THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 24, 1995 TAG: 9511220074
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ADAM BERNSTEIN, CAMPUS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long : 166 lines
A FEW WEEKS AGO, 20-year-old Jonathan Flax had a ``typical weekend.''
After taking two midterm exams, playing with his band during a grueling four-day tour and enduring nine hours of driving from school to gigs, he arrived back at his dormitory early Monday - just in time to shower and head to class.
``If I have to get in at 5:30 every morning on a Monday before I have a full load, then that's the breaks,'' Flax said. ``That's the price I pay for what I'm doing. . . . I can sleep when I'm dead.''
The young University of Virginia drummer and singer plays in a band aptly called Treading Water. The name matches his lifestyle to a T, as he constantly struggles to meet academic and professional challenges.
A graduate of Salem High School in Virginia Beach, Flax is a freshman at U.Va. after spending two years on the road with Treading Water, a local band that specializes in upbeat pop-rock-jazz originals.
Some weeks, however, he plays up to four nights with the quartet, which will record its first compact disc during the Thanksgiving break. It will play at the Sunset Grill in Virginia Beach at 10 p.m. Dec. 17, 20 and 26.
Music, though, is only one of Flax's interests. Besides considering working for the district attorney, he is contemplating teaching college-level history
and writing fiction or Christian apologetics.
``I feel 10 years older than I am sometimes,'' said Flax, who was wearing a baseball cap pointed backward, jeans and a black button-down shirt over a T-shirt. ``I feel that I've seen a lot of things about the real world that people don't see until they graduate from college. I think this leads to a great deal of perspective about what I'm paying for at this university and what I'm in store for in the real world, especially if I go into law.''
A few of Flax's school friends said they continually are amazed at his academic prowess in light of his demanding music career. Since the semester began, Flax said, he has played about 25 shows - and is still maintaining close to an A average.
``In his studies, he is very intellectually curious and not just here for the parties,'' said Bryan Hancock, 20, a junior from Atlanta. ``The partying part of college he's done. He's enjoying college for the learning aspect of it.''
Flax's roommate, Cooper Melton, 19, of Middlebury, Vt., said Flax is also strikingly unassuming. Melton said that when he exchanged letters with Flax this summer, Flax wrote only that he had ``musical interests.''
In fact, Flax has already recorded three albums.
He did the first, ``Days to Remember Years By,'' with the local group Hickey Necklace in 1992, while he was at Salem. That was followed by ``Passion Farmer'' in July 1994. He sold 1,500 copies of those tapes.
His most recent recording, titled ``Treading Water,'' was released in May. Flax made 500 copies and sold all of them.
His balancing act even mystifies himself sometimes.
``It's already becoming the greatest learning experience ever, but it's day by day,'' Flax said. ``You focus, you concentrate on time management. When you're one stage, you don't think about your midterm the next day, and when you're taking your midterm, you don't think about the show that night.''
Flax said his fierce sense of Christian spirituality helps.
``I have too much going on daily to not have to pause every once in a while,'' he said. ``My relationship with God is paramount. If I didn't have it, I'd be more lost than anything else, because I have somewhere to look for the answer, especially when it gets a little too complex. But it's never too complex for God, and that's a very big security.''
Though members of Treading Water wish he could spend more time on music, they, too, appreciate Flax's discipline.
Chris Commander, 24, of Chesapeake - a guitarist, vocalist and composer for the group - played in Hickey Necklace before three of the four members, including Flax, decided to form Treading Water in the summer of 1994.
Commander said Hickey Necklace benefited immediately from Flax's presence. ``Hickey Necklace was real disorganized before Jon,'' he said. ``He's such a stickler for perfection. Everything got real organized and real serious, because that's his personality.''
Flax's decision to attend college came at the end of a long and exhausting path of self-discovery.
Flax was the one who wanted to go, to make himself better rounded. His father, Tom Flax of Virginia Beach, was the one who initially resisted the idea because Jonathan had been so successful with Treading Water.
