Whitefish Music Artist and Producer Returns Home to Teach at North Valley Music School

In the more than 10 years since Ethan Thompson moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a music artist and producer, the Whitefish native has seen both his career and the industry take new forms.

The Berklee College of Music graduate’s journey has so far included amassing writing credits on multiple charting hits; notching Billboard hits of his own through his band, Ocean Park Standoff; and inking a solo deal with the record label, Hollywood Records — now recording and performing as his moniker, Alt Bloom.

His work has garnered more than 700 million streams and collaborations with Grammy-winning producers Oak Felder, whose stable of artists includes John Legend; John Hill of Imagine Dragons renown; Pete Nappi; and Noel Zancanella, as well as tours alongside Lukas Graham, Andy Grammer and OneRepublic.

Through it all, Thompson has seen the music industry go through dramatic changes, he said. 

The premium on instant gratification, a pressure to keep up with the “constant drip feed of dopamine” and the heightened reliance on social media virality has morphed the industry into something that’s “night and day” compared to a decade ago. 

The seismic shift, however, has also given Thompson the chance to reconnect with another one of his loves — the Flathead Valley.

“It felt like I had the ability to be able to work remote and be able to come home,” Thompson said. “I just got married in September to my wife … we decided that if we’re going to start a family, we didn’t want to do it in Los Angeles.” 

“I’ve loved the valley my entire life, and always, in every one of my dream journals or anything that I write down, it was always like, I want a house in Montana; I want a house in Montana,” he added. “We were luckily able to figure it out, and we were able to settle back here top of this year.”

As he builds his next body of work in his hometown, Thompson is looking to give back to a place that helped nurture his budding love for music. 

“Since I got back, I’m still working on my project, but when you’re working on an artist project, it can feel like me, me, me, me all the time,” Thompson said. “I got to a point where I started feeling like I wanted to give more than focusing on grabbing people’s attention. 

“I reached out to [North Valley Music School] and just started figuring out how I could fit in the valley and helping people who have the same interests that I do.”

Starting this winter, Thompson will lead production and songwriting classes at the North Valley Music School in Whitefish, offering students hands-on experience in the craft of creating music from inspiration to finished work. 

“We’re honored to welcome Ethan home,” said Deidre Corson, executive director of the music school. “His success as an artist and songwriter, combined with his deep understanding of creative development, is an incredible gift to our students and community. His return represents exactly what NVMS stands for — lifelong learning, connection, giving back, and changing lives through music.”

The faculty position is a homecoming for Thompson, who took some of his earliest lessons at the school, which in August opened its new 8,100-square-foot state-of-the-art building at 1998 River Lakes Parkway.

“When I was a kid, being able to go to the music school that was off Highway 93, it was so fun to be able to walk down the hall and hear someone playing cello, and then you hear someone playing piano, and then you hear someone singing an aria, and then you hear someone singing a musical,” Thompson said. “Being in those types of environments are just super inspiring to me.”

Thompson is now looking to find students with that same creative spark and “blow wind on that fire,” hoping to share what he describes as a “holy” space with as many people in the community as he can.

“The thing that I really love about music spaces is they feel like almost holy areas where people are just coming here often to just get better at something that they’re interested in,” Thompson said. “There’s not a pipeline to being like, ‘oh, I’m going to be the biggest thing on planet Earth.’ It’s, ‘oh, I’m interested in directing … I’m interested in music and I like being around people that are also interested in music.’”

Both courses in production and songwriting will focus on introducing people of all ages to the basics of each discipline, whether that be writing lyrics and harmonies or creating a beat on Garage Band. In all his classes, Thompson is aiming to create low-pressure, stress-free environments where people can just focus on something they enjoy, he said. 

Thompson’s ultimate goal, however, is to help build a “family of creatives” where there’s no right or wrong way of doing things — only a shared love of music. 

“For me, the biggest thing is just giving back and building a community around being around creatives,” Thompson said.” I know there’s so many people that need hobbies or need a passion, and this is a place where I want people to be able to do both those things, whether it’s something that you’re like, ‘I’m going to do for the rest of my life,’ or whether it’s like, ‘I don’t want to watch TV every night. I want something else to do.’

“I think it’s so easy in today’s day and age to just relax into our phones and relax into our televisions. I want to give people the ability to pursue something else out of enjoyment or as a passion. And long term, it’s just about building that community that’s a building block for someone along their own creative journey.”

Information about North Valley Music School and its classes can be found here.

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