Published: March 28, 2008 01:26 pm      

MEDINA: ‘Boutivon’ single climbing charts at garageband.com

It’s all about the singles. No, not $1 bills or people not in a relationship — it’s about music.

Eighteen-year-old Donnie O’Keefe of Medina knows about melody, his guitars and what goes into writing good lyrics. When he’s not doing homework or at baseball practice, he’s busy finding spare moments to write down the words that best relate his mood, feelings and experiences so he can play his songs to crowds at bars and coffee houses, like The Daily Grind in Lockport and Java Junction in Brockport, where he had his first gig two years ago.

“Any free time I pretty much have when I’m not worried about school and baseball, I’ll sit down and write a song and keep working on it until it’s good,” O’Keefe said.

About three years ago, the aspiring musician taught himself to play guitar, putting his words to music, and has since had an album with eight songs produced by Medina native and Henrietta, Monroe County, resident John Pritchard, 25. O’Keefe’s track, “At Any Time” and under the name Boutivon, is also receiving notable recognition on the Web site www.garageband.com, where on Thursday it was ranked 95 out of 402 songs in the alternative pop genre. On Monday, it will be featured as the track of the day in the same genre.

As a producer/song writer with Blackdog Records in Rochester, Pritchard said O’Keefe has a sound he would describe as “probably folk and pop.”

“His raw sounds, his roots, (I would describe) just as acoustic folk and pop, but then, obviously you can produce a song any way you want ... any way you envision it,” he said, adding that if a musician wants to record an acoustic song, it’s them, their instrument and a microphone without any of the flair and fancy additions.

Pritchard and O’Keefe first made connections while the producer was still living in Medina. O’Keefe’s father, local attorney Mike O’Keefe, used to go out to listen to Pritchard when he was on the instrumental end of music instead of behind the scenes. From that point, once the younger O’Keefe began playing, Pritchard was available to guide him in his endeavors.

Throughout the course of their relationship, Pritchard has also recruited a musician and friend of his, Alex Feig from Medina, to work on some of O’Keefe’s songs. Feig helped with a couple of O’Keefe’s songs on a demo they recorded, Pritchard said.

But as a producer, Pritchard doesn’t really focus on albums because “it’s all about the singles. It’s always about the singles.” As in the days of 45s, which typically had one or two songs per side, the Internet has helped bring the idea of singles back with iTunes and other sites available to download music from.

“You shouldn’t fill an album up with filler songs. ... I pick my three favorite and then move on,” Pritchard said.

Like his counterparts, O’Keefe wants to make music a permanent fixture in his life and plans to attend Monroe Community College in the fall in order to obtain a degree in music.

“I’m going to keep on playing guitar all through college,” he said. “I want to start off taking music theory and any other music classes I can take ... pretty much any music class so I can get my fill of it.”

While the band name has gone through several transitions — O’Keefe said he’s had many different names over the last few years — it currently goes by Boutivon, a name he said he plans to keep.

“I don’t really know the exact meaning of it. ... Me and my father just came up with a name for it,” he said. “I’m just trying to find out which one is the best one. It’s pretty unique, it serves me pretty well.”

With many different musical influences, from his grandfather Donald O’Keefe and his uncle Pat O’Keefe to musicians such as Oasis, the Beatles and Green Day, O’Keefe writes his own lyrics and makes music his own.

“What I want people to know is I sing from my heart, from my personal experiences,” he said. “I write about how I feel ... my life experiences.”

Contact reporter Miranda Vagg at 798-1400, ext. 2225.