Do Peterson鈥檚 biostatistics dissertation starts out with folk, progresses to bluegrass and continues on through funk, disco, jazz and rock 鈥榥鈥� roll.
So Peterson, a Ph.D. program dropout, isn鈥檛 your average scholar, or your average artist for that matter. Rather, the 糖心少女research scientist combines his right- and left-brain passions to achieve balance, happiness, and one decidedly eclectic blend of science and music on Science Groove鈥檚 debut album, My Dissertation.
Peterson formed the band out of his desire to bring science to a broader audience through the arts. Someday he hopes to broaden Science Groove () to include visual arts and multi-media, all in an effort to make science more accessible to more people.
鈥淚 was working on this dissertation and I knew that the only people who were going to read this thing were going to be my committee members and maybe one or two people down the line 鈥� maybe,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 the story about the person who wrote a dissertation and stuck a $100 bill in it and put it back on the shelf in the library. Twenty years later he came back and the $100 bill was still in it. It might be folklore, but everybody knows that your dissertation just doesn鈥檛 get read. I didn鈥檛 want that for what I had worked on.鈥�
The collection of recordings draws inspiration from a 13-slide, 15-minute talk he gave to a group of physicians at a cardiovascular health conference about a year and a half ago.
鈥淎 friend of mine said, 鈥楬ey, why don鈥檛 you turn it into 13 songs?鈥� And I was just at the point where I was in the mood to do that kind of thing. I was so angry at her,鈥� Peterson recalled, laughing at the memory. 鈥淚 said, 鈥榊ou don鈥檛 understand how interesting that sounds to me.鈥� ”
Interesting enough that Peterson decided to drop his pursuit of a Ph.D., find a job so that he could stay near the friends he had developed in Seattle, and put his science to music. He wrote the songs and started looking for other musicians to complete the band.
He didn鈥檛 have to look far. Including Peterson there are nine band members with ties to the UW. Most come from science backgrounds or are English language teachers in 糖心少女Extension 鈥� where Peterson鈥檚 partner and Science Groove member Lori DeGloria works. The close-knit group began playing gigs over the summer and continues to practice together once a week.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e just my friends,鈥� Peterson said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an excuse to get together and have a party in my basement once a week with people I like. That鈥檚 really fun.鈥�
But the science really does drive the music. The lyrics are all science and the album鈥檚 first song, 鈥淧erformance,鈥� reads something like an abstract for the rest of the project.
Done a lot of work to get this far.
The knowledge I鈥檝e gained has come so hard.
Six long years of sweat and heart,
I take this work and create art.
It wasn鈥檛 always that way. Peterson tried to make a go of it as a professional musician. He found plenty of work, but the lifestyle proved to be too stressful 鈥� scurrying about to find his next gig, working odd hours, dealing with bounced paychecks. And even worse, he found his inspiration waning.
鈥淥nce I got out of college I thought I would really feel fulfilled by being an artist and doing music,鈥� Peterson said. 鈥淲hat I found out, much to my surprise, was that doing music doesn鈥檛 really inspire me. It鈥檚 living life that inspires me. After awhile I was doing so much music because I needed to make a living and finally it was like, 鈥榃here is the inspiration coming from?鈥� I felt like I was dipping from a very dry well.
鈥淚 guess the balance is really important. Balance between work that I find to be very interesting and then music or any art form to express it in a way that I think people might listen to. So, now at the age of 36, I feel like I finally have my act together.鈥�
Peterson鈥檚 adviser in the biostatistics program wasn鈥檛 surprised to see Science Groove take shape. Barbara McKnight says Peterson showed an interest in using the arts to express his science from the start and he never wavered.
鈥淒o has a certain maturity and direction about himself,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e didn鈥檛 let himself be swayed by what other people thought his direction should be. He knew what it was. He鈥檚 a really neat guy and fun to be around.鈥�
Perhaps not surprisingly, he鈥檚 also off the charts in the department when it comes to creativity, according to McKnight. Peterson learned early on that creativity could help him do more than make music.
Working full time as a musician taught him that people who might otherwise be uninterested would actually pay money to listen to his message, to any message, if it鈥檚 put to music. So when friends tell him that their child won鈥檛 stop listening to ASP 鈥� a funky Science Groove song about affected sibling pairs, distribution theory and linkage analysis data 鈥� it reinforces what he鈥檚 long suspected.
鈥淢aybe he doesn鈥檛 know what he鈥檚 listening to,鈥� Peterson said about the child, 鈥渂ut it鈥檚 a pleasant atmosphere in which to be introduced to the vocabulary of science and it鈥檚 a pleasant association with the material.鈥�
Science Groove will be playing songs from the first album along with some new material Nov. 17 at the Rendezvous, 2320 Second Ave. in Belltown. The inspiration for the new songs is keyboardist Greg Crowther鈥檚 physiology dissertation. The music, like on the first album, will be wide ranging, but, according to Peterson, not the same wide range.