Almost immediately after graduating from the Thornton School of Music with a degree in jazz studies in 2023, Dario Bizio received a call inviting him to audition for Laufey’s band.

He landed the gig and has played with Laufey for the past two years, embarking on her — and his — first arena tour in September. For the first leg, they played over 20 sold-out dates. The crowds of thousands were different from what he was used to seeing at local venues.

“Playing arenas is amazing. … I learned a lot about my playing and adjusting and being flexible,” Bizio said. “The reaction to whatever sound you’re making is different than a club or a smaller room.”

Between playing a packed homecoming show at Crypto Arena and performing at historic venues like the Hollywood Bowl and Red Rocks, the opportunities on tour were a “huge honor” as a Los Angeles native. But aside from touring, Bizio is also working on his own music, something that has been a constant in his life since childhood.

“My mom started showing me some piano when I was four years old, and I always just loved playing by ear,” Bizio said. “I just loved improvising and making stuff.”

He didn’t become a bassist until his fascination with the Beatles a few years later, idolizing Paul McCartney and his famous Hofner 500/1 Violin Bass. This early stepping stone into the world of rock ’n’ roll made the genre an early favorite of his.

“I was in jazz band in middle school, but it didn’t really resonate with me very much. I just sort of did it,” Bizio said.

That was until his former teachers and friends introduced him to jazz bass greats Ray Brown — who played with Oscar Peterson — and Scott LaFaro, who’s credited on Bill Evans Trio’s classic, “Sunday at the Village Vanguard.”

“With Dario, what I’ve learned is that he gives and he listens very hard,” said Max Nguyen, a consistent collaborator and a senior majoring in popular music performance. “It’s like taking yourself out of the picture and serving the music.”

Though Bizio enjoys life’s abnormalities on tour, it can be hard to live in an environment where music becomes all-encompassing for months at a time. Bizio said he began studying astronomy in Joshua Tree to help enrich his life outside of music.

“I have a lot of memories in Temescal Canyon, … Topanga [Canyon],” Bizio said.“I just want to keep learning … I love astronomy, really deeply.”

Outside of touring and gigs, Bizio has also found time in the studio. In 2023, he released his bass-centric debut single, “Particles In The Vase,” and recently helped cut new records with various artists.

“I got to more studio stuff the past year, year and a half. … It’s really cool that it started happening,” Bizio said. “The biggest difference is being able to listen back and wanting to do something different. That is just so different live — it’s just in the air, and whatever it is, is gone.”

Writing can easily become an insular, almost self-loathing process for any musician. But Bizio lets the task of composing exist sporadically. Influences on his solo material range from Big Thief to composer and cellist-turned-singer-songwriter Arthur Russell, though Bizio said he uses unique pedal-filtered bass arpeggios and soothing vocals that distinguish his work.

“I don’t write the most consistently, and I’m very open about that,” Bizio said. “I let it come and go when it wants to, but it is definitely a big passion of mine. I love to write music, and I would love to make a record one day.”

In the meantime, though, the trio of senior popular music performance majors Jaden Lehman, Nguyen and Bizio have recorded their own rock album, whose release is only contingent upon finalizing cover art — a topic they haven’t had time to discuss given Bizio’s recent stints on the road. While the writing process originates with Lehman on guitar, the improvisational nature of their work often creates a recording indistinguishable from the song’s original structure.

According to Lehman, no improvised song ever sounds the same twice as they wander into different keys at random and on instinct. Verbal communication is often thrown to the wind in lieu of the trust each musician has in each other’s intentions.

“We don’t actually talk about the music; we just talk about being patient,” Nguyen said. “That situation is very intense — very sensitively, patiently intense, not forcing anything.”

But each ounce of hesitation has to be countered with an equal amount of courage, a trait that Bizio’s playing instills.

“If Dario starts the song with something that’s totally new and unexplored that we’ve never done before. It’s just like, ‘Let’s go for it,’” Lehman said. “I have total faith in him.”