A Long Strange Trip: The Love and Life of Music of Chuck Murray
Walking down the halls of Endicott’s visual and performing arts center, you will likely hear the ringing of piano keys dancing closer. Or the rhythmic thumping and striking of drums, or the strumming of guitars. Charles (Chuck) Murray is a Junior at Endicott college as a Comms major with a minor in music, and he could be behind any of these sounds. Over the past five years, music has taken an increasingly large role in his life. Chuck is the lead guitarist of the Jazz band, a recording studio technician and a multi-instrumentalist. On Fridays he works with students at his recording workshop, on Thursdays he rehearses with the Jazz band. The rest of the week is left up to opportunity, and practice. Like so many musicians, Chuck was raised around music, and his relationship with his passion has led him down the path that he walks today. As a young college student Chuck is at a time in his life where he does not know exactly where he is headed. However, Chuck knows what appeals to him, and sticking by it has served him well thus far. The journey has taken Chuck from his early highschool bands with his friends, to California, and back to the studios of Massachusetts. Regardless of where Chuck winds up, music is coming along for the ride.
Seamus Frawley: So what is your typical Saturday morning like?
Chuck Murray: You know, it depends what happens Friday night.
Seamus Frawley: Depends what happened Friday? Yeah. That's a good answer.
Chuck Murray: Yeah, no, with the past two weeks we've been, I work here in the VPAC.
Seamus Frawley: What do you do?
Chuck Murray: I help Owen. He’s the audio and visual technician. So we've been setting up for the musical in a couple of weeks. We built a stage.
Seamus Frawley: You're building a stage?
Chuck Murray: Yeah, it's built. It's nice. Yeah. Using a drill gun and all that fun stuff.
Seamus Frawley: That's neat. How long have you been playing music?
Chuck Murray: So I started playing when I was a sophomore in high school, sophomore in high school to now I'm a junior. So five years Yeah. Five, five or six years.
Seamus Frawley: How do you find your way into playing music?
Chuck Murray: Yeah. Well, I always loved it and my, I mean so my neighbor, he's like best friends with my brother. And so my brother was always over there and so I was always over there. And so even when we go back home now, like we're always at our neighbor's house and he are our friend's dad, he plays guitar. And I just remember him, like, he's like a, he's not like the best guitar player I've ever heard, but like he knows how to play really well. Like he's like a performer, you know what I mean? So he can just strum a couple chords and just like put on a show and like the living room, you know what I mean? So that was my first kind of like time where I was like; Oh. This would be so cool if I were able to do this. You know what I mean? And so, yeah, it was just like a curiosity kind of thing that brought me around to playing.
Seamus Frawley: Is your brother older or younger?
Chuck Murray: Yeah, my brother is 24, so only a couple years older than me.
Seamus Frawley: So you're 22?
Seamus Frawley: If you were to think back over your life, when did music become like a significant part of your life?
Chuck Murray: I mean, like honestly as early as I can remember. You know? Just like driving in the car and just like listening to music was always a thing. Always listening to the radio. My dad wouldn't let me listen to like rap or anything, which I'm thankful for now. So I grew up on all the old stuff, which I'm very appreciative of. I remember just listening to CDs, my brother had like a CD player, like a little one with the headphones. I think he had like Stadium Arkadium and that was like the only CD he had, the Chili Peppers one.
Chuck Murray: It's like, that's the only one he had, but we used to fight over that. Yeah. I mean, as early as I can really remember, it's just fun.
Seamus Frawley: So it's fair to say you were raised around music?
Chuck Murray: Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
Seamus Frawley: When was your first experience where you were able to play, and it struck you like “Hey that's really cool?”
Chuck Murray: Well, it's funny. I remember my neighbor, who has a couple of guitars, I would always like... this is so bad now as a musician, I would always just play around with the tunings. Then I would just detune it, which is horrible. I shouldn't have done that, but I didn't know any better, you know? My first time getting around to playing I remember freshman year I was playing sports a lot and then I just remember having an interest in it. And I think my brother at the time who was coming here (Endicott), he took the Guitar 1 class and then he joined Modern Band. So he really started playing. He was in a modern Miranda a while ago, they played Mr. Endicott actually. I don't know if you know what that is. That's like a big dance they have, but they were nasty. They were wicked good. Like the best I've ever heard Modern Band sound.
Seamus Frawley: That's cool.
