Thai Nguyen (10) has worked with Nicole Hernandez to produce her EP. The commercial music class that offered on campus has allowed Nugyen to meet and connect with many other musicians like Hernandez. Inspired by artists such as Billie Eilish and Alicia Keys, Nguyen hopes to work in the music industry after high school and feels she has been given a great start from the music program on campus.
Thai Nguyen
As a member of the group with Nicole Hernandez, sophomore Thai Nguyen helped produce some of the songs that were found on the same EP as Hernandez.
“Last year, during commercial music in like March [we started recording and writing the record],” said Nguyen. The EP consists of six songs, one of which is repeated on the album– one version is acoustic, and one that is synthesized. Because the music began as a class project, the acoustic version of their song was made for the grade.
Without the commercial music class, Nguyen would not have met the other girls that she worked on the record with and would not have been able to produce the EP. Commercial music is a class offered at SJHHS ran by Michael Ushino, that gives kids the opportunity to experience what the music industry is like.
The time that is takes to produce and record the EP depends on the song. “I wrote the chords and some lyrics and I also produced,” said Nguyen. Writing music can take a lot of time due to the fact that all the lyrics and writing the music take time because they are original.
Nguyen’s writing process starts with a couple of chords and then make a melody out of the chords that she pieced together. “It’s hard to write songs for me, but [Hernandez] is better at writing lyrics so it is a good collaboration,” said Ngyuen.
With inspiration from Alicia Keys, and Billie Eilish, Nguyen feels like her record has a small reflection of those artists in the music she produced. After high school, Nguyen hopes to become a part of the music industry, and commercial music is a stepping stone to help her reach her goal.