HUDSON- Adjusting to freshman year of high school, you balance classes, homework, and new routines. But for freshmen Lucas Bearden this includes balancing his own alternative rock band.
The band, Machines Still Bleed, was made from a desire to create something with his closest friends.
“This is something I wanted to do with my friends,” Bearden said.
The friends he created the band with came naturally due to the shared interest in music.
“They’re pretty much my only friends, and also my only friends that play instruments,” Bearden said.
The name ‘Machines Still Bleed’ didn’t originally come from Bearden. Freshman band member Hunter Locke helped choose the name simply because he found the name intriguing. Inspired by many artists, including Tame Impala, Green Day, and the rock band Failure.
“Honestly, my dad. He loved 90s and 2000s rock like Smashing Pumpkins and TOOL,” Bearden said, when asked who introduced him to music.
Bearden’s debut in the music industry was a song titled “Friday Afternoon.” Since then, Bearden has come a long way and has played at various shows.
“We played, like, multiple concerts, at restaurants, and we played at this parade in the summer,” Bearden said.
Bearden’s mix of emotions before performing on stage has changed over time.
“It was definitely the first couple times, but, I dealt with that, but just saying, like, I’m just gonna look at the instrument, not the people watching,” Bearden stated.
Bearden stays level headed and in a year or two he doesn’t see this band with a new album but only a couple more songs.
Attending school creates complications in running the band for Bearden.
“Getting together and also having new ideas to go off of, which is why we’ve, like, had, like, some sort of hiatus recently,” Bearden said when asked what was hard about running a band while in school.
Even though their schedules are tight, they try their hardest to come together to practice as a band.
“Friday afternoons we practice, sometimes on the weekends,” Bearden said.
Even though he is busy Bearden thinks starting this band has improved friendships by making them more productive instead of playing video games all day.
He has learned and improved his leadership skills through running this band, there was some things he looked back on and said he would do differently. He said he would do less stuff on his own and more as a group but he would also make sure his band mates would pay more attention.
Bearden has learned and improved leadership skills through running his band, there was some things he looked back on and was really self-aware of early mistakes. If he could start over he would do more stuff as a group and less on his own while also making sure his band mates weren’t as lazy with paying attention.
But what sets him apart from other artists is his maturity regarding fame.
“I wouldn’t go with the most popular bands ’cause I don’t want to find people who will just, go on a bandwagon with more of just people who actually enjoy the music.”
Music has a deeper meaning to Bearden.
“Music means self expression through sound, aiding people in understanding emotion. If I want to share a certain feeling, I’ll try to capture it and make it into sound.” Bearden said
A wise man once told Bearden “Don’t let life live itself for you, do what makes you happy with the time that you have, never lose control of yourself.”
