Though a lot of stu­dents in the music indus­try man­age­ment pro­gram plan to use their degree to get a man­age­ment posi­tion in the indus­try, some of them dream of mak­ing it big as stars themselves.

Chris Cranick, sopho­more in the pro­gram, wants more than the busi­ness aspect as his band Overdrive Orchestra works toward being a suc­cess­ful tour­ing band.

“I think we’re def­i­nitely on our way since where we’ve started. We’ve done a lot more shows, and we’re actu­ally look­ing to have an end of sum­mer tour the last month of sum­mer, as well as look­ing to record. Ultimately, we want to be famous pro­fes­sional musi­cians, so I’d like to think we’re on our way there,” said Cranick.

Playing gui­tar and singing since early high school, Cranick’s band Overdrive Orchestra formed last minute for a high school tal­ent show. Current band mem­bers are Cranick; bassist Adam Bogues, sopho­more in music indus­try man­age­ment; and drum­mer Cody Powers from Cranick’s home­town of Hartland.

The band can be seen around cam­pus as they played at Rockin’ the Rooftops and Relay for Life, help­ing to keep relay­ers awake. Recently, Cranick and Bogues per­formed at College Night at Applebees, play­ing orig­i­nal songs as well as pieces by their influ­ences such as Alice in Chains, Queens of the Stone Age, and Led Zepellin.

Connor LaRowe, fresh­man in music indus­try man­age­ment, met the band in its high school years, and his com­pany Fusion Shows booked Overdrive Orchestra for a local con­cert. When LaRowe found out Cranick was at Ferris, he got back in con­tact and has been a fan ever since.

“Overdrive Orchestra has tal­ent that most young bands don’t have. The song­writ­ing skills of the band are phe­nom­e­nal, and they don’t try to fit a cer­tain genre,” said LaRowe. “They write just straight up rock and roll songs, which in my opin­ion will help them because peo­ple will real­ize how real they are. They aren’t try­ing to be another fake, typ­i­cal, car­bon copy band play­ing music for the wrong reasons.”

Overdrive Orchestra has put out one CD titled “The Grey Area,” as well as numer­ous other inde­pen­dently recorded live per­for­mances from shows at places such as Clutch Cargos in Pontiac, The Machine Shop in Flint, Hartland Performing Arts Center, and the Howell Opera House.

David Wilson, junior in music indus­try man­age­ment, is also putting his major to use as man­ager of the band, tak­ing over aspects of graphic design, social net­work­ing, book­ing, sales, pro­mo­tions, and web­site man­age­ment. Wilson has become good friends with the band and is suit­e­m­ates with Chris.

“I think Overdrive Orchestra has quite a good shot at becom­ing an estab­lished tour­ing band. They have solid song­writ­ing and play very tight per­for­mances, and being at Ferris is the best place to get some real world music busi­ness expe­ri­ence,” said Wilson. “I really enjoy their laid-back atti­tude toward life and the pas­sion and drive in their music.”

Despite the opti­mism of their fans, Overdrive Orchestra con­tin­ues to stay hum­ble, real­iz­ing the hard work and net­work­ing that goes with find­ing success.

“My major has helped tremen­dously. I’ve made so many con­nec­tions not only with peo­ple in my pro­gram, but also at the National Association of Music Manufactures Show. I got to meet with a bunch of dif­fer­ent peo­ple from man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pa­nies such as Gibson and Fender and that was another good way to get intern­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties,” said Cranick. “It really doesn’t always mat­ter how good you are; it’s who you know.”

“‘Making it’ as a band in the music indus­try is really hard. However, I think if Chris and com­pany develop a game plan to get their name out there, they have a bet­ter shot than most bands,” said LaRowe. “They’re pas­sion­ate and never stop work­ing hard. A lot of bands lose moti­va­tion after a while, but Overdrive Orchestra acts as every show—no mat­ter how big or small—is important.”

For more infor­ma­tion on the band and to check out their music, visit over​drive​orches​tra​.com. n