(By Meredith Haas ’24, editor)
Chaotic. That’s how Josh Tindall would describe the lifestyle he lives.
For many LVC students, Professor Tindall is a name that may go unrecognized – unless you’re a student in the music department.
Tindall had roots at LVC long before becoming a professor. He became a student at the school in 1998, attending for five years to complete a double major in music with a concentration in piano and business administration.
Immediately following his five years of undergrad, Tindall began pursuing his Master of Business Administration (MBA). Simultaneously, a piano professor was needed to fill a hole in the department, and Tindall was the perfect candidate.
“I was basically recruited right out of undergrad, which was cool,” Tindall said. “I was teaching and getting a degree at the same time.”
While his initial duties originally started just with teaching music classes, as demand from LVC changed, so did Tindall’s role. He was now being asked to teach more gen eds.
“LVC redid their Constellation LVC plan, so as a part of that, they were looking for folks to teach an integrative class,” Tindall said. “I saw pop culture as a way to bring in both what I knew and popular things of today.”
The pop culture that Tindall is referring to is the “Pop Culture: Entertainment Industry and You” integrative class, a course that explores how pop culture and the entertainment industry both shape and are shaped by today’s society. Despite being relatively new, the course is already a favorite among students, filling up with a waitlist almost every semester it has run.
Although the course topic itself is interesting, perhaps we can attribute the popularity of this course to Tindall’s laid-back teaching style.
“I teach classes the way I learn the most, because I feel like what worked for me is what works well for a lot of students.”
Most of the class is open discussion and activity-based, lacking the most dreaded elements of college classes: quizzes and exams.
“I want to create an anxiety-free environment as much as possible. All I want is for students to engage.”
While teaching is a huge part of Tindall’s life, there is a whole other side to him that many students don’t know about.
Tindall is in a band.
His favorite part about it?
“Being a rockstar.”
Music has always been a part of his life. He was surrounded by music from a very young age, and by the age of 13 or 14, Tindall himself started playing in bands.
“My dad was in a band. Just going to different events and being around music is what got me to start in a band,” Tindall said. “What I did when I first started out was mostly older music for older crowds. Completely different than now.”
It wasn’t until around 2015 that Tindall kickstarted a band of his own – Josh Squared, a band made up of himself, another Josh (hence the name) who was a student of Tindall’s, a drummer, guitarist, and a female singer who is also a graduate of LVC.
Off to a slow start, the band really got on their feet in 2016. Not easy, the band persevered and overcame the typical challenges that come with asserting yourself as a true band.
“We were on track to have our best year in 2020, when COVID hit and knocked us off our feet. In 2021, things started ramping up and by 2022 and 2023, we’re slammed with gigs.”
Today, Josh Squared is a well-known band in the nearby and surrounding areas, traveling up and down the east coast performing at various events. From weddings and corporate events, to parties, restaurants and casinos, the Josh Squared Band does it all.
Tindall admits that the entertainment industry surely isn’t for everyone, but he feels confident that he is right where he belongs.
“When it comes to the entertainment industry, you have to love it. I would not advise anyone get into it unless you really love it because if you don’t, you won’t make it. You know you are in the right place in terms of career path because even if everything goes wrong in the job, you are happier to be there than anywhere else. A musician needs to be a musician. Leading a band, playing an instrument. I never expected to do it for this long, but I’m glad that I do. I love everything about what I do.”
To him, the busy schedule is all worth it, and it has been since the beginning.
“I just remember at one point looking out and just being so happy – maybe happy isn’t the right word – so excited to be doing my own thing. I wouldn’t have even cared if we had completely bombed it. I was just so proud of myself.”
He spends his daytime as a professor, and his night times as a performer. It’s a delicate balance that allows him to do both.
“LVC is semester-based and everything happens during the day, so I have evenings and weekends free for performances. So, the timing really works out and fits together well. You’re kind of always in performance mindset. You don’t really balance things; you just get used to living in chaos.”
Tindall sends all his students away every class period with the same message, one that applies to both his music career and his teaching: “Don’t pursue perfection, pursue excellence.”
Pursuing excellence can look like many different things, but to Tindall, it means being open to learning all the time. Both on stage and in a classroom setting, he’s tasked with getting to know many different people with huge differences.
“The more you know, the more you’re willing to learn, the more compassion you can have.”