Jess Duserick, class of 2018, has put together a live show featuring local Bates artists. The show will feature 6 Singer-Songwriters with some performing live on air and some being showcased through their pre-recorded work. More information on the artists can be found below and be sure to tune in to 91.5 FM Bates college radio from 8-10pm on May 23rd to hear these talented singers perform.
Alisa Amador
Where are you from (i.e. hometown)? What is your class year?
Alisa Amador is from Cambridge, Massachusetts, raised by Latin musicians (of the band Sol y Canto) who toured nationally throughout my childhood. I am a senior (!!!)
What are you studying at Bates?
She majored in Gender Studies and minored in Dance
What got you into songwriting/composing music?
She started writing songs in high school when someone very close to me was battling depression. Writing songs was, for me, a way to say what I wished I could say to that person. After that, it stuck as a way to get through tough times, celebrate happy ones and process life.
What inspired the song(s) we are listening to?
The song “Salt” is a rock ballad about the painful process of realizing that some friendships cannot be saved.
Billy Lahart
Where are you from (i.e. hometown)? What is your class year?
I am a freshman from Franklin, Massachusetts.
What are you studying at Bates?
Undeclared but I enjoy English and taking a variety of different classes.
What got you into songwriting/composing music?
I got into music when I watched Back to the Future in fourth grade and saw Marty McFly shredding on the guitar. I spent a lot of time in middle school writing songs, some of which I tried performing, most of which are hidden in various spots around my home. I spent those years opening myself up to the songwriters who still influence me the most: James Taylor, Robert Plant, The Beatles, Freddie Mercury, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, and many others. It was around this time I began to develop an appreciation for all kinds of music and a desire to try writing and listening to different genres.
What inspired the song(s) we are listening to?
“Looking Up” was written in high school and was inspired by the tumultuous relationship I was having with cell phones and social media. I was feeling very drawn away from the present moment and unable to form relationships the way I knew I could—that being naturally, organically, and through actual human interaction. I remember a teacher in high school who gave us a talk about the importance of looking up. Looking up reminds me I am very small, it reminds me that there is a God who is much greater than the trivial stresses of my day-to-day-life, and finally, it gives me perspective and reminds me where my priorities should be. While it is explicitly a love song directed to a girl, I think the themes speak to a larger idea of love and the role it plays in our lives.
“Milliken” is a thank you to all my awesome friends in Milliken House. I was lucky to spend my freshman year in a house filled with incredible individuals. It’s a very close group of kids, and as sad as I am to be almost finished with this year, I am so grateful for having lived with all of them. Thanks friends!
Billy Grummer
Where are you from (i.e. hometown)? What is your class year?
A Freshman (2021) from Washington DC
What are you studying at Bates?
Studying music
What got you into songwriting/composing music?
It isn’t enough for me to consume the art that I like, I’ve always had the urge to make my own. So once I discovered my love for pop music, it went without saying that I had to start writing my own songs.
What inspired the song(s) we are listening to?
The original idea for “Eating Snow” was my own take on the premise of “Baby It’s Cold Outside.” To me, winter is the most romantic season, but I’ve sadly always been single by the time the snow hits the ground. “Eating Snow” depicts the fantasies that the cold weather brings to mind every year and the inescapable knowledge that they are, for now, just fantasies. “Maybe next winter,” I tell myself.
Ian Robertson
Where are you from (i.e. hometown)? What is your class year?
I am from Annapolis, Maryland and am in the class of 2021.
What are you studying at Bates?
Currently undeclared but intend to major in a science or math and music.
What got you into songwriting/composing music?
I began taking piano lessons and playing the trumpet around age eight. In sixth grade, I joined my first band. I taught myself how to play the drums for the band and picked up the guitar soon thereafter. I quickly became interested in composing and recording rock music with my friends and purchased equipment to record in my basement. In addition to playing with bands, I started writing my own music and recording all of the tracks by myself. I worked hard on improving my voice to get to a point where I was comfortable adding vocal tracks. I recorded my first full album for a school project in 10th grade and have recorded two additional albums since then. I am currently working on songs for a fourth. Writing songs has always been an outlet for my creativity, allowing me to explore new musical ideas and come up with original pieces of art. I enjoy recording multiple tracks because it allows me to add different dimensions to each song by layering different instrument parts with distinct sounds.
What inspired the song(s) we are listening to?
Though I compose and record many of my songs alone, I enjoy working with other composers, writers, musicians, and visual artists to add different perspectives.
“Monica’s Song” was a collaboration with fellow first-year, Monica Luna. During our first-semester music class “The Singer-Songwriter in History,” Professor Ben Hansberry tasked us with composing a song. Monica wrote lyrics for the song, and I came up with a guitar part and melody. Pleased with the result, I decided to polish the song and multi-track record it when I got home and now plan to add it to my next album.
“The Man” is a song from my most recent album “In A Dream.” It includes guest vocals from my good friend “Kennedy Thompson,” and a guest bass track from Max Smith, both fellow high school bandmates. The song explores the idea of an internal battle with different perspectives in your mind, similar to how one might feel during or after a dream. I initially came up with the keyboard part and asked Kennedy to help with the vocals. Kennedy and Max came over to my basement studio and we laid down the bass and all of the vocals within an hour or two. With the help of Kennedy and Max, I was able to create a groove unlike anything I’ve ever written before.
Josie Blanchon
Josie Blanchon is a singer-songwriter born and raised in Washington, DC. Originally introduced to songwriting during her second year of high school, Josie’s songwriting fuses folk with pop and jazz influences. At the start of her sophomore year, Josie began taking guitar lessons with Maureen Andary, a jazz vocalist and guitar player who would become her mentor.
After a year of songwriting, Josie attended Berklee College of Music’s Five-Week Performance summer program, where she participated in the Singer-Songwriter Showcase of 2015 at Café 939’s Red Room.
Since attending the summer program, Josie has released a self-produced EP, Those Songs, which is available to stream on her soundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/p-u-l-s-e-2 – as well as download on her bandcamp. She currently attends Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where she continues to pursue music as a Mathematics and Music double major and through her participation in student showcases with the Village Club Series and in the Bates College’s only All-Female A Cappella group, the Merimanders.
Maddy Clark
My name is Maddy Clark, and I am a rising junior at Bates studying English. I started writing music when I was thirteen years old after my Dad taught me four chords on the guitar. My passion was borne out of the unrequited love I had for a boy in the seventh grade, but since then I have used songwriting as an outlet for processing my emotions over the years. I studied songwriting at the Interlochen Arts Academy which is where I wrote the song you are hearing tonight. Each day we were given a prompt and told to come back with a song by the end of the day. This prompt happened to be simply the word “dance.” Rather than write about the physical movement, I began to think about how learning a dance works as a metaphor for falling into a relationship and one that felt applicable to the phase of life I was in that summer. Thanks so much for listening!