User:WalktheWalk0801/sandbox

Walker Wilson
Walker "Tex" Wilson (Born Walker Riley Wilson) is a musician from Round Lake Beach, Illinois, perhaps best known for his involvement in several musical groups, currently including We Weren't Invited and Isn't It Strange (FKA Fun Monkey), as well as the marching/concert band at Grayslake North High School, where he received the school's first Leonard Bernstein award for his contributions to the program. During this time, he was also involved with several extracurricular musical groups, including Slam Funk, the school-run Motown cover band that toured Germany, Timeless Entertainment, a vocal group run by Evie Amelio, and his own band, Vivid Vision, in which he was the drummer/singer. After graduating, he also played with Lunar Chiefs, a cover band from Grayslake, before moving into Chicago full-time to be a part of the broader music scene. Since 2021, he has toured Texas and the US West Coast with We Weren't Invited.

Early life
Walker Riley Wilson was born August 1st, 2001, in Round Lake Beach, a suburb of Chicago. His parents, Warren Wilson and Sharyn Denny, met at Riley Elementary School, which is the origin of his middle name, and where Sharyn's daughter, Teagan, was in Warren's 4th grade class. After Teagan moved up to 5th grade, Sharyn and Warren got married before moving to the Northern suburbs of Chicago and having 4 more children, of which Walker was the 2nd. Warren continued teaching until 2020, when he retired.

When he was little, Walker was energetic, curious, and silly. His favorite dinosaur toys led him to take on a serious interest in Paleontology, learning how to read through the books his parents provided for him. Over time, his interest in Earth's ancient history led to an interest in Astronomy, which his parents encouraged through more books and a telescope. Walker had trouble in the classroom throughout his time at Avon elementary school, where he would quickly lose interest in his teacher's words and start joking with his classmates. He embraced the "class-clown" label, and tried to be everyone's friend.

Middle school was a big change for him. Suddenly, he went from being friendly with everyone, to hardly having any friends at all. His favorite part of the day became band, where he was in the percussion section. It was at this time that he met Conner Schad, with whom he would later found his first band, Vivid Vision. They met in math class, and initially bonded over Minecraft, which was the first game that Walker recalls truly being obsessed with. Later on, as Walker continued to play Minecraft and move on to other games, Conner picked up Longboarding instead, and the two grew apart, though still remaining good friends. Walker leaned more towards his friends in band, especially the percussion section, and didn't pick up Longboarding until later on. He considered gaming an important part of his personality throughout middle school, playing games like Skyrim, Civilization V, and Kerbal Space Program, and watching YouTubers like PewDiePie.

Walker's parents got divorced as he entered 7th grade, which undoubtedly affected him in many ways. Already disorganized, his parents agreed to split custody, meaning that he had to pack up and switch houses twice a week, which led to many misplaced/forgotten belongings and school assignments. His interest in video games/YouTube videos became an obsession, with many nights spent staring at the laptop screen instead of doing his homework. His dad was constantly stressed, which led to tension in the household, further reinforcing his gaming habit. He remembers this as a difficult time in life.

Things began to turn around as Walker went through 8th grade. At this time, he started to take a true, independent interest in music, both by listening to Rush and by heavily participating in the band program. By the end of 8th grade, he was much happier with himself, and excited to keep pursuing music as he graduated 8th grade.

The following summer, he leaned heavily into his personal music tastes. He had a basic drum set at his mom's house, but not at his dad's house, so he couldn't practice as much as he wanted to. But that changed when his dad surprised him with a more complete drum set. Walker devoted much of his time that summer to studying his favorite Rush songs, and learning each one note-for-note, which he credits as the foundation of his passion for the drum set. It was also around this time that he started to settle in to a split-custody lifestyle.

High School
Upon entering Grayslake North High School in 2015, Walker had a growing repertoire of Rush songs, as well as a solid friend group through band and through Conner's network. This gave him the confidence to dive into marching band, and to try and form his own independent band to play rock music. Conner introduced him to Clinton Coronado, and after awhile, Conner joined to complete the trio that became Vivid Vision.

Music
Some of Walker's earliest memories are of his dad playing the music of Rush, which he credits as his main musical inspiration. He began his musical career with piano lessons at age 7, before joining the band program at Frederick Intermediate School in Grayslake at age 11. He remained with the band program as a percussionist throughout middle school and junior high at Grayslake Middle School (GMS). He struggled academically in middle school, especially once his parents separated, and he felt that band was the thing he was best at, and that he had the most fun doing.

It was around this time that he started to take an independent interest in music. He had always enjoyed band, but after he made the Wind Ensemble in 8th grade, and the band qualified for Superstate for the first time, he saw music as something he could be good at, and enjoy doing. Simultaneously, as his parents were divorcing, he was diving deeper into the music of Rush. He had tried to play the drum set before, after receiving a basic kit for Christmas years earlier, but had given up after being unable to incorporate his feet into the mix. However, that all changed when he heard the intro of the Rush song Headlong Flight. He listened, and knew he could learn it using concert band techniques. After a few days, he was successful, and even added the bass drum pattern as well. He realized he could learn parts of several Rush songs, and began showing them off to his friends and family any time a drum set was around. He let his hair grow out and leaned into being a musician. He began tapping songs on his desk in class, and twirling his pens between his fingers, later translating that technique to drumsticks. His friend Conner started to pick up guitar around the same time, so the two began to share their musical interests and discuss forming a band. Conner was growing interested in Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, while Walker had inherited his dad's attitude of "all Rush, all the time," which ended up preventing much serious effort from taking place (not to mention the lack of serious equipment), but Walker continued to study Rush on his own, practicing on his drum set without cymbals, and on his lap.

After awhile, his dad noticed that Walker was progressing, so he bought a more complete drum set from his cousin, and gave it to Walker after he graduated 8th grade.