The Argus: Michael Roth’s “Welcome to Wesleyan” speeches always mention the wrestler who also does improv or the pre-med bio major who loves to write poetry. Not to say this isn’t an accurate portrayal of the average Wesleyan student, but I’m not sure I’ve met anyone who fits this description to a T more than you. Can you even list all the activities you’re involved in?
Spencer Hattendorf: Okay, I’m captain of the men’s crew team, I’m in the Spirits, I’m coordinator of the tour program, and I’m also in a band called the Rooks. And I just finished a musical—the Last Five Years. I’m also taking a break from a bunch of musical groups that I had been doing, like Mad Wow and Wordsmith, although they’re still kind of happening.
A: Wordsmith is still happening?
SH: Josh Smith and the Concert Gs are playing a show at Psi U on November 11—it’s basically going to be the release party for Wordsmith’s EP that we recorded last winter. We went up to a studio right next to Woodstock in upstate New York and recorded a five-track EP in three days. It was one of the coolest recording experiences I’ve ever had—the studio is an abandoned chapel and the overseer was the drummer for Peter Gabriel.
A: And Mad Wow?
SH: Mad Wow might be playing a show this semester, but I’m not sure. That was our big project for our whole time here and it’s weird to have that be gone. Mad Wow was a really fun party band—it was really big, which was kind of impractical to travel and coordinate with. Playing the tent party was one of the coolest musical experiences I’ve had at Wesleyan. I had never performed for that many people before. There were well over 1000 people there. It was set up so you could see the audience in front of you, but the bar was off to your left. For the first part, I was just focusing on the audience in front of me, which was packed with friends and alumni. But then at one point during the performance, Owen Callahan tapped me on the shoulder and was like, “Look over there.” I turned to my left, and there were twice as many people as I had thought.
A: So you’ve started a new musical project this year—tell me about that.
SH: The Rooks are a new project—Gabe Gordon, Graham Richman, Louis Russo (all class of ’11), Garth Taylor, Nate Mondschein, and I. All six of us are pretty close friends—we’ve been making music together since we’ve been on campus, with Mad Wow, Fly Machine, Wordsmith, and a few other side projects. We put this group together because we wanted to have a project that we could take away from Wesleyan to try to actually be a real band after college, as cliché as that may sound, so we started up this project at the end of last school year. I’m very excited to show Wesleyan what we’ve been working on. Of all the groups we’ve been in, it’s the one we’ve had the most group collaboration in, and it’s music that’s uniquely ours.
A: And you just finished up working on a musical, “The Last Five Years”?
SH: I came to Wesleyan thinking I wanted to major in theater, but I got distracted. I’ve always regretted not getting to do a show here, and this was the perfect opportunity. Plus, it was over before the crew season started—we rehearsed for three weeks and then put it up. I learned most of the script over the summer. It was so much fun to do and reminded me why I love doing theater. But it was also probably the most stressful time I’ve ever had at Wesleyan; we were rehearsing three to five hours a day leading up to the show, which is why I’ve only gone out one night so far this semester—and why I’m now trying to catch up on my thesis.
A: Speaking of which, tell me about your thesis.
SH: I’m doing a music thesis—a full-length composition with a performance. The group is seven musicians—three singers, two horns, drummer, and a keys/bass player (he plays bass with his left hand and keys with his right). It’s jazz, R&B, funk—it’ll be like if Stevie Wonder and Wayne Shorter adopted a child who was really into the Roots and the Dirty Projectors.
A: So you’re an African American Studies and music major. How did you switch from Theater?
SH: I knew I wanted to study music when I first started here. I started in theater, then Film, then a couple other things like econ and then settled on African American studies. I took some classes in the Music Department that were cross-listed with AfAm and got really interested in it. I realized that ethnic studies really does matter. This dominant narrative, what you see in textbooks, there’s so much more to American history and a lot of that story really needs to be told.
A: Why did you become the tour guide coordinator?
SH: I clearly really love Wesleyan and I had such a fantastic visit here, so I loved the idea of being able to make a difference in the eyes of a prospective student. Often when students visit a school, the only student interaction they get is with their tour guide. I loved the idea of being able to influence a student’s view of this place I love so much. What appealed to me most about being coordinator was being able to train tour guides, having an impact on how an entire staff portrays our school.
A: And you’re the captain of the crew team?
SH: I rowed in high school, and that’s one of the things I was looking at when applying to colleges: strong athletics as well as music. The team itself is a really great group of guys—a lot of really motivated people and really smart people. Crew is unlike any other sport in that it is entirely team-based. Every personal improvement you make goes toward a collective. Some people use the metaphor that you have to line up eight golfers at eight golf tees and have them strike the ball at the exact time for the exact same amount of yards over and over again. The satisfaction of winning crew races is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. And luckily we get to do that a lot on our team. As the captain, it’s been really great to see a lot of guys come through and help them get accustomed to college and sports and excited about something I’ve been excited about for four years.
A: Do you feel like all the activities you do work well together?
SH: Yes, I do. I feel like sometimes there is a conflict of interest, especially between athletics and arts. The biggest underlying factor between the activities I do is that everything is team-based. I really do love collaboration because I like people in general. But there is this divide between athletics and arts at Wesleyan that I often think is unnecessary. I think I’ve found a lot more support for arts within the athletic community than vice versa. One of the wonderful things about Wesleyan is that there are so many different types of people that create all these different subcultures, but sometimes it’s hard to get people to leave their group. I’d love to get musicians to come see a football game, but there’s this stigma that the football team sucks—which isn’t true! They’re actually quite good this year. I know a few other people who are involved in both communities and we all agree—there should be much more support for both of these communities within the other.
A: As you head out into the real word, what advice to you have for an incoming freshman?
SH: I’m not sure I’m qualified to give this answer.
A: You’re a tour guide!
SH: I guess, figure out what you want to get involved early on so you can spend as much time as possible with the people you love and you don’t waste time doing things you don’t enjoy. This is four years where you get to be completely irresponsible and very selfish—and that’s not a bad thing. If you waste any of that time worrying about things that aren’t going to matter in the long run, you’re going to kick yourself.