In a world where thousands of musicians release music each year hoping to achieve real success, Jesuit’s Aaron Perera– may have just done that.
Before the start of the school year, Perera featured on his first released song with Liam Sabido (Class of ‘25) and Kapil Kakodkar (Class of ‘25): Starship. The smooth, R&B-styled track blends laid back vocals with rhythmic production, creating a sound that feels both modern and polished.
Not to mention, it is very catchy, something that comes as no surprise given Perera’s extensive background in vocal performance.
“Liam and Kapil have always been convincing me to write a song with them in my junior year, and I was always down,” said Aaron. “I never was good at songwriting and I was super curious. I remember pulling up to the studio, which was Liam’s room, for the first time and I was immediately excited. I never really had a good microphone to sing in, and I saw Liam’s mic and got super excited to do this. I also saw his setup and it was super cool.”
In addition to releasing music, Aaron Perera is a member of Jesuit’s Chamber choir, and was selected to join the national choir last year. He is also a notable cantor in Jesuit’s liturgy band at mass.
Aaron’s vocals, combined with the layered production, proved to be a great addition to the song. More importantly, Aaron’s experience in the music world was a great help during the songwriting process. Perera has a rare ability called “perfect pitch”, which is the ability to identify a note by only hearing it.
Sonically, Starship leans heavily into modern R&B and lo-fi pop influences. The track includes a mellow beat, tight drums, and minimalist yet layered production, making it an easy and casual listen. Perera’s vocals blend effortlessly into the track.
“The process was a little interesting. We always talked about writing new songs and stuff, so we went and looked up some free beats to use for our song,” Aaron recalled, “But since we were on some limited time, we decided that we were going to continue a song that Liam and Kapil were working on earlier, and see what I contribute to it. I contributed a couple parts into the song. The first part was the rap. Kapil and Liam thought it was a pretty cool idea to include a small rap segment in there, but they didn’t actually know the lyrics they wanted. So, they went to one of their old raps and took the lyrics from there and modified it to speak the theme of this song. They gave me the mic, turned on the song, and just let me make a flow that spoke to me, which they thought was amazing. For the second part of my song, it was the end where I just improvised the riffs, and for the lyrics, I made them and made the tune as well.”
Inspired by his experience, Aaron has continued to write songs on his own. While he has not released any original music since Starship, he plans to pursue more songwriting in the future. For him, this is only just the beginning of what could be a very successful career in music.
Since its release, Starship has gained attention among some Jesuit students, gaining a little over a thousand streams across different platforms. Recorded in a bedroom studio, Aaron Pereras’ debut track, with the help of Sabido and Kakodkar, has made for an impressive debut.
“I do plan on releasing more music in the future, when me and Liam actually meet up again,” he confirmed. “I am super excited to see what we can do. I think I will pursue music in the future, I just don’t really know how. Maybe I’ll teach vocal lessons for kids who need it as a part time, or I could try to go professional. Or I could keep meeting with Liam and make songs which would be super cool.”
Starship is available to listen to on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.
