I can never understand when someone tells me he or she "isn't into music." I mean, what do they listen to?

I've always enjoyed listening to music. It was kind of bred into me. My father enjoys music, enjoys live shows, and enjoys playing the guitar, so it was natural that I would be born into music. Coincidentally, not long after I was born, MTV was launched. My parents watched MTV when they were home, and I watched and danced along, learning the words to songs by Daryl Hall and John Oates (a band that I picked up on quickly because my parents also owned an album or two). I had a few favorite bands, primarily favorites because we had put the albums onto tape and my parents wouldn't let me play with the turntable. The tapes with Chicago and .38 Special were two that I used to listen to whenever possible.

Of course, you tend to listen to what your parents listen to when you're younger, because they control the radio dial. Since my sister and I used to go all over the place with my mom on the weekends, we listened to some tapes she had in the car, artists like Mariah Carey and Amy Grant. By sixth grade, I had begun watching MTV again, and around the seventh grade or so I started listening to the radio, tuning into B106.3 FM from Nashua, NH to listen to Casey Kasem's "Casey's Top 40" every Sunday morning. Now, I recognized bands like Green Day, Deadeye Dick and Weezer.

A couple years later, another local station, 96.5 FM ("The Fox") in Manchester, NH became my favorite. Later that year, the station got bought out and converted to an oldies station, a move that nearly drove me into depression. I then began downloading a few MP3s at a crawling pace over my parents' 33.6Kbps modem. With my first job came a real computer and a real Internet connection (cable modems rule). Not long after that, I discovered the wonders of Hotline, a file-sharing client-server system used for MP3 and file transfer, downloaded MP3s from all the servers I could find, and then found that wonderful thing called Napster (I had heard about it but it was a while before anyone released a Macintosh client).

So here we are now. I have over 50 CDs and over 1500 MP3s totaling nearly 8GB of space on my hard drive. The collection's pretty diverse, including hard rock and metal from bands like Metallica and AC/DC, as well as pop hits from Nina Gordon (formerly of Veruca Salt) and Lifehouse, even a rap song or two (nothing too extensive there). Music fan? I think so. There's not much that I do by the computer that doesn't involve, in some way, listening to a few MP3s or a CD. I've been to a few concerts in the last couple years, a few little one-off shows, follow a friend's band around and have even played a little music myself (more air guitar and air drumming than anything else lately, seeing as my dad sold the drums to finance his new Paul Reed Smith guitar).

Like I said, I can't understand how people can't be "into" music.

Music At RPI

You can go into most dorm rooms here at RPI and find at least one musical instrument. I guess people at college are supposed to be completely philosophical about things, sitting on the bed playing Dave Matthews covers on an acoustic guitar while writing lyrics posted on a Web page that's black with white text and surreal graphics.

Or maybe they just like to play.

Either way, while the most popular instrument is the guitar, you'll find a number of people playing music on campus, from the omnipresent guitarist to the occasional bassist or drummer to the rare electric violinist. If there's a way to have an instrument on campus, it will be on campus.

There's always an abundance of flyers on-campus looking for bandmates to start a college band, too...drummers seeking a guitarist, a drum-and-bass duo seeking a singer, a guitarist looking for a keyboardist and bassist. I've been lucky enough to know some of those working in the pursuit of band formation, and those who have succeeded in the pursuit.

Single Bullet Theory: Jam Nights at Phi Mu Delta

The first month at RPI is essentially dedicated to fraternity rush events (well, from a social standpoint, anyway). I was not interested in joining a frat; it didn't seem like something I would get a lot out of, and if I ever told my grandparents I was joining a fraternity, I don't want to think what they would say.

But withdrawal hit early as far as playing music, and when I heard that Phi Mu Delta was hosting "Jam Night" on Monday nights, Carmine and I decided it was well worth going.

Needless to say, we had fun at the first few. We'd have to plan to leave to get work done for classes the next day, so we'd spend a couple hours playing bass and drums. There were some pretty good musicians there, covering a number of songs by Metallica, Nirvana, Dave Matthews Band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the like. I was one of a few drummers. Carmine was the only bassist there. He received a bid to join the fraternity, seeing as they needed a bassist to complete the house's longtime band, "Single Bullet Theory." SBT was the house band, known for performing at other houses' parties. Carmine didn't end up accepting, more or less for the same reasons I wasn't interested in joining.

The last one I went to was kind of lackluster. I don't know why (I blame it on the next day's classwork) but I wasn't in a mood to play well. The music they turned out was awesome, including a few half-hour jams. The last one opened with someone suggesting that a first-timer to the event take a turn on the drums. He was phenomenal. For the entire twenty-minute jam he played, everyone was pretty impressed. His name was Safak Ezer, a sophomore IT major and a native of Turkey. One of his influences was Jamiroquai, a British band with a small American following but a larger European fan base, and one of Carmine's favorite bands as well. Carmine and Safak decided to keep in touch should further musical pursuits arise.

