When I was asked in preschool what I wanted to be when I grew up, the answer was definite: rockstar. While I wish I had come by this interest in such a noble profession on my own, I was admittedly influenced by the time I spent in my most formative childhood years at various Boston clubs watching my parents rock out.

My mom was the lead singer and my dad the bass player for a ‘70s British rock cover band. I spent hours on end playing The Sims in the basement of my parents’ drummer’s house while they had band practice. Naturally, I quickly came to memorize the entire discography of The Beatles, Elton John and Queen.

These hours spent subconsciously absorbing such music had a significant impact on my music taste as it has developed over the course of my life. While I went through a period of defining myself in opposition to my parents, finding them deeply uncool, and opting for 2010s pop and R&B, I eventually found myself going back to my roots. Though I haven’t always, I’m proud to say that I love my parents’ music.

I began the journey back home in 2022, when I got the COVID-19 virus at an EXTC concert — it was totally worth it. Though the original XTC hasn’t toured since 1982, drummer Terry Chambers’ band EXTC, whose name was formally approved by XTC frontman Andy Partridge, has been playing their songs for devoted fans since 2019.

My parents had dragged me there, and though I at first lamented being the youngest person at the show by at least 20 years, I spent the entire ensuing week of quarantine listening to XTC’s discography on repeat.

I remember playing “Life Begins At The Hop” for my parents at the dinner table and reveling in my dad’s utter confusion as to how I had discovered an XTC song that he didn’t already know. Somehow, those brash British guys spoke to me, a 14-year-old American girl, as I headbanged in my bedroom, imagining that I had finally managed to time-travel to England in 1979.

Now, as I walk through the hallowed halls of Leavey Library at the University of Southern California, bumping “Mayor Of Simpleton” and singing along to the lyrics “Never been near a university / Never took a paper or a learned degree,” the irony of my love for the band is no less clear to me.

Still, I find that as I’ve gotten older the lyrics of “Respectable Street” only resonate more and more as the band comments on the hypocrisy of those that look down on others while perpetuating the same things they claim to oppose, singing “It’s in the look they give you down their nose / All part of decency’s jigsaw, I suppose.”

At the same time, “Senses Working Overtime” is wonderfully nonsensical and whimsical as the band sings about the experience of being fully present in life and utilizing all five senses. I never feel more on top of the world than when I hear the glorious refrain, “And all the world is football-shaped / It’s just for me to kick in space.”

What I came to love about the band was their playfulness, not only lyrically, but melodically and rhythmically. Listening to their music feels like a party, with the upbeat drums and groovy bassline, which demand nothing less than jumping around and letting loose. The jangling guitar riffs in every song sound like they were doing the same while writing and recording the tracks.

When I listen to their music, I feel nostalgic for a time I never experienced, transported and transcended. Great music makes you feel something, and while I also love music that makes me want to cry, no band has ever made me want to laugh and have a good time as much as XTC does. They compel you to have a carefree attitude and take life less seriously.

While my potential future sons, Nigel and Graham, named for “Making Plans For Nigel” and “No Thugs In Our House” will no doubt make every attempt to hate their namesake because their mom loves it, I like to imagine years later they too will come to find that “life begins at the hop.”

“Jam Journal” is a rotating column featuring a new Daily Trojan editor in each installment, commenting on the music most important to them. Nina Kremer is an Arts and Entertainment Editor at the Daily Trojan.