Members of the local band Born Too Late started preparing songs to record their second album. Born Too Late is student led with singer Rokkyn Kavajecz (SHS), guitarist and singer Traxx Kavajecz (SHS), and bassist Taylor Shykes (Denfeld). In January, they will go to Sacred Heart in Duluth to record.

Traxx produced the last album “Rebel Child”, and will produce the next album as well.

“You really got to enjoy it to make it worth your while ’cause it’s very time consuming,” Traxx said. 

Hoping to get the new album done by next summer, they have already written six songs out of a total of 10 they want on the album. Beverly Marsh, Bleach, Cryogenically frozen are already songs named. Everyone in the band and some external members help write the lyrics for their songs. Taylor comes up with the bass parts, Rokkyn the harmony parts, Traxx the drums and guitar parts.

“We are really trying to share our music with people, we have spent a lot of time performing and learning cover songs and now we’re trying to transition a little bit into playing more of our original music just to share that with more people,” Traxx says.

In 2021, they performed about 110 shows and this year they have done even more. They try to play every weekend and more in the summer. Last summer, they performed about 75 shows. This year they performed at the homecoming assembly.

The band plays about three to four times a week on average. They go to bars, concert venues, restaurants pretty much anywhere they could get in.

“It’s pretty cool cause now we’re kind of at the point where we can kind of choose our own shows we want to take and we don’t have to take the ones we don’t want to take anymore,” Traxx stated. 

Born Too Late has been together for about five years and each member has been playing music almost their whole lives. Traxx started out as a drummer when he was six years old. Around 10 years old, he started playing bass. Just recently, Traxx started singing and now sings for performances.

Self taught bass player Taylor Shykes is a Senior at Denfeld High School. Traxx met him when they were younger and met playing baseball together. He went to one of their shows in 2018 and bought a bass the next day. Taylor has been with the band for four years now.

“My experience with the band has been overwhelmingly positive and it has given me a lot of opportunities. Making music with people for a long time just makes a great connection and I’m very grateful to have that,” Shykes mentions.

Rokkyn has been singing since she can remember with the influence of her two uncles. Her and Traxx’s uncles, Shane Nelson and Jessie Nelson were in a band called Crescent Moon. 

“Any kid friendly show they had we’d go out and listen to them and they’d pull us up on stage and we’d play a song with them. Traxx would drum, I would sing, and they’ve always just been some of our biggest supporters,” Rokkyn said. 

Check out Born Too Late’s Spotify and Apple Music to listen to their album “Rebel Child” and look for their new album in July. For updates and events, you can check out their Facebook @officalborntoolate.