Rock Star Drummer Finds New Passion and Purpose at UM
By Abigail Lauten-Scrivner, UM News Service
MISSOULA – Often sporting a ball cap, denim shirt and sneakers, drummer and University of Montana Adjunct Professor John Wicks doesn’t particularly stand out in his Missoula stomping grounds. But six months ago, Wicks was closing a whirlwind chapter of his life that took him to national stages throughout the country.
A self-described “former jazz snob,” Wicks hustled for years to climb the music industry, bouncing between Seattle to New York City to Los Angeles and elsewhere. Then Wicks found success as a founding member of indie pop band Fitz and the Tantrums (think “Out of My League” and “HandClap”), and his life shifted into an even higher gear, touring and recording music with the platinum-recording band.
When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, it was the first time Wicks hit the brakes in three decades.
The pause let him go back to school online and earn the music degree he never finished. He spent more time in Missoula with his wife, Jenna Wicks – a Missoula native whom he owns Drum Coffee with – and their twin daughters. Leaving his family to tour on the road lost its appeal.
Wicks amiably parted from Fitz and the Tantrums at the end of last year. Having put down deep roots in the Garden City, his next chapter will be about becoming a larger part of its growth by shaping Missoula and the University’s futures through their developing music scene.
“If UM succeeds, so does Missoula, and that’s always been my ultimate goal,” Wicks said. “No one is looking at this school to be the next big thing, which is why it should be.”
Having lived in Missoula for 10 years and visited regularly with his wife for two decades prior, Wicks has seen its evolution from a small town that big artists typically skipped over to a viable stop for bands such as Fitz and the Tantrums at venues like KettleHouse Amphitheater. The combination of big venues with popular alternative spots like Free Cycles and Suite Two makes Missoula’s opportunity ripe, he said.
Wicks began teaching private drum set lessons at UM last fall, marking the first time campus offered drum set instruction. Spring semester, he rolled out a History of Hip Hop lecture course. The classes are part of a larger plan for the School of Music, but Wicks hopes the connective tissue between them the practical takeaways students leave with.
“My focus is giving students the skills that they need,” Wicks said. “That’s where I feel my real-world experience for the last 30 years is beneficial, because I know what’s happening in the music industry and how to make a living. Hopefully, I’m able to impart that so students have a little bit of a leg-up when they leave.
“There's a definite advantage to being someone who got their education on the street,” he added.
That unique advantage is why UM was eager to bring Wicks to campus, said School of Music Director Jennifer Cavanaugh.
While the school hosts many talented professors, Wicks’ success with popular music filled an expertise gap. Addressing it moved the school a step closer to its ambitions, she said.
“It's so refreshing to have someone who is passionate about teaching that came to the University on a completely different path,” Cavanaugh said. “I think it's going to ignite our entire program.”
Those ambitions include a budding Popular and Commercial Music advising track within the Bachelor of Music in Composition degree, aimed at expanding opportunities for UM graduates.
Still in development, the School of Music recently received curricular approval for the program expansion led by Professor Bryan Curt Kostors, head of composition. Wicks’ History of Hip Hop class was an early addition to the expansion, as was the Popular and Commercial Music Ensemble, which just had its inaugural year under the direction of Professor Johan Eriksson and will be taught by Wicks this fall. Kostors and Wicks will collaborate to develop the burgeoning track.
The new pathway will make the University a home for students who otherwise may not have felt they had a place. Cavanaugh said she’s often asked by prospective students who don’t want to follow a traditional music major path whether they’d fit at UM.
“I’m just so excited I can finally say ‘yes,’” Cavanaugh said.
The new track helps bring the school in sync with UM’s mission of inclusive prosperity. An electric violinist who finds passion playing new music will have as much a place as a traditional player inspired by the classical canon.
The track also will equip students with the artistic and entrepreneurial skills necessary to succeed in popular and commercial music. Partnerships with local businesses and entertainment venues will create opportunities for students that result in a pipeline to impactful jobs by the time they exit UM. Students in the Popular and Commercial Music Ensemble did just that last year by arranging their own tunes, promoting shows on and off campus, and staging a final performance at Suite Two, a Missoula venue.
“We have a responsibility to think about where these students are going and how they might contribute to society,” Cavanaugh said. “We saw how this could expand with John's decades of experience in the professional world. I think John can connect us with society in ways that those of us who have traditional academic training maybe haven’t been exposed to.”
One student who sought out Wicks’ mentorship was sophomore jazz studies student Simon Hickey, who’s also pursuing an Entertainment Management certificate.
A Missoula local, Hickey wasn’t keen to attend UM until his senior year of high school, when he heard Wicks would teach. Having played drums for six years, attending a college with a strong drum set instructor and jazz program was important.
The lessons pushed Hickey to challenge himself as a musician, leaving him impressed by his own progress. Those sessions and the hip hop class also instilled lessons from Wicks’ personal story, providing insight into how the music business functions and what pathways are most viable. Hickey learned Wicks’ philosophy that artists shouldn’t judge popular music as “less than” traditionally highbrow genres.
“It doesn’t have to be a bad word just because it’s popular – it’s the same notes and the same theory, the same everything. It’s just rebranded into something that’s more accessible,” Wicks said.
Hickey said Wicks often spoke frankly about how artists must be wary and advocate for themselves to avoid being taken advantage of, touching on issues of industry corruption that Hickey otherwise would’ve been blind to.
“It’s helpful to have someone educating me who’s been successful in the music industry,” Hickey said. “He’ll get deep, man. If you want to talk about music, he’ll be honest with you.”
Wicks recently connected Hickey with an audition for Rain, a popular Beatles tribute band. Playing the role of mentor and uplifting young musicians with opportunities to succeed is central to why Wicks wanted to teach, he said.
“That personal connection can be life changing,” Wicks said. “If there’s anything I can hope to provide, it would be that.”
Reflecting on his first year at UM, Wicks hopes his classroom is a space where students feel safe to push their limits and make mistakes. Teaching also reinvigorated his own passion, which he’s funneled into creative projects like the band Deaf Charlie with Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament.
“I have so much fricken’ fun with my students,” Wicks said. “When I’m around that energy, it makes me work harder on my own instrument. I can teach a full day of private lessons, and all I want to do when I get home is go practice.”
The Popular and Commercial Music track is funded by charitable donations. To give, contact Kia Liszak, director of Development for the College of the Arts and Media, at 406-243-5868 or kia.liszak@supportum.org.
Editor’s Note: To learn more about Wicks and view additional photos from his classes, visit John Wicks Finds New Passion and Purpose at UM.
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Contact: Jennifer Cavanaugh, UM School of Music director, 406-243-4535, jennifer.cavanaugh@umontana.edu; John Wicks, adjunct professor of drum set, john.wicks@mso.umt.edu.
