Though sophomore Kaden Stottler has been writing songs since he was a kid, quarantine gave him an opportunity to show off his talent and passion for music. 

“I just realized that I had a ton of songs that I’d written that I hadn’t done anything with and I decided ‘Okay, might as well record these things’ I’m gonna look up some instrumentals. My friend is a guitarist so he sends me stuff every once and a while,” Stottler said.

On his Soundcloud account, he goes by the stage name SpotUpK. Coming from a musical family, Stottler found it easy to find support at home and at school, with friends and family who are his biggest fans. 

“My friends are always hyping me up. Even when personally, I think some of my music isn’t that great, they’re like ‘Oh no this is great, I love this.’ and I love to hear that, but they also give me criticism. Like healthy, constructive criticism. If they think I sound weird in a certain verse, they’ll tell me and I can know how to get better,” Stottler said. “My dad, every time he hears one of my songs, he sends it to my grandma and my grandma always texts me and tells me she likes it.” 

Stottler is not only supported by his friends, but also plays music with them.

“My friend [Aidan McCoy] is a super talented guitarist; whenever we’d go over to his house, sometimes he’d play like a random loop and I’d try to freestyle it. He’s honestly one of the most talented, musically gifted people I know,” Stottler said.

Stottler said he takes inspiration from famous artists like Future, Kanye West and Lil Uzi Vert. While he enjoys the idea of becoming famous, Stottler has other goals in mind as well.

“I hope that I blow up and become famous, but the current goal for me is to go to college and learn how to become an audio engineer so I can help other people with music as well,” Stottler said. “If I can get really good at audio engineering, then it’s just another step to becoming a successful recording artist or producer or whatever I plan on being in the future.”

Stottler also finds inspiration in his friends and family, but sometimes his ideas just come to him.

“There isn’t a spark that just happens, I just get a random idea and then kind of just build on it with other ideas. For example, I wanna make a song about how I’ve been feeling recently, whether I’ve been feeling stressed or really happy. I’ll think about a few things that make me pumped up and I’ll go off of it. If I really just can’t think of anything in that moment, I’ll just freestyle it. I don’t have to write anything down, I just hop on the mic, think of the first things that come to my head, and record it. If I don’t like something there, then I’ll write something to it and fix it,” Stottler said.

Though some recording artists work with the best of the best when it comes to gear and setup, Kaden takes pride in working with what he has.

“I’m not working with the most professional equipment like I record stuff on my phone. I have an app called Band Lab that I connect to a microphone where I can sing and rap my vocals into it then I can add presets and effects to it from there. But I mean, I’m not even working with a computer,” Stottler said.

Stottler said the process is slow and lots of work, but in the end, it’s worth it and the end result is satisfying.

“At the end of the day, if I can’t do anything with this, at least I had fun doing it. That’s all I really care about right now,” Stottler said.

Perseverance is a principle Stottler holds very closely in both his music career and in life. Though he’s gotten far, there have been many obstacles along the way, like when he had a speech impediment for a little bit.

“I recently got my tooth knocked out, and it gave me a slight speech impediment, so I hadn’t recorded in a week or two. I just had a whole lot of stuff that I wanted to say, a whole lot of stuff that I wanted to get done but it just sounded weird,” Stottler said.

Stottler believes in the importance of never giving up, and having as much fun as possible in the process.

“[My] biggest advice is to keep trying. Take sports, for example- all [these] sports -the only way you can get better at them is if you keep practicing, keep working over and over again. Even if you record something and you don’t like it, just keep trying don’t be discouraged if you’re not good at a certain thing. If you keep trying over and over again you’ll eventually find something you’re good at, and you can keep working at the stuff you’re not good at,” Stottler said.