Get an 8-track recorder and sound-engineer your own songs, one track at a time. Use it sparingly until the mid-1990s, when you resume songwriting as a creative outlet while working on your dissertation. As your interest in African politics takes precedence, dissolve the band and drop music almost entirely for the next dozen years or so.īuy an electric piano with your first paycheck from the World Bank in 1988. Go to lots of rock concerts by bands like The Police and UB40, and play more than 50 gigs, once as the opener for a Tom Robinson concert.Ĭut your first and only record at age 20 on a local label and see your music video appear-once-on Belgian TV. In college, form a better band-named (inexplicably) The Ice Creams. Sing in English despite having only an elementary grasp of the language. Play for the fun of it, but more importantly, to get the attention of girls. Start your own band-named Rhapsody for the famous song by Queen-at age 16. Ask your parents to have the family piano tuned so you can practice chords. Get your own guitar for your birthday, and take lessons from a high school student. Learn a few basic guitar chords from a Scout leader as a Cub Scout in Brussels, Belgium. To understand how a noted scholar of African politics became a veritable one-man rock band, PCM invites you to step briefly into his musical shoes. But his on-again, off-again love affair with writing and performing music has been on again for the past couple of years, and the evidence is mounting at a range of free, online music platforms. He’s more than content with his day job as a tenured professor at Pomona College. Professor of Politics Pierre Englebert has never had any illusions about becoming a rock star.
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