Students write and produce anonymous CD

Alliciyia George

For some Loyola students, it is never too early to start pursuing their dreams.

Loyola student Ashley Rossi is already making a jumpstart on her career by recording her own songs through Songwriters Anonymous.

Songwriters Anonymous is a small community of musicians who meet every Wednesday and collaborate on a variety of musical projects that invite all creative people to join.

Rossi, music therapy and psychology senior, said she got involved in Songwriters Anonymous after seeing a flyer in The Communications/Music Complex.

“I first started out in Songwriters Anonymous as a freshman. I thought the meeting would be a great way to meet and to get different impacts and different aspects of songwriting from people I didn’t know,” Rossi said.

As an organization, students wanted to show off their finished songs, and the Songwriters Anonymous CD formed as a culminating project to give them something to work towards each year.

“The CD has all kinds of genres: electronic, hip-hop and more. The songs come from artists both in the club and out,” Rossi said.

This year’s CD will be released in May.

John Snyder, music industry studies chair, created the club so that students could obtain entrepreneurial experience.

“Songwriters Anonymous was a club started by students in the songwriting class to give performances and make recordings,“ Snyder said.

John Rankin, instructor of guitar and music industry studies and faculty adviser for Songwriters Anonymous, said that the College of Music and Fine Arts wants students to be prepared for the corporate world of music business.

Rankin said that the club was also open to poets and rappers. The organization said that they wanted to include talent of all kinds.

Sandy Chen, music industry studies senior, and John Paul A’12 were instrumental in establishing the club when Chen was a freshman and Paul was a senior.

“The goal was to provide a creative outlet for students interested in songwriting,” Chen said.

On April 12, Songwriters Anonymous held a mini arts festival called The Art of Sound, in partnership with Untitled, Loyola’s art club, where students were able to pre-order their fifth album CD for a discounted price of $3.

According to Rankin, singers that write their own songs have a competitive advantage.

“Our main goal is to encourage. Our second goal is the CD, the art festivals and open mics,”John Rankin,

Rossi said that Songwriters Anonymous gives creative students a chance to do what they love.

“I’ve always loved songwriting, and I’ve always done songwriting,” Rossi said.