around naked.” I got hundreds of kids to do it, right? It’s fantastic!
Stephen Brackett [00:37:07] Like, I made, like, the streaking society and it continued! And I’m like, “Oh, wait, wait. None of us know how to breakdance. Let’s form breakdancing club!” And then we formed a break dancing club. And then, like, there were students who somehow found out about the club who could actually break dance. We learned how to break dance. And then every Tuesday, there was 300 people in the gym hurting themselves and learning how to break dance. Like, I learned so many things. We became an actual CSU club and we started getting free records from the radio station, and we had an office in Lory, which I used to nap in because like, the club didn’t have that much stuff to do. But it was just amazing, all of the things that I got to learn about organizing, about myself, what it’s like when you try to build something and have people come to it enthusiastically. None of that stuff was on the syllabus or any kind of curriculum, but it was essential in helping me find out who I was. So, like, create your other curriculum that will make it worth it at the end of the day.
Amy Parsons [00:37:59] Create your other curriculum. So good.
Isaac Slade [00:38:01] Let’s go.
Amy Parsons [00:38:03] Oh, we’re going to end on that. That was amazing advice. Well, Ram Nation, I hope that you’re listening to this wise advice from Isaac and Stephen and these are some of the best CSU stories that I’ve heard, so thank you for sharing those. Again, thank you both for being on campus today and for sharing your wisdom and your experience and knowledge with the music educators who are here for the conference today and with our students and just for all the great work that you’re doing out there.
Isaac Slade [00:38:31] Thanks for having us.
Stephen Brackett [00:38:32] Yeah.
Stephen Brackett [00:38:33] Thank you for your visionary leadership.
Stephen Brackett [00:38:35] Thank you. Appreciate you. All right. That’s a wrap. Go, Rams!
Isaac Slade [00:38:39] Boop!
Amy Parsons [00:38:40] Thank you for listening. I’m Amy Parsons, president of Colorado State University, and you’re listening to CSU’s “The Next 150,” where we explore what comes next for CSU by chatting with changemakers who are already leading the charge and shaping our next 150 years. I’m gathering their very best advice for today’s CSU students. Stay tuned to wherever you get podcasts for our next outstanding conversation. Go, Rams!