Senior Garrett Lockhart was hanging out with friends listening to techno when the music slowed down.
That was Lockhart’s first introduction to dubstep. Three years and countless tracks later, he performs under the name GLock.
“From then on, that was all I heard, ever,” Lockhart said. “The more I started to hear it, the more I started to listen to it.”
Now an established dubstep artist, Lockhart is joined by five friends from GW who handle marketing and operations for Team GLock.
The Austin, Texas native listened to soft-rock and pop artists such as Jack’s Mannequin and John Mayer growing up, but his tastes gradually shifted toward electronic sounds. He quit GW’s varsity tennis team his sophomore year to devote more time to the newly discovered tunes and decided to create his own beats.
“I downloaded Garage Band and got bored with that in like 20 minutes, and I went through a big software learning curve,” Lockhart said. “It never ends. You can learn a million things at once.”
In an attempt to educate himself on the ins and outs of music production, he studied books, blogs and YouTube videos. He experimented with sounds and tools. He neglected school work, spending hours in his room playing with software platforms.
“You end up getting lost and forgetting that there’s daylight outside,” Lockhart said.
GLock’s first performance at a warehouse rave in D.C. his sophomore year was slated for 9 p.m., a relatively tame hour. But after a switch up in the acts, his gig got bumped to 3 a.m. – a popular time for raving – amping up Lockhart’s nerves.
He barely knew how to plug in his equipment.
“I didn’t know what I was doing. Next thing I know, I’m playing at 3 a.m. to a crowd full of people in a warehouse and they are going crazy. It was probably the best experience of my life,” Lockhart said.
Now Lockhart is beginning to share his music with executives who could sign him out to an official label. Until then, the senior said he is spending his time practicing by playing more shows, including his next performance at U Street Music Hall Dec. 20.
After he graduates in May, Lockhart said he hopes to attend a pre-professional academy for music production so he can be able to teach others how to make music. While teaching, he also hopes to do some work on the side for studios creating scores and other tracks.
“I wanted to make it a career, and if it has enough legs to do that after college then that’s where we’re going to go with it,” Lockhart said.
