Alumni Spotlight: From the Highland Parking Lot to Valencia, Spain with Ben Wirjosemito

Photo: Victor Garcia / IG: @VikPamNox

Name: Ben Wirjosemito

Instrument / Years Marched: 2001 Pit Percussionist, 2002 & 2003 Snare

Where are you originally from? Born in San Antonio, TX but mostly grew up in Westmont, New Jersey.

Where do you live now? I’m currently living in Valencia, Spain.

What are you up these days?

After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in History from West Chester University, I wanted to gain experience abroad teaching English as a second language and learn another language. So, I decided to move to Southern China. I was living and working there as a teacher and also working part-time drumming in a Filipino cover band at the local German and Irish pub for expats. There, I met my future wife and after my teaching contract ended, I moved with her to her home country of Spain where we got married.

Afterward, we decided to move back to China where I taught History at an American-Chinese International School in Guangzhou and later moved to Qingdao with the same school to be the Academic Director of the Study Abroad program. After 6 full years in China, and now being fluent in the language, I decided to give Spain a go and got a job teaching at a British international school in Valencia.

During that time, I met a couple of well-known bands who were looking for drummers and I decided to audition. Now I’m playing in both bands (Badlands & Junior Mackenzie) who have brought me all around the Iberian peninsula playing in major festivals like Mad Cool and Sonorama Ribera sharing stages with Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys and many more.

Currently, I have left my teaching job to dedicate myself full-time to drumming with both groups as well as promote myself more as a freelance studio drummer and online drum instructor.

What brought you to Surf initially?

My mother marched drum corps when she was a teenager and it was always an activity that she had a passion for ever since. When my brother Zach was old enough, he started marching bass drum with the Raiders. He was really the first brother to join, and it kind of trickled down from there. We all did marching band in high school and I believe it was my middle brother Adam who joined Surf with some friends of his. My mother was a huge help preparing all of the meals for Surf the years Adam marched and so I was always hanging around. Once I was old enough, I joined.

What is your favorite memory from when you marched?

My favorite memory from marching with Surf was when we were chosen to drum on the Brooklyn Bridge for the IMAX movie “PULSE: A Stomp Odyssey“. That was an incredible experience to go through as a young drummer. It was freezing cold, windy, and we had only had a few days to prepare for the shoot. In the end, we had loads of fun playing together with guys who we really got along with well. Later, to see Surf marching across the Brooklyn Bridge in IMAX was really incredible. It’s something I’ll never forget.

How did your experience at Surf influence you in your life/work/etc.?

There are so many ways that my experience with Surf influenced my life and my current work situation. Dedication, hard work, diligence, perseverance, determination – these are all qualities that I first learned marching with Surf. Dedicating hundreds, if not thousands of practice hours to a show, working through the scorching heat of summer days outside for 16 hours at a time, traveling across the country in a bus with 100 other people and sleeping in gym floors. You learn a lot of things going through those kinds of challenges.

All of these things helped me to survive in a foreign country when I first moved to China and learned Chinese on my own. All of these things helped me to find work in Spain and learn Spanish from scratch. All of these things helped me to be the musician I am today, touring all around Spain. The influence that Surf has on me even 16 years later it remarkable and truly demonstrates the value of marching with an organization like Surf.

What advice can you offer current and prospective members about how to make the most of their experience at Surf?

Embrace everything. Every word of advice from your instructors, every moment on the field wielding your instrument, every good and bad day. All of the moments that you will experience with Surf will give you things that you cannot buy in a store, or learn from social media. You will carry these things with you for the rest of your life. They will make you a better person, only if you embrace it all.

For more on Ben, check him out on BenWirjo.com where you can find some awesome videos and links to social.