On Sunday night, September 22, the Hoosier Dome was filled for a performance from bands Commonweather, Flight Club, Thin Lines and AU’s very own Hope Lynn.
Lynn is a junior music business major who has recently been working hard on her music career. She released two singles in the past month titled, “You” and “We Were So Good,” which have both reached around 2,000 streams already.
“I plan on releasing an album soon, hopefully by the end of this semester,” Lynn said. “It’s hard to balance school work, a social life and music, but I spend every spare minute I have working on my music.”
Lynn’s music is influenced by folk, pop and hip-hop sounds, and is inspired by artists like Chelsea Cutler, Jeremy Zucker and Michael Jackson. She said she grew up listening to lots of older country artists including Kenny Rogers and George Straight. She plans to release a new album that is a mixture of many genres.
“I just want to be able to make a living out of my music,” she said. “I’m not expecting to get famous, but I would love to just play music every day of my life.”
She was asked by AU alumni Krista Baker to open for a show at Hoosier Dome. She said now is a great time to do a show like this, because she just released music.
“People can actually search for me now once they hear me, which is awesome,” Lynn said. “It’ll help build a fan base or at least put my name out there for people who don’t know me.”
Krista Baker graduated from AU in 2018 with a major in marketing and she approached Lynn about the show at Hoosier Dome. Baker has been in the business of concert venues since she was 14.
“I started hosting shows in my church basement back in Hammond, Indiana,” Baker said. “We called it ‘The Basement,’ and it got really good traction over the four years that I ran it.”
Baker chose to attend AU, but still booked some bands in her free time that she worked with in high school. During her freshman year of college, she was introduced to the manager of the Hoosier Dome.
“I got really close with the band ForeverAtLast in my high school days,” Baker said. “The drummer of the band named Jared introduced me to Andrea McPhearson, who is the manager of Hoosier Dome, and basically told her I needed to work there.”
After getting in contact with the manager, Baker started to run a few shows and eventually became the co-manager.
“Life at AU got really busy, so I slowly had to back away from the dome,” she said. “Now I’m only taking certain shows to promote as my own or run for the venue.”
Baker said that the band market in Indianapolis is over saturated with the same musicians, so she wanted to get a fresh talent for this upcoming show.
“I asked Hope to be involved because she’s so talented and super nice,” she said. “I needed someone who would be able to bring people in, friends or family. She’s also a new artist, and the dome is all for giving shots to newer artists.”