Charlie Unger, a first-year student at TPS, has done quite a bit in his fifteen years on earth, including playing guitar in a band called the Noble Pixies, biking across the entire state of Missouri with his cousin and brother, and creating a documentary for the Cancer Society. He has two brothers and “two pretty sweet parents,” as well as a dog that “has traces of sixteen different breeds in her.”

Having lived in St. Louis, Missouri, his entire life, Charlie knows a lot about the city and obviously loves it. “It's a great city,” he says, “Home of the world champs!” When asked what he liked most, Charlie answered, “The greatest thing that we have is a concert series in the summer called 'Live on the Levee.' It's a series of free concerts under the Arch downtown . . . This summer, they had my two favorite bands in the same night. It was heavenly.” His favorite bands are Better than Ezra and Sister Hazel.

Charlie's band, the Noble Pixies, is technically made up of three people, but “usually our music requires two guitar parts, so, in the studio, I'll be playing both guitar parts. I can't do that in a different environment, so we have another guitar player for live shows.” The Noble Pixies haven't had many live shows yet, but they did record in Utopia Studios on December 27.

The style of music that he plays seems to be really unique. “Our music was originally punk,” Charlie says, “But that wasn't what we wanted. We realized that we were trying to make our music like somebody else's, so we developed our own style. All of us have always loved folk music, so we started off with taking Irish Folk style music and then adding a little bit of rock and whatnot.”

As far as school goes, Charlie has been homeschooled for nine years. “I guess that I'm in, like, a hybrid grade,” he says. “If I had stayed in school, I would be a freshman, but one of the great things about homeschooling is that you don't have to follow everyone else's schedule. The majority of my curriculum is sophomore level or above, except for math.” This is Charlie's first year on TPS, and he takes Geography and English. “It's pretty cool,” he says in regard to TPS.

Charlie's dad is a writer, and Charlie has followed in his footsteps in that way. Charlie says that he likes writing “sometimes . . . it depends on what I'm writing. Assigned writing usually gets to me. I know it sounds weird, but I pretty much like writing anything that I'm writing on my own.”

You can contact Charlie through his Yearbook Page in the Potter's School atrium.  Charlie is a wonderful person, and extremely easy to talk to!

Print       E-mail      

Auld Lang Syne Book Review - Simply Jesus Book Review - Wintersmith CD Review - Dying for a Heart