A Love Letter To College Radio: A Conversation with Solace on the Impact of College Radio and Creative Communities
INTERVIEWS
By Indi Tejeda
5/11/26
Courtesy of Indi Tejuda
Like many other colleges, the presence of a youth music scene, a radio station, and a staple band isn’t unheard of. But at Santa Clara University, a private liberal arts college in the midst of Silicon Valley, that presence goes beyond the school itself and truly rests its head on the appreciation youth has on music as an art, a third space, and a community. I had the pleasure of talking to Adi Ranganathan; drummer for Solace, a KSCU radio member, and a recent SCU grad about his thoughts on the impact of his band Solace and the radio station, creating music as a whole, and what it takes to be a young creative now.
You’re the drummer for Solace and also manage the band’s marketing and social media. How do these roles work together, and what have they taught you about building a creative community on campus?
Adi: In today's day and age, it's easier than ever to wear a bunch of hats and basically handle every aspect of the creative process yourself. And even when it comes to making music, for example, the amount of YouTube tutorials that exist and how to produce, create, and release something. And then all the marketing tools that exist, like FlowStage to create or use Figma to create graphics, different editing apps to turn out reels. And different AI tools that help you caption and, you know, release. Basically, run and be your own manager.
Because of that, it's like I feel like it's actually not too difficult to be a sort of a one man army. You don't have to outsource a lot of this stuff to other people. It definitely helps if you have people dedicated towards, you know, just the marketing side or just, you know, the booking side, but obviously everyone has some type of constraint to the resources, right? So we've just been kinda doing what we can with what we have.
The thing about Solace is that I'm so lucky that everybody in the band is better at their instrument than I am. It's very rare to have that, especially for me because I play the drums, and drummers are kinda scarce in a sense, especially here in Santa Clara. There's maybe like four or five drummers. That's why we're all in so many bands.
Our saxophone player, Aidan, is an insane jazz player, also came from jazz, but he has a full pedal board, right? He has like fifteen, sixteen different pedals on that thing, and creates insane sounds you would never expect coming from a saxophone. You know? And who brings a saxophone with distortion, overdrive, and a reverb pedal? It adds a genuinely unique flavor to what we're doing.
And then Nate is, of course, insane at guitar and can solo on anything, and the fact that he's also a great singer. So he's double trouble like that. And then Chris is just a beast on bass and guitar, and he's probably one of most talented people in the band for sure.
Oh, and I can't forget Luke too. Luke is the bass player of every band here in Santa Clara, but that's just because, again, bass players are scarce. But he's so versatile in the way that he's able to pick anything up. He knows and memorizes music at the drop of a hat, and he could probably play five hours of straight music that he had memorized. Our keys player Kai is just unreal.
That's actually awesome.
Adi: It's sick, yeah. Sorry, I digressed a bit there, but that speaks more to that a lot of why Solace specifically always had that kind of constraint, in the sense that we only really cared about the music, and we don't really have to deal with the social media stuff. Like, last month, I was like, “what's gonna happen if I just post a reel every single day?” And because of that, I think we've gotten some more shows... people have DM'd us, and they're like, ‘Hey, you wanna do a show with us?’ So definitely it helped, but I didn't enjoy it. That was boring. I didn't just wanna make reels.
That's fair. I feel like, on a side note, marketing's so funny nowadays because you do just have to create constant content to even get noticed... literally. And it's both fascinating and frustrating, so I know how you feel.
How do you approach connecting with students and fans through social media and KSCU, and can you share a moment when you felt the community really come together around the band?
Adi: You kinda talked about social media and how it feels to connect with people through a digital space and a tangible space... Bandcamp is one of those. Bandcamp is essentially a student-led festival event that's hosted in the Into the Wild house, where they have a stage, and they fill a backyard with 500 people. And it started four, five, maybe six years ago. It started out like this almost nerdy, niche type of thing where people would just come and play their music... and now it's ballooned to become one of the most popular events of the quarter.
