Chills went through my body as I watched soulful singer, Jared Mahone sing on Friday, Feb. 24 at the Ceddia Union Building.

His performance that started at 10 p.m. was superb. However, I was disappointed that more people were not in attendance. The Activities Program Board (APB) hosted the artist and they did some massive advertisements so I am not sure why the audience was so small.

I really liked his down to earth personality and the space made the performance more intimate.
Jared Mahone is a singer from Columbus, OH. He has been playing music and thoroughly enjoying it for the past seven years. He and his band have an independent label. Mahone relies on the support of his fans to make music.

When he first started, he said, “Most of the stuff I write maybe by the end of the night you’ll like.”
Mahone has this innovative system called a loop station. Basically he hits a pedal and he can record himself playing the guitar and loop it to play back. It gives the sound of a full scale band not just him.

I found it interesting and quirky that Mahone is inspired by television theme songs. He played “The Wonder Years” and “Full House” theme songs. The problem with theme songs, according to him, is they are cheesy. However, he does not care. He also beat-boxed some recognizable songs such as “My Humps” by the Black-eyed Peas. He said, “I’m getting into it and I don’t care.”

In 2010, his goal was to produce a song every week of the year. Mahone titled it, “The Mixed Tape Project.” He would post them online and received feedback from people on what songs they liked and did not.

He let fans choose their favorites and placed the top twelve into an album. The cd was selling at the CUB for $5. After hearing his song, “Hometown Girl” I wanted to buy the CD.
The lyrics and the chill beat really spoke to me. Mahone is combination of Jason Mraz, Blake Lewis and Smoky Robinson.

I am definitely downloading some of his songs to my iPhone. I also found Mahone to be extremely funny and relatable. He talked about meeting girls at summer camp. “Girl you know ‘I’ll write you,” Mahone said. But it was just a summer fling according to him and he never did keep in touch. Mahone said he did eventually meet someone and sang “Girl you got the best of my love.”

Mahone said there is no barrier between himself and the audience. He loves to stay connected to his fans online. He welcomed the audience to contact him. I found this really amazing; most singers are not so laid back and chill.

Mahone also encouraged the audience, “Find the thing that lights you on fire. It doesn’t have to be music.” Overall I loved his performance and his personality. I hope his songs will be on the radio someday. He has a lot of talent and deserves some of the spotlight even though I do not think he cares about it.

Mahone just wants to make music and inspire people.

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