That Dan Band Show

Scott Johnson, Percussion Director and Designer for the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps, sits down with Dan to discuss the ingredients to BD's success across multiple decades.

Episode Timestamps

0:00 - Intro

06:00 - Are you driving this innovation when you’re creating, how does it work from the level of conception? 

09:45 - What has it been like working with the level of talent? Are the students better now than ever? 

12:20 - Instead of competing, just do shows

15:40 - A lot of differences with indoors what has helped outdoor

16:00 - The placement of judges... If you backed the judge away how would it change the sound?

22:00 - Was part of the DCI task force to introduce percussion judge two?

22:55 - Expenses for more judges add up

23:55 - Fan vote? Some other form of democratic vote that gets counted?

27:00 - How did you develop the Blue Devils engineering?

32:15 - Better on the field than in the lot

34:00 - Listening environment is also not taken into consideration

35:45 - How else do you approach working with players of that caliber?

38:20 - Ideas or concepts that didn’t work?

41:00 - Bringing in drumset players, a non-traditional clinician to teach the group

45:30 - Day 1, what are you telling someone who wants to be a snare drummer?

49:50 - Who’s inspiring you?

51:15 - Indoor season - how has indoor changed and where do you see it going?

55:35 - You could have the best book in the world, but players still have to play it

58:00 - You should be able to hand the tape to the members

1:02:00 - Mid 2000s groups

1:04:40 - What is going on behind the scenes that really matters?

1:06:00 What about you has allowed you to continue doing what you're doing?

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Dan sits down with Scott Chandler, legendary Program Coordinator & Choreographer for the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps. They discuss how Scott has cultivated a design identity, how he has stayed on top in an ever-changing activity, and the secrets behind the Blue Devils' success.

Show Timestamps

0:10 - Open

1:27 - Guest Introduction begins

2:19 - Scott Chandler Joins

Questions

2:57 - Boston terriers?

3:15 - Guster the BT

5:36 What is your design/programming process?

5:55 - Strong directional storyboard to begin

6:15 - Full MP3 of the show going into the summer

6:40 - Stopped using charts a while ago

9:00 - How did you get to this point on unconventional design?

11:35 - How do you develop your eye for effect? 

14:40 - Judges change every year, judges have biases, but there’s no writing for judges

16:40 - Do you intentionally set out to keep cultivating your taste? Keeping up with what’s cool?

19:08 - Where do you personally go to feed your inspiration to keep up?

21:30 - Blue Devils consistently great, consistent staff. How did y’all work through it? How did the organization develop that culture?

22:35 - “You have to have permission to fail….creatively and improving process”

23:00 - Looking for the next generation as well

23:22 - Allowing performers to fail as well “This is the place where you get to try it and see if it works or now” - Scott

24:15 - Musical cheers in drum corps

27:10 - What about your personality has allowed you to remain successful, how have you dealt with getting to this point of your career? 

30:25 - If you’re ready it’ll happen. Put up or shut up

30:40 - Can you think of a time when you had that setback or moment of professional doubt and how did you work through that? 

33:20 - Shows are timely and related to current events

33:50 - Caught up on what judges are going to say, but there are way more members in the audience. What about the 20,000, not the 8 judges? 

35:00 - Aware of the audience, but there's also the team mentality. Like sports, people have the teams they will root for. Find a way to make those people happy even when they aren’t jumping up and down. 

36:30 - When you think about the Blue Devils, what are the things that you think can be taken away? Is there something you’re injecting into it year to year? 

41:30 - Why not have a more dynamic approach, a completely different mindset?

42:45 - Blue Devils best marching over the last 20 years, don't @ me. How has that happened?

44:45 - When you look back on your career and on your life, really making a name for yourself and changing the landscape of the medium, what do you tell someone who says they want to be the next Scott Chandler.”

47:00 - Receiving honest feedback

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Dan gives you his top 10 takeaways from the 2022 DCI Finals, including judging, how COVID may have affected the corps, overall quality of the products put on the field, and more.

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On today's episode, Dan discusses the scores from the past 3 major DCI events as the corps make their final push into 2022 World Championships.

Show Timestamps

0:00 - Beginning

0:15 - show start

1:12 - “This last weekend was a doozy” (weekend overview)

2:35 - Covid is very much still a thing

4:00 - Quick look ahead to Eastern Classic at Allentown

5:00 - Introductions - Murfreesboro 

6:09 - Music City in 8th across the board

6:13 - Blue Knights in 7th across the board

6:30 - Blue Stars

7:25 - Cavaliers breakdown

8:15 - 4-point jump from 5th to Crown at 4th

8:42 - “Could see the Cavaliers jump the Blue Stars at the end”

9:30 - Crown in 4th

9:58 - Crown recap

10:58 - Scoring islands

12:00 - Bluecoats advantage over Crown and into a recap

12:55 - Bluecoats first in drums?!

