“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.’’
— Victor Hugo
Senior Adoni Sanders is one of many students at McCallum that chooses to express himself through music. At the start of freshman year, he decided to take bigger steps for himself, steps that someday may lead him to what he has dreamt since a young age.
Adoni Sanders, also known as Donni Otto, took the effort to start and maintain his own SoundCloud, in which he creates and shares his own songs. Through his music he feels that he is able to express how he feels and how other people may feel, he gets to show a side of him that most people don’t usually see.
Taking part in something like this requires a lot of effort but Sanders is willing to take this effort so that there will be a future in music.
“When I make mistakes I try not to get frustrated, I just use it as something for me to get better at. I listen to some of my songs that I feel I don’t really like, and I know not to do that again or make that choice again. I take my mistakes and build on them.”
Promoting his music is also another task he has to do in order to put himself out there and be known. Sanders says he contacts close friends so that they can post links to his work on social media, this gives people the chance to check it out.
“I would say that promotion online and through social media has worked, one of my songs got about 70,000 plays and 1,000 likes.”
This isn’t something Sanders does all by himself, he has also created a group with a few friends he met through basketball. “SoundCloud started from us playing basketball on the same team; we started freestyling then took it from there. At first it was just an idea then we actually looked for studios and started booking sessions, that’s when it became an addiction.”
After high school Adoni Sanders or Donni Otto plans on going to college to pursue music; if his SoundCloud takes off even more, he will use this money to pay for his greater education.
“Doing this has taught me that I actually have the opportunity to talk about my problems without actually talking to anybody. I can express all my emotions through music and give power to my voice.”
