High-schooler Elijah had been writing songs for about six months when he posted a few of his lyrics to social news site Reddit last week.
The York, Pennsylvania native expected to get some honest feedback — “the Internet is a perfect tool” for that, he told The Daily Dot. But he never expected a professional musician to take those lyrics and turn them into a song.
A 28-year-old Florida musician, who goes by the stage name Rotat, jumped into the week-old thread yesterday.
“I’m really good at writing music to other people’s lyrics,” Rotat wrote. “I could put together two songs for you tonight if you’d like. Won’t take me long.”
Within an hour Rotat, who’s first name is Joe, created a simple and beautiful rendition of the lyrics, which he uploaded to media hosting site Soundcloud.
“I came across Elijah’s lyrics and thought they were excellent writing for someone much younger than me,” Rotat wrote in a message to The Daily Dot.
Rotat, who lives in Florida, said he had worked with other musicians a few times in the past on Reddit, “but never with lyrics and it didn’t turn out this successful.”
Elijah, 16, wrote that he “absolutely LOVED the song.” He’s even counted the times he’s listened to it: 18 in five hours.
And luckily for him, it looks like this unlikely collaboration isn’t over.
Rotat said he’s planning to work on at least one more of Elijah’s songs — possibly two, he said, if he’s feeling “inspired enough.”