Chuck Murray: So they played, they got asked to play at Mr. Endicott and it was sick. I came up and watched him, but I think, I think my brother learning how to play, like initiated me to play. And now it's like, I feel bad cause I kind of took over now. Now I'm like a lot better than him. And I think he feels bad, but it's his fault, you know? I just got super competitive, but I remember like we, I started learning like my sophomore year, I loved just like all the old music. And it was like, I'd love to be able to like play this and just like play it for people at like, you know, like a fire or something or like camping or something. Like, I wanted to be like the stereotypical, you know what I mean? Like bonfire guitar player. You want to be that guy. I mean, my goals have changed now, but I think that was my initial kind of, initial move into music or like, the draw. Pretty much that it's like, yeah. Just like being able to, I dunno, just play a song that people love, you know what I mean? That's, that's a cool thing and not everyone can do it. So I mean.
Seamus Frawley: It's a cool thing, and it can be so simple or it can be so complicated.
Chuck Murray: Right. Well, it's funny because like I mean, I was young in high school, so I was like: “Oh, like I'll probably, I dunno, get some girls too or something.” You know what I mean? But then once I actually started to learn the instrument, I was like: “okay, I love this.” It was instant. I learned a chord and I was like: “that's it. I'm going to learn how to apply this thing.”
Seamus Frawley: That’s cool. Yeah. That's really cool. I can, I can relate to that. So you're a Junior at Endicott?
Chuck Murray: I'm a junior, you're a junior. I'm a communication major.
Seamus Frawley: All right, so you're a communications major and you're a multi-instrumentalist. Could you tell me how your journey led you to where you are today?
Chuck Murray: So after high school, I, uh, so I mean, I, a big thing for me was sophomore year, I was playing sports and um, my friend, well, I didn't really know him too well, but I went to a regional school. So I knew of this kid, I knew he was like a big music fan. And so I was like, “Oh, like, what's up, man? Like, I'm starting to learn to play guitar.” And he's like, “Oh yeah, I play too.” And we both love sublime sublime. Yeah. We both loved sublime. So I was like; “yeah man, we should totally play some time.” And then his good friend, who I was also friends with, we were all on the same team. So we were just really getting to know each other that year. So we became friends then, and then we all got along super well, same humor. We love the same music. We just hung out all the time. Then we started a band sophomore year. So right when I started learning guitar, my friend was writing songs. We would practice songs and we would rehearse. We would really get things perfect, and we'd write together. So in my beginning stages of learning how to play, I started writing and rehearsing. I started doing that right away, which I think was really important to what I do now. But as time went on, sports were great, but I knew music was kind of like; “I'm going to have this forever.” I'm not going to have sports forever. So I really incorporated more time for music. Took away from sports a little bit, but I don't really care. After my senior year, I really didn't want to go to school. I knew I wanted to do music. And so I was like; “okay, I'm just going to take a year off.” My dad was a little upset because he didn't think I'd come back. But I moved to California with my friend. So my friend lives out there. He lives in Ventura.
Seamus Frawley: What's his name?
Chuck Murray: Devin. So he lived out here, he was also taking a gap year. So I was like; “let's just live together and let's just do it.” So I brought music out there. It was just a good chance to practice a lot. I played some shows, some acoustic shows, nothing too serious. Then I came back to come here.
Seamus Frawley: Does anyone else in your family playing anything?
No. I think my grandfather used to play the spoons, the spoons, according to my mom, he was spoon player.
Seamus Frawley: That's cool.
Chuck Murray: Yeah. But yeah, it's funny. Me and my brother both play, but our parents don't play, none of our aunts, uncles play, but, but there is such a love for music in my family. You know what I mean? Always sing along and just like having a song stuck in your head, you know what I mean? It’s just rhythm. I noticed my parents have good rhythm, you know, what do you mean by that? If I see them dancing or tapping their foot, you know, they're on beat. And my dad actually has a good pitch. My dad doesn't sing often, but when he does, he loves a song, uh, hold the line by Toto, you know? His pitch is great. Just like a natural, good pitch.
Seamus Frawley: It's just family of music enthusiasts?
Chuck Murray: Yeah. Definitely not musicians, but music enthusiasts. I'm sure. That's pretty much how well my family is. It's, it's great to have that way. You're, you're kind of, uh, embodied around good music instead of having to find your own music. You know what I mean?
Seamus Frawley: Yeah. It takes you back. I mean, definitely. How do you, how do you get, how do you find your way through? It's vast.
