In the backyard of a rural house in Burleson, framed with woods and fields, a group of sweaty young adults spent their summer night united in their passion for music.
Several musicians from around the DFW area gathered in a Coca-Cola-themed metal shed in the heat to share their music, laugh with their friends, connect with the local scene and thrash around in a mosh pit. Around 30 people danced, moshed, tossed around a beach ball and blew bubbles from little containers as the loud music engulfed them.
For one guitarist and one drummer, this was their chance to debut their “screamo-adjacent” band Licentious. This would be Licentious’s first live performance since its creation a year ago.
“I just want to skip the beginner part and get to the people-screaming-your-lyrics part, you know?” TR student and guitarist Jake Phillips said. Phillips had come up with name Licentious.
“I think the textbook definition is to do or pursue with sexual desire, which I think can be interpreted as whatever you want, but to do with great passion behind whatever it is you’re doing,” he said.
The current band members met through both coincidence and through their connections with mutual friends.
TR student and drummer Dylan Liska went to I.M. Terrell Academy in Fort Worth with Phillips. Together, they spent their high school years in several different bands and performing at bars.
The singer, Avik Samanta, met one of the former band members at a concert shortly after moving to Texas from California.
“I sent him some of our band demos, and he came to practice I think that next Wednesday,” Phillips said. “But whenever he showed up to practice that first day, he had already memorized all of the songs and the little bits that I do, so he just came to practice ready to play them.”
For around five months, Samanta has been playing with Licentious, writing lyrics and experimenting with his style.
“Music is alive,” Samanta said. “It’s a way to create art and tell stories in which people experience through sound, emotion and energy. When you write and develop a song you like, you tend to pour your own feelings and interpretations into it.”
Their setlist was around five songs and then an improvised jam session they played at the end of the night.
Liska said the show was the “most fun show he’d ever played” because the band had been able to let loose and jam with other musicians. For an up-and-coming artist, connections in the music scene are often what determines whether the band gains momentum.
Liska takes a unique approach to his music, choosing to limit outside influences on his playing style by teaching himself.
“I don’t like to watch videos that tell me how to play because I really don’t want to sound like anybody else,” he said. “Drums are not based on theory like a guitar or piano, so it’s really all up to how I want the rhythm to sound.”
Louise Alvera, the band’s bassist and art designer, met the band’s former singer through work and then quickly joined when they heard Licentious needed a bass player.
“I really felt like I had found a place I could truly grow as an artist,” Alvera said. “I’ve been fiddling with instruments since I was a kid, but I’ve only really been focusing on bass for like a year.”
During the set, Samanta started a mosh pit, screaming lyrics as he jumped around and hyped up the crowd. His energy was infectious.
“They went totally wild,” Samanta’s friend and fellow musician Tanner Philpot said. “The real takeaway was when they were like ‘Get everyone up front! Get everyone up front!’ I think that’s where the real magic happened.”
Licentious is currently working on securing a record deal and booking more shows. Local music scenes can be difficult to get into, but it’s also where small bands can pave their way to fame.
Regardless of wherever the future takes them, the band knows that they will always have their love of music.
“My favorite thing about music is when it makes you feel something, anything,” Liska said. “I’m about to start writing some solo stuff, and I say, like ‘I don’t care what genre it is. I just want, when you listen to it, I want you to feel something.'”
