DOVER — Going outside for recess, lunchtime — even math class.
It’s the little things that the Wallace siblings — Kaylah, 7, and R.J., 10 — both miss about school. And like any creative, they took that sadness and turned it into art — a song titled, “Back to School.”
It was in the midst of quarantine when Kaylah asked her older brother, Victor, who is pursuing a career in music in Los Angeles, to write a song.
“My little sister came, and she’s like, ‘Let’s make a song,’” said Mr. Wallace, who performs as YARO. He said no at first. But Kaylah persisted.
“I said, ‘What kind of song do you want to make?’” He recalls Kaylah responding: “I want to make a dancing song to get everyone dancing.”
He wrote a few lines, and they recorded the track with an iPhone and a pair of headphones in the bathroom.
That iPhone recording was mixed and mastered in L.A. Now, it’s on YouTube.
“I love the song,” Kaylah said.
“It shows we’re famous,” R.J. added.
The refrain gets to the heart of the message: “Haven’t been to school in a long time,” the verse goes. “Haven’t seen my friends in a long time/I can’t wait till I go back to school.”
Kaylah and R.J. — both students in the Smyrna School District — have been attending school virtually amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. When they thought about what they missed about normal school, it was things like math class, reading and going outside.
“I love sitting down with my friends at lunch and talking,” Kaylah said.
“And having a good time,” R.J. said.
While they do see their friends over Zoom, the song was born from missing their peers.
“I wanted to see my friends,” Kaylah said of her inspiration.
Mr. Wallace said that she had all the ideas.
“I had the ultimate writer’s block during this song, and she insisted, and I’m like, ‘This is my passion. Why am I telling my little sister no?’” he said. “We just worked with it. She rocked it.”
Stefanie, their mother, said it really acted as a way to bring the family together.
“The fact that the three of them through all of the fighting — because everybody was getting tired of one another — they actually came together and worked together and put a song together, which I think was great. Three siblings. They rocked it,” she said. “I feel it brought them closer together.”
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