With MATC’s help, family finds harmony in music
Randy Yocum wasn’t happy as an electrician. Or a truck driver. Or even a trucking company owner.
Then he and his wife, Victoria, opened a coffeehouse in 2001. It was her dream. Because they both loved music, they booked musicians six nights a week and opened the mic to anyone, including their children, who were young at the time.
The family’s Fair Grounds Espresso Coffee shop near the State Fair grounds didn’t last beyond a few years. But the music did, and through it, Randy says he finally realized his future.
He and Victoria started a family band 12 years ago with two of their four kids. It’s called The Family Blend Band. They play at events, nursing homes and wherever else they can land a gig. Their music is a blend of genres, including Christian pop, customized for each occasion, Randy said.
The band inspired Randy, after a 32year absence from school, to pursue an associate’s degree in music occupations, which he just completed at Milwaukee Area Technical College this month.
“I’ve always loved music, but I thought my time for getting a music degree had passed, and I poured my life into raising our kids,” Randy told fellow graduates when he delivered the commencement speech. “Many of my personal goals and dreams were put on the back burner.”
Turns out one thing leads to another. Now 53, Randy didn’t plan any of it; he just stayed open to what came along.
“I loved everything and I wanted to do everything,” he later told a reporter. “Everything I touched, I could learn fast.
I was scattered, not focused.”
A graduate of Milwaukee Hamilton High School, Randy first fell into working as an electrical apprentice, then an electrical journeyman.
He became a truck driver — everything from bakery trucks to armored trucks to city buses and 18-wheelers.
That wasn’t his calling, he decided. So he and Victoria focused on a ministry in the arts for three years, including a children’s choir and puppet team. They worked with central city youth and had a teen center. Randy also coached youth basketball.
He started a trucking business that lasted about four years. The coffeehouse was open during part of that time.
“We’ve always been about supporting each other,” Randy said. “Sometimes we had to make sacrifices, but our children have always had what they needed.”
All four kids took to music while the family owned the coffeehouse, inspired by their parents and the young musicians who played there.
Randy was the first immediate family member to enroll in MATC’s music occupations program in 2013 (his brother Rick is a graduate of the same program). Daughter Tori joined Randy in the program in 2014, followed by son Jeremy in 2015.
The MATC program aims to prepare students for a career in music by helping them become well-rounded musicians. It teaches theory fundamentals such as reading, analysis, composition and ear training. Students choose either a performance or composition area of emphasis.
“We’re a unique program,” said Robbi Heighway, the program’s chair. “We’re not a jazz school or a classical school. We’re eclectic . ... We legitimize the musician who’s not a classical musician and wants to have a career, and we take it very seriously.”
Instructor Steve Peplin, who teaches guitar, music theory and ensembles, described the program as a hidden gem. But it’s well-known among local musicians, he said.
“It’s hard to find people in the Milwaukee music scene who have not come down here,” said Peplin, who also teaches at Lawrence University.
During the coffeehouse years, Randy taught son Jeremy a simple beat, which he practiced on stage with a plastic drum set every chance he got. Jeremy was about 6 or 7 years old — one year younger than his sister Tori, who’s now 21.
Tory remembers Jeremy hiding inside the kick drum when they played hide-and-seek.
They had an area in the upstairs of the coffeehouse where the kids could play. When they finished their homework, mom and coffee shop barista Victoria made them flavored steamers — steamed milk with a flavoring.
Victoria taught the kids how to sing, while Randy coached them on instruments.
Randy sings and plays guitar, bass and drums.
Twins Randy Jr. and Miranda aren’t in the family band but do perform. They appeared on the gospel stage at Summerfest; he played guitar and was lead singer; she played violin.
The coffeehouse the family loved cost them everything when it failed, Randy said. “We lost our house, the coffeehouse, the trucking business. That all died and the music was born.”
It’s one thing to play music with people you don’t know well and quite another to play with someone you’ve known your whole life, Tori said. “Our harmonies are really good because of it.”
Tori works for a catering company. She also works as a hotel coffee shop barista and teaches at the Brookfield Center for the Arts. She is taking classes through the Berklee School of Music’s online program.
Jeremy is still in school at MATC. Victoria works for the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans in customer service, training and doing voice-overs for videos the company produces for e-learning courses. Next up for Randy: RYMS.
The new business is named RYMS; short for Randy Yocum Music Services. He plans to teach. He also drives buses for kids with special needs.
“I’m the happiest person in the world because I get to do what I love to do,” Randy said. “I’m not standing on a cold ladder, working with wires. I’m not in a truck for 10 hours straight, driving down the interstate.
“I love music, and the relationships we form through music.”