From Lombardi’s blog (

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“Most people I meet assume that I’m still in school. I tell them I’ve
graduated. “What did you study?” I tell them I majored in physics.

Cue the inevitable shift in disposition or surprised remark.

From there, people either begin making broad assumptions about me or feel they are no longer the smartest person in the room, which leads to them testing me with pointed questions.

“So are you like the guys from ‘The Big Bang Theory’?” people facetiously ask, to which I jokingly counter:

“Do you really think I’m that socially inept and unattractive after just meeting me?”

Laughter occurs and it’s on to the next
question: “So what are you doing now?” Here’s when I drop the bomb. “I’m a
singer songwriter.” Confusion. A barrage of questions, but most commonly: Why?
Why commit yourself to such a rigorous scientific discipline for four years, and
pivot to something completely different immediately afterwards?

Well, as much as I love music, I didn’t really enjoy pursuing it in an academic setting, because everything seemed so confined. In school there’s always a right and wrong way of doing things, which leads to a grade that quantifies your quality.

I prefer to explore music my own way, and I didn’t feel like investing time and money for someone to tell me otherwise.

Instead, I chose to find the answers to a lot of questions I’d had about how the observable universe functions and obtain a degree that would secure a high paying job in the future when I decide to settle down. Upon graduation and to this day, I have received plenty of job offers related to my field, even ones I would enjoy, but how many people retire when they’re 50 or 60 and say,

“Okay, now I’m going to be the next Justin Timberlake!”

Perhaps a few desperate people have said that, but I don’t know of any successful
ones. Some people counter with

“Well I don’t see why you can’t pursue music while you work full time.”

And to that I reply:

“Unfortunately, none of my interested employers were willing to offer a few months of vacation whenever I wanted to go on tour.”

Besides that obvious hurdle, people don’t
realize how much time really goes into being a successful musician. I mean I’m not even successful yet, and I’ve been working around the clock. When I’m not writing, composing, recording, performing, networking, shooting/planning music
videos, managing merchandise, blogging, or managing my website/social media, I
need time to work out, watch my brother’s football games, and other everyday
human stuff. Somebody once told me that if you don’t put everything you can
into something, then you can’t expect success."