Erica America and Her Vocal Chords
Erica Plaener came to Penn State to pursue a career in journalism, but she has some ulterior motives. She plans on being the interviewee rather than the interviewer.
Aside from being a bright second year student, Plaener just so happens to have some killer vocal chords. She began performing in her high school’s drama productions. Since then, you can find her performing at Levels Night Club, Greek talent shows, clubs in New York City, and THON.
Despite the possibility of pursuing a career in music, College was always in the plans for Plaener, The Long Island native came to Penn State knowing that she would encounter countless opportunities to collaborate with others and expand her musical career.
And that she has.
Plaener has found herself a partner or two to experiment with in Happy Valley. She has teamed up with senior music DJ Chris Jackson as well as some of his musically inclined friends and produced a couple remixes to popular songs, the most recent being ‘Sunday Morning’. Plaener has also provided vocals in her and Jackson’s Adele and Justin Bieber cover/mashup, “Hello, I’m Sorry”.
“Whenever I have an audition I sing Adele or Sam Smith,” Plaener said in an interview.
She plans to attend a big audition in the near future. That audition being a shot at becoming a contestant on America’s number one talent show, The Voice.
When asked what her parents think of her dreams of someday pursuing a career in music, she said, “That’s all that they want me to do.”
Plaener plans on getting her foot in the door in the broadcast journalism industry. From there she hopes to meet people in the music business along the way, and pass along her music.
For now she is recording as much of her own music as she can as well as collaborating with EDM artists.
