Have you ever dreamed of creating your own music? LHS junior, Eileen Baumgarten is making her dreams a reality.
Known creatively as Eileen Keane, she released her first single, “Antagonist,” on Jan. 17, jumpstarting her music career. Baumgarten has been writing music from a young age but has since grown into a serious, producing artist.
“I started writing music when I was seven years old because I started playing classical guitar when I was four, so I got really into making melodies and putting lyrics [together]. Eventually, I picked up more instruments, and I was able to compose a whole song,” said Baumgarten.
Baumgarten does not just write for her fans, but instead, she writes for herself too. She makes it a priority that her music has a purpose, and she wants to create a relatable space for her listeners to find comfort. With music as a form of expression for so many, Baumgarten wants as many people to find that expression in themselves as possible and hopes her music can do just the trick.
“I try to always, when I write songs, help people relate on a certain level, and especially if I ever go through an experience that I feel like I can’t find a song which I can relate to help me go through it, I write it myself. I think that also helps a lot of other people when they can relate as well,” said Baumgarten.
Releasing a song would have been impossible without daily practice and improvement. Working every day on her skills like writing, producing and playing instruments has helped Baumgarten attain the big accomplishment of releasing her first single.
“I try to write every single day, whether that is just journaling or little songwriting practices or making melodies or making new guitar riffs or piano compositions, and I do that every single day so I can continue to grow and get better,” said Baumgarten.

While Baumgarten is the writer, singer and producer of “Antagonist,” it would not have been at the level of excellence it is today without help from her music teacher, Andrew Rogers. Rogers helped Baumgarten along the way during the song’s production making her dream of releasing her first single come to fruition.
“Eileen and I did all the recording. We tracked all the instruments and vocals and made decisions on guitar sounds, transitions, etc. She sent it to a mix engineer, and we worked with him on the final mix. Then, I mastered the track, which means putting the final touches on it so it can be played consistently on different speakers and headphones,” said Rogers.
The release of “Antagonist” is just the beginning for Baumgarten. With an end goal of entering the music industry, she hopes she can reach as many people as possible with her music and eventually go on tour with her songs. Baumgarten plans to continue releasing music consistently to build her fan base and recognition.
“I will release a song in March, hopefully. I record everything at home. I write all of the songs, and then my music teacher [and I] co-produce them, which means that we will go through them and say, okay here is the rhythm guitar, we need another lead guitar, we need a synth pad over here,” said Baumgarten.
After the release of Baumgarten’s first single, Rogers has mixed feelings about seeing one of his students take this step into the professional world. While the release brings feelings of pride, it is something the two have been anticipating for some time now.
“On one hand, it feels surreal that a student I have worked with for years is taking that big step and releasing her own music. On the other hand, we have worked on songwriting and recording for a few years, and it’s been a long time coming to put it out into the world,” said Rogers.
Baumgarten records everything in her at-home recording studio, from vocals and background instruments to producing with her laptop. This step of the creative process can be difficult as circumstances outside of Baumgarten’s control may interfere with the recording schedule, but still, she is hopeful her next release will be on track to occur in March.
“With recording and doing all that from home, sometimes it’s an unpredictable schedule, you know, if I get sick and I can’t sing, and we have to push off recording for a week or if there is a technological problem or something like that,” said Baumgarten.
Baumgarten takes great inspiration from artists in the pop-punk world. She admires groups such as Green Day, Foo Fighters, Paramore and The All-American Rejects. Pop-punk not only inspires Baumgarten’s style of music but also the meaning behind it.
“Something I love about pop-punk is that it’s very honest. It’s very much putting yourself out there. It’s very much this is who I am, and I’m not going to change. Whenever I hear those songs, it inspires me to be honest in my own songwriting. I think whenever I try to write a song with the utmost honesty, I always write my best songs,” said Baumgarten.

Baumgarten not only writes and creates music as a solo artist, but she is also in a young artist band called Aftermath. Aftermath has opened for the South Dakota Rock and Roll Music Association’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony twice, been the youngest band to perform at the Levitt and will open the Stampede at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center on April 12. The band has been both a place for Baumgarten to show off her talent and a source of support during this big step in her career.
“They all knew [“Antagonist”] long before because we have played it live, but my band has two of my siblings in it, who have been incredibly supportive and excited for me as I have gone through the process [of releasing music]. The rest of the band has been so wonderful giving me a chance to show it to audiences as we play it together and it is such a fun opportunity to get to share a piece of work that I create with my friends,” said Baumgarten.
“You have to write 10 bad songs to write a good one,” said Baumgarten.

 

Baumgarten has used social media heavily to promote “Antagonist” before and after its release, but what do her comments think about her song?

• “Love it!” said @happysinghmusic/Instagram
• “So amazing, Eileen,” said @lizzieshacklett.literacyislit/Instagram
• “Best new song!” said @ken.elsherif/Instagram
• YAY LISTENING. RIGHT. NOW.” said @micah_ryan17/Instagram
• “Oh my gosh this works so well,” said @danika.j25/Instagram
• “I LOVE IT,” said @oliviamgill/Instagram
• “Ok LOVE this,” said @avery.seed/Instagram
• “Such a fire song!!” said @lexrat13/TikTok
• “New artist found,” said @shidy.scg.p/TikTok
• “Cannot wait for this to come out,” said @chloerohl/TikTok
• “I’m so ready,” said @k.a.i.r.a..g/TikTok