Victor Leon couldn’t find any organization that facilitated creating, discussing and sharing music in the way he wanted — so he started his own.
The Niu Music Club is an organization wherein students collaborate to creates songs of mixed genres — one jam session at a time. Every Monday the group meets for a songwriting session, and every Thursday members perform the songs developed on Monday. On Sundays the club members have a relaxed “jam session” that lasts several hours.
This semester marks the club’s first full semester. Leon said the idea to create the organization began in August, and after introducing the idea at MSC Open House, he said the process of recruiting officers, making the club official and acquiring meeting rooms took three months.
“A&M has the potential to have as much music variety as Austin, but it is definitely hidden and the people that like all those types of music don’t get together,” Leon said. “I spent two years of college trying to find people who like music in general like me, but either I couldn’t find them or I could rarely find them, so that’s one of the reasons why I started the club. I wanted to find people and facilitate discussion of music.”
Engineering freshman and Niu Music Club member David Belleza said the organization encourages musicians of every instrument to join.
“It is pretty social, and unlike other new groups I have tried to get into that required an audition to get into, here we are accepting of all levels and instruments,” Belleza said. “I guess it is more open than other clubs.”
Secretary of the club and engineering freshman Amanda Gibbens said she is in charge of organizing and leading the songwriting sessions.
“For me, the most fun is the song sharing meeting, because it is interesting to see what people want to share,” Gibbens said. “Some of it can be unexpected, but then you find an artist you end up enjoying. I think that is a good aspect of the club.”
Leon also said he wants to help the club gain more exposure and more unity amongst all the musical organizations on campus.
“The end goal is to bring the music clubs at A&M together because right now, I have been part of a lot of clubs at A&M, but they are not really connected at all — they just do their own thing.” Leon said, “But I think if we’d managed to connect the groups more, we could do bigger things.”
In addition, Leon said the short term goals include gaining enough recognition so the club can have a room to house their instruments and for them to play on every Sunday. For members that do not have instruments, Belleza said the fundraising and dues are there to cover the cost of the club-owned instruments.
“We are trying to get club-owned instruments so that people that do not have instruments can use the club’s and learn to play,” Belleza said. “We recently bought a guitar, and I guess right now they are trying to get drums or a keyboard.”
Gibbens said she found a place to express her love of music in the club and hopes that others will join her.
“I did overhear a member at one of our meetings that said something along the lines of they are glad they found this club because they hadn’t found a club where they could be that social and build friendships as well as they could with this ours,” Gibbens said. “They found a niche.”
