PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Brown University senior Chance Emerson first arrived on campus in August 2019 with a couple of suitcases and a to-do list.
A singer-songwriter and guitarist since his early teens, he’d already released his first EP as a junior in high school. But his boarding school was light on musicians to collaborate with — there were only a handful of bassists and drummers, and none of them were playing indie folk.
“As soon as I got to Brown, my goal was to start a band,” Emerson recalls. “I’d been itching for it for so long."
He already had a lead on a second guitarist — he’d heard about Will Beakley from Beakley’s cousin, whom he’d met while hiking in New Zealand during his gap year. It didn’t take long to convince Beakley that they should start a band. Guitarist? Check.
A day or two after move-in, hanging out in his dorm room on the second floor of MoChamp, he heard piano music coming from down the hall. He stuck his head into the room and saw Satch Sumner-Waldman. Keyboard player? Check.
At a party the next night, he ran into a guy wearing an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and a bass clef necklace who introduced himself as Jacob Vietorisz. The question asked itself. Bassist? Check.