Have You Heard: Scott Castro

By Lucy Hester

Collegian Reporter

"Cape Canaveral" -- Conor Oberst

"Tessellate" -- Tokyo Police Club

"Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" -- Arcade Fire

"You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" -- Bob Dylan

"Flight of the Conchords" -- David Bowie

"Fake Palindromes" -- Andrew Bird

"The Captive Mind" -- The Helio Sequence

"Skinny Love" -- Bon Iver

"She's A Jar" -- Wilco

Senior Scott Castro loves music. A DJ and director for WDCE 90.1, his recent discovery of the harmonica may be the present manifestation of his obsession, but his musical interests go back much further to a second-grade fascination with Green Day's 1994 punk rock album, "Dookie."

"I look back on that and think, what must my parents have thought I was becoming? It was a punk rock album.

Castro grew up listening to bands his father liked, such as Rush, Pink Floyd and the Outlaws. His father's tendency toward southern rock didn't catch on with Castro, but he said the folk aspect of that genre did work its way into his taste.

It should be no surprise, then, that Castro's musical idol is the supreme folk icon Bob Dylan. "Every song he writes is like a poem," Castro said. He went on to talk about how he admired Dylan's ability to make music that could be stripped down to the basic elements of one guy singing and playing his instrument.

"I think that's great, you know, because I think people would appreciate music more if they knew what went into making it," he said.

In terms of making music himself, Castro began playing trumpet in fourth grade. He kept it up through high school, and said that he even played in the Richmond pep band. "Before it disbanded," Castro said. Then added, "pun intended."

These days, Castro's instrument of choice is the guitar, which he first picked up on his own during high school.

In his early semesters at Richmond he took private lessons and several music classes. "I really recommend more freshmen take music theory classes for their arts requirement," he said. "When you learn how music is made and why certain notes work together and others don't, you appreciate music on a whole new level."

Castro also talked about the sense of community that music can create. He reminisced about a specific night where he and friend Tim Henry played guitar and harmonica for hours.

"That's what it's all about," he said. "If you can get a couple of people who know how to play something and get them together, that's what music is ultimately about, it's bringing people together"