Chuck Murray: Yeah, seriously. I mean, it's just nuts. Especially now with like all, all platforms. You can, you can pay $12 a month to Spotify and listen to any song you want. You know what I mean? Yeah. Pretty much. Which I like, but also, like, I think like things like radio, it's like, I love the idea of a song coming to me. You know what I mean? Instead of me going out and trying to find a song, which I do plenty of, like, I go to record shops and whatever, I go out and find music, but I love the idea of just like random chance. I'm listening to the radio at this exact moment and this song is playing. You know what I mean? I just love the random kind of aspect of that.
Seamus Frawley: What instruments do you play?
Yeah, I play, uh, I play piano. I played bass. I sing. I started playing drums like a year and a half ago. I've gotten decent at drums, although they're very hard. I think every musician should learn how to play the drums. So I want let, to play the drums pretty bad. I think they're like your rhythm will get a lot better. Like a lot better. Yeah. Drumming is incredible. I love it. And it's, it's a great stress reliever too. You're just hitting things, you know?
Seamus Frawley: Six, including your voice? The voice is an instrument.
Chuck Murray: It definitely is. Yeah, definitely.
Seamus Frawley: You think you have, so you probably never imagined you'd end up playing like five and six.
Chuck Murray: Probably not. Yeah. I, I, um, I was definitely surprised by like how, I dunno, I guess how natural it just came. I mean, I took like a piano course, my senior year of high school and that helped a lot just because it gave me time with a piano. You know what I mean? I never like owned a piano like my friend did. And so I played his when I could, but taking that class was great. And then, and then coming here, obviously there's so many pianos, so.
Seamus Frawley: So what it's like, so can you give me like a rundown of all the musically involved things that you're doing at school?
Chuck Murray: Yeah. Um, or that you have done. Yeah. Yeah. So my, yeah, I mean, I never, I never thought I could like make money doing this just cause it's known as like a, that's a job where you're not going to make money, which is true for some, in some regards, but like here at Endicott, like I've gotten hired to play guitar. Like I've done like chorus concerts of I'm doing the musical and a couple of weeks I did an aggravation. So I play in the jazz band here.
Seamus Frawley: And your, what, what role do you have in the jazz band?
Chuck Murray: Yeah, I'm a lead guitar player and I sang some songs too, which is great. Two summers ago, the jazz instructor, he has a band that tours the north shore schools and they're pretty popular. They have a good turnout. So I played with them. I've played with them like two, two times now, a couple of shows. Just sitting and playing a couple of tunes with them, which is great.
Seamus Frawley: I know you're all in, you're very involved in recordings.
CHuck Murray: I never got huge into recording in high school. We, we recorded like this little AP that's on Spotify. It's called the local boys, uh, waiting for something. There's my plug for that project. Just like, just like, you know, super simple stuff. Like, it's like four songs and it's like five or six tracks on each. You know what I mean? It's like a nice, that was my initial step into recording.
And then like, uh, by my senior year of high school, we recorded like, just like in an EAP for my friend. And then, um, and then coming to Endicott, my, after my freshman year, I did an internship with a recording studio in Somerville called Phoenix, done recording. It's mostly just a hip hop studio. So there wasn't a lot of live instruments.
It was mostly just like vocals, like people like rappers coming in and just like, like rapping. But that was like really good for me to just sit there. It was kind of exhausting, honestly, like when you're not doing that editing work and you're sitting in the room listening to all that editing work, it'll drive you insane, man. It's just like; pause, pause, play, pause, play, pause, little change, play, pause. You know what I mean? They would have 12 hour sessions, which is crazy.
Seamus Frawley: And you sat in there for 12 hours?
Chuck Murray: Sometimes. Other times I would be like; “I can't do this anymore.”
Seamus Frawley: What idea do you have for the role that music will have in your life going forward?
Chuck Murray: That's a good question. Yeah. So I think like being young, I, I'm going to try to gig and I'm going to try to release music and I'm going to try to, you know, get my name out there and see what it does. But honestly, it's, I'm not, it's not like a make or break situation for me. I'm going to keep doing music because it's like a true love of mine. There's really nothing that compares to it. Like making it, listening to it, playing it, you know what I mean? I love all aspects of it. So I'm going to do that forever. And if, if it, it brings me money and it brings me a job, that'd be sick. You know what I mean?
I'm just going to keep doing it cause I love to do it and I'm just going to pay my rent and do what I have to do. I just love music so much. So I'll do it forever. It's wicked therapeutic, you know? Oh yeah. Escapism.
Seamus Frawley: I don't think there's hardly ever a time I get in my car and there's no music.When I say hardly ever, I mean, there's probably not 15 seconds, right?
Chuck Murray: Yeah. Dude, music just really fills the holes sort of whatever your life is. You know what I mean? It just felt, yeah. It just fills… Well, like I said, I grew up on the old stuff, the old East. So like, you know, basically like anything that ZLX plays, you know, you know, WELS.
