Correction appended: A previous version of this article listed Bapst’s hometown as Beavercreek. The change has been made.
The Athens music scene is populated by a robust group of student musicians who balance academics with their passion for music. One of these students is Rylee Bapst.
Bapst, a senior studying marketing, grew up in Beaver, Ohio, and has been around music his whole life. He started listening to classic rock after his parents introduced him to Aerosmith and Guns N’ Roses. He began playing the guitar at 10 years old and dreamed of being a rock star.
As he got older he explored other genres and artists, but John Mayer’s music and songwriting process particularly stood out to him.
“I got (into) John Mayer and that guy introduced me to the whole world of singer-songwriters,” Bapst said. “I was like, ‘Oh, this what I wanted. I don't want to be a rock star. I want to write songs.'”
By age 17, Bapst was proficient with the guitar and started writing original songs. When he got to college, Bapst started playing open mics at places like Donkey Coffee or Front Room Coffeehouse. However, he mainly performed covers while working on songwriting in his spare time.
“Eventually, my songs weren't sucking anymore,” Bapst said. “They were starting to be good and kind of catchy, and I just kept going from there. As time has gone on, I think I get better with every batch of songs … The more I do it, the more like me I sound.”
Bapst also posts his music on TikTok. In 2021, a video of him playing the guitar exploded on the site, receiving more than 91,000 likes. Since then, he’s amassed over 436,000 likes on his account, which led him to release some of his original music.
In 2022, Bapst released “Passin’ Cars” and “Gone With the Wind.” Bapst often brought his work to Isaac King, a senior studying music production and recording industry, to critique his mixes, and King ended up producing most of Bapst’s music catalog.
“He’s a songwriting machine,” King said. “He'll write a song a day, or he's even written four or five songs in one day, completely written out.”
Bapst released two more singles titled “Supernova” March 22 and “Like a Fool” July 12, both of which King recorded and played bass for.
“There are some people that have the ear, and that's who I try to surround myself with musically,” Bapst said. “Isaac is one of those people, both in the studio and in the band setting.”
Recently, Bapst put out another single titled “Wonder If You Know.” Bapst released the song Oct. 4, but it was a project he was working on since 2022.
“‘Wonder If You Know’ is a song I had to write three or four times,” Bapst said. “I kept coming back to it because I loved that chorus, but I didn't quite like the verses all the way … One night I came home from work real late. Usually these songs happen later at night, and it kind of popped into my head.”
Along with his solo work, Bapst is a freelance guitarist for several different bands and performs regularly at local bars and restaurants, including The Union, Eclipse Company Store and The Pigskin. Bapst also leads the Rylee Bapst Trio, which plays his original songs, as well as the Four Winds, a Grateful Dead cover band.
“I love performing live,” Bapst said. “That's really why I do it. That is my favorite thing in the entire world, playing on stage and just providing the jams. I love doing it.”
On Saturday, Bapst is set to perform at The Union with the Four Winds. On Friday, Nov. 22, he is set to perform at The Union with his trio.
Regarding future plans, Bapst is currently working on a four-song EP which will be released sometime in early 2024. After graduation, Bapst plans to move to Nashville to pursue a full-time career in music.
“I'm going to keep playing music,” Bapst said. “My kind of loose plan is to move to Nashville and try and make it there — go to open mics every night and play everywhere that I can.”
