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This is later with Lee Matthews the
Lee Matthews Podcast More What You Hear weekday

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afternoons on the Drive. Coinciding with
the Music in Our School's Month, the

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National Online Music Challenge is on and
Grammy nominated John Andresik of Fine for Fighting

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Partners with the Toolman Family for the
Music Matters Challenge, which is launching on

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Well this week. In fact,
so it's great to have John on with

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us with Fine for Fighting. John. What brought you to this organization in

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the first place? Hey, Lee, nice to be with you, Thanks

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for having me. Yeah. I
actually participated with the Telman Foundation a year

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and a half ago to write a
song called let Music Fill My World with

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eight high school students from Farragut Academy
in Chicago and Faragut Academy did not have

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a music teacher. They'd lost their
music teacher. So writing this song with

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these kids and going into the studio
and recording it, they wrote the whole

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lyric. I came up with the
concept, but it was their words.

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Through that process, we raised money
and we provided a school music teacher for

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Farragut that'll be starting next year for
three years at a salary of a quarter

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million dollars, so we had a
lot of applicants and we wanted to take

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that nationally, and we have four
million kids in this country don't have a

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music teacher. And what the Music
Matter Challenge is is everybody can enter and

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make a little video of talking about
a music teacher or someone who made a

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difference in their life and tell that
story and also sing a little bit of

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let music film my world, or
dance to it or play an instrument to

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it. And at the end of
April, we'll pick ten finalists and then

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the public will vote and the winner
will participate with the Taulmann Foundation and me

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again to provide a school music teacher
for school in need. Win ten thousand

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dollars, and there's a school prize
so schools can compete against each other and

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they'll win a twenty five thousand dollars
grant. But what really it is is

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raising awareness for music in the schools
because as you know, Lee, it's

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it's critical. Music is critical,
especially for young people, and that's what

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we're after. Well, I don't
know about you, John o'drassic. I

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had a very fulfilling high school and
middle school of experience because of music.

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Music for me was Okay, I'm
going to forget about that science test I

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didn't do well, and I'm going
to forget about whether or not I'm going

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to understand the math lesson. I'm
about to go into and we're going to

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sing some songs and make some music
for forty five fifty minutes. So not

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only was it a break from the
rest of the day, it gave your

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brain something else to do. And
at the same time you were learning.

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You didn't realize you were learning counting, you were you know, we were

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learning rhythm, you were learning how
to put things together. That was what

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it was for me. I don't
know if you had the same experience in

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high school I did, of course, you know, and if you look

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at the metrics, it may not
seem like it. But look, students

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that have music teachers, they perform
much better academically in the sciences, in

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the reading and writing, graduation rates
are higher, social anxiety decreases, It

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brings us together, It lets us
find our voice. You know, we

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could talk for an hour about all
the metrics, and some you know,

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some administrators look at music as extracurricular
and as you just mentioned, it's not

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it's critical and we need to kind
of put that in the same class as

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all the really you know, the
standard math reading writing. Because look,

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if you have a child and you
see how music comes into their life,

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you can tell right away that their
view expands, their their learning expands,

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their discipline expands. So just like
you, you know, music was critical.

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I was a math major, you
know, in college. But yeah,

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but yeah, but music, music, I think kind of allowed me

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to excel. So I think it's
for all of us, and it's important

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that we recognize that. Well,
your circle of fifths I think can be

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easily translated into accidentimals. Look at
you, John and Drasaka five for fighting

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and he is here talking about the
music in our schools. Well, it's

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music in our Schools month. But
the Music Matters challenge which is on uh

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and uh the uh you're you're partnering
with this? Was was? I mean?

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Was this by accident or did they
reach out to you? But Tolman

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found family is amazing. They've actually
I've known Glenn Sulman the dad, for

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for decades. They supported me when
I went to Ukraine and performed a song

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with Ukrainian Orchestra. They do amazing
work in Chicago. They just want to

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make the world a better place,
and they do a lot of work in

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Chicago and these inner city schools.
So you know, we're blessed to have

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their resources, but more importantly their
passion, you know, and their expertise,

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and their heart and soul, and
you and I I think are about

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of the same generation. I was
sad to say I didn't take that many

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years after I left high school to
learn that my high school had shut down

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most of their musical program. I
think they still have just very little,

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but most of the musical program was
phased out for what we've already talked about,

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it was considered extracurricular. Well,
look, the reason I'm here is

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when LA Unified cut music funding for
my elementary school, my mom volunteered and

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started putting on musicals. And you
know, Lee, I was Tony at

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West Side Story. Whether I had
the talent or it was nepotism, we'll

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leave that for someone else to decide. But again, fifty years later,

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you know, those kids that were
in that class, you know, still

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reach out to my mom and talk
about how important that was. And I

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think that's exactly why we're here.
So I'm trying to pay it forward for

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Mom, and you're doing it with
Five for Fighting, your group and the

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challenge which is on the Tulman Family
and Music Matters Challenge. You and Five

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for Fighting also are about to or
are you already on tour again? Yeah,

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I'm actually starting. I'm actually in
New York now and we'll be hitting

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Fargo, North Dakota. I'll be
checking off my fiftieth state, so I'll

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be able to say I've been every
state in this lovely, wonderful nation of

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ours. And we'll be going through
April seventh, and then I'm taking a

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little detour to Israel to do some
work there, come back, and we'll

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wrap up our tour on the West
Coast. All the dates are up on

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five Forfighting dot com. I'm playing
with an amazing string quartet, so those

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musicians just blow my mind. My
violin player, Katie won a Tony Award,

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so they always inspire me every night. And there's nothing better than sitting

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with people and telling some stories and
playing some music. Well, this is

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going to be kind of like the
old MTV unplug days, isn't it.

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The sound totally yeah and totally behind
the music and those are the shows I

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love to see my favorite artists,
you know, James Taylor with a guitar,

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Billy Joel sitting at a piano and
giving them the time to you know,

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where did that song come from?
Here? I work when I wrote

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this song, you know it is. So that's a lot of fun for

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performer as well. No, I
used to love the old Harry Chapin shows.

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All of his shows were like that, Oh yeah, amazing. You

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know there's something about an artist with
their instrument, you know, in a

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very intimate setting, a smaller venue, that's very special and we as performers.

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I think for me, it's the
favorite way to express and play my

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songs. John Andressica five for fighting
and partnering with the Toolman family for the

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Music Matters Challenge. Hey, where
can people go to learn more about the

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challenge? Yeah, thank you for
asking. All you have to do is

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go to the website let music filmyworld
dot com. All the informations there for

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everybody. You don't need to be
a great singer, and just know that

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folks will be will be participating to
raise money for a music teacher, whether

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you win or not. So it's
a lot of fun. The main thing

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is have fun, participate and I
can't start. I can't wait to see

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everybody's videos as we launched this amazing
project. John Andrassica, Fine for fighting,

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Thank you for bringing the charity to
us, and thanks for all the

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great music Go Thunder. Thanks for
listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the

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Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to
listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from

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five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation