EMY PYE

Seniors Erik Garcia and Nick Zayas have been making music together since the eighth grade when they formed their first band with two other friends, seniors Nikolai Bielecki and Carter Lane, and performed in a talent show at Mountain Ridge Middle School. Since then they have come a long way with both style and influence.

Garcia and Zayas went on to audition for Vista Idol their sophomore and junior year, placing third in the competition as juniors. Sophomore year, Zayas sang a song he wrote himself called, “By My Side,” accompanied by Garcia on guitar.

“We used to perform acoustic songs and didn’t really share our hip hop project, but in this last year we have been working strictly on that,” Garcia said.

Recently, the two have been focusing their efforts on a new group called Sour Street. Over Thanksgiving break the group performed a hip-hop show at the Oriental Theatre in Denver.

“Not a ton of people showed up, but you have got to start somewhere,” Garcia said. “Someone once told me you have to give it your all whether it’s 30 people or 3,000 people.”

Bielecki attended this concert. “Nick and Erik have very creative minds,” Bielecki said. “They latch on to inspiration wherever they can find it.”

Bielecki says watching the two come up with songs can be boring, “but it’s fun to watch it all come together.”

Currently Sour Street uses Sound Cloud to promote its newest work. Garcia uses Logic Pro X to record and edit songs before sharing them online.

“We’re putting together a mixtape project right now,” Garcia said. “I make the beats and record us, but we both write and rap all of our songs.” Their style is influenced by other rap- and hip-hop-based artists such as Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole and Eminem.

Zayas says his co-artist Garcia “is a producer on a professional level and is easy to work with because he is always open to new ideas.”

“When we write a song I usually make the beat first to look for a certain vibe and then we come up with the topic,” Garcia said. “From there, we write the verses and chorus.”

Garcia says the hardest part to writing songs is finding the topic.

As for their future plans for the group the two say they plan to focus on establishing themselves in the Denver hip-hop scene to become more locally known. “Our eyes are set on breaking into the scene and getting into a position where we can open for acts we were inspired by,” Garcia said.

“In the future Erik and I plan to make an album,” Zayas said. “Our goal is to become noticed.”