Citrus College students who know their peers only in a classroom setting may be surprised to discover what many of their acquaintances, tablemates, and group-project-partners do with their free time.
Whereas some choose to focus on sports, and others dedicate hours to video games, there is a large but mostly unnoticed group of independent bands and musicians at Citrus, who are on campus by day and releasing original music by night.
In the past several weeks, the Clarion has been spreading flyers around bulletin boards and on social media in an attempt to get in contact with these local musicians, and through these flyers, we were reached out to by four young artists and songwriters.
Royce Westend is a music major at Citrus, as well as an up-and-coming indie pop artist. The song “For a Day,” off his recent album release titled “Love and Loss,” details a short-term fling and its downfall after just a day. Royce described the instrumental process for this song in an email, saying “This song was originally made up with loops found online. Then I took the demo to my best friend and producer, Dean (Pacheco) and he re-recorded the loops with some changes to make it more original. The guitar, keys and bass were all played live by Dean and he added a new drum beat in Logic Pro.” Dean Pacheco is credited as a composer and producer on seven of the nine tracks found on “Love and Loss.” Royce has been making music since his freshman year of high school, influenced by artists such as Clario, Blood Orange and Ravyn Lenae. Royce is scheduled to play a show at the world-famous Whisky a Go Go on June 17 in West Hollywood. Opening for “Bar Bionic,” general admission tickets are $20 online.
The band Unicorns at Heart is a four-piece indie rock outfit based out of Hesperia who play shows all around the LA, San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire areas. Founded by brothers Ryan and Rico Loredo, Unicorns at Heart has an extensive catalog of music dating all the way back to 2016, with notable album releases such as 2024’s “Arrhythmia” and 2018’s “No Choice.” Ryan has been a music student at Citrus for four years. At Citrus, he met current bandmates Gabe Rupert and Troy Cross, who play bass and drums, respectively. Unicorns at Heart pulls inspiration from the Beatles, Weezer, Elliot Smith and the Pixies to create their own unique blend of genres, sometimes dabbling in pop, punk and funk musical styles as well. The lyrics for their song “You’re a Mirror Baby” were written as Rico envisioned a “person being nothing but a mirror” and riffed his way onward by coming up with new ways to branch out from the original premise.
“I wrote the lyrics in probably like 10 minutes because all these examples and puns were coming to me,” Rico said. “It’s fun when an idea comes all at once. The song is basically just a statement of frustration with seeing this quality in everyone, including myself.”
Unicorns at Heart recently played a show at the Viper Room in Hollywood, the latest in a series of concerts they have been playing in the Los Angeles bar scene. Currently, Unicorns at Heart is on a brief hiatus from playing shows but is expected to return within a few months.
Paul Najeria is a student composer in his fourth semester at Citrus’ music department. While having already earned a degree and coming from a different field, he is working on a new degree in hopes of pursuing a different career path. Paul has been writing music since he was 14, and he wrote his first large orchestra piece at 16. The Citrus Blue Note Jazz Orchestra commissions him to play his work on campus, and he has his own professional orchestra, called The Everything Orchestra. On April 4, Paul worked with the Citrus Blue Note, alongside Grammy-nominated artists Jay Jennings and Bob Reynolds, working directly with the guest artists to arrange their music for the jazz big band format. Paul submitted several songs, including a beautiful original piece titled “Dear God” performed by The Everything Orchestra. He also sent in his take on the iconic track “Asleep” by The Smiths, performed by the Citrus Blue Note, as well as Radiohead’s “Exit Music for a Film” performed by the Citrus Blue Note alongside the Garey High School string orchestra, with student vocalist Micah Luna. The Everything Orchestra held its debut show on March 7 this year and will play a free 21+ event on May 15.
Based out of Riverside, Identity Crisis has been an indie alt-rock band for about a year. During that year, their drummer, Richard Sanchez, was a student at Citrus. Identity Crisis recently released its debut full-length album, “The Full Thing,” on March 28. Featuring 13 songs, at a runtime of 48 minutes, “The Full Thing” features themes of life, growth and self-realization. The opening track, “Johnny” is built around several different existing motifs and cliches that have been found in popular rock music.
“We have a teenage love affair gone awry with the murder of the love interest in the chorus. The Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’ is the inspiration there, if the events of that song were seen through the eyes of a bystander,” said Richard. “The Clash’s ‘Somebody Got Murdered’ also inspired the idea of the song. The melodic inspiration is Nirvana’s ‘In Bloom,’ which I think is just a very off-kilter pop song with a meandering guitar riff, which I was trying to emulate.”
During live performances, Richard said, they like to drag out parts of this song in ways that the studio version cuts short.
“When we play this live, we like to jam this middle section out and really lean into the off-kilter-ness of the part, which I think is very fun,” said Richard. “It contrasts really nicely with the straighter and more forward chorus.” Identity Crisis has several upcoming shows, including an event at Ritual Brewing Co. in Redlands on May 16, as well as The Doll Hut in Anaheim on May 17.
Correction: In a previous version of this story, Unicorn at Heart’s band member Rico Loredo was not given the proper quote attribution. The story has been updated with the correct name attributed. The Clarion apologizes for the error.
Story updated at 1:30 a.m. PST June 12, 2026.
