Hello everyone!

My name is Evan, and I am excited to be joining the Steemit community! Here's a little about me:

After four and a half years of study, I finally finished my undergraduate degree in Computer Science with accompanying minors in Arts Entrepreneurship and Music Technology. Originally majoring in Aerospace Engineering, I could feel it was not the right direction during my first two years of study. I spent most of my time in high school with music, playing the trombone in a number of audition ensembles and in the marching band. At the end of my sophomore year in college, I sat down with a close friend I made during that time, and they helped me reassess what I really wanted to do moving forward. He informed me of the Music Technology minor, which seemed to greatly intersect my technical and musical drives.

The music industry has expanded in so many ways in the 21st century, considerably in the digital realm. I pivoted towards Computer Science since it felt like I could really contribute to the development of new musical systems and research down the road. Not long into my junior year, I had already started pursuing concert hall acoustics research with a great team of people. In coordination with my Computer Science coursework, I designed a custom audio convolution interface and subjective test which later resulted in the body of work for my undergraduate thesis.

Researching musical acoustics opened up a world of signal processing and software understanding that I wanted to continue exploring. Thankfully, an undergraduate honors thesis makes quite a great deliverable for graduate school applications! Music Technology is a graduate discipline at a handful of universities around the country, and most programs seemed to be the direct coordination of applied music software research and design I was looking for. After visits to both New York University and McGill University in Montreal, I was captivated by the facilities at both, in addition to the opportunity to live in a city for the first time. (I'm from a small town outside of Harrisburg, PA.)

NYU was out of my financial scope unfortunately, so I made the risky decision of solely applying to McGill. After the better part of four months, I was excited to find that I was accepted and will be heading up to Montreal at the beginning of August to pursue a masters degree. If anyone has suggestions about any aspects of living in Montreal, let me know!

Amid my educational shift towards music, I also picked up DJing with a friend from home. Sharing music with others has always been important to me, and DJing extends this capability to a broader audience. Most of my favorite bands during my adjustment had what-could-be-considered dance songs here and there, but I had no real understanding of the depth that dance music contained. I began exploring blogs, endlessly clicking through related videos on YouTube, and following record labels and stores on social media, fervently researching unique sounds, both new and old. It took some time, but I have really found what I love in primarily disco and house. The two blend so well with one another, since relative tempos and percussive patterns are very similar.

Below you can find a mix I made with a blend of funk, house, soul, and disco tunes. I am highly-focused on selection, so let me know if there are any tracks that you would want the IDs for. I hope you all enjoy!