Student Musicians Juggle School and Music - A E

Mike L'Homme and his band, Aston, with their recently released CD. Juggling rehearsals, performances, and schoolwork, student musicians learn to balance their extracurricular activities. "I am a track athlete at Sacred Heart, so I am used to juggling around a whole bunch of things with school included," said Arie Dixon, sophmore, Beacon, N.

Y. "Sometimes it can be a little hard trying to write or make new songs when I have a lot of schoolwork, but it all works out for the most part. If you want something bad enough you can make it work.

" Arie "BeBe Boohgz" Dixon and his brother, Semu "Wa Peace" Walusimbi, formed the hip-hop group Physha P. "We started doing the music thing seriously, since ninth grade," said Dixon. Physha P had a performance at local club "R Bar" on Thursday, Oct.

19. "It went really well, thanks to everyone who came through and showed their support, we really appreciate it," said Dixon. They do not have any performances lined up for the future, but they are in the studio working on new songs and a new album.

Not only do musician's here at SHU have to juggle schoolwork and extracurricular activities, they also have to deal with not having their entire group available locally. Mike L'Homme, sophmore, Attlebro, Mass. and his band, Aston, struggle with this.

"With three members at different colleges and one member still in high school, gigging during the school year is really tough and sporadic," said L'Homme. Rock/punk/pop band Aston has been together for almost two years and recently released their debut album "Another Second Chance." "Usually we will arrange to go home a weekend before a show, or skip classes Friday and meet up then.

We are only two hours from home so the trip is not too bad," said L'Homme. These student artists turn to other bands to get their inspiration. "The biggest influence on me has to be the local bands I grew up listening to and seeing at American Legions and Community Centers such as 34 Spoons, Fake ID and A New Beginning to name a few," said L'Homme.

"They are the bands that I saw and told myself 'hey I want to be up there instead of here in the crowd' so one day I picked up a bass guitar and taught myself how to play.