Mr. Lang: Living a Dream

Everyone has had the dream of playing in a band: playing live for an audience and recording an album in a studio. But how many have actually lived it? There's Nathan Followill of Kings of Leon and Eddie Fisher of OneRepublic, and there's Jamesville-Dewitt High School geometry teacher Jay Lang, who rocks the drums in not one, but two bands.

"I play in a cover band called Canadian Tuxedo and an original band called Independent Louis," said Mr. Lang. Independent Louis currently has one CD out, "Six Ways from Sunday," released in early July of 2009. The band got to record in a studio. "It's a dream of mine to have a CD of my own," he says. "We're writing music all the time."

Canadian Tuxedo, which formed about six years ago, is made up of Mr. Lang's "high school buddies," while Independent Louis, formed about a year ago, is comprised of "one high school buddy and some of his friends."

Each band rehearses once a week, and Mr. Lang plays out about once or twice a month. "I love playing live music for people. Playing out is my favorite thing," said Mr. Lang. Gig times are posted on independentlouis.com, along with their songs for fans to preview, videos and photos, and information about the five band members.

"We play all over Syracuse: at Funk 'N Waffles and at different adult establishments [like] bars [and] sometimes at weddings. In Canadian Tuxedo, we just like to play out around town. In Independent Louis, we're out running our own music and we have our own website and sell CDs. We're also on iTunes."

Aside from Canadian Tuxedo's regular gigs around town, they also participated in J-DHS's Battle of the Bands in March 2009 in the auditorium.

"They were actually pretty good," says sophomore Carolyn Mooney. "They played "˜Bust a Move.'"

"[Mr. Lang] was awesome," agrees sophomore Sam Wormuth. "He was very good at back-up singing and he's got a very nice hat."

Although Canadian Tuxedo didn't get first place, they were the highest rated teacher band in the competition.

But for now, both Canadian Tuxedo and Independent Louis are taking a break, says Mr. Lang. However, Mr. Lang says both bands will play in the spring.

Mr. Lang found the love of drums himself. "I just bought a drum set one day and taught myself," he said. "I played in a high school band and in college," said Mr. Lang, but a year after college he stopped. Eventually he missed it.

Unfortunately by then he was in an apartment, which didn't allow drum sets because of the noise. However, Mr. Lang saved up and bought an electronic drum set, which used headphones to minimize noise and was able to continue drumming. Drummer John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, former Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese, The Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and Phish drummer Jon Fishman influence Mr. Lang. "Phish is my favorite band," he says. "I've seen them 22 times. The drummer is a Jamesville-DeWitt High School graduate."

For all the young people out there aspiring to be a rock-star, Mr. Lang advises to "have a consistent practice schedule" and that "it's a lot more fun if you're playing with your friends."