It was 11 p.m. when DJ Jazzy Jeff told the hundred or so producers gathered at his Delaware estate for a songwriter’s retreat that they needed to have their songs done by noon the next day.

Sophomore music production major Oliver Crosby immediately rushed to the Ableton-sponsored RV with his randomized crew of collaborators and got to work in their makeshift studio. He said the panic-crazed session lasted until 7 a.m., when the group took a two-hour nap before waking up again two hours later to finish mixing the track.

“It was the most hectic four days of my life,” Crosby said. “You’re meeting all your heroes and then immediately hopping in the studio and jamming with them, writing songs.”

That night is in many ways representative of what it’s like to manage a burgeoning career as a music producer while keeping up with schoolwork and trying to maintain some semblance of a normal college experience. Crosby doesn’t have much free time — he wouldn’t want it any other way.

Before the songwriter’s retreats, performances at the National Association of Music Merchants conference and amassing over 240,000 followers on Instagram, Crosby was just a kid playing music in his bedroom and posting videos to an online audience that never seemed to grow.

Raised in Kirkland, Washington, a Seattle suburb better known for Costco, Crosby said that once he got his car in high school, he was constantly making the trek into the city to open for his friends’ gigs or play in their bands.

But regardless of how niche the Seattle music scene was, the allure of Los Angeles remained unbeaten for Crosby, who said it was the main reason he chose to study at USC.

He said another major draw of L.A. was the home studio culture. After seeing a YouTube video of Mac DeMarco noodling with his DX 100 synthesizer while on a sunset cruise in his rowboat, he was hooked on discovering new sounds.

“I remember watching that video and just falling in love with the sound of that synth,” Crosby said. “I got it and immediately became fascinated with the weird sounds. I was learning the value of having more sounds than just a piano.”

Gear collection turned into a long-term hobby that has culminated in his ever-evolving studio setup, now featuring a classic Fender Rhodes, a rack of three other keyboards and some analog tape machines that backdrop the short-form videos he posts on Instagram.

Though starting on piano and still using the instrument at the heart of his production, Crosby has become a multi-instrumentalist. Now, he plays most of his gigs with a bass slung around his shoulders, not sitting behind the keys.

It may not seem like it with all his recent social media collaborations with other musicians, but Crosby said he still prioritizes his original material.

“Ninety percent of what I’m doing is my own stuff,” Crosby said. “It’s just creative. I’m not getting handed a chart and being told what to play.”

His own work has taken the form of many projects throughout the years, from the pop band Cherry Ferrari to the electronic alias ANDRS and his self-titled jazz fusion project, which has amassed millions of streams on Spotify. His main focus now, though, is compiling this work into a live show with the help of fellow sophomores in the Thornton School of Music.

He’s employed jazz studies majors Rex Callaway on saxophone and George Paddack on drums, as well as music production major Henry Dearborn on bass, for a free performance at the Silverlake Lounge on March 12. The group is mostly the same musicians he played with for Seattle rapper Oblé Reed’s NPR Tiny Desk contest submission last year.

“We just took one of Oblé’s singles and then did our own arrangement of it,” Paddack said about the group’s performance for the online contest. “Oliver’s music is similar to that jungle-breakbeat stuff that we were rehearsing for Tiny Desk.”

Though still early on in the rehearsal process, Callaway said the musical sparks have been flying.

“All the ideas he has and his ability to think about things in his head and then execute them with a full band — I’ve never really been in that situation before,” Callaway said.

Some of the tracks they’re preparing have never been heard in a live setting, giving them a new life after only ever living on streaming platforms. He isn’t abandoning the social media career that brought him to where he is; he’s simply using it to create a new aspect of his musical persona, offline and in-person.

“Sometimes I have a pessimistic outlook on life. I’m like, ‘Will I ever make it as an artist?’ But the more you see people who have done it, the more inspiring it is,” Crosby said. “I love just hanging out with all musicians and producers. That’s the best way to learn too, when you’re working with other artists.”