Finding his rhythm: Gino Trujillo uses campus spaces to debut EP with bandmates
On a cold December night in Chicago 2025, Ball State first-year student Gino Trujillo stood on stage at Gman Tavern, preparing to share something deeply personal. His debut extended play (EP), “Night Dancer,” had officially dropped, and for the first time, the music he had written, recorded and refined over months was about to meet a live audience.
“I was extremely nervous,” Trujillo said. “My music is a personal part of me, so it’s weird to let that part of me out and let people hear that.”
Trujillo, a first-year biology life science teaching major from Valparaiso, Indiana, did not take a traditional path to Ball State. After high school, he moved to Chicago and attended Columbia College Chicago, where he studied music and spent two years focusing on piano and jazz performance.
His relationship with songwriting became more serious during his time in Chicago, when he began moving beyond piano performance and into composition.
In early 2023, he wrote “Clocking Out,” the first song he would release publicly. Though his first show at Columbia drew only a handful of listeners, Trujillo said he would “play for that crowd of three people, over and over again.”
But his plans changed abruptly when his stepfather — who helped fund his education — died.
“With that, I wasn’t able to afford going to Colombia, because it’s crazy expensive,” he said.
After stepping away from school and taking time to regroup, Trujillo eventually found his way to Ball State’s campus in 2025, drawn by the opportunity to study his other passion: science.
Music, however, remained central to his identity.
In December 2025, his persistence in pursuing his musical passion culminated in the release of “Night Dancer,” a five-track EP under the project name Noiroon. Blending indie pop and jazz influences shaped by his musical training, Trujillo said a lot of the themes presented in the EP are drawn directly from his own life.
“If I don’t have music, I don’t have anything,” he said. “Everything I crafted, I wrote, recorded … I don’t think I’d be anywhere without music.”
The EP’s title comes from its title track, which Trujillo described as a metaphor for a man with two lovers: one he loves and one who is a mistress.
“He’s yearning for the night dancer. It’s almost a metaphor for my actual life. A lot of my songs have metaphors to my personal life, whether they’re obvious or not, but it’s kind of … a metaphor of yearning for wanting something more, or going down the traditional path, rather than the path that would give me the most satisfaction,” he said.
Verse two of the song, he said, symbolizes his regret for not pursuing that satisfaction.
Though many of the tracks carry emotional weight, Trujillo said they do not fully reflect his day-to-day personality.
“I really am a happy guy, I promise,” he said.
Trujillo described his identity as split between two versions of himself: the focused science student and the expressive performer.
“My artist side is energetic, happy, … passion-driven. And my academic side is … tedious lab work, kind of [a] studious sort of thing,” he said.
While he spends his days doing lab work and attending classes, he said performing allows him to fully step into his extroverted personality.
“The performance [version of] me is where I can really shine,” he said. “I’m a big, big extrovert. I love talking to people. I love playing for people, and I love to see how people feel and react to my music.”
When he performs, he said he feeds off the crowd’s energy and allows himself to be “a little more loose” and expressive than he might be in a classroom setting.
The “Night Dancer” EP officially came together with help from fellow second-year Ball State student Anthony “Tony” Orta, a psychology major with a jazz minor, who played bass during the release show and assisted in the studio. Orta said the project pushed him creatively, especially as he transitioned from upright bass to electric.
“It was a really cool growing moment to figure out … my sound on the electric, and to be able to [be] there to support the great music that Noiroon was able to create.”
Orta said Trujillo’s piano playing was one of the first things that stood out to him as a collaborator.
“He had a very unique playing style with piano,” Orta said. “When he asked me if I wanted to play this gig in Chicago, I was like, ‘That sounds like a really cool opportunity.’”
Most rehearsals took place on Monday evenings, often the only time the group’s schedules aligned. Between Orta’s 19.5 credit hours, his responsibilities as a resident assistant on campus and Trujillo’s academic workload, time was limited.
“Sometimes we were able to play for three hours. Sometimes it was like an hour and a half,” Orta said, emphasizing how they would typically practice until someone kicked them out.
Before meeting, Trujillo would send chord sheets and recordings for them to study. Much of the preparation involved learning songs by ear, then experimenting with them in campus spaces.
“A lot of it was trying things over and over again,” he said. “[Gino] would tell [me] what sound he was aiming for and where we had room to express ourselves.”
Much of the EP’s rehearsal, recording and mixing took place across Ball State’s campus, from practice rooms in the Hargreaves Music Building to studios in Sursa Hall. Trujillo said navigating access to those spaces was not always easy, especially since they are not music majors. Still, the resources were instrumental in bringing the project to life.
“Utilizing those parts of campus really brought this entire show together,” he said. “[Every time] we would go in there, people were so helpful.”
Trujillo said seeing photos of Sursa Hall’s recording studio before transferring to Ball State helped reassure him that he could continue making music at Ball State.
