He was sitting in the spotlight, guitar in his hands — prepared to perform.

“I like music because it’s fun,” Erik Vreedenburgh says. Erik, a sophomore, is also a talented musician. Vreedenburgh performed in the recent Coffeehouse on Dec. 4, 2014, singing Never Saw It Coming with Justin McCollum.

Vreedenburgh’s musical interest started when he was a little kid because “music was always in the house.” His two biggest musical influences are his uncle and his father. He learned how to play guitar from his uncle when he was 11-years old. A year ago, he learned how to play the drums. Performing many times on stage, Vreedenburgh doesn’t get as nervous as he used to because he has become more experienced.

“I used to get nervous, but now it’s more of just like fun – it’s more fun than nervous,” he says. Vreedenburgh has performed five times with a band and numerous times individually. Not including performances for family, he has appeared on stage at least 11 times during various events.

His favorite genres are mainly rock or alternative rock. Cage the Elephant, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Rolling Stones are some of his favorite groups.

Cage the Elephant, his favorite band at the moment, sings Vreedenburgh’s favorite song called Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked, which also includes his favorite lyrics: “Oh, there ain’t no rest for the wicked, money don’t grow on trees, I got bills to pay, I got mouths to feed, there aint nothing in this world for free.”

Although he doesn’t have any specific pre-show rituals, Vreedenburgh does not practice the song previous to his performance. This is some advice that he has gotten about getting on stage.

“Don’t practice the song before,” he said. “Practice the song before, obviously, but not, like, right before you’re gonna perform it.”

Vreedenburgh does write his own original songs, but he hasn’t performed them yet. He can’t remember exactly when it started, but music has always been a part of his life.