San Luis Obispo High School is filled with talented musicians, but few can play the saxophone and talk about obscure bands for long periods of time. So, Expressions sat down with junior Lorenzo Cortese to find out more about his talents.

Expressions: What’s the name of the band you’re in?

Junior Lorenzo Cortese: Well, we kind of have some different names. We were the Teeny Boppers a while ago, but then we kind of thought that that was a silly name because no one got the joke. I think we’re Rudaulus (Ruder) now though. We have a list of names, but Rudaulus is the name that I kind of think we’re gonna go under now, which is Latin and I think it means ‘striving under pressure’.

Expressions: Do you do other things, or just stick to music?

Cortese: I pretty much just stick to music. I’m in AP Art History, but that’s kind of it. I mostly stick to music. We [Rudaulus] play pretty much every weekend and a lot of days after school we get together. If we’re not practicing, we’re talking or thinking about music. We’re trying to get a lot of hip-hop elements into what we’re playing, and I think that’s kind of interesting because there are not that many bands that play hip-hop, soul, and jazz. I think that could be interesting.

Expressions: Why do you like music so much?

Cortese: I don’t know. I definitely always liked music. When I was a kid, I would be sitting in bed, unable to sleep and just singing music in my head to try to get myself to sleep, but now I cannot go to sleep normally, I have to have something happening. And music is fun.

Expressions: What are your top six favorite musicians?

Cortese: Braxton Cook, Vampire Weekend, Earl Sweatshirt, Frank Ocean, Roy Hargrove, and The Grateful Dead.

Expressions: Do you want to go into music in the future?

Cortese: I definitely want to play music my entire life, but I think I’m probably going to go to Cuesta College and be in their Jazz program because it’s really good. Mostly, if I could, definitely. That’s the goal, but I mean, that’s kind of the goal for everyone: to do what they love. It’s just, how do you make money?

Expressions: What projects are you working on, music wise?

Cortese: I think we’re trying to put out a full CD by the end of the year. We’re also trying to get a bunch of different people involved, like, (senior) Alec West, he plays guitar really well, and a guy from Arroyo Grande High School that plays the saxophone that we’re trying to get together with. We want a bunch of different music from SLO because we have such a cool music scene here and it would be cool if we tried to commemorate it.

Expressions: How did you get started with your Instagram page, @Lorenzo_whm_?

Cortese: So basically, freshman year, I would come to class, listening to music, and basically not listening to the teacher ever. I’m pretty sure then something happened where my teacher was like, ‘what are you listening to?’, and then we started talking about it, and people were like, ‘wow dude, he definitely listens to music’. Then, I remember several people asking for some music to listen to, or for album recommendations. It was kind of funny because I was always the one who was asking other people for recommendations when I was younger, like, I would ask my brother, who was also really into music. So having other people come to me was really interesting. And I realized there’s probably a lot of people who are interested in music, but they don’t necessarily like what’s on the radio because most of what’s on the radio is full of garbage. So I just wanted to start showing albums. I’ve been down on the ball, but really soon I have a really big Earl Sweatshirt thing that’s two pages long, about the artist. I just wanted to share music, because that’s what I love. I also love, not just playing, but listening to music.

Expressions: Do you see yourself coming back to Expressions any time soon?

Cortese: I’m legitimately trying to talk to my counselor to get into it next trimester.