Enrolling at UW–Madison was an easy decision for Leo Sidran ’99. For one thing, he had already started classes on campus as a Madison-area high schooler. More importantly, he knew that the UW could set him on a path to pursue his passions, just as it had for his father, celebrated musician Ben Sidran ’67.
Since graduating from the university, the younger Sidran has forged his own notable path in the music industry as a composer, performer, producer, and podcaster. He produced the Academy Award–winning song, Jorge Drexler’s “Al Otro Lado del Río,” which you can hear in The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), and he coproduced a Latin Grammy–winning album, Healer, with Alex Cuba. In addition to producing and performing with his dad, Sidran has also worked with many other Badger musicians, including Joy Dragland ’00 (the first half of Sidran’s early-2000s duo, Joy and the Boy), Steve Miller x’65 of the Steve Miller Band, and former UW professor Richard Davis.
To mark the UW’s 175th anniversary, Sidran took the opportunity to celebrate his dear alma mater by putting his own twist on iconic Madison sounds. This video honoring the anniversary features a score by Sidran, including new arrangements of “On, Wisconsin” and “Varsity.” Continue reading about how campus influenced Sidran’s upbringing and early career.
- Favorite ‘90s band: Garbage, which was a Madison band.
- Favorite Madison concert: Charlie Hunter at Comedy on State
- Favorite ‘90s movie or TV show: Seinfeld
- Favorite campus-area hangout: Espresso Royale
- Nineties trend you’re happy to have left behind: I was never aware of leaving anything behind. I feel like no matter what you do, it comes into fashion again.
- Nineties trend you’d like to bring back: It’s not a ’90s trend so much, but I would love to bring back the possibility of leaving my house and not know where I’m going to go or who I’m going to see.
What accomplishments or projects are you most proud of working on in the last 25 years?
I’m most proud of continuing to do what I set out to do and [what I] began doing when I was at the University of Wisconsin, which is, basically, to pursue my creative interests. I started doing that when I was in college, even in high school. And I feel like I’ve been able to commit my life to doing that. I see everything in the last 25 years as an extension of what I started doing when I was in college. There are some sexy credits over the years. I produced a song that won an Academy Award. That was a big one. I won a Grammy. That was really exciting. I’ve released a number of albums under my own name, and I’ve produced albums for others and written music for TV and film. But all of that is really irrelevant. The major win for me is that I get to keep doing this. That’s the accomplishment.
Another one of my proudest achievements is a recent one: writing the music for the 175th anniversary of the University of Wisconsin. I was really proud of it. I was really glad that they asked me to do it.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a continuation of all the same stuff really. Only in the past few years have I realized that what I have is a career. I’m not even sure that I would say I have a job, but I have a career. So, it’s a lot of little projects that add up to something big. I continue to do what I’ve always done, which is to write music and to collaborate with other creative people. But I also have become a journalist, I guess. I’m on the radio in New York, and I do an interview program where I talk to other creative people. Even that is an extension of the musical work that I’ve always done.
Are there any courses or professors from the UW that have had a lasting influence on you?
I was an ILS [integrated liberal studies] student. I was a history major, but I had an ILS certificate. The entire ILS program had a huge impact on me. It was a way to get a broad base of information and history under my hands quickly. It encouraged writing and critical thinking, and that entire program was influential for me.
What’s your best memory from your time on campus?
It’s hard for me, honestly, to fully differentiate my life before being on campus from my life on campus and my life after graduating because I grew up in Madison. So, the campus was a reality. In fact, I started taking college courses when I was still in high school. Some of my most vivid and intense memories of going to the UW were the year when I was in high school, and I would go from high school to college and take Spanish and try my best to seem like I was a college student. Having that experience and getting just a little taste of what it would be like when I finally got to college was so exciting.
I stayed in Madison after I graduated. My relationship with the campus was always so woven into everything else I did, like playing concerts at the Union was a big part of my college life. I also played Friday afternoons in the Rat or out on the Terrace. That was a huge part of my college experience, but I continued to do it after I graduated, too. The campus was a big part of my Madison life for a long time.
