Beats Bind Both Coasts
3/23/2011 12:00:00 AM | Ice Hockey
March 23, 2011
By Josh Leskar, U-M Athletic Media Relations
Before every game, the University of Michigan ice hockey team warms up to three songs: All I Do Is Win by DJ Khaled, All the Above by Milo, and Dynamite by Taio Cruz. All three are popular songs and top 40 hits from 2010 that the players chose to get them pumped up and ready for game time.
However, if you pulled the cord from Yost Ice Arena and plugged it into senior forward Scooter Vaughan's computer, you would hear a completely different sound: one that doesn't exactly gel with most of the team's preferences.
Vaughan has been passionate about house music (a type of electronic dance music) ever since, "I realized how it was made."
At the age of 12, he received his first turntable as a Christmas present. He taught himself how to use it by playing Earth Wind & Fire and Prince vinyl records over and over again. By his senior year of high school, he found his own style and began to fully appreciate the subtle nuances of music so much that he decided to start the process of creating his own. Little did he know that he would find a companion at Michigan who would share his passion for composition.
When Mac Bennett arrived in Ann Arbor last fall, he became privy to the fact that Vaughan occasionally played disc jockey at a few of the local clubs, and how he liked to create some of his own music along the way. So, as good teammates do, Vaughan brought Bennett under his wing and took him along for the ride through the passion they both share.
As student-athletes, Bennett and Vaughan are often strapped for time. "It's not like we sit down for eight hours at a time. We do a little bit, and then take breaks," Bennett poses. "Sometimes we'll play a specific sound over and over and over again. I'm really good at finding annoying sounds."
 Mac Bennett  | |
Vaughan doesn't hesitate to agree. "Yeah, he always finds the worst noises."
Whether as a relief from the rigors of school, or on bus rides to and from away games, the two find time to sit and work together on their creations. "Obviously, we have other stuff going on during the week: practice and school work. But we'll work for an hour, hour and a half, when we're done."
"It is so much better than watching a movie. It is something proactive," Vaughan adds in between beat-boxing.
So what does it mean to them?
"I just like the idea that I can put a whole bunch of songs together that I really like, say 'I made this,' and play it before a hockey game to get me pumped up," Bennett says.
As for Vaughan, he hopes for the day that his tracks can be played at clubs for thousands of people, and know that he is getting people on the dance floor thanks to his beats.
On the surface, Vaughan and Bennett could not be more different. Vaughan is from southern California (Placentia), while Bennett resides 2,938 miles away in Narragansett, R.I. Vaughan is a senior, Bennett a freshman. One's a forward (Vaughan), one's a defenseman (Bennett). While they both came to Ann Arbor for hockey, that's not the only thing that connects them. Each constantly refers to the music they create as "our songs," and Vaughan even says that he thinks, "We have a keen ear for it."
Two completely different people bound by their love of hockey and the sounds of house music.
