'Let's jam': Southeast student Jeremy Aparicio travels to Los Angeles to record music

Dreams are beginning to come to fruition for Southeast Missouri State University senior Jeremy Aparicio.

It all started when Aparicio was in his senior year of high school. A lot of his friends played music, which led to him learning to play the drums. When his father bought him his first drum set, Aparicio learned his father also played the drums.

Aparicio said his father was excited about him wanting to pursue music.

"He was thrilled that I was into music and supported it 100 percent," he said.

He has since moved on to bigger and better things as a drummer in the alternative rock band Lori's Puppets.

From left: Cal Campbell, producer Robert Davis, Lori's Puppets singer Dane Eubanks, bassist Jake Burkitt, drummer Jeremy Aparicio and producer Nathan Cox pose for a photo at Cal Campbell's home in Los Angeles.Photo submitted by Kara Hartnett

Lori's Puppets started when Aparicio was best friends with Payton Schoenbeck, a former guitarist in the band. While Aparicio was a senior in high school, Schoenbeck was enrolled at Rend Lake College in Ina, Illinois.

It was there that Schoenbeck met Dane Eubanks, the current lead singer of Lori's Puppets. One day in Schoenbeck's music class, his teacher asked who in the class played an instrument. Schoenbeck and Eubanks were the only ones to raise their hands.

When Eubanks saw Schoenbeck was also a musician, he decided to pass him a note saying, "Let's jam." Soon after that, Aparicio said the three began writing songs and practicing every day after school.

Currently, the band consists of Aparicio at drums, Eubanks as lead singer, Jake Burkitt on bass and Travis Patton at guitar.

Recently, Lori's Puppets has been creating a name for itself. The band traveled to Los Angeles from Oct. 21 to 28 to meet with Nathan Cox and Robert Davis, producers and former bandmates of alternative rock band Revis, to write and record songs for its upcoming album.

Cox and Davis made a deal with Lori's Puppets that if the producers provided the band with a good rate for production time, they would help them with four songs.

"They called us to say, 'Hey, we want to give you a good rate, and we know it's expensive to get out here, but if you pay this much, we'll do four songs for you,'" Aparicio said.

He and the band saw the trip as an important opportunity because Cox and Davis have a lot of connections in the music industry. Aparicio said once the band arrived in LA, they went straight to work.

"We went Saturday; Sunday, we did drums all day and then guitars the rest of the week with vocals," Aparicio said. "There was really no sightseeing for us; it was basically indoors and just recording, getting songs done."

The process of recording the songs involved the band sitting to rewrite and record for each song, Aparicio said. He also said the producers were impressed with what the band had to offer.

"I don't think they knew what to expect, but once they started hearing it and started mixing it and stuff, they were impressed enough to say, like, 'Hey, we're going to send this to some people when we get done with it finally,'" Aparicio said.

Since the trip, the band continues to hold weekly rehearsals, which typically are at their manager Curtis Meadows' house in Woodlawn, Illinois.

"It has the guitars, the amps, the drums; we just walk in, and we can practice," Aparicio said. "We typically start with running through our normal set that we play live, so we'll just play that all the way through. ... We usually do that and then start writing or start learning some covers."

With new material, the band's sound is beginning to change. During the trip, the producers said the band would need to revisit LA because of their new sound, Aparicio said.

"Our next few practices, we actually need to rewrite all these songs that we play to fit the sound now, because we're just kind of going in a different direction with the sound of our music," Aparicio said. "We've only changed four songs; now we have to change the other, I believe, 10 songs that we have."

Before, the band's sound had more of a '90s alternative-rock feel. The band had melodies that appeared modern, but the execution of the songs made them outdated. The band now is moving toward a more modern-rock sound infused with pop.

As of now, the band is waiting on the producers to send back its four songs and seeking artwork for the CD. The band hopes to sell physical CDs before branching off to iTunes, because the goal is to recoup some of the costs from the trip to LA.

While the trip to LA was not cheap, Aparicio said the band received a lot of support in preparation for the trip.

"All of our parents chipped, in and we started a GoFundMe," he said.

The time put into taking the trip to LA to work on music is what Aparicio said he hopes fans take from the music.

"I think for us to spend all that money and we go out there, rewrite these songs, and we're doing it more for us, if anything. Just hopefully people will appreciate it, especially our close friends and our small fan base," he said.

The name of the new album still is being determined, he said, but it may end up being self-titled.

To learn more about Lori's Puppets and stay updated about its upcoming album, visit www.lorispuppets.com and the band's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/lorispuppets.

Lori's Puppets' current 11-song album, "Conundrum," is available on iTunes for $9.99.