Nowadays, the debut of a musical career can start on a downloadable app on an iPhone with a catchy beat in the background and rushed lyrics. Arguably the most popular app for recording and putting your own music out to the world is SoundCloud, which is used by many young blossoming artists. SoundCloud is the world’s largest open audio platform, meaning it is powered by a connected community of creators, listeners, and curators. Although this app can be riddled with mumble rappers and wannabes, every so often, a real diamond in the rough can be seen making waves in the community. It is also possible one of these diamonds in the rough happens to go to school here: Jared Patron. 

Although Soundcloud may know him as Isolation, Patron’s musical passion started as a child when his mother would sing him lullabies. Patron joined the boys choir at his church, but wanted to take his passion a step further and started making music halfway through eighth grade. As high school rolled around, Patron took advantage of the new technology offered at the school, advancing his music even further. 

“I decided to continue making music as I progressed into high school since we were given Apple MacBooks, which made the process of recording and mixing tracks a lot easier,” Patron said.

The debut of Patron’s music productions was sparked from events that occurred when he was in eighth grade, and, if it is possible to believe this cliche, it all started with a girl. Patron’s messy emotions he felt were actually the beautiful beginning of his lyrical takeoff as he would just throw all his emotions down on paper to cope with the way he felt. This anger and frustration he experienced allowed his lyrics to be very well-liked within the Soundcloud community.

 “What truly shocked me was how I got the idea of turning these emotions into poetry, poetry that would soon become associated with music. At this point, I understood,” Patron said. “I understood that being happy and satisfied all the time doesn’t aid you in growth.” 

In addition to the musical talent he possesses, Patron also likes to take advantage of the visual aspect of his music, which cannot all be satisfied within Soundcloud. Since SoundCloud is almost exclusively centered around audio, there is not much of an opportunity to make videos and visual animations alongside musical content. Patron has started using YouTube with a few of his songs for more of a visually entertaining experience. Patron has used YouTube for other videos unrelated to his own musical content, however, the one lyrical video he posted saw instant approval.

“On YouTube, my video titled “Leaked – Lil Tjay {REMIX} ft. isolation” currently has over 5.2k views,” Patron said. “This is the only song-video that is posted on my YouTube account but is still my most popular video.” 

Some budding artists have to go through a stage with their parents where they must convince them that their passion for music is worth their precious time. Dissimilar to this,  Patron’s parents, specifically his father, have been big supporters of his musical journey, for which Patron cannot express enough gratitude. Although education is clearly stated as a priority for him, Patron’s parents are firm believers in doing what you love, and, similar to most parents, for their son to have a better life than they did. 

“My parents weren’t born or raised in America, they were born in the Philippines and lived there for 25 years before coming to the US. Growing up, they obviously didn’t have the resources that we have these days, but all they wanted [was for me] to succeed,” said Patron. “To my parents, I can’t say “thank you” and “I love you” enough, and I’m proud to have a figure in my life that is more than a father to me. He’s my best friend and I am very grateful that he supports me in making music.”

Some of Patron’s most notable songs on Soundcloud are “i tried” as his most popular on the app with 3,100 listens, and others like “karma,” “still,” “valentines day,” “burn,” and “aurora” (titles spelled with lower case on purpose). Patron makes it very clear that every lyric and beat placed in his art has deep thought and effort behind it, which may seem rare among the SoundCloud community. Nonetheless, Patron is on track to be taking the SoundCloud community by storm, and beyond. 

“I honestly love recording and working on the mixing process, to me there’s nothing better than hearing the full version of something that you’ve created,” Patron said. “I also understand that not everyone is going to like you so the best thing to do is carry on. As long as you stay true to yourself, opinions will lose their relevance. To my knowledge, this has yet to occur, but that doesn’t certify that it’s not happening already. I could be completely wrong, but for now, I’ll keep doing me.”