14:30 - Boston over Bluecoats

15:16 - Boston’s guard has not lost a show

16:16 - Blue Devils

17:40 - Blue Devil’s guard doesn’t hang with the rest of the corps

19:30 - DCI Southeastern Championship

20:00 - Southeastern top 5 scoring

21:18 - Vanguard Recap

22:10 - GE is like the umbrella of a show

22:25 - Vanguard Visual

23:13 - Vanguard Music

24:10 - How subcaptions should be used

24:40 - Bluecoats - “Substantial Jump” into the recap

25:40 - Bluecoats Visual

26:20 - Achieving higher than the book

27:30 - Crown in 3rd, flip from Murfeesboro

28:00 - Breaking down the Crown subcations

29:05 - Crown Visual proficiency 

30:03 - Crown Music breakdown

31:54 - Boston Crusaders score and spread

32:00 - Into sub captions 

32:50 - Story across the board with GE judges - variety across the board

33:43 - Boston Visuals - First place

34:07 - Boston Music

35:30 - two tenths within the content box. Tough Job, great job

36:00 - Best percussion judge in DCI

36:50 - Blue Devils introduction and breakdown

38:40 - BD Music

40:18 - Boston is consistently in second but hasn't beaten Blue Devils... yet

42:00 - A lot of this is subjective

43:00 - NightBEAT introduction and scores

44:30ish - Cavaliers

45:35 - The Cadets

45:45 - Santa Clara Vanguard

47:00 - Bluecoats

47:47 - Boston Crusaders

49:40 - Night to night changing scores

49:52 - Judges trying to keep up with these complex shows

50:10 - “The top design individuals should be more advanced than the judges. The design folks should be explaining to the judges”

52:10 - Upcoming week of shows

54:40 - “Crazy right now, I don't know who's going to win. This is good for DCI”

56:40 - Wrap-up

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Dan reviews the recap from the 2022 DCI Southwestern Championship and provides his insights into where the competition is headed as the corps make their final push toward Indy.

Show Timestamps:

00:40 - Start

03:28 - Intro to scores from the Southwestern Championship

03:41 - Colts at 12th

05:43 - Blue Knights at 11th

07:05 - Phantom Regiment at 10th

08:30 - Cavaliers at 9th

11:21 - Scoring

13:25 - Mandarins in 8th

14:30 - Difference in scores between the Cavaliers and Blue Stars

14:46 - Blue Stars in 7th

15:50 - Cadets in 6th

17:33 - Vanguard in 5th

18:00 - Big Spread between 5 and 6

19:58 - Bluecoats in 4th

21:25 - Scoring variations

21:43 - Carolina Crown in 3rd

23:58 - Crusaders in 2nd

26:30 - Blue Devils in 1st

28:38 - “When was the last time Devs got fourth?”

30:48 - Dynamic factor of scoring

35:00 - “Welcome the shakeups”

36:25 - Looking ahead to the next few shows

36:40 - DCI Mesquite groups

37:40 - Next show - DCI Southern Miss.

39:00 - Master of Southern Music Games - Murfreesboro 

40:30 - Indy coming down the pipe in less than two weeks

45:00 - Let's chat, subscribe!

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On today's episode, Dan chats about the DCI competitive narrative up to this point, hits on the show announcements that didn't make it into last week's episode, and discusses Crown's 2022 season with Rick Subel, Artistic Director of Carolina Crown.

Show Timestamps

00:11 Intro

4:28- Competition Overview (7/9-7/10)

18:12 Design Overview

35:20 Upcoming Performances

39:25 Outro

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Today, we are doing something a little bit different - Dan's flying SOLO for this episode! In the spirit of DCI coming back to life after a long dormancy, Dan spends this episode taking a look at some early season content around the internet (within the confines of what the music rights laws will allow me), discussing the first shows, and providing his reactions and early season projections. 

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With the WGI Advisory Board meetings approaching, Dan sits down with WGI Vice President, Steering Committee Member, and Director and Visual Designer of Rhythm X, Tim Fairbanks. They discuss the state of indoor percussion. how we can continue to grow the activity, and ways to continue to educate our judges and educators together. 

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Dan sits down with Graphic Designer Ivan Fees to catch up on the first WGI Percussion finals in 3 years, how the competition shook out, and where the activity appears to be headed.

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Josh Brickey, Battery Coordinator of Rhythm X and Percussion Caption Head of the Cavaliers, joins Dan to catch up on how the 2022 WGI season is going, what current trends are going on in the marching percussion world, and Josh's secret to consistently driving high level talent into the groups he works with.

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