Noah Floersch listens to music with his eyes closed to cut out visual distractions so that he can make sure the song coming out of his computer’s speakers matches the one in his head.
A Junior Business Marketing Major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Floersch has always loved music and been involved in it, but a collaboration with the Omaha Symphony when he was a Senior at Creighton Preparatory is what convinced him to try and make a career of it.
And the memory is what keeps him working while our nation endures the lockdown in a desperate attempt to get a handle on the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
The Spark That Caused the Fire
Floersch only heard the male parts of Mozart’s Requiem during rehearsals at school, so when the soprano vocal lines from the rest of the choir came drifting in while it was actually being performed, he was floored.
And so, began a serious look at making music for a living, including posting videos of himself singing on Twitter as of August 2017. As Floersch neared the end of his first UNL semester, a young man called Ross Grieb, now a Senior Marketing Major, contacted him via the social networking service to see if he was interested in working together on music and the duo was born.
Work Continues During the Lockdown
The pair spend time together every week in the Citylight Lincoln Church basement recording studio, recording and mixing Floersch’s tunes. This practice has continued after UNL classes shifted online in March to try and curb the spread of COVID-19, and both are pleased to report that they have managed to carve out a type of synergy from all the time they’ve spent together. The music they are making is evidence of that.
In the same way that other services have been saving us from total insanity during this quarantine, the practice of writing and recording new tracks has come to the rescue of Floersch and Grieb. While you and I spend time on Facebook, learn new languages, or enjoy online blackjack games for real money, they’re stringing together words and chord progressions.
A Growing Fanbase
While he has a way to go yet before he is rubbing shoulders with the likes of Dolly Parton, Rihanna, or Taylor Swift, Floersch tries to release at least a song every month to the almost 60 000 monthly listeners he has gathered on Spotify. He dropped Four Songs to Cry To, a quartet of melancholy music, in the summer of 2019 and he plans to go one better this year, releasing five tracks in June.
10 Years, the second song from the first release, is an excellent example of how wide Floersch’s range is, the sad tune building up to a crescendo as his lilting voice soars above the instruments. As a tenor, Floersch takes inspiration from the likes of Gregory Alan Isakov and Jon Bellion and said that he writes songs that would fit perfectly onto a Disney movie soundtrack.
