Be in the Band Alumni Stories: Jordan Davies

Jordan Davies was part of the very first Be in the Band program in 2009. We set up the program with our first community partner at the Glebe Neighbourhood Activities Group and they reached out to find 4 bands worth of students in the area. Students rehearsed for 10 weeks in the tennis club facilities before giving a performance at the community centre with laser lights and a donated smoke machine! Following this performance, they all came to put on a show at one of the big stages at RBC Bluesfest that summer. Jordan says that many of the students were like him in that they hadn’t played in a band before but open to testing out the waters. The whole experience turned out to be quite positive for him (then 16 years old), as well as for the other participants.

We caught up with Jordan in New Zealand where he is a partner in a restaurant called Los Banditos. “I really enjoyed coming together with other musicians in the area, most of whom I would never have met had we not joined the program. Most of us were playing music at home with an idea that it would be fun to play with others but not sure how to make it happen. I am still friends with many of them to this day!”

Jordan, like many others who we have talked with, found that communication skills were the number one quality that they picked up during the program. “I really discovered the teamwork aspect, of letting other people shine while you do your thing, but also making sure that my ideas were heard and a part of it all”. He also had high praise for the coach at the time, Todd Snelgrove, who really pushed the band to be their best. “Todd taught us that we can always make the music better through hard work and rehearsing. We would finish playing a song and think that it was pretty awesome sounding and Todd would say something like, ‘great let’s do it again but tighten up this, or hit this part harder’. He pushed us really hard but when it came time to perform, either at the festival or community centre, we were ready”.

The festival often creates value added experiences for students, and in that year, there was an offer for a recording session at a local studio. “I think that after performing at the festival, the recording session was one of the most memorable aspects for me. We got to hone the songs to as close to perfect as we could get. I remember playing one of my parts about 15 times in one song until I felt really good about it. We ended up with an Mp3, a nice and tidy memory of the experience”.

Jordan worked at the community centre for a few years in many roles, but remembers coaching a few bands and learning from the teachers that the festival had in. “I think that we can learn a lot from teaching and it was fun to take some of what I learned by joining Be in the Band and pass it along to the next generation. We were lucky enough to play the festival on the same day as KISS and it was super satisfying to help the next groups get ready for their ‘Bluesfest experience’ “.

Jordan plays music for fun mostly now, but has his guitar pretty close at all times. He is an award winning mixologist, often invited to travel around the world to competitions. If you happen to be in Wellington, check out Los Banditos here: https://www.losbanditos.co.nz/.