In December, the Albany Performing Arts Center hosted WAHS’ annual talent show, with acts performed by both students and teachers. Before a packed auditorium, the lights lowered for junior Brandon Thomas’ performance of “To Die For” by Kygo (feat. St. Lundi). Thomas’ vocals and the creative lighting during the song motivated several students to use their phones’ flashlights as makeshift lightsticks during the performance, creating a sea of star-like lights both from above the stage and across the audience.
The lights may have gone down on Thomas’ performance, but his musical career isn’t limited to the stage of the APAC. He is signed to the Finland-based Velocity Music record label, and has ten songs out on Spotify and other music platforms.
- You performed at the talent show in December. What was the process like?
So, kind of how the process went when we were really getting ready to perform, we had auditions beforehand. Then, they allowed us to basically choose what we wanted to perform for the talent show. Ultimately, I was one of the selections. I think, once the day came for us to perform, we just did some sound checks. The first night was just performing in front of the community and then the following day we performed in front of the school.
- How did you get into music?
I have to say, when I look at it from a standpoint from my entire life, I feel like I’ve always had an interest. When I was young, I used to always be singing in church, in the shower, just anywhere. But it wasn’t until 2020 that my younger brother bought a [music] editing software… called Magix Music Maker. I have to say, it’s not an ideal one to use. But after I created my first song on there, I think the words I thought were, “I don’t want to keep this to myself. I want to share this with the world.” I think that those very words are what ignited the spark you need to actually start making music.
- What are your goals for the future? Where do you see yourself in five, ten years?
So, it’s been kind of a debate with myself really, because on one hand music is something I really want to proceed with making a career out of. But it’s something that isn’t guaranteed. It’s only very few people who really hit it big and actually are accepted into the music industry. If that weren’t to work out, then I would probably pursue something else. But from what I’ve been seeing lately, especially since I’ve been finding more ways of advertising my music, I’ve been seeing more and more numbers go up. So there might be a chance that I’ll consider doing it as a full time job.
- What has been the biggest challenge for you in your music journey?
There’s a lot of different challenges. I feel like one thing that’s been the hardest for me is trying to understand that [music] isn’t the top priority in my life. As much as I want to make it the top priority, I’ve sometimes ended up putting it over my school and have let my grades drop, and my parents have been there to discipline me and tell me that it can’t be my number one priority. If I want it to even possibly be a future career, I have to focus on school first.
- What has been your biggest success?
My latest success has been when I put out my new song, “Take Me Home,” which is now available on every streaming service. The moment I went to look on YouTube to check if it was uploaded, it had already reached 500 plays. As soon as I looked at it, I was blown away. I went back to check on it a few hours later—800 plays. The next day, 1000 plays. That was my fastest growing song on YouTube. My other song that has more views than [“Take Me Home”] has a little under 2000 plays, but that took two weeks to get there. I think another big success has been that I managed to get a song signed to a small record label.
- What is one thing you want to tell other students and your future self?
The road is going to be long if you decide to do music. It’s a fun career but there are going to be sacrifices you have to make and there are going to be a lot of things that you’re going to have to invest in. I’m always humble with everything that I’ve been given, and I don’t go around shoving it in everyone’s face. [My opportunities] are something that not a lot of people get. Other than that, if you’re going to get into music, then the best thing I can recommend is to try to learn just the basics. I didn’t have anyone to teach me how to do that, and I had to learn from just YouTube videos. But over time, keep sending songs to record labels, start small, don’t go big, and at some point, you’ll start to see growth.
