The ability to play multiple instruments, bandmates with fellow students, and a gig as a musician – well known as a Liberty math teacher and alumnus, students may be unaware of the fact that John Platter also has a rich musical background.
“I’ve been playing music since I can remember. My whole family was into music,” Platter said.
Though he played piano as a child, Platter really started getting serious when he got his first drum set.
“In fourth grade, I started playing a lot of drums. I took lessons, and I joined the Maywood middle school band. I tried to start a band with some friends, but we didn’t know what the heck we were doing, so we didn’t really get an actual band together until eigth grade, when we played some covers for the Maywood talent show,” Platter said.
Platter’s high school band – the Avian Survivors – included fellow Liberty alumni Andrew Knight & Chad Gardner.
After deciding to go into education as opposed to musical composition, Platter added a math endorsement to his degree before ending up teaching at Liberty.
“Originally, I went to college in musical composition. I got really into composition and orchestra, but realized it wasn’t what I wanted to do, so I went to education because that was another way I could do music. And then – thinking about my prospects as a music educator and realizing how few jobs there are, added a math endorsement to my degree. And now, here I am teaching math,” Platter said. “Maybe one day I’ll be a music teacher, but for now I love teaching math,” Platter said.
More recently however, Platter has joined up with both Knight and Gardner in a new project.
“Around five years ago, Chad was starting a band for a church, and asked me if I wanted to get involved… that project eventually became King’s Kaleidoscope,” Platter said. “Originally, they played without me a lot because I lived in Bellingham, and the commute was way too far – I would just join them for special occasions.”
Platter plays bass, piano, guitar, and plays drums along with another member in King’s Kaleidoscope.
“I’ve played a lot of really fun shows with them, most recently a Seattle show at the Crocodile, but we’ve played in places like South Carolina, Vancouver CA, & Ohio,” Platter said. “We’ll get contacted by universities and conferences to play music for their events, they fly us out, and we get to play for them. It’s a lot of fun, I really enjoy playing music with them. Some of them are some of my best friends.”
According to Platter, work on a new album is underway.
“We’ve been working on it for about three months now, with tons of writing and tons of recording,” Platter said. “It’s going to be great, and it’s been a ton of fun. The songs are very exciting and weird and cool. I’m really excited about it,”
According to Platter, the band plans on releasing the new album soon via vinyl and mp3 download.