The Student Events and Activities Council (SEAC) aims to deliver a diverse lineup of student musicians for this year’s Battle of the Bands on Thursday. The annual musical show-case is being led by Veronica Garcia, who was inspired by last year’s competition to choose the theme “Havana Nights”.

“It just had me thinking about the Battle of the Bands chair last year, [who] used just a lot of her own inspiration and a lot of her own interests to come up with that theme,” Garcia said, referring to last year’s Andy Warhol theme. “Even though I’m Puerto Rican and Havana is in Cuba, ‘Havana Nights’ I think, is a more commercial and familiar theme for people to get introduced more to the Caribbean and the Latin aspect of it. I think it’s also my staple within the year—this is who I am, but this is what I want to share with you.”

When auditioning and selecting various artists, Garcia said she wanted to assure that the lineup for this year would provide a platform for artists who had not performed on the Seattle U stage before.

“I wanted to make sure that I was able to diversify the mix of who was going to be a part of it and making sure that it wasn’t redundant—that it wasn’t a ‘part two’ of last year and that there was a variety of different genres and different kinds of artists,” Garcia said.

Seattle U sophomore Griffin Leemon is excited to perform a set list of both original and cover songs in front of his peers.

“I think I just have a lot of influences, I don’t necessarily think I fit into any specific genre besides just this massive umbrella of acoustic music. I designed my set around the baritone ukulele, so it’s very acoustic and I would say it has a lot of folk influence because I was raised on folk music,” Leemon said.

Leemon said that he hopes his acoustic performance will be a refreshing contrast to some of the more high energy acts of the night, and wants his music to be a cathartic re- lease for himself and his audience.

“It might be equally important, because that music is providing the path for someone to process their experience [or] their emotion that they might not have been able to process.” Leemon said.

Hayden Corwin, songwriter and vocalist for performing americana-folk band Hayden Corwin and the Troubadours, also hopes to reach the audience’s emotions.

“I deffinitely want my songs to strike an emotional chord with people,” Corwin said.

Hayden Corwin and the Troubadours are the only band in the lineup to be living long-distance in two states, with two members attending Arizona State University and one member at Seattle U.

“The Troubadours are sort of a rotating lineup as it stands because our producer and bass player, Matt Montes, goes to Seattle U. Our lead guitar player, Garrison Murphy, is in Arizona with me going to Arizona State University,” Corwin said.

Corwin said that he is excited to entertain a completely new audience on Thursday night, and also added that it is their first big performance.

“We hope to gain a few fans while we’re up on that stage,” Corwin said. “I made a rhinestone suit for the Battle of the Bands and everything. It will be good fun. is isn’t our first time performing, but it will be the first major show for Hayden Corwin and the Troubadours.”

Recently developed musical act Anime Creek, consisting of band members Grif Benzel and Minna Lee, will be also be performing at Battle of the Bands for the first time.

“We’ve been a band for nine months—we played at Chop Suey earlier this month. But this is our rst time playing Battle of the Bands,” Benzel said.

Anime Creek draws on a variety of influences, but Benzel describes their sound mainly as “twee punk” and “a mix between Beat Happening and Mitski,” two indie pop-rock bands that the band cites as large influences. Benzel said that the way that the band began was mostly as a joke, but becoming a more serious, successful musical act was one of the best things to happen to Anime Creek.

“I like the idea that anyone can make music, anyone can form a band. We formed as a joke playing a birthday party for my friend, writing songs two hours beforehand, and now we’re like ‘“let’s put out a 40 minute album,” Benzel said.

“I think people are going to love something about each band,” Garcia said, con dent that Seattle U students are going to love the variety of musical talent exhibited by their peers. “With the kind of student body we have, people are going to find their favorites and people are going to pursue the music that they hear.”

Editor’s note: Griffin Leemon is a photographer at the Spectator.

The editor may be reached at
[email protected]