Starting a new life at college at an unfamiliar place can be a scary experience for basically anyone you ask. New friends, new food, a new room, and most importantly, new obligations and responsibilities all come with starting this new chapter. Juggling college classes, making friends, possibly playing a sport, and overall handling the adjustments that come with college life can lead to a lot of stress. For freshman Adam Mink, however, managing being in a band with his new college life only brings him closer to his music.
Adam Mink of Medford, NJ is a freshman here at St. Joe’s, and continued his passion for music and his band when he graduated high school. Adam had this idea of starting a band in his middle school days with his best friend, however it wasn’t until around his freshman year of high school that their band, Sleep House, was born.
Adam is the lead guitarist in Sleep House and describes that their style of music and the genre that they produce ranges due to their “crazy electric music taste.” Their favorite genres however, are Indie Rock and Pop, so they enjoy writing music that reflect these genres.
One of the hardest yet most important aspects of being in a band is coming up with meaningful lyrics and catchy melodies. “Inspiration for songs usually comes from all over,” Adam said. “Sometimes I have to make myself sit for an hour to try and come up with something and other times, I’ll hear a melody in my head in the shower and it’ll end up forming itself from there.” Adam’s overall inspiration for starting his band began after wanting to write his own music when he was, at that point, only covering other artists’ music. The task of writing music and producing something original and meaningful isn’t always an easy process, and a lot of hard work and time go into creating songs.
Any artist can tell you that every song went through its own, individual, and unique process. There are songs that take years to perfect, while others hit their peak after an hour in a studio. Adam related heavily to this idea. “There’s been songs that have taken literally 20 minutes to write and some songs that take a month or two,” Adam said. Overall, however, Adam stresses that “it really depends on my mindset and what’s going on in my life at the time.”
New environments and adjusting to a new way of life can sometimes seem like the scariest thing in the world. Graduating high school and coming to terms with the fact that life is always changing is a frightening thought, and finding your passion and future mainly occurs when college begins to rolls around. For Adam Mink, this passion and purpose was found much earlier, and he knows that music will always be his focus. “Music will always be my number one priority,” Adam said. “College has helped me gain new experiences and has given us a way to be more productive than when we were in high school.”
Adam and the rest of his band in Sleep House are available to listen to on Spotify, Apple Music, and other music platforms. Make sure to keep an eye out for their upcoming singles “Don’t You Cry” and “Pano-319” on November 26th and December 6th, respectively.