“It’s a really, really nice studio,” he said. “We’re talking like thousands of dollars worth of equipment in that studio.”
About 90 percent of the EP’s vocals were recorded in Sursa, along with several instrumental tracks, including keyboard parts. Rehearsals for live performances took place in practice rooms inside the Hargreaves Music Building.
When Trujillo and Orta entered those spaces, they never had key cards to access the studios. However, teachers and faculty there would let them in, knowing that they weren’t doing anything wrong.
“When we went in there, nobody would … ask questions. I mean, … we were doing what we were supposed to be doing. We looked like regular music students. And again … that’s a message I wish I could send [to] Ball State,” he said. “… I wish [Ball State could] make it accessible for … anybody [who] has passions in music … we shouldn’t let things be behind a paywall.”
The band’s lineup during rehearsals typically included Trujillo, Orta and drummer TJ Poole, a Muncie-area musician whom Orta met during jam sessions at Midnight Cafe in the village before the business closed.
For the Chicago performance, the group was also joined by Miguel Chavez, a guitarist from the Chicago area who learned several of the songs by ear in a single rehearsal before the show.
However, the Chicago performance came together during one of the most stressful times of the semester: finals week. Orta had a music theory exam the same day they were scheduled to leave for the show.
While Orta finished his exam, Trujillo rushed to prepare merchandise for the show.
“Gino was running around trying to make different t-shirts for the gig that we pressed,” Orta said, explaining that they had planned to print 10 shirts but pressed only six.
After packing up their equipment, the group drove to Chicago.
“It was so surreal being actually there and being in a band, in the sense of, ‘This isn’t for a school thing. This is a personal thing,’” he said.
When the band finally took the stage in Chicago, Trujillo remembers his nerves quickly gave way to relief. Audience members approached him after the set, praised him and bought merchandise.
“I had a ton of people come up to me telling me, ‘Wow, your set was f***ing fantastic. Genuinely, your songs are really good. I love the ways you guys crafted them.’”
The night also marked a milestone for Orta, who is 20, as being paid to perform at a Chicago bar venue felt “really cool.”
“Was it much? No, but I think the first experience was amazing,” Orta said.
One of the most memorable moments of the night for him came during “Night Dancer” itself. The ending section, which he said is more interpretive, felt especially alive during the set.
“It felt more like a conversation,” Orta said. “There’s suspense, there’s build, but there’s calm too. You don’t always know where it’s going.”
After the show, the celebration was short-lived. Trujillo had a 7:30 a.m. exam the next morning back in Muncie.
The band left Chicago around midnight, but a snowstorm hit on the drive home. Orta took over driving for the final stretch while Trujillo attempted to sleep and study in the passenger seat.
They arrived back in Muncie around 5:10 a.m.
“To preface, I was 10 minutes late [to my final exam],” Trujillo said.
For Trujillo, the audience’s response at the show affirmed the risks he took in sharing his work publicly. As he continues balancing his science major with his creative pursuits, he said music will always remain at the core of his life.
“Music will always be my biggest thing,” he said.
Trujillo said he hopes listeners can experience the EP as something they can return to during everyday moments, whether walking to class, driving home from work or relaxing after a long day.
“I hope they can get a sense of enjoyment,” he said. “I want them to just be able to be like, ‘Yeah, that sounds like a good thing to listen to right now.’”
Beyond indie pop and jazz, Trujillo draws inspiration from yacht rock artists like Steely Dan and Toto, Japanese city pop musicians such as Miki Matsubara and Spanish rock bands he heard growing up. As a first-generation college student whose father is from Mexico, he said that cultural influences naturally make their way into his music.
For example, in his single, “Tuned In,” he included a dramatic Spanish-language monologue inspired by telenovelas.
“It’s just me talking there the entire time,” he said. “I really wanted to convey, like, you’re walking in and your parents are watching some dramatic show.”
Orta said his own musical influences also shape the EP’s sound. Alongside jazz training, he draws inspiration from artists like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, whose bass lines he studies closely.
“Even when they’re simplistic, they’re fundamental,” he said. “Learning those lines really helped me explore the neck of my instrument.”
Looking ahead, Trujillo confirmed another EP is already in the works, along with a new single set to be released in April on all streaming services.
“The biggest thing I say is just to ‘just do it,’” he said, offering advice to other Ball State students balancing music with academics. “You can make a lot of excuses … but if you really want something to happen, you’ve got to put yourself first and be responsible.”
As the weather warms, he plans to host a small promotional event near the Scramble Light on campus, where they hope to give away merchandise to students who stream the EP, another effort to bring his music directly to the Ball State community that helped shape it.
Contact Meghan Braddy via email at meghan.braddy@bsu.edu.
This article is republished as part of a collaborative content-sharing agreement between Ball State Unified Media and Indiana Public Radio, established to expand access to high-quality journalism and to better inform and serve the public through trusted, in-depth reporting.
