Aggie Songwriter Competes in National Competition
(photo illustration from the USU Statesman online)
The Student Life section of Utah State Today highlights work written by the talented student journalists at Utah State University. Each week, the editor selects a story that has been published in The Utah Statesman or Utah State News Service (formerly The Hard News Café) or both for inclusion in Utah State Today.
Aggie Songwriter Competes in National Competition
By Michael Burnham in the Utah Statesman Friday, November 4, 2016
Though Logan may not be a burgeoning music hub like Austin or New York City, it is proving once again it is more than capable of housing and inspiring musical talent.
Utah State University Aggie Joshua Clafin is currently in the top 50 contestants of Guitar Center’s Songwriter 6, a national songwriting competition ending on Nov 8.
His song, “Grandfather” is a posthumous letter to the patriarch he barely knew, the kind of sentimental song that feels warm, even though Clafin’s nose was rosy as he sat in a canoe at Tony Grove lake to record the music video. He had to breathe into his frigid hands to play his guitar.
“We got up there at five in the morning and we had to wait for the sun to rise,” Clafin said laughing. Clafin’s roommate who helped with the video had to be back in town for a test at 8 a.m. “So we did it in one take and then came back.”
“Grandfather” currently has 2,688 shares compared to the overall leader Dustin Prinz who has 32,457. Clafin said he’s pretty sure he’s made it into the second round, where his song will be judged by Guitar Center and producer RedOne. The contest offers many prizes for its top contestants, the grand prize being a four-song EP with RedOne in Los Angeles, $25,000, a chance to play on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, gear, various press opportunities and other performances.
Since Clafin first got a bass guitar in sixth grade, he has loved playing music, even though he is now pursuing a marketing degree.
I’m kind of split,” he said. “I know no matter what I’m always going to keep playing music, and the reason I play music is because I love it. But my dream would be to live off of music and to do that professionally.”
Clafin said he plans on using his marketing degree and business skills as backups to a music career, or to bolster his musical career with that knowledge. In spite of his ambitions in music, participating in the contest is not a usual thing for Clafin.
“I’ve seen things like it before,” he said. “Usually I wouldn’t think to join a national competition, but I saw this one and it just seemed right.”
He will find out in December if he passed the second round. Until then, he’s turning all of his attention to finishing his first album.
“I knew at this time I’d be working on an album and trying to get some stuff out, so every effort I put into this competition is going to pay off because all the exposure is going to go toward my own music,” he said.
Clafin said he’s glad to be working on an album right now to help distract him from the competition.
“It’s stuff I’ve been working on from sophomore year until now,” he said. “Now’s the time I feel like I’ve got to get myself out there.”
The album, which will be titled Passenger, takes the listener alongside Clafin through his life, observing different moments and changes in who he is.
The album will be released sometime in early 2017, hopefully January, Clafin said. Unless of course he’s busy recording in Los Angeles. In that case, he said, he will happily delay the album release.
@mikeburnham31
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