 Hi, I'm Kate Young, and you're listening to This is Purdue, the official podcast for Purdue University. As a Purdue alum and Indiana native, I know firsthand about the family of students and professors who are in it together, persistently pursuing and relentlessly rethinking. Who are the next game changers, difference makers, ceiling breakers, innovators? Who are these boiler makers? Join me as we feature students, faculty and alumni taking small steps toward their giant leaps and inspiring others to do the same. I mean, the Drum Crew has become my family. I've gotten to experience so many cool things through here. Grow as a person, kind of figure out who I am while I can represent Purdue at the highest level. It's been unforgettable and a really once-in-a-lifetime experience. I mean, there's nothing else like this out there. There's other big drums, but they don't do anything there where we do. They don't go out there on game days, performing tricks, sprinting down the field at full gallop. I mean, that's unique to us, and it's such a cool thing and such an honor to be a part of. If you've ever been to a Purdue University home football game, it's hard to imagine that experience without the Purdue All-American Marching Band. Established in 1886, the Purdue All-American Marching Band has become an icon of the university. This world-renowned band performs at each home football game and travels to concerts and festivals around the country and internationally. And of course, if you're an IndyCar fan, you've probably seen the band perform at the Indianapolis 500 as the official band of the Indy 500 since 1919. With more than 380 members, our band is the largest in the Big Ten and one of the largest in the entire nation. And an integral part of the band is Purdue's Big Bass Drum, also known as the world's largest drum. The drum recently celebrated its 100th birthday, and we caught up with Pam Nave. Pam's the associate professor of bands and orchestras and percussion instructor. She told us about what this iconic Purdue symbol means to her and the All-American Marching Band members. I think that because it's been around for 100 years, and it truly is the original shell, which as a percussionist who's got several degrees in this, I find that completely amazing. And if I ever look at the inside of this, it's super thin, but it is strong. And so the drum itself is just iconic in itself. But the fact that the crew does what they do, we've developed this over my 22 years being here. Before they would, when I got here was just running up and down the field. Now we've added the physical training to it, all these things that go in corporate to it, because to us it speaks for the university, not just our band department. Everywhere we go, we represent Purdue. And so we want these kids to be absolutely stellar at what they do. Talking, meeting fans, meeting unruly fans, anything like that. We want them to be amazing and can take care of themselves and take care of the drum. I had to teach them everything, which is totally fine, because that's my job, but it's a big deal. It really, really is. And after 100 years, 100 years celebrating this year. Wow. To me as a percussionist, finding a drum that's 100 years old, that is still in fantastic shape. That's actually really cool. As I said, we've recorded these interviews during Bandcamp. So you may hear some of the band in the background of our audio during this episode. But I'm hoping it'll give you that authentic feeling as if you're right there on site with us. After seeing Bandcamp firsthand on a 90-degree day, no less, I quickly realized how much time, effort, work, and dedication goes into being a member of the All-American Marching Band at Purdue. Right now we're in the midst of Bandcamp. I'm sure people can hear it. Yep, it's loud. This is a lot of rehearsal time. I mean, this is like a full-time job for these kids. So tell us about what all goes into not only Bandcamp, but the rehearsals all throughout the fall. At Bandcamp right now what's happening is all these students are auditioning all week. The freshman came in on Sunday, this past Sunday. The upper classman came in on Tuesday. Basically it's just training them what the Purdue way is. This is the Purdue way of the way we march. This is the Purdue way of our technique. This is the Purdue way we play music. And so this whole week is that process. You got to be able to play music in March at the same time. We're looking for attitude, making sure that they got a great attitude. We're looking for representation. We're looking for a willingness to work hard. And in this weather right now today, it's very humid today. And they're on a black top right now and they're sweating and it's hot, but they're there. At Bandcamp we're spending probably nine to ten hours out here a day. Every day. Every day. And then during the school year it's two hours a day, through 30 to 520. And then game days are maybe eight hours on a game day. For sure. And so 10 times eight is 18, so that's a part-time job. And plus they have to practice their music. They have to learn the drill. They have to be able to march the drill, play the music, watch the conductor. It's massive multitasking for every student out here. And not to mention the academics. Correct. I know that we have a slightly above average GPA on campus. I will tell you that these students are using their artistic side of their brains, as well as their academic side and the math and all those things. It makes for a great combination. So when they leave here, we hope that they can converse with people, have a