Author: Heather Occhino

SUNY Fredonia’s student body is an active partaker in the local music scene, as demonstrated from the Rocktoberfest event which rocked the crowd on the night before Halloween from 6-9pm in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Williams Center.

At the October event, which was held through the collaborative coordination between SUNY Fredonia’s Sound Services program and Music Industry Club, students dressed in festive-themed costumes to rock out to the high-energy performances delivered by the Fredonia-based band Relentless Moisture and Buffalo-based musicians Cooler and SAINT BLIND.

Taking a look at the Rocktoberfest lineup, Cooler is a three-piece band from Buffalo comprised of Alley Sessanna, Nick Sessanna, and Jake Sessanna, who performed at the special occasion. The group creates pop and rock songs that are heavily accented by guitar chords.

Aileen (Alley), Cooler’s vocalist and bassist, opened up on details around the music, performances and influences of the band:

Heather Occhino: When did Cooler form and who else is in the band?

Alley Sessanna: We started in 2014. Our current lineup is me on vocals and bass, Nick on guitar and vocals, and Jake on the drums.

HO: How would you describe the music of Cooler?

AS: Dream-o. We really love heavy guitars and emotional lyrics people can relate to with a catchy melody of course.

HO: How was your performance at Rocktoberfest? Have you played SUNY Fredonia before?

AS: We’ve played at Fredonia before, but not for this specific event. We play at Fredonia any time we can. There’s just something special about the music scene.

HO: It seems like your most recent work is your single “Cringe.” Is this what you performed at Rocktoberfest?

AS: We did! If you’ve ever laid in bed at night and had intrusive thoughts about something embarrassing you did 10 years ago, this one’s for you.

HO: Are there any artists who’ve inspired you or influenced your sound?

AS: All three of us have very different music tastes, but some common ground bands are Smashing Pumpkins, Tigers Jaw, Pity Sex, Now Now, Mansions, and Pinback.

HO: When and where Cooler’s next performance?

AS: December 2nd at Mohawk Place with Quit Yourself, Amateur Hockey Club, and BP & the Oil Spills.

Fredonia’s own Relentless Moisture, a post-psychedelic musical ensemble also played at Rocktoberfest, bringing with them an experimental sound as their foundation. The group described the concept behind ‘moistcore’ and much more in their chat with NYS Music.

Heather Occhino: In your bio for your Instagram and Twitter account, I saw that you included that your band is a moistcore band. Can you define ‘moistcore’ and how does that correlate with your group’s name?

Relentless Moisture: Moisture is something you can’t exactly describe, but you know it when you hear it. Sounds can absolutely be wet. Moisture is a mind set. 

HO: How would you define the music you make?

RM: …Moisture.

HO: Are there any artists, whether rising or prominent, who’ve influenced your sound or who’ve inspired you creatively?

RM: There’s a lot of Ween mentality to the music, and there’s hints of Deftones, Nirvana, Michael, Nickelback, and the Big Bopper. Alongside Rihanna, those are our major inspirations. It’s actually mostly Rihanna and Shakira.

HO: How was your performance at Rocktoberfest? Was this your first time performing at the event/SUNY Fredonia?

RM: This was our first non acoustic show on campus and certainly our first time playing at Rocktoberfest, and we loved it. The crowd was awesome, and we didn’t expect people to mosh but they certainly did. Also, Saint Blind and Cooler were amazing.  We love playing music, and we love performing.

HO: When is your next show?

RM: We are pulling up to Stamps in Tonawanda on January 13, it’s like 40 minutes off campus, absolutely come down if you can and get stamped.

thirteen creatures by relentless moisture

SAINT BLIND, a Buffalo-born alternative/indie rock and synth-pop musician (real name Aaron) is a musician familiar with the Fredonia music scene and played Rocktoberfest. He has previously performed at the Main Street Studios and interacted with music lovers there, as was the case on Saturday, October 15th, when he shared the stage with other alternative bands Karrot Kake and Personal Style.

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Five days after the Fredonia concert, on the evening of November 3, notable Buffalo venue Nietzsche’s hosted live performances by a trio of up-and-coming bands, Power Creep, Breakfast Beers, and RAM! The three bands also sat down with NYS Music to discuss their backgrounds, creative outputs and shows delivered in Buffalo.

Liam Slater and Jon Andrews are part of the Buffalo-based rock band Power Creep, fronted by singer Tyler Will. Power Creep has two debut singles that were published this year, the most recent, “Defy Belief” from July and “Hideous,” which was released in February.

In a taped interview, the band’s frontman Tyler Will went into further depth about the history of the foundation of the group, the band’s released works, and their show at Nietzsche’s.

https://youtu.be/e8vM6iU1s9c

Justin McKernan, Alex Couturier, and Jacob McKernan of the three-piece band RAM!, are also from Buffalo, and are all blood-relatives. Following RAM!’s formation in 2020-the year the pandemic broke out–the group’s debut album, Mr. Russo’s Class on Teaching a Generation, was released in August 2021.

