College Sound: Student creates one-man band

Taylor Bartholomew started his solo project Mt. Olivet a year-and-a-half ago as an outlet for experimenting with various synth sounds.

"I basically have been sitting in my studio just making weird sounds for a year or so. I recorded an entire record and listened to it. I just threw it out the window," said Bartholomew.

"It was basically a big experiment. In the end, I listened to the songs. I liked some of the songs, but it's not what I want to put out there."

And during that learning process, Bartholomew took classes at Austin Community College from the Commercial Music Management department and started a new album with a defined sound he feels is a better representation of Mt. Olivet.

"Recently, maybe in October, I've been working on my new record Vanity of Vanities. I'm about halfway done recording it. I'm really excited about it. It's a lot more like me, and it's a lot more about the songs," said Bartholomew.

The thing that helped him evolve into his new direction was changing the order of recording. Rather than using digital instruments on a laptop, Bartholomew decided to think outside of the computer and focus more on bringing his solo music to a live show setting.

"As a result of that, my song writing suffered a lot. A lot of the lyrics were diluted by the limitations of the writing like that. That was a huge reason why I threw away this record," said Batholomew. "Also, because I had to use a laptop live and it drives me nuts."

He pulls influences from all types of genres, including the industrial Nine Inch Nails and singer-songwriter St. Vincent.

"I take a lot of different weird influences. It comes out in the music a lot," said Bartholomew. "I also listen to a lot of blues and jazz like Billie Holiday. Some of my favorite music is movie scores from the ‘70s... A lot of it's intense, but if you can handle it, you'd probably like it."

The musician also recently became the bass player for Courrier, an alternative rock band. Compared to Mt. Olivet, this is a drastic change from his industrial tunes. He'll also be working in a band with three other people.

"It's weird. It's as different as it can get because with Mt. Olivet, it's me, and if I mess up, it's on me. I'm in charge of everything. With Courrier, it's like I can just relax and play the bass, just be the bass player, just have fun, and put on a good show. It's good. It's two really awesome healthy outlets for me to just go out and be in two different places at once," said Bartholomew.

Courrier is more established than Mt. Olivet, as the band worked with the Grammy-winning producer Adam Hawkins on their debut album A Violent Flame which was released before Bartholomew joined the band.

With the band booking more shows and promoting the album, Mt. Olivet and ACC might take a backseat for awhile.

"We will see if I go back to school a full semester next semester because Courrier is talking about doing some tour so we'll see if that happens," said Bartholomew.

"Mt. Olivet is going to suffer a little bit because of Courrier but that's OK. It's not like I'm organizing four guys' lives around that other band. It's just me. So when I'm at home, it's like can still do it. There's not really a way to stop me."

College Sound is a recurring feature. If you're an ACC student and a musician, please contact Sarah Vasquez, Assistant Editor at editor2@austincc.edu.