William Allen amps up his love for music

Outside, a thick layer of white snow covers the campus sidewalks. Inside, the warm smell of incense and muffled sound of alternative rock fills the WRFL office as William Allen, a junior at the University of Kentucky, slings his backpack off his shoulder and sits down at the office’s center table.

For Allen, the sounds of WRFL, UK’s student-run radio station, play a bigger role in his life than just background music. 

“I just love music. I love sharing music,” Allen said. “And I like being in a community that appreciates music as much as I do.”

Allen said he grew up alongside musically-inclined parents and 2010s pop hits, but he has transcended far beyond beginner guitar and band at Lafayette High School. 

Allen now DJs his own radio show on WRFL, and plays electric guitar in Valus, a band made up of Allen and two of his friends.

Allen’s music journey began officially at Lexington Music Education, where he and his brother started guitar and piano lessons at 6 years old. His band originated in the same place, after Allen joined LME’s “Rock School!” program, which matches students into small bands.  

During his time with the program, Allen said he moved between a few different bands made up of other preteens before being asked to join a blues group with Liam Arora and Gabe Spencer, who would go on to become Valus’ respective drummer and bassist. 

Backstage after a performance at girlsgirlsgirls Burritos, Spencer said Allen was welcoming when they first began playing together, while Arora remembers thinking, “This is the best guitar player my age.”

Now, almost a decade later, the connection between the three is clearly visible, both onstage and off. 

“One summer I wanted to do more rock stuff, more emo stuff,” Allen said, detailing Valus’ transition from teenagers at LME to a fully realized “emo alternative” band with two albums under their belts.

Valus released their first official single, “Alone as a God,” in November 2024, and their debut album, “Mascot,” in February 2025. Their most recent album, “Stable for Scoring,” was released in October of the same year, and “had a very collective writing process,” according to Allen. 

A song off of “Stable for Scoring,” titled “4th of July,” features one of Allen’s favorite lyrics. A reference to the passing of one of his grandparents, Allen sings, “You never said goodbye,” deepening the connection between Allen’s family and his music.

Allen also values a strong connection between his music and the audience during performances. He said he remembers being nervous as a child when playing for crowds of parents who would, “rather be anywhere else.” 

Allen said his favorite kind of show to play is house shows, which he praises for being intimate and “there for people who love listening to music and love having a good time.” 

Valus has even performed inside Arora’s living room, a memory Allen said the band looked back on fondly, even though the night ended with an audience member breaking through one of the windows. 

The feeling of sharing something with the world is what makes music so special to Allen, and what he said motivates him in his WRFL radio show, “Good Grief,” as well. The show serves as a direct reflection of whatever musical phase Allen is going through at the time.

Allen said he “kinda fell into” WRFL after looking to get involved on campus during his first semester at UK.

“I didn’t … start doing WRFL because I wanted to have a ‘hit radio show,’ I just wanted to have fun and play songs on the radio and have cool experiences and get to share some of the music I find interesting,” Allen said.

And while Allen isn’t allowed to play any of his own music on the air (or any Billboard Top 200 songs for that matter), Valus was given the opportunity to play at WRFL’s 37th Birthday Bash.

The Birthday Bash show was held at The Burl, a music venue in Lexington, and is in the running for Allen’s all-time favorite performance, partially because he got to open for Geese, a band Allen said he “worshipped.”

“WRFL’s kind of … an extension of what I want my music to be, and my performance to be, and my future to be,” Allen said. 

Ideally, Allen said he and the rest of Valus would be full-time musicians, but, for now, Allen is a double major in music performance and education and currently teaches at Lexington Music Education.

“I think it’s super valuable … for music to be taught down. Everyone has their own unique experiences with music, and I think that’s what's so cool about music education — everyone teaches music a little differently,” Allen said. 

Encouraging creativity and authenticity is at the heart of Allen’s music career, he said, especially today when “more people are shying away from (being creative) now that there’s the ease of typing a prompt into a computer.”

The passion for music and connection is visible in Valus and WRFL, which Allen said make him such a good fit within these communities.

“It’s really important for stations like WRFL and any outlet of creativity to exist and … continue to exist,” Allen said.