Latest / Randy Unscripted / Father, Son, and Jazz Band - NaPodPoMo 2025 #2

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Father, Son, and Jazz Band - NaPodPoMo 2025 #2 · Randy Unscripted

• 0:01
  Mikey Black: Okay, boys. Here we go.
• 0:04
  Randy Black: Welcome to napod promo 2025
• 0:08
  episode number two,
• 0:09
  11/02/2025
• 0:13
  on Randy Unscripted. I'm Randy Black, and joining me today is someone that
• 0:18
  I love very, very dearly because
• 0:21
  I helped create him,
• 0:23
  my son,
• 0:24
  Mikey. Mikey, how are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm great. I'm so happy you're over today, and you agreed to sit down with me and record this for napod promo, national podcast posting month, where the goal is to post a podcast episode
• 0:38
  every day for all thirty days of the month. This is number two.
• 0:42
  And we're just kinda hanging out and talking. We're gonna talk a little bit about
• 0:46
  some stuff that's been going on lately. Mikey has not done a podcast with me since he was in elementary school, so it's it's it's been a little while.
• 0:55
  So I'm glad that he's sat down and decided, hey. I'm gonna hang out with dad and do this real quick. So, Mikey, you are a senior in high school. Yeah. You have come a long way since the last time you did a podcast with me. So
• 1:08
  as a senior in high school, you did something very out of the ordinary, and you joined the Marching band. You joined the marching band. K. So sixth grade back in middle school, you started out in band, you started playing the saxophone
• 1:22
  Yep. Back in the day.
• 1:24
  And got to seventh grade, and some stuff happened along with a pandemic
• 1:29
  and changed schools. And when you change schools, we drop band.
• 1:32
  So you haven't played the saxophone
• 1:35
  since the beginning of your seventh grade year. That's, that's been a long time. It has been. Yeah. So
• 1:43
  you got back into band because of mister Bolington, your band director, because you took what class at school?
• 1:49
  I took the guitar class. Yes. And in the guitar class, he came up to you one day. What did he say? Would you like to be the guitarist for the jazz band? Which is kinda cool that he invited you to jump in like that, made special permissions and exceptions to let you in.
• 2:04
  And so the next year because that was your tenth grade year. Eleventh grade, you jump in and you join the jazz band. And how did that go? It it went great. I loved it. So tell tell me about some of the stuff with jazz band, the things you learned, things you were able to discover,
• 2:16
  not only with band and with music, but about yourself.
• 2:19
  Mikey Black: With joining,
• 2:20
  though, I learned a good amount of music theory. He taught us how to outline our chords for our songs.
• 2:26
  I learned a lot of the types of chords I needed to play, the different styles of jazz that there are. We played a
• 2:33
  good good variety last year of stuff. We're playing a good variety this year as well. Cool. We had some good stuff.
• 2:39
  And I learned that I really love that side of music and wanted to get back into band. Awesome.
• 2:47
  Randy Black: So
• 2:48
  you're still gonna be in jazz band? Yes. And you decided you were gonna join the marching band. And how did that come about?
• 2:54
  Mikey Black: I
• 2:56
  one of our members in the jazz band, my friend Jaden, he asked he was trying to get me to do it because towards the end of the year, he really wanted me to do it. Mhmm. At first, wanted me to play bass.
• 3:07
  Okay.
• 3:08
  I You've never played bass. Right? But
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  I didn't think it was gonna be too bad. I mean,
• 3:14
  I got Bubba. He could've he he already Bubba
• 3:18
  Randy Black: is
• 3:19
  my brother, my twin brother, Rick. Rick is a bass player. He's a he's a tech person like me. He's a t former classroom teacher like me, but he also does a lot of music production stuff for himself and for our cousin. But he's a he's a tremendous and amazing bass player, and he was gonna kinda be the resource to go to. He was gonna even let you borrow a bass. Yeah. He was. Yeah. So what happened with that?
• 3:41
  Mikey Black: I, at first, said I wasn't I didn't wanna do it. I wanted to spend more time
• 3:46
  helping out, work and doing work for my grandparents.
