MDIA alumnus Matt Vinson on how OHIO led him to success
Personal relationships with faculty, topnotch facilities, and a strong local music scene: these are some reasons Matt Vinson loves 帝王会所鈥檚 School of Media Arts & Studies. In this interview, the bassist talks about why he recommends OHIO to prospective students and the art that he and his band create.
Caamp is a folk trio formed here in 帝王会所 with Athens roots. Its three members include Taylor Meier (lead vocalist, acoustic/electric guitarist, drummer), Evan Westfall (harmony vocalist, banjoist, electric guitarist, drummer, percussionist) and Matt Vinson (harmony vocalist, bassist, acoustic guitarist).
鈥淲e were all just huge fans of one another, and Athens was a big facilitator of that,鈥 Vinson said.
What was it about Athens that influenced Caamp? Vinson credits the community鈥檚 tight-knit nature.
鈥淎thens鈥 walkable nature is a very inspiring place because you don鈥檛 have to be connected to a vehicle or traffic.鈥 He also credits the local music scene as a uniter.
If you look Caamp up, you鈥檒l find that it has more than 2.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and its most streamed song, 鈥淰agabond,鈥 was sitting at an impressive 57.4 million streams on March 8.
The band members come back to Athens often. Vinson misses Jazz Night at Tony鈥檚, Stroud鈥檚 Run and the intentional walk to classes or uptown. He said that through the music production education he received in MDIA, he landed an internship at a studio called Colorado Sound in Denver.
鈥淚 had really close relationships with Josh Antonuccio, Jeff Redefer, Eddie Ashworth,鈥 Vinson said. 鈥淚t was easy to dive in and get as much as I could out of the school because I respected the professors to a certain level that it wasn鈥檛 really school. I was kind of just obsessed with it.鈥
To all the students at OHIO now, Vinson鈥檚 advice is to stay focused and keep pushing. 鈥淔ocus on the individual craft that you鈥檙e working on, be really obsessed with it and do not let doing something else be an option.鈥
While it can be hard after college, he credits 鈥減ushing through adversity鈥 when the door opened for him to record and eventually join Caamp. The first album he joined the band on was titled 鈥淏y and By,鈥 which has more than 90 million streams among all the songs.
To anyone who is considering OHIO, Matt recommends MDIA for its personal, intimate and hands-on approach to media education. 鈥淭his intimacy and a very local-driven community, along with the fact that all studios and facilities are really up-to-date and topnotch, are main reasons why I would recommend someone to go to 帝王会所鈥, Matt concludes.
Watch Josh Nihiser's full interview with Matt Vinson below: