From the upright bass to electronic mixes, junior Will Gooding has always loved music. He is involved in orchestra at AHS, writes his own music, mixes songs together with his partner, and DJs for events.
Gooding bases his songs off of “experiences that I’ve had throughout my entire life.” He explained, “I base the lyrics off of emotions that I’m feeling at that time. I’ve been trained in music, so it’s easy for me to come up with chord progressions.”
At the moment, Gooding is working on two separate albums, with help from senior Danny Pisano from MHS and junior Mary Elam from CHS. Gooding posts his songs to an online site called “Bandcamp” which helps artists present and even sell their music to listeners. His goal is to “hopefully make money off of [his songs]” and “for people to want to listen to them.”
Gooding is also involved as a DJ, working with Pisano to create tracks. The pair calls themselves “The Twinrova”.
Being a DJ is much more involved than simply picking the order in which to play songs. “We have a controller and we just put songs together that sound good,” Gooding said.
Pisano added that, “Basically being a DJ is mixing two tracks seamlessly together without missing a beat. Will and I are specifically EDM [Electronic Dance Music] DJ’s.”
Gooding has already DJ’d at events. “We DJ’d at the cheerleader bonfire, tailgate, we had our own afterparty [after homecoming], and were hired to DJ some people’s parties,” Gooding said. “There will also be a winter party that Twinrova is DJing- look forward to that.”
Gooding and Pisano met last summer and became a musical duo soon after. Pisano explained, “I met Will over the summer while I was traveling in North Carolina, at that time both he and I were producing music on our own terms. I believe that on that same trip we decided to go ahead to join forces as a DJ/Producer duo.”
According to Pisano, he and Gooding are so close that Gooding is “more of a brother to me than a friend.”
Gooding is also involved in the AHS orchestra. He plays upright bass which he said that he “started in sixth grade; I’ve loved it since the day I picked it up.” He has composed a few orchestra pieces on his computer.
Orchestra teacher Carrie Finnegan is highly impressed with Gooding’s talents. “Will has become a fabulous musician both classically and in jazz. He knows what he likes but is open-minded to all kinds of music which is important in a musician,” she said.
Finnegan also explained that Gooding’s personality was just as admirable as his talents. “Will is always one of the first to volunteer to help with anything,” she said. “You will always find him backstage at our concerts helping with set-up. He has a huge heart and cares about his peers.”
While Gooding inspires others, he also looks to his own musical inspirations for their musical abilities. Matt Bellamy from Muse and Tiesto are Gooding’s inspirations, because “they’re such revolutionary people in their own genres, and they’re so into the music they write.”
Gooding explained that what he liked most about writing music was, “Just the feeling I get after I listen to it.” Gooding hopes to be getting gigs from clubs in the future, “making a good amount of money.”
