Caroline NihillThough this Ole Miss musician released his first album “Morning,” in January, his plans to expand his music career out of Oxford have been stopped short.
Bedon Lancaster, singer-songwriter and a senior at Ole Miss, has been creating music since the summer after his freshman year. Lancaster is one of the many seniors who is trying to finish classes online and mourning their last semester in college because of the pandemic.
Along with being unable to finish his semester in person, like many musicians, Lancaster had to cancel performances and delay tour dates because of the global public health safety concerns.
“It honestly sucks being a senior just trying to soak up those last times together,” Lancaster said. “And having to cancel shows and tour dates that were pretty important monetarily and just exposure wise is tough to deal with — I’m trying to keep a virtual presence but also trying to focus on school and graduate.”
Before the pandemic started, Lancaster had planned on touring over the summer and making his way to Nashville after graduation.
“Yeah, I mean all touring plans have been cancelled and we will re-evaluate after all of this and hopefully tour in the fall,” Lancaster said. “I hope to move to Nashville this summer.”
Though many things have been rerouted, Lancaster said his long-term goals are to become financially dependent on music.
“Yeah, I just want to be able to do (music) and be financially okay doing it,” Lancaster said.”Hopefully, (I will) have a family and do it, so whatever that looks like, that sounds good. I do want to like music to be my job.”
Lancaster spoke about wanting to achieve milestones with his music career, including returning to places he was exposed to when he was younger.
“There’s little milestone-type things that I feel like I’d really like to do,” Lancaster said. “Not like awards, but there’s this place that I grew up going to — the Levitt Shell in Memphis — (and) they do these free concerts and stuff. It’s (a) super cool outdoor amphitheater and I grew up going to shows there. That would be a dream come true to play there because it’s, like, a huge crowd…so that’s a dream.”
Lancaster started producing music the summer after his freshman year of college. After that, he returned to Oxford and started playing shows and put out his first song called “Untitled,” in 2018. After releasing singles and writing, the album was fully written after about two years of work.
His producer, Adam Lochemes, who is based in Nashville, would work with Lancaster during school breaks and weekends. Lancaster said the quality of the music increased with every session. After touring, the two decided to re-record the album entirely.
“It was like three-ish years of like, going up there randomly whenever I could and then like every time we did it, we got like a lot better,” Lancaster said. “Yeah, (we) just slowly kind of…pieced the album together.”
Lancaster is continuing to write music and finishing his degree during this time and said he is taking social distancing and quarantine seriously. He also said he is trying to remain positive through the challenges COVID-19 has brought.
He added that the affect the virus has on him pales in comparison to what others are going through.
“Genuinely, I cannot wait to play shows again; I have a feeling that once this whole pandemic comes to a close, people’s sense of wanting to have as many experiences as possible will be at an all-time high,” Lancaster said. “I think concerts will be all the more meaningful by the time this season is over, but until then, I’m going to try and write as much new stuff as I can.”
