First Post

Hello, blog reader! As you can see in my profile, I'm Chris Kilian...the 12 year veteran member of the Bushwackers Drum and Bugle Corps. I wanted to put this together to give you a week-by-week account of the Bushwackers' season from my perspective. I'm going to try my best to be myself and to be as candid as possible at all times.

If you ever have questions about anything, you can always send me a message through here. I'm more than happy to talk to fans of the corps, haters of the corps, folks interested in marching, alumni of the drum corps...anyone. I like to think that I'm pretty easy to get along with, even though I can come off as being a little intense. I am a drum major, after all.

So, check back weekly, daily...whatever. I'm going to post at LEAST once a week, chronicling every weekend of the season from Memorial Day until Labor Day, and hopefully giving you a good sense of what it's like to be the drum major of the Bushwackers Drum and Bugle Corps.

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Here is just a little background on me, since this blog is written by me about my perspective of my corps. I thought you might like to know a little about your author.

I grew up in Philadelphia and I'm a die hard (and we often die hard) Eagles and Phillies fan. I began playing saxophone in the 4th grade, and switched to trumpet when I entered Archbishop Ryan High School. I had to give the trumpet up after some pretty major surgery during my freshman year, so back to sax it was. I marched sax for 2 more years and was the drum major my senior year. I was very busy between band and boy scouts, and I achieved the rank of Eagle Scout in 1995.

I attended West Chester University in PA, and participated in the marching band for 3 years on mellophone. I marched with Steve Rinda, the current visual caption head and drill designer for the Bushwackers, as well as many other past and present members of the corps. I served as a drill instructor there for my last 2 years, and fled the university in 2000 because I hated it and I needed to work. While at WCU I became a brother of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, where I served as vice president and FEO before my dramatic departure from the school.

I joined the Bushwackers in 1996 upon receiving a call at school from Bob Kidd, the current assistant director, former corps trouble-maker, and my high school visual instructor. Bob said that the corps needed an assistant drum major, and I decided I would audition. I walked into my first rehearsal (late) and was instantly proclaimed the ADM by brass caption head Dennis Argul. Yeah...that didn't exactly make the vets in the line real happy. I learned that year from Laurie Hall, who had won multiple world championships at the helm of the corps as well as in the horn line...and it was an interesting experience that I may or may not get into sometime.

I was cut from drum major during auditions in 1997 and was relegated to the baritone line. I was mad, but it ended up being a great experience. The Bush Baritones have always been a great group of people...very proud, and very, very loud. In 98 I quit for the first time to join the Cadets. I made it through the audition, but hated it because none of my vet friends would talk to me because I was a rookie. I left and went to Crossmen. I was easily one of the oldest people in the corps and hated that too...so I left and went back to Bush. We almost folded in 98, but we fought and fought and did really well by the end of the year. 98 was easily one of my top 3 years in the Bushwackers.

I was promoted back to drum major in 1999, along with Jerome Kimbrough. There are a ton of stories from 99-03 that I could tell...and I may at some point, but not now.

In 2004 I left the corps to pursue a career teaching in drum corps. The Bushwackers hired me. I was on brass staff for the entire winter, and recruited a rookie, Dena Berry, to take my place on the podium. We are now engaged (Sept. 13, 2008). Funny. Anyway, I ended up in the soprano line marching with Bob Kidd (my recruiter), and that was fun. 2005 I left the corps to become the brass caption head at Lehigh Valley Knights. There were issues that I WON'T go into here out of respect for the people involved, but suffice to say I left there and returned to Bush as the drum major...and I've been there ever since.

I'm currently the drum major, the assistant brass caption head, a visual instructor, and I'm on the board for the Bushwackers. I'm now the program coordinator for the Archbishop Ryan High School Marching "Raider" Band (my alma matter), I live very close to West Chester University (grrrr), and I really, honestly don't know what I would do with my weekends if I wasn't in drum corps. I know what I would do with SOME weekends...but the majority of my summer would suck. I'm also a freelance arranger and I perform leadership workshops, so if you need music or leadership type stuff...check out my link in my "links" section to the right.

That's all for now...that's a lot of background for you to digest, but it really only scratches the surface. Hopefully over the course of the summer, you'll get a sense for WHY I do this, WHY I keep coming back to the Bushwackers, and WHY I'm obsessed with this entire activity. I'm proud to be a professional band geek. :)