Miscreant. A person who behaves badly or in a way that breaks the law.

It is the word Jeanette Wall uses to describe herself, but she defines it with her own twist.

‘It means learning to love myself the way I am,’ she said. The definition may stray from what’s accepted, but Wall believes a miscreant is someone who is happy and does what he or she loves.

And Wall is happy with herself. There is nothing she regrets in her life and no decision she would do differently – well, except for maybe listening to ‘cooler’ music in high school.

‘You know that song ‘Popular’ by Nada Surf? I wish I listened to that. I feel like it would have made me cooler.’

Wall, a junior in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries at the College of Visual and Performing Artsand general manager at WERW, started her own record label, Miscreant Records, in fall 2011. Last April, she began publishing The Miscreant, a zine dedicated to reviewing and discussing all genres of local and national music, and recently released its 20th issue.

The fan zine is produced out of Wall’s own pocket, so only two of the issues have been printed to share at events or leave at Recess Coffee House for followers to pick up.Her friends define Wall as someone who does what she wants. If a problem comes up, she tackles it then.

‘She follows her heart and follows her instinct, her gut feeling,’ said Wall’s friend Kyle Kuchta, assistant general manager at WERW and junior film major.

During high school, Wall wanted to learn to be a film critic for The New York Times, but serendipitously stumbled into the music industry after applying to Syracuse University and discovering the Bandier Program.

Her mother, Jacqueline Wall, said the family should have realized Wall would go into music, recalling the times Wall danced to Jimmy Buffett’s song ‘Volcano’ as a young child whenever her father played it. When she goes home to Indiana during school holidays, she makes her parents mix CDs to share new music with them.

Without knowing it, Wall was already working in the music industry. In high school, she burned CDs from her bedroom and secretly mailed them to fans of friend and musician Chase Coy, who kept his music endeavors from his family. Coy would be named one of iTunes’ best new singer-songwriters of the year in 2008 and later record a song with Colbie Caillat in 2010.

In her middle school days, Wall started the Miscreant blog, but it wasn’t until the past year she decided to form the record label. Students behind another student record label, O, Morning Records, graduated last year, leaving a void Wall decided to fill. She applied her do-it-yourself ethics and love of music to forming Miscreant Records, promoting bands through her blog and promotional events.

Lizzie Scafuto, who illustrates the Miscreant zine, has known Wall as both a business partner and a friend.

‘She’s extremely passionate about what she does, and she is very strong and aware of her capabilities,’ Scafuto said.

This summer, Wall will be an intern for Cornerstone Records in New York City. She and Scafuto hope to move to the city one day and see Wall turn Miscreant Records into a well-known label.

In the meantime, Wall can often be seen at Recess Coffee House, a few blocks away from her off-campus house, listening to music or doing work for class or the Miscreant label. She’s the one with the big yellow hair and glasses sitting in the front.

‘She encourages everyone else to be miscreants,’ Scafuto said. ‘She’s really eccentric – but in a good way.’

Within the past year, Wall released one vinyl record for hip-hop duo Mouth’s Cradleand one cassette tape for noise garage rock group SSWAMPZZ. Wall knew members of the bands, which include some current and former SU students, and both bands asked her to produce their releases.

They reflect Wall’s eclectic tastes in music. But it’s the warm sounds of vinyl that she truly loves. With vinyl, the experience is more involved – a listener chooses the record, places it on the player, sets the needle, listens without moving the needle for the entire run. She owns almost 100 records and always buys more, filling her custom-made wooden crate.

From creating her zine with scarce funds to attracting up-and-coming talent, Wall believes her life is very serendipitous.

Serendipity has also made her a lucky person. Her senior year of high school, right when she was preparing for prom and choosing a college, she became sick with thyroid cancer. During the emotional time, Wall refused to let cancer slow her down.

As with any challenge Wall faces, her father, Dave Wall, said she doesn’t roll with the punches: ‘Jeanette punches back.’ The surgery was one day, but she was left with a scar and needs to take medicine every day for the rest of her life. She brushes off the need to take medication and says it is a small price to pay for being cancer-free.

‘Her ability to get through that was just unbelievable. To watch this kid just go through that andtake it one step at a time is amazing,’ Jacqueline said. ‘Just amazing.’

Today, the crescent-moon-shaped scar on her chest has faded and, although often visible, fewer people ask what it is from. The surgery was finished before her senior prom, and she bought makeup to cover the scar up but never used it.

‘Who cares?’ Wall said, recognizing it’s because she has the scar that she is alive.  ‘It’s a part of you.’

dkmcbrid@syr.edu

Published on April 29, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride