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Last October, Charlie Burg wrapped up a concert at The Westcott Theater, a stop on his first headlining tour, and played a student-run concert venue called the Mudpit.

Attendees lined up to watch the singer-songwriter, a veteran of the Syracuse University house show scene, perform in a packed basement. Though the lineup had yet to go public, Burg already knew he’d be on the Governors Ball stage come June.

“There’s a reason Prince would play a 300-person club in New York after playing (to) thousands of people—because of his passion for music,” said Burg, 26, a graduate of SU’s Setnor School of Music. “Sometimes you just wanna play Nirvana covers and make people dance.”

Burg shares his music while engaging with his fans. Courtesy of Troy Anthony

Burg will play the third day of this year’s Governors Ball, an annual three-day music festival in New York City, previously held on Randall’s Island. The 2023 festival, which has moved to Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, includes headliners Lizzo, Odesza and Kendrick Lamar.

Since graduating from SU in 2019, Burg has toured with singer-songwriter Ashe, released his first full-length album “Infinitely Tall” and completed his first headlining tour. Despite this success, he has paid a few visits back to his alma mater’s house show scene.

After the Westcott show, students working with the Mudpit drove to pick up Burg, his band and his two managers, Andrew Idarraga and Benji Sheinman, SU graduates of the Newhouse School’s Bandier Program.

As Burg’s manager, Sheinman has joined the New York City-based artist on shows at notable venues like Bowery Ballroom and Irving Plaza. But he said he never felt like more of a rockstar than watching Burg play to a basement of college-aged fans.

“It reminded me why we got into this from the start,” Sheinman said. “Being in that packed basement did more for me than most of our touring has in terms of reinvigorating what this is all about.”

When Buddy Murphy, who runs the Mudpit, saw the Governors Ball lineup announced on Jan. 17, he couldn’t believe one of the scheduled artists had played in his basement just a few months earlier.

Murphy, a senior communications and rhetorical studies major, with a music industry minor, has been helping organize house shows since his freshman year. He arranged for Burg to play the venue’s first official show through mutual SU connections.

“My guess is Charlie would come back and play a basement show at any time, because that’s his roots,” said Todd Herreman, director of audio arts in Setnor, and one of Burg’s former professors. “He’s got a local following, and it all started there.”

Herreman had just started teaching introductory music industry classes when Burg transferred to SU. Previously, Herreman worked in the music industry for two decades as a songwriter, producer and more, with high-profile clients like Michael Jackson, Brian Wilson, Jeff Beck and Prince, one of Burg’s biggest inspirations.

In all the big-name artists he has worked with, Herreman observed a common willingness to work hard to achieve their dream, a trait he sees in Burg as well. Herreman remembers Burg’s “damn funny” personality that—while often distracting in a classroom setting—he knows likely contributed to Burg’s success in building a fanbase.

Burg performs at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. Courtesy of Amy Hendricks

“He had the chops, he had the creativity, he had the musical ability, and you gotta have that,” Herreman said. “But if you can have that endearing personality on top of it, that person stands out in a crowd. And he did.”

At the Mudpit, Burg displayed a unique ability to connect with the audience, said Maddi Brown, a senior photojournalism major. She recalled how the artist invoked a sense of community in the basement, whether by reaching his hands out to the people in the crowd or inviting them to sing with him.

“When he’s up there, he’s jamming,” Brown said. “He’s having a good time. You can obviously see he loves what he’s doing.”

Unlike his Westcott show, Burg’s performance at the Mudpit was more informal, with more covers than original music, said Payton Dunn, a Bandier junior who attended both of Burg’s shows that night. Dunn, a house show regular, recalled the Mudpit performance as the loudest basement show they’d ever attended.

Burg has already started thinking about his setlist for Governors Ball. He asked a friend to play keys on “97 Avalon,” the song he’s most excited to perform, he said, because he wrote it to be played for a sea of people. He said he considers it his own “Purple Rain.”

Despite the thrill of his advancing career, Burg said he misses playing smaller gigs for the fun of performing. As much as he wanted to do more pop-up shows during the tour, they aren’t easy to coordinate as the band needs notice far enough in advance before shows, he said.

Burg, Idarraga and Sheinman met as students at SU and have been officially working together in music since their junior year, following a dinner at the Jimmy John’s on Marshall Street, they said.

The three said they achieved success by never hesitating and following their instincts, and they suggest other SU students looking to make it in the music industry do the same.

“We’re all friends from college still doing this,” Idarraga said. “We’re still the same.”

Published on January 29, 2023 at 9:53 pm

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan