Music lovers, listen up! The multi-talented singer/songwriter/guitarist Pete Schmidt entertained his small, but intimate audience with songs of relationships, friendships and other personal experiences.
Schmidt plans on going big one day after performing with such leaders as John Mayer and Jason Mraz.
The 23-year-old from Alpharetta, Ga. started playing music in college in Tallahassee, Fla. where he never saw it as a career or even a passion. Schmidt never took formal guitar lessons but used his talent more as a getaway.
Never thinking being a performer would be his career, Schmidt recorded songs and put them on MP3.com.
His pop/rock sound received more that 60,000 downloads and his EP reached number one at Awarestore.com.
He never expected that much success in such a small amount of time.
He performed in bars and at parties while in college. He also performed a lot with country singer Jake Owen before he went big.
How was Schmidt discovered? “I don’t think I’ve really been discovered yet,” Schmidt said “I was doing MP3.com and my manager contacted me.”
Being blind to the whole industry, he didn’t know what his manager could do for him since he never thought his music would become so serious.
“I thought, oh cool, I can play in bars,” Schmidt said.
Silvers flew in from New York wanting to be his manager and scheduled him an opening gig for Norah Jones.
“I got discovered by her. I owe it all to her,” Schmidt said about his manager.
After being asked how he would label himself as an artist, he really did not know how to respond.
“I’m myself to tell you the truth,” Schmidt said. “I like to experiment with a lot of things and different sounds. A lot of my songs just come from a simple beat that I dig up.” He experiments with his acoustic guitar and creates masterpieces such as “Wrong Turn” and “Dreams.”
Schmidt’s personal lyrics make his songs honest and relatable.
“The writing side comes from personal situations with friends and relationships. I never try to force it,” Schmidt said.
Being only a few years older than most college students, Schmidt’s lyrics are stories that this generation can relate to, such as love, drinking, happiness and sadness.
Although a lot of students didn’t come out to Jazzmans Tuesday night, the optimistic and grateful Schmidt included the crowd between each song making jokes and explaining his inspiration for each song.
How did Cabrini get such a talented artist to perform here? CAP Board and Ellie Spano especially, are responsible for blessing Cabrini with his presence.
“Back in high school I bought his tracks off iTunes and fell in love with it,” Spano, junior international business major, said.
She contacted his booking agent and he was completely willing to perform for Cabrini.
“I hope he goes big. His music is so fun. I wish him all the best,” Spano, said.
“His lyrics were fun,” Leslie Farrell, sophomore math secondary education major said. “Using the guitar made it more interesting.”
There were so few audience members to watch Schmidt.
“He deserved a bigger crowd. He was pretty funny, especially the song about alcohol,” Farrell said.
If interested in learning more about Pete Schmidt, visit his Myspace and Facebook pages and check out his music.
His music is now available on iTunes as well.
