Caden Williamson is a senior from Fayetteville, Arkansas majoring in pc science and German. Final 12 months, he volunteered as a DJ at KXUA, the College of Arkansas campus radio station, the “Eclectic Vacation spot of the Ozarks.” His present, The Trans-Pacific Groove Haul, featured Japanese jazz-fusion and different worldwide pop music. We tracked Caden down in Darmstadt, Germany the place he’s collaborating within the Worldwide Engineering Program (IEP), to listen to extra concerning the intersection of his passions in music and engineering. He’s presently within the means of planning his thesis and has added a 12 months to his school plan to permit him to incorporate the IEP research overseas expertise. He’s nonetheless contemplating his future plans after commencement, however hopes to proceed to work in audio engineering and finally develop music manufacturing software program. And you should definitely learn to the tip the place we’ve included a playlist Caden created for us!
1. Inform us how the Trans-Pacific Groove Haul present on KXUA happened.
I’ve listened to KXUA since beginning on the College and have at all times favored the distinctive number of reveals that the station presents. After listening to about how open the station was to new DJs with out prior expertise, I used to be excited to use and develop into extra concerned within the native music scene. Japanese jazz-fusion and funk have been a few of my favourite genres for a short while now, and I noticed KXUA as an opportunity to share my pleasure about this music and take a deeper dive into different genres of worldwide common music.
2. Why Japanese jazz and funk? What’s it about that style that you simply respect?
I believe lots of people have misunderstandings about this sort of music till they hear it. Japanese common music, particularly from these a long time and genres, in some ways sounds just like the American pop music that my mother and father’ technology grew up with. I don’t know a single phrase of Japanese, however even the lyrics sound acquainted due to how energetic the vocals are, and due to how related the singing cadence is to that of American common music. For me, there’s something comforting about not comprehending something that’s being mentioned, however nonetheless understanding the emotion of the music. For my part, Japanese jazz-fusion additionally has among the greatest lead guitar enjoying that I’ve ever heard. Combining the superb electric-guitar solos with different elements of the style, like its frequent rhythmic and aesthetic influences from Brazilian Samba, makes this sort of music particularly thrilling to hearken to.
Caden conceived of and hosted the Trans-Pacific Groove Haul present at KXUA.
3. You say that the Bryan Hembree class, Reside Music Enterprise Trade, was a favourite. What did you want about it?
The music trade offers with so many interconnected issues like stay reveals, touring, streaming gross sales, and advertising and marketing by social media. In Reside Music Enterprise, we mentioned all of those interconnected components and extra by a lens of present occasions. For instance, we mentioned the affect of social media on the stay music enterprise by inspecting Common Music Group’s choice to take away their catalog from TikTok, an enormous choice that impacted many artists and creators. We additionally hung out creating hypothetical tour plans for and with native bands Ted Hammig and the Marketing campaign and Ozark Riviera. Bryan Hembree was the right particular person to show this class, as his native music connections and in depth expertise with the music trade as each an artist and organizer gave us a helpful perspective and allowed us to have particular visitor audio system and exterior remark alternatives that made the category extremely memorable. My classmates have been additionally all so proficient and engaged, which made the category even higher.
4. What devices do you play? What’s your musical background?
My ardour for music has grown so much within the final 4 years since I began enjoying guitar throughout Covid lockdown. My uncle is a blues musician, so I naturally gravitated in direction of enjoying the blues at first, however I additionally loved a variety of basic rock and a few funk music. After having put a variety of follow in through the first couple years of enjoying, I made a decision to affix the Intro Jazz Combo on campus to broaden my guitar expertise and to get my first musical group expertise. I didn’t know actually something about jazz guitar earlier than auditioning, however fortunately my teacher, Susumu Watanabe, allowed me to audition with no matter
The Intro Jazz Combo play collectively round campus.
I felt snug enjoying. I ended up enjoying the music “Lenny” by Stevie Ray Vaughan, which continues to be considered one of my favourite songs right now. I used to be allowed to play within the group for the Spring semester of my sophomore 12 months, and it was the most effective experiences of my undergraduate thus far. That publicity to jazz and my focus on the stylings of jazz guitar additionally introduced me additional into my appreciation of Japanese jazz-fusion. Since then, I’ve continued enjoying guitar at dwelling and thru one-on-one instruction by the music division, and I plan to play domestically after I return from research overseas.
5. How do you assume your curiosity in music influences your work in computer systems? Or is it extra of an off-the-cuff relationship, such as you do your greatest work while you’re listening to music?
At the moment, music is pretty separate from my math/science life. Research may be aggravating, so I usually depend on music to loosen up and distance myself from sure tasks as soon as they’re taken care of. I usually research and do homework to the music I play on the radio, although. I hope that I can finally mix my curiosity and training in engineering with my ardour for music right into a profession. Outdoors of guitar, I’ve been studying music manufacturing and audio engineering by programs supplied by the brand new Music Trade certificates, interning for an engineer in Nashville, Tennessee this previous summer time, and dealing on my private musical initiatives. Subsequent semester, I will probably be doing an internship with a German engineering firm as part of my German diploma, and I hope to safe a place with considered one of Berlin’s many music tech corporations like Ableton, Native Devices and Soundcloud. Creating music manufacturing instruments with considered one of these corporations could be a tremendous alternative to mix my Laptop Science and German levels with my ardour for music.
Caden was variety sufficient to spend a while making a playlist for us to share. This checklist options a few of his favourite songs that he performed on his KXUA present. Get pleasure from!
Tokai – Taeko Onuki
Enterprise Man, Pt. 2 – Makoto Matsushita
Breeze – Jiro Inagaki and His Soul Media
Dawn – ZEROSEN
An Undersea Stone – Boys Age
Scramble – Hiromasa Suzuki
Kiska – Tatsuro Yamashita
You Can By no means Come to this Place – Masayoshi Takanaka
You Can Be a Robotic, Too – Shintaro Sakamoto
