My Monday routine goes as follows: wake up (and be upset about waking up), brew four cups of coffee, get ready for class and for the sake of routine, listen to my Spotify Discover Weekly. The Monday in early March of 2019 when I stumbled across “Girl from the Sidewalk” by Noah Floersch was a little bit less of a mundane one.
Noah Floersch is a student at the University of Lincoln-Nebraska and is making an impact with his music from over 1,000 miles away. Getting to speak with Noah Floersch about where he is and where he hopes to be was a revitalizing conversation; especially for student artists. He coolly commented on his prior constricted world as a music major and shed some wisdom on the industry as a whole, as he stated, “A lot of people look at music as sort of a very unrealistic job, but a lot of it is just getting over the fear of putting yourself out there. There’s such a false tier to get to the next level and that’s something I’m seeing more and more. It’s not so much as there’s us and then there are these God status musicians. A lot of even the top-level musicians aren’t even that good. They just know people and know how to talk to people and know how to use crowds or they have the right charisma for it. Sometimes that’s all it takes.”
Floersch made the switch from Music Composition to Business Marketing; not to put music on the backburner, but actually to prioritize it.
“Don’t get me wrong, Music Composition was really really cool, and I loved it, but it wasn’t songwriting and that’s what home is for me,” Floersch said.
Floersch has a very idiosyncratic sound, but traces of Jon Bellion, John Mayer, (old) Head and the Heart and Gregory Alan Isakov can be found in his style. Part of what makes his music so alluring is the folk inspiration from some of these artists. Lastly, he listed Vampire Weekend and stated, “What I really admire about Vampire Weekend is right from the get-go they didn’t allow themselves to get trapped by a genre and that’s something I’m really trying to do right now. So if you listen to a song like “Girl from the Sidewalk,” it leans towards more like a folky pop style. Then if you listen to “Alone With My Thoughts,” that one is a very different type of sound. Part of that is the producers I’m using and who I’m working with. I’m just trying to switch things up a little bit and have a different flare for each song I put out.”
Along with genres, he also does not restrain himself to one writing style. He has a lot of creative fluidity when it comes to transferring his inspiration. For example, when writing “Girl from the Sidewalk,” he stated, “I checked out this girl and she checked me out at the same time, and I wrote that down and revised it like six months later and busted the song in like a day. And then sometimes I’ll come out with like a sweet chord progression.”
Noah is an artist attempting to break free from the constrained, romanticized and commodified side of the industry. His ten-year goal is not defined by a numerical value, but a hope to be able to sell out shows no matter the size of the venue.
“I want to have a record deal. I want to have a band that can travel with me and can do tour stuff. Honestly, as long as I’m making a living doing the music, I’m cool. I don’t have to be like a Shawn Mendes or Justin Bieber,” Floersch said.
His most recent single, “I Hope I Get There” is a very uncontrived piece that expresses the simple desire to make ourselves and our loved ones proud while at the same time squeezing the absolute most out of life. This is hard in college and Floersch goes through the motions just like the rest of us, with his opening line being, “I’m stuck in another 100-person lecture hall. 90 students half asleep and 10 on Adderall.”
Overall, Noah Floersch is a hallmark for student artists. More often than not, we get wrapped up in defining ourselves by potential salaries or the high hopes of temporary gratification from what these salaries will one day allow us to buy. However, Floersch serves as a student who is following his dreams and escaping the traps we often find ourselves contained in.