Gainesville, Florida, home to the Cade Museum, is a university town famous for being the home of nine members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Thanks to technology to harness their creativity, a fresh crop of Gainesville musicians are using their music to bring comfort and joy during troubled times. This is the story of 25 musicians with Gainesville connections, collectively known as Band Together, and their collaboration on a music video that has brought relief to thousands of music lovers and ordinary people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

TRANSCRIPT:

Intro: 0:01

Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade the podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida, the museum is named after James Robert Cade, who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We'll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them, we'll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace

James Di Virgilio: 0:38

For Radio Cade, I'm James Di Virgilio. The mission of the Cade includes not only technology, but also arts. And within that, especially music. Past entrepreneurs and scientists who have been guest on this show where musicians, including Robert Cade himself. Today, we are joined by three musicians, Bob McPeak, Rob Rothschild , and Chris DeMakes. They're here to tell us about the technology and the creativity behind the collaborative made at home music videos that certainly are proliferating in the age of COVID-19. They're part of the amazing tradition of Gainesville, Florida music, a university city that is part of the story of Tom petty and the Heartbreakers, the Eagles Bo Diddley, Stephen Sills, the Motels, Less Than Jake, Sister Hazel, River, Phoenix, Against Me, Minnie Riperton, and many more. 25 musicians from Gainesville recently joined together, calling their band, Band Together, to make a music video of a song called "On the Other Side", which has been generating quite a bit of attention. Welcome to the show Bob, Rob Rothschild, and Chris DeMakes

Bob McPeak: 1:43

Hi. Great to be here. Thank you, James.

James Di Virgilio: 1:45

Now, Bob, you started this project Band Together, and you're also an example of someone who is both scientist and musician.

Bob McPeak: 1:52

That's right. Although a lot of people who know me as a musician don't know that I am a social scientist. I received a PhD from Ohio state university in social psychology way back in 1976.

James Di Virgilio: 2:06

And how did you wind up getting into music, social psychology to music, or do those two overlap? It seems sort of like a leap?

Bob McPeak: 2:12

It is an unusual combination, I think, although certainly not unprecedented. Uh , I started playing guitar when I was 14 and I got hooked on it and played in bands all the way through college. But at the end of my third year of graduate school, I was picked by the psychology department to go to this place in Greensboro, North Carolina called the Center for Creative Leadership. And one of the things I did while I was there was to take a career workshop from the vice president of the Center for Creative Leadership, whose name is David Campbell. He was a really remarkable guy. You may have heard of the Strong Campbell Vocational Interest Blank, which is a psychometric instrument that's supposed to help you determine a career choice. And he did a career workshop and we went through all these exercises and every exercise that we