Baldwin Wallace University is home to many upcoming musicians, actors, singers and performers. Many of these artists do shows or performances with their ensembles or with a cast and crew on stage. However, some of these musicians have stepped off the ensemble track and began their own solo career of writing, composing and producing their own music.

Jack Lutz, Ty Bogikes, Joe Brown and the brothers Gideon Temple and Hank Temple make up a collection of musicians and songwriters that have emerged as upcoming artists in their respective genres. They were each asked three questions regarding their journey and processes. These are their responses:

When and how did you start your musical journey?

Jack Lutz: “I got into music from a really early age. I don’t necessarily have a musical family, but my dad has always just been a big music fan. He would teach me about music like rock and took me to concerts, even when I was like only seven.” Jack further detailed that he received his first guitar around the age of four.

Ty Bogikes: “So my parents put me into piano lessons when I was six, and it wasn’t really my choice. They just said, ‘you have to do this, and you’ll thank us later.’ I didn’t thank them for a long time.” He further states that once he got into high school, he took his music career more seriously.

Joe Brown: “It was actually through band. I started playing the trombone in sixth grade. Before that, though, I was always an avid listener of bands that I grew up with which gave me a lot of inspiration. In high school, I branched out into choir and show choir, then picked up the guitar my senior year.”

Temple Brothers: “Well, our mom is a great singer and can play chord piano. So, for us, it started really young. We did little kid piano lessons, but we really found our footing with writing music when I was eleven and Gideon was fourteen. We attended a workshop and wrote a song” Hank Temple said. “We started writing before we really knew basic chords and things like that. Theatre was also another way we got into it,” Gideon Temple said.

What inspired you to create your first EP/first songs?

Jack Lutz: “I’ve always been a guy that’s done band projects, like my high school band. When we all spread apart and went to different colleges, I knew it was time for something new.” Jack further stated that he attempted to start a band here at BW when he first got here but was unable due to the large amount of people he wanted to work with. “So, then I had a vision to do a solo project, and then I can just get different people that do collab song with me and stuff like that.”

Ty Bogikes: “I was first inspired to start writing my own music when I sat down with an idea. You hear songs on the radio and you’re like ‘Oh I wonder what it takes to actually write that.’ So, I went up to my dad and asked if we could write a song together.” Later on in life, Ty discovered rap and hip-hop and started writing raps, which, led to him writing more songs.

Joe Brown: “For me, it was out of necessity. The Cleveland area is very dry in terms of pop music. It’s hard to find people who are making the same kind of music as me and produce this stuff because it’s a very rock and hip hop dominated area.”

Temple Brothers: “Well, we had been writing songs for a while, and during COVID-19 we had done a lot of collaborative writing with a bunch of different people. But then the summer before Gideon came to BW, I went through the classic six week sixteen-year-old relationship, and I went through the feels and wrote some music. We spent that year producing, mixing, and mastering it out,” Hank Temple said. “It was a kind of DIY process in a way and you know, we did a lot of production, and then we had a lot of help from our friend who is a producer in our hometown. We look back now and see that it was a very DIY project, but it makes us more excited for our newer projects and collabs,” Gideon said.

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced when taking on the task of a solo album?

Jack Lutz: “It’s mostly scheduling. Studio time is harder to get since our mixer is in high demand. On top of that, collaboration is quite hard. When writing my own stuff, I can write and record demos whenever I want to. But with collabs, I can’t always meet with the guys to write or throw ideas around.”

Ty Bogikes: “One is a lack of knowledge. You really have to learn a lot to successfully record things. Another is booking studio time. I mean, good producers are few and far between, so it’s tough to actually get into the studio. The biggest one is self-confidence.”

Joe Brown: “My biggest challenge is not having another set of ears. I’ve been fortunate to have friends like Jack and my friends back home to listen to my stuff. The other challenge is not giving too much away and drawing people in. All the greatest songwriters are talking about themselves, while others like to talk about others.”

Temple Brothers: “The biggest challenge is we didn’t really know how to do anything. The whole process was a process of experimentation. We look back on it and realize that we are capable of so much more now,” Hank Temple said. “It was like a snapshot of where we were at that time as both musicians and producers. Now we get to work with Jacob Mooney, who has way more experience in producing,” Gideon Temple said.

Jack Lutz, Ty Bogikes and the Temple Brothers have been collaborating this past year on projects such as “Waste of My Time” (Jack and Ty) and “Can’t Help Myself” (Jack and the Temple Brothers). Joe has three singles currently out with more to come. The Temple Brothers, alongside their collab EP with Jack Lutz, are also working on their musical “Star Machine,” which will have its first full read through later in the spring semester.