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Two Syracuse University students and an alumnus joined a video call on Thursday night, not for an online class or work meeting, but to perform their original songs for incoming freshmen.

The three music artists, SU alum Kyle Micho and juniors Jada Crawford and Sarah Gross, each played a short set during a virtual Orange Celebration LIVE! event hosted by CitrusTV and Z89.

Micho, who graduated from SU last semester, was the first performer at the event. He performed the song “AM,” which he wrote when he was living in Watson Hall. Micho likened virtual concerts to singing into a mirror due to the lack of a visible and audible audience.

“It’s always fun for me to do, but it’s more fun when there’s an audience,” he said.

Micho, who has been writing songs since age 11, doesn’t categorize the music he makes into a specific genre. When he asks other people to describe the genre, he gets a range of answers, he said.

Micho didn’t aspire to be a songwriter; it just happened. He listens and watches, rather than writes, and the songs are just there, he said.

Some of Micho’s favorite music artists include The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elliot Smith and The Velvet Underground. He appreciates artists who tell the truth in their songs and are good songwriters.

He hopes to go to Los Angeles once live music returns. Until then, he is stuck in Baldwinsville.

“I’m kind of in limbo — in purgatory,” he said.

Jada Crawford was a performer during Orange Celebration LIVE! last Thursday. Courtesy of Jada Crawford

Micho is working on an album that he hopes to release this fall.

“It’s been taking a long time, and I’ve been living kind of like a recluse for a little bit working on it, but it’s gonna be ready soon,” he said.

At the virtual event, Crawford performed her song “Cups,” which she wrote when she was about 16 years old.

Crawford describes her music as folk/grunge. She writes music using her acoustic guitar but also loves metal and grunge music.

Crawford started writing music in elementary or middle school. At first, she just wrote lyrics because she didn’t know how to play any instruments. She got a guitar at age 10 but didn’t know what to play because she grew up on reggae, hip-hop and R&B music. Reggae and hip-hop don’t have set chords to learn, while R&B doesn’t usually feature guitar, she explained.

“It’s a nice break away from singing, playing the guitar, bass piano, whatever,” Crawford said. “But it’s still doing what I love, and it’s therapeutic for me, especially with writing songs, because I write about how I feel or how I think.”

When Jada Crawford started writing music, she wrote just lyrics because she didn’t know how to play any instruments. Courtesy of Jada Crawford

Some of Crawford’s favorite artists include Nirvana, Korn, Soundgarden and Tool. Crawford doesn’t have a favorite song that she’s written. Instead, she feels proud of whatever her latest song is. She does like the song “Cups” though because she knows it very well and can easily perform it, she said.

Writing music during the quarantine has been difficult, Crawford said, but she hopes to get back into it as the semester starts and have music released before the end of 2020.

SU junior Sarah Gross was the final performance of the event. She performed two songs, “Pay Toll” and “Villas of Rome,” which she wrote on one of her first nights at college when she was missing her family.

Gross describes her music as Americana pop with some influences of jazz, noting that it is similar to Kacey Musgraves and Brandi Carlile. Female rock artists have inspired her work, she said.

Gross looked up to her older brother and wanted to play guitar as he did. She was also a dancer and knew that she wanted to make music that people could dance to. Now, she hopes to pursue a career in music.

Accustomed to writing music for school and for her band, Gross didn’t have anyone to play with during quarantine. During this time, she went back to making music for fun again.

This past month, Gross recorded her album “Songs From the Passenger Seat,” which she plans to release in the fall, she said.

“That’s pretty much all I’ve been doing during the pandemic — just writing and recording and just kind of being in my own little hobbit hole of music,” she said.

Published on August 23, 2020 at 9:58 pm

Contact Mandy: [email protected] | @MandyKraynak