Forget studying.

Reading Day is actually for dancing.

Brian McGaw and his manager Chris Nardone, a senior majoring in finance, have organized “Reading Day Rock and Rave,” a music and dance party which melds the typical Friday night band performance with an atypical location — Ciné.

“[It’s] going to be a high-energy audiovisual experience,” said Brian McGaw, a senior who performs under the name Aman Amun.

As an art student at the University, McGaw’s style is shaped by a variety of non-musical influences.

It is this background which has largely separated him from many other musicians in Athens.

Unconventional as his work is, finding the right space to perform has occasionally proven to be a difficult task.

Performing under the name Aman Amun, Brian McGaw’s style is shaped by non-musical influences, separating him from typical Athens musicians.

“All of the [standard] places for this project are a little weird because people who go to the venues are expecting a traditional show,” he said.

A standard performance by Aman Amun incorporates things that are decidedly non-traditional. His performances include elements such as virtual instruments and audience-involvement.

For example, in his latest show McGaw plays on mounting an iPhone to his chest, using the light it emits as a counterpoint to his music. 

He’s even created a virtual version of a Monome,which is a controller for electronic music.

At Ciné, Athens’ barcafé and cinema, he hopes he’ll be able to pull it off. 

If nothing else, the space lends itself to nonconformity.

“It’s both a fine arts venue and a dance, arty venue,” he said. “I’m excited to see how it goes.”

Also performing will be Electa Villain, whose collaboration is a product of wanting to diversify the sound.

“We wanted kind of a contrasting artist,” Nardone said. “He seemed to fit the whole rock and rave thing.”

The band’s style serves to raise Aman Amun’s energy level as well.

“I thought they would be a good addition to the show because not only are they talented, their music is really high-energy,” McGaw said.

Together the hope is that the sounds will complement one another, allowing the audience to sample either or both, and to raise the profile of each band.

 For Nardone in particular, the show is a chance for Aman Amun to become more well-known.

“Brian is really on the verge of breaking out, and I want to help him to [do that],” he said.

Within Aman Amun’s dense, experimental techno sound is also another goal: to increase the visibility of the nature of performing — “to blur the line between performer and performance.”

“I’m really trying to find ways to depict what this performance is,” McGaw said. “This is a good way of taking [something] that is usually behind a table and showing it to the audience.”

It makes a certain sense, then, how he got his pseudonym. Aman Amun takes his name from an ancient Egyptian deity that represented both the essential and the hidden.

When it comes to making and performing music, Aman Amun aims to explore those two concepts by illustrating the nature of composing and visualizing music.

Of course, he also aims to leave his audience feeling good by deepening their enjoyment and connection to his music. 

The response may be individual, but the feeling should be universal.

“I want to take the experience and make it more transcendental,” McGaw said. “You can watch or you can dance or you can do something completely different.”