Last year, Gallatin first-year Matthew Jeffers and Stern first-years Darren Liu and Alex Xu occupied room 1010 in Brittany Hall. Along with Steinhardt first-year Maung-Gyi “Mango” Akamatsu, who owned a DJ set, the roommates hosted what was meant to be a small dorm room get-together. It turned into dozens of NYU students packed into a dorm room with a line sprawled out the door. 

Inevitably, the room received noise complaints and stern warnings, so Jeffers, Liu and Xu took it upon themselves to rent out a gallery space for a DJ event, charging a small ticket price. This movement, which became known as 1010 after their dorm room number, proceeded to host numerous events like DJ sets and concerts.

Akamatsu then met first-year Jack Hughes in a music business class at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, where they formed a partnership to create their event company Vigil Events. When working on assignments in which they were required to brainstorm and plan music events, they became inspired to collaborate and establish their own company outside of class. In spring 2024, Akamatsu connected 1010 with Vigil Events to create Vigil Records –– both organizations joining forces to throw their first event as one team.

“I realized that it’s much easier to sell events when you put the focus on the music and the musicians,” Hughes said. “We realized that we wanted to put the emphasis for our events on the creatives and the music and the performers — less so creating a college party.”

This past summer, Vigil Records took in Tisch sophomore Nathan Sung as part of the team and the organization underwent a full rebranding process.

“We’re trying to make safe, accessible live music events that put a focus on up-and-coming artists,” Xu said. “Especially right now, because we really only booked NYU-based acts. We really want to give them a platform.”

Not only does Vigil Records aim to highlight growing musical artists in the city ––featuring bands like The Radio Relics and Dancer in their past events –– they also greatly care about cultivating a safe third space for students and artists. 

“We live and die by the music and community,” Sung said. “We are meticulous in making sure that the people we work with are good-faith actors and want to do right by our community just as much as we do.”

Hard work and countless hours go into planning Vigil Records events –– hence their company tagline, “up all night.” The group goes through handfuls of ideas for projects, many of which get thrown to the side, but once they find themselves with a realistic, unique plan, it sticks. This past January, just over a year after their initial Brittany Hall gathering, Vigil Records kicked off the semester with a rave at the dim sum restaurant New York Vybes on Mulberry Street.

“We don’t want to throw a show that’s been thrown before,” said Hughes. “You can have a rave, or you can have a dim sum rave.”

After a couple expected rejections, the owner of New York Vybes enthusiastically agreed to host. By the day of Dim Sum Decks, the team had advertised extensively online and decked the streets with catchy posters.

“We’ll spend a whole week just losing our minds over if we’ll sell enough tickets for this,” Xu said. “For the past three days, we’ve probably had a collective five hours of just running around in the freezing cold, putting out flyers.”

Before Dim Sum Decks began, the team spent hours making the venue unrecognizable, clearing tables and suspending flashing strobe lights along the walls. When the first rush of guests entered the venue, they were met with music from NYU DJ Quincy Davis. Custom fortune cookies inscribed with “Good music and energy awaits — Vigil Records” were tossed around the restaurant, and people jumped to the rhythm of the music. Once the party was in full swing, the Vigil Records team could finally take a breath. 

“After all that work we put into it, there’s this feeling of euphoria,” Xu said. “We’re like, ‘Oh my god, this was really cool.’”