Student makes time for music, school
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/19/2009
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Not many universities have students who have toured with Blink-182 and Green Day, and sold out shows at the House of Blues Chicago.
As a Ph.D. student in spanish literature, Mass Giorgini manages to teach spanish and advanced audio production classes, as well as spend at least 40 hours per week in his production studio.
Giorgini grew up in Italy. He was highly involved with music throughout his teenage years and decided not to make it something he did on the side, but to make it his actual career.
So far, Giorgini has produced more than 100 internationally distributed albums, done soundtrack work for dozens of Hollywood films, sold more than half a million albums with his band Screeching Weasel and had Blink-182 cover one of his songs, called “The Girl Next Door.”
Giorgini most recently did a European tour in the summer of 2009 with his band Squirtgun. He played at venues in Paris, London and Berlin, among other cities.
Giorgini has countless accomplishments in the music industry and does not plan on stopping anytime soon, but after teaching an Italian class for one semester at Purdue, he has fallen in love with being in school again.
“My father was a Purdue professor, and one day I got a call from the head of the Italian program here saying they were short of teachers,” Giorgini said. “I thought, ‘Well OK, it will only be one semester,’ but then I fell in love with school again.”
Philip Zumbrun, a senior in the College of Engineering, is in Giorgini’s advanced recording techniques class and has been a fan of him since junior high.
“One of the first albums I ever bought was produced by him,” he said.
Zumbrun said Giorgini is great as a teacher because he gives students a very full picture of how recording and producing music works in the industry.
“I think he has been successful as a producer and musician because he is considerate, responsible and hard-working, which isn’t always common when it comes to rock ’n’ roll,” Zumbrun said.