SENIOR SPOTLIGHT: JOHN WEST

By JACK PALMER 

As  high schoolers, teenagers grow up admiring certain people.  Whether it is a famous athlete or famous musician, it is not unusual for students to model their lives after the people they admire.  They wish to become them; they wish to play that professional sport; they wish to have their songs put on all streaming sites.  For one Washingtonville student, this dream became a reality and it does not stop there.

JACK PALMER FOR THE WIZARD WEEKLY

John West, a senior at WHS, has been making music and writing lyrics for the entirety of his high school career.  He has recently released a song entitled “Money Bags” which is making a big splash among the senior class here at Washingtonville High School.  While he has released previous songs on SoundCloud in the past, this song is the first of his to be put on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music.  West feels “it is a great opportunity that can open many doors and that can lead to any number of things.  It’s hard to put into words.  To know that anywhere you can have access to my song...”

Any young musician has inspiration for their music, no matter their level of experience.  For John, he says that his influence for music comes from many different artists, such as Metro Boomin and Ronny J, but his enthusiasm to start writing and producing music came from when he performed with Schoolboy Q on stage while he was on tour.

Anyone who knows John knows that  he has always been someone who has enjoyed making his own music in an extremely unorthodox manner.  Following John on any of his social media accounts, will show him in videos making beats with random sounds.  He said that his idea to try this came from “a video on Twitter of of a guy making a beat with a razor, so I wanted to try and see if I could.”  And try he did.  He has made multiple videos of this kind, with his most outrageous sound coming from the use of a power drill. 

While John has had extreme success in music, surprisingly, his future does not revolve around it.  He expressed sincerely that “if it picks up, then I’ll keep it up and, if not, I’ll just do it as a hobby.”  Who can say what will happen in the future?  John has already accomplished more than he ever thought possible.