Jazz Band students serve as garage band in Rent

 Electric Guitar

Guitarist Jacob DeBoie decided to participate in “RENT” because “it seemed like it’d be fun, a good way to get involved,” he said.

He is a music major and member of the Jazz Band at MHCC. After earning a degree in psychology from the University of Oregon, he decided to pursue music. “It seemed like a lot more fun,” he said.

DeBoie picked up the guitar to play with friends when he was in middle school and has continued to play since. His ambition is either to play or teach music.

“It’s just fun to turn up and play louder and more aggressive music than you would in jazz,” he said.

Although guitar is his primary instrument, he also can play the trumpet and keyboard.

 

 Drums

Nick Nera conquered reading music for drums for the first time for “RENT”. He started playing drums about 10 years ago. However, he primarily plays the trumpet.

“It’s been a little of an uphill battle for us, but it was pretty easy to fall into it,” he said of prepping for the show.

Nera he wanted to play for “RENT” because he could play with his friends and he also was familiar with its music. “You have that confidence since you play with them all the time,” he said.

He has always had a love for rock and roll music. But, he finds that “surprisingly, there are a lot of jazz elements that have gone into this musical.”

Nera has played music for more than five stage productions over the years, but this is his first time literally being on stage with the actors.

“This setting definitely stretches our musical abilities a lot more just because it’s a lot more of having to concentrate more, because sometimes the singers take liberties,” he said.

Nera hopes to pursue music after receiving a degree in music education, because “at the end of the day it’s the thing that makes me happy to do,” he said.

He has performed in bands alongside Joey Boyer and Tyler Nelson, as well as a jazz sextet hat has travelled around to play various gigs.

“Playing with these guys has reaffirmed my passion in music, essentially,” he said.

 

Piano

“I’ve always wanted to be in a musical,” said Joey Boyer, pianist for “RENT”.

He was familiar with the music and was a fan of the production, because the band is not in the pit.

“You’re on stage and you’re a part of it, so it’s really cool. I dig that,” he said. “It’s a lot nicer being on stage because you can see what’s happening. It helps you blend with it better.”

Piano is Boyer’s primary instrument and he has been playing for six years. Kevin Lambert also will play piano for “RENT”; however, Boyer will focus chiefly on piano while Lambert will do many sound effects.

“I like small groups for their intimacy,” Boyer said. “Just putting it together is so cool. It’s just this great feeling when every sound comes together.”

He is currently a double major, in music and computer science. “Music is the pleasure part and my other major is the business part,” he said.

Boyer has been recording piano mash-up tracks and covers for his group of friends to record. “My goal is to try and put jazz in the spotlight again,” he said.

 

   Electric Bass 

Coming from a family of musicians, Tyler Nelson said music is something that would have been hard to escape.

Music has “really been the one constant in my upbringing,” he said.

Nelson began playing saxophone in sixth grade and also was on drum line for three years. He was game to try something new, even though he describes learning to read music for the electric bass like “trying to speak English with a dog’s mouth.”

He plays funk in a band called “Philly’s Phunkestra” and has accompanied musicals in the past.

In 2011, Nelson conducted a show for Shoestring Community Players, a theater in St. Helens, after playing in the pit for three years. He also played for Stumptown Stages last year.

As for “RENT”, “it’s nice to be able to see what’s going on onstage, for once,” he said. “It’s way better than just sitting in the pit and trying to listen to everything on a monitor.”

Nelson is pursuing a music degree and thinks skull, metal, or other alternative music would be cool to get into.