Did you know that before Neil Diamond was swooning ladies with "Sweet Caroline" he was pre-med? And that Gregg Gillis was a biomedical engineer before he was mashing beats as Girl Talk? The list of artists, including the likes of Diddy, Madonna and Art Garfunkel, who started out on very different paths than music, goes on. Could one of your classmates be next?
At Dartmouth, an increasing number of students, most of them non-music majors, are heavily involved in the music scene both on- and off-campus. For many students, it took only a term of musical involvement to realize that music was the career path for them.
Dylan Hume '09 began his career at Dartmouth as a physics major, but soon traded in his plans for being a scientific millionaire for the dream of being a "thrillionaire."
The Thrillionaires is the name of Hume's former band, and is only one of the many music-related activities that Hume has participated in during his time at Dartmouth. Still, what is this former physics major doing in the music biz?
"A lot of it changed because I wasn't any good at [physics] here." Hume said. "I still love science, but I want to be a performer. There's nothing in my life that makes me as happy in terms of career options as being in front of people."
Fellow "Thrillionaire" James Caballero '09, for his part, was once a government major, but now plans on moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with classmate Andrew Gregory '09 to record an album.
"In terms of where I would want to go that would inspire me musically, [Buenos Aires] was pretty much the perfect place," Caballero said. "It's an awesome mix of cultures that creates this pretty incredible music scene."
For economics major Greg Dona '10, who performs as DJ Whack-A-Tone, an off-term in Australia to avoid a harsh Hanover winter turned into a career opportunity.
"I went to Australia and this [club] promoter became a friend of mine," he said. "I had never tried [DJ'ing], but it always seemed like fun. Then I realized I could do it on campus, and I started making a lot more money than I ever anticipated. I realized it was a potential career opportunity."
Many of these students admit that the scene at Dartmouth influenced their decision to pursue music full-time.
Hume said that he has learned invaluable lessons about the business side of music.
"Dartmouth has taught me a lot about being prepared and organized and the amount of hard work it takes to be good at anything," Hume said. "You just have to know how to work the [music] industry and market yourself, and I think Dartmouth taught me that. It takes a lot of hard work to get name recognition, even at a campus as small as Dartmouth's."
Dona said the Dartmouth music scene, however small, helped him diversify his repertoire.
"Dartmouth prepared me in that there are lots of different kinds of parties to play at, and they are all playing different kinds of music," Dona said. "It's nice to be able to work with different genres and figure out what works with different crowds."
Many of these artists admitted, however, that they sometimes feel limited by the music scene at Dartmouth.
"I don't think there is much of a Dartmouth music scene, and the music department is a small department," Gregory said. "[I was more influenced by] my friends and myself."
While the presence of a "music scene" at Dartmouth may still be in question, there is no doubting the spirit of these young musicians. Despite their divergent backgrounds, these students have already begun careers following their true passion: music.
"It was just something I had to do," Caballero said. "I never thought twice about it."
