Classmate Profile

            Wandering in to what appeared to be an empty Rob-Cook lobby, I plop onto the couch, only to hear a voice, “I’m over here.”

Comfortably seated in the corner, waits Matt Williams.

Oops. Laughing to- and at- myself, I quickly change seats. Williams, disregarding this silliness, shows of his Red Hot Chili Peppers t-shirt, testifying to his love of music.

            “You can write about music. I listen to music all day, every day,” Williams states.

            Music is a major factor in Williams’s life. “Matt’s day is not complete until he listens to a new cd,” later adds Cody Gay, a close friend of Williams’.

            In middle school, Williams began his pursuit of music; starting with drum lessons. “I felt like everybody played guitar, so I wanted to play something different. But I wasn’t very good,” he laughs.

            Freshman year of high school, Williams decided to learn to play the guitar instead. Sophomore year he joined a rock band called Civic Service, with friends Mac Kern, Luke Robinson, and Keith Parrot. Williams played guitar and also sang. After about three years of playing together, Williams felt he was being pushed away. There were some disagreements. Collin, the brother of Kern, was added to the band as guitarist, and Kern asked Williams if he would just do vocals, which he agreed to. But after more arguments with other band members, Williams eventually quit.

            “It had pretty much been my dream; to be in a band,” Williams muses. “It progressively depressed me.”

            Soon after, Civic Service broke up, and Williams started his own alternative rock band, The Argyle Sweater, consisting of Tyler Caldwell, Parrot, and himself.

            One day in class, Williams met a girl who was also a part of a band, which was scheduled to play a concert in Lexington. Williams asked if they had an opening act, and after finding that they did not, asked if “The Argyle Sweater” could have the honors. The girl agreed, so Williams and his band practiced for about a month to prepare themselves for the performance. About a week or two before the concert, Parrot quit, causing the cancelation of the opening act and also the disbanding of The Argyle Sweater.

            “I just wanted to do something with music,” Williams reflects. “I didn’t know what.”

            Williams is now a sophomore at the University of the Cumberlands. He decided to try the introduction to journalism and public relations class, and after talking to several people about music journalism, decided that is something he wants to do. He was able to try it out by writing an article for the school newspaper, the Patriot, on a local band called The Sowing Season. He loved it!

            “I want to write anything about music,” he declares.

            Williams hopes to someday write for the music magazine SPIN.

            “I don’t want to write for Rolling Stone. It’s too political. But I mean, don’t get me wrong, if Rolling Stone offered me a job, I’d take it,” he smiles.

            Williams also hopes to learn to play more instruments.

“I want to learn like everything. I really want to learn to play the sitar. I mean, who do you know that can play a sitar?” he laughs.