55: James Ikeda (the Michael Character) - the Folk Punk Educator

WELCOME TO THE EDUPUNX PODCAST

Photo: Nora Scott

James Ikeda is a high school History teacher, DIY musician, and an all-around brilliant human being. James is the type of person to have a lot of projects and ideas and energy to do cool creative work outside of the classroom. He also does some great work in the classroom - but through a much different approach. That’s the thing about James - he’s able to do both; the bit of being an authentic professional teacher, and the bit of being an authentic punk musician. And as you’ll learn in this conversation, everything is a bit.

So James came over to Craig and Katy’s place to sit down and chat for a couple of hours - it’s a lively, fun, and highly informative conversation that has many twists, turns, laughs, and inside jokes that develop over the course of the chat. We hope you enjoy this one - and know that there is A LOT more! So stay tuned because in a few days, we will share an extra episode that demonstrates what happens when Craig and James left the microphone on.

MUSIC NOTE:
- This week we shared tunes from James’ new LP as The Michael Character called, "That’s Why I Call Him Zachy," which comes out TOMORROW!
- The Michael Character is a brilliant folk punk educator who will play your living room, basement, or laundry room - we played the song, “Go For Broke,” which is off of his previous album, “Fame Swoll,” as well as the song, “28,” which is the single from the new album.
- Also, ALL of his music already available FOR FREE DOWNLOAD on his bandcamp site, so you have no reason to not download this album right now!

As always, you can CHECK OUT THE NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST!

ADVERTISING NOTES:
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- The current genre selections are Garage Rock and Ska-Punk, and for the next month, you can start your monthly vinyl subscription for $160, which gives you a FREE MONTH, after that it becomes $175 for the year.
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Thanks so much for tuning in and we will be back soon with a special extra episode!

Up the punx!
Let's get to work.