• 3:50
  Mhmm. Then I decided last minute, I did wanna do it. Okay. And at that point, there was already a kid who was gonna play bass. Right. So I was given the option to play saxophone
• 4:00
  for it. Okay. Which you had done before. Yeah. So how was it jumping back into that? At first, it took a little bit of time just being able to get the notes out. The amount of air you have to have, was a big it was a big difference. You had to condition yourself back to it. Oh, yeah. I had to. But really, it wasn't bad. It I picked it up pretty much instantly. Yeah. You remembered all your positions and everything. And
• 4:22
  Randy Black: I think you told me you only had, like, one or two notes when you looked at it. You're like, oh, how do I do this? And one of the assistant band directors helped you with that a lot. Yeah. So band has been fun this year. Oh, yeah. You know, you guys have done several competitions. Yesterday was your last competition of the year.
• 4:38
  That was at Spring Valley High School is where he goes to school. The competition was at Marshall University,
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  just up the road from the school in Huntington.
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  Marshall is my alma mater. It's where I graduated from with my undergraduate degree.
• 4:50
  But being able to go in and play in that stadium,
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  you know, it's a 30 some thousand seat stadium.
• 4:56
  It's a it's a pretty good experience, good sound in there. How'd you guys do? We we did pretty well. We did pretty well.
• 5:03
  Mikey Black: It not as good as we wanted to. We did backslide on our total score, but we still placed eighth overall
• 5:10
  out of the 41 bands that competed. That's pretty good. We got some pretty good rankings in our own division that had 11 bands Yeah. With some of the best marching bands in the state. Oh, yes. And in the whole Tri State. Oh, yeah. The whole Tri State. There was there was bands there from West Virginia, from Kentucky, from Ohio.
• 5:26
  Randy Black: They gave awards for the best band from West Virginia, the best one from Kentucky, the best one from Ohio.
• 5:32
  Ultimately, the band from Ohio, which surprises a lot of people, was the one that got the grand champion, Dawson Bryant High School. They were amazing. I sat there and watched them. You didn't get a chance to watch them as you were doing your warm ups and everything, but they were kinda cool because they did not have a drum major, did not have a field commander. Yeah. I was very surprised to hear that. Yeah. No one no one was directing them. The drum the drum line,
• 5:53
  the snare guy, he kinda kept everything going, got everything going. The the
• 5:57
  sideline, the pit people, they were pretty good at it.
• 6:01
  And, like, their band director, she was not stepping up and directing and trying to control things. They they were just really good. It was it was amazing to watch.
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  But
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  with with this season, you also had a great opportunity to travel up the road a couple hours.
• 6:16
  Mikey Black: And you went and you guys performed where? We performed at Ohio University
• 6:20
  Randy Black: at their stadium for Ohio State University. Ohio State University. At Ohio Stadium. It's confusing. Ohio State, but it's Ohio Stadium. Yeah. And Ohio State University, Ohio Stadium, if you're not familiar, and hopefully everybody is, that stadium has how many seats? A 106,000.
• 6:34
  Mikey Black: Huge stadium. Massive.
• 6:36
  There weren't a 106,000 people there for the band competitions. There were some people there, but just the sound in that stadium had to be amazing. Oh, it was. We at one point, we were getting ready to go for a warm up, and we were able to hear the bands that were inside the stadium performing
• 6:52
  because of the way that just the echo is. Awesome. Great
• 6:55
  Randy Black: acoustics. Oh, yes. Amazing.
• 6:57
  So
• 6:59
  is this something you look back at now and you're thinking, man, why didn't I do this all four years? Yes. It is. It is. I thought that's what was gonna happen when you told me what your plan was, what you were gonna do. Yeah.
• 7:09
  It's been awesome because I've been able to go to the competitions when I haven't had other stuff going on.
• 7:14
  Been able to jump in and and see things and see you just enjoying it and having a fun time and and experiencing
• 7:21
  a lot of things that I got to experience when I was in high school, when I was in the band that your mother
• 7:26
  experienced when she was in the marching band. So, well, you know, it's it's it's awesome to see that you were able to step up and do that. I mean, I love that you've you've had the experiences.
• 7:36
  I hated that I didn't get to see you all as much as Right. This as we normally do, but, know, seasons winded down, so we'll we'll figure that all out.
• 7:44
  But concert bands coming seasons coming up with things, marching band or jazz band concert performances and stuff are coming up. Anything on the horizon with those?
• 7:54
  Mikey Black: We got our Christmas concerts. We got those coming up.
• 7:59
  I think it's the first week of December we have those.
• 8:02
  It's a
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  Randy Black: I think the ninth is a jazz band, and the twelfth is the
• 8:07
  concert for wind ensemble. It's gonna be pretty cool. Any good music lined up? We have some
• 8:13
  Mikey Black: some good stuff for jazz. I do like some of that stuff. It's some some repeats from last year. We got a, like, a Charlie Brown Christmas medley that we played last year. Yeah. Oh, you have to play that. Oh, yeah. I mean, come on.
• 8:24
  And a lot of the stuff is obviously we've already the kids
• 8:28
  along with me that have already been in it Mhmm. Last year, the stuff we played last year, it's pretty much us reviewing it. And then the newcomers,
• 8:36
  Randy Black: they have picked it up quick. They That's awesome. We have some really great players this year. Nice. And I mean, you guys got a lot of seniors in there too. Oh, yeah. Almost pretty much the entire class our entire class is seniors. Yeah. So it's it's seeing those other kids step up is is and grasp everything and do well is a good thing because it lets you know, alright. We're in a good shape. This is gonna continue. It's gonna be fun. But, you know, you guys have two jazz bands.
• 8:59
  Yes. We do. The silver one. That's the upper band. But you're gonna you said you might be playing in the in the blue band, the lower band to help them out too? Yes. We I want I wanted to do that when I heard some of the people playing in it. We have one of the our piano player in Silver, she's actually learning.
• 9:16
  Mikey Black: She's completely new to piano. She's picked it up pretty quick. Mhmm. So I wanted to help at least her out with that music because
• 9:24
  Randy Black: I've helped her a lot so far with the Silver music, and I just wanted to be there to help out. They don't they don't have a guitar player right now as of as of right now. No. They don't. Yeah. But practice starts tomorrow. Right. So you're gonna stick around after school for that and and check it out and see how it goes. Yep. So, you know, that's awesome. I'm I'm so excited that you jumped in and you're doing the band thing.
• 9:44
  It's something that, you know, I knew you were if you if you had the chance, you'd jump in and you'd find that you loved it because it was a it was such a fun experience, you know, just, you know, for me when I was when I was in high school. You know, your your uncle or your your Bubba, he was in the band, and he he had the same similar experiences.
• 10:02
  So it's it's it's awesome to see that. But there's other stuff that's been going on.
• 10:08
  You cost me a bunch of money.
• 10:10
  You know that? I know that. You know that because you were able to pass your
• 10:14
  Driving test? Your driving test. So you now have a driver's license.
• 10:18
  You're able to drive yourself to and from school to, you know, stuff if you need to get there. Yep. You know, you drove yourself up here today all the way from Huntington to Milton here where we're setting at Johns Creek Studios in Milton, West Virginia. I had to throw the plug in there real quick. But,
• 10:31
  you know, you you cost me some money,
• 10:33
  but
• 10:35
  I'm good to pay it. I don't care a bit. You're I could I could not complain about you as my son, at all.
• 10:42
  I'm I'm thankful for the the young man you're becoming and everything.
• 10:46
  Hopefully, I don't make you cry here on the podcast.
• 10:49
  I might. It's possible. I can't see you, though. I've got three monitors, so I can't see past them to see you.
• 10:55
  So we can't even see each other as we're talking here. But is there anything else going on? Anything exciting? Anything coming up that you you just wanna talk about? You know, maybe something you haven't told me about?
• 11:05
  Well, I did
• 11:07
  Mikey Black: I did forget to tell you we whenever Marshall came to the school this week, they went ahead and did applications.
