DHS graduate chose education over music

As colleges continue to release their acceptances, more and more DHS students are making decisions that will determine the course of their lives after high school. Balancing the pros and cons of prospective colleges can be a stressful experience for any person facing adulthood. Most students fear the prospect of a poor decision or a missed opportunity. One DHS alumnus can relate to the pain of a missed opportunity. Jordan Kozer, who graduated in 2003, was the drummer of The Redwalls, a rock band of DHS students. The British Invasion Revivalist band traveled the world, created three records and toured with very successful acts. However, Kozer left the band before it reached its peak. His disappointment about missing out on the band’s success led him to spiral into depression.

In 2001, two DHS brothers, Justin and Logan Baren, started a British Invasion cover band with their friend Andrew Langer. With Justin on vocals and guitar, Logan on bass and Langer on lead guitar, they needed a drummer to complete their band. That’s where Kozer came in. As a junior, Kozer was in Geology class with Logan. The two spoke about music often and decided to play together. With their lineup complete, the four of them formed The Pages.

As The Pages, they performed around the Chicago area, getting gigs at Pops for Champagne and Evanston’s Tommy Nevin’s Live. As they refined their musical skills, the band started writing original songs. By 2003, Kozer’s senior year, the band had been renamed The Redwalls and released their first album, Universal Blues, with Undertow Music. The DHS faculty began to take notice of their success.

“I remember seeing them back at Tommy Nevin’s and then I saw them at Lollapalooza twice,” English teacher Neil Rigler said. “It was wild, I would go to Lollapalooza and see former students and their parents. It was pretty cool. It wasn’t just this cute thing I was going to see my students perform. It was legit. I was enjoying this as a music nerd.”

The band also achieved critical success. In a time where garageband rock was rising in prominence through bands like The Strokes and The White Stripes, The Redwalls were seen as a comforting throwback to a simpler sound.

“This music is energetic, fun, and catchy as hell, and one can’t help but think that some big things are in store for this fine young band in the near future,” Adrien Begrand of Popmatters said in her review for Universal Blues.

The band seemed poised for success, but Kozer, raised by a family that prioritized financial security, thought that the music life wasn’t the safest course of action. Although they produced a well-received album, the band didn’t see a lot of financial success. Kozer had to choose between music and college.

“It was one of the toughest decisions I ever made, but I decided that the best thing for me to do at the time was to go to school,” Kozer said. “At the time we were in California, Andy Slater was the president of Capitol Records and he told me it was the worst decision I ever made in my life. That was one of the hardest things I ever heard. It was scary, I wanted to do it so badly, I loved music and right at that point The Redwalls got handpicked to go on tour with Oasis and that’s around the time I left to go to school.”

Kozer went to DePaul University, where he studied at the business school and received a degree in marketing and sales leadership. Meanwhile, The Redwalls signed their second album with Capitol Records and toured across Europe. Kozer kept in touch with the members during his college years and even helped them record music. He continued to play with various bands on campus. However, his disappointment in missing out on a once in a lifetime experience made him depressed during his first few years of college.

“It made it tough because I wanted to travel with them and be the full-time drummer, but it just wasn’t possible with school. It was really a focus thing. I felt like every time I was working on a paper or every time I had a test coming up, a lot of my mind was thinking about music and thinking that I could be in the UK right now, traveling and playing in front of all these people. I wanted to be out there so bad,” Kozer said

After graduating college in 2007, Kozer toured with Extra Furman and the Harpoons. He considered this his chance to make up for his missed opportunity. After months of touring, Kozer got a job at the consulting firm Salesforce.com. He worked there for several years while still drumming on the weekends. He didn’t accept that leaving The Redwalls was a good decision until the band fell apart in 2010. Since The Redwalls, Kozer has played with over fifty bands. He still records music, but believes that his dual commitments to work and music are holding him back from complete success in either field.

“I haven’t had the focus on just one thing. I feel like people who can focus just on music or just on work have a lot of success and I was really doing both things at the same time. I would work all day and do music all night and wake up tired the next day because I had been playing music all night. It was just this recurring cycle of exhaustion probably for the last 10 years,” Kozer said.

Now, as a 29-year-old, Kozer believes he made the right decision. Despite initial regret in his post-high school plans, he has still been able to pursue his passion in his adult life. However, he still looks back on his time with The Redwalls with pride.

“Looking back, it’s easy to look at them as the greatest band I played with. I got to do some of the most amazing things with them. I look back on that as some of the fondest memories I’ve had yet,” Kozer said.