By Emily Miller
Top photo: Olivia Grover, Bransen Kynoch, and Tyce Poulsen record their parts for a new album featuring musicians from South Fremont High School. The album can be found on the Red Pioneer Studios YouTube channel. | Courtesy Davy Kynoch
ST. ANTHONY — Sometimes all it takes to make a dream come true is to make it happen.
Take, for example, Davy Kynoch who graduated from South Fremont High School in St. Anthony a few weeks ago. Kynoch has loved music for a long time and started writing and producing his own music when he was 15. He participated in his school’s band, choir, and jazz band, making connections that eventually led to producing a full-length album featuring the school’s music programs.
“Music of the Skies and Grounds” can be heard on YouTube on Kynoch’s Red Pioneer Studios channel, and he hopes it will be available on other streaming platforms in the future.
The project began a couple years ago with a conversation between Kynoch and Matthew Bennett, who directs the choirs and orchestra at South Fremont High School.
“We were talking about building a recording studio, just to have something to do, I guess, so this year we did do that,” Kynoch says. “When festival season came along, when all the schools compete with each other with all their best music, we decided we wanted to record and publish our festival songs for the community to hear.”
Kynoch says he took on the majority of the responsibility bringing the idea to life.
“After festival, we immediately got into making sure everything was good and polished,” he says. “I set up all the mics in the room and had all the groups go through their stuff and recorded it, and I would take all those recordings and just mix and master them, and then we had the album.”
The album features the high school’s mixed choir called The Freelancers, the women’s choir, the symphonic band and the jazz band in a mix of the school’s best pieces from the school year.
“A bit of everything,” Kynoch says.
He says he became enamored with the process of creating music a few years ago because he liked the idea of having control over the creative process. “Music of the Skies and Grounds” was his first big production.
“There are a few things I would do differently now, but overall, I think I did a pretty good job for my first time,” he says.
Now, as a high school graduate, Kynoch says he’s going to go to work and keep his eyes open for more opportunities.
“I definitely want to keep growing my productions,” he says. “When I think about producing music, I am most excited about helping any artist, no matter their genre, just make something great that they can be proud of.”