“American Idol” contestant and Aggieland’s own Jason Castro will perform Saturday in conjunction with Big Event.
“I am pumped to perform in Aggieland,” Castro said.
He said this will be his only concert for the next few months.
“I’m in writing mode, but I wanted to try some of my new stuff out that I’ve been working on,” he said. “It’s kind-of a special show, it’s a way of thanking my fans here.”
His brother, Michael, who auditioned for the 2009 season of American Idol, is opening for him.
Castro said he wanted to be a part of The Big Event.
“I would always go home the weekend of The Big Event because it was usually my birthday (March 25), and it’s something I have always wanted to experience,” he said.
Castro said he is very excited for the chance to give something back to the community, and that he couldn’t think of a better time to come here and perform.
He is working in the studio on his album, which he said should debut some time this summer.
“I’ve been so busy,” he said. “I’ve been disconnected, but I hope to spend more time in College Station coming to games, and spending some time doing leisurely activities and what not.”
Castro said he has no idea what his future holds. He is taking one step at a time.
“Academically, I don’t have a plan,” he said. “I would like to finish my degree, I don’t know how or when, but I want to get my Aggie ring somehow.”
Castro said his mom was a strong influence for him to come to A&M. He said A&M was the most prompt and organized out of the other schools he applied at. He now finds himself missing Aggieland.
“Am I the only Aggie that brushes my teeth and sings Hullabaloo?” he joked.
Castro said being an Aggie has helped him immensely.
“A&M has a lot to do with where I am at right now.”
He said he didn’t connect with A&M his first year. The next year he started making a lot of friends. Eventually, he started singing and playing guitar since he didn’t have his drums.
“I wouldn’t be singing if it wasn’t for A&M, I didn’t have my drums here, so I would play guitar and sing here,” Castro said. “College Station was really the breeding ground of my career.”
Castro said he has Aggie friends throughout the country now. He has a circle of Aggie friends who go out every Thursday with him in Los Angeles, and that it helps keep him grounded.
“It was a unique experience – the experience of a lifetime. At first I hid my audition bracelet under my others, because it was American Idol,” he said in reference to competing on American Idol.
He said he didn’t expect much from the competition, but he soon learned that it had helped his lifetime dream of being a musician.
Castro said the point of his music is “to inspire, give affection or emotion. It’s whatever you know. I don’t know a lot about politics, but I know a lot about hard times, and with everyone being in a hard time, a lot of my music is that mixed with whatever else a 21-year-old guy likes.”
Castro’s personal inspirations are singer/songwriters Ray LaMongtagne, Tom Petty and his friend Ben Harper. Castro said music is art, and it all has a message.
“From hard rock to classical, if there is a reason and something to say, I can appreciate that,” he said.
Aside from the dreadlocks, it’s hard to imagine that Castro was the drummer in a hardcore band before he transitioned to his style of more lighthearted, easy-going music. However, to Castro, that is irrelevant.
“Music is music.”
Castro said he is most at home with an instrument in his hand.
Castro’s advice to all those aspiring musicians and Aggies: “Never take things seriously, or things more then they really are, it doesn’t matter what you do, it matters the people around you.”
On campusCastro will play at 8 p.m. Saturday in Rudder Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased at the Memorial Student Center Complex Box Office or online at boxoffice.tamu.edu. Castro will be performing a live acoustic set and interview at 10 p.m. tonight on KANM student radio. Tune in online at KANM.tamu.edu, on the radio at 1580 AM or on campus TV channel 88.