When he was young, Roy Gantz used to sit squished next to two speakers in his father’s old, beat-up Alfa Romeo car, putting his hands and ears on the speakers and feeling the thump of Jennifer Lopez and Bob Marley reverberating through his fingers.
He would sing in the car and perform little concerts for his family. Music like that of Vanessa Hudgens — his first CD — or Hannah Montana — his favorite show at the time — punctuated his childhood. He even dressed up as Hannah Montana for Halloween when he was seven years old, though his classmates would bully him for it.
“My first experiences with music were joy,” Gantz said. “I always think about that because it was so unapologetic … I try to channel that.”
His passion for music and performing brought him, now a junior majoring in public relations and minoring in songwriting and theater, to release his first single, “Malibu Feels Like You,” in January. Last month, he finished a run as one of the leading roles in the USC School of Dramatic Arts’ production of “Rent.” After a long journey navigating the worlds of songwriting and theater, he’s working on more music to further establish himself as a multi-hyphenate artist.
At age 10, Gantz attended a circus camp where he would meet one of his closest friends, Rebecca Aisenberg. Gantz, Aisenberg and her brother connected over music — especially from the musical “Wicked.” His YouTube channel has multiple videos of his younger self belting out lyrics from “Defying Gravity.”
Eventually, he met an agent and began auditioning for small roles and commercials. Then he booked the role of Friedrich von Trapp in “The Sound of Music.” At the age of 13, he embarked on a six-month national tour of the musical, his biggest role.
“It was exhilarating and unreal, and a dream come true, but also a lot of anxiety for a 13 year old,” Gantz said.
The anxiety didn’t stop when he came back home. His voice began to change during puberty, and he encountered a reality that many other child actors faced at this stage of life.
“All of a sudden, nobody wants you,” Gantz said. “It was definitely a shock. It’s a lot. [You’re] 14 years old and you’re like, ‘I failed.’”
Having skipped his eighth grade for his tour with “The Sound of Music,” he dropped straight into high school as a freshman when he finished his tour. He joined the vocal jazz ensemble and continued performing in theater.
By then his taste in music was beginning to change — then Lollapalooza changed everything.
As Aisenberg recalls, the sun was beginning to dip into the horizon on an evening in August 2019 when she and Gantz waited eagerly for Ariana Grande’s set, which wouldn’t start for another four hours. They found out that in the meantime, a country artist was getting ready to perform in half an hour.
‘We were like, ‘Oh my God, who’s this country artist, we’re gonna have to sit through this concert. We’re gonna hate it,’” Aisenberg remembered.
Then, a concert-goer in a pink cowboy hat and sparkles turned to Gantz and Aisenberg said, “You guys are gonna watch this concert, and you’re gonna be obsessed with her.”
He was right.
The artist was Kacey Musgraves, and she quickly became one of Gantz’s favorite artists, along with the entire country genre. Some of his other influences include Ariana Grande and another lifelong favorite, Sara Bareilles.
“I would really like to have a career like [Bareilles],” Gantz mused. “She acts, she sings, she produces — it’s just very much that [she wears] all hats, just following the art vibe.”
Two years ago, while taking a songwriting class, Gantz said he felt “haunted” by the memories of his first relationship. Processing those feelings through songwriting eventually led him to create his first single, “Malibu Feels Like You.” But the process took much longer than he thought it would.
He first wrote the song on guitar, working with his professor to refine the structure and add more details. Then, he connected with a producer over the summer. He battled perfectionism.
“It’s a shitty pitfall because you’re never going to love something 100%,” Gantz said, “and with art, it’s not about that. It’s just about expressing yourself in the moment.”
Last summer, in a car with Aisenberg and her brother, Gantz let her hear the unreleased single with full production for the first time.
“Me and my brother were just blown away,” Aisenberg said. “Songwriting is definitely more of a private process for him, and he wanted to keep that sacred. But he was excited to show it to us and we loved it.”
The song begins with a guitar strumming a soft melody backed by a subdued drum beat, allowing his soft and contemplative voice to reflect on the ways his life is bogged down by the memory of his past relationships.
Then drums suddenly kick up into a faster rhythm as his voice becomes more determined, recalling all of the everyday experiences that remind him of his past relationship — from sunsets to getting fast food late at night. And then it all goes away, the soft guitar riff returns, and in two minutes and 52 seconds, the emotional journey is over.
This semester, Gantz also took on a vocal coach: Jeffery Allen. With 44 years of experience in training vocalists, Gantz was determined to get in contact with Allen.
“He had worked very consistently to make himself known to me and to consistently tap me on the shoulder enough that I couldn’t resist having him come into my studio for an audition,” Allen said.
As Allen puts it, Gantz was searching for a way to expand his ability to express emotion through his voice. Throughout their training, Allen said Gantz was tenacious and motivated to succeed.
“The journey to become a proficient, consistent professional really takes a lot of consistent work,” Allen said. “I understood from the very getgo that Roy was a gent who was very driven.”
Gantz said his lessons with Allen helped him reconnect with his body and with his inner child.
“[Singing] ‘Defying Gravity’ as a kid, that was freedom of expression and letting it all out and not caring,” Gantz said. “I hadn’t really felt that sense of freedom and expression until I started those lessons with him.”
This semester, he landed the role of Mark Cohen in “Rent,” one of his biggest in recent years. Fully embracing the role, he set his signing ambitions aside to get in the headspace of Mark. By the time the show concluded, Gantz realized that his efforts were worth it.
“I was struggling with committing myself to art and committing myself to being an artist, and the fear and the insecurity,” Gantz said. “[But] it’s never been clearer to me what I need to do in life.”
He said it can be hard to balance his songwriting ambitions with his lifelong dream of making it to Broadway, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
“Music and acting is not a double life,” Gantz said. “When you follow art, it just happens. I really feel like there’s gonna be seasons of my life where I’m on a Broadway show and committing to that and maybe not writing as many songs, and then seasons of my life where I’m in the studio … That’s the career I want for myself.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Rebecca Aisenberg’s last name. The article has been updated to reflect the correct spelling.