Music has always brought people together. When four strangers were introduced to each other in the Summer of 2022, that’s exactly what it did.

A year later, the now ‘How Unfortunate’ band members– including Golden Valley Alumni, Ashley Arrera, and current student David King– have formed a band and are now performing live locally.

Two of my close friends, one currently in Golden Valley and another who recently moved away, have created their own bands and both of them have a passion to pursue music composition in their life. Many teens have at least participated once in trying to learn how to play an instrument. This hobby inspires young people to pursue music as a career or even just to play it for fun.

David King, a Junior at Golden Valley High School, has played music since he was a child. Learning drums at a young age, no more than a year ago started learning the guitar and has started being consistent in learning guitar.

Not long after learning the electric guitar, King was offered to join a band as the lead guitarist. How Unfortunate is a rock band formed by Impulse Music Co. at a performance workshop. Impulse introduced four strangers to each other and all members quickly proved their band chemistry and talent through live shows.

In the time they have been playing together, “How Unfortunate” has performed in two live shows within six months, both were successful with great audiences and it shows the great presence the band has.

In the band, there are 4 members: lead singer, Ashley Arrera, drummer Aiden Marshall, bassist Llandyn Lubs and lead guitarist David King. Arrera graduated from Golden Valley 2 years ago, while Marshall just graduated in 2022 from Valencia High School. Lubs is currently homeschooled, and King is currently a Junior at Golden Valley High School.

While managing college and high school, consistently producing songs has been a challenge for the group, “We’ve started original songs but never finished them, in summer of 2023 we’ll have more time” King commented, “…having experience with composition, I’ve made little clips of music, but I’m a perfectionist so I wouldn’t release it. I want to record and make it professional as a final product.”

Regardless, covering songs still engages audiences who would want to attend a mini rock/indie concert. King explained, “We take song recommendations then practice them, finally performing covers live.” With performing popular songs like, Say It Ain’t So by Weezer, Where is my Mind by Pixies, Apocalypse by Cigarettes After Sex, and many more alternative grunge songs, their live performances are enjoyable and always sound great and accurate.

In their brief time of knowing each other, they all bond through the same music taste and introduce one another to new music. King expressed how well the band gets along explaining, “We’re all chill and good friends, it’s fun playing music with people you’re chill with, there are no crazy occurrences.” In an industry such as music, it’s very important to have a good connection with the people you’re working with.

With this passion for music, King is driven to always improve and work towards his goals. “I barely started taking singing lessons, I had to improve. I sang once but I wasn’t proud of it, everyone still clapped considering I didn’t have proper training. After I listened to myself, I wanted to be better,” King told The Gazette.

To those who play music, it’s a frustrating practice but the challenge of it makes it worthwhile. Musicians always attempt to deliver their best performance regardless of struggles experienced beforehand.

“How Unfortunate,” has more live shows coming up and more songs to perform very soon in the next few months along with other Impulse Music Co. features. To stay updated with future events and experience fun concerts follow impulse.music.co and members davidking.16 and __aidenmarshall__ on Instagram.

Hoping for a bright future in the music industry, it’ll be interesting to see more performances and highly anticipated new songs “How Unfortunate” will release in the Summer of 2023.