By: Kyle Fagan

Gray Samuelson, a music technology student at the University of Oregon, has had his sights set on a career in the music industry for his entire life. Samuelson fell in love with playing the guitar through a program offered at his high school. Yet, like many other students involved in multiple extra-curricular activities, Samuelson found that the time commitment of playing an instrument would wind up hindering his social life. “I found myself playing guitar five hours a day and not really having a social life. It was school, sports and guitar,” said Samuelson. “I got discouraged and felt like doing other things.”

After a brief hiatus, Samuelson rekindled his love for making music during his freshman year at Lane Community College, when a coworker introduced him to music production. “He had me over at his apartment, and showed me his set up, and how he made beats … He got me really excited about it,” said Samuelson. From there, Samuelson didn’t look back. At the end of his freshman year, Samuelson bought a DJ controller with Ableton production software, which allows the user to create his or her own songs and distort them through the DJ controller. Soon afterwards, he got a call from a friend that was a DJ in Portland and wanted Samuelson to play a set in an upcoming event. He decided to test out his newfound talent. “ At the time, I had about eight really crappy songs and I didn’t completely know what I was dong… I completely cut the sound twice- it was bad,” said Samuelson.

Three years after his sub-par performance, Samuelson has completed his two-year music technology certificate at LCC, and is enrolled in the four-year music technology program at the University of Oregon. He continues to produce music, and music production still his dream job; nonetheless, with the struggles of balancing work and school, he admits that producing music has been placed on the back burner. Samuelson is positive about his past experiences, “all my experiences in music have shaped me, and the end of the day I found a major for my hobby, which is really cool,” said Samuelson.