Jake Remington
What drew you three years ago to the Phantom Regiment?
JR: When I went to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Paul Rennick, the percussion caption head at Phantom Regiment, started teaching lessons. I had a few friends who marched as members of Phantom who also took lessons from Paul. After talking to my friends I knew it was the place I needed to be, and here I am three years later.
CM: Tell me a little about this season.
JR: Phantom Regiment's pit this year is an amazing group of talented percussion players. We just have great music writing to play, and I love playing with these guys every single day.
CM: As a keyboard player, you have the opportunity to play with a lot of mallets. Is there anything you do to gear up for playing with four or five mallets at a time?
JR: It's fun. We practice excercises a lot with four mallets, and it's nice having great instructors who help make it a lot easier for us to excel.
CM: With as hard as you work rehearsing and performing during the summer, is there anything you do to keep it light and fun out there?
JR: We're playing a piece this year called "Vespertine Formations." It's a marimba quartet, and we've formed a club in the pit called the Vespertine Rangers. Each of us has a different bird name because our show is about flight. I'm a duck because my feet are bowed out and I walk like a duck. Haha!
CM: What has been your best moment so far this season?
JR: Tonight in Indianapolis there was a man in the front row just behind our instructors that was bawling his eyes out at the end of the show. It was the greatest feeling to see that. I got a huge lump in my throat, and I almost started tearing up because it was that emotional.
Watch Remington perform with Phantom Regiment on Sept. 5, 2007 at 10 p.m. Eastern time during the DCI World Championship television broadcast on ESPN2.
