It’s amazing how much someone’s life can change in only a few years, and even Kenny Carkeet sometimes has trouble believing the wild path he’s taken since graduating from Full Sail’s Recording Arts and Entertainment Business programs. Shortly after leaving school in 2007, he began building a successful career as a paralegal at an Orlando law firm. Today he’s the rhythm guitarist and keyboardist for AWOLNATION, one of the breakout bands of 2011 with a hit album and two Billboard-charting singles.

“This has been one hell of a ride, but getting there was no easy task,” he says. “Music was always what I loved, and even the people at the law office would tell me I should do something with it. My sister had just moved out to California, and kept saying ‘this is where people like you are.’ So I just sold everything I had and drove out there. I didn’t have a job set up, but I knew I wanted to work with artists, and thought it was worth a shot.”

After settling into his new life in Los Angeles, Kenny began picking up audio work, taking roles as diverse as creating music for video games at Activision to doing postproduction for an action sports film company. During this time he met music producer Jimmy Messer (Enrique Iglesias, Kelly Clarkson), and was hired as an assistant at his recording studio in Venice Beach. Kenny would spend the next two years there, setting up gear, engineering tracks, and eventually writing and playing music – which is how he met AWOLNATION singer Aaron Bruno.

“Sometimes Jimmy would write songs to pitch to different singers,” he says. “So he would lay down some guitar riffs, I'd do some programming, and Aaron would do vocals. Aaron and I would spend a lot of time together in the studio working on these songs, and one day we just decided to do something of our own and see what we could come up with. That’s how the song ‘Sail’ came about, just us messing around.”

The strength of the track inspired them to keep working, and Jimmy and Aaron quickly wrote three more songs. After assembling a full band, the group started booking gigs, with their debut at L.A.’s famous Viper Room selling out. Their unique sound, a blend of hard rock and electronica, attracted buzz from the industry, and led to Red Bull Records jumping in and signing them. Shortly afterwards the band completed their first album, Megalithic Symphony, and spent the majority of 2011 touring to support it.

“Everything has just been crazy, I felt like I was home for about 20 days combined last year,” Kenny says. “We started out doing these small tours in a van, and now we’re doing three months in Europe. We played on Jimmy Kimmel, Leno, MTV, and we’re going to do a set at Coachella. If you're a student and you want to do this, don't wait for anything, just go out and get it. Be the first into work and the last to leave every day. The hard work doesn't stop, and you can't let up at any point."

AWOLNATION’s Megalithic Symphony broke the top twenty on Billboard’s Alternative Albums chart, with the singles “Sail” and “Not Your Fault” also charting. The band is currently working on material for the next record during breaks from the road, and Kenny is also continuing to pursue his own engineering projects. This includes work with up and coming rapper Zeale, as well as a side project with AWOLNATION drummer Hayden Scott and Justin Sisley, guitarist from his former Orlando punk band.

It’s all a far cry from Kenny's days in a suit and tie working on legal briefs, and he never stops appreciating the hard work and good fortune that helped him get there.

“It’s insane to look back and see how far I’ve come, and it hasn’t even been that long,” he says. “Everyone tells me I took the shortest route to get where I am, but I’ve been working towards it for a long time. I practiced everything I did at Full Sail at home, and I think all of that really paid off and gave me the confidence I needed to do this. It’s what you do apart from everyone else that really helps you shine. That approach in a career for anybody is important – to surpass your goal. There’s not a finish line.”