At West Potomac, tucked away in a corner of springbank, a classroom brimming with creativity releases their 4th album in just as many years. Mr.Luke Pierce and his students have made the promise to go above and beyond the standard set by their previous albums: Eden, Chromantic, and the latest, Growing Pains. The class will be performing before the album release this Friday, May 23, in Springbank.
This year, Mr. Pierce, has emphasized the importance of emotional connection and comfort within the classroom, “You can’t create emotionally impactful music if you are strangers to the emotions of your collaborators.” This birthed the idea of “Better Days,” a section of class in which students are free to share anything on their mind. While the sharing started off slow, that section of class progressed from talking about a test a student failed to life altering events.
Micah Thomas, senior, said “I think it’s the fact that we’re in such a collaborative environment where we’re all making music, and really being able to express ourselves.”
The popularity of this section made the class come to a unanimous decision…to name the upcoming album “Better Days.”
Fivetwofive, named after the classroom in which their music is made, consists of juniors and seniors from multiple schools within FCPS. The students aren’t limited to any specific or set genre of music. Fivetwofive has released anything from a barbershop quartet with their Christmas single “Wish you love” to a group rap song with “CypherV2” which is starred in the group’s first music video fully produced by students in the class.
“It feels really amazing to share my thoughts and emotions with the world through music,” Stephen Francis Mazon, senior, at Thomas Edison High School stated.
It isn’t often that one’s creative ideas are able to be fully realized and sent out to the masses throughout their lifetime, but this opportunity has now been given to high school students.
The performance Friday afternoon in Springbank will consist of live performances of vocals, piano, bass, guitar, even saxophone. Tickets are free for all FCPS students and 10$ for non-students, promising an exciting, hit-filled performance; there’s no reason not to show up to support the upcoming musicians of fivetwofive.
“I feel amazing about this album. This album is called better days and we came to that name because we were talking about all the crazy things in life and how we want to get to those better days,” Mr Luke Alexander Pierce, the Music Tech teacher said.