In a recorded conversation, RAM! discussed the band’s music, the challenges being a budding band from Buffalo and the group’s formation.

https://youtu.be/k_ACYKToGf0

The eight-piece rock group Breakfast Beers are based in Buffalo and call Nietzsche’s home, as well as Philadelphia.

Breakfast Beers members Andrew Ajaka, Darren Valdera, and Paul Guardiola, talked about how their band came to be, their musical influences, and their live performances.

Heather Occhino: I read on your website that your band is based in Buffalo, NY and Philadelphia, PA. Can you elaborate on how this is?

Darren Valdera: Well, when Breakfast Beers first started we were 9 people and due to school and life we’re a little separated right now. Two of our members (Sofia Fasullo and Matt Guardiola) are currently going to school in Philly, and have the capacity/permission to play as Breakfast Beers if they wanted to. So we’ve got two “branches” of Beers HQ so to speak.

Andrew Ajaka: Also Darren and I are originally from NYC!!

HO: What led you guys to form your band?

DV: (I feel like someone else can answer this better than me but…) PORCHFEST!! An event in the community we lived in – in Binghamton where anyone with a porch can sign up their porch for festivities or enter to play at a specific time slot on a porch. I was originally planning to just come and watch it but the week of, Andrew asked me if I wanted to play a song or two with them and I joined Breakfast Beers!

AA: Yea Porchfest was for sure a big part of it, but it really started during the pandemic! Paul and I were living together in Binghamton and were playing a bunch of music with our roommate Jacob Parker, and started very loosely writing stuff together with our roommate Hannah Nathanson. Moving in with Sofia Fasullo and deciding to do Porchfest were really the deadline; we all needed to really focus on our instruments and come together as a band that was actually prepared to perform live for an audience.

HO: Are there any artists/bands who inspired you to make music and/or influence your style of sound in your music?

DV: A band I’d say that inspired us to make music is the Droogz (shoutouts to them for FINALLY putting out their first EP). Their music and stage presence is just insane. They’re all little rockstars. And just everyone in the local Binghamton scene is so inspiring, and our music really is an amalgamation of everything we listen to. My current rotation of artists are Pinkshift, Hello Sleepwalkers, and Good Game.

AA: I feel like we’re constantly talking about all the ways the music we’re listening to at the time sort of bleeds its way into our writing in different ways. Sweet Pill and Carly Cosgrove have been heavy on my rotation lately and their new records have been super inspirational for me.

Paul Guardiola: I definitely draw a bunch of inspiration from other local bands we see and play with. There are so many cool people in the northeast making really inspiring music, and being able to digest it while we’ve been growing as artists has been a big part of how I write. Shoutout to Bunk, Happy To Be Here, Stay Off The Fence, Dirty Band-Aid, Feeble Little Horse, Bug, and Waxgirl. We also have a whole 8 hour playlist of all our different favorite songs and inspirations on our Spotify page.

HO: You had a show as part of Foxhead Fright Night on Saturday, Oct. 29. How was your experience performing at Main Street Studios? Do you think events like Fright Night allow for your listening/fan base to grow?

BB: It was super sick! The venue was super cute, and everyone’s costumes were adorable. It was also a blast to meet all the heads running Foxhead and to see Ozymandias rip some Black Sabbath that night! 

AA: For sure! Events like Fright Night give us the opportunity to play our music for people and show them who we are and what we care about. Hopefully that begins to invite people into the community we are trying to create between us and our audiences. It was a super fun time playing for Foxhead Fright Night! Shoutouts to everyone at Foxhead for having us join them, everyone’s costumes were awesome and the venue was so cool!

DV: Events like Fright Night are definitely one of the main ways we grow as a band! It puts us in touch with cool artists who we can play with/plan events with again and lets us share our art and sound with new people who might vibe with us.

HO: Do you have any upcoming work to be released soon?

DV: Hopefully! We have a lot of songs in our rotation that are done that we just haven’t recorded yet. Some of them you heard at Foxhead Fright Night like Crabapple and Post Modern Baseball Reunion Tour Pt. 2. (Taylor’s Version). We’re taking a short writing/recording period break for December through January so hopefully we’ll have some new things to release by then.

PG: Yeah nothing official to announce yet but we’re always writing new material to play out, and finding time to record when we can.

The Western New York music scene has been home to bands like Goo Goo Dolls, Ani Difranco, Rick James, Aqueous, and dozens more. Artists including Breakfast Beers, Relentless Moisture, Cooler, SAINT BLIND, Power Creep and RAM! are among the next generation of bands from the greater Buffalo/Fredonia music scene. Catch them at clubs while you can!