Alex at a Glance

My name is Alex William Goldsmith. I was born on July 22, 1993 in Evanston Hospital. I am just about completely obsessed with music (listening,playing,writing,performing) and have been since I was first enthralled by a guitar just a week after I turned thirteen. I remember hearing my first rock song when I was about four years old but it wasn't until I saw my dad playing his old acoustic that I knew immediately what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I can safely say I never even thought about anything else. Other interests I have are burning things, reading, playing with my niece, watching movies, juggling, video games, and hanging out with friends. I went to the Chicago Math and Science Academy from sixth grade all the way to the end of high school. It's a very small school with an average of fifty students in my graduating class. 

I have always felt that musicians grow the most by playing music with other people and feeding off of other people’s ideas.  Playing in your room by yourself for hours on end and playing along to your favorite records only goes so far.  Eventually you start to crave that feeling of playing in a live setting with other people.  That is the only thing that I regret about going to a small high school.  The diversity in music only stretches so far and there’s only a select few who are really musically inclined and seem to have that drive.  I always felt a certain level of isolation when it comes to that at my school.

When I first started playing my parents weren’t very enthusiastic.  Before I started to learn guitar I had many things that I grew bored with quickly such as martial arts, soccer, and hockey.  I was never as driven to achieve at something as much until I became inspired to start playing music.  There’s something about begging your parents to spring for that first guitar that really gets you going - even when they buy you an eighty dollar steel string when you want to sound like Metallica!

I would much rather try and push myself to do what makes me happy instead of stapling papers together at an office. Whether it’s my parents or the less musically inclined environment of my high school that became an obstacle in my path of wanting to be a better musician, I refuse to succumb to the negative attitudes of doing what makes them happy.  My passion overshadows my surroundings.  I know what I want to do with my life and nothing or no one will tell me otherwise. That is why I chose Columbia.