By: Megan Roche

Growing up, Kyle Wagner watched his brother excel at sports. His mom told him that he had to find something extracurricular to do and he began guitar lessons with a local guitar teacher. 

“I started doing lessons with her, I enjoyed it, and I did it for a long time. After a while, I stopped playing guitar all together. I had no interest in it, but I still did things like concert band,” Wagner said.

Years later, Wagner attended a John Mayer concert at Madison Square Garden. While taking in the show, it dawned on Wagner that music was exactly what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

“From that point on, I got back into guitar. I was relearning what I had learned in the past, I took guitar lessons through Guitar Center to help me jumpstart back into it,” Wagner said. 

After graduating from West Morris Central, Wagner got through one semester of community college and decided that music was definitely the path he wanted to take. After enrolling at the Berklee College of Music as a music business major, he’s been enjoying the professional musician journey. 

“I’ve had the opportunity to perform on some incredible stages and be part of some unforgettable moments — including playing The Stone Pony in Asbury Park, performing in Times Square, and opening for national touring artists at Jenkinson’s such as Matt Stell, Morgan Evans, and Cooper Alan. These experiences have been huge milestones in my career and have helped shape my journey as both a musician and industry professional,” Wagner said.

Wagner is currently playing in A Sleepless Endeavor, a pop punk band, Part-Time Custodian, a local indie rock groovy band, and Anthony Squared, a country/classic rock cover band. 

On top of balancing a busy gig schedule, Wagner also serves his community as a member of Schooley’s Mountain Fire Company. At 16, he earned his NJ State EMT license and volunteered for many years. He has also taken a whole bunch of different advanced classes and started working as an EMT for a paid hospital service.

“It is very difficult to be able to balance both of them but I think I’ve finally found that happy medium. I work during the week on 13-hour shifts. I’m able to work three times a week and then on the weekends I do gigs. It’s a tough balance. My weekend gigs run pretty late, usually around 1 or 2 in the morning, and the fire shift starts at 5:30 in the morning. It’s tough but it’s definitely doable,” Wagner said. 

Wagner has the desire to make music his living. 

“I really want to delve deeper into music. I’ve been an EMT for 9 and a half years now and I’m slowly finding myself more drawn to the music world. I want to do more than just being a band member or playing with a band every weekend. I’m trying to network myself to be deeper in the music scene in New Jersey,” Wagner said. 

He hopes that by summer of 2027, he will break into the music industry as either a musician or a live event manager. 

To keep up with Kyle on his journey, follow him on Instagram at Instagram.com/kylelwagner.