Jake Remington
DCI.org’s Christina Mavroudis interviews Phantom Regiment front ensemble member Jake Remington, 21, a third-year member of the corps.
CM: 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
