Sarah Lawrence got lucky with exciting new band Lucky Number

I go to a lot of music shows at my school, Sarah Lawrence College. Sarah Lawrence is a small, liberal arts school in the suburbs of New York. When I arrived at the battle of the bands, I thought I knew the drill. I was gonna dance to some covers and tell my friends in bands they did amazing, even if they didn’t. I was not expecting to completely lose my shit like a twelve year old girl seeing the Beatles for the first time. But halfway through the band Lucky Number’s first song, I felt my knees getting weak and I had the uncontrollable urge to shriek and swarm the stage.

From the second they stepped on stage, these freshmen were magnetic. “We are Lucky Number. Are you ready to get lucky tonight?” they shouted, and we were. They started by playing covers of iconic rock songs, which got the whole crowd dancing, then they played some of their own original songs. Their originals were poetic and energetic and somehow I felt like they were singing only to me, they understood something about me that I didn’t even understand.

I had never heard Lucky Number play before, but on stage we were best friends. Between songs they spoke to the audience like we were joking around at the dining hall, and the audience ate it up like it was taco tuesday and Bates (our dining hall) was closing in ten minutes. At one point, each member of the band did a goat impression, and the crowd went wild like they had just turned water into Four Loko.

When I learned that Battle of the Bands was their first show, I couldn’t believe it. I needed to talk to these prodigies. So I came to one of their practices to interview them.

Everyone introduce yourselves!

Robin: I’m Robin Sickman-Garner, and I sing and play guitar

Zinny: I’m Zinny Hull, and I play drums

Luc: I’m Luc Rowen Applebee Van Haelewyn, but I’m colloquially known as T-Swizzle, and I play guitar

Bella: I’m Bella Reale and I’m on vocals and guitar

Cami: I’m Cami Cozgriff and I play bass

How did you all meet?

Bella: It all started at a Bikini Kill concert. Well, essentially, Robin and I had met during orientation week, and we were like, hey, we both play guitar and sing, we should start a band. We had sort of been clocking Luc, noticing him on campus. Cause he played the flute.

Luc: it was a tin whistle

Robin: he came up to us at a party and was like, do you guys wanna hear my flute

Luc: It was a tin whistle!!

Bella: So we knew who he was, and we called him Mr. Tin Whistle. He was like a campus celeb, and we’d also heard that he also played guitar and bass, so we thought maybe, in the dream scenario, he would be in our band. And then we went to a Bikini Kill concert in Brooklyn one of the first weekends of school. And he approached us at the concert, and we just started talking. We told him that we’re starting a band, and he was like, I’m starting a band too, and then we thought, maybe we could start a band together. And then Zinny and Cami joined later.

Zinny: I really wanted to be in the band, and I was like, if they don’t pick me to be their drummer, I’m gonna crash out.

Robin: Awwww, there was no competition.

Bella: for the first few weeks Zinny didn’t have drumsticks, and she was using pens and markers to play the drums. And then Cami didn’t join until battle of the bands, when we needed a bassist for our song Camera Shy. That was our first show, and we won.

Who are your musical influences?

Robin: probably folk, and 90s garage rock. And Blondie and Bowie.

Luc: The Hives, the White Stripes, Frans Ferdinand

Robin: Also Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. Rilo Kiley and Belly, they influence my songwriting a lot.

Tell me about your original songs

Robin: I wrote our song Camera Shy. I love to write fiction and poetry, but I didn’t know if I would be able to do song writing. Bella had actually been song writing for a long time. I wrote camera shy as a poem at first, and then I brought it to the band and we worked out the verses. Originally I wrote it about, um, Sylvia Plath.

Cami: YEAHH

Robin: and then it turned into being about a porn star

Zinny: if you really think about it, it sounds like we’re describing a porn star.

Robin: For Supernova, the band got together and we wanted to write a song about a superstar, and their fall from stardom. We wrote the verses, and it took a while to get it to its final form. We all helped.

How do you captivate your audience?

Bella: We have a big fan base from our friends. All our friends got together and made merch before our first show. So we were not really nervous during our first show because we knew that we had such a supportive group of people right in the front row that were going to be screaming no matter what we played.

Zinni: We always introduce songs in a fun way, and play with energy.

Tell me about winning battle of the bands

Luc: The prize for winning Battle of the Bands is getting our song produced, and we chose to produce our song Camera Shy. It’s taking longer than we would like, but we’re going to the New York Public Library to take photos for our album cover, and then we’re going out and having fun in the city after that.

Robin: We have a lot of other originals that we would love to produce, so hopefully we can do that soon.

What are your favorite memories together as a band

Luc: Definitely the shows. I think, at least for myself, I’m a little surprised at how much people like us.

Bella: I feel the exact same way.

Luc: I think we have good comedic dynamics.

Robin: We like to have little bits in between our songs, because we like to laugh. We’re all friends outside of the band too. Our practices are half work and half play.

Luc: We gossip, we giggle.

Robin: We didn’t all start as friends, but now that we’re in the band together we’ve all formed friendships

Cami: I was really scared of you guys.

Robin: Noo Cami.

Luc: I love getting dinner with you guys after the show. The time we spend outside of practice is always so fun, walking home, feeling that excitement.

Robin: There was this one rehearsal that I’ll always remember. We were in the jazz room, and we were writing Supernova. Everybody was there, Bella and I were working on the lyrics, and Luc, Zinny, and Cami were all working on the instrumentals and the backing for everything. It just felt like everything was really coming together, and we all wanted to be there. We were really excited. It was our first practice after our first show, Battle of the Bands.

Bella: We didn’t know we’d won yet, we weren’t even thinking about whether we could win. We just thought, hey, this is our first show, no pressure. It was my first time performing in my life, actually.

Zinny: My favorite times are when we get ready for shows together. We’ll go to Robin’s room and all do our makeup together, and listen to music.

Robin: I have a playlist that I put on on the day of a show to get us amped up. It has Blondie and Pat Benetar and Joan Jett. Cool girl rockers.

Bella: We have so much fun. I think it helped that we weren’t looking for the best guitarist or the best bassist, we were just thinking, who do we know that we get along with that plays these instruments. And now we’re good friends.

Robin: Musical skill is important, but if we can’t laugh together, the band won’t last. You won’t wanna go to practice.

What is the future of Lucky Number

Luc: We want to have an album out by the end of next year. And we’re definitely gonna keep playing shows on campus and branch out to the wider New York area.

Robin: We have a lot of momentum going, and next year we want to work on new songs too.

Any final thoughts?

Robin: I love performing. I used to play violin when I was little, so I haven’t performed since then. This is all very new to me, and I get it. I get why people love to do it. Because it is so great.

Luc: In the wise words of Gerard Way “It was the roar of the crowd that gave me heartache to sing.”

All laugh.

Zinny: In the wise words of Benji Applebaum from Pitch Perfect, “performing live…”

Everyone: “Gives me such a rush!”