PA, PR And Us: Jayson Paul and Derek Kesler

Carmine was on the lookout for musicians to form a band with. Not long after meeting Safak, Carmine ran into a couple guitarists carrying equipment back to the dorms. One was Jayson Paul, a native of Pennsylvania. The other was his suitemate, Derek Sweeney Kesler, a resident of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Both owned electric guitars; Jayson was more into rock music, while Derek's play was inspired by Carlos Santana and others.

Jayson still plays on his own. Carmine, Safak and Derek jam occasionally, though Derek has teamed with Mike Rabinovich and a friend to found a digital act called The Hygienists.

The Dan Landberg Musical Community

I met Dan freshman year through Carmine Sarno. Dan was an IT major like the rest of us seemed to be, was a guitarist and singer, and had started playing with Carmine's forming band. He performed at the first of the year's three Battle of the Bands acts, playing guitar alongside friend Aaron Arsenault and drummer Joe Carrow. The three won, making them eligible to compete in the final Battle of the Bands against the winner of the second show.

Over the second semester, I worked with Dan for a group in "Politics and Economics of IT" with Dr. Atsushi Akera. Towards the end of the semester, Dan started putting more focus into the final battle, writing a few more songs and rounding up additional musicians to compliment his and Aaron's guitar work and vocals. Kevin Mann was selected as the "band's" electric violinist, and Annie Erdekian (yet another IT major) lent her cello skills to the performance. Carmine would play bass guitar, and Safak would play the drums for all but the first two songs, which were percussion-free pieces.

I attended one practice for the show, and heard some of the songs they would be playing at the battle. The night of the show, I offered to take pictures. Though most came out poorly, a few capture the energy of the night. The challenger, Within Reach, played first and borrowed Carmine's bass in order to finish up the last song when the bassist broke a string. I helped Dan's band set up the equipment on stage and settled into the crowd to watch. The first song was a cover of "Medicine" by Guster, followed by Dan's original "Out To Home" featuring Annie's cello work. Kevin showcased his violin work (which surprised the sound crew when he asked to test the violin's wah pedal during the sound check) in a bluegrass piece while Safak warmed up on the drums. The next song was another original, "You," followed by a drum-and-bass jam that rolled through pieces of "Brickhouse" and "Gettin' Jiggy With It" before carrying the bassline into a salsa beat and wrapping up with a drum solo. The finale for the night was Dan's much-labored-on "Show Me The Key." The six-song set was enough to claim the overall win for the band.

Around that time, though, Dan had more or less decided that an RPI education was too pricey for what he could get out of it. Over the summer, he finalized plans to move into an apartment in Biddeford, Maine with his girlfriend Sarah, a fellow guitarist named Matt, and Matt's girlfriend.

Carmine and I visited Dan at his home over the summer, when he played two shows in Saco, Maine at Funtown U.S.A., an amusement park and waterpark. He hadn't moved into his apartment yet, but was almost ready to. Dan and his crew reunited for a show at the Delta Phi frat house, as well as an annual performance at the Phi Gamma Delta "FIJI Islander" end-of-the-year party in 2002 and 2003 (Kevin Mann was a FIJI brother). Dan's back in Maine at the moment working solo but planning his next RPI appearance.

For ages, the act was collectively known as the Dan Landberg Musical Community, since it was not so much of a band as a singer-songwriter collaborating with a number of musicians with a variety of talents, and all the while releasing new takes on his own songs and covers of songs from Dave Matthews to the inevitable "Enter Sandman" cover (which is a legend in itself for how bad it is). Right now, the DLMC name has been shelved in favor of PseudoRock, a bit more descriptive of Dan's current "acoustic-emo-folk" style.

Savantic Meets The World

With Dan leaving RPI, Carmine and Safak remained and decided to go in a new direction. They had been jamming together on their own pet projects while supporting Dan's music, but with Dan gone they began to focus more intently on their funk and jazz influences. Derek applied his Latin-flavored guitar work to the project, though as a leading guitarist stepping back to a support role for drum-and-bass funk and jazz was a new experience. Entering the project as new members were Andrew Sticca, a keyboardist with a tendency toward the funk and jazz arena, Vladimir Aurich, a hand percussionist who could complement Safak's drum kit, and John Ford, a saxophonist who added a killer horn sound to the routine. During our freshman year, the team had jammed briefly with Maia Watkins, a graduating senior from Atlanta who added her vocal talents to the team. With a battle of the bands coming in early winter 2002, Maia announced she would be in the area. The band quickly recorded some samples of their work and sent it to Maia, who wrote lyrics for the songs to be performed.

And so Savantic was born, taking the stage for the March 2002 Battle Of The Bands. The band played three original songs in addition to a cover of Jamiroquai's "Travelling Without Moving." The act was a crowd hit, impressing people with a stunning sound that was definitely uncommon for the battle. In fact, too uncommon. Not being a vanilla rock band seemed to be Savantic's downfall in competition, and while the band's talent was clearly evident, the judges seemed to feel that other bands were more...representative.

The end of the year signified a new step for the band anyway, with John and Vlady graduating in May. However, perhaps the best was yet to come.

Substream Goes Mainstream

The 2002-2003 school year kicked off with three members of the Savantic act, Carmine, Safak and Andrew, still looking to perform. Andrew, meanwhile, saw an opportunity to expand his talent and signed on as a keyboardist for a new campus band, Tasteless Groove.

