Avid readers of The Rival American might recognize the name on the byline of this article as a regular satire writer for the paper. But my real passion is music, which, frankly, has kept me sane these past few years, but has also been isolating, as AU doesn’t have a real music community – or so I thought. 

Last semester, by pure luck, I stumbled across the most brilliant group of people on campus: Singer-Songwriter’s Hub, or SSH, a repeatable block course in Katzen Hall. SSH is like no other course I’ve taken before, and I mean this in the most complimentary way possible. In the 2.5 hours it meets, students present their own original songs, often performing them live for the rest of the course, and then take constructive feedback on lyrics and instrumentation from their peers. From there, the audience, by and large proficient in at least one instrument, volunteer to join in on the song, eventually turning it from a solo act to a band performance.

Just about every band I have encountered in my time at AU first formed in SSH, and each and every one of them is truly magnificent, both as musicians and as people. I thought it would be remiss for a program with this much heart to go under the radar for the majority of the school, so I decided to sit down with some of these musicians and bands to hear their stories and give an additional platform to their talent. Thus, I welcome you to the first installment of The Rival American’s new series: Songwriter’s Hub Spotlight.

So let’s start with a member of SSH that you might recognize from her prominence on campus last semester; she performed in the amphitheater, was written about in the Eagle (for the record, we had this idea first), and has posters advertising her shows all over campus. Alizeh Jawaid, who usually advertises her songs and shows with just her first name, has been singing for,well, all of her life, but in a structured capacity since she was seven years old. That was when her parents enrolled her in a children’s choir, which she stayed with until she finished high school in her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. Now a junior with a double major in pop music and psychology, she’s been able to stretch her proverbial wings when it comes to her musical style.

“I definitely have more of a classical background, but my heart’s kind of always been with pop …It was just hard to branch into that in high school because there wasn’t really an outlet for it. But when I got here, I realized I could collaborate with other musicians and really work on my songwriting skills,” she said to me in an interview this past November. She took time to lavish praise on SSHmusicians, especially those who went on to form her backing band: guitarist Ryan Fitzgerald, keyboardist and guitarist Parker Anderson-LaPorte, bassist Ariel Frisch (who is also the frontwoman for Birdcage – more on them in a future installment), and drummer Liam Rosen. It was this coterie that helped her branch out when she first arrived at AU. When she first met Liam, he downplayed his talents as a drummer, but, “then this bitch played his drum set in front of me, and I’m like, what are you talking about? You’re the best drummer I’ve ever heard. And so obviously I poached him.” A short time after, she met the rest of her future bandmates, and, as she put it, “I guess the Dream Team was born.”

What keeps this group so cohesive and comfortable with each other? From Alizeh’s standpoint, it all comes down to having good band dynamics. “I feel like to be in a band with me, you need to be a good hang, you know what I’m saying?… And they’re just so fun and refreshing to be around, and so funny,” she had to say of her bandmates. “I wanted to put together a group that was really friendly and really, really willing to work with me, but also understand that they’re my songs…I think of them as my bandmates, but first and foremost, I think of them as my friends, and I think that’s really important in a band, to have some chemistry, because if you don’t have that, then rehearsal’s not going to be fun [and] you’re not going to make good music.”

And with her friends in tow, they certainly got right to making good music; I have gotten a couple of her songs stuck in my head more times than I care to admit. Alizeh’s beginning to develop her signature sound – pop rock is how she described it. Inspiring this sound is a vast array of her favorite musicians; Sløtface, Remi Wolf, Charli XCX, Omar Apollo, Charlie Burg, and Laufey all got shout outs as specific inspirations. To my surprise,this list did not include Chappell Roan, in no small part because I heard her rehearsing ‘The Subway’ in Katzen, but that’s neither here nor there.

During our interview, Alizeh drew to my attention something that I am going to try and draw to your attention right now: AU’s Women in Audio program. “It’s just really, really helpful for anyone in an audio engineering space who does not identify as male because it can be a lot harder to break into those spaces,” she said. “It gives some space for anyone, I guess, who’s a little bit more scared of, like, AES. No hate to AES.”

These two aspects of her time at AU – her love of her band and her experience in Women in Audio – combined this past October, for what had been her most recent show at the time of our interview: Pink Noise. The event (which, as the name implies, was very literally pink in color) was organized by Women in Audio, held in the Woods-Brown Amphitheatre on campus, with two acts: Alizeh and her band, and Ella Jane, whose tour had brought her to AU and who Alizeh listened to a lot during the pandemic years. In our interview, Alizeh expressed well wishes towards the woman she’d opened for, wishes that she’s sure will be seen, since, in her words, “Everybody’s reading The Rival American.” (I had to find a way to include that portion of the interview in this article. It’s journalistic gold.)

Reflecting on her set at Pink Noise – which was around ten songs, including covers of Lizzy McAlpine’s “Pushing It Down and Praying”  and Chappell Roan’s “The Subway,” – she told me, “it was a really fun show. I thought the turnout was pretty decent and it’s always nice to see all your friends come out and support you.” That being said, she noted, the one thing she would have preferred be different was a smaller stage, “When I’m performing, I like to interact with my band and just seeing them, I feel like that really helps with my stage fright – being up there, remembering I’m with my friends, you know? But it’s hard to do that when they’re so far away… So Parker stepped down and helped me out there, and I was like, ‘Thank God.’” Was this a one off event, or will Alizeh and Women in Audio throw another Pink Noise in the future? The truth is, I forgot to ask.

With all that said, if you were so moved and impressed by this article that you’re wondering where you can catch one of her shows this semester, I hate to tell you this, but you’re shit out of luck; Alizeh is currently doing a semester abroad in Dublin. But don’t despair, because A. I’d feel bad for making you despair, and B. When she comes back this fall, she has an EP slated to come out, which I have to assume will lead to shows to promote it. Coming out much sooner than that, however, is her single, “Pretty Boy,” which she finished recording prior to going to Dublin and plans on releasing soon; as both her friend and someone who’s heard it live before, I’d recommend checking it out when it drops. In the meantime, you can find her on Instagram (@noalizeh), Alizeh on all streaming platforms, and, most interestingly of all, her mailing list, which serves as part venting blog, part guide to the EP making-process. 

The last thing I asked Alizeh is what her favorite thing is about what she does musically. “I love making people feel good,” she told me. “I think we live in such odd times, and everybody’s going through it constantly. And so my music, even if it’s not necessarily emotional, even the happy, fun, crazy out of pocket shit, I feel like it still gets through somehow, you know? And it makes people kind of laugh and forget about whatever it is they’re going through and be like, ‘You know what? Fuck you. I’ve wanted to drink a ton and fuck someone, too.’”