After Graduating from Berklee Online in 2025 with Master’s Degrees in Music Production, Dean Vitale and Todd Urban Collaborate on a New Four-Song EP.
Dean Vitale (pictured left) and Todd Urban (pictured right) both graduated from Berklee Online’s Music Production master’s degree program in 2025. They both earned awards for their Culminating Experience projects, and both founded their own production businesses. Nearly a year after finishing their degrees, the former classmates have reunited, this time as collaborators on a new four-song EP titled Urban Sound Studio Presents “sir” Luminous and Todd Urban.
“It’s just trying to get everyone to love that feel-good music again,” says Vitale, who performs under the artist name “sir” Luminous. “We really just wanted people to get up and dance and have a good time. No matter what negativity is going on in the world, it’s okay to dance, it’s okay to have fun, it’s okay to smile and be happy and be silly.”
Vitale and Urban first began collaborating while taking music production courses at Berklee Online, exchanging peer feedback as part of their assignments.
“One of the pieces of feedback I remember giving was just, ‘Man, you can sing!’” says Urban about Vitale. “When we think about a music production and engineering degree, we’re usually thinking about people who want to mix or produce. So it’s rare when someone comes in and also has a killer voice.”
After hearing Vitale’s Culminating Experience project, which was a contemporary R&B album, Urban was curious what Vitale would sound like singing a more classic R&B style.
“I was like, ‘Have you ever tried singing like James Brown or Motown?’” Urban says. “And he goes, ‘I love that stuff.’ I said, ‘Well, why aren’t you doing it?’ That’s kind of how it started. I just thought, ‘Man, I have to hear you sing that. I want to hear you modernize the classic sound.’”
The two began collaborating remotely, with Vitale based in Connecticut and Urban in New Jersey. Their songwriting process started by exchanging voice notes and lyric ideas.
“The way I write is weird; I need to mumble gibberish, and then I start hearing words in it,” says Vitale. “When we first started, that’s exactly what I did, and then I would write the lyrics, send them to Todd, and we’d just go back and forth like that.”
On the reggae-inspired track “Feeling Good,” Vitale received some help from his fiancée, songwriter Emma Bilyou, with whom he launched a full-service entertainment company, Lyra Vibe Records, after graduation. With Lyra Vibe, Vitale, Bilyou, and his mother offer music, photography, and videography services.
Urban focused heavily on the instrumentation of the tracks he made with Vitale. Coming from an orchestral background, he plays viola, violin, cello, bass, and piano. He also works as general manager at the audio technology company Softube, teaches music production at a community college, and runs his company Urban Sound Studio.
The first song on the EP titled “Broke Livin’ Rich” is a funky dose of self-talk to stay upbeat even though you’re down to your “Last $10.”
“Todd had a groove going, and I was like, ‘You know, I really want to tap into that James Brown type of thing,’” Vitale says. “So I was just fooling around and came up with, ‘Shit! Afterpay took my last $10.’ And I was like, ‘oh my gosh, there it is!’ Then I just went from there and sent Todd the idea, and he loved it.”
The lyrics reference the tech company that allows shoppers to split purchases into multiple payments. The playful theme carries throughout the EP, blending classic soul influences with modern production.
After figuring out the lyrics and sending Logic and Pro Tools sessions back and forth, the pair finally met up to record the EP in person.
“Todd came to Connecticut, and that’s when we recorded all four songs in the same day,” Vitale says. “Just one session, recorded them all, but everything else was remote, which makes this project even more special.”
Once the EP was released on streaming platforms, they shared it with the Music Production department at Berklee Online and received encouraging feedback from their former instructors.
Sean Slade called the EP “An artful buffet of pop delights!” with his pick hit being “Not the Guy.” He went on to say, “To think this magic collaboration came out of our weekly Culminating Experience Live Classes makes me happy beyond words.”
Enrique Gonzalez Müller, director of the Music Production program at Berklee Online, says the collaboration highlights what the program is all about.
“It’s always inspiring to see how the Culminating Experience becomes more than a final project—it often sparks connections that lead to real artistic and collaborative breakthroughs. Dean Vitale and Todd Urban embody the collaborative spirit that defines Berklee Online: two artists who began as peers and emerged as creative partners, transforming mutual respect into a shared vision,” says Gonzalez Müller.
Vitale and Urban say they plan to continue working together.
“Todd is absolutely amazing; he’s extremely talented. From production to mixing to mastering, he’s great. So we’re definitely going to be working again—whether he likes it or not,” Vitale jokes.
The admiration is mutual.
“He’s going to be my go-to guy from now on,” says Urban. “We have dozens of songs that we’re going to dig into over the next few years together.”
Their collaboration shows that fruitful creative partnerships don’t need to be in person.
“Berklee Online brought us together to make this happen,” says Vitale. “If we weren’t in the same class, we wouldn’t have known each other and it wouldn’t have happened.”
