Newly signed SCU musician searching for band

By Emily Espinosa

With his laid back melodies and artful lyrics, sophomore Austin Pidgeon has gained a loyal following.

As an artist quickly on the rise, he is looking to make a name for himself at Santa Clara.

A native of Phoenix, Arizona, Pidgeon classifies his music as "acoustic surf reggae." Of his musical muses, Pidgeon said that he really enjoys reggae from a singer/songwriter's perspective, and that some of his biggest inspirations include Sublime, Rebolution and Jack Johnson.

Pidgeon recently signed with Inspired Recordings, a Nashville-based company and has been recording songs in collaboration with his producer out of Tennessee, as well as a bass player from New Orleans.

Now, Pidgeon is building a band locally in order to establish himself as a California-based artist and begin playing more live shows around the area.

"I put up flyers around school and I found a kid who plays drums and I'm still trying to find a bassist," he said. "Hopefully this year we can start playing shows and get the music out here."

Pidgeon is in the midst of producing an EP with Inspired Records, and recently saw his first single become available on iTunes.

The guitarist is optimistic that his new EP will soon be arriving on iTunes as well.

"Hopefully by November there will be about seven tracks that people can buy," he said.

Pidgeon's rising success stem from years of loving music, but it wasn't until college that he decided to pursue a career as a recording artist.

"My (neighbor) had a guitar, and we always used to think he was the cool guy in the neighborhood. So he taught me how to play guitar and from then I just fell in love with it."

The effort and risk put into creating his first EP was not taken lightly.

"I think that to actually make it big you have to take risks, so I'm hoping that we can put out an EP and kind of make a foundation and make a band," he said.

"Then from there actually try to do something more serious with it." Pidgeon added.

His background as an English major is apparent through his poetic lyrics.

"I think music has a big power that people don't understand," he said. "You can send somebody messages and music speaks to so many different people that I think to write music without a purpose isâ?¦not wasteful, but you can be doing better things with it."

Pidgeon doesn't want his tunes to just sound good either.

"I try to write songs with an actual meaning, like with a message that somebody can take from it."

Pidgeon is adamant about sharing his music experience with his fans, and about the opportunities it has to give back.

"Live music for me is my favorite thing ever to play, because I always play other peoples' songs," he said. "But I think to have people sing to my songs, and actually enjoy my music is probably the most rewarding part."

Pidgeon recently played a live show with local band Still Time for a receptive crowd of Santa Clara students.

"He just really connected with the crowd on a personal level," said sophomore Emma Crnkovich on Pidgeon's performance.

Aside from sharing his music with friends, Pidgeon has expanded his efforts to other corners of the world.

On an immersion trip to Ecuador in the summer, he saw an opportunity to put his gift to work. Pidgeon met a man whose leg had been amputated while visiting a hospital for people with leprosy.

After realizing the man's prosthetic leg was broken, Pidgeon decided to use his music to help raise money to buy the him a new one.

"I made a four-track demo that I was just handing out to people and asking for donations," Pidgeon explained.

Pidgeon is still trying to reach the goal of $1500 and sells the demos for $7.

Fans can look up Pidgeon as a musician on Facebook and Myspace.

Contact Emily Espinosa at eespinosa@scu.edu or (408) 554-1918.