Loren Shumaker-Chupp (Signals Midwest, bass)
SPB: What do your parents think of your music?
Loren Shumaker-Chupp: My parents have always appreciated that I play music and what I get out of it. It was something that they encouraged me to learn when I was younger and supported throughout grade school when I began to draw serious interest into music. Now I think there is probably more of a disconnect in how well they understand what it is that we do. I tell them stories about tour, and give them updates of how we are progressing and that’s great, but it’s hard to explain to your parents why the best week you had this year was largely fueled by PBR tall boys and a town in Florida filled with sweaty black t-shirts. Another musician friend’s dad recently wrote an article in the New York Times about why he was proud of his son for something that many parents might see as wasting time in a van, and I think the perspective there is similar to my parents. My mom did want to make sure I remembered that it’s largely possible due to white privilege however.
As far as the music itself goes, I know my dad listens to all of our recordings, and I think he genuinely likes some of the songs. My mom has never really been one to sit down and listen to any music, so our sound is not something she can easily approach. They did both come to our Cleveland record release show last month, and I was pretty surprised my mom made it through the whole night. So the appreciation of what it means to me is still there, despite how well they can relate to it. Maybe it’s harder for me to gauge their opinions of it than it is for them to understand what playing music means for me.
