When UCLA alumnus Noah Greenwald auditioned for the ethnomusicology program in 2000, he showed up with his electric guitar to perform his three required solo pieces. Then, he suddenly felt nervous when he was asked unfamiliar questions on melodic structure and music theory.
“I wasn’t a classically trained guitarist and I had a very interesting audition when I came in and it was unusual for them. Most people who come in play classically,” Greenwald said.
He got in.
Being one of the few students to be admitted into the program by auditioning with the electric guitar, Greenwald only completed one quarter as an ethnomusicology student before deciding to pursue a degree in English, which he said would push him academically. But he did not let that stop him from pursuing music as a career after college.
Now a music producer and DJ, Greenwald, whose DJ name is Noah The Man, works with artists mixing music and performs at different venues in Los Angeles. On Oct. 30, he will be performing at Voyeur in Santa Monica.
Greenwald said his mixes could be placed into a subgenre of house music, progressive and tech house. According to him, his style is different from most DJs, not only because he doesn’t make music for fame, but also because he has a person dressed in a rat costume performing on stage with him, a character that his brother, Elan Greenwald, came up with.
“We wanted to have some sort of ironic offset to house music since the general culture surrounding it is wealth, beautiful women and DJs spraying champagne on people. That’s not at all what I’m about,” Noah Greenwald said. “We wanted to have a signifier of the show that would tell people that my ultimate goal is not to achieve a level of fame, but to reach out and respect the audience and my fans.”
According to Greenwald, the name Noah The Man is one that has meant different things over the years, but recently has symbolized his mentor, Bud Prager, who passed away three years ago to cancer.
“Everyday I use the knowledge and the wisdom that (Bud) gave me and so in my mind, he is ultimately the man,” he said.
Greenwald met Prager in 2005 at a Thanksgiving dinner where they discussed music. A month later, after listening to one of Greenwald’s demos, Prager decided that he would like to be Greenwald’s mentor.
“I think about him every single day with almost every single decision I make for my career. I think about everything he taught me,” Greenwald said.
While Greenwald was not focusing solely on studying music while at UCLA, he was still heavily involved in music, working as the sound engineer for UCLA’s Chinese Cultural Dance Club (CCDC).
UCLA alumna Gloria Yang, who has worked with Greenwald on the CCDC productions throughout their years as students, said that she has seen Greenwald begin his music career from his band days as a member of Luxuria and has kept up with his music career since then. Every year, CCDC puts on the production, “Lotus Step,” where Greenwald helped in sound engineering for seven years.
“We actually had original music done and he would re-master all of it. He would get the show and the music to be perfect,” Yang said.
Yang said that, during Greenwald’s days as a member of Luxuria, his music could be described as easy listening music with a pop vibe to it.
Now that he is a DJ, he has transitioned over to dance and electronic music.
Jonas Tempel, a DJ currently collaborating with Greenwald, said that he was not surprised by Greenwald’s initial decision to pursue becoming a DJ.
“The time I’ve spent with him, he’s impressed me with his work ethic and he’s incredibly professional. In the music industry, it’s kind of a rare thing, especially at a young age,” Tempel said. “He understands the important elements of a good performance, and when you entertain a large crowd with music, you really have to be intuitive. I think he’s figuring it all out pretty quickly.”