Title:GEMA Alumni Spotlight – John Alagia (C’86): His Journey to Music Prominence from Georgetown Gigs to Grammy Artists

Before he was a record producer for some of Hollywood’s biggest music talents, John Alagia was a 17-year-old boy with a dream.

“I came from Louisville, Kentucky to Georgetown, and when I first stepped on campus, I started looking around for other musicians to collaborate with,” says Alagia (C’86), who formed his first band within a month of arriving at college. “I slowly created a community at Georgetown that was very artist and arts-friendly. I really wanted to try to find my way musically.”

With the encouragement of Professor Webster, a history of jazz teacher who urged him to “follow [his] muse,” Alagia pursued his dream. “I created the band Idle Minds with my Georgetown brothers. We were all the same year, and we were — and still are — good friends. We just started playing all these shows on and off campus,” he recalls about the band — which also included John Lyons (SFS’86), Ed “Scooter” Laborde (C’86), and Ismael González (B’86) — with whom he recently reunited to perform at a GEMA Rocks event at John Carroll Weekend in April. “I think when you’re young, you’re a dreamer and all things are possible. And I kept that going throughout my time at Georgetown.”

It wasn’t until his senior year that Alagia realized he could turn those dreams into a career. “I was supposed to go to law school, but in my senior year at Georgetown, I met a young man named Doug Derryberry, an incoming freshman,” he says. “I was playing guitar on Healy Lawn, and he came up to me and said, ‘Hey, can I join?’”

What started as a casual collaboration turned into a band — Derryberry & Alagia — a duo that went on to release three albums and tour extensively along the East Coast. “Doug and I built a little recording studio in our house in Northern Virginia called Rutabaga Studios, and we really started to make a name for ourselves,” Alagia says.

He adds, “As time went on, we helped bands with their debut recordings — Dave Matthews Band, Ben Folds, Vertical Horizon — just a bunch of people who became household names. It wasn’t really until I was 26 or 27 that things started to work for me in the D.C. community. I started winning Producer of the Year awards and doing a lot of work in the Mid-Atlantic.”

It didn’t take long for Alagia — who had made a pact with himself to quit by 40 if music wasn’t working out — to see his career reach new heights. “Dave Matthews and I started working on sketches of songs, and then in late 1999, John Mayer and I began slowly making what would become Room for Squares,” he recalls.

“I’d also made Jason Mraz’s first record, and I think Paul Simon had heard what I’d done with those guys. So I went to his house, and we ended up working on a song called ‘Citizen of the Planet,’ which ended up being the finale song for the Olympics way back when. I got to work with Art Garfunkel, and then I got a call from Herbie Hancock to go into the studio with him and work on a Paul Simon song called ‘I Do It for Your Love,’ which is one of my favorite songs. Working with Paul Simon and Herbie Hancock — that’s one of the highlights of my life. I still have to pinch myself when I think about those things.”

Alagia has stayed close not just with the artists he’s worked with — “I consider pretty much everyone I’ve ever worked with very good friends,” he says — but also with the Georgetown classmates who helped shape his path. “Doug was a huge force in my life on so many levels, and he still is like a brother to me,” he says. “And the guys in my Georgetown band — we all keep in touch. We’re still very good friends and get together for little reunions now and again.”

When he’s not in the studio with big-name artists, Alagia is helping the next generation of musicians. “I’m doing a lot of work with young singer-songwriters in L.A., signed and unsigned. It doesn’t really matter to me. I always try to look at the talent, regardless of their status,” he says.

Among the many people and places that helped shape his life and career, Georgetown remains at the top of the list. “The network of friends you create for life is profound. I keep up with so many people from Georgetown, and career-wise, my path would not have been what it is without it,” he says. “I feel very fortunate to have chosen Georgetown — because look what happened.”

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