We live in Austin, Texas, where music is a defining aspect of our city.

Between the countless venues that our city holds, students on campus have the opportunity to attend concerts virtually any day of the week. In fact, when choosing a university, many students take into account that St. Edward’s is located in the music capital of the world.

For music lovers like sophomore Josh Gibbs, Austin’s music scene was quite an attractive factor in choosing St. Edward’s. Currently a digital media management major, Gibbs made sure to add a music minor so he could keep up with doing what he loves.

Music is undoubtedly a huge part of Gibbs’ life, and has been ever since he began playing guitar at 10.

“I never really took playing guitar seriously until I was about 12 when I listened to My Chemical Romance. I joined a band at age 13, but that was the first time I seriously started playing. I think we were called Disengaged Machine. We played at our junior high pop show and we played during the intermission,” Gibbs said. 

Gibbs plays guitar, bass and piano, is involved in St. Edward’s Jazz band, hosts a show on Topper Radio and has been involved in a serious Houston-based band, Castaway Radio. Currently writing and playing his own songs, Gibbs hopes to find a dedicated group of people who will form a band with him.

“Hopefully I can tour in the future. I hope that by the end of the semester I can get a solid group of people together to start something with,” said Gibbs.

The kinds of music that Gibbs likes to perform and listen to include shoegaze, hardcore, jazz and emo style music. 

With musical influences such as Jamie Rhoden, guitarist and vocalist in the band Title Fight, along with guitarist Frank Iero from My Chemical Romance and vocalist and guitarist Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys, Gibbs’ sound is a result of the influences of these musicians.

Gibbs has had the opportunity to play live shows with his former band in Houston, Castaway Radio, in which he played guitar.

“I’ve performed in public a lot. I’ve performed in basically every venue in Houston, except for House Of Blues and the bigger venues. I played with my old band, Castaway Radio, we were together for four years, since I left the band. The band is still going. I get nervous before performances, depending on the performance,” Gibbs said.

He hasn’t had the opportunity to play any shows in Austin, but Gibbs hopes to be able to in the near future.

“I want to take my songs on the road. I want to do a lot of things I haven’t done yet, but I mostly want to tour. I want to tour with bands that I actually like, as opposed to bands I’m just put on the bill with. Besides Title Fight, I’d love to open for David Bazan, he’s Pedro The Lion. He’s one of my favorite artists right now. Or maybe play a show with Turnstyle, and The Wonder Years, and You Blew It! There are just so many bands I would love to play with” Gibbs said.

You can find Gibb’s music in a variety of places online. 

His former band, Castaway Radio, is on Spotify and iTunes, while his solo project is found on SoundCloud under the name “boyd.”