J Frank/The Mossy Log
The Music Department’s Fridays @ Five performance is a weekly chance for music students to perform for peers. On Feb. 16, the concert featured original songs by Ivy Mead ’26, Bryn Bollimpalli ’25 and Anais Batiz-Fischetti ’25. Last semester, Mead and Bollimpalli were part of a group of musicians who wrote original music to accompany the student-produced play “The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.” Mead and Batiz-Fischetti are in a band called Pretend You’re Sleeping, or PYS (pronounced “piss”) for short. They all also happen to be friends.
Mead is a Music Performance major, with a concentration in bass. She began songwriting only a year and a half ago. She first attended Denver University but felt restricted by their programs and wanted more creative control to express herself through music.
“The school was like, ‘you do jazz all the time forever, or you do classical all the time forever,’ and I wanted to do everything,” Mead said.
Batiz-Fischetti has always thought of themself as a songwriter, since their father is a musician and fostered their love of music.
“I got my first guitar when I was four and I would write songs, but the songs were kind of just me strumming the out-of-tune guitar and talking about my day, and like (sings) ‘the girls at school were mean today,’” said Batiz-Fischetti.
Bollimpalli is also a composition major though she did not originally plan to pursue composition in college. She found herself doing it by chance, aided by and, aided by her new understanding of music
theory, enjoying it.
Generally, the three of them feel that earning a music degree has given them tools to mature as musicians and has given them a better understanding of their songwriting, but believe that music remains largely intuitive, and does not require a formal education.
“The most important part in any sort of musical thing is being able to apply what you already know, no matter how big or small, and then your creativity will shine through that,” Mead said.
Mead added that her education has increased her understanding of her songwriting, which has pros and cons.
“Pros are, I can choose to do something because I like the sound, and know why it works, but on the other hand it’s also given me so much more to think about, so it’s a little harder to decide on things,”
Mead said.
Similarly, Batiz-Fischetti noted that songwriting has a basis in folk music, and is therefore based more on emotions than formal compositional rules. Nevertheless, their education has allowed them to be more intentional in their writing.
“I’m a lot more aware of song form and how to write interesting music, where before it was just vibes-based, and now I can be like, ‘at some point in this song, I should change key,’” said Batiz-Fischetti. “Now it’s intentionally vibes-based.”
All three agreed that songwriting is an intensely personal process and that their songs inevitably end up a reflection of themselves, even when they draw inspiration from
other sources.
“I have two songs now based around characters from the Iliad, and obviously I am not fighting in the Trojan War, but they still feel very deeply personal and profound to me,” Bollimpalli said. “I think even when a song is not necessarily related to you, it’s hard not to have it resonate in some capacity with something you understand
about yourself.”
For Mead, songwriting has pushed her bass playing in new directions.
“Deciding to write my own songs has affected how I think about my instrument. … I want to see how close I can get my electric bass to sound lyrical rather than a ‘yeah, you play the bassline’ type of instrument, which has limitations,” said Mead. “A lot of that has come from using almost like a guitar-style picking pattern, or it’s almost like a banjo-style type thing, and understanding my instrument as more of a collection of chords rather than a collection of notes.”
Batiz-Fischetti has a complicated relationship with the guitar.
“I need my guitar, but I do get a little frustrated with the fact that I’m not amazing at it,” Batiz-Fischetti said. “Part of that comes from the fact that I have a small physical disability, and music takes a physical toll on you, and so I kind of have to figure out a lot of ways to play interesting things without ruining my hands forever.”
Working around this limitation, however, has forced them to develop their songwriting in creative ways.
“One songwriter I’ve been compared to by many teachers over the years is Joni Mitchell. … She had polio as a kid, and so the way she plays guitar is restricted because she can’t move her hands that much,”
Batiz-Fischetti said. “I relate a lot to Joni’s struggle, and I can only hope to be at her level of musicianship. She’s able to write (meaningful songs) with basically
just barre chords.”
Batiz-Fischetti, Bollimpalli and Mead all feel that their queerness influences and informs their art to some degree.
“A lot of my songs are often about the nature of change, and the dauntingness of changing as a person. You will change throughout your life, and that is a scary process, but it’s gotta happen, and that feels like a very trans/queer theme,”
Bollimpalli said.
Batiz-Fischetti also thinks that queerness brings a unique perspective.
“Realizing that you’re queer in the first place takes a lot of inner reflection and a little bit of turmoil, and it requires a lot of sacrifice, because you’re giving up at least pretending that you’re a normal person, and putting yourself willingly into the possibility that people will not accept you,” Batiz-Fischetti said. “That internal dialogue that you continuously have to have with yourself requires you to be very self-aware, and I think that helps when it comes to making art, because you have to be self-aware about what it is you’re thinking and feeling if you want to be able to put that into
a musical form.”
All three of them hope to pursue a career in music one day, but remain realistic in their expectations.
“There’s something about writing music where you need it to be heard, and need people to hear what it is you’re saying.” Batiz-Fischetti said. Mead feels similarly concerning prioritizing creativity over fame.
“My dream profession is to be a local gigging musician, where I can play my own tunes and have people show up, but never grow more than that; be important to local folks, and be considered fun to play with or fun to listen to, but not on a bigger scale,” Mead said.
In the immediate future, however, these LC songwriters are in the midst of various projects, so keep your
ears peeled.
“PYS band. Keep an eye out for PYS. And then I want to release some of my own stuff too. I want to record stuff,” said Mead.
Bollimpalli is also trying to release an album by the end of next spring, and Batiz-Fischetti is planning to release music soon, too. You can look out for Batiz-Fischetti’s upcoming projects on their Instagram, @anaisbatiz.
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