Aydreeyn
Adrien Zamora (‘24), known as “Aydreeyn” online, is an indie pop singer-songwriter based in her living room. Inspired by America’s Got Talent to write a song for a fifth grade talent show, Adrien has gone on to write “leave your message at the tone, ” an entire album enveloped with emotion and vulnerability. Featuring selections such as “first pick” and “to pluto and back,” the album tackles various topics related to growing up, such as finding love as a teenager. Being a multi-instrumentalist, she provides vocals, guitar, piano, bass, and ukulele for all her music.
The songwriting process for everyone is a little different. Some people like to take long walks on the beach, others like to go soul searching, and some prefer to write while crying. For Zamora, however, she “will lay down on [her] bathroom floor to get all [her] ideas out.” The cold tiles seem to stimulate her brain activity regarding emotion and creativity. Lots of the inspiration for her songs comes from books and other literature. Even if the emotions derived from books are not real, they are still authentic and can be expressed through music.
After laying on the floor and imagining ideas, she will transform her living room into a makeshift studio, decked out with multiple amps, guitars, a keyboard and her trusty XLR microphone.
Zamora has a new album releasing soon about the emotions she feels regarding her upcoming high school graduation, so watch out!
Apollo Jake
Apollo Papaioannou (‘24), known as Apollo Jake online and on stage, is a self taught singer-songwriter-producer and multi-instrumentalist. If Adrien is calm, peace, and a light feather on the wind, Apollo is fire, thunder, and the sound of metal on an anvil. He wrote his first song when he was only 12, writing about the birth of his sister. Taking inspiration from 90s rock and metal, Apollo aspires to make it big on the rock stage.
When he’s not riding on his BMX bike, Apollo produces music all in his garage, with a setup of various microphones, guitars, amps, and an entire drum set. Using Logic Pro, he has to “work with the chemicals… and really [try] to make a reaction” – he won’t release something if it doesn’t stick, in other words. This means spending hours in the garage-studio working on a mix, or rerecording a riff over and over again until it’s perfect. And, his music has gotten more and more complicated through the years. While his debut album “What a Time to Be Alive” had an easy, party-going nature, his newest release, “Mirrors” actually went unreleased for such a long time due to it including an extremely hard guitar riff. Apollo hints that his new music will have deeper, more introspective, meaning to it.
He has some exciting new music coming soon, with more introspective meaning and a new blend of modern metal and rock techniques.
