Senior Max Gredinger remembers Fastball.

He ticked the ’90s rockers’ hits with his fingers. “The Way.” “Out of My Head.” Sure, he listened to Cream and The Beatles in elementary school, and he is a self-described Bob Dylan fanatic, but they didn’t have the same effect.

Most music fans write off Fastball as a one-hit wonder. For Gredinger, the band stuck.

“They were rock stars to me,” he said. “I want bands I work with to get to that level, and get people as obsessed with them as I was for Fastball.”

Through his love for music, Gredinger, a senior in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries, found himself managing the band Aer. The band is from Massachusetts with roots in reggae, indie rock and acoustic pop.

He first got his foot in the door with the band because he knew one of the band members’ brothers. It took a while to befriend the bandmates, but Gredinger is now a close friend of theirs.

Aer has performed at MayFest in 2012 and at The Westcott Theater in September. The band is gaining momentum and is earning major label attention, but it’s staying independent for now.

On Saturday afternoon, Gredinger sat shoeless in his office. Not wearing shoes is one of the little things that keep him sane when he barricades himself in his cubicle to get schoolwork done.

“It sucks so badly,” he said. “I’ve been in Whitman for two hours on a Saturday doing work that’s due in three weeks.”

In three weeks, Gredinger will be at one of Aer’s shows in Texas. Though the band has a touring manager, Gredinger jumps at opportunities to catch the band live.

Gredinger described himself using analogies. He is the middle of a bike wheel. The band, the tour manager, the merchandise distributor, the members’ parents — they’re all the spokes.

If something goes awry any time, any day, Gredinger is the first call. While he said this, his phone lit up silently in front of him. He picked it up, looked at the name and put it back down.

“Speak of the devil,” he said with a smirk.

But that doesn’t mean he dislikes having a set schedule. His daily routine is like clockwork. Get up at 8 a.m. Start working at 8:30 a.m. Finish at about 6:30 p.m. Rinse, repeat. He said his room is often messy, but he keeps a huge notepad and to-do list pristine and on hand.

Balancing classes with “going into Aer mode” is stressful, but Gredinger can’t imagine not having a career in his field. His dad always wanted to work in the music industry, Gredinger said, so he lives vicariously through his son.

Gredinger graduates at the end of the semester, and he’s still trying to find his next move. He’ll continue managing Aer and will move to New York City, but he doesn’t want to sign another band just for the sake of having another client. Since he was a kid jamming to The Beatles and Eric Clapton, he’s been honing his ear for music. Gredinger only wants to sign the next big thing.

There’s another analogy Gredinger loves to use. Take someone who’s not an athlete, he said, and have him throw a baseball a hundred times a day. Eventually, and with fervent practice, his arm will become stronger. It’s the same idea with listening to music.

“If you keep throwing that ball, you’re going to get really f***king good at it,” he said.

That’s why Gredinger is a certifiable audiophile. He constantly listens to music and, deadpanning, said that one of the bands he has spun lately is Air. He said that a keen ear for what’s big is key for music industry bigwigs, even if he has misfired before.

“I didn’t like it the first time I heard Kendrick Lamar, and I thought Frank Ocean’s first mixtape sucked,” Gredinger said, remembering the first time he listened to what are now two hip-hop juggernauts. “Now they’re two of my favorites.”

Even with the extra serving of stress that comes with juggling Aer responsibilities with student ones — “I have to go to class sometimes,” Gredinger said — he doesn’t take himself too seriously. Though extremely important to him, he looks at his management as a learning experience.

“I’m always in transition,” he said.

He thought for a second: He could’ve been a lawyer, a doctor or any number of jobs that would pay better. But that would mean sacrificing doing what he loves.

Said Gredinger: “I’d rather die with less money in my pocket doing something I’m really passionate about than anything else.”

Published on October 29, 2012 at 2:59 am

Contact Erik: ervanrhe@syr.edu | @therealvandyman