Seamus Frawley: Yeah. I grew up on ZLX.
Chuck Murray: So it's like, whatever they were playing is what I was really listening to. But you know, it obviously evolved. And then when I was a kid, I got into rap, which I, which I love. Um, and then it's really just like a trend thing.
It's like a fad. I was big into the dead in high school, big into jazz. Um, it's really just like all it's, whatever I'm feeling and the weather certainly depicts what I'm listening to as well. You know what I mean? Like.
Seamus Frawley: The weather, the mood, the setting...
Chuck Murray: Yeah. So like now... now being springtime, I love driving windows down listening to acoustic music. So like Crosby, Stills and Nash, or, you know, Van Morrison, you know, all those kinds of the seventies and sixties, like rock and it'd be sick stuff.
Seamus Frawley: That's my comfort zone.
Chuck Murray: Right. But like during the winter that stuff just doesn't like fit the vibe. So I'll listen to like R and B, and I'm big into R and B. R and B, Soul and indie-alternative R and B that comes out today. I really like, there's some I really hate, but there's some really good stuff. I just love music that has emotion. I want to be able to hear something that doesn't sound like anything else, but I can hear your influences. I can hear where you're coming from, but you're creating this new thing. You know what I mean?
Seamus Frawley: You've built off it, right?
Chuck Murray: Yeah, yeah. Don't steal, but I definitely want to be able to hear like, I'll throw up. Can I throw some artists out there?
Seamus Frawley: Yeah. Go for it.
Chuck Murray: So like for R and B, like, I love all like the black females it's like says, uh, Ari Lennox, and they're kind of like sing-rapping and SCA.That's where she got the name since, uh, I used to call her S-C-A for the longest time. I felt dumb, but her name’s SCA (“scizzah”), they're great. I love those girls. I love like Steve Lacey. I love Odd Future. So I love like Tyler the Creator just cause that music is really weird. It's very odd, but it's cool. I think it fits the times really well. I mean, Tyler, like doesn't know how to produce music, but he produces wicked good music. You know what I mean? He doesn't know any like traditional, like he didn't go to school for it. It's he just learned it on his own. And so now it was like, he, he just won like best contemporary album or something and he produced the whole thing himself. You know what I mean? It's crazy. That is wild. Yeah. It's yeah. It's incredible. I love that. But like I said, anything that really gives me emotion. So like I'll even, I'll go like, I'll listen to country music, as long as it's giving me some kind of soul or blues, you know what I mean? Just give me like a feeling of some sort. Don't be bland to say what's the point.
Seamus Frawley: There's such like a stigma. It's like, yeah. I don't know if stigma is the right word. There's something around the Beatles where people either like, don't want to hear about it. I don't know what it is.
Chuck Murray:Yeah. They're just like, they're literally just pioneers. I know they're pioneers of me.
Chuck Murray: Learning how you play, your instrument is sick. But if you want to be the world's greatest guitar player? Good luck. Like holy cow. There's so many guitar players and there's so many good ones.
Seamus Frawley: What I've come to understand is that there are way many more people who are technically extremely talented, much, much fewer people who are creatively talented.
Chuck Murray: Right, right. Yeah. Well being creative, it's like, you have to be, you have to like, you can't just steal stuff and you can't just run scales. You can, you can play scales. We can fast. But if you can't phrase and you can't, you know, play melodies, it's like, what's the point. You know what I mean? But yeah, just trying to be the best guitar player, you should be the best guitar player you can be, but don't try to be the best guitar player in the world because that is such a far-fetched school. I've just found such joy in writing songs because like they're unique. And like, like I have so many voicemails on my phone. Like if I go back like three years and listened to a song I wrote, I can be like: “Oh my God. I remember where I was at that time.” You know what I mean? The songs I write now, it's like, you can see, I don't know, like a maturity kind of thing. You can see the growth, you know what I mean?
Seamus Frawley: Sort of like a timeline.
Chuck Murray: Yeah, It really is. That's why I love it. Mostly just cause like the songs I write are reflective of me and the times that I'm going through and whatever is going on in my life, you know what I mean? And I don't even know it at the time, but then like, I'll listen back and I'd be like, Oh man, like that's that line is really important at the time. And I didn't think it was, you know what I mean? I don't know. Yeah. It's like therapeutic because it's basically just me communicating with myself.
Seamus Frawley: You're expressing yourself.
Chuck Murray: Yeah. That’s all it is.
