As some students may already know, senior Markus Lambert has recently released his first official single “Follow Me.”
In March of 2023, the honors choir took a trip to Disney World. Markus had a blast! On the day of his return, he kept thinking one thing, “I wish I could go back and hang out with my friends forever.” This idea inspired a few lyrics, which turned into a whole song in the course of only 10 minutes. In his own words, the song is about “cherishing moments.”
Throughout the summer of 2023, Markus went on to write a whole album. “Follow Me” is only the first of 12 songs off this album titled “Stealing Time.” In the coming year, one or two more songs off the album as singles. Just as a tease, the titles of these songs are “Man Killer,” “Renaissance Man,” and “Horizons.”
Markus made the songs using the app GarageBand on his iPad. He got in contact with a studio in October, but because of the busy football and basketball season, production of “Follow Me” was delayed until March–a year after the song’s initial writing.
Of course, Markus is the main singer, but he also played the acoustic guitar and mandolin. His also very musically inclined older sister, Ryah, sang backup vocals and played some piano. Markus’s musical friend, senior Ryan Webb, sang some backup vocals and played electric guitar. The “studio guy,” as Markus calls him, played the bass and added percussion.
A few times when the song starts to pick up, Markus shouts a little “hey” before strumming his guitar. Some people I’ve talked to said they didn’t like these adlibs, but I think they sounded very authentic to Markus’s style. Keeping true to the spontaneous nature of his bluegrass roots, he did all the “heys” in one take.
“If you want to make music just go for it. Know that you are able to. If it sounds right to you and sounds like you should be writing it, that’s what matters,” Markus said.
For him, the most challenging parts of the entire process were finding a studio and getting into that studio, getting enough money to fund the project, and motivating himself and his friends to actually commit to make this song. The photograph on the cover of the single was taken by Ryah. Markus chose it because he liked how all the deer were looking at the camera. He also comments that the song was received better than he expected, garnering many listens on YouTube and Spotify in just a few days.
To end, a quote from Cooper Slocum- a long time friend of Markus. “As someone who calls themselves a reviewer of his music,” Cooper said. “I’ve been through the journey. I remember the song coming out and we had so much hope for him. In the future, I hope he has a little concert just for his friends.”
