Dan Butler joined the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Austin completely by happenstance – but when he did, he brought years of musical experience with him.
At the tail end of a long tour in 2011, he came back home to Austin without any work lined up. He applied to be a substitute teacher for TSBVI after finding a posting on Craigslist, got the job, and has been working with the school ever since.
A few years in, as the school was searching for ideas for new courses, he had a revelation on how he could bring music into the mix.
"I was playing with an old analog synthesizer one night in my studio and had this realization that there were no menus, that everything on the synthesizer was tactile," Butler said. "It was just one single knob per function on the synthesizer. So, I pitched the idea of maybe getting a synthesizer, and just kind of teaching students how to create sounds."
Soon, a band was formed – and with it, the task of coming up with a name.
"We were just kind of looking around the classroom at different things," Butler said. "We had a box for one of our synths and it just said 'Monophonic Semi-Modular Synthesizer,' and I just pitched like, 'Hey guys, what about "The Semi-Modulars"?' and they're all like, 'Yeah, that!'"
A semi-modular synthesizer, for the uninitiated, is an instrument that looks like a big chunky board covered in knobs, dials and ports. You'll often see a bunch of wires and cables sticking out of it, too.
Butler himself described it as looking like something out of a science fiction film. It has a funky, electric sound, which you can hear prominently in The Semi-Modulars' music.
There are currently about six or eight students that regularly attend Butler's "Synthesis and Sound Design" class. His favorite part of helping them make music is getting to see how happy they are when they get to hear what they've created.
The Semi-Modulars also play live shows out in the Austin community. They're most commonly found at Billy's on Burnet, although they've also played at Cherrywood Coffee House, performance art studio dadaLab and a few local libraries.
"The Semi-Modulars live is a really cool and unique experience that I hope everybody in Austin will get to experience at some point," Butler said. "I think sometimes people come into their live shows with low expectations and they often just completely blow people's expectations out of the water, which is great. It's really fun to see."
When it comes to teaching, Butler mainly focuses on doing his best to stimulate creativity. He tries to create a fun, welcoming environment so that the kids feel less intimidated and more free to express themselves.
"I think for any student it would be intimidating walking into a classroom full of modular synthesizers and semi-modular synthesizers that are all just the spaghetti of wires and things like that," Butler explained. "But just kind of finding what each student does individually, or what they can do, or what they feel most comfortable with individually is really important."
Individuality is important to a school like TSBVI. The institution has a core ethos of independence – teaching its students to live and figure things out on their own.
In a world where adults will often take over if they see a struggling student, especially one with a disability, Butler is proud of how his school sets itself apart.
"You really do see some growth and progress with that, and it's rewarding," he said.
If you'd like to listen to The Semi-Modulars' music, you can find all of their albums available for free on their Bandcamp.
This story was produced by Texas Standard intern Kaye Knoll and originally appeared on The Texas Standard.
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