While some people are still trying to find something they’re good at, Noah Gibbings, 19-year old music major at City College, writes his own music and acts in an upcoming independent movie.

Gibbings, originally from Portland, Maine, has been studying at City College for three years. He started writing lyrics when he was 12-years old, and he also plays the guitar, the piano and the harmonica. Among his musical influences you find Bob Dylan, Eminem, and 60’s music like Rolling Stones.

His process of making music changes every hour.

“It sort of comes from finding a little spark that you like and then continuing on it,” he said. “Sometimes it all comes at once, and sometimes it comes thoughout the course of half a year.”

He’s mostly writing folk pop songs, but he also wants to integrate hip hop into it. The reason for that is that he started off as a rapper in the beginning. When he was 14 years old, he was the opening act for Twista, one of the world’s fastest rappers, at Velvet Jones.

“It was fun,” he said with a chuckle. “They kicked me out after I performed.”

In the year of 2009, Gibbings auditioned for “America Idol” at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles. Among the 13,000 people who auditioned, he made the first cut of 500 people after singing one of his own songs. He never got to audition in front of Simon Cowell and the others jury members, but he said if he got that opportunity he would feel a “blissful awe”.

However, he added that he doesn’t feel the urge to audition again.

“It gave me a quick, but strong insight to the inside of the music business,” he said. “From what I’ve heard – and I could be wrong about this – it’s a very limiting contract without much say.”

Gibbings will be appearing in an independent movie titled “Killer Holiday” that will be released in Dec. this year. During the production, he’s been working with celebrities like Skee-Lo, famous for his song “I Wish” from 1995, Michael Copon, known from the television series “One Tree Hill”, and Marty Thomas, director of the movie and for the music video to “I wish”.

As for his future plans, Gibbings is planning on transferring to either Berklee College of Music or California Institute of the Arts. However, he added that acting has given him a new burst of creativity which he wants to pursue.

“As long as you’re in the right place [and] doing it persistently, something’s going to come from it,” Gibbings said talking about terms of entertainment.