conversation, talk about music. We want them to be on school boards. We want them to go all over wherever they go, play in a community band, be on school boards, promote music, all these things. That's what we want. We know they're going to be music majors. We want them to be projecting the arts into their communities and protecting them and making sure that it still happens. And speaking of the balance between academics and extracurriculars, one of the students within the All-American Marching Band balancing it all is Purdue senior Brandon Bledso, drum crew captain of the Big Base drum crew. So my title is drum crew captain or the one, which means I'm responsible for the drum crew and the world's largest drum. The reason why it's one is because the rest of the marching band, they have ranks and there's 10 people in a rank. So normally the people who are the student leaders are on the ends. So the one is the person on the left end and the 10 is on the right. The one and the 10 are the captain and co-capt. So I'm the one. And who's the 10? Meet Hannah Pike, a junior aeronautical and astronautical engineering major who is also the only female on the Big Base drum crew. It's nice to represent the female community within the drum line because there's more of us, but we're definitely lesser in numbers. So it's really nice to get to do that in such a public space. All the guys on the crew are like my brothers. We're all best friends. We're born big family. Even on the drum line, we're one big family. These are the people I go to when I need homework help or somebody to talk to. And these are my best friends that I'll probably stick with, probably for a really, really long time after college, specifically being a girl on the drum line and the drum crew. I really like having the opportunity to inspire other women to do things like this male dominant things. I'm also an engineering student. So I have that going for me as well. I have always found myself in male dominated things. And I find it as a really nice opportunity to inspire other women to do things like that. As I watched the hopeful students march across the hot black top that day, I could tell they all really wanted to make the cut. And all of this rehearsing was no walk in the park. Getting the opportunity to be a member of the prestigious All-American marching band is one thing, but the tryouts for the Big Base drum crew, that's a whole different level. And you were telling me earlier about this process. It's super physical. It's super rigorous. This is not a joke. Like it takes some serious physical endurance to handle this drum. Tell us about the process of being in the drum line and this drum overall. We take it very seriously. I mean, this drum is an icon for Purdue. It's been around for a hundred years and it's kind of an unofficial mascot. A lot of people think we're the actual mascot, but we're not. So as a representative of Purdue, we go through a very rigorous process. There's a PR test. There's a history test. There's a physical audition, which is the same as the air horses. So there's a mile and a half run, a hundred meter dash, 40 meter dash, a push-up test, a setup test, and finally a drum handling test. So that's actually working with the drum, learning the positions, how well can you move it, how well can you control it. And if you flunk any portion of it, you're out. You cannot flunk anything. No pressure. Hannah tells us about her audition process and claps back at anyone who may even hint that she can't keep up with the guys. Yes, it has happened. I've had people come up to me at football games and just like randomly on the sidewalk, like they'll sometimes say things like, oh, you're the only girl. How'd you get this spot? Must have been interesting. But honestly, I deserve to be here as much as anybody else because we do the same physical test. I completed them. I passed. I actually was a record setter for the females in our setup test. The record, I think, was about 88 and I beat it at 94. Nice. My freshman year. So I love to slide that in there whenever I can. I'm pretty proud of it. Got to say. And as Brandon explains, band practice doesn't always just mean rehearsing your instrument for shows. It's a lot of physical work that's put in in the gym and appearances and gigs outside of football games as well. So we have rehearsal every day, Monday through Friday from 3.30 to 5.30. And during that time, we do a lot of physical training. So we're doing a lot of running, a lot of push-ups, a lot of sit-ups. We work out in the gym, make sure we're lifting heavy weights, able to deal with the drum, spend time learning tricks. And on top of that, we also have game days on Saturdays which take about 12 hours anytime there's a game. That takes a good amount of time. But on top of all the other march band commitments with that, we also have outside gigs. So we'll go and we'll be there for student life and take pictures with people or go to preschool, you know, have all the little kids come up and hit the drum, you know, give them high-fives and just, you know, we're an iconic university. We're mascots. With a rich history of band first, innovation is key for our band. Purdue was the first marching band in the nation to break military ranks on the football field to form a letter, the Block P, back in 1907. Our band was also the first marching band to play the opposing school's fight song where their hats backwards after a conference victory, perform at Radio City Music Hall, receive an official performance invitation from China, and lead the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from