16-Year-Old Musician Debuts at Orange Leaf Bristow

Cormac O’Rourke, a 16-year-old who attends Patriot High School, wants to make music for the rest of his life, and he embarked on that journey Friday night at Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt in Bristow.

His performance was a first for both Orange Leaf and O’Rourke. Orange Leaf Bristow opened just five days prior, and was already holding its first live music night, and O’Rourke, had never before played before a live audience outside of his high school auditorium before.

But getting out in public, and finding a fan base is something O’Rourke is seriously intent on doing this year.

“I feel like you can’t really be a musician/solo performer if you’re not getting your music out there to the public. I don’t really want to make music just for myself,” O’Rourke said.

So, he took his alternative, romantic and sometimes witty brand of self-composed, self-produced music to the bright green and orange walls of Orange Leaf.

There, he performed for a mixture of old and new fans.

On “stage,” O’Rourke’s music sounded more and mellow and inimate than the songs he self-produced on his Mac for the album "Run Riot."

“A lot of acoustic versions are very different from the studio versions of the songs,” O’Rourke explained. “I think they both have their perks."

However, O’Rourke also described a new dedication he brings to his music, which may account for its stylistic evolution.

“’Run Riot,’ I feel like it was kind of testing the waters. It was my first album and my first real project. It was kind of a beginning. I started writing new stuff directly after ‘Run Riot’ was released. I’ve been spending months and months on these new songs,” O’Rourke said.

Since gaining a fan base through such Internet sites as iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube and Twitter, this success has helped him approach his music more professionally.

“’(For my new single) Haunting Me’, I started in October, and I finished it in January. I’m taking a lot more time, being a lot more precise,” O’Rourke said.

Along the way, he’s learning about the music industry, from mixing and producing his own music, to being his own agent and manager and, he’s learning about the type of artist he wants to ultimately become.

And while he knows how to mix instrumentals, he’s just as discerning about the words he pens.

“I feel like a lot of people, a lot of bands, write meaningless stuff. I try to make all my songs very personal, and the lyrics sound like poetry,” O’Rourke

O’Rourke began his passion for music with piano lessons as a young child. However, it was not until he tried his hand at guitar at age 11 that he became hooked. Now, O’Rourke boasts to being able to play most instruments. This talent has enabled him to be productive as a solo artist.

Now, he said he’d be a happy man if he could write, play and perform music for the rest of his life.

“I would love to do this professionally. That would be a good life, a fun life. I don’t know what else I would want to do.”