By Emme Tran | Junior Editor
Despite the uncertainties of the new school year, many Gabrielino High School students have discovered ways to pass the time and keep their spirits high. Juniors Ivan Curiel-Mejia, Vincent De Marco, Thien Le, Karyme Peña, and Kayla Tran, found a way to bring joy to themselves and their peers.
As the pandemic reared its ugly head in the form of school closures and quarantines, students found themselves relying on technology as a valuable entertainment tool to get through daily life. TikTok, Twitch, and YouTube experienced a dramatic rise in both viewers and creators, especially pertaining to the student population. The juniors’ podcast, “Up Past Bedtime,” is no exception to this trend.
“Our podcast actually started because of COVID-19,” De Marco revealed. “We were on a group call early in the morning and the idea was thrown out there and it took shape over time. We had so much time to play with, so during the heart of quarantine, we recorded almost weekly.”
However, with the start of school, the group has found less time to create more episodes. Despite this setback, their passion for creating content has yet to be staunched.
“We started the podcast right after school had ended for the summer. We felt that we wanted to create something during our time at home,” Curiel-Mejia commented. “Thankfully, this meant we had lots of time to dedicate to making content. As the school year began, we’ve slowed down with our episodes, but we hope to start releasing new episodes on a regular basis again soon.”
Utilizing the many resources available online, the group was able to record and assemble a podcast. As the editor of the podcast, Tran polishes off the sound quality and content and then distributes the recording to listening platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
“We record the actual episodes on Discord using a recording bot known as ‘Craig’ and from there I cut and modify the clips using [a digital audio editor called] Audacity,” Tran explained.
Along with Tran, the rest of the cast and crew of “Up Past Bedtime” combines its efforts to create the podcasts. The students collaborate to talk about relevant topics such as family, college, and friendship.
“Each member of the podcast contributes different aspects and opinions to our conversations, and we collectively work together towards creating thought-provoking and immersive conversations while still holding onto that teenage element,” said Le.
With the stress of the current state of the world and the pressure of student life, “Up Past Bedtime” allows some students to find a connection with students that are similar to themselves.
“We started producing the podcast because we figured that we would make our time during quarantine useful and do something that would really represent us and how we spent our time the past couple months,” asserted Peña. “Our overall goal is to just have fun.”
