This is the 60th article in Bears Doing Big Things, a weekly column celebrating the stories of notable M-A alumni.
Ethan Tasch ‘16 started playing guitar when he was eight. He said, “My dad played and I just thought it was cool. My mom also played piano so we were a musical house.” Tasch has significantly grown in popularity since, amassing over 25 million streams of his folk-pop music and countless features on Spotify editorial playlists.
“I put a video of me playing guitar up on Facebook freshman year. People didn’t really know I played guitar until that. Afterward, I kept posting videos and showing more of my music,” he recalled.
Tasch was able to explore music in a multitude of ways in high school. He took audio production and guitar classes at M-A and participated in the Battle of the Bands competition. Outside of school, Tasch was part of Melodies for Charities, where he volunteered to play music at local events.
As Tasch’s passion for music grew, he began to realize that he could make a career out of it. The summer before his senior year, he attended a program at Berklee College of Music. When it came time for college, Tasch said, “Guitar was what I was good at, and I didn’t know what else to do.”
After graduating from M-A, Tasch attended the University of Southern California, where he majored in Popular Music and made connections in the industry. “We had private lessons, theory classes, and all kinds of music industry classes. In my sophomore year, I hurt my hand and finger so I couldn’t really play guitar. That was when I started writing songs and singing. I stuck with it since I just felt like I have a more interesting story to tell that way versus just playing guitar.”
In 2020, Tasch signed with R&R Digital, a label that also works with Dijon and Mt. Joy.
On July 28th, 2023, after two EPs, he released Got Him!, his debut album. About the process, he said, “It was a couple of months of writing and making demos every day. After that, I was going to the studio and recording it with a producer and other musicians to put it all together.” Leading up to the release, he said, “There’s a bunch of content and promo and videos to do.”
Tasch opened and was the guitarist for Bea Miller’s 2023 Gauche Tour. At their San Francisco show, he recalled, “I did an ‘M-A, You Know!’ chant and everyone went crazy.”
Tasch’s advice to M-A students: “Don’t do your homework during lunch or brunch. It’s so much added stress and you can just do it at home and it will be better quality.”
Tasch’s advice to students interested in the music industry: “Trust your gut. Don’t look at what everyone else is doing and try to model yourself after that. Instead, focus on your brand, and then, at some point, people will start to connect.”
