Miss-Delectable
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Gooding's deaf drummer feels the beat - literally
After shows, the members of Ask Philips like to mingle with their audience, meeting fans and shaking hands. And though drummer Melissa Jensen is a teen girl in a band of 20-something men, it’s not just her beats that make her remarkable.
At 17, Jensen has become an ambassador for rockers in the world who happen to be deaf.
“After playing the music, we talk to fans and they are stunned I am deaf,” Jensen said. “I just let people know I have that feeling, and it doesn’t matter if you can understand it, you can feel it.”
Jensen, the baby of the group, first got a yen to rock out when she heard the beat paired with one Kurt Cobain.
“The first music that I remember hearing was Nirvana,” she said. “I would ask my brother, ‘What is that sound?’ And he would say, ‘The drums.’”
So at 7, she took over that brother’s unused drum kit. Like many children who terrorize their families with drumming, Jensen said she was drawn to her instrument of choice because it’s the loudest and coolest looking.
Soon, she was taking her talent to the house of a friend who had a better drum kit. She wasn’t looking to be in front of an audience, but her friends — after getting over the surprise at someone with a hearing impairment pounding away and even plunking on a guitar — asked her to jam. Next she was sitting in on her friend’s recording sessions on his laptop. After appearing as a session musician again and again, she was formally asked to join the band of friends who had grown up together.
“I felt like in shock and awe. I felt this is really cool,” Jensen said.
She wasn’t the only one. Chelsea Paulson, one of Jensen’s teachers at the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind in Gooding, said that when she met Jensen last fall, she knew the Rexburg teen was a well-rounded student. But Paulson was still taken aback by Jensen’s musical talent.
“I knew deafs could do that and there’s no problem,” Paulson said. “But she’s good. She’s very good. I knew there were some deaf bands, but wow.”
Paulson isn’t the only one surprised at how well Jensen can tackle drum rolls. Jensen said other people with trouble hearing were just as surprised as those in the hearing crowd.
“When I became involved with the deaf community, sometimes they’d ask me, ‘What do you do for fun, Melissa?’ I’d say, ‘I play the drums and guitar,’ and they’d be like, ‘How?’” Jensen said.
Jensen said she can hear music piped via earbuds, but more important than that is her ability to feel the rhythm.
Being in a band has allowed Jensen to meet a lot of people — something she loves — and through that, to help expand people’s picture of deafness. But even before meeting the people in the mosh pits, music means something to Jensen.
“When I talk with a person, I feel so disconnected, but when I listen to music, I feel connected,” she said. “I like to be involved with music because other people, they feel the same, they feel connected. When we play our music, people feel connected to it.”
After shows, the members of Ask Philips like to mingle with their audience, meeting fans and shaking hands. And though drummer Melissa Jensen is a teen girl in a band of 20-something men, it’s not just her beats that make her remarkable.
At 17, Jensen has become an ambassador for rockers in the world who happen to be deaf.
“After playing the music, we talk to fans and they are stunned I am deaf,” Jensen said. “I just let people know I have that feeling, and it doesn’t matter if you can understand it, you can feel it.”
Jensen, the baby of the group, first got a yen to rock out when she heard the beat paired with one Kurt Cobain.
“The first music that I remember hearing was Nirvana,” she said. “I would ask my brother, ‘What is that sound?’ And he would say, ‘The drums.’”
So at 7, she took over that brother’s unused drum kit. Like many children who terrorize their families with drumming, Jensen said she was drawn to her instrument of choice because it’s the loudest and coolest looking.
Soon, she was taking her talent to the house of a friend who had a better drum kit. She wasn’t looking to be in front of an audience, but her friends — after getting over the surprise at someone with a hearing impairment pounding away and even plunking on a guitar — asked her to jam. Next she was sitting in on her friend’s recording sessions on his laptop. After appearing as a session musician again and again, she was formally asked to join the band of friends who had grown up together.
“I felt like in shock and awe. I felt this is really cool,” Jensen said.
She wasn’t the only one. Chelsea Paulson, one of Jensen’s teachers at the Idaho School for the Deaf and the Blind in Gooding, said that when she met Jensen last fall, she knew the Rexburg teen was a well-rounded student. But Paulson was still taken aback by Jensen’s musical talent.
“I knew deafs could do that and there’s no problem,” Paulson said. “But she’s good. She’s very good. I knew there were some deaf bands, but wow.”
Paulson isn’t the only one surprised at how well Jensen can tackle drum rolls. Jensen said other people with trouble hearing were just as surprised as those in the hearing crowd.
“When I became involved with the deaf community, sometimes they’d ask me, ‘What do you do for fun, Melissa?’ I’d say, ‘I play the drums and guitar,’ and they’d be like, ‘How?’” Jensen said.
Jensen said she can hear music piped via earbuds, but more important than that is her ability to feel the rhythm.
Being in a band has allowed Jensen to meet a lot of people — something she loves — and through that, to help expand people’s picture of deafness. But even before meeting the people in the mosh pits, music means something to Jensen.
“When I talk with a person, I feel so disconnected, but when I listen to music, I feel connected,” she said. “I like to be involved with music because other people, they feel the same, they feel connected. When we play our music, people feel connected to it.”