Artan McManus of Weyburn is 15 years old and has just released his second EP album. 'Yellowline Dynamica' the name of a all-original, hard rock EP released earlier this month on all digital platforms.

While first a music producer and songwriter, he also performs each instrument himself, or programs it, and mixes it all in his computer. He's been playing guitar for six years, and for the past couple of years he has been playing bass and drumming as well.

"I started playing guitar at 10 and overall did the songwriting from 10, 11, but I got really good at it at 12, and I've been doing it since then."

He said he hears the songs in his head, which take form and flesh-out as he works on them. And some of the songs have evolved.

"One of the tracks on this got changed from one thing into the other completely," said McManus. "It was one song and then it's transformed into a different song almost entirely, and there is an older version of that song, but it didn't work out as well and that newer version is on here as track 3 called, 'You Told Me' and it was transformed into a better song."

He shared how the album was influenced by his father, Kelt McManus, who passed away last year.

"This is my second EP, and one of the last big influences from my dad," he shared. "Four or five tracks are really influenced by my dad."

"He would listen to it and say what he really liked about it and hardly ever said that he disliked something, but if he did, I'd learn from it. I'd take it as criticism and use it to make it better to shape song into something better overall." 

McManus and his father spent many hours listening to music together, with shared interest in the 'heavier' variety of rock music.

He described this music as, "hard rock, maybe metal, but generally just hard rock and it's influenced strongly by Metallica, Megadeth, and later on I changed some stuff about it to make their songs better and change the production and stuff. The production influenced by Blink-182 and Metallica strongly."

While he still intends to hone his skills, the drums and bass on this album are programmed.

"But every beat, I made sure, was put there on purpose, and I really just focused on every little beat of the song," he shared. "And the bass used to be me actually playing it, but I wasn't good enough of a bassist, so I decided I'd program it to what I wanted it to be, and it's convincing sounding, real enough. I messed with it a lot to make it sound real. The guitars are real, though."

He said he plans to eventually collaborate more with other musicians.

"The oldest track on the album, was one that my dad really liked, and so I kept that one going the longest," said McManus, adding he also created the album art, and submitted his album to the digital platforms.

His advice for anyone hoping to make their own music is that Garage Band is a great app to start with, and the best rule of thumb he can give is to "keep it simple and build from there".

Find Yellowline Dynamica here on YouTube , Apple Music , and Spotify.

original artwork by Artan McManus