Tuition and Fees pair three-part harmonies with old-style tunes.
Courtesy | Phoebe VanHeyningen

For many Hillsdale students, it is their social circles that create connection. But for sophomores Phoebe VanHeyningen, Emily Griffith, and Fiona Mulley, their connection grew out of a shared passion for music.

“We all kind of have our own social circles during the day, and I think it’s really cool that you can have musically bonded friends that end up being people who are there for you 24/7 and that you love and care about so much,” VanHeyningen said. 

The trio make up the band Tuition and Fees, and have been performing in Hillsdale on and off campus for the last several months. The idea for the band wasn’t formulated until the spring of their freshman year, but VanHeyningen and Mulley began sharing music long before that.

“We were in Western Heritage together our first semester freshman year,” VanHeyningen said. “We sat next to each other and started a playlist of songs to play together in September, which kind of foreshadowed all of this.” 

While VanHeyningen knew both of her future bandmates from the start, Mulley and Griffith were initially less familiar with each other. However, crossover in their campus involvement quickly solved that, and all three soon became familiar with one another and their musical abilities.

“We knew each other from classes and theater and music, and we all knew we liked music,” Mulley said. “We all joined SAI and we said, ‘Wait, why aren’t we acting on this?’” Mulley said. 

One of their friends, sophomore Colin Joyce, nicknamed VanHeyningen and Mulley Tuition and Fees their freshmen year, which eventually became the band name. 

“Colin Joyce thought it was really funny that both of our names started with the syllable fee,” Mulley said. “So he started calling us ‘the fees’ and then he expanded it to tuition and fees. Skip ahead two semesters, we’re trying to figure out a band name, and we were like, ‘Well, Emily could be tuition, and we’re the fees.” 

According to Griffith,the group is a cross between The Andrew Sisters, Harry Styles, and Taylor Swift, combining a mixture of Bluegrass, Christian, and Kentucky Twang sounds.

“If you know The Peasall Sisters who sang in the movie ‘Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?’, we are very influenced by that, but we like to bring in the modern stuff because that’s what’s most popular,” Griffith said.

For their accompaniment , the group likes to keep things relatively simple — using only a guitar. VanHeyningen said she thinks this suits their approach to vocal arrangements. They often use three part harmonies, which is fairly unique as far as Hillsdale bands go, and this has helped to establish their identity on campus.

“What I think makes us unique is that so often people think three part harmony — between women especially — is kind of dead,” Griffith said. “They just kind of assume it’s like 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and it’s so awesome to help bring that back to a campus that is so musically talented in so many ways.”

The trio is set to play at Rough Draft for their next performance on Friday, Feb. 17 at 8:15 p.m. As they take advantage of opportunities to explore their love of music in Hillsdale, they encourage others to do the same.

“It’s really important for students to know they can be active in music on campus, outside of the music department,” Griffith said. “But there are things you can do independently where you can rediscover your love for music.”