BY TOM MOORE
Breaking onto the music scene can be difficult for many college artists. However, many have now pushed their music careers forward by starting at Open-Mic Nights on the Ramapo College Campus.
Ramapo College’s Linden Hall hosts an Open-Mic Night event where students and bands can come and play their music to a small, but comfortable crowd. Many have found that the Open-Mic event has made them more comfortable on stage and has offered them ways to get better as musicians and performers. Musician and Ramapo College Programming Board member Nick Perez has found this to be true and found others to create new sounds; helping make the music scene bigger.
“As a musician and not knowing anybody, it was a great way to come out and meet people who have the same passion,” said Perez. “Open-Mic Night is a pretty safe environment to come to and try out new and original stuff.”
Musicians are able to come out and create original bands with others who share the same interests. Perez has done this with the help of another student, Mike Rooney, as they have brought a genre of music to the Open-Mic Night scene on campus that was never seen before. With a love for the “glam-metal” genre and gaining inspiration from Steel Panther, a raunchy and comical band with an 80’s style, Perez and Rooney created Roshambo.
Creating alter egos to go along with the genre, the duo gained a following on campus just from starting at Open-Mic Night and putting their different style of music out there. Gaining members from people they met at Open-Mic, the two feel that the event has helped their band and genre come alive. “Open-Mic was definitely the catalyst for all of this,” said Rooney, who becomes lead singer Lance Burningstone when on stage with Roshambo. “Open-Mic is just so supportive and we just felt comfortable bringing something new, knowing that we wouldn’t get booed.”
Jumping from the support and love they received at Open-Mic, Roshambo began to write their own original songs and began to create their first album. Titling it after one of their original songs, the band began to market their first album and just recently headlined a show for the release of The Morning After. While promoting their first album at the show, Roshambo played with other bands who have found similar success on campus.
Open-Mic Night has been a jumping point for many other bands as well, including one of the most frequent returners Ambary Lake. Ambary Lake is an alternative rock band that got their start outside of Ramapo. Before he transferred to Ramapo in the Fall of 2014, lead vocals and bass player Nagee Miguel Dc had just been part of a small band with friends. Once he arrived on campus, Nagee and his band mates began to meet people at Open-Mic Nights and promote their music. By playing at the Open-Mic event, Nagee says he has definitely “built a presence on campus” with Ambary Lake’s music and gained quite the following.
Ambary Lake has built on this success by making a couple albums for fans to listen to and even creating a music video for their song Clancey.
Straying away from the rock genre of Ambary Lake and metal of Roshambo, alternative band Third Floor also made their way onto the Ramapo music scene through Open-Mic Night. Third Floor differs from other bands on the Ramapo campus, not just by their genre, but by also including a female lead singer. Jenn O’Hagan began to perform at Open-Mics when she started at Ramapo as she felt that she hadn’t sang on stage in a while and it was the most supportive way for her to start again. Meeting guitarist Zachary Mano and forming their band from there, Third Floor began to play at Open-Mic and gain a following among the attendees. They have also gained a following off-campus as well and released many digital tracks for fans to listen to. They were one of the bands to also preform with Roshambo at their release show so that they could support them as well.
Not so Singled Out
While bands have definitely benefited from playing at Open-Mic Night, there have been many solo artists that have gained a presence in the music community as well.
Singer-songwriter Alyssa Waters has started to push her music career forward after starting at Open-Mic Night. Because of the “easy-going” and “comfortable” feel to Open-Mics, Alyssa felt that there was “not as much pressure” because of the smaller crowd and the support of other musicians around her. From starting at Open-Mic, Alyssa has written and performed a multitude of original songs and started making her presence known across numerous social media platforms.
Waters started releasing digital tracks for her songs and recently released a video for her original song, What Does That Say About Me, that she performed at Open-Mic Night.
Solo Artist Alex Hoteck is yet another singer-songwriter who broke onto the music scene. Originally part of a group called Dolphin Uppercut Avenger, Hoteck is on his own to further his musical presence on campus. Writing songs about problems that millennials face, Hoteck puts a twist on this by adding a techno sound to his lyrics. Hoteck continues to write original songs and perform not just at Open-Mic but at other shows as well.
“Open-Mic just gives a platform for artists to have great exposure,” said Hoteck. “They develop their fan-base, they can practice for bigger shows, it’s just a good small starting base that’s not too small.”
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