What proved to be a season of lull for many prospective college students turned out to be an era of inspiration for junior Carsen Codel. While the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was indisputably difficult, Codel took advantage of the extensive free time, taking it to create music and establish himself as a musician. Student Life recently sat down to talk to Codel about his creative process.

Student Life: What is your musical history? 

Carsen Codel: I’ve been playing the piano for 13 years now; I started with classical, but I picked up jazz in 8th grade and have been playing jazz predominantly…I started guitar last year. As for singing, I’ve kind of always sang. My whole family sings, so it’s kind of something we just do. 

I sort of started making original music in middle school; it was really bad. I did technically release it, but you can’t find it now because I erased it from the internet… don’t look up my name on YouTube. But, under c.rsn, I started producing my sophomore in high school; I messed around with Ableton, mostly low-fi hip-hop, but now I do more indie singer-songwriter stuff.

SL: You produce and create your own music, right? Do you work with a label? 

CC: One of my friends from high school goes to school at the University of Chicago and studies music management, so part of his college experience has been starting this label; it is called Dilettante Records. Some of my recent stuff is through him. We share a lot of production; he’s done a lot of the production recently, and I do songwriting.

SL: What got you into the industry and wanting to make music? 

CC: Mostly just listening to other people and using my background in music. Especially starting with classical, a written and structured music form, I knew I would have to create my own music to get a new sound. There were a lot of artists that I listened to, and wanted to make music like theirs. I tried to emulate their sound and make it my own. I was very much guided by other artists in creating my own [music].

SL: Who are some of those artists? Who are your inspirations? 

CC: For the low-fi stuff I’ve done, Ginseng, Elijah Who, and Idealism. For more indie stuff, Bruno Major was a big inspiration, but more recently, I’ve liked indie rock stuff like Beach House, Far Caspian, and Day Wave.

SL: How has WashU impacted your musical career? 

CC: In general, the accessibility of the music program has been really huge for me to stay up on practice and keep my skills sharp. I am in like three different lessons right now and one composition class. Composition classes are really cool; you basically do two pieces for that and have weekly private lessons with the professor to work on your pieces. I just released one of the compositions, ‘All Over Again.’ This one has a string quartet, trumpet player, bassist, and I’ll be playing piano. It is kind of a modern take of Nelson Riddle and Sinatra. The other composition will be on my next album and is called ‘Drift Away.’

SL: Are you working on any projects at the moment? 

CC: I just released two singles, one of which I mentioned above as one of my compositions, and another one called ‘Can’t Quite Place.’ I’ll also have an album coming out at the end of March, hopefully. In addition, I did study abroad in Italy this summer and recorded some stuff there. I put those out on an album called ‘Firenze’ that is out now.

SL: What is your favorite song you’ve produced or your favorite song to perform?

CC: My favorite song I’ve written is called ‘Distance,’ which is just piano and vocals. It was inspired by a very specific memory I have of getting out of my car after swim practice in the winter. It was just a very cool moment for me. I do really like performing that one, but it’s a little quiet. I have a song called ‘Say What You Have to Say’ that I made a music video for. I performed this at a Run Club party, and we had a band. It was the first time we performed it live, and it just went really hard. I really liked that one; the energy is really great.

SL: It seems like you are very involved with other musicians. Do you plan on doing collaborations or getting a band together? 

CC: Yeah, I’m kind of an auxiliary piano player for Non-Euclidean Geometry, so we’ve played some of their music together in addition to some of mine. We play together pretty often. It’s fun to just play together in low-stakes settings… without the restraint of being an official and defined band. I also really like doing solo gigs like opening for other bands.

Find Carsen on Spotify and Apple music at c.rsn and his Instagram, @c.rsn_offical. Watch for his new album in late March. Check out his newest singles, released Feb. 24 and Feb. 17.