When Joe Garber moved from Philadelphia to Jefferson County in 2015, he was not familiar with Montana, nor were Montanans familiar with him.
“When I first moved here,” Garber said, “everyone thought I was Mexican, just because I have naturally darker skin.” When he first arrived, he said, people wouldn’t let their children around him because he was the “long-haired city kid.”
Garber was thrust into unfamiliar situations and needed to adapt to a new environment. For instance, he was involved in a minor driving incident, after which he says a man followed him all the way to his destination and attacked his car. Garber says that an incident like that would likely have not occurred that way in Philadelphia: “In Philadelphia, people would have just yelled at you and gone on with their day because, in Philadelphia, they have bigger problems to worry about than a fender bender.”
When Garber first arrived in Montana, he was apprehensive about such a drastic change in his environment. But he slowly learned to adapt to his surroundings, picking up many new hobbies such as cooking and making his own music. “I like how simple it is to go through the days,” he said, commenting on Montana life.
Garber says that he has always been interested in music. “I was always the kid with headphones on,” he said. He eventually decided to give making music a try and experimented with many different types of instruments from guitar and drums, to piano and ukulele; he taught himself all of them.
He did it all without even being able to read sheet music. Instead, he would practice for hours in the band room and at home. He even taught himself how to use computer programs that professionals use to make music. Since then, he has released several songs and is planning on releasing more in the near future.
Garber is preparing to head to culinary school in Missoula after graduation. Unsure of where he wants to settle, Garber is more focused on living life the way he wants and on doing “the opposite of people’s advice, just to see what happens. I don’t want to see what there is to offer, I just want to see what I can change.”
