I’m With the Band: USC Trojan Band Director Ben Chua

Editor’s Note: Man With a Hat hit the road this week, taking in polo (and sights) from Los Angeles to San Jose. This is the first of a number of commentaries on life in California and the greatest water polo state in the USA.

LOS ANGELES, CA. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon your correspondent found himself at USC’s Uytengsu Aquatics Center for a match between the Trojans of #3 USC and the #2 UCLA Bruins. Despite support from a rabid fan base on Senior Day, things did not go well for the home team. The Trojans never led in dropping a 15-9 decision to the hated Bruins.

[A Whiteout in Happy Valley Turns Dark In USC Victory]

After seeing The Spirit of Troy Band (tag line: The greatest marching band in the history of the universe, ever!) at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium a week earlier, I interviewed Ben Chua, an assistant director with USC Marching Band. Turns out Ben was also at Penn State, way up in the rafters of Beaver stadium for the largest athletic crowd in Pennsylvania history (114,419). At least the Trojans won that one, 31-23.

This interview edited for content and clarity

- Dr. [Jacob] Vogel, he's like a band leader. Where are you in the Trojan Band hierarchy? 

Yes, then Associate [Director] Dante Douglas. I'm way down… one of the assistants.

Were you out at Happy Valley?

Yes.

Having just seen your band [in Pennsylvania] and they didn't play, maybe they did? I couldn't hear them, even though it was in the same section.

We played a lot at Penn State, but you just couldn’t hear [it]. It got washed [out]. Usually, the TV mics are closer to us, but they were two sections down.

The audio system at Penn State is so loud. When you're on the field, you can feel the ground shake. It's crazy!

How come you guys were so far up in the middle of nowhere… you didn't even get on the field?

In the BIG 10 manual, that's usually where they put the opposing band: upper right of the stadium, catty corner from the press box.

That's in the [BIG 10] instruction manual?!

Yes.

I don't agree with that! Do you agree with that? 

No. We're friendlier to other bands because at the Coliseum, we put them next to us. We're in the sundeck and they're to the left of us.

It's not a rivalry thing; it's a manual thing….

[Schools] could put them wherever you want, but it's easier to default like, "Hey, it's not us…. it’s the manual!"

Being here at USC and hearing your fight song, I'm like, wow, it is something special to be representing USC and that's why these students come and play and why you lead them.

Well, they choose to join the band and one of the things we ask of you is spirit. We ask for your time and in exchange we travel to away games. We’ve gone to every away football game since 1987.

You don't get a scholarship to be in the band, but you volunteer. And there's no NIL money for musicians, right?

Not yet. We're always looking for support. We do a lot of gigs. Today, before this, we did two fundraisers. We did a Cancer Walk and the Taste of Soul. We did those gigs to raise money for the program and the community, help raise money for cancer and that sort of thing. We did a gig for the USC open house for juniors. 

We're always recruiting. This is our third or fourth gig. We still have women's volleyball and then we have two weddings.

I mean that's a lot of work and they're volunteers…

They get paid. We raise money. We do weddings, so they pay, then [the students] get a stipend for their time. The donations go into our travel fund.

We're constantly raising money. We're not selling candy or subscriptions or anything.

Candy or bake sales would not be becoming a Trojan!

We do weddings and TV gigs, we're doing movie premieres, [the] Hollywood Bowl.

Why are people that are UCLA fans or USC fans—or Stanford fans—why do they get so excited for all this cool team spirit stuff? 

They're our Trojan Knights. They're a spirit group at USC. They choose to do that… and they're in charge of the Victory Bell.

What does the Victory Bell do? They rang it before there was [victory].

No, we rang it for a score. We always bring it out when we play UCLA because it's one of those trophies. The lore is, we stole it from UCLA.

The bell…

… and they turned it into a rivalry trophy. You win the bell for football; everything else is ancillary.

The bell is universal. It doesn't have to do with football.

It's a rivalry trophy for football, but we bring it out whenever we play UCLA.

Last question now, where did you go to college?

USC.

Okay. That was not a trick question! You are a lifelong Trojan.

Yeah. I'm lucky enough that this is my secondary job, my fun gig. It

It is the only job that really matters, right?

Yes. But all my jobs have allowed me to do this on the side, so I've been very fortunate.