When one hears the name “Bradley University,” generally the first thing that comes to mind is either engineering, nursing or teaching. In the past few years, however, Bradley has been producing some truly great musicians, which may give reason to add “music school” to the list.
Since graduating in 2010, Jared Bartman has built quite the repertoire in the indie-folk music scene. Bartman released his first album “I Refute Technology” in 2008 while attending Bradley. Since then, he’s released two full-length albums “Jersey Shore” (2009) and “Misery Makes Strange Bedfellows” (2013).
While he’s played on and around campus a handful of times, Bartman has toured all around the country and has even landed himself a Daytrotter session, which is a big deal to any musician. Personally, anything with an accordion is worth listening to, so that’s just an added bonus that comes with this grad’s already full sound.
Last year, the Voice section ran a feature on 2013 grad Peter Buys and Emily Volz’s musical alter-ego PM Buys. Buys’ sound echoes that of Bob Dylan and Woodie Guthrie, to the point that it almost feels as though he’s a time-traveler rather than a 23-year-old teacher. He and Volz have spent a sufficient amount of time touring around the Midwest in the past year and have also joined the number of musicians who have performed on Daytrotter.
It’s true that good chunk of graduates pursuing music have ventured into the realm of folk and indie music, but 2013 graduate Ryan Moore has ventured down the electronic music path with this solo project Separator. Since its creation in 2013, Separator has had two releases, “Separate Order EP” (2013) and “Transmission Vortex” (2014).
In recent months, Moore has joined Chicago dream pop band American Wolf. The group’s newest album, “My Main Sport” was released in September and can be purchased through the group’s bandcamp page americanwolf.bandcamp.com.
With interest in the hip-hop scene on campus steadily rising, it is important to mention that Bradley has produced some very talented rappers. One of the most notable rappers to just about all the students and staff is 2014 graduate Josiah Williams, who has really taken his hip-hop career to the next level through his amount of performances and support on campus. His music can be found at soundcloud.com/jdeanwilliams and jdeanwilliams.com.
Not all of these musicians were music business majors, although some may have had some experience in the major. Bradley is filled with musicians, many of whom blow most all popular musicians out of the water. Going far and going Bradley can mean many different things, even if it’s not always related to what we majored in.
