Young One: Law On Leave
Noah Driggs became a Corporate Lawyer because he believed it was his passion, but it soon became apparent to him that he had trapped himself in a profession he was unhappy with. He described his time in his first law firm as .”..a pretty dark time. I would have these moments where I'd think ‘WTF did I do? I'm in a 70-hour a week job that leaves me completely unfulfilled, but with all of my law school debt, I'm completely trapped here.’” It was at this point where he turned to music to reconnect with his musical past.
With parents that met while doing a musical, it makes sense that Driggs was involved with music throughout his childhood. He took a multitude of instrumental classes growing up, including piano, oboe, guitar, and voice. Later in life, he decided that he would take a step back from music and instead move towards a career in law until he realized it wasn’t his passion. As he began to reconnect with his past, he recognized that if he had the ability to pursue a degree in law, then he could certainly pursue one in music. He hasn’t completely put practicing law to the side, however, as it acts as a day job while he builds his music career.
As the sole member of his band Young One, he has complete creative control of the music as he plays through the roles of songwriter, producer, lead singer, instrumentalist, etc. Many of his musical influences came from 2000’s alternative rock, focusing on bands like Radiohead, Beck, and Interpol. Lyrically he prefers to dabble in irony, using lyrics with a positive tone to talk about deeper and darker topics. This can be seen by his recently released single “It’ll Be Okay”, an upbeat song with a satirical tone. The song addresses people’s tendency to ignore dire problems presented to them whether intentionally or unintentionally and issues that such behavior causes through happy, classic-rock music.
By February 2021, Young One hopes to release an EP, which focuses on the regrets a person has as they get older, and how those regrets affect their emotional responses. Some of the inspiration for this came from his own experiences with the corporate world. The album is a bit heavy in terms of the themes and music, but Driggs looks at writing these songs as a way to process his emotions so that they do not cause damage to his mental health. He hopes that his music allows people to laugh, feel, and take action to pursue their dreams.
As a newer artist, who is releasing music in the middle of a pandemic, Driggs is facing a challenge. That being that the pandemic puts more emphasis on an artist’s digital presence because in-person performances aren’t possible. This means that a newer artist would have to compete with other forms of digital media including Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, and bigger artists that can afford to make interesting and well-executed music videos. To overcome this, Driggs is doing shorter comedy acts, Instagram Lives, and 1-minute covers to gain popularity.
Over the next few years, Driggs hopes to see himself enter music full-time by either producing songs for others or licensing songs commercially on top of performing in Young One. In the meantime, you can catch him on Instagram, listen to his music on Spotify or Apple Music, watch his new music video on YouTube, or visit his linktree for more information.
