Regret, the pain of heartbreak and addiction hardly sound like the lyrical choices of a self-described comedian, yet singer-songwriter Jarrod Gorbel insists he’s a goofball.
“Music is only one aspect of my personality,” Gorbel said. “I feel most comfortable writing songs about depressing, dark topics, but in real life I’m not like that. I mean, who wants to be brought down all the time?”
Gorbel’s latest and first full-length solo album, Devil’s Made a New Friend, features those somber lyrics he’s known for, although he plans to showcase his far-from-serious personality at tonight’s Emerging Artist Series performance.
The Emerging Artist Series is just one of the new programs introduced by the Campus Involvement Center this year.
“It was one of the ideas we got from students last year,” said Andrew Holzaepfel, associate director of the Campus Involvement Center. “Basically, we wanted to get a series going on a regular basis where we bring in local, regional, national and even international acts.”
The series started last week with Marbles for Eyes and will continue every Thursday through the rest of the quarter. Although Fall Quarter’s shows will be held in the Front Room, Holzaepfel said he hopes to move the series to the new Baker Lounge when it opens Winter Quarter.
“We’re also hoping to up it to maybe more than once a week come Winter Quarter,” Holzaepfel. “We want to get more regional and national acts then too. We’re trying not to make it just a singer-songwriter thing and I think the Lounge will be a better venue for that.”
For now, though, most of the shows will feature singer-songwriters such as Gorbel.
