[ambient noise recorded at event]
The songwriters association at Northwestern, or SWAN, is a student organization that strives to create a space for any Northwestern student interested in songwriting, music production and more. Founded in the winter quarter of the 2021-22 academic year, swan has hosted events like open mics, Kresgepalooza and battle of the bands. Last Friday, 7 bands across Northwestern competed in four categories: best band, best original song, best solo performance, and best rizz. The genres ranged from classical and jazz influenced indie alt rock, like that of band Parkhopper, to covers of songs from spongebob, as performed by Transcontinental Slip n, Slide.
Among the bands competing was Lylajean and Who We Are. The group of artists met through swan and formed for battle of the bands. They performed two original songs, “Actress” and “But When I Know Who I am”, as well as a cover of Mitski’s “Nobody”.
[excerpt from live performance of Actress]
Lylajean: Battle of the Bands just looked so fun I wanted to do it and I had my circle of friends in SWAN where I realized that a band could take form. At first I wasn’t even sure if LylaJean and Who We Are was gonna be a thing beyond Battle of the Bands but we talked about it and we’re definitely thinking about doing more shows and I’m thinking of contributing to writing more songs together or something like that.
That was Lylajean, a senior majoring in creative writing, and the frontwoman for the techno pop group and one of SWAN’s original members
LJ: Yeah, so I was one of the first people to join SWAN, it immediately struck me as like the perfect club for me because I’ve been songwriting since I was 17. I’ve definitely helped try to build up the club to do the things I want. Like having festivals for people who create original music.
Darelle Menendie, a senior studying biomedical engineering in Mccormick, is the pianist for Lylajean and Who We Are. Another early member of SWAN, Menendie appreciates the organization’s creative freedom and inclusiveness.
Darelle Menendie: There aren’t many completely open opportunities for students to participate in music on campus, like Bienen is a school and the other frats and sororities you have to join. So SWAN is really cool because we can blend with those communities but have our own open space to like offer songwriters and singers and people who play any instrument and all different types of experiences to come together and make music.
Nathan Pruyne is a junior studying computer science and music technology. Also known as Anthan through his musical projects, Pruyne is another member of Lylajean and Who We Are. For Pruyne, SWAN was a way to evolve artistically and work with other artists
Nathan Pruyne: One of the reasons why SWAN was so exciting for me was that I was really looking to collaborate. I’ve done solo music as Anthan starting in high school, and I was able to do a lot of things in terms of, like, production and playing some instruments. But you know there are some things that I’m not good at. Like, I can’t sing, for instance. So that’s where meeting people through SWAN was a very exciting opportunity for me. I met Lyla and talked about working on a couple songs together and then it kind of felt like a no-brainer Lyla wanted to make a band hey let’s make a band together.
These ideas are echoed in SWAN’s founding president, Anna Castagnaro’s goal in creating the organization with co-president Eddie Ko, who graduated this past year.
Anna Castagnaro: We kind of started it wanting to find a space on campus that was open to anybody, like anybody can really be a musician and learn at any level. I know that sometimes it’s really hard to find, sometimes you have to have this level of competency in music or producing or something so like we always want to be something that’s open to everybody.
Being a new club, Castagnaro also shared how SWAN has evolved in such a short span of time, and how much she’s learned about the Northwestern community through its music scene.
AC: When we started it was these really lame general meetings that were happening in a Kresge room. They’re still happening in Kresge rooms but they’re better quality now. They were much more underdeveloped, our exec team was smaller. Our first big event was Kresgepalooza in 2022.
Kresgepalooza is SWAN’s indoor music festival, hosted in Kresge Centennial Hall. 30-40 Northwestern artists of a range of genres use several rooms around the building and perform in settings akin to NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts
AC: That was kind of our big debut into the world of Northwestern, like people knowing who we are. We even have a mixtape cohort that we debuted last winter, to pair an artist with a producer and they can make their own song and release it on our distribution services, through spotify and apple music. I’ve just learned that the music scene is so diverse and everyone’s so sweet and everyone deserves to be heard and find their little audience and find their music community on campus
Best rizz went to Transcontinental Slip n, Slide, while last year’s winners, Revere, reclaimed the title of best band. As the winners of the title, they were rewarded with free tickets for iHeart Radio’s Jingle Bell in Chicago. The band also won best original song for “Black Clouds in a Pink Sky”.
[excerpt of the live performance of Black Clouds in a Pink Sky]
The metal band was the last to perform, and drew a large chunk of the audience to the front of the auditorium to form a mosh pit. I spoke with the band’s guitarist, Zhanran Shi about the win and where the band plans to go in the future
Zhanran Shi: Positively outrageous! It’s nice that people like us. I know our music isn’t for everybody so I’m pretty glad people are showing their support. Nothing but good feelings. I’d like to see it go as far as it can go. We’re having a music video shoot tomorrow, I’m pretty excited for that. Hopefully we can get an album out and do some more gigs. Nothing’s impossible.
For WNUR News, I’m Ella Smith