the Big Ten, among other firsts. Pam discusses one of her favorite moments with the All-American Marching Band, which highlights the very first trick with the world's largest drum. The first time I put someone on top of the drum with the American flag, it was an idea I had a long time ago. I tested it out with a lot of departments on campus. I actually had someone come in and test if it can handle weight. I don't know exactly what that test is, but I had him check it. I put my smallest member up there. I was like, cool. Then we added a rope so they felt more stable, kind of like they're riding a horse or something. And then I thought, and that's what we did is we put an American flag with them. And I had him before pregame started our show, I had him start at the south end zone and just walk real slow across the field. And you could hear people finally seeing it happen. And it was the ripples, slow ripple of roar. Like, wow, you know, they'd never seen that before. It was amazing. The crowd was on their feet. They were cheering. And all we did was walk across the field, but it was proud, strong. That was touching when we did that after 9-11. That was the first show after 9-11. We really did that full-blown flag everywhere. Then we did that again. That was surreal. That was even more touching that we could give something like that back just a little bit. And there's no shortage of tricks with the big base drum. We're on. We're on. We're on. We're flipping out down. Three. Yeah, there's a lot more that we do. I mean, we consider ourselves showmen. So we tried to put on a good show. And I mean, the drum weighs 565 pounds. So it's a lot of mass that we're throwing around. But you can do a lot of cool tricks with it. One of the cool tricks we do are called aerials. We're going to put people on the front bar. We'll go and jump up and do a flip over on the front with people in the back kicking them up. There are times we run over other people with a drum line with the drum where it looks like we actually just hit them with the wheel, but they're perfectly fine. We'll do pull-ups off the side of the drum. There's a whole list of laundry list of tricks that we do. A whole laundry list? Hmm, this gave me an idea. Q Roadkill. This trick consists of a crew of four people running over a person with the 565 pound drum at full speed. And this time, that person was me. I seriously don't think my heart rate returned to normal for about an hour after that trick. Be sure to check out our Big Bass Drum videos on Purdue's YouTube page for more of all of these tricks. I've always wondered, how was Purdue's Big Bass Drum officially dubbed with the title of the world's largest drum? Well, luckily Brandon had to pass that PR history test we discussed previously, so he knows everything about it. Back in 1961, Cap Cap Asai, which is the marching man fraternity, they held a convention. They do it every year. During this year, we decided to hold a competition between us and the other drum that people thought was the world's largest drum, which was Big Bertha, down at the University of Texas. And both drums agreed to go to this competition. So we drove out all the way to Wichita, Kansas for it. We got there and they never showed. So because of that, we got the title of world's largest drum and have proudly awarded it since. And as Pam mentioned, this drum is an incredible condition for being 100 years old. Brandon tells us more about this historic drum. It's officially 100 years old. It's birthday was celebrated this past August 14th. So in 1921, August 14th, that officially was debuted out in Indianapolis. So we made this trip back over here to Purdue, where it's rightfully been for the past 100 years. It's a solid wooden shell. There's no internal supports, which is amazing for a drum size. The shell is completely original all the way from 100 years ago. The heads we changed a couple of times a year. So four heads a year. The rims will change occasionally. There has been damage done to the drum before when it's been traveling internationally. So we've had to replace some of the lugs on the outside. But other than that, we have six lugs that are original. The carriage that it is driven around on is completely original as well. It uses Ford Model A racing tires. As you can see from the spokes there, steel frame. It's as authentic as it gets. Just the wonderful co-captains of the big base drum crew that they are. The more I spoke with Hannah and Brandon, the more I learned about this drum. The head of the drum is actually painted by a local Lafayette man named Dave. And he does everything right at home in his garage. Brandon explains Dave's painting process. But it's really interesting the way he does it. He has one of those old time projectors that sat back in preschool and he just puts a little tensile up on there and just puts it up on his garage wall and just goes with the outline. And that's why I face the heads. Another interesting thing I learned during this interview was that several notable Purdue alumni were in the All-American marching band. Orville Redenbacher. You may know his name from Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popcorn. And R. Slater, the inventor of fiberglass. The Slater Center of Performing Arts, the site of the band's thrill on the hill football pep rallies is actually a gift from Slater and his wife. And another prominent Purdue alum who is also part of the All-American marching band, Neil Armstrong. Pam details Neil's involvement and passion for the band. He marched baritone. He was also in Kappa Kappa Psi, which