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A Musical Life: Pete Studtmann

Pete Studtmann is a Wichita-based bassist with a variety of credits, including stints in bands such as Lather and, most recently, False Flag ICT.

"When I turned 18 I could start going to bars in Wichita to see shows. There was a local band called the Roach Egg Invasion. I latched onto them right away. They were very open and supportive fun people. They had house parties every so often and I went. I asked the bass player, ‘Tommy, can I play your bass?’ He said, ‘Sure!’ where some guys would say, ‘Don’t touch it.’ They’d go, ‘Keep playing, keep playing.’ It was just this encouraging environment that I was in.

"I was hooked. I really enjoyed it, the good or the bad of it. I did play with some wonderful people. Of all the people that I played with, there’s no one that I hated. I learned something from everybody. That’s what was really cool about it. Somebody would go, ‘What are you playing?’ I’d say, ‘This’ and they’d say, ‘Why don’t you try this?’ I was always receptive to learning something or I’d watch somebody else play and go, ‘That’s really cool.’ Then go home and see if I could do it. Sometimes I could."

Jedd Beaudoin is host/producer of the nationally syndicated program Strange Currency. He created and host the podcast Into Music, which examines musical mentorship and creative approaches to the composition, recording and performance of songs. As a music journalist, his work has appeared in PopMatters, Vox, No Depression and Keyboard Magazine.