In an empty room where no one’s watching, the sound of a guitar begins the start of a song as senior Judah Stegmaier hits record on his phone. He hums along, pausing, rewriting, repeating; it’s quiet work that most people never see, and that’s exactly how he likes it.

This past summer, Stegmaier, under the stage name “Love You,” published his first full-length album, “Take A Sad Song And Make It Better,” on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. The album combines an indie pop and rock sound across ten original songs and two covers.

Years before this album even became a concept, Stegmaier spent his free time writing songs. His phone is full of lyrics, voice memos and poetry because he hits record whenever an idea sparks in his head. Over time, those scraps came together to build what eventually became this album.

“My creative process is very shoddy,” he said. “It really depends on how lazy I am. A lot of the time, I write my songs, I come up with a chord progression or something on my guitar first.”

Once he has an idea flowing, he moves to Logic Pro X, a more advanced version of GarageBand, to turn the rough draft into an actual track. Once he’s finished, he uploads the music himself through United Masters, an independent publishing platform.

He wanted the sound of his debut album to reflect the music that shaped him.

“A lot of it, I was just really inspired by the Beach Boys,” he said. “Their sad songs…they’re sad, but they also have a really upbeat melody to them, and they’re really catchy. I wanted to do something like that, but also make it flow as sort of a concept album.”

The album’s name, “Take A Sad Song And Make It Better,” ties back to a lyric from “Hey Jude” by The Beatles, while his stage name was inspired by the Beach Boys and their 1977 record, “Love You.”

Despite the achievement of creating an entire album, almost no one knew it was coming, not even his dad.

“I don’t really show anybody my music,” Stegmaier said. “My dad didn’t find out about my album until I released it, and he liked it. He’s pretty proud of it, and he showed his friends and stuff.”

Rather than promoting his music online, Stegmaier shared it particularly with those who are close to him. When he finally shared a song with a friend, the reaction surprised him.

“When I first heard it, I was actually really surprised,” senior Andrew Jones said. “Not to be rude to him. I didn’t think that he was gonna be able to actually pull it off. There are some parts where it really wasn’t my style, but I still saw the beauty for what it was.”

But for Stegmaier, making music isn’t about seeking fame or attention. It’s an escape from the world, as he describes it, “almost like a journal.”

“Music has always been a thing where it’s like, I don’t really take it too seriously,” he said. “It’s just, it’s something that helps me keep my mind active.”

Now that his first album is published, he’s focusing on what’s next.

“That last one was kind of a tutorial,” Stegmaier said. “But now I want to go full 60s pop. I’ve been writing a lot of stuff, but I haven’t been recording a lot of stuff.”

Whether his next project stays hidden until the day it drops like this one did is anyone’s guess. But if his first album proved anything, it’s that Stegmaier doesn’t need a spotlight to make something he’s proud of. He just needs a quiet room, a guitar and an idea worth chasing.