The Man Behind Lake Symphony

Editor's Note: All Photographs by Evan Duncan

Tell us about yourself.

Spencer Tuckerman, 20 years old, I'm "from" Cleveland, but I'm currently in Cincinnati attending school at The University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. I'm a full time student majoring in Electronic Media.

What aspect of your life defines you? What makes you you?
That's a pretty loaded question, and there's a few ways to answer it, I guess. But I think probably the most honest way to define yourself is by looking at your actions. I guess by definition, you are what you do. In that case, I'd probably have to just say that I'm an artist. That's a really loose term, and I don't really like it, but it's what I do. It's what I spend most of my time doing. Just creating.

How does it define you?
Like I said, it's what I spend most of my time doing. But I think it goes farther than that. It's how my brain is "wired", some people are wired to be scientists and doctors. They could go to college and take all these science and math classes and become a doctor, and they would be the happiest people alive. I guess God didn't make me that way, because that sounds terrible to me. If I don't take time every day to create SOMETHING, ANYTHING, I feel all out of whack. I feel like doctors don't have that. And that's what's awesome. It really speaks to how God made everyone different. We're all wired to glorify Him in our own ways, and it all works together. It's kind of a beautiful thing if you think about it like that.

What made do this for the first time? Why did you continue? 

I think the first time I ever willingly created anything I was in like 4th grade. I've always enjoyed writing in school, but I got an urge to write poetry. I can still remember most of that first poem I wrote, and it wasn't very good, but it gave me a ridiculous amount of satisfaction. The 9 year old version of me thought it was really cool that I could channel whatever it was that I was experiencing or thinking about at the time, write it on a piece of paper, and then literally see the physical manifestation of something that happened in my brain. And then I was able to let someone else read it, and they would understand whatever it was better than I was able to explain it in a conversation. And the coolest part was that it could convey emotions. Being able to make someone else actually FEEL something with your creation is still one of my favorite things about making any kind of art.
 

How does it impact your life? How would your life be different if you had never experienced this? I think at this point, creation is one of the most important parts of my life. It's like a runner going for their morning run. I need that release. If I don't get some kind of creative energy out every day, I get cranky, weird feeling.

Looking back is there anything about this that you would have avoided? 

I don't know if there's anything I necessarily would've avoided. But there are definitely drawbacks, if that's what you mean. I would love to be going to school here knowing that when I graduate, I'll step off the stage and someone will say: "Hey, good job! I'm gonna give you a million dollars a year until you retire. In return, go create new things every day. Have fun!" The fact of the matter is, the economy is terrible, and artists don't make very good money in the first place. It kind of sucks in some respects, but I know that I could be paid minimum wage, and as long as I'm where God wants me to be, I'll be good. I don't think he would've given me such a passion for music and art if I wasn't supposed to use it, so I'm hoping I get to do this kind of stuff for a while.

Tell us about your last album.
My last album, Lake Symphony, is probably my pride-and-joy as far as my "art" goes. I get inspired by a lot of things, and I think that's easy to pick up on just from listening to the album. There's like 4 or 5 different movie clips used throughout the music, just because movies are my inspiration a lot of the time. A lot of the album and the lyrics/poetry/writing/whatever that comes with it, was inspired by my trip to South Sudan this summer. One of the biggest inspirations was just summer in general. I love warm weather, and I LOVE LAKES. I don't know what it is, but I'm obsessed with lakes. One of my goals in life is to live in a little house on a lake. While I was making the album, I sort of started to notice that a lot of the music had a real "symphony" feel to it. Obviously, the perfect name was Lake Symphony.

What did you hope to accomplish with Lake Symphony?
At the end of last year, I wrote down a big list of things I wanted to accomplish in 2012, in addition to making this album, I also wanted to get a t-shirt made. It's something I've been meaning to do for a couple years, and when I asked Tom if it was a possibility, the perfect opportunity presented itself, and he tweaked one of my earlier album cover designs and made it t-shirt ready, since that's his forte, and definitely not mine.

Go buy a shirt! The 9 year old version of me would be super excited to see you walking around wearing the physical manifestation of something that happened in my brain.

(C) 2012, Predicate Attire