And the reason is that people have really gone behind live music in comparison to frat shows, for example. They find that frat shows can be redundant, and the live DJs and stuff... they're cool, obviously, but there's an energy that's brought with live music. The authenticity of it, and I mean, even the soul of it, is just so much stronger. It's easier to resonate with it. So Bandcamp is always packed... all the time.
And when we headlined it last quarter, or two quarters ago, I remember it was so full... there were so many people there. And we got four or five different encores, and they asked us to stay and play more and more and more. That was definitely one of the highest points for Solace, for sure... especially considering there's always tension about people leaving, graduating, trying to think about if Solace is going to keep going past people leaving the band. So that felt like a very validating and fun experience to be able to play that Bandcamp.
I think we're gonna do the next one too, which is going to be fun... but that definitely did feel like a moment where the community appreciated and came behind not only us, but all the live music that exists on campus. It was a testament to how strong the music community is... and how much stronger it could be too.
Courtesy of Indi Tejuda
In your experience with Solace and KSCU, how do you foster collaboration and creativity among band members and other artists on campus?
Adi: Shared spaces are the key for things like that because, at the end of the day, if you have a place where someone can use a drum kit or use a bass amp... that becomes the place where all the bands will practice. Cuit and I, who is the next GM of KSCU, made a point that the next people who come into KSCU are already involved in the music community, so they can further sustain and support these spaces to be more openly accessible.
You mentioned the musician meetup, and that's a great one. The music department at this school also has shared spaces, like the Benton Annex, for example, where they have drum sets, they have pianos, and all that stuff too... those places are also key, you know, to making sure people can come and actually play together.
College is really interesting because everyone, in their own right, has probably explored an instrument to some degree by themselves... like, whether they picked up a guitar or whatever. Some people have taken it more seriously. A lot of people graduate from high school thinking they're not gonna continue music in college... It's a dream for a lot of them to be able to start a band and stuff like that. And that's why KSCU kinda does what it does... because they understand that if the people in it already care that much about the music, it's going to be a self-sustaining system, so to speak. So, yeah... I think that KSCU has that studio for the music; it's a big reason why any of these bands even exist today.
No, I wish I got to see more of the music department and the art department, because I met some people in both, and I was like, they just seemed super cool.
Adi: Absolutely. And the music department is, like... It's a private school, first of all, and no one's coming to Santa Clara just for music. They excel at being a department where you can kinda do music and do whatever else you're trying to do, engineering, you know, whatever, right? So it's very much a double major type of thing.
How has participating in multiple creative outlets shaped your own artistic journey, and do you have an example of how these communities have supported or inspired other students?
Adi: Yeah, that's a good question. I think, funnily enough, I wanna say that the whole reason, again, Solace even exists, and we did our first couple shows, is because KSCU members from previous years... like, previous staff teams had noticed us and wanted us to play. They were actually looking for student talent, and because of that, they placed us at our first Bandcamp. And that was so unbelievably life-changing for us.
We knew, after that moment, all we wanted to do was focus on this band and make songs, right? And it went from there. It's different knowing that the songs you're writing in your garage or your room or whatever are going to be heard by people outside, right? So it changes your perspective on what it is you create and what influences you, essentially.
And I would say those people in KSCU who sort of set all of this in motion are, directly or indirectly, all of our mentors, because they're the ones who set up these structures. Now being the production director of KSCU, it's kinda my job to continue that.
When it comes to Solace, we've recorded a couple of originals that I'm actually really excited for you to hear at some point. I think you'll like them. We've kind of followed in the footsteps of all the other bands... like, bigger bands. We talked about Pluie, for example... like, these other bands who were here in Santa Clara who've then gone and recorded originals and now do shows all over the state. Those are definitely our biggest influences and inspirations.
I will say, though, that for the most part... There was no real central mentor. And I think that's a big reason why the community is the way it is early. The music community here is still kind of blooming. People are just starting to realize how fun live music is. I have frat bros coming up to me all the time, they're like, ‘Why don't we do this every couple of weeks? Why are we doing this once a year? This is so much more lit than just getting a DJ in here.’
