Shane Besselman is obsessed with creating his diverse music. Everywhere he goes, his handy laptop is with him, brainstorming ideas for his inspiring tracks.

The senior found his passion through YouTube and has since grown as a producer. “When I was younger, I loved listening to music and found big artists that were releasing stuff and realized, ‘I wanna make that.’ So, I went on to YouTube and found a program called FrootyLoops studio, and now I’ve been producing for five years now,” he said.

With that studio in his hands, Besselman has been able to create several pieces of music and has actually gotten famous because of it. “About a year ago, I remixed a song by a famous rapper, and that song blew up and got about 500,000 views on one channel and another 100,000 on another channel. It spread like wildfire and I was really proud of myself for it,” he said.

Sophomore Monti Yoo, a friend of Besselman, admits he loves the way Besselman works on his music. “Occasionally, he sends me lots of videos of him working on it at his house. He even has his own studio with a couple speakers,” Yoo said.

Besselman has many inspirations, some of which are very popular. However, his true inspiration may be surprising. “My biggest inspiration is a not so well known producer/mixer called Virtual Riot. He is very talented at sound design and that really inspires me to go and make my own sounds,” he said.

Working with other artists is what Besselman loves to do. With that in mind, there’s always a little time for friendly collaborations. “I’ve worked with a lot of different people overseas, in the country, and in Ohio.

“My biggest collaboration was with a friend of mine named Will, who lives in Indiana,” Besselman said. “We made a fun, happy song together, and I really enjoyed making music with him and I want to make more music with him in the future,” he said.

Besselman, however, confesses he struggles very often in order to write successful pieces of music. “Sometimes, artists can go through a phase called writer’s block where you can’t seem to find inspiration or ideas to create music. It becomes a big problem to overcome, but if you keep going after a song, you can get over your writer’s block,” he said.

Yoo believes that Besselman’s abilities to overcome struggles are amazing. “Shane really knows what he’s doing, but he has a creative technique where he knows what he wants and gets it done, but he changes little things and I think it’s amazing that he can maneuver around his music,” Yoo said.

Wanting this to become a future career for himself, Besselman said he get into film scores and music production. He said, “But realistically, I would want to go into a field of sound design and sound engineering.”

Junior Gavin Anselmo, another friend of Besselman, believes Besselman can turn his passion into a career. “His passion for his music that he makes can really make working a job not really feel like ‘working.’ I believe he would have a blast creating his own music as an actual job,” said Anselmo.

Besselman thinks that his passion for music has made his life more interesting. He said, “It really gives me something else to do. It also helps me meet new people, discover new things, and all together, it keeps me entertained, whether I’m listening to it or making it.”

Friends of Besselman agree that music has shaped his life. Anselmo said, “I think the music creates himself, not only his character, but the music Shane creates impacts how he handles life.”