The bellowing drums, bumping bass, orchestral strings, and rhythmic guitars fuse together in a harmonious, uptempo blend topped off by senior Jan Meese singing in his tenor voice, “Well I’ve got time to spend, but it’s all wasted.”
“Wasted Time” is one of eight tracks featured on The Next Best Western’s first album, “Living Communications.” The self-described indie band is composed of seniors Max Sternlicht, Ethan Roubenoff, Jan Meese and Marcus Dembinski.
According to Dembinski, “Wasted Time” is about “investing a lot of time and self into something [such as] a person or music.”
Members of The Next Best Western, as well as sophomore Zach Altshuler and junior Anthony King commit a lot of time to creating and selling their own music. Selling music on platforms such as iTunes, Spotify, and CDs allows students to make money while doing something they enjoy and are passionate about.
According to Sternlicht, selling music is the apex of the musical process in which it is finally possible to see an artist’s hard work pay off.
“It’s this moment where you just think, ‘Wow. I can’t believe our two years of playing in a bedroom has paid off,’” Sternlicht said. “It was a little surreal.”
The Next Best Western’s first album dropped in early September, around the same time Altshuler’s innate love for music was transformed into his first album titled, “Hold On.”
“I have been playing music since I was really little,” Altshuler said. “I don’t really care so much about the money. For me, it’s all about getting the music out there.”
Altshuler has made close to $200 from selling his first album. The Next Best Western has made nearly $600.
Both Altshuler and the Next Best Western used CDbaby.com to to sell and distribute their work. Dembinski said that the website takes the audio files and converts them into an album that can be made into a CD or sold on various audio platforms.
According to Dembinski, all the hours and effort invested in creating a song or an album culminated in the first profit made after CDbaby.com put the songs on various music platforms.
Like Altshuler and the Next Best Western, King spent a lot of time and energy creating his work.
“The main thing for me was to not rush writing a song,” King said. “I feel like you have to let the idea come to you, and you shouldn’t just try to force rhymes and lines into your songs.”
King is a hip hop artist who gets his inspiration from the sentimental and genuine raps of Eminem and Tupac Shakur. Like those two artists, King creates music as more than a hobby: He uses music as a way to express his passions and to talk about everyday struggles.
In his song “Can’t Change the Past,” King chants, “Why, have you been so discriminatory, to me? Even this isn’t a story, you’ll see.”
Although King no longer actively writes music, he said that he still constantly jots down rhymes in case he decides to create another album.
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For King, Altshuler, and members of the Next Best Western, selling music provides a medium in which they can make a little extra money while doing something they thoroughly enjoy.
“Music is my passion,” Dembinski said. “I’d make music regardless of the money, but getting paid to do what I love and know that someone out there is listening to it is an awesome bonus.”
Eoin Walsh contributed to this article.
Seth Coven can be contacted at [email protected]
DrTing • Jan 26, 2014 at 5:42 pm
Very good article.
Doing what you love, doing what you are good at and doing what is useful to benefit the society and the world.