By Erin Kelleher

Will Roberts is not only a great musician, but a great entertainer as well. This New Jersey native is incredibly vivacious, and has a lot of passion for what he does. This all shines through his music which is just as creative and entertaining as his personality.

Roberts first came to the University of Louisville for the music school which he considered to be a last minute decision.

Luckily, his jazz band director, Perry Andrews, helped him with his decision to come to college.

“I basically straight out said ‘help me out, what’s a good school for jazz?'” said Roberts. “He made a list of like 10 schools, even sent out emails for me.

He limited it down to about five, and one of them was U of L because of John LeBarbera and some other good names at the music school.

“I chose U of L because one, it was far away from home so that was good. I also got a really good vibe, so I figured I could get some great things done here.”

Roberts is now a senior at U of L, and has switched to the school of Arts and Sciences to pursue communication while focusing on marketing. Marketing is the only thing he could see himself studying in school other than music. He wanted something he could fall back on, and from a very young age he has had a keen awareness and interest in marketing, even before he knew what it was or that it was a profession.

Roberts is also in a band called Paradigm, in which he plays the bass. Roberts taught himself everything he knows on the bass.

In seventh grade he started playing for his school jazz band. He was originally a guitar player, but the other guitar player was much better than him. Since they needed a bass player, Roberts offered his talents.

Although Roberts did not know how to play the bass, his teacher felt confident, and gave Roberts a book to learn from. That was where Roberts’ bass talent began.

Roberts’ band Paradigm has a very original sound, which Roberts considers to be his greatest musical achievement thus far.

“It’s very important to me to be able to put out original music. It’s so easy to be in a cover band and get people to turn out to your shows. With original music, you not only have to get people to come out,” said Roberts, “but it’s very important to pull them into what you’re doing. It helps when we play at bars. People are more receptive and excited about the music.”

Putting out original and quality music is Roberts’ greatest ambition for life.

“I’ve been working on my computer working on production skills, sound engineering and creating a lot of hip hop things. It’s like starting Zelda or Halo; there is nothing that is going to get you up from the computer,” said Roberts. “You love what you’re doing and, at the same time, you can’t leave it even if you wanted to. Even when it comes to delaying school work. I spend like 10 hours of my life devoted to music in a night. Music has taken a hold of me. It’s not up to me anymore, I just know it’s what I want to do.”