On Oct. 25 2024 UHS alum Will Brookes (Class of 2024) released on Spotify, Soundcloud and Youtube his first solo album “I’ve Been Thinking”. The album contained nine original songs fully produced, written and performed by Brookes.
While Brookes has had experience with writing music and performing, this solo album came as a huge step for the artist. He explains that, “I haven’t really ever done any kind of self-recording before. [So,] I kind of just I had nothing to do over the summer and I sat down and I just tried to force myself to learn, and I made [the] whole album over the summer.”
Hype for the new album started Aug. 7 when Brookes released two singles, “You” and “Imaginary Land” as his first solo songs. In August, Brookes told fans that more would be on the way, and they did not have to wait long. On Sept. 12 Brookes released his next single “Stick With Me” which was another resounding hit amongst his group of fans. All of this culminating in his brand new solo album, “I’ve Been Thinking” on Oct. 25.
While the process taught Brookes a lot about what it takes to release a musical album, that’s not the part he was most proud of. Talking about the album he came to the conclusion that he was most proud of, “Everything you hear on those songs is 100% me, just with two guitars and a microphone in my room.”
For six years Brookes has been performing music with his band Sober Children. The band began originally when Brookes was in sixth grade and after school attending the Frederick Rock School. For years, Brookes and his band would not only practice at the Frederick Rock School but additionally perform live covers and original songs.
The band is made up of Brookes on vocals and guitar, Alex Frango on lead guitar, Harper Nitz on bass guitar, and Brian Austin-Handy on drums. Austin-Handy and Brookes remain the only two members who were there when the band was first formed, with the band originally being called Drunken Donuts.
Brookes choice to release this single album separate from Sober Children came out of a desire to produce something for himself. He still is working on songs with Sober Children but explained that the process of producing music solo versus with the band has been different.
“Being in a band is just a lot more collaborative,” he explains, saying that, “this solo opportunity gave me a chance to [do] just whatever I felt like doing. I remember back in the band if I had some weird idea for something I wanted to do, somebody could shut it down and be like, no, let’s do this.”
One might expect that this limitation might frustrate Brookes but he explained that it was actually the opposite, “It was a great back and forth process to just be collaborative. What’s great is that all of those songs that are out as singles for Sober Children are all, like, the first collaborations as a band that we kind of put together.”
Before August, when Brookes began releasing his first solo songs, the band had been working on releasing for the first time some of their own original songs. These songs included “The Meats” released on May 7 followed by “Drunken Donuts” released May 19, and “The Ballad of Brian” released June 29.
These singles, as he explained, were just as enjoyable a process for him as releasing his own solo songs. He loves the collaborative process just as much as working on his own.
Brookes, through Sober Children and his own solo work, has achieved what many aspiring musicians at UHS can only dream of. He has been able to produce his music and share it with the world, and even now with a small following has gotten publicly recognized by those around him for his work.
Being recognized and finding success are things that many would kill to have, but as Brookes explained it, it isn’t really hard. “Dumb and simple but I mean I think the biggest hurdle I kind of had to get over was just doing it.”
He explained this further saying that, “I think if I’m able to do it then anyone can do it. The beautiful thing about now is we have the internet, we have resources and technology that wasn’t available to people way back when.”
The music for his solo album and for The Sober Children were able to be released online to Spotify, Pandora, and every music platform stretching down to Bing Music through the simple platform DistroKid. Brookes explained that the platform only costs $30 a year, and for those $30 you get to upload your music professionally across the internet.
When it comes to the future of his music career Brookes explained that, “I think I’m gonna keep recording albums whenever I have time to record music on my own or if I join bands in the Chicago area. You never know, Sober Children can always have a little reunion and record some stuff.”
In fact he further revealed that currently Sober Children is working on releasing their own album in the next few months. Brookes could not discuss when the new album would be released but explained that the album would contain 11 original songs created by the band that they have been working on since the summer of 2023.
