Oakton Student Releases Album on iTunes

Before Joseph Cochran picked up a guitar at 10 years old, he had no inkling his life would head down a musical path.

"I was a terrible singer when I was younger," said the 17-year-old Oakton High School rising senior. "Then I started playing guitar and writing songs, and I wanted to get better at singing."

So, he took vocal lessons, kept writing, continued playing — by himself and with his band Nine Days Gone — and collected equipment for a home studio.

With his songbook hitting about 60 songs, Joseph decided it was time he put together an album. He produced his first album, "A Lighter Side," with Nkeng "Cole 33" Alemanji under the stage name Joseph Keith. The album is available for download on iTunes.

"Mr. Cole said I needed a name that flowed," Joseph laughed. "He asked me my middle name and I told him it was Keith, and he just liked that, I guess. He kept calling me Joseph Keith, so I just went with it."

Joseph and Cole 33 recorded the album in the Cochrans' Fairfax home using the equipment he has built up over time. He started his home studio with a leftover laptop and a couple speakers. He now has a good microphone, better speakers for mixing and an upgraded computer, which all him helped achieve the sound quality necessary to put together an album.

"My parents have certainly believed in me. It's not like I wrote a song so we bought a studio," he said. "I've been writing songs for about five years now. It's at the point where these songs were actually sounding really good, so we thought we should go somewhere with them."

Joseph wants to pay back the costs for the studio, and said a big motivation for putting the album on iTunes is to do just that. But he also saw an opportunity to test his musical creativity in a new way.

For his first album, Joseph wanted to show his range, so he mixed in some songs with a harder, more alternative sound in with what is largely an acoustic, soft rock album. He left out songs he has written for his band because he and his bandmates would like to work on a demo, "and some songs just work better for a band."

"I can't really stick to one genre," he said. "Sometimes I write with my acoustic guitar and sometimes with my electric, and that sort of gives a direction to the song."

As for lyrics, he tries to think of something specific, like an event or person, and use it as inspiration. He does not have a preference for writing lyrics or music first. He just follows his instincts and eventually puts together a complete song.

"Sometimes I have an idea for something and I'm waiting to put it down on the guitar, and sometimes I have this awesome guitar rift and I'm just waiting for lyrics that go with it."

Even with all the time and effort he has put into creating music, he looks at it like a passion project and not a definite life path.

"It's going to be on the side, and if anything happens with it then I'll just shoot on a different track to follow it," Joseph said. "Music is always going to be there, and I'm going to put everything I can into it to see what happens with it. But I'm not sacrificing school to pursue a music career."

The approach is similar to what he's already doing. Though Oakton High boasts a good arts program, he has never taken a music class within its walls or joined one of its bands. He considers music a passion outside of school, and he's content with seeing where the path he's creating for himself leads.

"I like to say I make music because my Xbox broke a while back, but it's really just what I like to do in my free time," he said. "It will always be a passion."

For more information on Joseph Keith, visit his website.