Performing at concert venues across the country, collaborating with talented people daily and hearing hundreds of strangers sing your song lyrics — these are the opportunities many musicians would love to have. The question is, can all of this be done while earning a college degree?

Going to college often gives a musician the opportunity to network with others and get a foothold in the world of music, all the while furthering their education. Bands like Pixies, Vampire Weekend and Queen formed while going to school to get a degree.

However, balancing life as both a college student and as a musician is not an easy task. Everyday student activities like going to class, working a job and staying involved on campus can make it hard to find the time to practice and promote one’s music, as many student musicians can attest to.

Evan Ford, senior in philosophy and economics and member of local modern folk duo Cereus Bright, said one of the hardest parts of juggling school and music is inevitably becoming disconnected to life on campus.

“What’s hard about living a sort of double life is that you never really have time to be just a student,” he shared. “There’s something really free about going to class, hanging out with people and finding extracurricular things to do that sort of gets lost when the rest of your time is filled with music.”

Other college musicians agree that time management is one of the biggest struggles of balancing musical and academic careers. The members of Random Tangents, an up-and-coming psychedelic rock band from Johnson City, said finding the time to fit everything into one’s daily schedule is a key component of being successful. Nick Castro, junior in clinical psychology at East Tennessee State University and bassist for the band, said it’s what he struggles with the most.

“Both of these lifestyles take over different parts of the day,” he explained. “As a musician, you work at night mostly, but as a student you go to school all day, so there can be times when you even struggle to find time to sleep.”

Sam Love, junior in public relations at ETSU and the band’s lead vocalist and pianist, said being a college student helped to shape the band though. Staying connected and active with the community is the hard part.

“Being in college, starting up was actually pretty easy. We all met each other in classes,” Love said. “The tricky part is maintaining it all.”

Even with these difficulties, many student musicians here at UT and across the country have proven this “double life” has its perks, and that it even adds a different sort of value to their music.

As Ford said, being a student gives a greater value to the decisions you make as a musician.

“College is a great opportunity, so every time I make a decision to say no to college experiences and yes to musical ones, it has to be worth it,” he acknowledged. “It’s put a great pressure on our careers as musicians and as a band as we’ve all gone through college.”

Castro said just going out and performing has opened his eyes to various aspects of his community that are different than the average college environment.

“You are with your fellow college students all day, and when you go out at night and play a show you meet another group of people, and it makes you realize that there are a lot of different ways to live,” he said.

Although the college experience provides various opportunities and new perspectives, some student musicians take time off from their academics to put a greater emphasis on their music. This is the case for members of Talking Blues Band, an Americana group based in Chattanooga. Noah Towe, the band’s vocalist and guitarist, took a semester off to focus on the band before he plans to return to school next spring.

“The idea was to take a break from school this semester, focus on music and try to get the band really going,” he rationalized. “It’s going pretty well. We’re just trying to book more shows. If we can just get to a certain level, I’ll be happy with everything else.”

Despite the obstacles, these bands are living proof that the life of a college student and the life of a musician can be successfully merged. Cereus Bright has recently set off on their fall tour with The Dirty Guv’nahs, Random Tangents has been playing shows with local bands like Mobility Chief and Talking Blues Band reached their Kickstarter goal to produce their EP earlier this year.

“It’s been a challenge, but the experience of trying to fit this into our lives has taught us to balance the old-school mentality of only caring about the music with a mentality of trying to be smart and love the strategy,” Ford expressed. “It’s influenced our drive to be good stewards of music.”