By: Maria Johnson
Web Connection
Clean the room? Eh. Do laundry? Not feeling it. Homework? Ha, that’s a good one. Play guitar? Heck yes! Listening to and making music is pretty much one of the best ways to procrastinate in high school. Plenty of students are aware of this and use their time as teens to learn about and perfect their own sound.
“I love music more than I love a lot of people, which is probably unhealthy,” senior Molly O’Malley said. “It has done so much for my life. It’s been one of the only and most consistent things I’ve had going for me throughout my high school career, and of course I’ve been listening to it since I was born. It’s helped me make the closest friends I’ve ever had, especially since most of us are all musicians.”
O’Malley invited me to sit through a practice with her band, Aim for the Skies. We arrived at Paul (the lead singer and guitar player)’s house and O’Malley led me downstairs. I hardly got an introduction to the rest of the band, but that was okay because I was ready to hear some music. And I surely did just that. Every song got my foot tapping, my head nodding, or my hand patting the dog’s coat to the rhythm. I can’t help but smile when I’m watching musicians play, especially when they’re good at what they do and are having fun. Everyone would kind of do their own thing between songs. Eventually someone would start a familiar tune and the others would jump in. Near the end of a song, everyone looks up and around at each other, as if to confirm that they’re supposed to stop playing soon.
The other costumers at Steak’N’Shake weren’t exactly pleased with our trip there after practice. I talked to these guys about what they do. Their hilarious responses were loud and all over the place. They feed off of, interrupt, and insult each other. I sat with a big group of kids, even though O’Malley was the only one who has yet to graduate. A snippet of our interesting chat went down as follows. I’ll try narrating some and perhaps it will be less confusing.
Why do you play music?
“Because I hate myself.” And we’re already straying away from a serious start. “No!” I appreciated when Tyler tried to focus on answering the question. “I started playing piano when I was like (“Did you really?”) two. Yeah. (“Okay, I don’t believe you.”) My first instrument was piano.” “Mine was guitar.” Good, we’re staying on track here. “In eighth grade, I started with guitar, and moved to bass about a year ago.” “Why do you suck at piano then?” “Too many notes!” “I feel like we sort of altered your question.” “Get chicks!” Mitchell decided to just throw his interest in girls in every couple seconds. “I started ‘cause it was (“The cool thing to do?”) I just wanted to play music.” “Get chicks!” “It’s really one of the only constant things in my life.” “Get chicks!” “I know that I will always play music, but I don’t know about anything else.” “Yep.” “I could die tomorrow, and know that I just- (“You’re not going to be able to play music when I shove your arm into a woodchipper.” “We can play music at his funeral.” “I’m gonna play the drums!”) Despite the other members’ remarks, Tyler is persistent about the consistency of music. “I might not even live in the same state, or go to the same college, or have the same major, in like a week- (“But you’ll still be playing.”) Yeah, that’s the only constant thing in my life.” “There’s a movie on Netflix called Daylon Tucker vs Evil and you have to watch it” Well, we were on topic for a while, but I can’t expect too much from them. “I might not get mail tomorrow.” “That was like in theaters for a month!” “It was really good! It has the pirate from Dodgeball!” “David, it’s your turn to answer.” Thanks to whoever that was who re-focused the conversation. Again. “Oh, when I was thirteen, I had nobody to love, so I loved the drums, and they’ve always been here for me.” “I hate everything.” “My cliché answer, but real answer, is I wanted to change someone’s life the way music changed mine.” “Is that cherry in Coke, ‘cause it’s red.” Alright, that’s enough with that question.
Who writes your songs?
“It’s all me.” “Naw, it’s all Paul.” Paul’s gonna handle this question for a bit. “I usually start with an idea and then I bring it to everyone. Back when the band started, I pretty much wrote everything, then I got good musicians with me. There’s like talented musicians in my band now, so I don’t have to write as much.” This must be semi-interesting topic for them, because no one’s changed the subject yet. “He usually writes the lyrics, and then Mitchell writes the guitar riffs.” “Yeah.” “It’s like fifty- fifty.” “Paul comes up with a fantastic idea with a song, and then we ruin it.” “No, no, no! You got that backwards. I come up with a horrible song idea, and then you all come in and go, ‘How the heck do we salvage this?’” “You can tell your teacher this is what real Louisville bands are like.” “We’re not real.” “I’m imaginary.” “We’re not musicians.” “We’re mathematicians?” And on that note, we’ll move on from the interview.
Without writing a novel of the whole conversation, the gist of it that was actually about music somehow revealed that these guys care about what they do and work sort of hard. They have to sacrifice a lot of time for practice and be really persistent and dedicated. It seems as though this group is really going to stick with each other.
“For us, when we play together, it’s like a mutual feeling of a combination of liberation, therapy, and a comforting sense of understanding that I can’t seem to find anywhere else,” O’Malley said.
Although, even if they don’t stay together forever, I doubt any of them will ever be able to stop playing music. Or stop being hilarious.
Jackson has always dreamed of being able to live off of his music. Like all high school kids, he was finding where he belonged and what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. What you experience and do outside of school as a teen is just as important as what you absorb from being stuck in a desk for six hours. Jackson and his friends worked hard and played with different tunes. They’ve learned tons and changed things up here and there since they first started playing together, and their sound has only improved.
“I think we finally fell into what we were meant to do all along,” Jackson said. “When we play these songs together there is just something that clicks. We are reaching such a larger demographic and more people want to listen. It truly blows my mind. To think that people would like the music we write. We are just average guys that love music. It amazes me that people care.”
Sometimes all a musician needs is someone willing to listen. Well, ears have been opened, and they’ve certainly heard something special. ALNR caught the attention of Scott Frazier of Primary Wave Talent Management, and they’re now signed and ready to step up their game. They independently released their album Said & Done in 2010 and are preparing to launch their new EP soon with Primary Wave’s help. Clearly, Jackson has really benefited from staying persistent and keeping his eye on the prize.
“If you stay focused, people will find you,” Jackson said. “That’s what happened to most all the greats. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. Never give up. Keep fighting and keep writing.”
