Campus bands: Unplugged

When drummer Lukasz Mosakowski ’12 asked bassist Rob Sicurelli ’12 about getting a band together, the duo knew it would be tough to find other members. Sicurelli knew guitarist Brian Lesh ’12 from his Outdoor Action trip and keyboardist Mitch Nahmias ’12 from a physics class, but that still left them without a singer. One night, after a few months of fruitless searching, the crew dropped by an open mic night at Wu Hall. Tarik Tosun ’12 was performing a Neil Diamond song, and the band members liked what they heard. After introductions and some preliminary jamming to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Killers, they knew they had found their guy. Kid Collision was born.

The Kid Collision guys are just a small sampling of Princeton’s budding student –musicians who have taken their musical talents to bands outside the established groups. Whether they’re part of a band playing for a crowd out on the Street, a jazz ensemble performing in Richardson Auditorium or a solo artist singing at Cafe Viv, these students have created a vibrant music scene on campus.

Many of the band members came to campus freshman year knowing that they wanted to continue playing their instrument from their pre-college days, but they didn’t know what outlets were available to pursue.

Mark Nagy ’11 started playing trombone in the school band when he was in eighth grade. He gradually got interested in jazz and joined the University’s Concert Jazz Ensemble, which has both a big band and smaller groups with regular concert performances. Eventually, his love for “doing [his] own thing” led Nagy to Sensemaya, an Afro-beat band playing jazz, funk and reggae, which has existed at Princeton for over seven years. The group has nine original songs solidly rehearsed and is planning on recording an album at a studio in Brooklyn next month. Sensemaya performs frequently at eating clubs, campus events and venues in New York. “Gigs at Princeton pay a lot more than gigs in New York,” says Nagy. “Sometimes those places want you to play for free, just for exposure.”

Phyllis Heitjan ’11, a vocalist for Sensemaya and a member of the Princeton Chapel Choir, first started singing and playing guitar in public at age 11. By high school, she had kicked off her solo career and was recording original songs. At the University, she entertains students at places such as Cafe Viv and Campus Club, and she has toured to concert venues in New York and New Jersey to perform her own songs for guitar and vocals. Heitjan has been working on her newest CD for two years and notes that her style has changed from the pop tunes she wrote in high school. “It’s gotten a little jazzier and a little darker; at some points, it gets kind of sad,” she said.

On a lighter note, Eric Weiser ’13 recently began playing bass for Funkmaster General, a group specializing in Motown, jazz and funk covers. He, too, found the Jazz Ensemble to be a breeding ground for smaller breakout bands. “The program gets better every year,” he said. “There are lots more kids coming to Princeton every year because of the program.” Musicians inevitably meet each other in these groups, and even if they don’t end up forming an actual band, the connections provide an outlet for casual jazz jamming at Terrace Club or elsewhere. “Even when we don’t have a formal show, I’m probably performing in some way or another every week,” said Weiser.

In contrast, when Joey Edelmann ’13 came to campus, he found an alternative outlet to Sensemaya or the Jazz Ensemble: he created his own group, the Princeton University Rock Ensemble, along with Anthony Sacco ’13. According to the website, PURE strives to “keep Princeton’s campus rocking for many years to come” by performing covers of rock songs from The Beatles and Van Halen, to Weezer and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. “I’ve tried to meet as many musicians on campus as possible, and it’s led in multiple directions,” said Edelmann. He also takes his technical guitar skills to The Plagiarists, a band that covers ’90s hits and classic rock songs at the eating clubs and other campus locales.

Edelmann has also done some more creative guitar work for Shape Machine, a five-piece band that formed in 2009 and performs a combination of original music and cover songs. The band’s drummer, Leo Lester ’11, played in the Jazz Ensemble and jammed casually with a few bands his freshman and sophomore years. When things didn’t click, he came back to campus his junior year expecting to give up on music. Before he could put his drumsticks away, he got a call from Jackson Greenberg ’12 and Matt Wong ’12 asking if he’d like to try playing in the band they had loosely formed over the summer. The rest is history.

“It was so cool, right away. And that really doesn’t happen all the time,” said Lester. By Spring 2010, Shape Machine would be opening for The Roots at Lawnparties and playing regular shows on campus and in Philadelphia and New York. Though the band enjoys playing covers of everything from Steve Miller Band to Daft Punk, Lester says they have recorded some great original material and are continuing to produce. “When you have a group of people who get together, the chemistry can be really good, but everyone is still coming from a different background so it takes a while to develop a clear style. We’re working on that,” he said.

As with any other extracurricular activity, being in a band requires these students to balance their Princeton academic lives with their rock star lives. Heitjan is looking forward to collaborating with Nagy in a new indie-oriented band they call Othello, but only after they finish their theses. “It’s much more difficult than you think to be a solo artist and a student full-time,” she said. For instance, Lester pointed out that gigs in New York or Philadelphia can be eight-hour ordeals and even just playing on campus can take seven hours from sound check to breakdown. Sicurelli added that finding a bassist to substitute in Kid Collision for Lesh, who is abroad this semester, has been very difficult because of Princeton students’ seemingly endless list of extracurricular activities.

But for many, the thrill of performance makes the time commitment more than worth it. Lester said that regardless of the crowd’s size, the musical and energetic connection between the band members is what makes a concert memorable. “It’s great when everyone’s locked in and especially if the crowd is too,” he said. “If you’re really enjoying yourself on stage, people are going to respect that — whether or not they’re into it.” Nagy recalled a particular concert with Sensemaya at Charter Club earlier this year when a girl dancing in the audience dislocated her knee and had to be put on a stretcher. Admitting that he felt bad for the girl, Nagy said, “It was kind of a drag, but also kind of an ego boost to know that someone’s dancing that hard. That’s what we’re all about.”

While creative cover songs are a crowd-pleaser, student-musicians such as Heitjan, Sensemaya and Shape Machine have savored the opportunity to write their own material. Kid Collision is also hoping to head in the direction of original music. “If we play ‘Mr. Brightside,’ everyone’s going to go crazy, and we like that. But at the same, I think there’s always that yearning to play something that’s your own,” said Sicurelli.

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These musicians pave the way for future freshmen to arrive on campus with the courage to start their own musical endeavors. While it may feel difficult to meet other musicians at first, said Weiser, plenty of opportunities exist if you’re willing to reach out: “There are lots of ways to meet kids and start jamming. The jazz band or the orchestra is a place to start, but you can always create your own group. There are lots of practice rooms on campus.” Nagy advised newcomers to first, “Make it funky,” and second, do something different. “It can be hard to come up with your own sound, but in the end it can be a lot more fun than just playing other people’s stuff,” he said.

For each of these students, music plays a prominent role in their college lives and may continue to do so after graduation. Edelmann, an economics major, would like to combine music with his studies and work in the music business or in entertainment law. Weisman said that he isn’t planning to be a professional musician but hopes to continue playing on the side, adding, “I’m going to get a real job, but as long as I can keep getting gigs, it’s the most fun I have at the moment.” As a senior, Nagy said he is applying to “a job or two” but would love to keep playing with tight-knit groups such as Sensemaya and Othello. Amid a competitive job market and the contagious stress of high-achieving Princeton seniors, Heitjan finds comfort in her musicianship. Smiling, she said, “If I don’t get hired anywhere, I can always just start a band and be poor.”