BY MIA BERTRAND | STAFF WRITER
LIU students have been intensively in the studio working on their self-titled demo “Lucid” which is set to be released over the summer or during the upcoming fall 2021 semester.
Sophomore Sofia Borges and freshman Will Ajibola, who are part of LIU’s Music Technology, Entrepreneurship and Production Program, came together to start the band, also named Lucid, with a previous LIU student of the same program, Monday Diallo.
The band was born right out of the LIU Humanities building basement where many music majors go to access instruments and sharpen their music abilities. The band members described this dungeonesque practice room as having perfectly set the scene for Lucid’s grungy, hardcore rock tunes.
Ajibola, the newest member, fondly recounted the moment he met Diallo and Borges. He overheard Borges and Diallo practicing in the basement and was instantly drawn in by their sound.
“My first thought was: awesome, music I can play and listen to. But I was nervous, I didn’t know who was behind that door,” Ajibola said. “I reconsidered knocking so many times, and I even walked away, but eventually turned back and knocked loudly. Then I asked them if I could sit in. It was really awkward for all of us, but it’s one of the coolest things to happen.”
The band officially became complete in Fall 2020, as Ajibola became their bassist, the position that Borges and Diallo had been hoping to fill in the new school year.
For Borges, starting a band was something she had always planned to do as a career path and had experience playing in a garage band during high school. Her favorite thing about music was playing along with other musicians, so she knew that to start a band, she would have to find others who enjoyed the same thing.
“I’m good at finding people who don’t really know what they want to do musically, and making them a part of this trajectory — which is how I found Monday,” Borges said.
During Diallo and Borges’ freshman year, Diallo decided to take up the drums to play in the band while Borges would play guitar and do vocals. Diallo, also a skilled saxophone player, was initially reluctant to switch from the saxophone to drums due to his past music mentors/teachers who urged Diallo to commit to a specific instrument.
“[They] always had a problem with me because I wanted to play all the instruments, but it’s what the band needed and I’ve pretty much always been versatile instrument-wise,” Diallo said.
Diallo found the band a perfect home for him because the band members shared a common goal of making music that has meaning and emotion that hopefully a devoted fan base would come to appreciate.
For the members of Lucid, becoming rich and famous was never part of their objective or career path; instead, they prefer to have a strong fan base who appreciate and understand the meaning behind their songs.
“Music is truly about making yourself happy, and it’s a good way to share that happiness with others, but I’m not going to change what I’m doing to fit a larger population. I’m not interested in “blowing up”. What I really want is to be able to live off the music I make,” Borges said.
Each member of the band brings something different to the table that aids in filling any holes they feel there might be in the songs. All three of them also contribute to the actual production of the music, so everyone's creative input is included.
“Sofia likes to play weird scales, but she makes them work so well along with her progressions. It really opened my ears to understand different sounds,” Ajibola said. “With Monday as our drummer, he creates grooves that I work with and he showed me, unknowingly, how to write my own songs.”
Meanwhile, Ajibola is described by his members as having great adaptability and strong music theory knowledge, which makes his presence even more substantial to the group.
“His elasticity allows Sofia and I to be more elastic ourselves. He stretches ideas as well as motifs to the max which makes it easier for me to see what’s really possible and which direction we can pull the song in,” Diallo said.
The bandmates have met up regularly since Diallo and Borges’ freshman year, 2019, to record and produce their upcoming demo. Their demo, Lucid, will be released on all music streaming platforms and consists of six or seven songs. While the song titles are currently a secret, you can find out more about the band's debut on their Instagram @LUCID_NYC.
Will Ajibola: @BlainCounty
Monday Diallo: @Marcthezombie
Sofia Borges: @Lulu_Bands99