Making the Grade: Mass Fiction Artist, Musician, Student

Perceived as being harsh, risky and unstable, the music industry is hard to break into. But imagine all that while balancing a full semester of courses. Yet for Rutgers sophomore Max Fishkin, that scenario is quite the reality. Pursuing a B.A. in music, Fishkin is simultaneously building on his skills as a student and musician while starting a budding career as a producer.
Fishkin's interest in music started at an early age and really sparked in the two summers he spent at Buck's Rock Performing and Creative Arts camp in New Milford, CT during high school. While attending, he shadowed a production engineer, and after gaining a great deal of knowledge, he returned home to set up his own studio. There, he was able to record with tons of local artists as well as recording his own demos, EPs and even albums which he has either personally recorded or produced. He then gave himself a stage name, Mass Fiction, which is a slurred pronunciation of his own name.

Of course attending Rutgers has helped too. While noting that not having any music industry classes is a huge setback, Fishkin praises Rutgers' music program. "The classes force you to grow as a listener and thus a musician," Fishkin says. "However, sometimes I feel frustrated because time spent on homework could have been spent on a new project, and when the school work starts piling on, I don't have as much time to be creative and work on music."

Stacks of books aside, his love of music helps him get through the days. With influences from The Beatles to Animal Collective, Fishkin says that music in general is his inspiration. "As a listener I want to get lost in the music and all the greats do this, from Beethoven to Metallica, and as a musician myself, I want to create something that has a feeling of no restrictions and is just natural."

Realizing the difficulty of becoming an engineering producer full time, Fishkin is diversifying his skills by interning for Sony's premier independent distribution and artist developments, RED distribution and this summer, working for HeavyRocMusic learning all the in's and out's of the professional music business.

With a background in music and a developing knowledge of the business, Fishkin hopes that his experience will define his professionalism as a producer. "To this day, I have not limited myself in my music taste and will not limit myself to learning about the music industry."