is one of our music fraternities. He took his actual membership pin to the moon when he went. We still have it. He gave it to us. When he was around he would come to our rehearsals. He would just sneak in. And it was Neil Armstrong. And it was so funny because, you know, we watched people on the sidelines just to make sure everybody was okay. He was just by himself just watching. And we noticed who it was. And of course, I want to go meet Neil Armstrong. So I got to meet Neil Armstrong. That was for me, that was like super cool. You know, he was a member of our band and he still came back after years. Which shows how close this family is. It goes back over 100 years. It's always a link. You know, you meet people in the world and you say I'm from Purdue and then somehow they'll say, well, I was in band. Well, I was in band. What year were you in band? And then it forms a relationship where they were different generations. And so when we have alumni band, we put them inside with a, could be a current member alumni member, current member. So the alumni can meet the new kids and the kids can meet the alumni and form those relationships to us. It's also about networking. There who are, by the way, alumni, if you ever need kids for jobs, let's know. But, you know, the alumni out there are doing some great things and they come back to us. Hey, you got anybody in chemistry? I know someone who's really talented. It's not just about music. In fact, music is just the byproduct of what we do. It's important to us. Don't get me wrong. We want to be very good marching, playing everything. But it's also the relationships that we form as a faculty and a student as a staff and using this as a vehicle to bring us all together. It was clear to me that the All-American Marching Band is truly a family for all those involved. It's an amazing family. Every professor here is just so awesome. They've been with me through the best of times and the worst of times. And I've truly been one of these professors for me. They've been family. I've really enjoyed every minute I've been with this band and I've had so many great opportunities through it. I've gone through so many cool things. I've met so many celebrities and just so many cool events. It's just been such a great time. I really appreciate being part of this family. It really means to me that I get to represent the university that I'm so proud to be at. I take great pride in being on the drum line and specifically on the world's largest drum group. I worked really hard to be here, especially to be a co-captain. And I just really like representing my university and sort of showing what Purdue is all about through the marching band, honestly. I love marching band, so this is a great opportunity to get to do that. Within the All-American marching band, within the drum line itself, within this big bass drum, what does it mean to you, this family and this community? When I look at back on my career, I trained to teach at a school of music and this was my first position right out of college. I fell in love with the students. I fell in love with the fact that they did this because they volunteered. They can get a credit for it, but it doesn't last for very long as they're volunteering. They want to be here. They want to learn. They want to get better. And I fell in love with that. And so I stayed. What taught me over the first several years was I'm trying to adapt to this. I'm trying to adapt to all these really smart kids. You know, here I'm a musician around all these smart kids. And eventually what it turned into is when Professor Jake Ephart took over it started to become closer. The students were understanding that this is a family in the sense of we are going to take care of you. We are going to make sure that you're safe. We are going to make sure you're doing well in classes. We are going to make sure you're successful in life. So I tell people I use music as a vehicle to teach life skills, life things. This goes beyond music. This is our laboratory. So if kids fail here it's okay. But if they fail out there in the real world they could lose a job. Family member, who knows. So what we do is we try to teach these students what life is about with music. What would you say the most rewarding thing about leading this drum line and the big bass drum is for you? The students. No hesitation. That's the best reward. You meet new students every year. You form relationships with them. 18 hours together in a week you do get to know them. And by the end of their time here they want my recommendation letter. And I always ask you know hey do you know me as well as you know your chem prof or you know physics prof. They're like you know I know them pretty well but I really connect with you because of music. And so to me it's the student. That's why I stayed at Purdue. They're my focus. They're the reason I teach music. They're the reason I'm here in the hot 53 years old sweating. You know dressed like a kid because I feel like I'm in gym class. This is why I'm still here because of the students and our faculty is spot on. I mean our faculty and staff in our department just fantastic people we rely on each other outside of our work. We're all very close. And I actually think the students see that. They see that we're close. They see that we work together well. And we're hoping that they do that too but the best thing about what I do is the student. And what is it about the All-American marching band that seems to just exude the Boilermaker spirit and that sense of community. I ask Hannah who is involved in many different clubs