Professor Opens for VMA Award Winning Band

9/29/10

Christopher Smith

 

As students sit in room 201 of the Media Center at Towson University Professor Dominic DeLauney is staring at his computer screen smiling to himself, “So who saw the VMA award winning 30 seconds to Mars last night? The 30 seconds to Mars that my band opened for two weeks ago.”

The class then erupts into conversation about his band “Loving the Lie” (LTL) and the MTV Video Music Awards. This is how DeLauney starts off class.

24-year-old Dominic DeLauney like many professors on college campuses across the nation has a life outside of the classroom. Unlike other professors he juggles working audio for The Food Network on an ad hoc basis and being a musician in a rock band in his life outside the classroom.

LTL received word of their chance to perform September 1^st on the same stage as the famous band when contacted by Baltimore’s 98 Rock radio station. Letting them know that they were entered into a contest to open for 30 seconds to Mars, and with the help of their fan’ s votes they won the contest.

“The best musical experience in my life,” said DeLauney when trying to describe opening up at Sonar Nightclub, “looking out into this crowd of 2,000 people and all you see is heads.”

The next day Professor DeLauney was back in class teaching Audio Engineering to Electronic Media and Film majors. DeLauney was a student of Towson himself for four years until graduating in May 2007. The graduate took a semester break and then was offered a job to teach at the University and accepted.

Now the professor uses a skill every day that he and every college student had to make ample use of perfecting—time management. Between grading papers and practicing chords DeLauney always has his hands full. With the time that he does get to have for himself he likes to hang with friends or see them perform like last Wednesday night at the Cheeseburger in Paradise in Pasadena, MD.

“Hey Dom!” said Matt Silkworth one of Dominic’s band-mates in LTL, getting his attention before playing his favorite song. As Silkworth plays DeLauney starts cheering him on. “So I teach five days a week at Towson University,” said DeLauney, “I freelance doing music recording, work audio for Ace of Cakes of the Food Network, I don’t sleep, don’t have a girlfriend, Saturday nights I grade papers…but I still have time to come out and do this, support my friend…have to sacrifice some alone time.”

DeLauney’s band-mate Silkworth is also one of his best friends, “we went to high school together, he was in my brother’s class,” said Silkworth, “after high school him and my brother started a band, and they needed a singer so I sang for that band.”

The 28-year-old Baltimore native plays the guitar for LTL and has aspirations of a solo artist career. With 20 songs waiting to be recorded, working with bands, doing shows, and a steady gig at the Cheeseburger in Paradise every Wednesday he is well on his way. Silkworth has played with Professor DeLauney through two bands Inverness and their current band LTL. The two started playing for Loving the Lie after their previous band Inverness broke up after five years of playing together.

From high school to now DeLauney’s life has been immersed in music from being a connoisseur to being a musician. He has learned to play 10 different instruments including the trumpet, guitar, bass, piano and the drums. The Professor listens to everything, “Everyone says they don’t have a certain favorite music genre, but it matters what I’m doing,” said DeLauney. When grading papers he prefers Classical Music to help him focus, while driving he tunes the radio to listen to Pop Rock, and for leisure his favorite band Silver Chair is playing on his Ipod. 30 seconds to Mars is also another one of his favorite bands and the chance to open up for them was like a dream come true.

Other than opening for 30 seconds to Mars his band has played with other nationally renowned bands such as Carolina Liar, E6, and Everclear. LTL also teamed up with other local bands to have the Mobtown Music Festival that brought multitudes of fans to support the bands. Taking the independent route, fan support is a necessity and for fans following them on their journey to the top is an adventure in itself.

“The Letter is my favorite song,” said 23-year-old Holly Stichion of Baltimore, “their lyrics are very identifiable you really identify with what they have to say.”

Stichion is one of the many fans that have supported the band for more than over a year stating that she has been to dozens of their shows. She says that there is a group of the fans that try to attend every show. They do so, because they believe in LTL and what they are trying to do.

What LTL is trying to do is what Dominic DeLauney is trying to do, just make a living off of performing and making music. If making a living this way means having famous drummers like Shannon Leto cheering “Go kill it dude,” before performing in front of thousands of fans, DeLauney wouldn’t want it any other way.