Money Over Music
When passion isn't part of the career plan
Henri Robbins
Sam Rabe stands on the stage in Kumler Chapel on Western campus, strumming his guitar. His wavy brown hair spills out from his head, just touching his shoulders. A worn, brown leather jacket sits beside him as he fills the pews with his personal sermon: Bobby McFerrin, The Who and even a few songs of his own.
For some students at Miami University, music is a significant part of their lives. No matter what instrument they play, these students find personal fulfillment in making music. However, many of them like Rabe don't consider it a full-time career option. Instead, they see it as an escape from their impending post-graduation cycle of 9 to 5 work.
Rabe, a senior computer science major, first picked up the ax last year after becoming a member of Miami’s Guitar Club. He hoped to emulate the classic rock artists of his childhood. In the beginning, he forced himself to practice for 30 minutes every day. After only a few weeks, he practiced so much that he started missing classes.
He currently has two jobs lined up after college, neither of which relate to music. This has caused him to re-evaluate his interests and future. With countless roads ahead of him, some music-related and others far from it, he’s unsure of which path to take.
“Do I want to go to New Orleans and just live music and try my best to get by?” Rabe said. “Do I want to take this job that I already have, and figure out life from there? Do I want to do something totally different? Part of me wants to go home and start applying to jobs again.”
For Rabe, a career in tech seems like a safe option that incorporates his personal interests. His fascination started in high school when he built a personal computer for competitive gaming. He eventually started programming and gained an appreciation for computer science.
Rabe may also be interested in traveling to China and becoming an English teacher. He discovered his love for Chinese culture when he traveled to the country during his first year of college, but was frustrated by his inability to engage with it. Hoping to fix this, he began studying Chinese, and he ended up taking enough classes to have a minor in the language.
Although he’s unsure of which direction he wants to take his life, he has a feeling that his love for music is not going to disappear any time soon.
“No matter where I am, you can be sure to see me there, just jamming and playing music that I love,” Rabe said.
***
Black and gray skull posters surround sophomore finance and political science major James Gaddis as he pokes a pin through the lapel of his suit jacket. He turns to a mirror and fastens a tie around his neck, adjusting his hair before flipping down the collar of his shirt. He puts in earbuds and queues up tracks from Black Label Society, Alice in Chains, Audioslave and Trivium before leaving to meet with potential new members of his business fraternity.
Gaddis is a full-blown metalhead — something that runs counter to his clean-cut appearance. He's been playing instruments for most of his life but gravitates toward the guitar.
“I can be creative with guitar,” Gaddis said. “I’ve always loved making my own stuff, whether it’s soloing or just jamming for a bit."
"I can sit down and play whatever I want, and I’ve found my creativity can come out in certain places where it can’t in others.”
Gaddis’ first serious experience with music was in high school when he played the baritone saxophone. His skill with the lumbering instrument eventually earned him the first seat in his school band, a sax that only he was allowed to touch and a spot in a big-band jazz group. He had to set the saxophone aside after high school graduation since he couldn't afford the $12,000 model the school provided.
After graduating from Miami, Gaddis wants work in corporate lawand reinvest his income into personal pursuits. He plans to have a music room lined with countless guitars, saxophones and other instruments so that his career and his love of music can coexist. For him, it's all about finding a balance.
“I’ll still enjoy my career, but that’s not one of my passions in life,” Gaddis said. “I want to make money in that field so I can fuel my actual hobbies and passions that might require some money, like guitar.”
While he doesn’t expect to make money from guitar, a hobby he has described as a money pit, Gaddis isn’t opposed to the idea. He even casually entertains the idea of giving up his career one day in pursuit of musical fame.
As Gaddis walks to the business interview with metal still blasting through his headphones, it is undeniable that no matter what his future may hold, music will remain part of his life.
***
Michael Easley didn't spend his final spring break of college relaxing on a beach. Instead, he traveled halfway across the globe to Sweden, to a city he says is one of the most important to modern metal music — Stockholm.
Easley is a senior at Miami who studies zoology. He also produces metal for multiple bands, helps run a record label and has even been involved in two metal bands on campus. In addition, Easley runs a radio show with Miami’s student radio station called Psych Mike and is the president of Newly Woken Organization Based on Heavy Metal, Miami's heavy metal club.
As more than just a casual metal listener, Easley is a well-read connoisseur of the genre. Since middle school, he’s listened to countless albums and been an avid fan. He can rattle off encyclopedic descriptions of Stockholm and its music scene without missing a beat.
Easley said that Scandinavia is one of the world's largest exporters of metal music, with Finland holding the record for most metal bands per capita in the world. In addition, he explains how Stockholm essentially created modern death metal like Entombed and Dismember.
For Easley, metal is a way of life. Since first being exposed to Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton in eighth grade, he’s attended dozens of shows. He also put together his own battle jacket, which is a denim vest adorned with patches showing off his music taste.
Within the genre, he can find music that matches any emotion or experience.
“I can think of a lot of bands that produce these huge waves of sound that transport you into an ethereal state,” Easley said. “I think that’s part of why I never get tired of it.”
In the same way, Easley can find a community anywhere through the music he listens to — something that he says is especially true in his field of study as there seems to be an intersectionality between the two groups.
“You would be so surprised by how many zoology majors are metalheads,” Easley said. “One of the most premier ornithology professors in the world is famously a huge metalhead and went on Two Minutes to Late Night, which is a metal-themed talk show. One of the writers for Angry Metal Guy, my favorite blog, is a huge birder and naturalist, too.”
To Easley, this correlation isn’t just a coincidence. Instead, he sees clear connections between lovers of metal music and lovers of nature. Much of the metal he listens to is inspired by the beauty of landscapes and the natural world people take inspiration from.
His current musical project, Caldera, is named after a geological formation in which a hollow forms in the ground following a volcanic eruption. He said this communicates a sense of natural power reminiscent of the loud, distorted sounds they create onstage.
The project's music is described by Easley and his bandmates as "stoner metal."
While it can be hard to pinpoint an exact definition — it can be described as “hypnotic” with a “focus on repetition” and having “slowed-down, chunky waves of distortion.”
“Honestly, the only true criteria is that, if it sounds really good while you’re stoned, it’s probably stoner metal,” Easley said.
While he spends countless hours perfecting his craft, Easley doesn’t anticipate it being anything more than a hobby. For him, it’s a way to express himself outside the regular grind of everyday life.
“You go to work, you come home, you hit the bar, you shriek out 40 minutes of music and then you slam some brewskis with the boys and do it all again,” Easley said. “It’s something that holds a lot of emotional catharsis for me.”
Easley said that he would encourage anyone who has even a fleeting interest in music to pursue it and treasure it.
“My best friends all talk to me about music,” Easley said. “We all love music. The people I love, a lot of them I love because of our belief in music. These things are the kind of things that keep the persistent existential dread at bay.”
