There are definitely lots of musical themes and musical events here at John W. North whether it’s the plays that the school put on in the theater or their choir classes. What about the musicians that aren’t in theater or choir? As a musician who isn’t in any of those classes, I wanted to shed some light on those more unknown artists. The first musician I interviewed was my friend whom I have done a collaboration with about a year ago.
Elijah Garcia is a very outgoing funny person who is always fun to be around but listening to his music might make you think otherwise. “When was the first time he showed interest in music?” “Since I was a baby boy! I’ve always been interested in music.” Elijah answered, by putting emphasis on the Bs. The first instrument he ever picked up was the drum set in the fifth grade, when they had a drumline program, that he signed up for, and ever since, he’s been playing.
When asked about the band that influenced him the most he replied with the famous pop-punk band Blink 182. “I always heard the songs in the American Pie movies and I was like “oh those songs are good!” but I didn’t know what they were.” Elijah’s message he wants to put in his music is to love people and treat others with kindness and God is the way because he’s a Christian. Elijah’s whole life he has been surrounded by music, even playing in his church’s band. He finds the inspiration to write the songs is from past girls he has been with but sometimes he writes fake stories about him getting heartbroken and puts them into songs.
Now although my next interviewee is in both theater and choir, he also writes and plays music outside of those classes. Jacob Heely plays electric guitar with a few of his friends, one being a past student of John W. North. Once Jacob and I got together for the interview, I asked the first question I asked Elijah. Jacob answered chuckling, “This is going to sound stupid, but right when quarantine happened, I watched the Netflix movie The Dirt and I was like ‘Wow, this is awesome!’” Jacob continued about how he really liked the music that was in the movie, which led him to listen to more 80s hair metal bands such as Mötley Crüe, Pantera, Kiss, and Van Halen. During that time, Jacob found the drummer for Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee, to be super cool, inspiring him to want to learn the drums. “So I got a drum kit, I started playing for a bit, but then I realized I sucked and my friend was a way better drummer and that it would work better if I just picked up something else.” Jacob said laughing. So that’s when he started to learn the guitar.
Jacob’s Dad also played a lot of guitars and had many of them in their house while growing up and still does. His Dad gave him one lesson over quarantine then Jacob was all self-taught from there. When asked about what bands/artists influence him the most he said that it changes a lot but what really influences him to pick up guitar and play is any riff that’s just super heavy or something cool to nod your head to, giving Pantera and Megadeth as an example. I then asked what he wanted to stand for as a musician. Jacob looked up and thought about it for a quick second then responded, “Ahh, that’s hard but I would say the main reason I play is ’cause when I get with my friends we just have such a great time. But when I think back to when I first heard a Mötley Crüe song I remember thinking, oh my god this is awesome, and that whole rush I first got and how I felt super inspired, and that’s what I want to do for others, inspire.”
I asked Jacob what kept him motivated to continue playing guitar and writing music. Upon asking, Jacob’s response was something I’m sure we can all relate to. At first, he jokingly answered, “The women” but then quickly got back on track. “I don’t know if validation is the right word, probably not but if I’m playing a riff with my band and my dad comes in and he hears us playing and he’s like “That sounds bad*ss! Did you guys make that up? That needs to be a song!” I think that’s what really keeps me motivated because I want to keep having moments like that.” After hearing about his dad a few times throughout the interview I was curious as to how long he had been playing guitar so I asked. Jacob wasn’t too sure how long his Dad had been playing but said that he might have been playing since middle school in a music class that he had.
With that all being said there are plenty more unknown musicians that aren’t in theater or choir. All their genres range from Hip-Hop to Rock but they are all very unique and great at what they do. You can find Elijah’s music on Soundcloud under “parker”. Jacob is currently writing songs with his band.
