Whether its on the bus to school, on a long drive up north, back and forth from work or even while the brain is in dreamland in the dead of night, inspiration can spring up and spark the juices that influence our lives.

 

Take local 17-year-old junior, Joe Perry. He’s been banging the ivories and strumming guitar strings since he was five years old. and what does he have to show for it?

 

A song on iTunes, that’s  all.

 

Perry’s song, Drifting Away, was inspired when he was sitting around coming up with a melody and inserting some phrases. Perry said the song came pretty easily to him and said most of his inspiration for songs comes when he’s up late at night.

 

“My musical inspiration usually comes to me well after like 10:30 at night,” Perry says. “I write the music first, then think up lyrics to go along with it.”

 

Perry’s Drifting Away was all part of a three-day National Catholic Youth Conference he attended last October in Indianapolis, which included a talent competition he applied for. Perry submitted some YouTube videos of him performing and the judges were so impressed, he made it into the top 10 youths in the contest.

 

His reward?

 

Playing acoustically in front of thousands of people in a large auditorium.

 

“That was fun. I really enjoyed being on stage with my guitar and my music,” he said.

 

Perry then headed to Chicago to put together his original single (Drifting Away) and a video at Heartbeat Records recording studio. The video was uploaded to YouTube last Friday and already has over 1,000 views. Sal Solo was the producer.

 

Perry, who some say sounds a little like Mumford and Sons and even Bob Dylan, says his music influences range from Christian artists (Matt Maher) to Reggae and Caribbean-style songs. His passion for his craft is something he would love to build a life-long career somewhere in the music industry.

 

“In Chicago, I got the opportunity to work with professionals, do some things on the production side and do some editing,” Perry said enthusiastically.. “I enjoy all areas of music production and would love to find a job in this industry, maybe travel or play on a cruise ship.”

 

Currently, Perry plays at church and practices a lot with some “older” friends. He says he owes a lot to Jordan Maiers and Jake Miller, who took time out of their busy schedules to teach Perry to play the guitar. He also credits Jill Zimmerman for advising him on writing songs. Perry has two other songs he’s written ready to be copyrighted and moved to iTunes in the near future.

 

As part of Perry’s top 10 success at NCYC’s top talent contest, he and 11 other contestants will be traveling across the country (some even to Hawaii) as part of the NCYC Teen Talent Tour 2014. In November of this year, the tour will hold a concert at a yet-to-be-determined site assigned by the St. Cloud Diocese.

Joe is the son of Melanie and Steve Perry and he has one sister, Anna.