We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Xander Bowles. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Xander below.

Xander, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I sing in an a cappella group at Middlebury College called the Dissipated Eight. It is an all-male vocal group that was founded in 1952 and continues to perform and record today. In 2023, the group decided to set our sights on the studio to record our 26th studio album: “Careful, Now.” I reached out to friends of mine in the music industry and the professional a cappella world and planned the record from the ground up. I organized finances, flights, lodging, and contracted our engineer, producer, and mixer. The group flew from Middlebury, Vermont to Nashville, Tennessee and spent 5 days in the studio recording our most recent body of work: a four song EP titled “Careful, Now.” To me, it represents an immense amount of effort and collaboration from everyone in the group and a work of art that showcases each of our talents. The album is available on all streaming platforms and we continue to perform the songs live!

Xander, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a 20 year old instrumentalist, producer, and engineer from Dallas, Texas, as well as a full time student at Middlebury College in Vermont studying music and economics. I grew up singing in the St. Mark’s School of Texas Choir, a world-class all-male choir that tours the world. I spent nine years singing in that ensemble and was fortunate enough to perform residencies in legendary English choral spaces like Westminster Abbey and Winchester Cathedral. While my musical background as a child and teenager was largely choral voice, I began to play the guitar my freshman year of high school and fell in love. I had always been musical, but I had never encountered an instrument in which I could fully express myself and create art. I continued playing guitar and developing a passion for music as well as developing skills on several other instruments along the way.
When I graduated high school, I began pursuing a double major in music and economics at Middlebury College. There, I began playing guitar in pit orchestras for musical theater, both at the college and in the surrounding community. I split the summer of 2023 between a full time guitarist at Pine Cove Camps in Tyler, Texas and a studio assistant in Nashville, Tennessee. I developed skills in live playing, participation in an ensemble, production, recording techniques, and studio management. The following summer, I returned to Nashville to work full time in Forty-one Fifteen studio, continuing to learn from great producers, engineers, musicians, and composers. I returned to Middlebury in the fall and began producing two records for song-writing friends of mine and further grew my portfolio.
I currently consider myself both a freelance musician and a full-time student, and happily juggle both of those roles. I’m working towards a degree that I hope will benefit me in the future and open doors as well as growing a network of friends and colleagues in the music recording and management industry. I work hard to set myself apart by taking on everything that comes my way with enthusiasm as well as treating everyone along the way with respect. The people I love working with the most are those that I can create a relationship with. I want people to know that I am eager to continue exploring the music and creative industry and that I truly love every opportunity that I get to create music, whether I’m watching from the corner of a studio or standing on stage. I also love connecting with like-minded people and my email/social media is always an open door!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

To me, music as an art form has a unique privilege of connecting with people across the world, no matter their differences. I have worked with people I never would have expected to, developed friendships with those who otherwise never would have crossed my path, and created music that now literally spans the globe. It is not lost on me how incredible that is and I cannot believe it is even possible. In short, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is the people; the ones that I get to work with, make friends with, and hopefully impact without even necessarily meeting them in person.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I feel I have a really unique perspective on this question since I’m a young artist just trying to start and develop his career. From my point of view, space is the most important thing. Artists and creatives must have a space. Whether that’s virtual or physical, an artist’s literal livelihood depends on the recipient of their art. If those recipients don’t exist, or don’t have a means to connect to the art itself, both the art and the artist fail. Recognizing artists in a tangible way certainly helps, and fortunately live music is popular, but in my opinion, at this point in our society being an artist or a creative is not always an attractive path to follow. The money is inconsistent and lacks security, and those that are successful in the field often feel isolated and lack people that can relate to them. Finally, the rise of social media and streaming services has made it extremely easy to experience a person’s art without offering them any compensation or credit. Our society must have a space in which art and music can be shared while also being lucrative so that artists can continue to create. Supporting that is the first step towards a thriving creative ecosystem.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xander.bowles/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xanderbowles/