What does it take to make an album? How do you make an album as a high school student? The Black Ice Machine and Dystoria know the answer. The Black Ice Machine, a five member band, and Dystoria, which is comprised of two members,  will have released full albums within the year.

The bands have many similarities, including their early inspiration to create an album. 

Black Ice Machine band members have had the goal to record their music since the formation of their band.

“It was always sort of a loose goal since starting the band, it felt like the right thing to do with the songs we were writing. We wanted them to be heard,” said Black Ice Machine lead singer Eli Begonia. 

Chase Kochis and Miles Reed, members of Dystoria, began working on “Lace” in the summer of 2023. Their album title was inspired by a song that didn’t make the final cut for the album. 

“We recorded the whole album, and it was finished. My coworker has a studio, and he happens to be a musician and he was like it’d be so much better if you re-recorded everything professionally, so that became a whole other process,” said Kochis, who plays the guitar, and sings vocals. 

Similarly to Dystoria, members of the Black Ice Machine recorded in a studio belonging to a person one of the band members knew. The Black Ice Machine recorded at Echo Hill studio, which belongs to the father of drummer Niko Paroissien-Arce.

The upcoming Black Ice Machine album, “Something Strange up the Mountain,” comes out May 3. Edwin Paroissien, Paroissien-Arce’s father, acted as a producer on the album. Echo Hill studios has also housed bands like Laundry, Growing Pains and Novacane. 

“We had the immense pleasure of recording with Edwin Paroissien, a phenomenal producer and mixing engineer. It was awesome getting to work with him to record the album,” said Begonia. 

Both bands struggled in finding time to record and come together to create their albums as high school students with conflicting schedules. 

Dystoria combated this by working on their album when they were not busy with school. 

 “[Reed] is in drama. I’m in track. So last year, we wanted to start recording but couldn’t really with time management. And so in the summer, we just grinded it out,” said Kochis.

In terms of promoting the album, the bands are utilizing different methods. 

“I walked around 23rd and just handed out our business cards to people that looked like they might like rock music,” said Dystoria band member Miles Reed. 

Black Ice Machine members say they focus more energy on the fan base they already have on social media. 

The albums are both different in their own ways. The two bands urge their audiences to listen because of their unique sounds. 

“The album itself is very diverse. There’s definitely a story in the album. If you like to listen from the front to the end, it starts one way and ends a certain way. All the songs definitely tell a story.” said Reed. 

“The production and mixing is unique, with some gorgeous ambient synth work on a few of the tracks and really pretty guitar tones. There are also some fun and weird lyrical themes, some very fun and unconventional song structures, and a sort of whimsical twist to what would otherwise be a more melodramatic album.” said Begonia. 

Both albums can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora and most other streaming services.

This story was originally published on The Cardinal Times on April 18, 2024.