While riding through the Midwest in the back of a van, the bassist of Chicago funk band Bumpus works on some new instrumental pieces. A little later, after returning from the tour, an old friend of his presents him with the vinyl for a broadcasted reading of Orson Welles’ 1938 “The War of the Worlds,” based on a novel about a Martian invasion of earth. The bassist is intrigued, describing the record as “beautiful” and “dramatic,” and he decides to try putting his own spin on the piece by adding his instrumentals to the soundtrack.

For art teacher Travis Chandler, who graduated from Parker in 1993, the intersection of music and science fiction would become the idea behind Terrible Spaceship, the seven-piece retro-futurist dance band he started in 2010. When he’s not advising “The Record” or teaching students the digital arts of Photoshop, documentary production, animation, or architecture, Chandler takes the audio of old science fiction pieces, writes music to them, and creates accompanying videos using old movie clips, with the intention of including all elements in his shows.

“You get the whole band playing songs to a narrative soundtrack, so the songs have to be played in a specific order,” Chandler said. “I’ve always liked making videos, so I wanted there to be a visual component. You get the video clips, with subtitles, and you really get the entire story.”

History teacher Dan Greenstone, who will be teaching the “Making Historical Documentaries” class with Chandler second semester, watched Terrible Spaceship perform at the Emporium Arcade Bar a few weeks ago. “We’re at a game room with 80’s video games, filled with hipsters and nerds and when the lights went down, and Terrible Spaceship took the stage, they were rocking,” Greenstone said. “It was so cool to see Mr. Chandler, who’s one of my favorite people, this soft–spoken man, as the emcee of this giant thing — there were hundreds of people there, having a great time.”

Though a few others from Parker’s faculty, including Principal Dan Frank and Visual Arts Department Head Chris Turner, have seen Terrible Spaceship live, Chandler doesn’t speak about the band to students.

“First of all, we don’t play at venues that any students could come to, so it would be a little cruel,” Chandler said with slight smile. “Secondly, I’ve always kept those two elements of my life separate. Not like oil and water – it’s okay if they come up in the other side of my life – but it’s not like I talk about being a teacher onstage, either.”

“He’s never mentioned it in class,” sophomore Adele Lowitz, who is taking Chandler’s “Yearbook Production” course, said. “It’s not the craziest thing I’ve ever heard, but I would’ve never guessed it. It’s a really cool extra thing to learn about a teacher.”

Chandler, who said he believes that both his band and teaching “demand full attention,” works hard to manage his responsibilities. “I balance them terribly,” Chandler said. “I keep stressing like crazy leading up to the shows, and I wonder why anyone would do this to themselves, but then I actually play in the show, and it’s one of the most gratifying things I could ever hope for.”

Terrible Spaceship’s shows are typically on Fridays, once a month, at Emporium. A highlight for the band is performing at the Adler Planetarium’s “Adler After Dark” program once a year, where Chandler is able to project his videos on the Laser Light Dome.

“Chandler is the entire thing,” James Johnston, a member of Terrible Spaceship and friend of Chandler’s who has been playing with him for over 20 years, said. “He’s the creative force, he’s the leader, and he has the vision. In addition to doing the songwriting and video components, he also does the administrative stuff, like booking shows. Terrible Spaceship really takes advantage of and showcases all of the things that are uniquely him.”

Now Chandler is in the process of writing the music and producing the video for Terrible Spaceship’s third album, based on the 1940 Fleischer Superman comics. He used “Zontar: The Thing From Venus,” from 1966 for his second, and he titled his album featuring “The War of the Worlds”, “Invaders: 1938.”

“Those old science fiction movies are cheesy, they’re awkward, and sort of goofy,” Greenstone said. “The way Mr. Chandler, master video editor, uses them is sort of winking and smiling at them while also having genuine affection for them.”

The name “Terrible Spaceship,” according to Chander, represents the theme of his work.

“The meaning of ‘terrible’ is that something is extremely powerful and overwhelming, and all of my albums have some idea of this terrifying, larger than life entity, whether it be an alien or a mad scientist,” Chandler said. “We also have a joke that almost everything is a terrible spaceship because very few things are actually good at coming in and out of the atmosphere, only spaceships — so everything else is a terrible spaceship, even the flyers for our shows.”

Performing locally is a sharp contrast to the national touring Chandler did when he was a member of Bumpus, his first band, which he established with three friends, including fellow Parker alums Johnston ‘92 and Rob Polachek ‘92, in 1996 following his return to the city after a year at Antioch College. Chandler started Terrible Spaceship to settle down from the traveling lifestyle. In Chicago, he held jobs in broadcast television, interactive multimedia, and digital advertising before coming to Parker in 2013.

“What I always wanted, if Bumpus ever went incredibly well, was to settle into a regular gig at a place that I really liked where I could experiment and try out whatever I wanted to, and now, with Terrible Spaceship, I’ve got that at Emporium,” Chandler said. “I’ve been very lucky and don’t plan on stopping until they make me.”