Derian Silva
Staff Writer
Reece Niccum is a guitarist and vocalist for the band The Dystopians. He is also a student of business at Parkland and a worker at a music studio in Danville.
What started out as a simple submission of his band’s music to Parkland’s radio studio took him on a journey that would end with him deciding to come to Parkland.
Deane Geiken, radio director at Parkland’s WPCD 88.7 FM, took interest in the band after finding out that they performed so well even though they were only in high school. He suggested to them that they submit their work to the on-campus record label Perimeter Road Sound Recordings to see if they could get a deal to record an album.
Niccum submitted their music, and they got the record deal while they were still in high school.
During his time in high school, Niccum was uncertain about where his future would take him and he considered many options like college, the U.S. Army, and audio engineering.
He got close to joining the Army; in fact he was just a few days away from starting when he had a change of heart. After deciding not to enlist, he spoke to his brother who suggested he study business.
While pursuing music Niccum has found that he tends to gravitate towards taking on leadership roles.
“I’m not going to say I’m the lead guy, but I kind of run things. I’m usually the first one to the show,” Niccum said.
Niccum always was that person who completed tasks that needed to get done. In his previous musical endeavors, he took on the roles of organizing, coordinating, and scheduling the bands. Niccum’s realization that he took his musical endeavors seriously inspired him to study business.
As a first-generation student, this wasn’t the easiest endeavor. He didn’t have a lot of people to talk to about how to pursue education. He had signed a record label deal with Perimeter Road, though, and they were able to help him in coming to Parkland.
Niccum didn’t initially know he wanted to study business. He also considered studying nutrition and veterinary science.
“If you ever see me with an animal, you’ll think that there is something wrong with me,” Niccum said. “I love animals; any time I see them I lose all social etiquette.”
Niccum considered studying nutrition because of his own life experiences.
“With nutrition, I went through an eating disorder and I thought that would correspond with helping me get better and helping others get better, but would also give me a sustainable career,” Niccum said.
Now, his business courses keep him focused and engaged with the material he applies to situations in the real world. He takes a lot of what he learns in his business courses and applies it to his band to make it more entrepreneurial.
His band is an aspect of his life he takes very seriously. They just finished recording an album “Perceptions of the Spectrum” and released a single on Oct. 2 titled “Throne.” They performed a show at the student union at Parkland on the same day to promote their single release, however, the show had an undertone of melancholy as it was the day after the mass shooting in Las Vegas.
“We were all super pumped about the release and everything, but there’s that underlying brown note. It really resonated with us and hurt us,” Niccum said.
Motivated to use their music to bring positivity into the world, they decided that all the proceeds from the album and single release will go towards helping the victims of the tragic shooting.
“We’re going to make a Facebook live, kind of giving all the information and how to donate and everything,” Niccum said.
For more information on the Dystopians, visit perimeterroad.bandcamp.com.