A collaborative space for producers, singers, and musicians at Winthrop.
By Kyan Feser
Staff Writer
AC&T
Every Tuesday in the Dacus Library studio, or sometimes a home studio just outside Winthrop, the Music Creators Club (MCC) meets for its weekly session.
Founder of the MCC Jaylin Brown said it is a place for Winthrop musicians to meet up and collaborate.
“I would describe MCC as a conglomerate community or network where we have creators that come in, and y’all can find ways to collaborate with other creators,” Brown said.
Getting his start on an old Roland MIDI keyboard, Brown has made music on and off for 10 years.
“I made my first beat when I was, like, in fourth grade,” Brown said.
Brown entered Project MIDI while attending Winthrop, a producer contest hosted by the DiGiorio Student Union in 2023. Six students entered, and these students later founded “Nothing to Something,” a music collective.
This collective went on to release “Something From Nothing,” a collaborative album that inspired Brown to form the MCC, he explained.
“I ended up thinking, man, my entire college career I’ve always wanted to be able to collaborate with producers and come together and make stuff, because I was kind of just doing it on my own,” Brown said.
Brown has since graduated from Winthrop and now serves the club as an advisor. However, this means that many of the club’s leadership positions are vacant.
“Hopefully, we can keep Project MIDI as a thing that continues on-going, so we have a producer contest. I feel like that’s something that I want MCC to be known for is Project MIDI, and then our artist Student Showcase.”
Antonio Brown, the previous president after Jaylin Brown’s departure, echoed this statement.
“I hope that the future and remaining students of Winthrop can continue to maintain the space for people to come together, create, and share their art.”
Despite these vacancies, many of the MCC’s current members are carrying the torch, including Nick Zorgias, a music technology major and MCC regular.
“I wanted to get involved with a community of artists who I can learn from and improve my own skills when it comes to songwriting and production,” Zorgias said.
Specializing in a style called “post-metalcore,” Zorgias is an aspiring chair of the MCC and wants to spread awareness of its existence.
“I would like for the club to be more public rather than something that you would need to be in the know about,” Zorgias said. “We have many great musicians at Winthrop in different spaces, so this should be a place where they can come together as a community.”
Another recurring member is Karson Kane, a cybersecurity major and hardcore EDM producer.
Kane’s mother exposed him to various bands growing up, and this, combined with his love of rhythm games (music video games), led him to music production.
“I just started falling in love with a lot of cool producers and music creators out there in the world, and I’m just like, this is really neat, I like this stuff,” Kane said.
Eventually, Kane found the MCC’s listing on Winthrop’s club website and reached out. He quickly received an email back.
“Throughout the past couple years, I’ve had some thoughts about wanting to try to, not get better with music, or like or be professional with it, but I’ve always just thought about it recently as just keeping it as a side thing or like a hobby,” Kane said. “I never really put too much recent thought into trying to make it big with it. I just wanted to just put my sound out there and just hope people like it.”
You can follow the MCC @winthropmcc on Instagram, and join the linked discord for meeting updates and resources.
“I just want this to grow as much as possible,” Jaylin Brown said.
Keep up with the featured artists here:
Jaylin Brown: @jalnmusic
Antonio Brown: @theonly_tonio
Nick Zorgias: @_soundsbynick_ / @evergrey_noise
Karson Kane: @djicecore_lofi