and organizations why this Purdue community is so incredibly special to her. It's so special to me that you're so well balanced. You're majoring in engineering you're minoring in engineering you're the only girl as part of the big bass drum. How does this Boilermaker community in this Boilermaker spirit how does that impact you day to day. Yeah Purdue you know the Boilermaker community at Purdue has been amazing. I'm not going to go on to a school in Michigan but honestly I just really like the Purdue atmosphere and everything here especially the marching band that was a big pull for me because I really wanted to get involved on campus and that sort of thing and I thought this would be probably one of the best opportunities to do so. But yeah I don't know Purdue is an amazing campus great community. It's really you know compared to schools in Michigan it's really quiet which I really like especially being an engineering student and gives me a lot of time to study great and they've given me so many opportunities regarding like I'm a part of the minority engineering department so they've given me that and I've done a lot of volunteering for them they gave me band I've done a lot of volunteering with the volunteer management teams and band I'm part of the clothing team so we do the uniforms and we give uniforms to the band I'm also part of the idea team which is a new one as of last year it's the inclusion diversity equity and awareness team so we focus on the diversity within the band department as well as scholarships and that sort of thing I've gotten a couple band scholarships a couple engineering scholarships so Purdue has given me so many opportunities to do such great things and they really care about the students which I also really like there's a lot of study opportunities help opportunities within all these different departments and I really like that have we mentioned how impressive Hannah is oh my gosh oh no thank you Pam explains why music is so universal and how the band is able to share their presence of thousands of people throughout the world every year Purdue to me means basically family even the youngest kid two or three year old we hand them a mallet and they come up and they can barely swing the mallet in fact we have a kid mallet made for a little kid so it's lighter so they hit it and it shakes and they're just like you know they're maize or I have drumsticks with me all the time and if I see a little kid passing out along the way I'm recruiting really for drummers but I'm passing sticks out and you know the parents are really appreciative we're hitting kids little we're hitting adults you name it we've got the range music is a universal language without a question and it hits every age level every age level you know everybody likes sports too but you know maybe you can't play basketball at 95 I don't know you're awesome if you can but actually you can still play music if you're at 95 if you're physically capable you can't do this I wouldn't I wouldn't suggest anything like this but to me I think that that makes it a collective hope for the whole university is that we have a gift to give athletics have it has a gift to give ROTC has a gift to give PMO has a gift to give I think we all incorporate that and we give students a place to be and makes the university seem a little smaller we know it's big but it also is a collective whole can bring joy to those who aren't involved in any of these things and they can like it appreciate it enjoy it dance with it yell at it scream for it cheer for it you name it I think that's what makes it like a family gathering or something you know there's so many dynamics going on with everybody there that's kind of what this is and it's with everybody on campus not just what we do I love hearing how much pride Pam Hannah and Brandon have for the All-American marching band and for Purdue oh yeah I mean a drum crew has become my family that's why I'm so happy to be a student leader and be able to get back to them because they've really taken me in ever since I was a freshman part of it it's such a wonderful experience I've gotten to experience so many cool things through here grows a person kind of figure out who I am while in represent Purdue at the highest level it's been unforgettable and a really once in a lifetime experience I mean there's nothing else like this out there there's other big drums but they don't do anything there what we do they don't go out there on game days performing tricks that's unique to us and it's such a cool thing and such an honor to be a part of the one thing I want to say is how proud we are to be a part of Purdue and how proud we are as a faculty and staff and students to be able to do this in this setting and at a great university I would never thought I would ever work at a place where like something like this I'm just really happy that I have the position I had to meet the people like UK just met you today how cool is that that I get to meet all these people and travel all around the world there's no complaints here I think it's awesome don't forget to head to our youtube channel youtube.com to see videos of the big bass drum crew in action and you don't want to miss seeing me scared out of my mind as I got run over by this massive drum plus we're featuring the big bass drum on tiktok you can find us on tiktok at life at Purdue thanks for listening to this is Purdue for more information on this episode visit our website at purdue.edu slash podcast there you can head over to your favorite podcast app to subscribe and leave us a review and as always Boiler Up