Josie West is a drum major for Homewood High School's marching band.
Q: How long have you been involved with band?
A: I didn't start band until I was in 10th grade. I didn't join the band until I was in 10th grade at the high school. I didn't move to Homewood until the summer before 9th grade, and Mr. Cooper tried as hard as he could to get me to join band 9th grade. But, I was overwhelmed and didn't really understand what it meant to be in the band. And so, I spent my 9th grade year really wishing that I had joined band and joined up in 10th grade.
Q: What instruments do you play?
A: I play alto saxophone for the band. But, outside of band, I've played guitar since I was seven, and I started playing piano when I was in middle school.
Q: Why did you want to be a drum major?
A: I love music more than I can really say, simply because music offers me a whole new language with which to capture the world around me. "Where words fail, music speaks," Hans Christian Anderson, is one of my favorite quotes. Band made me feel like there was this whole community of people who understood this power of music and how it supersedes words in so many ways, and I really wanted to be able to foster that belonging and community that music creates on a larger level and a lot of a larger scale in this community.
Q: What’s your favorite part of being in band?
A: I've already talked about how I love this music and how it binds us together. Music is my favorite thing in the whole world, so I don't think it really counts to make it my favorite thing about band. So, I think I love these people more than anything else about band. They are the ones who take this party to the next level. I don't know if y'all all know this, but band is one of the most fun things ever. We have seen each other at our very best and our very worst in these relationships. They're what we're gonna remember. The music repeats itself. We are unique and different every single day.
Q: What are you excited for this year?
A: Truthfully, there's nothing I'm not excited for this year except for college applications. More than that, I think I'm really just excited to see where this music takes us and how we can bend and twist it in new ways beyond what's written and really show y'all what we've got, not only in the show but also next year in the spring for concert band, and to just see what's going to happen, to see where it's going to take us and what adventures it's gonna bring. I'm really excited for this year.
