Introduction

Hello! My name is Steve Riley, and I am a happy 1L at Loyola Law School.

My educational and professional background is in music. Once upon a time, in the age of the first-generation iPod, I attended Berklee College of Music. In the years since then I’ve been in the music business, first as a distribution manager for a record label, then as a freelance musician. I initially felt that the “business” side of music would be the ticket, but once I started getting paid jobs as a drummer I never looked back.

Using the little I knew about marketing and e-commerce, I made my niche as an “online studio musician.” I marketed myself as a drummer with my own recording studio, and I got lots of work recording “drum tracks” for producers and bands. I would get drum-less songs sent to me, I would record drums onto my computer, then send them back to the client so they could mix them into the final product. In addition to this, I toured a bit in bands and played in at least a dozen musical theater productions.

My previous office

But as they often do, priorities changed. I found myself wanting to take on more responsibilities as a professional. Being a drummer had dominated the past two decades, and I was yearning to start over with a new pursuit. The idea of studying law was always something in the back of my mind and as time went on, it began to shove its way into the front. Pretty soon this idea was a reasonable reality, and now here I am!

I do as much as I can outside of law school. I still play gigs on Saturdays at The Grove in L.A., and pick up other gigs when I can. Oh yeah, and I have a 1 ½-year old daughter that I’m raising. So that takes a lot of my free time. My wife and I have our hands full with her but she’s super fun and laughing with her is a great stress reliever. Sometimes I’ll sneak off late at night to see an alternative comedy show or a concert, but most nights I spend wrangling a toddler, briefing cases and reading, reading, reading!

Halloween 2014 with my daughter, Deanndra