Young musicians drum up support

By Marina-Rae Gill, Reporter

        The VHS student body has a wide range of artists. From painters to dancers to musicians, between them all there is an endless void of creativity. Two bands in particular, each with their own unique style, have developed a following both inside and out of the high school. Pigeon, one of the two groups, is made up of juniors Phoebe Setter and Lucy Woodruff. The duo discovered eachothers’ musical interest and talent on Instagram, and have written many original songs together. Similar to Pigeon, a group of four seniors, Aisle Twenty Two, write much of their own music, using Instagram to publicize. Both bands have played for live concerts online, and are fairly well-known among the student body.
        Having only started making music together last April, Pigeon now has over 11,500 monthly listeners on Spotify since releasing their single “Good Old Days” and album “Scattered.”

       Graphic by Marina Gill

        “It took us about four months [to write our album],” Setter said. “It felt really good to know that so many people listened to something we worked so hard on.”
        Despite their success, Woodruff and Setter have never worked on their music while in the same room.
        “I generally create an instrumental song in my room at my desk, and then send it to Lucy who then records vocals in her room at her desk,” Setter said. “We’ve never worked on a song together in person; it’s always been a separate thing.”
        Though both band members have been writing music since middle school, neither anticipated such a swift rise in popularity.
        “We posted ‘Good Old Days’ on Spotify as a single,” Setter said. “Then I promoted the song on Tik Tok and it blew up there. We never really expected any of this to happen, it just kind of did.”
        Along with other student bands, Pigeon has been participating in livestream events.
        “We’ve done a few livestreams on our Instagram… We also performed with other VHS bands at the Jesus Barn, and that was also livestreamed,” Setter said. “We are planning on doing a concert on election night with the #iVoted Festival. We are also planning on doing a virtual concert with the Noontime Concert series at Penn State University, but the date for that has not been finalized.”

       Graphic by Marina Gill

        Seniors Aiden Janssen, Benny Robinthal, Nick Winkler and Jake Bowden, are the members of Aisle Twenty Two. The band formed about six months ago, and has also streamed their music from the Jesus Barn.
“We started doing covers like every band,” Bowden said, “but we’ve got a lot of original material now.”
        The four musicians draw inspiration from many unique rock bands.
         “[We] definitely [take inspiration from] Black Flag, Queens of the Stone Age, Misfits, Nirvana, Black Sabbath,” Bowden said. He went on to describe their genre as ‘psychedelic desert punk.’
        Each of the four members has their own role in Aisle Twenty Two, though not all of them played music before the band got together.
        “I’m on drums and vocals, Nick Winkler is on vocals, Benny Robinthal is on guitar, and Aiden Janssen is on base.” Bowden said. “Everyone except Nick [did music before].”
        As they are in high school, a few of these students have taken a look at the future with hope that they might take their music to the next level.
        “Our album has earned us some money in sales,” Setter said, “And we feel like if we became more popular, it could become a substantial career.”