Sounds like teen spirit in Eagle-Vail

For the first time, Battle Mountain High School students will release a music CD with their yearbook

Click to Enlarge Browse Vail Daily Photos Molly Allard, right, sings along with Megan Houghton during a recording session Wednesday at Battle Mountain High School. The pair was recording "Leave the Pieces" by The Wreckers for a CD of student music that will be released with the BMHS yearbook. Theo Stroomer/Vail Daily Get Arts and Entertainment Feeds

Sarah Mausolf
Vail CO, Colorado
May 9, 2008

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EAGLE-VAIL, Colorado — In a recording studio the size of a walk-in closet, 18-year-old Megan Houghton attempts the note that’s been eluding her.

“Will you ever know,” she croons, falling flat on the “know.”

Houghton turns to her friend, Molly Allard, with a pained smile. “That’s a wrong note,” she cringes.

Houghton tries the verse from Taylor Swift’s “Stay Beautiful” again, her flip flop tapping to the beat as a purplish band creeps across the computer screen, marking her progress on GarageBand.

On this try, she nails it.

In this makeshift studio attached to the computer lab at Battle Mountain High School in Eagle-Vail, an album has been taking shape.

Years after graduation, alumni often turn to their yearbook pictures for clues about who they we were as teens. While most graduates only have the sights of high school to look back on, Battle Mountain alumni will have the sounds. This month students will release a CD for the first time in school history.

Student composers and band members have laid down 15 tracks ranging from country to rap.

The CD will be free for students who bought yearbooks. It comes out at the same time as the yearbooks, which are tentatively planned for release Tuesday, May 20. Album-makers are considering selling copies to the public.

Inside the studio

Look for song samples on the www.vaildaily.com home page in the media center on the right

The idea for the CD arose from a brainstorming session about fundraising for the yearbook. Junior Rudy Ybarra, the yearbook editor, came up with the idea for an album.

“I was just thinking, there’s a lot of music out there, band-wise, and a lot of students don’t get to see what they can do,” he said.

Andrew Fersch, an English teacher who oversees the yearbook, has been helping the students record their songs.

“The best thing is just how talented the students are,” he said, noting Houghton’s Taylor Swift cover as one of many examples. “I’ve seen Taylor Swift live in performance, and Megan’s was better than hers.”

Of course, the album doesn’t profess to be professional. For one thing, it hasn’t been mastered, so some tracks are louder than others. The equipment also fell short of star quality. Although students tried to resuscitate an aging 24-track machine in the music room, they eventually opted for Apple’s GarageBand program. A handful of students also recorded songs on their own. As it turns out, the slightly rough-around-the-edges quality of the album makes it endearing.

“Clearly all the students aren’t going to be at the level of a professional artist, but they shouldn’t be,” Fersch said shortly before launching into the project. “That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get an opportunity to share their music with a larger audience. Everybody who has shown interest so far loves doing it, and to me, that’s all that matters.”

Track listing

1. Megan Houghton performs “Stay Beautiful” by Taylor Swift 2. Megan Houghton performs “Forgetting You” (original) 3. Molly Allard and Megan Houghton perform “Leave the Pieces” by The Wreckers 4. Sean Pack performs “Falling” (original) 5. Remnants of a Riddle performs “Can’t Breathe” (original) 6. Remnants of a Riddle performs “A Change in Scene” (original) 7. Remnants of a Riddle performs “Just Wanna Burn” (original) 8. Martin Corral performs “Aires de Son” 9. Sonic Profusion performs “Starlight Ray” (original) 10. Sonic Profusion performs “Be Solitude” (original) 11. Sonic Profusion performs “In the House — In a Heartbeat” by John Murphy 12. Sonic Profusion performs “Maui Onion” (original) 13. Hpnotiq performs “Hpnotiq” (original) 14. Hpnotiq performs “Hesitation” (original) 15. Amy Webb performs “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” by The Beatles

Songs headed for a larger audience range from a show-tune-esque original by Senior Sean Pack to raps by the band Hpnotiq.

Eighteen-year-old Rigo Spath and his “crew” are the baddest rappers on the east side … of Edwards. But until they joined the CD project, they’d been struggling to lay down tracks without a studio.

On their own recording of the song “Hesitation,” Spath’s voice echoes when he croons “I really love you baby, please don’t make me cry.”

That’s because the teens recorded the song in a public bathroom. Told they were making too much noise rapping in Spath’s laundry room, the crew — including 16-year-old Josh Mendoza and 15-year-old Eric Atencio — retreated to the Edwards rest stop off I-70, where they set up a makeshift recording station in the family bathroom, only to get kicked out by the cops for loitering. “It’s hard out here for a pimp, man,” Spath said.

With the help of the CD project, though, the crew will be able to share its unique blend of R&B and hip hop with the student body. They wrote the last two songs on the album, including an introduction rap called “Hpnotiq” and a spruced-up version of “Hesitation.”

What are they hoping other students get from their music?

“Just to recognize that you don’t have to be from a city to be talented,” Atencio said.

High Life Writer Sarah Mausolf can be reached at 970-748-2938 or smausolf@vaildaily.com.