By Sarah Masessa, News Correspondent
Most Northeastern students associate Snell library with writing essays, studying into the early morning hours, suffering through group projects and now, recording music? For four students, Snell has become their own personal music studio where they are in the process of producing their first album.
The band, called Anjimile, mainly plays alternative/indie music and they describe their sound as “pop music for the soul.” Originally a solo project started by third-year music industry major Anjimile Chithambo, it took two years for the band to grow to what it is today.
“Drew [Wilcox] and I met at a mutual friend’s party during our second year,” Chithambo said. “After we met, we realized that we were musical soul mates and needed to collaborate.”
Wilcox became the percussionist for the band and the two began a search to find musicians available to play guitar and bass whenever they were scheduled to play a show.
“We met Ryan Garvey when we played a show at TT the Bears,” Chithambo said. “We run in the same music circles so our bands would often play shows together….Rohan joined the band about three months after Ryan…I immediately knew that he would be a good fit for our band. Thus, Anjimile was born.”
Performing is nothing new to Chithambo, who first began singing onstage 15 years ago. As a band, Anjimile has played at venues all around Boston and Cambridge, including The Phoenix Landing, TT the Bear’s Place, The Midway Café, Lansdowne Pub, McGann’s and Cheers.
“I started writing songs the summer before I came to study at Northeastern, and I haven’t stopped since,” Chithambo said.
She credits alternative rock band Brand New as one of her biggest musical influences, along with The Strokes, Sonic Youth, The Who and Radiohead. While she may take cues from other bands for Anjimile’s sound, the message behind the songs is all her own.
“I am a huge social justice advocate,” Chithambo said. “I believe in anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-transphobia and anti-homophobia. My greatest struggle as a musician is trying to express these views through my music, and I’m slowly figuring out how I can do that. I want to write good songs. I want to write catchy songs. I want to write songs with meaningful messages that advocate for social change.”
Chithambo is aware that being a musician with dreams of touring to all different places is no easy feat when she has to worry about balancing her passion with her schoolwork.
“It’s hard,” Chithambo said. “I want to spend every waking moment on music, but realistically I can’t. I’m on co-op, I have a girlfriend, and I have friends. It’s hard to juggle it all, but it’s good to get to experience this early because I know that I will be juggling music with everything else for the rest of my life”.
The band is also signed by Human Nature Records, a label founded by Lee Schuna, a fourth-year music industry major at Northeastern. Anjimile is one of four bands signed with Human Nature Records, along with Catliqid, Midnight Cruise and The Vacuum Party. Their LP “Human Nature” will be the label’s first official release. Schuna is a part-time synth player for Anjimile and is also the solo member of The Vacuum Party, an 80s synthpop project.
“I think my greatest achievement as a musician is knowing that there are people on campus who have actually heard of Anjimile,” Chithambo said. “That makes me feel really warm and fuzzy. I want to get this music to the people, so when a friend of a friend of a friend comes up to me and tells me that they like my music, it’s awesome.”
See Anjimile perform at its upcoming show on Oct. 10 at P.A.’s Lounge in Somerville’s Union Square. Their act will be followed by fellow local artists Lady Darwin, Rocco D’Angelo and Magnatite. Tickets are available on eventbrite.com for $5 or at the door for $10.
Photo courtesy Anjimile.
