Hot Bench with Adin Yager ’29

Welcome to the Hot Bench, Adin! Thank you for agreeing to do this! 

Happy to be here. 

You’re a double Hoo, correct? Tell us a little bit about your time in undergrad at UVA. 

Yes, I am a double Hoo. I was a music and economics double major. Econ was to have something serious and because I enjoyed it in high school, and music was more for me. 

And what about the business you ran in undergrad? 

In March of my senior year of high school, it was COVID, and they told us grades couldn’t go down, so I just spent like 12 to 15 hours a day just working on music production stuff. It was all self-taught. I was reteaching myself piano and guitar and all these instruments that I had taken lessons for when I was younger. I was just making beats, having fun, recording random things, and reaching out to people in the music industry. I got really lucky that all of the guys who were in the part of the industry that I was trying to get into were really willing to sit down and chat with me and explain how to protect my rights, collect money I’m owed, send my music to labels, reach out to managers, and market myself. 

You mentioned that they were talking to you about protecting your music rights—is that part of what brought you to law school?  

Absolutely. My entire law school application was about soft IP rights. The type of music I make—lofi study beats—is background music. People don’t really pay attention to who the artist is that they’re listening to, so it’s really easy for people to steal music. 

Also, with AI, it’s really easy for AI artists to present as real human artists. There was an article written by The Atlantic that dug into the songs these AI databases were using and found that thirty of my songs were being used in them.1 It was kind of cool cause it was like, “Hey, I guess I’m cool enough that they use my music.” But it was also like, “Holy crap, this really happens.” 

That’s super crazy. Earlier, you also mentioned arguably the most exciting part of your lore, which is Lofi Girl. Can you talk a little more about that? 

Yeah, absolutely. So basically, there’s this YouTube channel called ChilledCow, and he would just reach out to a bunch of beatmakers to try to get their music on the channel. It started blowing up, and he was like, “Let's make a record label out of it.” That record label turned into Lofi Girl. Basically, they’re just a record label in the lofi industry, and like any other record label, you can submit music to them. If that track or whatever else gets accepted, then you become part of that label ecosystem. 

Credit: Adin Yager

 Very cool. Okay, we’re going to enter our lightning round.  

Okay. Let me take a sip of water. I feel like I need to prepare. 

You should. This is very serious to me. First question—I saw you liked an Instagram Reel that said, “People need to stop going to law school; we need more DJs.” Can you tell us about your thoughts on that statement? 

Mostly sarcasm, but also I want other DJs to not go to law school so I can monopolize the market. It’s good for my business. 

Glad we got the truth. Next, what is your DJ pet peeve? 

Drinks over the booth. Keep your drinks away from my expensive gear. (By the way, UVA paid for it; shoutout UVA Miller Arts Scholars.) 

Shoutout UVA. Okay, next question—last week I sent you a list of forty song suggestions before you DJ’d a Section H mixer. Are you mad at me? Be honest. 

No, not at all. This is another DJ pet peeve of mine. If you don’t take requests, like, shut up. Your job is to make other people happy. I’m literally here to make sure other people have a good time. If people send me requests, my job is to play them. 

I appreciate that. Last lightning round question: DJ son or law daughter? 

Woah. I want both. 

You have to pick. 

 Oh no. Okay, I think I’d be a really good girl dad, so I’m going to pick law daughter. 

Aww, that was the right answer. Now, to close out our Hot Bench, anything else you’d like to say with this platform I’ve so generously given you? 

 That’s a very good question. I think more people in the Law School need to share their musical abilities. I found out recently that a couple of our sectionmates are great musicians. We should have a Law School music society and make music together. 

And also, I think that we should have a class in law school that explores the side of the music industry that includes music law. 

Wow, that was actually really good.  

Thanks. That’s why I’m going to be Adin. 

 (A-dean, get it?) 

Author: Kelsey Bohn, ’29