Music Spread

Stephan

Stephan Ogden is a junior at EHS. He has been rapping for about five years, but just recently posted his first song, “Predictably Unpredictable,” onto a social networking site called SoundCloud. SoundCloud is an online community where artists, musicians and bands can upload their work, collaborate with other artists, and promote their talent.

“It’s an amazing community with many amazing people working to better themselves and appreciate the talents of others,” said Ogden.

For him, creating music is no chore. With a pen, paper, and his “good ol’ thinking cap”, Ogden created a song within three to four hours and was ready to upload it to SoundCloud.

Stephan’s writing process, like other artists, has to be inspired by someone or something.

“I write about struggles, passions, love, hate, religion, etc. I pour my heart and my soul into my music. Every time you hear me spit a line, or read a verse, or whatever; you are listening to a little part of me. And that’s what music is about. It’s about expression,” said Ogden.

Although his first song “Predictably Unpredictable” took only a few hours to write and one hour to perform, some songs can take up to days or even weeks to complete.

Ogden was first introduced to rapping by his older brother, who also raps.

“My brother’s influence played a part in me deciding to pick it up,” said Ogden. “He was a rapper too, believe it or not, and a really good one. I don’t think I’ll ever get to his level.”

Although Ogden is passionate about rapping, he does not plan on going into a career that involves music.

“Hip-hop is, in a sense, slowly fading,” commented Ogden. “If you haven’t noticed, rap is underground now. Nobody wants to hear good rap.”

Even though Ogden doesn’t envision music being a huge part of his life later on, it definitely is now.

Legend

Junior Legend Coonfield is another student who has a love for making music. Coonfield is part of a band, Hotel Coffee, as lead singer. Hotel Coffee is a band made up of three people – Legend, Tsunami Steve and Luke. Their band plays alternative and rock music, but just like everyone else, they face everyday stereotypes.

“People call us a melodic punk band, but that’s not really true,” he commented. “A lot of people think rock musicians are just selfish and lazy, and that instead of getting real jobs, we’d rather just party all the time. But it’s really not that easy. It takes a lot of time and effort to get anything done.”

Coonfield has been apart of Hotel Coffee for approximately one year. They have played music in several different places, including The JackPot, The Bottleneck, Eagles Lodge, Mr. Luckys, The Replay Lounge, Studio B and Studio C, The Percolator, and even at house parties.

“We also have some gigs worked out to play in the art-tober fest in Kansas City next year,” he added.

Hotel Coffee got their first gig at a music store, Richards Music, that Legend interned at.

“Those guys have helped and supported us so much” says Legend.

As of now, Hotel Coffee has about 17 original songs.

“We write songs, and then end up dropping them all the time,” said Coonfield.

His inspiration isn’t hard to find, for him and his band finds it everywhere.

“Most of our songs are just based on my interactions with the people around me, but honestly pretty much everything inspires us. We had a song about Twinkies once, but that got dropped.”

Splitting the money between the three band members is very simple for Hotel Coffee.

“We split the amount of money we receive into fourths, and who ever drove that night gets the extra money for gas,” Coonfield said. “We usually get about two dollars for every person that comes to watch us.”

Coonfield is hoping to pursue a career playing music.

“My ultimate goal in life is to be able to make a living playing the music that I’ve written,” said Coonfield. He believes the first step to doing so is getting out there and playing for anyone that is willing to listen.

Nick

Rather than singing or rapping, Nick Katzfey is more behind the scenes, and creates the beats to songs. For him, it is a fun hobby that he doesn’t have to spend a lot when it comes to equipment.

“I just use a simple mini keyboard,” said Katzfey.

Not only does Katzfey use technology to create the music, but he also uses it to find inspiration and come up with new music ideas.

“I realized I wanted to create beats when I was on YouTube one day and found this guy named Fel. I really liked his music, and I decided I wanted to be just like him,” said Katzfey.

He is also inspired by other rap artists such as Odd Future and Kingicle Mar.

He didn’t always make beats, though. Nick Katzfey started off with creating dubstep, also by using a mini keyboard, before picking up creating beats.

“I have been creating beats for about three months now, and have been making dubstep for about two years. I lean more towards making beats.”

Katzfey also enjoys creating beats because its not a quick project, it’s time consuming, and he gets to work with other local artists, such as Stephan Ogden.

“I had heard that Stephan raps and I listened to his music a few weeks ago. I really liked it,” said Katzfey. “I really wanted to produce for him. So we just uploaded a song to SoundCloud, where you can upload sounds or clips. He came over one night, he already had the lyrics, I already had the beat, and we were ready to record.”

Katzfey has also recorded with other close friends, and has uploaded four songs to SoundCloud including vocals, but several with just the beats.

When asked how long creating a single beat takes, he said, “It could take me three hours to three weeks. It takes a quite a while to make them.”

Katzfey is not quite sure if he wants to make music for the rest of his life. All he knows is that he is enjoying the hobby as of now, and that’s all that matters.