Accustomed to a 24-hour design studio on Carnegie Mellon University's campus full of peer perspectives, the COVID-19 pandemic presented a new challenge for Julia "Jubbies" Steinweh-Adler. A junior design major, Jubbies found herself transplanted back home, physically isolated from fellow students and in need of a new goal.

Jubbies began to focus on one of her longtime interests, songwriting. More specifically, she decided to write one song. Perpetually frustrated in her music-making efforts, she was able to write lyrics and wrap pieces around melodies. But after hundreds of little fractions of song ideas, she had never actually finished one. 

It took isolation to help her realize she just needed a little help.

"I used to think I had to do every part of the process myself, but ultimately, I had to acknowledge that collaboration actually enhances the quality of what you make," Jubbies said. "Collaboration unlocks parts of you — capabilities you didn't even know you had. That was a gratifying lesson and I'm definitely taking that forward."

Bishop Ivy, a junior studying music at CMU, has been releasing original music since 2017. Ivy came to CMU to combine his interests in technology and music, studying computer science, electrical engineeringand music. Interested in building a production portfolio, he answered Jubbies's call on social media for collaboration on her song. 

"I'd heard Bishop perform at Orientation Week freshman year, and I was really impressed," Jubbies said. "We started meeting virtually with this streaming software he'd learned in one of his classes. In between our sessions, he'd send me the mix of the day, and I'd send back a critique, all the while we'd never met in person. Having a shared goal became a way to counteract the lack of social interactions."

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