After seeing a fair amount of garage-rock bands play less than mind blowing shows, I started to ask myself, “What’s missing here?” It’s not that I don’t enjoy watching grungy boys in tight jeans sing about cars, girls and money, but there are only so many ways you can make the combination of the guitar chords G, A and C sound interesting. Luckily for me, Music freshman Josh Fink and Communication freshman Eric Yarnell are solving this musical dilemma by adding the ukulele to the mix.
“The ukulele is an extremely hard instrument to play,” Fink says. “It doesn’t use normal European musical notation, and it’s not like a violin where the strings are positioned from lowest to highest. They’re kind of all over the place.”
Though Fink has played the upright bass for 12 years, and is majoring in bass performance, he says it’s the ukulele that truly keeps his heart beating.
“Two years ago I was at a music store and I saw it on the wall and it struck me: I had to play it,” Fink says with a slight quiver in his voice. “I can play the ukulele like Jesus does religion.”
Since that fateful day, Fink has become quite an accomplished ukulele player, getting paid to show off his self-taught skills.
“I’ve played in small clubs in Minneapolis, but mostly gigs in coffee houses and opening for main acts in small venues,” Fink says of performing in his hometown. “Minneapolis is like the second Hawaii – the ukulele has a very nice cult following there.”
Upon arriving at Northwestern, Fink decided to expand his ukulele performance arena. Fink looked to members of his alternative rock band, the Argyles, for inspiration. He teamed up with bandmate Yarnell to focus on this new calling, and the product turned out to be a cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”
“It’s ukulele driven, which is lacking today in music,” says Yarnell, who sings lead on the track. “The song itself is solid musically, and the technical aspect is there. There’s a hint of parody too. But most parody songs are shoddily put together, and little attention is paid to the music.”
The song isn’t just a showcase of Yarnell’s scratchy C-level vocals and Fink’s shredding, distortion-heavy ukulele solo, but it’s also a tribute to – what else – the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“We wanted to inspire (the hurricane victims) with a survival song,” Fink says. “We hope it helps and maybe they can smile again.”
For those interested in hearing the song, e-mail [email protected] to request a copy.
While NU’s School of Music has yet to incorporate an independent study program for the ukulele, Fink isn’t discouraged.
“I can play Bach on this thing like none other,” he says.4
Medill sophomore Kate Puhala is the PLAY music editor. She can be reached at [email protected].