Rising to the Top
Student band grows to local, well-known band
Photo Contributed by Lai Thang
Junior Cooper Heaton is the lead singer of Keeping Destiny. Keeping Destiny has five members total.
By day, these people are just students. But when they get out of school, they are not students — they’re a metal rock band.
The band Keeping Destiny is made up of SHS juniors Cooper Heaton, Scott Newton, Jacob Ryan and Luke Carfiro and Southport Middle School eighth grader Ryder Harris. Songs such as “Saturate” and “Fate for Failures” are featured in their newest album “Fate for Failures,” which was released Feb. 29.
Keeping Destiny started performing Oct. 20, 2017. Since then, the band has gone from casually jamming out together to playing music at local venues.
The band has released two singles and one EP to multiple music platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube and Bandcamp. The members describe their music as “heavy rock” and punk.
The idea of creating a band was considered for a few years before Keeping Destiny became an official group.
“It happened a while ago,” Carfiro, drummer for Keeping Destiny, said. “I just texted (Heaton), and I was like ‘yo let’s join,’ and we had nobody. I didn’t even know how to play. I know I’m the drummer (right now), but I barely knew how to play guitar at that time.”
Carfiro says it took some time to get the band started after they had more members. Not all members were the same age, with Harris being an eighth grader in a group of juniors. Harris was known to play guitar and was then added to the band as a guitarist shortly after they formed as a group.
Eighth grader Ryder Harris is the youngest member of the group. Harris plays rhythm for the band.
This age gap and difference in schools didn’t stop Keeping Destiny from progressing and gaining more opportunities as time passed. They had their first gig on Feb. 28: a show at Playground Studios featuring, in addition to Keeping Destiny, hardcore punk bands Maccogallo and Shelta.
According to Heaton, their first show had an audience of 65-70 people. In the show, Keeping Destiny performed a few songs including some from “Fate for Failures,” which had not yet been released at that point. Heaton ended the night with losing half of his front tooth.
“After our first show, the other band was playing, and we entered the mosh pit going on and I broke my tooth.” Heaton said.” “It was very funny. Everyone followed me into the bathroom, it was crazy.”
According to Heaton, the band finds inspiration in various places, though a single source is hard to pinpoint.
“I don’t know really,” Heaton said. “I would say listening to music, but I’m not even sure. I just hear it and go.”
Keeping Destiny’s most recent album was released on Feb. 29. According to Newton, the different speeds of their various songs contributed to his favorite songs from their newest album.
Junior Lucas Carfiro is the drummer for Keeping Destiny. Carfiro is one of the original members of the band.
“I like (the song) ‘Fate for Failures’ because it’s one of our first slow ones,” Newton said.
Junior Scotty Newton plays bass for the band. The band has three guitarists in total.
Outside of school, the band’s five members maintain a weekly practice schedule. According to Heaton, Keeping Destiny had practiced more the weeks leading up to their first show.
Practicing and being active members of Keeping Destiny, however, hasn’t impacted their school lives in a negative way, according to Carfiro.
“If anything, (school) has done better for me…,” Carfiro said. “I was affected in a positive way.”
Hello! My name is Bridget and I am a senior at SHS. I am also the entertainment editor for the 2021-2022 school year. Since this is my first time being...
