Grace Diviny, Staff Writer
On Sunday, April 26th, students gathered at Fine Arts M201 to celebrate WONY’s annual WONY Island celebration. The event, hosted by the WONY 90.9 FM radio station, consists of multiple musicians, usually around 6 bands, who perform their songs on stage, and went on from 2PM to 6 PM. The event was decorated appropriately with island themed props and decorations alongside a screen projector that played background videos to fit the theme.
The event started with WONY Operations Manager, Magnus Chenel, introducing WONY Island before introducing the musical acts that were set to adorn the stage. The first artist that performed was Mallard Wesco, a student from SUNY Purchase who encouraged everyone in the crowd to circle up as she gave the audience some instruments such as a xylophone and a shaker egg. She then performed at least seven original songs acoustically, which included a track inspired by Addison Rae’s Fame Is a Gun called “Fame Is…”
After her performance, the rest of the acts consisted of rock and alternative bands, in which rock band Mosshead performed after Wesco. Their crowd was vibrant and ready to jam as tiny mosh pits formed amongst friends in the crowd. The same energy was given to Subphren, who performed afterwards. The rest of the groups that followed were Energetic Anarchy, Cutthroat Fashion, Cagesick, and Koleslaw who performed fun and vibrant rock songs.
Bands such as Cagesick and Subphren were especially on-board to be a part of WONY Island. Cagesick lead vocalist Luca Larizzati said that WONY Public Relations director Anjali Malcomson had reached out to his band directly to play for WONY Island.
“As soon as we heard about it, we were like ‘Yeah, we got to play.’ When Anjali reached out I was so excited because I mean, the show’s card is amazing. It’s all alternative, all emo.” Larizzati talked about doing the show and the lineup for the show.
He told me that had been doing live shows and been in rock bands since he was fourteen, and he had met his bandmate Ben in high school through a mutual friend before being assigned in the same Audio Arts I class last semester. They then decided to group people together for their band who they thought would fit the image afterwards.
His bandmates also chimed in, saying that playing with friends and great bands was the best part, especially with the bands that had been around for a while prior to them alongside newer bands such as themselves.
For anyone who may have a band but feel nervous about performing on campus, Larizzati said that just doing it and reaching out to venues as soon as possible is better than later.
“Don’t wait. Don’t even wait to form a band at college. Do whatever you want to do in your hometown and if you’re going up, the experience will be great. It’s like, as soon as you play a gig, you get over that kind of stage fright, or at least I did, and I was just playing dive bars and such.”
He also said that Cagesick is playing some gigs in town, such as Jimmy T’s in early May, so come out to support them!
Subphren’s Ryan Heaphy shared the same sentiments as Cagesick did, telling me that performing for WONY Island was a dream come true, especially with his close ties with WONY.
“I’m in the Music Industry Club, so we do stuff with WONY sometimes, and I know Magnus was doing sound for it with his band The Witch. So he asked me to help him and I said sure. And then so on and so forth I signed up for it and got to play.”
Their band formed through their drummer Mikey, as Heaphy shared a psychology class with him, where he was complaining about his band at the time. Heaphy said that he took that as a challenge to play better and decided to form their own band together. He also told anyone who was feeling nervous about performing to have at least confidence and slight delusion when it came to getting over stage fright!
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