The Student: Why’d you get into teaching?
Goldsmith: “Ever since I was a kindergarten I didn’t know what I would be teaching, but it was one of those, ‘what are you going to do when you grow up’ questions, and I still remember that moment which is funny. After college, jobs were few and far between and I was taking care of my mom, so I couldn’t move very far. I was an academic librarian for a little bit, and I loved it, because at the time, the job really did dovetail with all my interests and teaching music, and concurrently, I was able to have a career doing some teaching online. And that job kind of changed and moved further and further away from teaching, but I really just wanted to get back into the classroom. In my 40s, I decided I don’t want to waste my time anymore. I need to be back in the classroom, and that’s exactly what I did. I just wanted to finally say this is my career.”
The Student: How’d you find your love for music?
Goldsmith: “My grandmother basically was somebody I never knew. She died really young, and according to my mom, she was a musical genius. My mom never pushed music on me. I can trace back all the way when I was young, because music was just always so important in my family. It represented a lot of different cultures that exist in my family, and also just simply having a mom who was always asking what I was listening to.”
The Student: Being from California, How’d you land in Massachusetts?
Goldsmith: My mom was from upstate NY but loved California. Growing up where I did, there’s a certain Island mentality. The weather is like 60 to 80 degrees most of the year. I wanted to go to college where there’s a four season climate, where I can actually see leaves change. Santa Barbara had a drought at the time, so just being somewhere where water wasn’t a big thing. When I applied to colleges as a senior in high school, I applied to a whole bunch of places but I couldn’t really afford to visit anywhere. I had the best financial aid packages all coming from Massachussetts. There was a governor at the time, Michael Dukakis, who actually gave money to out-of-state students to come to Massachusetts. I was between Smith, Mount Holyoke and Amherst. Having not visited anywhere, they all kind of looked the same, but the Smith was really vocal in reaching out to me, and it was a nice fit.”
The Student: What’s your favorite genre of music?
Goldsmith: “I’m really into psychedelic rock and cool jazz right now. Also on my playing devices, I have a ton of indie music.”
The Student: What artist or band inspires you?
Goldsmith: There are a lot of them. I think recently I’ve been listening to a lot of LCD soundsystem. I really like them because they kind of break barriers. So if you notice, if you watch, these are people that are all older people producing music that younger people enjoy listening to. They’re into technology, and you know they’re basically kind of breaking this notion of, ‘Hey, your lead singer. He’s older than me’. I find them pretty amazing.
The Student: What kind of hobbies do you have?
Goldsmith: “I’ve been building synthesizers recently, along with playing 12-string guitar.”