It’s time to face the facts… Syracuse University is in the midst of a party music epidemic. As soon as 11pm hits on Thursday until the early morning hours of Sunday, the sounds of RL Grime, one of the various shitty Goosebumps remixes, and Steve Aoki’s Pursuit of Happiness can be heard reverberating the ground around frat basements and Euclid house parties. A group of student DJs however, are looking to redefine the Syracuse music scene.

Created by SU juniors Anish Vasudevan, Michael Lieberman, Max Cohen, and Dominic Brancoli, FEEM is the newest weekend experience taking over campus. Part house-show and part mini-rave, FEEM shows are distinctly different from many of the familiar spaces that make up the Syracuse party landscape. Located at the Cage on the corner of Madison and Walnut (that’s the apartments not the place where you check out cameras for all the Newhouse kids out there lol), the shows are focused on one thing: dancing.

“I don’t know if it’s because of our generation, but every time you see someone really express themselves through dance, especially at a college campus, you’ll see people give nasty looks at them… I think that this should be a place where people really just run free and run wild,” Lieberman said.

Lieberman and FEEM’s aim to encourage true unadulterated dancing and expression is something that other parties fail to do. I mean, let's be honest here, the most common expressions we usually see at Syracuse parties are drunk “bro hugs” and girlies screaming “that’s my song” when “Mr. Brightside” comes on for the fourth time.

The DJ’s of FEEM come from all different musical backgrounds. Some come from a hip-hop background, while others rock, but the one genre that has brought them together is house. Originally inspired by Kaytranada, Toro y Moi, and Daft Punk, the group has gone on to explore different subgenres and offshoots of house music, with each DJ finding their own niche and sound. FEEM shows feature everything from the inescapable rhythm of jungle music to the groovy baselines of disco, and even the up-tempo and layered influence of EDM.

“People like dancing to stuff they can sing the words to,” Vasudevan said. Like Vasudevan, the other members of FEEM are also aware of the fact that the music they play at their shows is something that most people aren’t used to.

“What we want to bring here is that people shouldn’t be afraid to dance to something they haven't listened to before… {At} other parties we are hearing the same old remixes we’ve heard for the last 3-4 years,” Lieberman said.

For all of us it can be easy to fall into the trap of listening to the same songs, the same genres, and the same artists. Trying to find new music can be exhausting, we get it, we’re not telling you to stop listening to Red or ANTI for the 100th time over again. But, new music allows us to create new memories and find new meanings.

The never-ending commitment that the DJs of FEEM have to finding, curating, and organizing the perfect party soundtrack is evident not only in the music played at their events but also in the level of thought applied to the venue and experience. Located directly across from the DJ booth FEEM has assembled an all-star cast of drunk necessities. Water, pizza, alcohol, and yes, even the beloved (kinda) drunk cig can be found at the venue concession stand. And by concession stand we mean someone’s first floor guest room which temporarily becomes a haven for dancers looking to take a breath or people who got a little too fucked up at the pre-game.

“Literally we are giving you everything that you would want or need to come to our party,” Cohen said.

Unlike the “who do you know?” rules of frats or the ticket price of house shows, FEEM events are designed with the explicit purpose of creating a place where everyone can come enjoy music and have a taste of that “college experience.”

“I just want it to be a different and safe space for people to be themselves and let loose,” Brancoli said.

Finally, it’s time to address perhaps the most pressing and important aspect to this whole story… What the fuck does FEEM mean?!

Well, it turns out that even the members of FEEM don’t really know. It started off as a friend's drunken mispronunciation of the word “film,” and has evolved into a weekly dance party organized by friends who’ve been sharing music with one another since freshman year. To the members of FEEM the literal meaning of the word isn’t all that important, but rather it’s what it has come to represent.

In the words of member Max Cohen, if FEEM could be “boiled down into three things, it would be love, respect, and dancing”.

FEEM, The DJ’s Looking To Save Partying