IU alumnus releases first album

Cory Williams graduated from IU with a degree from the School of Environmental and Public Affairs, but now he is putting his environmental career on hold to head in a musical direction.

Williams, an acoustic guitar player, said he started seriously working in music when he was 18.  

“That’s when it started sinking in,” he said. “That you could do that for a living.”

While he said his official starting age was 18, he said he began dabbling in music at age 10.

His childhood friend had wooden instruments lying around in the house, he said, so one day he picked one up.

However, it was not a serious endeavor.

“It was years before I picked it back up,” Williams said.

His album “The Outcome” was released June 4. The title has much in common with the phrase “life is what you make of it.”  

“You live once,” Williams said. “You only get one chance.”

The album tells a story that can only be understood once it has been listened to in its entirety, he said. It is about life.

Rather, it is about the results of life once you have gone through a life’s worth of experience.

“This is the outcome of who we are and how we think,” Williams said. “This is the outcome, the inevitable intuition you earn after you have changed and learned from experience.”

Williams focused on the idea of being given a challenge. He said he likes being told he cannot do something.

Laughing when sitcom character Barney Stinson’s catchphrase “challenge accepted” was brought into conversation, he agreed with the sentiment.  

“It’s OK to fall on your face,” Williams said. “You never know what will happen.”

Life’s opportunities can be hidden in challenges. Do not be afraid, he said, since the outcome of life could be improved when you overcome the challenges life throws at you.

Warning against the fear of failure, Williams said if you avoid trying, you never know what will happen.

Williams will return July 17 to Bloomington, and he is excited to come back.

“It’s a great market to play,” Williams said.

He said he loves playing his original music live for an audience.

Williams did not have the same sentiments for playing cover music. He said he did not like it when people went up to him with requests, describing it similarly to a DJ entering a song into the computer instead of a live singer.

Williams said standing on stage playing the music he personally worked on creates a strong reaction in the audience. It is the energy coming from that moment that he said he strives for.

“What better feeling is that?” he said.