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ELYSE GRIECO
Special to The Leader
The Music Industry Club (MIC) rocked the Multi-Purpose Room this past Thursday night with their annual Battle of the New Bands. This competition showcases some of Fredonia’s most talented students.
It was created to give students an inside look on what it’s like to work in the music industry world as well as how demanding it is to be a musician.
Over the course of a month and a half, these students, friends and strangers came together to form brand new bands. They were then in charge of recording their own EPs, consisting of two original pieces and a cover of their choice.
Each band was also in charge of finding their own manager who worked hard to gain publicity for their clients. A great effort was put in by every individual to piece together a show that would leave a long-lasting impression and hopefully snag them the title.
Kim Vanopdorp, a senior double major in music industry and public relations, is the president of MIC. Out of all four years of being involved in this event, Vanopdorp thinks that this year’s talent was something special.
“This was probably the most talented group of finalists we’ve ever had. Everyone that we heard was really great,” she said.
Bands that participated in this competition started looking for members back in early September. Out of the five bands that submitted their EPs to the club’s e-board, only three were chosen to compete in the battle.
“They have to do that all in under a month and a half. It’s a really big time crunch for them, but that’s the coolest thing about it. It’s such a short amount of time,” Vanopdorp said.
The stress level did not seem to put any of them behind.
The three chosen bands: Eerie Shores, Vintage Pretty and The Fix all came to the stage ready for a show.
Matthew Kowalski, a junior percussion performance major and drummer for Vintage Pretty, admitted that this competition was something he always talked about participating in.
“I heard about the competition through my friends who had asked me if I wanted to do it. We talked about playing together for a long time,” he said. “I’ve known these guys for about three years now. We always talked about doing this, and this was a good opportunity. I finally switched my major and I have more free time, so it was a really good coincidence that all of our times finally matched up.”
The three participating bands played one set each.
Each set consisted of six songs, ranging from original compositions to covers by artists like Tom Petty and Childish Gambino.
The night came to a close with the crowning of the winning band, The Fix. They were chosen by a combination of the audience’s votes, judges’ votes and the performance of each band’s manager.
Band member and junior music industry major, Kyle Lajoie, was extremely humble.
“I wasn’t expecting much. We just came into it wanting to play for people. We also just wanted to get our music out, since we’re obviously new. Social media can only do so much for us and we wanted to connect with people,” he said.
Lajoie shared that his band had no future gigs scheduled prior to their winning.
Thanks to MIC and Last Call, The Fix will be able to play a show at Fredonia’s local bar, BJ’s in the near future.