The student newspaper and broadcast of Cedar Park High School

The Wolfpack

The student newspaper and broadcast of Cedar Park High School

The Wolfpack

The student newspaper and broadcast of Cedar Park High School

The Wolfpack

Dropshipping and You
Dropshipping and You
Mia Morneault, Reporter • March 25, 2024

I immensely dislike the TikTok...

Striding away from the Belvedere building complex, junior Addie Johnson and Senior Cooper Johnson pose for a family picture in Vienna, Austria. The Johnson family lived in Austria for six years and while living there, Cooper said he enjoyed the freedom provided by public transportation. “I liked just the overall city and the public transportation,” Cooper said. “It gave me the ability to go anywhere I wanted whenever I felt like it.”
From Austria to Austin
Kaydence Wilkinson, Reporter • March 24, 2024

After taxiing lazily along the...

Pictured above is Olivia Rodrigo performing “the grudge” at her “GUTS” Tour. I left this concert feeling grateful, nostalgic and just overall so happy that I had gotten to be a part of such an unforgettable experience.
Grateful All the Time
Julia Seiden, Reporter • March 21, 2024

As the wax begins to drip down...

Jonathan's Corner
Jonathan Levinsky, Reporter • March 20, 2024

Jonathan goes over some of the...

DEN, a 35-minute-long free period students are given, is used in many ways for a variety of purposes. Students use this time to work on homework, make up missed tests and sometimes catch up with friends. Lots of students use DEN to run “errands,” as well, whether that means picking up an assignment from a teacher, visiting with a student teacher or asking the librarian about a tech issue. Students can no longer leave their designated classroom during DEN, even to go to the restroom.
DEN-tention for the Win
Kacey Miller, Editor-in-Chief • March 20, 2024

Students are now expected to remain...

To combat the growing price on fast food, my family uses fast food apps. There are five apps we use the most: QuikTrip, Sonic, Chick-fil-A, McDonalds and Whataburger.
Apps for Frugal Foodies
Kassidy Wilkinson, Reporter • March 15, 2024

It’s a classic scene in my family....

Former Timberwolf rocks out

     Brian Bandas, CPHS Class of 2002, recently released his first album World Wide Open with his band Love and Theft. The band is comprised of Bandas, Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson. Their single, Runaway, reached the number one spot on iTunes as the most downloaded country single. Their album accomplished the same feat for the most downloaded country album.

     Bandas showed an interest in music at a very young age. His family supported this, as they were musicians themselves.

     “I grew up in a very musical family, just like the partridge family you know? My parents were in bands and I would go to their rehearsals and stuff like that so you know I grew up around music for a long time before I even started doing anything with it,” Bandas said.

     In middle school, Bandas began playing piano and singing for the group Leopards for Christ at Cedar Park Middle School. Soon after, he found inspiration to begin writing his own music.

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     “It was around my freshman or sophomore year of high school that I heard a song by the Goo Goo Dolls called ‘Black Balloon’,” Bandas said.  “That was just the moment where it hit me, and I was like ‘Man I want to write. This is what I want to do’ ”

     Later in high school, Bandas continued to receive support from his peers and teachers to pursue his musical career. However, Bandas did not limit his high school activities to music. He also played varsity basketball, and was a part of Timberwolves for Christ and FCA.

     Bandas also had a band he performed with in high school. They played at many local venues downtown.

     “It was fun, you know?” Bandas said.  “Especially [because] the [more we performed at the venues], the more fans we had that would come out and watch us play and that kind of thing, so it was a great experience. Austin is the perfect place for any young musician”

      During his senior year, he performed in the CP and Leander talent show, and won the Best Male Vocalist award.

     “I didn’t really care about the award but I just got this huge response from everybody. It was really the first time I had really performed, it was a song that I wrote and it was just me and guitar,” said Bandas.

     The song that he played at the talent show, titled Bleed, was the first song Bandas wrote.

     “I had really good luck because I wrote a good song first and then I wrote a bunch of horrible stuff for a long time after but I kind of rode the momentum of that one good song for a while,” said Bandas.

     He remembers Principal LaFevers and other faculty members encouraging him to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. His song Bleed was even chosen as the graduation song for his class, and Bandas performed at his graduation ceremony.

     After high school, Bandas attended University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Belton. After five changes in his major, and exploring many different career paths, Bandas decided college wasn’t for him and moved to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a career in music.

     It was in Nashville that Bandas met hisfellow band mates Liles and Gunderson.

     “Sort of around the same time we all moved up to Nashville for the same reasons,” Bandas said. “We were all solo artists. We were just playing music [and] performing on our own [before we met each other].”

      After meeting each other in what Bandas considered a “close knit [music] community” in Nashville, Bandas, Liles and Gunderson tested their musical compatibility with each other by co-writing a song called Drowning, before officially forming the band in 2006.

     “When we put the harmonies and listened to it that was the moment where we [knew] this is what we needed to be doing,” Bandas said. “It was definitely a special moment”

     Bandas and his band practiced for months before performing live. They wanted to be sure they were as ready as they could possibly be before hitting the Nashville music scene.

     The band then decided on the band name Love and Theft, inspired by one of their favorite artists.

     “Bob Dylan has an album called Love and Theft that came out in 2001, and we just like the phrase [and] the way it sounded,” Bandas said. “It was just our style.”

     The band is also influenced by other artists such as the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Johnny Cash and Elvis.

     In 2009, Love and Theft signed a record deal with Carolwood Records, a division of Lyric Street Records. They have opened for popular artists such as Taylor Swift, and are currently on tour.

     Bandas encourages all young artists and students to follow their dreams, and work hard to turn those dreams into reality.

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The student newspaper and broadcast of Cedar Park High School
Former Timberwolf rocks out