Boston’s new alternative band, Nick’s House, has taken the college music scene by storm and all it took was five passionate Berklee students and a semester in Valencia, Spain. 

The band consists of five Berklee College of Music students: Arizona Barahona Bueso, Daniel Sporn, Nick Doyle, Michael Arizmendi and Noah Roosevelt.  

It all started during their semesters abroad in Valencia. During the fall semester, Barahona Bueso met Doyle and Roosevelt, and the three of them decided to start a small band. Doyle and Roosevelt left to go back to Boston for their spring semester, and the band put a pin in itself. 

Sporn came to Valencia the next semester, and that’s when he and Barahona Bueso met. Barahona Bueso asked Sporn to play guitar for the band, and it just clicked. The guys took the pin out of the band, but the band still didn’t have a bassist–until one night in front of Cappy’s Pizzeria.

The crew was outside the pizzeria back in Boston, when they bumped into Arizmendi and got to talking.

“We started talking about the band and we were like, ‘yeah the band is cool, but we really need a bassist’. All of the sudden Michael just drops that he’d been practicing base all summer. It was like fate. So, we jammed out to see how it’d go and since then he’s stayed,” said Barahona Bueso. 

Barahona Bueso, the lead singer and pianist, is a 21-year-old independent recording and production major from Honduras. Going by the name Arizona, he got his start in singing and piano when he was young, growing up with a musician as a grandfather. When he got to middle school, he started taking his craft a little more seriously, and knew after completing the five week Music Performance Intensive program at Berklee in high school, that music was what he wanted to do with his life.  

Doyle, whose first name is featured in the band’s name, is the band’s drummer. He’s a 21-year-old contemporary writing and production major from North Carolina and has been playing the drums since he was five years old, but he never thought he would make a career about it until he was in high school.

“I decided that if I still wanted to pursue music by the end of high school, then I would make it my future. Sure enough, here we are,” said Doyle. 

Doyle and Barahona Bueso started the band with Roosevelt, who was not able to comment on his start to the band. But after the three of them established themselves as a trio in Valencia, then came Sporn. 

“I’ve been playing guitar and classical since I was in sixth grade. I had no intentions of ever being in a band until I was there in Spain. The puzzle pieces just fell into place,” said Sporn. 

Sporn studies professional music and tracks in film scoring and game scoring. The 21-year-old musician is from Manhattan and loves the collaborative environment they’ve created in the group, especially since bringing Arizmendi into the scene. 

Arizmendi, the final addition to the band on that fateful night in front of Cappy’s, has always had a love for music and got into playing the trumpet in sixth grade. He is now majoring in professional music songwriting and music production. As the bassist of the group, he has been playing his instrument for the shortest amount of time, having picked it up the summer before he joined the band. 

“I heard ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ by Kendrick Lamar and I knew I could do something with music. That album changed my life. Kendrick incorporated so many different messages and styles, even production wise, and pushed the envelope. It inspired me to do music,” said Arizmendi. 

Since the band’s start, they’ve been rehearsing, writing and playing constantly. The guys are all very collaborative when it comes to writing and melodies, all bringing in pieces of themselves to the work. 

“One of us will bring a puzzle piece. Daniel will bring chords on the guitar or I’ll bring lyrics or a melody. What makes it so different from writing alone is that we sit down and kind of build the song at one of our places together. We will all write our own parts and piece them together,” said Barahona Bueso.  

According to Sporn, the band’s music has an indie rock, alternative feel to it. They play shows at school and around campus, and the band is only getting better. 

“We have two upcoming shows. We’re playing the Warehouse venue Feb. 22 and we’ll be at Suffolk University playing a set on the 28th for the comedy sketch club ‘Who’s Askin’?’. We’re pumped,” said Barahona Bueso. 

Catch the band’s performance at Suffolk University Friday, Feb. 28 during Suffolk’s sketch comedy club’s show!