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While studying abroad in France last semester, Guiv Lederer frequently called his roommate Buddy Murphy back in the U.S. to explain his ambition to take over the house show venue Murphy owned along with Porter Holt and Mo Morris, The Mudpit. This year, his dream has come to fruition alongside co-owners Camille Rowlands-Rees and Emma Barbosa.

“Now that I’m graduated, I’m really happy to see that it’s still going, and the biggest thing that I’m happy about is how passionate all three of them were,” Murphy said. “It’s only going to get bigger.”

All three of the co-owners have a history with music, and unexpectedly pursued that interest at Syracuse University, despite other plans.

After meeting the previous owners of The Mudpit through work at University Union, SU juniors Rowlands-Rees and Barbosa began to help out with house shows at The Mudpit on weekends. They never expected to run a house show venue while in college, but now they can’t imagine their college experience without it.

Lederer has always loved reading, writing and music. Now a senior, he came into SU as a Television, Radio and Film major in order to find new ways to express himself beyond writing and eventually found his love for screenwriting.

With a mother who danced ballet in New York, a father who was at the original Woodstock Music Festival and a brother who makes his own music, Lederer has found his own way to be involved in music.

“Me being from the city, I’m surrounded by music. Not just in my family, but on the streets everywhere you go,” Lederer said. “I think that’s influenced me in a way I didn’t even realize.”

For The Mudpit, he handles financials and other organizational aspects for the shows. He is also the in-house contact for interested performers.

A music lover since she was young, Rowlands-Rees’ technical experience in live concert production led to her playing a huge hand in reaching out to artists, communicating with the local music venue network and organizing schedules, she said.

She came across the country from California to experience the world in a different way than she had always known and ended up fulfilling career aspects within her love for music she had dreamed of for years.

Rowlands-Rees’s mom taught music to kindergarteners and her own passion for listening to different artists, she has been surrounded by music since her childhood. She eventually began to wonder what it would be like to be on the business side of the music that she was enjoying.

“It just became a little game in my head as I was also enjoying music,” Rowlands-Rees said. “Then when I had these opportunities to be involved more I realized that I could actually pursue that as a career and be on the other side of what I have enjoyed for so long.”

Courtesy of Guiv Lederer

The Mudpit co-owner Guiv Lederer and visiting artist Spencer Arjang have been best friends since they were kids and participated in band together from elementary to middle school. Arjang will be performing at The Mudpit’s first show under new ownership, happening this Saturday, Sept. 2. Courtesy of Guiv Lederer

Barbosa, a self-taught graphic designer and one of UU’s design directors, began her experience at SU as a history major. But after beginning her graphic design career with UU, she realized that her degree may end up being something that she never uses. She did a little graphic design in high school, so she thought it would be where she could contribute the most.

“I was like, I don’t know graphic design, but it’s an art form. So I think I can kind of finesse it a little bit and pretend that I know what I’m doing,” Barbosa said.

Going into each house show, the co-owners have little idea of the aesthetic that they want to portray for that week’s event. However, Barbosa will often turn an undeveloped thought into a complex theme for each show’s poster, Rowlands-Rees said.

“Each house show is really different. Depending on the bands, you want to have that aesthetic and feel for each event,” Rowlands-Rees said. “We wouldn’t have that as defined if it wasn’t for Emma’s posters.”

While they each work on their own specific role in The Mudpit, they work together on many aspects of show organization, Rowlands-Rees said. Throughout the summer, they’ve quickly grown into a team that communicates well and shares their knowledge with each other, Lederer added.

With The Mudpit’s social media, Lederer wants to cultivate an inclusive environment through effective communication with their audience.

“A lot of nightlife in Syracuse is built on exclusivity, but house shows are built on inclusivity,” Lederer said.

Lederer said that rather than shows being about the people who live in the house, their shows are about the people who perform. The joy that the co-owners feel from running the show comes from doing their part in facilitating the growth of new and returning talent, Rowlands-Rees said.

“A lot of time that acknowledgment doesn’t happen,” Rowlands-Rees said. “I think acknowledging both who was playing and who was running it is a really big deal. We all put a lot of time and effort into this and it’s important for people to know how much goes into it.”

The Mudpit’s first show under new ownership is happening on Saturday, Sept. 2, and will feature both local and visiting young artists. Along with headliner Sammy Curcuru, Saturday will be Bandier freshman Bella Fiske’s debut as a Syracuse University student.

Murphy said that the number of artists reaching out to The Mudpit has tripled since he ran the venue. With the passion and ambition of the new team, he is confident the venue will continue to grow far past his initial expectations.

Rowlands-Rees says that with Lederer and his roommates graduating, she hopes that she and Barbosa will manage to rent the house and continue running The Mudpit during the next school year.

“Ensuring longevity is really important to us because we want to do this next year and then hopefully, we’ll be able to pass it on to someone when we graduate,” Rowlands-Rees said. “It’s not really hard because we love it so much.”

Published on August 31, 2023 at 1:08 am