SF: Coming from a rock background, the hardest part is just finding practice spaces. The music building has all these tiny practice rooms that you can use if you're playing piano or flute but...

JN: They even say "no drums, no amplified instruments allowed." I have a lot of friends in music school and the hardest part sometimes for me is seeing the contrast with the lifestyle of a musician here. It's not really a difference of talent. It's just that people have so much less time. Scheduling rehearsals, forget about it.

THC: Part of the reason the Crimson is organizing (Blast!) is because we want to create a sense that there is an on-campus music scene.

SF: It's tough. This university, I think, is very conservative in the arts. There are people doing more alternative forms of music, but it's just not supported. Or it's harder to organize it.

JN: The tradition of most American colleges is to be bastions of creative or experimental music, or even experimental forms of mainstream music like indie rock. At Harvard, I think there's a desire to be culturally conservative. I was shocked that people had such a negative reaction to the Violent Femmes concert last year. At any other college, people will get very excited about a band that original and that distinctive playing. Here you can see the UC posters. "Who wants the Violent Femmes? We want Third Eye Blind!"

THC: So why should anyone come and see the Magic Number?

HB: Because we're the exception!

DH: All the reactions have been good.