Lost Souls: art, ghosts and rock ’n’ roll
The Collective collaborated with student artists, musicians and vendors to produce a creatively spooky event Lost Souls, which will take place on Oct. 28. Photo courtesy of David Anderson
Every college Halloween party is the same. You show up dressed as some kind of animal and drink the spookies away all night long. But, what if there was an option for something more sophisticated this year. Luckily, Lost Souls will bring together art, ghosts and rock ’n’ roll for an elevated Halloween party catered to Chapman students.
The Collective has partnered with The Warehouse OC and Chapman Adelphos to create Lost Souls, a Halloween-themed art show and concert accompanied by food trucks. It will take place on Oct. 28 at 7:30 p.m. Five rock and garage style musical acts will perform including Airospace, Jackson Gefen, Sunday Mourners, Suave Punk and Elephant Overdrive.
Additionally, members of the Adelphos fraternity will be working the door and a haunted house that members have worked to set up for the first two hours of Lost Souls.
“It's really impressive to see a bunch of students having a good time and making music and (The Warehouse OC) is a really safe space that feels very comfortable,” said Max Pugh, a senior computer science major and lead guitarist for the Sunday Mourners.
The Music
Pugh told The Panther that he would describe Sunday Mourners’ music as ‘60s and ‘70s inspired garage rock and roll.
“We love the Velvet Underground, which is our biggest inspiration,” Pugh said. “We all have different interests but we also like The Beatles and some punk. A lot of us like jazz and hip hop and trying to do a bunch of different stuff.”
Pugh and the drummer, Z (Evan) Long, are also playing in the band Suave Punk at Lost Souls. They play music similar to My Chemical Romance so the grungy vibe will definitely be a motif to fit with the gritty Halloween theme.
“We’ve done folk events at The Warehouse before, but we wanted something a little more spooky and grungy for this Halloween show,” said David Anderson, a co-president of The Collective and violin performance major.
Elephant Overdrive, a band that has been playing together for a year and a half, is also playing at Lost Soul. Their bass guitarist Kris Salas and lead guitarist Dante Deloya said their music is a mix between heavy music and indie but wouldn't fully consider themselves either.
“We started playing a lot of Indie music as far as when we first got together but then we started transitioning more into heavier stuff,” Deloya said.
Salas said that the music band is listening to often inspires what they write and play.
“Once we started listening to heavier music, we really got into playing it, and that is what inspired us,” Salas added.
The Art
Due to the event being held by The Collective, there will also be other artists at the event since the mission of the club is to bring various artistic minds together.
“The Collective gathers all different kinds of artists and have any type of medium together to collaborate on things and be able to work with others and achieve what they want to do,” Anderson said. “For a musician, we create events where they can perform their original music live while also having vendors sell their art.”
Along with music, there will be art vendors from Chapman bringing their spooky masterpieces to The Warehouse OC for people to buy. There will also be an interactive art portion of the night in which people can draw on miniature pumpkins.
The Costumes
To add to the Halloween theme, costumes are strongly encouraged. Pugh and the rest of the Sunday Mourners will be dressing up as musicians.
“We're all dressing up as different people from music,” Pugh said. “We're all doing different musicians. I'm doing a guitar player (and) Z is doing a drummer. We are corresponding (our costumes) to our instruments pretty much.”
The Atmosphere
Pugh said when it comes to the crowd that generally gravitates towards this event, it tends to be a lot of Chapman students. The Warehouse OC makes for a great place for Chapman students to socialize away from campus while still in a young atmosphere.
“Sometimes the last thing I want to do is go back to campus after being there all day,” Pugh said. “But it feels like you see a lot of the people you know without the stress of being on campus.”
Anderson said this event could be more for a grungy crowd who like to thrift and dress up because it is a very creative event where people can sport their costumes.
No matter if you thrift or not, this upscale Halloween party is sure to be a refreshing step away from the average college party. You’ll have discovered new music and perhaps even leave with a new painting to hang in your dorm.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect the fact that Chapman Adelphos has been part of the planning to create the Lost Souls event.