Delta State alumnus Cole Furlow returns to campus on Tuesday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m. as the featured guest of DMI All Access, an informal Q&A series with music and entertainment industry professionals, hosted by the Delta Music Institute entertainment industry program at Delta State University.
Furlow is a recording engineer, producer, touring musician, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter from Jackson. Born into a musical family, he started playing guitar at age 11. Throughout his high school years, he played in several garage bands which led him to Oxford to attend college. While in Oxford playing in bands, Furlow realized his passion was in the recording studio. After beginning college at Ole Miss, he transferred to the Delta Music Institute and graduated from Delta State.
After graduating and playing in blues duos and R&B ensembles around the Delta, he discovered his love for production and songwriting at a higher level.
Furlow went on to start the pop indie rock grunge band Dead Gaze in Jackson in 2009. After releasing multiple cassettes, EPs, and 7″ singles, he was discovered by the indie rock mainstay label FatCat Records in Brighton, England. FatCat released worldwide Furlow’s first full length LP – “Dead Gaze” – self-titled in 2012. He recorded his second LP, titled “Brain Holiday,” in 2013 for FatCat at the legendary Sweet Tea studios in Oxford. “Brain Holiday” was critically acclaimed, allowing Furlow touring opportunities all over North America and Europe with his new band.
During this period of touring, his friend and pop crooner Dent May invited Furlow to play bass for his band which led to more touring and exposure throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
After years of touring, Furlow returned home to Mississippi and started a recording studio named Easy Travels. In 2016, he released the last Dead Gaze record, titled “Easy Travels,” named in honor of his studio. His music has been placed in several different movies and television shows over the past few years. Composing and scoring has become a key part of the business in which Furlow flourishes when not touring or recording his own music.
Cole currently lives in Jackson, recording bands and scoring films in his home studio. He recently started a new indie outfit called Low Variety with plans to release new music in 2018.
DMI All Access is free and open to the public. The event starts at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 17 in Studio B of the Delta Music Institute in the historic Whitfield building on the Delta State campus.
The Delta Music Institute is an independent center of excellence in the College of Arts & Sciences at Delta State University. The focus of the DMI entertainment industry studies program is to provide students with a broad and thorough education in the technological, business, and creative areas of the music and entertainment industry.
For more information on the DMI entertainment industry program, please call (662) 846-4579 or visit dmi.deltastate.edu.
