There’s music in the mountains of Morgantown.
Some students are playing it. Some are writing it. Some are recording it. Some are promoting it.
Everybody’s humming it — the song of a small but mighty record label called Mon Hills, an independent, student-run operation at the West Virginia University School of Music.
It’s a song that sounds very different depending on who’s bringing it to life.
For one student, Gwyn Parow, it starts soft and wistful, but it doesn’t take long before it’s building to crescendo.
For another, Xander Plute, it’s a song full of playfulness, and one best heard live.
See the music
As a teenager, the Morgantown native took refuge in music by forming an alternative pop duo with her best friend.
“In high school, when I was making music, it was mostly coming from a place of feeling very lost, that I didn’t fit in. That was the driving force behind a lot of the lyricism and the themes,” she said.
Parow couldn’t envision a future career intertwined with her artistic pursuits. Music felt separate from real life. Something to squeeze between homework assignments, relegated to weekends and after the 9-to-5, if she was lucky.
Then she came to WVU. She found out about the Music Business and Industry major at the College of Creative Arts and Media. She found out about the student-run label Mon Hills Records.
Parow joined the Mon Hills content team. In her first year at WVU, she found herself doing creative work, shaping how artists show up in the world.
“I have gotten to do everything that I love while learning the ins and outs of the industry,” she said. “I have made my own music, but I’ve also dipped my toes into making content for other artists on our student-run record label.”
Now a junior, she builds entire brand identities and manages the creative direction for artists on the label in her role as Mon Hills content director.
When the label signs a new artist searching for a clear direction, Parow creates a mood board aligned with the artist’s sound and goals, then refines a vision that will be the foundation for elements ranging from visuals to promotional strategy.
Good content starts with authenticity, she said, pointing to Charli XCX’s “Brat” campaign as evidence of audiences’ preference for “real” over polish.
“It’s refreshing to see somebody who isn’t afraid to show a messier side of themselves,” she said. “Building imaging that fits the music, and what people need to see, not what they want to see, is really cool.”
For each campaign, Parow considers audience, platform and purpose.
“I think from the perspective of who we’re pitching to. ‘What does that group want to see?’ If I’m on TikTok, what makes me jump from a social media app to a streaming service to play an artist’s song?”
Seize the moment
If Parow has learned one thing in the Music Business and Industry Program, it’s flexibility.
Take the day West Virginia singer-songwriter Lauren Winans came to Mon Hills. Parow had planned a full content day — cafe interviews, recording behind-the-scenes footage.
“We came back to the studio to grab content of her recording her release. But then it was, ‘We need someone to do a background vocal.’ They grabbed me and pulled me into the studio, and I did background vocals on that track,” Parow remembered.
As a result of Parow’s readiness to make the song happen, Winans asked her to perform background vocals on other unfinished tracks as well.
Mon Hills collaborates with artists ranging from WVU students to local and regional acts like Winans. Each artist requires a unique, tailored campaign.
“It’s really cool to work with people of different age groups, different backgrounds,” she said. “I enjoy doing the content, the photo shoots, and planning the campaigns, marketing and branding for all kinds of different artists.”
The hands-on experience she gets at Mon Hills builds on coursework that includes copyright law, music marketing campaigns that span semesters, and a live music business class in which students budget entire concerts from the ground up.
“Anyone can have their 15 minutes of fame, but if you have true passion for music, why would you want to stop there?” she asked. “I’m learning how to keep doing what I love.”
Seek the future
When Parow was a child, she had a YouTube channel, and she loved making videos.
But for a while, as she grew up, she lost the pleasure and excitement that had once meant so much to her as a creator.
At WVU, she discovered it again.
“I’ve found my place,” Parow said. “When I write a song, it’s not about feeling lost anymore.”
In fact, she added, she knows exactly where she’s going.
“I’m working toward a career building branding and campaigns for artists,” she said. “That’s what will be fulfilling for me. That’s what I’m passionate about. I love making music happen.”
Have a blast
On Xander Plute’s first day in the Music Business and Industry Program, his professor Joshua Swiger skipped introductions and broke the ice with a question.
“Before he even asks us what our names were, he asks what our least favorite genre of music was,” Plute said.
“I thought, ‘That’s an odd question.’”
After everyone answered, Swiger said, “Great, now throw that all out the window. You love all of it.”
That attitude stuck with Plute, hard.
“You’ve got to love music unequivocally if you’re going to work in this industry,” he said. “Being around so many different people who make so many different things reminds me to keep an open mind.”
Now a senior, Plute runs sound at live Mon Hills events, traveling to venues like clubs and restaurants, helping run open mics and artist showcases.
“I like being helpful to people,” he said. “It’s a blast for me to be hands-on with microphones, with gear setup and teardown.”
Go nuts
Plute also has a particular niche of his own — performing saxophone covers of video game soundtracks at national conventions.
As a kid in Washington, Pennsylvania, Plute recalled, nothing seemed to hold his attention for long.
“It was Super Paper Mario for the Wii,” he said. “One of the songs just clicked with me, and then it was all video game music from there on out. Video game music did it for me.”
That lifelong obsession has now led him to national stages like MAGFest, a music and gaming festival in National Harbor, Maryland.
“When I played there for the first time in January 2024, I was heading to the convention center, and a couple in the elevator saw me with my tenor saxophone case,” he said.
Plute mentioned to the couple that he would be playing later, and then spotted them in the crowd at his show.
“I played a song from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and it turns out it’s their favorite video game song ever,” he said. “They were up and dancing around. I love being able to pull a song out at a set, knowing people are going to go nuts over it.”
Keep going
Plute didn’t always believe he’d be rocking on a national stage.
Like Parow, he showed up to WVU full of self-doubt.
“Imposter syndrome is a thing,” he confirmed. “I got to WVU, and there were musicians who have been playing their whole lives. And here I am. I picked up the saxophone for the first time during the COVID-19 quarantine and learned to read sheet music just months before WVU New Student Orientation.
“It was tough at first. I felt like maybe I didn’t belong.”
What kept Plute going was the encouragement he received not only from faculty members, but from his peers.
“Everyone I came across, whether they were a saxophonist who’d been playing for 20 years, one of the best pianists I’ve ever heard, or someone who knew what every button on the mixing board did — everyone was so encouraging,” he said.
“Slowly but surely, I started to feel like my path might have been different, but I’m doing what I love just like everyone else.”
One thing Plute has learned working on the Mon Hills Records live events team is that, for him, there are many different paths to fulfillment ahead.
“If I have an instrument in my hand, it doesn’t feel like work,” he said. “One day, I’d love to compose for a video game or be involved in recording for a studio. But as long as music is part of my life, I’ll be happy.”
Story by Katie Short. Photos by Scott Lituchy, Matt Sunday and David Ryan. Video by David Ryan. Originally published by West Virginia University.
