You may have seen Drew Flanagan ’10 hanging out on Foss Hill on spring days playing his guitar or harmonica. Though he loves chatting about his music and history, he was completely astonished by his new celebrity status. Impossibly modest as he may be, I only had to listen to him for a few minutes to realize that this thoughtful and introspective guy knows exactly what he is talking about.
Argus: So, Drew, why do you think that you are a WesCeleb?
Drew Flanagan: Well, clearly I don’t! I guess people might consider me one because I have been writing folk music since I was a freshman here. I took up the guitar at the end of my senior year of high school. I played the violin ever since I was old enough to remember, maybe since fourth grade, but long enough ago that it feels like a long time ago. I guess I’m a musical person, that’s what people know about me. I play the Westco open mics almost every week, which are a really amazing thing—you should stick a plug in there for them since they’ve done such a good job with it and with getting people out there. Music has always been a hobby for me. I never saw it going anywhere as a career wise, but I’ve gotten a good response from people on campus, so I’m very flattered by that.
A: Why folk music?
DF: Well, I come from a classical background, obviously as a violinist, but also because the first music I listened to was classical. I sort of found folk music through that because it was pleasant to someone’s ears who had been tuned in to classical music. The standard that I held my music to was more a standard of beauty than a standard of excitement or whatever. I wasn’t looking for the same things in music that other people were at that age, that age being seventeen or so. I also received my musical education from mostly older, sort of 60s and 70s music, but especially Cat Stevens and Neil Young; they were very important to me. Paul Simon, too. Actually, my plan was to learn to play the guitar well enough to play Paul Simon songs, that’s it, it was a limited goal and I reached it, then I was like, “Well what do I do next?” That was the short-term goal. Something about folk just suits me, for while I am an energetic person and an outgoing person, I’m not a very loud person, so maybe that’s it.
A: What instruments do you play?
DF: Other than guitar and violin, sometimes I sling a harmonica around my neck. I played the mandolin for a little while, but I had to sell it. I play a little viola because I picked it up to help a friend. Viola players are always in demand because it is a random, misfit instrument—you have to wonder how it was invented. I’ve always wanted to play the cello because I think it has this really deep expressive voice that you can’t get from anything else. I love percussive cello. There is a great blue grass band that played here a little while ago, maybe two years, and they have amazing rhythms that are almost entirely the bowing of the cello and I love that. I think the cello is the best string instrument for cello.
A: Are you a music major?
DF: I’m a European history major, actually.
A: Are you doing a thesis?
DF: I am. I’m writing a thesis about the French resistance against the Nazis in World War II, but I’m focusing on a particular individual who was the leader of a political organization prior to the war that has been widely considered to be a fascist organization. His name was François de La Rocque. I’m trying to challenge a prevailing narrative about this individual who is very well known in France, not so much here, who is widely considered the best runner up for a possible French fascist leader prior to World War II. I’m trying to examine his legacy in light of his service to the resistance against the Nazis because I think it reflects on the complexity of his character that he was not a Nazi sympathizer. He actually converted his political party into a resistance network.
A: Why history?
DF: When I was younger I was at a pretty high reading level, like most people at this school probably were, and so I read a lot of novels. I made a seamless transition into reading history through biographies. I think it is the characters that draw me to history—I described my thesis and it’s about an individual, an individual who is controversial, who has some pathos, who has some personal interest, and who may or may not have been wronged by history.
A: Who are your favorite historical individuals?
DF: I tend to like the ones that I wouldn’t like as people, who are complicated. I was always interested in Nicolas II of Russia, the last czar. I really like the lasts of royal lines, like the last Mughal emperor of India. He was a poet and he didn’t rule anything more than the walls of his own palace and was just a puppet but he became the center of this wild drama. Stories like that—sad stories, human stories—that are transferable. I love stories like that.