This past Wednesday, Sept. 24, Rowan University’s Chamberlain Student Center hosted a concert in the pit featuring two student-run bands. This event was run by Red Oak Records, a student-based record company that focuses on building small bands from the New Jersey area, more specifically, southern New Jersey. 

“We’re a student-run label on campus, under the music industry department, under the music industry major,” said Ren Szeto, a marketing assistant for Red Oak Records.

The event featured two student bands, Estrogents and Calling from Pluto.

Estrogents is one of the bigger Rowan bands. They consist of four members: Grey Hobbs, Jack Darischuk, Mike Pieczara, and Dee Philips. They focus on making punk and rock music, which is available for streaming on all platforms. 

Hobbs spoke about how they got the gig at Red Oak On The Rise.

“We responded to a DM request to play this event, and now we are here,” said Hobbs.

Estrogents have a few upcoming events that can be found on their social media, including a performance on “RU Listening,” a student-run studio show where artists perform for a small crowd.

The other band that performed at this event was Calling from Pluto. This band is made up of five members: Amanda Valentina (the lead vocalist), Chris Arriola Moreno (the pianist), Joe Shields (the lead guitarist and backup vocals), Amanda Senatore (who is on drums), and Steve Kossman (who plays bass). Arriola was the one who initially got the band started.

He was the one who reached out to Valentina to work on a few records, and it only grew from there. They continued to reach out to each member of what is now Calling from Pluto and began the band from there. 

“I was low on producing records, and I was trying to become a better engineer. I wanted to find who was good at making music,” Arriola said.

Each band member is a senior, and they are all music industry majors who plan to take this band to the next level in terms of music, distribution, and performances. They are a fairly new band to the music scene, having only played a few shows prior to the Red Oak Records event. They currently do not have any music put out yet, but as soon as they do, it will be available on all streaming platforms.

The band had a crowd with a pit of people dancing and singing to their music. They did a variety of cover songs like “This Love” by Maroon 5 and “Black Sheep” by Metric, as well as original songs written by the band themselves.

Valentina spoke about being excited to play sto uch a big crowd. 

“We haven’t played a lot of shows around here yet … It feels really great to have people excited about such a new band,” Valentina said.

This event was the start of something great for the music scene here at Rowan. The record company itself, as well as record companies started by students, open so many doors for artists who are just starting out and trying to make a name for themselves.