Give it five years, and Santa Clara should be a big live music hub, in a sense. Which I didn't expect, considering transferring here from Purdue... like, 50,000 people at that university and 4,000 here, and somehow the live music scene was so much stronger here, you know what I mean?
Courtesy of Indi Tejuda
I like what you said about having a collective of mentors, in a way, rather than an individual, because I feel like that is actually a good point, especially since my focus is on creative communities, so seeing how it really was a community that brought Solace forward, that's actually really neat.
Adi: Exactly. And, yeah... that's the pro and con of a student-led community, right? It's on you to create it, but at the same time, you can do whatever you want, really. Like, we did something called Solace Cafe last quarter... We were literally in our backyard. We were like, “Hey, what happens if we just throw a concert?” We invited some of our friends, set it up, and my backyard ended up having 450 people. So it became big yet again... people love live music.
What advice would you give to students who want to start or strengthen a creative/music community on campus, and how do you hope to see these communities evolve in the future?
Adi: So if I wanted to start a band from scratch... I would get a couple of my buddies over, practice our sets, whatever, get them done. And I don't know if we'd do random coffee shops or bars and stuff like that, right? Because I feel like that's making music for the sake of being heard. Instead, for me, it's the music for the sake of making music. For the sake of enjoying the music and writing something that you know is meaningful.
And if five people, or just five of your friends, show up, that's still better. That's still good, even if it's just five of your close friends. Because then the next time you do it, it'll be 10... then it'll be 15. Not everyone's going to blow up and be mainstream.
To be fair, Solace is sort of a unique band, in the sense that there are so many cool and unique parts of the band... Aiden's saxophone and his pedalboard, or Kai with his crazy solos... that there really is so much to like about it. So we never had the issue where people are bored at our shows or not enjoying the music. So that definitely helps.
I think a lot of artists today will just stand on the stage with a backing track, and it's very difficult to engage with a crowd if that's all that's happening. Live music definitely elevates a lot of that.
I think that you made a really good point, especially with people wanting to be seen rather than actually appreciating the art that is music.
Adi: People care more about the image of making music than they do about the music. And that's so annoying to me, because it's obvious when they do a live show, and the music lacks substance and lacks intention behind it.
There's levels between a SoundCloud rapper and someone who has studied piano for twenty years, right? But the difference isn't that one is pretentiously better, it's that one has understood the art for the sake of it being an art, versus doing it for the sensation of making music. The sensation of recording a music video, the sensation of looking hard in a video.
There's nothing wrong with that it's just there are levels to it, you know? So I think Solace tries to strike a balance. We're definitely not the coolest-looking band, by any means. When we did our first Bandcamp, people said we were geeky and it makes sense, because we're all jazz musicians who just decided to start making music.
I find that so shocking, because I feel like every time I've been to your shows, you guys always have had a cool ambiance. I feel like being geeky, in a way, is the new version of being cool. There are bands like Ginger Root that play into that and are proud of it.
Adi: It's owning the authenticity of not being the coolest person ever... if you're not trying to be the coolest person ever, that inadvertently makes you very cool, I think.
Courtesy of Indi Tejuda
Through this conversation between me and Adi, he described his experience at Santa Clara and as a member of Solace as a “love letter to KSCU.” It became clear how much being a part of college radio shaped not only his own college experience, but also the experiences of many others.
“I feel like what we talked about has been about the music community itself,” he says. “And Solace can't take credit for that because we're a product of it. You know what I mean? But I think for this interview, you could use us as an example or a case study, almost. Solace is a product of these micro communities that are emerging in universities that support live music, and here's how KSCU systemically has introduced live music to the campus and its impact.”
Stories like Adi and his band Solace, and many others, highlight that the impact of college radio is clear and more valuable than ever. Creativity, community, and passion are the core strengths of a society. When spaces like KSCU exist, they do more than broadcast music. They build connections, foster collaboration, and give young artists a place to grow into their identities. In that process, students are not just producing content, they are shaping culture together, one shared experience at a time, and resources like college radio, along with many other organizations, are truly part of the spark that keeps these young creative communities alive.
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