By Anton Mikolowski ’17 | Staff Writer

With the YouTube premiere of their new song “Reality,” Eion Meldrum ’18 and Rockim Williamson ’18 have begun to receive some of the musical acclaim they are looking for. The song’s producer, David Feeney, has worked with such acts as The White Stripes and The Hard Lessons.

Meldrum’s former band manager, Lisa Caradonna, said, “Eion was born to perform. Rockim is the secret weapon to ‘Reality.’”

Meldrum said he began working on the song two years ago after being inspired by a Maroon 5 song he heard on the radio on an after-school afternoon.

“I was listening to a song on the radio, and I just got the groove (to write),” Meldrum said. “I thought that maybe songwriting would be cool.”

The process continued when he brought the song to Williamson the following day in their shared choir class.

“Rockim was in class with me. I knew he had been wanting to rap, so I wanted to see if we could (finish writing the song),” Meldrum said.

Williamson said he was astounded by the progress they would make in the following days.

“Normally a song like that would take much longer to write,” Williamson said.

Yet “Reality” became an exception. Meldrum said when they finished the song there was little else to do besides cleaning up a couple of verses and removing or inputting a word or two.

The Lunasol band, Meldrum’s former band, would go on to perform that song at various times during the summer of 2014 and beyond. They would eventually find a producer and publish the song professionally.

“We had it produced about a month ago. We found this guy. This guy who happened to be Jack White’s guitarist (Feeny), and we released it on YouTube,” Meldrum said, “We still perform it live, and we have a gig at Red Crown in the Park this Saturday (April 23).”

Meldrum and Williamson still perform regularly and with great enthusiasm, as they wish to continue to do.

“(Meldrum) is captivating on stage. It would be a travesty if he did not pursue music in the future. For some people, music is what they do, but for Eion, music is who he is,” Caradonna said, “(Williamson) is a quiet storm on stage, and he brings the crowd to their feet every time he performs.”

And it seems like Meldrum, as well as Williamson, have no intentions on leaving the music business any time soon.

“My number one goal in life is to be in the music business. Getting a band together and actually going somewhere. I have had my own little visions about what I could do by myself. It all involves pushing my music further and further: A band, myself, anything would really be perfect,” Williamson said.

Meldrum said he will continue in music as well and plans to release two new songs on a soon-to-be released album: “The Girl I Love” and “All I Need.”

“We want the album to tell a story of what we have been through and what we are all going through. It’s in the works right now. After that we’re recording a new song, and when that’s done, we’re gonna work on burning hard copies for people,” Meldrum said.

With both musicians working towards a promising career with ever-moving developments, they have began thinking about the true purpose of their music.

“Anything I write is meant to be a message. Our messages and songs are just really power. Just really amazing stuff,” Williamson said.

Meldrum said he writes primarily from personal experiences and agrees all of his works are meant to have a message. But that’s not the reason he writes and performs.

“My main goal is to make people happy with what I do. I do it for myself, and performing is something that really anyone can just connect to. Hopefully with the songs we write we can influence others to do something in the world,” Meldrum said.