Dionte Berry
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The end of the semester is right around the corner with final exams and projects deadlines approaching. To give the campus body a break from their workload, the Music Business Program is hosting Murray State’s first EDM concert.

Music Business Program Director Karen Kane tasked students in her live performance  and concert production course with the responsibility of coordinating and promoting a concert on campus.

With Lovett Auditorium still under construction Lovett Live, a traditionally annual concert hosted by the Music Business Program, has once again been put on hold. In its place music business students have invited back alumnus, Tanner Bertram, professionally known as DJ Tanner, who to host The Finals Countdown Concert.

Bertram graduated in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in music business and now works as an open format DJ based in Nashville,.

“I’m absolutely honored to be coming back and working with my old department,” Bertram said. “I started DJing in college, and all the opportunities that the University gave me, definitely has helped get me on the right path to where I’m at today.”

Bertram began his career as a DJ at Murray State putting together the music for the basketball and football games.

With Murray State serving as his launch pad into the music world, Bertram said he is happy to give back to his community.

“Being able to do something to kind of give back to my old program and show them that everything I’ve learned and took from my college town that I’ve been applying it to the real world,” Bertram said. “And so it’s really cool.”

When Bertram started his music journey at Murray State, he did not know he would end up DJing. Bertram said as a child he thought he would end up as a drummer, inspired by the drummers he saw on Broadway in Nashville.

“I always thought that the guys on Broadway in Nashville were the coolest, they sat there in the windows, people walked by, they twirled their sticks and they smiled,” Bertram said.

During his freshman and sophomore years at Murray State, Bertram played drums in Racer Band and for the Jazz Orchestra. Bertram said opportunities for DJing started to pop up, and he eventually made the switch from drummer to DJ and fulfilled his dream of being a musician in Nashville.

Now that he is in Nashville, Bertram said he doesn’t have a clear route for his career, and has been taking it one day at a time.

“I’m just kind of just seeing where it goes from here,” Bertram said. “And it’s been really fun.”

Although his goals are not clear cut, Bertram continues to practice DJing techniques, experimenting with different sounds, as well as consuming new music. Bertram said the next major step for his career is working on original music.

“A lot of the names that you hear associated with DJing don’t get known for their ability to scratch on a record, they’re known for the tracks that they are producing,” Bertram said.

He said when DJing, his music has electronica, house and LoFi hip-hop inspiration, something that’s more relaxed and not too heavy.

Despite leaning toward a more relaxed sound, Bertram said he looks forward to bringing a harder sound to The Finals Countdown Concert.

“I’ll be featuring some heavier hip hop, and layering that over top of … like tech house kind of stuff and a little bit of dubstep will be to trap,” Bertram said. “I want to see some head banging and want people to go all out.”

Senior music business major Isaac Gray has worked on the promotion for The Finals Countdown Concert and said he is happy to be bringing something new to campus.

“We know we needed a change because Lovett Live wasn’t going to happen,” Gray said. “Lovett Live has already always been a country music event, it is rewarding for us as a class to bring new music to campus.”

Being on the promotional team, Gray and their fellow classmates are responsible for designing the posters and just spreading the word about the event.

“Before promoting, we had to think of a target demographic, and with the EDM convert we are happy to see that we are engaging with and doing something that gets the interest of more students,” Gray said.

Although Gray has been happy to deviate from the traditional live music, they do recognize the risk.

“We as a class put a lot of work into making this happen, so please come,” Gray said.

The Finals Countdown EDM concert will be on Monday, May 2, in the Curris Center Ballroom. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and tickets will be sold at the door at $5 for students and $10 for faculty, staff and guests.