BENTONVILLE — Now that Tom Chester is done with microscopes and textbooks, he can turn his attention to the bright lights of Nashville.
Chester finished his second year as a biology and anatomy teacher last week at Bentonville High School. Now he and his brother, Hebron Chester, are moving to Nashville in pursuit of a musical career.
“I have to explore this,” Tom Chester said. “It’s an adventure. I would really love for it to work.”
The brothers have a band known simply as Tom and Hebron. They released an album in November titled “Ridgerunner” that charted among the top 200 rock albums on iTunes.
At A Glance
Jamnesty
Tom and Hebron Chester will do one more show in Northwest Arkansas before their move to Nashville. Their band will be one of several at Jamnesty, a fundraiser to promote awareness of human rights. Surf de Soleil and A Complicated Creature are two of the other bands scheduled to perform. Jamnesty is at 6 p.m. June 7 at Bentonville High School’s Arend Arts Center. Tickets are $5.
Source: Staff Report
Tom Chester, 25, double-majored in biology and psychology at the University of Arkansas, but said he couldn’t sustain a dual career.
“I’ve really tried it, but I’ve lost a lot of sleep trying to be a teacher by day and a musician by night,” he said.
“What I hope is I can do music for a living. That’s what I love. I would love to perform the songs I write, but I’d also love just to write songs.”
Hebron Chester, 22, just graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in English and a minor in business.
“I’m excited about getting started in Nashville and I just think it’s what we should be doing,” he said.
Both brothers have difficulty defining the genre of their music.
“I usually just say rock, because that covers basically everything,” Hebron Chester said. “Hopefully it’s just a new sound. I can’t really describe it. We have influences from different places.”
The band plans to finish its second album by the end of this summer, then see if a record company is interested in marketing it for them.
“Everyone who’s heard us says, “You don’t need luck, you just need the right person to listen to (the music),’” Tom Chester said.
The Chester brothers grew up in Pocahontas, a small town in northeast Arkansas. They began playing music together at an early age.
Tom and Hebron took about a year and a half to write and record the songs for “Ridgerunner.” The album’s title track is dedicated to a homeless man Tom Chester met while he was in college. The man’s nickname was Ridgerunner.
Besides teaching science, Chester also co-directed the high school’s Bible Club along with math teacher Joe Wilson.
“He’s amazing,” Wilson said about Chester. “He works hard. He is passionate about the kids.”
Nick Van Slooten, a freshman, was in Chester’s biology class this school year.
“He went really in depth on the concepts and went slow enough so that everyone could understand,” Nick said.
Chester proved popular with other students as well.
“He’s not just a teacher, he’s a friend to the students,” said Ashley Wright, also a freshman.
Tom and Hebron played a benefit concert earlier this month at the high school that attracted several hundred kids. The concert raised more than $500 for a mission trip sponsored by a local church, Chester said.
Chester said he’ll miss the students, but not the stress that came with being a teacher.
“Teaching is a 100 percent full-time job,” he said. “It completely consumes you. So I’m looking forward to having time to myself again.”