“I like seeing the light bulb go off of people that have musical ideas but have a hard time getting it out of their heads. I love my job: I get to hang out with cool, young talent every single day. That is way better than flipping burgers or lifting boxes.”

Phil Pridemore teaches music with the Educare after-school program.

His journey into music and teaching started with a passion for music that shaped his life from an early age. Initially focused on his music career, he transitioned into teaching after a college professor recognized his deep knowledge of music and technology. He has found joy in helping students bring their musical ideas to life. For him, music is his heartbeat, his rhythm, his voice—it’s his identity, his connection to the world, and a source of endless learning.

Transcript:

Katelyn Hernandez: I’m Katelyn and I’m here with…

Phil Pridemore: Phil Pridemore. 

KH: Who is my music teacher, music instructor, music educator, Bestie Westie.

KH: Okay, so first question: What inspired you to pursue music and teaching?

PP: Uh, music came first and so I had already been doing music and had a career in music and when I got done with that, someone suggested that I take a music class in college.

KH: Mhm.

PP: And I didn’t want to and they said you’ll know if you like college, and if you like the class and like the first two weeks came by and I did. So I went to Cerritos College and I took a course and the teacher realized that I knew a lot about music and equipment and I got hired, the first month of my first semester of college and I already worked for the school after that.

KH: Nice-

PP: Because I knew more than the teacher with software.

KH: Damn that’s-

PP: So they gave me an aide position, like as a teacher’s aide. 

KH: Oh okay that’s cool. 

KH: Um who were- Who were some of your biggest musical influences, or just some of your biggest influences in general like who inspired you?

PP: For rock, it would be Sevendust because I went on tour with them. And then for rap uh, any LA rappers. 

KH: Mmm.

PP: And A Tribe Called Quest from the East Coast and Mobb Deep, those are my two East Coasts, and then the rest is LA.

KH: Okay, umm what do you enjoy most about being a music teacher?

PP: I like seeing the light bulb go off of people that have musical ideas but have a hard time getting it out of their heads. So I think every time that I’m with someone who is trying to make music or is trying to be creative and I see the light bulb go off when they figure it out how to do it, that keeps me wanting to come back every day. So I love my job: I get to hang out with cool, young talent every single day. That is way better than flipping burgers or lifting boxes.

KH: Yeah,.How do you think the world would be without music?

PH: I think it would be very bland. I think it would taste like something that’s tasteless or smell like something that has no scent. There would be no flavor in anything if there wasn’t music.

KH: Yeah.

PP: Even beating a stick on a drum or a pencil on a table becomes fun or entertaining. When done the right way.

KH: Um, is there a specific album or song by one of your favorite music artists that left a lasting impression on you?  

PP: That is a loaded question, Um that is a loaded question because I like a lot of different music and because music means so much to me in different ways that I’d have a lot of different answers to that question. Are you asking me that as a producer? I would have one album that I like. If you were asking me as someone who is a lyricist, I would have a different answer. If you were asking me as someone who likes film school or composition or orchestral music, I would probably have a different answer to that. And being that I love all music um yeah, I would- it would be a plethora of different music and genres just because you know, it just depends on what I’m looking at it as so yeah. 

KH: What first sparked your interest in music?

PP: Ohhh, that’s probably a question my parents need to answer but I was bad when I was young, and no one could figure out what my thing was, or what made me click, or what calmed me down, or what made me not bored or not um. And then, once we found out it was music, it was a wrap, that was my thing. That’s what calmed me down. That’s what kept me engaged. That’s what kept me motivated or inspired, Uh that’s what kept me um curious? 

KH: Mhm.

PP: Because then I wanted more, and then I wanted to hear more, then I wanted to listen to more and then I wanted to ask my parents, “Oh well, you have this album, who sounds like this or why did you start listening to them or what concert did they play in and who played with them at that concert? What year was that? Oh wow, you went to Woodstock, oh, who played there? Oh, do you have those albums? Can we buy those songs, I want to know about those” and we didn’t have MP3s or phones that had music so you had to buy an album, which means that-

Joe Anthony: Girls if you want to go to the art room it’s open!

Orlando: SHHHH.

Joe Anthony: Oh, my bad.

PP: Then, me and my parents got to go spend time together because we would go crate digging and we would go look for albums, but before that I was kinda like, I’m mad at you I don’t wanna talk to you parent, but now I have something in common with them. So, like it kind of opened up everything for me. 

KH: Yeah, um, was there a particular movement or experience that made you realize that music was your passion?

PP: Probably still around that time. Um, I think I’ve probably answered it with the other answer but um I think finding other people that had same musical interests or sitting around in a circle or talking about music like we’re doing now, that became my passion and then it’s a hunger. It’s like, even like, I hear you talk about it, and you’re hungry for more, more knowledge, more music. And sometimes it’s not going to matter what the genre is, because you’re going to hear influences or similarities and something that you never would have thought could possibly sound like that. And you’re like, oh my God, that sounds like, or I can hear this person on that, or I can hear this chord progression on that, or this would go really good with that. How many times have you sat and you said, oh my God, this song would go really good with this song-

KH: Yeahh.

PP: And you’re like, did anyone else ever think of this idea and then you know you look for those kind of people that have the same ideas.

KH: Yeah, okay, next question.

PP: I think that’s how bands happen [chuckles].

KH: Um, what was the first instrument you learned how to play and why did you choose it?

PP: [laughs] Clarinet and my parents chose it for me-no accordion- and they made me go to an accordion class and then clarinet.

KH: What’s an accordion?

PP: You know [mimics sound].

KH: OHHH LIKE THE BIG OL?

PP: Uhuh. 

KH: God damn, I could not do that. 

PP: Yeah and then piano and then forever piano.

KH: Mmm.

PP: Yup might have been flute somewhere in there too.

KH: Damn [inaudible].

[Someone playing guitar in the background]

KH: How has music shaped your life and your perspective on the world?

PP: It’s everything I am, I don’t think I would be who I am without music, not in work, not in my personal life. Um yeah, so it is who I am. Phil without music is not Phil.

KH: If you could be in the studio with any musician living or dead, who would it be?

PP: Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, Pharrell Williams, James Brown, Quincy Jones, anybody from the group Weather Report, Um Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan, A Tribe Called Quest, Yeah.

KH: If there’s one piece of advice you could give me as a student and learning musician, what would it be?

PP: Don’t stop learning and don’t think you know everything cause you don’t. And you know I always tell people I’m not going to quit teaching until I feel like I stopped learning and every day I come in here and I learn or see something new or I play with somebody younger and they play a different way or a different style or different kind of music and so, um it’s crazy ’cause you can listen to something new and be like “Oh my God I’ve never heard that” and you can be inspired, but you can find something that’s decades old or a classical album or something from a movie and be like “Oh my God I’ve never heard that before” and it inspires you the same. So I think music is timeless and um and it always inspires.

KH: Do you think the Illuminati is an actual thing? (I came up with this question at 3 am don’t come for me, Beyonce)

PP: Possible, it’s a possibility.

KH: Would you join it if you? 

PP: No.

KH: No?

PP: No.

KH: Yeah me neither that’s scary.

PP: Alright.

KH: Okayy Thank Youu!!

PP: Welcome!!