For most students in high school, the simple thought of what their future holds brings on a surge of unnecessary stress and an endless amount of questions — that is, except for junior Rebecca White, who has a clear vision of what she wants to do with her life; become a famous pop singer.
Rebecca has had a love for everything music related ever since she was a child due to the fact that she was constantly surrounded by it. With her mother and older sister Courtney both musicians in their own right, it was only a matter of time before she got involved in singing herself, and when she was in fourth grade, she joined the school choir.
Around the age of nine, Rebecca started taking her love for singing seriously, taking voice lessons and realizing that this could be a possible career path.
“After hearing about Taylor Swift’s journey to success, I realized that any ordinary person with a dream and persistence can achieve anything they put their mind to,” Rebecca said.
By the age of 12, Rebecca picked up on another crucial skill when it comes to music: songwriting. For Rebecca, her songs are inspired by specific events in her life or people, similar to the way many current vocal artists write their music.
“The writing process for me is pretty unpredictable. I’m not the type of artist who can sit down during any time and start writing,” Rebecca said. “Ideas come to me at so many different times and believe it or not, it’s usually when I’m in the middle of doing something important; sometimes I’ll come up with a chorus in my head during class or at soccer practice.”
It wasn’t until last year that Rebecca had somewhat of a turning point in her singing career when she reached out to the owner of a local recording studio in Farmingdale who offered to help her record her first single.
“Be With You” is a song about loving someone who is in a relationship with someone else and was inspired by a certain event in her life. After her producer gave her the background music to the track, Rebecca was left to compose the lyrics and melody of the song which she said took less than an hour.
Despite all the hard work and stress that came with trying put out the song, it all paid off on July 15 when the song was released on iTunes.
“I felt so relieved when my song was finally released,” she said. “I was definitely nervous about how people would respond to it, but I was beyond grateful when I started to see the reactions of my friends and family.”
Aside from being a musician, Rebecca is also a member of two different soccer teams; the Massapequa Crush and MHS varsity girls’ soccer team, where she is not only a two time state champion on both teams, but also a national finalist with the Crush. Rebecca plays goalie and also sings the national anthem at most of her games.
“To be honest it is pretty difficult to balance my singing career and soccer,” she said. “Between practice and games it’s very hard to find time to go into the recording studio because the process of writing and recording a song is very time consuming and you need to put a lot of hours aside to work on it.”
Still, Rebecca is able to find a happy medium between both of her passions. While playing for the Crush, she will be able to find time to write and record her next single.
“My next single is completely different than the first and contains a completely new sound for me,” she said. “In my career, I aspire to be a very versatile artist and I think this is the first big step I need to take to put me in the right direction.”
In regards to her future, Rebecca wants to pursue her career in singing, however if this goal does not work out, she still wants to work within the industry.
“My goal is to continue to do what I love and gain more recognition in the music industry in hopes of getting signed, producing an album, and sharing my music with the world.”