top of page

Nolan Underwood

Click a picture to explore further

Mixing Engineer

I started playing piano when I was 8 years old. I picked up the drum set, guitar, and bass guitar in the years following. I was raised in Ames, IA, and went to Gilbert High School in Gilbert, IA. While in high school, I played lead guitar in a band I created called Projekt Theory. Although the group never played any huge shows, they gained quite a bit of traction in the local community. The group never took off due to an ever changing roster, which meant that they always had to completely start over every time a new member was added. I had a great time playing in and writing for Projekt Theory, but the band dissolved in 2015 due to creative differences. 

After I graduated high school, I attended Iowa State University,

where I am currently a Junior in Management Information

Systems (MIS). It's a business major that is essentially business

analytics with an emphasis on technical support. I am also

studying toward a minor in Music Technology. I love Iowa State

because it has so much to offer and has a great student body.

I am in the Hip-Hop dance group, DUB-H, as well as the

musicians collective GENRE, which was recently led by Justin

Booth. I look forward to finishing my degree, but I know I will

miss all the groups I've associated with in college. 

I hope to utilize my technical and computer skills to one day

open a recording studio that emphasizes on giving artists

complete control over the production of their music without

diluting their bank account. I currently run a small studio out of

my basement where I have recorded bands such as Gold Lotus

and Ice Avenu. I have greatly enjoyed working with these bands,

and they have taught me that what I want to do in the future is

very attanable. 

I joined Kickstart the Sun in August of 2015 on bass guitar. I have cherished my time with the group since then; they have given me the ability to express myself through music like nobody has before. I love the music we write, and it means a lot to me to be able to record, mix, and master all of our tracks right at home. It has been a fantastic experience, and I can't wait to see what is in store. 

I have very recently started a side project called FlapJacks, which is a classic rock/oldies cover band that I started with my friend Jack Chisholm. In it, he plays rythym guitar and does lead vocal, and I play lead guitar and sing backup vocals. We have Miles on the drums and Aaron Shadlow on bass guitar. It's an incredibly fun project because we get to revisit great songs and modernize them in fun and unique ways. We hope to play at some of the bars around Iowa State's campus and in the Des Moines area. 

Additionally, my good friend Jesse Peterson and I have started a project called Gartin Marrix and Ricky Nomero. We produce lively, fun EDM tracks. I first started producing EDM a few years ago, but my tracks never seemed to get finished. They either ran out of ideas or ended up being much less than they could have been. Jesse has been extremely helpful in the creative process, helping me finish up my tracks with new sounds and a fresh batch of ideas. We each contributed four tracks to our first album, with one bonus track that we did a massive collaboration on. Our first album, Schlitterban Ban, is available now! Check it out in the media player below. 

bottom of page