Porter Davis, a fourth-year commercial music major at Point Loma Nazarene University, showcased a live performance in Salomon Theatre that gave a glimpse into his music release a few weeks ago.
The performance, on Nov. 16, was a part of his senior project for his degree, where students take what they’ve learned — lyric writing, instrumental production and copyright licensing — to create a music release and live show. This includes writing and recording songs, having them mixed and mastered, and uploading them to streaming.
Davis released several of his songs in a four-track EP titled “Porter Davis Live from Trinitas Studio,” on Nov. 15. It includes his songs, “Proud to be Me,” “When The Shadows Go Home,” “This Time” and “Making Room,” which were all performed at the show.
“The songs were a cultivation of things I’ve written in the past two years, and they all played such a huge part in my life,” Davis said. “I wanted the recordings to feel honest and raw, like whoever is listening is in the room with me.”
Each song was recorded in one take, he said, and the entire recording process took only an hour.
“I just wanted to get them [the songs] out there in the world,” Davis said.
The senior project requires students to handle artwork, branding and promotion leading up to the release and put together an album release concert. This includes booking a space, planning the set, building the stage plot and input list, promoting the show and finally performing.
In the final stage, students meet with their advisor and reflect on what worked and what didn’t, turning in a portfolio of everything they created.
“It’s basically the launchpad for stepping into my career as an artist,” Davis said.
Davis played alongside a six-member band, which included four other students — Jesse Bollinger, a third-year music production major, Blake Cherry, a fourth-year international studies major, Brooks Robinson, a fourth-year music composition major and Gunnar Gash, a fourth-year business major.
“We had a lot of rehearsals,” Davis said, “but the band is so talented, and it didn’t take long for them to lock it down. Definitely a lot of preparation and long nights.”
Mesh Depaoli, a second-year business administration major, attended Davis’ show and had nothing but praise for the performance.
“He [Davis] had an amazing voice, wrote all of his own music and sounded super professional,” Depaoli said. “He even used a harmonica at one point, which was really cool.”
Depaoli said that the audience was energized during his performance.
“Porter interacted with the crowd extremely well,” Depaoli said. “He made the entire audience feel included and appreciated for being there.”
The show lasted over an hour and ended with the crowd dancing in front of the stage.
Davis said Chaz Celaya, director of the commercial music program, provided him with valuable insight and information during his songwriting and recording process, as well as the legal aspects.
“Senior projects are massive undertakings that give students hands-on experience in numerous areas of commercial music,” Celaya said.
When it comes to being a singer and songwriter, Davis said that music didn’t have a big role in his life until high school.
“I’ve always been into writing and would write a lot of poems and short stories,” Davis said. “But as I fell in love with music, I started picking up the guitar and put a melody to the words I would write.”
His biggest inspiration is Ryan Beatty, a singer-songwriter from Clovis, Calif.
“He’s a deep songwriter and has challenged me to dig deep into my lyricism and instrumentation,” Davis said.
According to Depaoli, she thought Davis’s lyricism was unique and his songs were extremely well written. Celaya said he looks forward to seeing Davis continue to develop in the years ahead.
“Porter is a great talent and an even greater person,” Celaya said. “He takes to songwriting and live performance very naturally.”
Davis’ plans after graduation are to get a studio job and dig deeper into his music.
“I have so many ideas and just want to get them on paper,” Davis said. “I hope my music can help people process through hard times and happy times.”
Adee Tulcan