One day earlier this summer, science teacher Timothy Hughes was scrolling through social media when he found a listing for a spot in a band.  Since music is his passion, he saw his chance and took it.

“I joined the band toward the beginning of (this) summer,” said Hughes, who plays the bass guitar and writes lyrics. “I wasn’t in a band (last year). I would jam with people informally, just for fun.”

When Hughes was a kid, he started to get into music. This was sparked by his father who was in a band before Hughes was born and played bass in a band in the 80s. Hughes listened to the band’s practices and that’s where he got his taste for music. Classic rock and psychedelic rock are mainly the musical genres his dad played and that’s what Hughes eventually played in his band as well.

“Music is everything to me honestly like there’s not a day goes by and I’m not listening to music, trying to make music, interacting with music in a creative way, (or) interacting with music in an analytical way,” Hughes said. 

Music is something that brings him a lot of happiness and occupies most of his headspace and thoughts. Hughes most definitely puts his heart and soul into his music and that might rub off to the other members as well. Music has given him a lot of new ideas and ideologies about the world and the things around him, it’s really become his major purpose in life.

“They’ve (musicians) helped me to develop ideologies around love and acceptance but also fighting for justice,” said Hughes, who plays psychedelic and indie rock. “I think musicians often have a really wonderful ideology and they share it in a way that I connect with really easily.” 

His role as a bassist is to flesh out any band’s sound and is the backbone of the whole band along with drums. However, Hughes is not only the bassist. He does other parts as well, like backup vocals.

But Hughes does not just record music at home and stream it. He also performs it anywhere he can find. Basically any venue, area or whatever his band can get booked, they play. Anyone can make music now and that’s a good and bad thing, he said. It means on one hand that anyone can publish anything with no boundaries or limitations, But on the other hand it means that it’s harder to break through as a new artist. That’s why it is key for Hughes’ band to perform live, so he can get a committed loyal audience.

“So the way that you get people listening to your stuff and committed to you is you create a loyal live audience right and then also you got to take the music to the people right,” said Hughes, who declined to have the name of his band published due to privacy reasons. “You got to put it on new ears and you gotta make it accessible.” 

Music is everything to Hughes and without it, he honestly would not have a purpose in his life, he said. It’s helped him grow, create, and love life even more. It’s become a key part in his life, and without it he doesn’t know what he’d do.

“I kind of see music these days as one of the main purposes of my life. I can’t exist if I’m not creating, I really do feel that way that I have to be somebody who makes music there’s no option.”