• 11:13
  Awesome. So I already did do that. I forgot to mention it to They did it where you didn't have to pay? Yep.
• 11:19
  Awesome. So I think the only I got a email actually today Mhmm. About all I really need right now to send them is just
• 11:26
  Transcripts
• 11:27
  Randy Black: when you're finished. Yep. Awesome. And the counselor will take care of that and send them for you, which is awesome. Hatch I think I can send them myself. I just have to go into that parchment. Oh, into parchment. Yeah.
• 11:37
  So that's going on. But, yeah, Marshall's not your first choice, though? It's it's actually not. It's not your first choice is Mount West, the Community Technical College, and there's nothing wrong with community technical colleges. There's some great programs there. Program you want to do is? The machinist program. So a machinist is pretty cool because you get to do what?
• 11:57
  Mikey Black: Basically, use
• 11:59
  three d modeling softwares to design
• 12:02
  parts and get to use this
• 12:05
  very powerful machine Mhmm. To cut those parts in metal. Yes.
• 12:11
  Randy Black: So you're you're really designing you're designing critical components for other things. Yes. So, like, you're designing
• 12:18
  a gear that goes into a transmission or you're designing,
• 12:21
  you know, a a a housing that will cover and protect,
• 12:26
  you know,
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  a set of belts or a drivetrain or something. It's all kinds of cool stuff, and there's so many doors that can open up. Like, where am I like, what's some of the things you're thinking? Like, where could you end up working with something like that? I don't there's just there's so many in our area. I really don't know. There's just The biggest one is in is up the road in Buffalo, and that's what company?
• 12:47
  Starts with a t,
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  ends with an Toyota. Oh, Toyota. Toyota hires machinists all the time. So there's there's Toyota up the road there. The advanced manufacturing facility in Huntington, that's where a lot of your classes and stuff will be. They hire people. Yeah. They've got a solid program there. So there's some great stuff, some great opportunities.
• 13:08
  I I'm I'm
• 13:10
  happy and excited that you you you saw this last year Yes. At a was it like a job fair or career the college day. College day. Okay. So you saw this stuff there, and what was what was going through your mind when you saw the stuff about this machinist program?
• 13:25
  Mikey Black: Very interested in it. I mean, I did the pre engineering course. We did a little section on
• 13:30
  CNC machining. Okay. Sad that we couldn't do it actual physical. We had to do it virtually because our CNC mill wasn't built Yeah. At that time. But I just I enjoyed it a lot. I saw actual actually, I saw Marshall's end of that program. Mhmm.
• 13:46
  And I just was interested, and I've looked into it. I think I'll I'll really enjoy it. Awesome.
• 13:52
  Randy Black: So
• 13:53
  thank you for setting down, Mikey. I know this hasn't been very long. We've been celebrating
• 13:59
  your stepmom, my wife, Beth, her birthday today with some other family.
• 14:04
  Her birthday was just a couple days ago, so we had dinner and everybody together.
• 14:07
  And you were able to come over for that, and I was happy. Happy that you were able to get here and then happy that you agreed to sit down and record with me for NAPOD Pomo, national podcast
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  posting month 2025.
• 14:21
  This is episode number two. I thank everybody for tuning in, for checking it out.
• 14:26
  We're gonna keep going. I'll have some more episodes tomorrow,
• 14:29
  another episode tomorrow.
• 14:31
  I don't know what I'm gonna talk about. That's that's the beauty of this. I'm just kinda going with it a little bit at a time,
• 14:37
  trying to make sure things are great, that they are, as Hulk Hogan would say. Wow. That's unbelievable.
• 14:42
  Unbelievable.
• 14:44
  You know? I had to throw that in there just to make it more interesting.
• 14:48
  So tune in. Stay tuned. If you're a podcaster,
• 14:52
  jump in. Make do take part in napod promo. Get some episodes out there, and enjoy yourself. I know I am. I'm having fun with this. I've got some ideas for some stuff to do throughout the week. But thank you again, Mikey. I appreciate it.
• 15:05
  Of course. And we are going to sign off for now. Thank you. This is Randy, and I've been unscripted.