``My only reason was, as a parent, you like to see your kid follow through a dream,'' said Tom Flax, who works as a pharmacist in Norfolk and is the band's unofficial manager.
Flax's dream blossomed while he was a student at Salem. In the afternoon, he took music composition and appreciation classes at the Governor's School for the Arts in Norfolk.
``When you gave him a drum solo, you had to sit back and say, `Ah!' '' recalled Bill Clemons, assistant chairman of the Governor's School's music department. ``He also developed some personal styles. At the end of a performance, he would throw his sticks out in the audience, and the girls went wild.''
At the school, Flax also caught the jazz bug. Jazz drumming excited and challenged him like no other musical form. ``Ever since I started getting serious - at about age 14 or 15 - that was certainly the most versatile and the most interesting thing to play,'' Flax said.
His professional career began in 1992. He was working at a Chesapeake record store and met the manager of Hickey Necklace, who was looking for a new drummer. ``The only thing I knew about Hickey Necklace was that I hated their name,'' Flax said. But he signed on.
Flax said the turning point came in December 1992, when Hickey Necklace signed a deal with Cellar Door Entertainment, a prominent East Coast booking agency. The group played at clubs throughout Virginia, North Carolina and Washington.
``I was already going out of town in the middle of the week as a high school student, which was cool,'' he said. ``I missed about 55 of 180 days of high school, which has got to be a Virginia Beach record.''
Even so, Flax earned a membership in National Honor Society, a 3.7 grade point average and a following among some teachers. ``The teachers made night trips to see the band because they were so into it,'' he recalled.
But despite his academic success, Flax already knew he would postpone college. ``I didn't think twice about it,'' he said. ``I didn't send one application through the mail; I didn't take achievement tests like all my other friends were doing. I knew what I was going to be doing after high school.''
A few months after Trumpeter Records signed Hickey Necklace to record ``Passion Farmer'' in November 1993, the group split up. Flax, Commander and group member Jason Fletcher, 23, then formed Treading Water. When saxophonist James Medious, 33, joined the band in August 1995, the group knew it had captured its distinctive sound.
It hasn't been a total joy ride, though.
``The whole saga has been so eye-opening,'' Flax said. ``It's been a total education, more than I ever learned in the Governor's School or in regular school. I've learned more about how to interact with people, that there are shady people around this world, that the music business can be very disillusioning.''
But he has gotten to go places. Last fall, Flax was asked to play in Los Angeles, and he snapped up the chance. Ironically, that indulgence prompted Flax to return to school after his two-year hiatus from books and homework.
``I went to L.A. almost as much for the escape as for the incredible opportunity to see the West Coast and what that music scene was all about,'' he said. ``But when I got back, I was exhausted. I wanted to pursue things that I had repressed, pursuing music so one-sidedly.''
Flax said he applied only to U.Va. because it offered enough to let him explore all his interests while remaining relatively near the other band members, all of whom live in Hampton Roads.
``College is in no way a fallback,'' he said. ``It is the fact that I genuinely have goals other than musical ones. . . . My goals are not fame and money. My goal is to make a living and pursue what I love at the same time. And although I'm going to complain about stress every once in a while, I absolutely, positively would not have it any other way.''
Tom Flax is quick to point out that the Virginia Beach neighborhood in which his family lives features streets with names of musicians - Allman Court, Joplin Court, Baez Court.
``I don't know whether it means anything,'' Tom Flax said, ``but it's sort of a strange coincidence.''
It just may be Flax Court is not so far away. MEMO: Adam Bernstein is a senior at the University of Virginia majoring in
English. He is from West Redding, Conn.
ILLUSTRATION: Gary C. Knapp
The Virginian-Pilot
Jonathan Flax, a Salem High School graduate, finds time to perform
as a drummer with the pop-rock-jazz band Treading Water while
attending the University of Virginia.
Treadin Water, minus saxophonist james Medious, plays at O'Leary's
Irish Bar in Virginia Beach. The local band will record its first
compact disc during during the Thanksgiving vacation.
Flax has nearly an A average despite his hectic schedule.
by CNB