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Student band The Hat Party is made up of Molly E. Egan ’26, Cal K. Levine ’26, and Max M. Jepsen ’26. Some may know them as Time Being, the name under which they performed not long ago. However, this handle truly was just for the time being, and they have moved on to a more whimsical one. Hat parties, and parties in general, are usually joyous occasions.

“We have hat parties from time to time, and they’re some of the greatest joys of our time in college. And they brought us together. They made us warm,” Levine said in an interview with The Crimson.

Jepsen added to this, saying, “I think at the end of the day, it’s about being together, and it’s about being warm, because I think our first hat party was in the cold of New Hampshire.”

Hat parties may be partly about warmth, but hats can also be stylistic choices which express someone’s unique flair. Jepsen himself wore a funky multicolored hat during the interview.

“It’s like a statement, you know, to have a hat,” he said.

The trio hopes to make statements through their performances as well, especially in order to get people dancing. Their group dynamic became more formal and established this semester, since they decided that by playing more shows, they would both have fun as members of the group, and have more of a reason to rehearse and improve. As the band has become more comfortable with each other, they have begun to push their boundaries creatively.

“As time has gone on and our friendship and musical relationships have evolved, we’ve begun to experiment more and more and come into our own, begun doing our own arrangements and writing originals,” Levine said.

Levine’s relationship with music spanned his elementary through high school years. He learned to play percussion in a program called Drums of Thunder during elementary school. His teacher, Louis D’Amico, would take fourth and fifth graders to perform at sporting events. After fifth grade, his musical experiences were less consistent, so he started looking for another creative outlet in college.

Similarly, Egan was exposed to music from a young age, since her mom played guitar. She learned guitar in middle school, but did not play in public until college, where she found friends like Jepsen and Levine with whom to perform and express herself.

Jepsen points to other outlets at Harvard where one can also make music.

“Shout out to the Harvard Jazz Combo Initiative, which is really awesome,” he said.

Jepsen took classical piano lessons when he was young, but switched to jazz piano in high school, when jazz became more of an outlet for him. He agreed with the other two members that the band’s allure is the community that it creates.

“Definitely, like Molly said, in college, it became like a real collective thing. We definitely built a community around freshman year, we were playing a lot of music just together, jamming all the time as a collective thing,” he said.

Though each member has their own unique style and musical preferences, they work together to compromise and create a mix of styles in their arrangements. They discussed their covers of songs like “Toxic” by Britney Spears, wanting to play music in a way that makes people dance. Over time, they have transitioned from purely playing traditional rock songs by artists like Pinegrove, The Strokes or other pop punkers to playing more pop in their sets.

“A lot of the music we play is to get people dancing, wouldn’t you say, and to get people having fun,” Egan said.

Incorporating influences like pop and jazz seemed like a logical step, since more interesting chords and rhythms like syncopation can enhance the danceability of the music. In their cover of “Friday I’m In Love” by The Cure, for example, the band added syncopation to the chorus.

“I honestly think, although we haven’t discussed it so much, the arrangements we’ve begun to gravitate toward have some funk influences in their syncopation and kind of offbeat chordal sounds,” Levine said.

The band plans to take this experimentation a step further, with original music in the works. Their original music, though not finalized yet, is more introspective and folky.

“I think that the goal is by the time we graduate to have at least something recorded, so that we can always remember this beautiful time being a band together,” Egan said.

The band members value the music they make together, especially since it is detached from other responsibilities like coursework. Music is something that they do for the joy of it. Egan’s advice to other students is to do things that bring fulfillment, instead of prioritizing tasks and activities that feel forced.

“Don’t get caught up in all the other things you could sort of distract yourself with,” Egan said. For her, The Hat Party is a good distraction.

Levine also emphasized that it is important to find a group of people with whom one gets along well and shares musical intuition.

As the three members are seniors, the future of their band is uncertain, depending on where the trio ends up living after graduating. The Harvard music scene will miss them, but they will continue to play music individually and keep in touch even if physical band practices become impossible. Still, Jepsen encourages others to start a band.

“I think a band can be the most fun thing in the world, to be a part of a band. So I think everyone out there who’s reading this, whether young or old, you should just go make your own band. Don’t look for a band to join,” he said.

The most meaningful thing for him, especially as a senior, is to spend time with friends and embrace one’s passions. It is all too easy to get caught in what he calls an “institutional trap,” where everything one does has to feel official and tied to an institution, like Harvard. However, it is worth it to let go of institutional ties and commit to something artistic that brings happiness and camaraderie.

So, to readers who yearn for a musical outlet: Find other musicians, become friends, and jam while you can.