CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly had an image of Jackson Trotman attached to it. The image that was supposed to be attached was of Jackson Thomas, the DJ mentioned in the article. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.
When COVID-19 clusters began to pop up on campus in the fall 2020 semester, some students were faced with the reality of moving home. For others, the pandemic struck harder, especially for student musicians like senior Jackson Thomas, professionally known as GoldDub. In addition to returning home, the pandemic eliminated his one source of income: music performance.
“Previous to the pandemic, I was DJing pretty much parties all across the South, but unfortunately, due to the pandemic, that has been put on pause,” Thomas said.
Inspired by The Chainsmokers at 15 years old, Thomas dabbled around in DJing and making remixes and mashups, accumulating over 52,000 listeners on his personal SoundCloud — even with music primarily being just a hobby.
Thomas also collaborated with friends to make the SoundCloud account GOLDDUB X BOY ACUFF, accumulating over 100,000 streams. Now, with more free time thanks to virtual classes, Jackson has taken this opportunity to focus more on his music career while adhering to COVID-19 safety standards.
“As of now, I am pretty much unemployed and, in the music aspect with my free time, I have been putting a lot of my time in making my original music, and lucky enough, I have my first one coming out February 19th," Thomas said.
Coming out later this month is Jackson’s first original release, “Meet Again,” featuring Tess Clare, a senior at Belmont University in Nashville. The two met on Quadio, a music streaming service that connects college students. Since the start of the pandemic, both artists shared the difficulty of working together remotely.
“It has definitely been hard on the networking aspect of it, but with Zoom, you know, it has definitely helped with connecting me with people outside of my area and more internationally,” Clare said.
The two artists also share the same aspirations for their exciting new project. With lyrics inspired by Tess’s personal relationships combined with Jackson’s future bass and EDM backdrop, the celestial track of “Meet Again” delivers a message of happiness and finding happiness in a dark time.
