Information compiled by Ken Johnson, Staff Writer
Representing UNH
“This is a student-focused piece, [it] was not conducted by any department,” UNH senior Vinny Mwano said. He said he did, however, consult others on how UNH wanted to be seen and what made UNH unique.
“How can I do a project or make an original song that would best represent university spirit and pride and enthusiasm?” Mwano said. “What makes UNH?”
The Anthem
Tim Sullivan, a senior at the University of Rhode Island, wrote the instrumental portion for the music video that accompanies the new anthem. Scott Syrene and Adam Carrington, UNH seniors, wrote the lyrics.
Syrene said he wrote the first two verses the ones he performed in the video, and Carrington wrote the bridge.
Syrene said that he has known Mwano for a long time and Mwano knew that he has done music in the past.
“… he knew that I have done music in the past so he came to me and asked me if I would be willing to write the verses and perform them,” Syrene said.
Syrene said that Mwano sent a list of criteria that he wanted within the verses and created verses that encompassed that.
After Mwano had Syrene’s lines, and they were mixed, he recognized he needed a good bridge to go with Syrene’s rapping and ended up finding Carrington through New Hampshire Gentlemen.
“Vinny had the idea for [the music], and I was one of two people he knew who could come up with the instrumental part for it, so he reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to do it,” Sullivan said.
The Music Video
Mwano said the idea for the video originated from the Official UNH Happy video that he created and released this spring. The Happy video used copyrighted material so it couldn’t be sent out. He said that the idea to create the UNH Anthem video was formed through talking with a colleague.
Mwano said music videos that are remixes, like the UNH Party video, have been released by students which are not appropriate for all ages and don’t represent the “whole unity of the university.”
Sullivan said Mwano gave him the criteria and that the original building block was a UNH video with students chanting “I believe in UNH.”
“So I sort of went in there, and I took just that part of the video and brought it into the song and then sort of built the song off that so everything is at the same tempo as the original chants, and then I sort of just built the instruments from there,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said the entire process of making the music, including the tweaks to it, was a few-month process, but the main idea only took a few days.
He received good guidance and came up with what he wanted to be within the song while keeping it appropriate.
Mwano conceptualized the project, filmed and directed the music video.
Mwano said the video, except for the sports portions, were shot by him. Most of the video was shot over Homecoming weekend, and a couple of clips were used that he had shot for his UNH Happy video.
“I wanted to produce a product that best represented the university’s pride, spirit and everything that makes UNH what it is, and that product is an original song with an original music video and I hope that everyone who sees it is able to relate and have a little joke at it,” Mwano said.
The UNH Anthem music video is available to watch on You Tube and the audio is free to download on SoundCloud.
