On May 1st, Wiley Schubert Reed ’21-22, who performs as Wiley Beckett, stepped on stage at the Middle East Restaurant and Club in Cambridge to play his final show as a Harvard undergrad. His friends, who have been loyal supporters over the past five years, clustered in front of the speakers. His parents stood behind the crowd, having traveled from their home in Brooklyn, New York, to see him perform. The intimate venue allowed everyone a close-up view of the stage: Wiley stood at the front, guitar in hand, singing what he describes as indie pop, backed by another guitarist, a bassist, cellist, keyboardist, and drummer.
Wiley started with a set of original songs, culminating in an emotional rendition of “Los Angeles”, the first song he released on Spotify. He moved on to play five covers, something he doesn’t usually do. Wiley explains that he wanted people to be able to sing along and have fun, although perhaps he underestimated the loyalty of his crowd, who sang along enthusiastically to his originals, too.
Wiley sought to represent his time at Harvard with his cover selections. He included two songs by Lorde, one of his favorite artists and inspirations. His version of “Ribs” was imbued with a rock feel. “It’s cool to do covers but totally reimagine the way it sounds and play a song I care about but do it my way,” Wiley said. “Ribs”, a song about getting older and moving on, was a fitting and powerful choice for his final show.
After the concert, Wiley and I discussed his musical journey and his time at Harvard, as well as his plans to continue with music after graduation.
Wiley’s parents were musicians, so he grew up around music: he played piano from age four, taught himself drums and guitar, and learned “a bunch of things to a mediocre level” before going to college. At Harvard, he knew he would study physics and thought he might pursue a career in that field. However, being a Harvard student can be stressful, and Wiley found that music was a way to escape.
“Freshman Fall I got beat down by a lot of things and at the end of every day I would come back to my room and take a guitar out and play a little bit as a way to decompress,” he said. “I started to write some songs, which I had never done before, but it was the most mentally clarifying thing ever. I would feel better while I was doing it, and it helped me process a lot of stuff, so I realized I should pay attention to the fact that I really love doing this.”
During the second half of his freshman year, Wiley recorded a few songs back in New York, which he released before he “realized how bad they were” and subsequently took them down. (Wiley has done this a few times over the years.) He enjoyed making music with his best friend at the time, with whom he played a few shows but they were “never that good.”
Sophomore year was more formative, giving Wiley the opportunity to join an upperclassmen band whose guitarist had just graduated.“I lowkey didn’t play guitar, but I could play it well enough to play rhythm guitar in a band. So I joined the band with them and that is when I really fell in love with music. We had our first big performance at this bar called The Cantab in Central Square, where I had never played before, and it was the best night of my life. You’re making something that tons of people are enjoying and really excited about. People are in the audience feeling something, and coming out and dancing.”
It was playing his own songs with this band that inspired Wiley to consider solo work. Quarantine during late Junior year was an important time for the realization of this idea. At the time, Wiley was taking a Harvard class that required him to write a song each week. “I didn’t love most of the stuff I wrote, but I liked having to do it because it made me think about the creative process differently, it made me actively think about writing,” he explained. Afterwards, he had a slew of material that he compiled into an album over six months during a gap year. “That was when I was like, okay, I’m gonna try to do music.”
After releasing a couple of those songs, Wiley became focused on publicizing them by posting on social media, making music videos, and getting his music added to playlists. However, he soon realized that he hated that side of music. With that experience, as well as having worked at a music marketing company in Sophomore summer, he decided that he didn’t like or care about the music industry:“I didn’t want to be in music, I wanted to make music.”
He abandoned that album from quarantine, and that professional path, treating them as learning experiences. Instead, Wiley moved to New York for summer 2021, put a band together, and played shows. These shows started in his parents’ basement. People came through and loved them. He ended up getting a manager and playing a series of successful shows at venues in New York, inspiring Wiley to do music his way.
In November 2021, he played for a crowd of almost 300 at the Mercury Lounge in New York, his first experience with a crowd that wasn’t composed solely of people he knew. He recalled looking out at the audience and thinking,“these were real people who I don’t know, enjoying my music. I can and will keep doing this.”
Wiley emphasizes that live shows are the best part of making music for him. He explains that they cultivate a shared experience between him, the band, and the audience. “Music gets people out to an experience together and transports you to a different place.”
This January, Wiley went to a professional studio to record what will hopefully become his first official album. Although this album feels like the beginning of a new musical journey, Wiley also looks at it in the context of his past five years: “I had to try and fail and try and fail a bunch of times until now I have stuff that I’ve recorded that I like and feel good about and am excited to release.”
Five years after his first experiences writing songs in his freshman dorm, Wiley continues to use songwriting as an avenue for emotional processing. His current project describes his experience growing up and leaving his childhood behind. Even though Harvard didn’t make him a musician, Wiley said that his music is inextricable from his college years: “Everything that I have in music went through Harvard in some capacity. There’s no version of me that didn’t do that.” From originals to covers to the audience filled with his loved ones, Wiley’s set at the Middle East was a testament to these five years of coming of age.
Wiley Beckett plans to release his first album later this summer. He will be in New York in the meantime, where he will continue to play shows.
Andrew Spielmann ‘25 (andrewspielmann@college.harvard.edu) conducted this interview over Wiley’s first ever Playa Bowl.