A new album comprised nearly exclusively of wholly original songs, written, recorded, performed, and produced entirely by student musicians, releases its first single this week, with more coming soon.

“I was a songwriting major for my undergrad degree before I got my teaching degree,” explained Mt. Hope Choral Director David Lauria. “I just think that that aspect of music is so incredibly important. So I’m constantly pushing the idea of, ‘Let’s create something new. Let’s make something that didn’t exist before.’”

The album has been a few years in the making, and consists of work from students incorporating five different graduating classes, going all the way back to the Class of 2021, and up to the Class of 2025.

Songs on the album have been created from a few different avenues. Some were born from Mt. Hope’s songwriting elective, while others have been brewing inside the young musicians’ minds for much longer.

“I have been writing songs since I’ve been five years old. I did it all the time just to express my feelings. I’m the middle child, I’m the only girl,” said Casey Ruth Little, who is headed to Berklee in the fall to pursue a career in music. “So while my brothers would be with my parents or doing sports and different things, I would be alone in my room — my lair — writing songs.”

Little’s contribution to the album, “Streetlight Yellow,” was inspired by a night with her girlfriend where rain clouds put a damper on what she hoped to be a more romantic setting while on a date.

“She said it was okay, because the streetlight yellow makes the rain on the roof look like stars,” Little explained. “I went home and I wrote the song in 25 minutes. That’s how it happens. It’s a very personal song and I’m very happy that that’s the first song with my name on it that’s coming out.”

Personal experience was also the genesis for Hannah de Jesus, an aspiring professional classical guitarist who wrote and recorded vocals for the indie-electric mix “Break Free”, which is a cathartic anthem about overcoming anxiety in her personal life.

“The year I wrote it, I had struggled a lot with it,” she explained. “I kind of pushed through it and things got better, and I’m so happy now. But looking back on it, I was turning 18 and I was like, oh my God, I made it so far in life and it made me so happy.”

Kylie Rolando, who wrote and performed vocals for the first single that releases on Spotify and Apple Music on Tuesday, “Why Does It Matter Who We Love”, said that she had never considered recording any original music before being provided the opportunity through the songwriting class.

“I was 16, I think, at the time of writing this song, and I never thought it would be out on Spotify for people to listen to,” Rolando, who is pursuing a career in art history, said. “I think it’s good for people to get those opportunities they never thought would be possible.”

Students had a variety of ways to contribute towards the album, either through playing music (Lauria’s son, Jacob, performed drums for many of the tracks), singing backup vocals, or for students like Nick Perry, getting into the production side of things. He recorded, mixed, and mastered de Jesus’s song, taking it in a direction she didn’t expect but ultimately found to be exactly the right choice.

“What I got out of it was getting in-person experience working with other musicians in a studio setting and the actual recording process of getting a recorded track done with the vocals and instruments,” Perry said. “I think a lot of producers and beat makers can spend years just making beats and improving that, but if they never work with anyone else, they don’t get the same kind of studio experience that they would if you were working in the industry.”

Along with the songwriting class, students from the school’s digital audio recording class got the chance to help produce and master songs that wound up on the album, even getting the chance to utilize real studio recording equipment during a field trip to TRIAD Recording in Warren.

Although the students aren’t expecting the album to catapult them to fame or the Grammy’s, they all agreed the experience was one they are grateful for, and for some, it is just the beginning of greater things to come.

“I know we’re not professionals. Like we’re not touring stadiums like Taylor Swift, but it’s putting us in a place next to other artists who are at that level, being on Spotify and Apple Music,” Little said. “To make a sports reference, it’s like if you got to play on the same field as the Patriots. Especially for me, who’s been told music isn’t going to get you anywhere and it’s not a real career, it makes that career feel more attainable and to keep pushing and go for what I love and not give up on that.”

You can find the Mt. Hope musicians’ work on Spotify at https://tinyurl.com/mhhs-spotify or on Apple Music at https://tinyurl.com/mhhs-itunes.