What is your instrument of choice? Why?
Guitar. I started trying to write songs when I was 11 and I just tried to learn how to play stuff by ear. I liked watching guitar players play and when I was a kid I said,
“I wanna learn how to do that.”
Who are you currently listening to?
Ravi Shankar, hip-hop producer Blockhead, Toro y Moi, liquid drum and bass music, James Blake. And Miles Davis, always.
Who are your main influences?
Pat Metheny. I was playing a lot of metal back in high school. He was the first guitar player that I listened to who taught me to take everything I was doing with metal and try to expand it to the areas of jazz.
What do you do with music on/off-campus?
I just started a three -piece ambient rock group called The Mahopac Chord. We’re playing at Rock Against Racism at 4 p.m. on the quad.
What will you do with your degree?
I have four goals, some of them might not happen, some of them may: I want to compose music for film. I’m going to be writing a piece for an online comedy series that my step-brother is doing out in Brooklyn this summer. I want to play on a cruise ship for awhile when I get out and try to establish myself as a musician. I have a goal to be a DJ and improvisational guitar player, too.
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