Carmine and Safak began exploring some new options in the process. After meeting with a new guitarist, George Zotovic, who had more of a rock influence, the new trio began toying with the idea of a 1980's-style rock project (George's twin brother Damjan, a friend of mine through a class, also played guitar and considered jamming with them). Unfortunately, time proved to be a stalling factor with the rock show.

Following an early-autumn Battle of the Bands, though, Andrew invited guitarist Ryan from Tasteless Groove to try his hand at adding a guitar groove to the Carmine-Safak-Andrew triangle. The sound was amazing and the confidence strong. Carmine, Safak and Ryan performed at an open-mic night at Ground Zero, a performance community on campus, and with Andrew entertained a crowd of Quad residents with a show at Mother's Wine Emporium in the Student Union. Eventually, the name Substream was selected to identify the new act.

All the while, the band was hoping to score a gig. A demo was crafted with some new songs, including a jazz piece written by Andrew for an improvisational music course. The work paid off with a late-April gig at B.R. Finley's in downtown Troy, headlining the small club.

The result was phenomenal. The bar was packed, in perhaps one of the best shows anyone at B.R. Finley's could recall. A new hand percussionist joined the band before the show at B.R. Finley's, rounding out the band as they performed a list of new and old originals.

Unfortunately, real life marches on, and Andrew and Ryan graduated in May 2003, leaving Carmine and Safak again on their own. Fall 2003 introduced the two to Kyle McDonald, a turntablist who started scratching and spinning along to drum and bass rhythms. By March 2004, new members had rounded out the band: Marty O'Malley, a med student at Albany Medical School, joined as keyboardist, Ben Andujar took over percussion duties on the congas, and Will Jackson added his trumpet experience to the mix. A search for a vocalist ended far closer than ever could be expected, as Carmine and Safak enlisted our old friend Sarah Pattee, who lived down the road from Carmine and was taking a semester off from her tenure at Plymouth State University in NH. Sarah not only sings, but also plays alto and tenor saxophone and flute, so her experience in all things instrumental brought a revitalized attitude to the band. An April 13 gig at B.R. Finley's was well-received, but with graduation looming Substream came to a quiet hiatus with a few catchy hooks, some inside jokes, and some beautiful memories to take home.

Regrettably Neither Seen Nor Heard...Until Now

While all this was going on, I must say I was only slightly oblivious to the fact that another friend of mine, Kate Worden, is musically gifted. She was part of West High's Select Choir throughout high school, and at RPI she joined the Concert Choir, which is a less-rigid mostly-for-fun choral group. Despite the fact that Kate was running here and there doing performances, we never actually made our way to one of them. Kate's freshman-year roommate, Margaret Asimakis, was a member of the Rensselyrics a cappella group, and we'd seen them more than we'd seen our own friend Kate on stage. We did eventually make our way to one of her concerts, a show in the somewhat-decrepit West Hall Auditorium, known more for marathon exams in broken chairs with crappy little desks than musical performances.

Then, senior year, we met a new chanteuse, sophomore Kate Mackowski. Upon meeting Kate W. down the hall, the two realized they recognized familiar faces from Concert Choir (Kate W. is a soprano, while Kate M. is an alto). With the two Kates departing for Concert Choir practice around the same time, we started to realize Concert Choir existed more readily...and when performances came around, Kate W. was a little more pro-active in encouraging us to come along. And so we did. Ignorance isn't quite bliss when it comes to friends' performances, and Concert Choir is no exception. I've been to more performances than anyone, but it's nice to see my friends strut their stuff on stage, then share time getting a post-concert dinner or chatting afterwards. And come March, I finally took their advice, and showed up to a practice or two. It was just in time for the big performances of the spring semester, and I actually enjoyed the opportunity to sing four-part harmony with others. The only shortcoming is I'd rather sing more recent stuff than the religious and classically-motivated pieces a concert choir usually performs.

The only thing I wish is that we could help the Kates lend their vocal stylings to more, well, contemporary selections, partially because I've always fancied myself a vocalist of some form but, until recently, didn't think I had a voice to make an impression. And it happened by accident one night as we were en route to the dorms following a Saturday night at the sushi bar. The music on the radio was Evanescence, and with three quarters of the key sections of a choir (Kate W. as soprano, Kate M. as alto and me as tenor), we were able to jump right in and have a little fun, even when making fun of my attempts to sing falsetto on some songs that just needed that higher voice. I dubbed it the Monte Carlo Choir, because it formed weekly in the front and back seats of, well, my Monte Carlo. We never really progressed beyond Evanescence, because that's what we really all knew, but one has to wonder where we'd have gone with some other artists. The choir's been on hiatus since April 2004 now, but you have to wonder.

Why do I say all of this? I guess it's because so much of my RPI experience has been based on music and the people I met through my friends' musical interests...the places I saw, the things I experienced through their interests...many things I'd never have seen on my own or experienced on my own. It's something I couldn't have enjoyed without being surrounded by the friends I have and the talent they share with us.

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