For childhood friends Caiden Kinsey and John Michael Rocha, forming a band and producing music seemed like a distant reality. Now as high school seniors, their band’s debut single has reached over 25K streams, with their newest single steadily climbing numbers in streams every day. 

As described in their Spotify biography, Track Five is a pop-punk band that was formed in 2020. The band consists of four members: Ace Brown as the main vocalist, Caiden Kinsey plays guitar, while John Michael Rocha handles the bass, and Mac Allen beats the drums. 

Track Five aims to produce songs and bring together communities of the pop-punk genre, taking heavy inspiration from bands such as Green Day and Blink-182. But at the core of their band are four long-time friends, all with unbreakable bonds and a brotherhood-like friendship.

“I’ve known Caiden since first grade, the rest of us met in middle school,” Rocha said. “We’ve all always been close, and we’ve hung out every week since 8th grade. Mac joined a little late, but he’s just as close.” 

Track Five didn’t start out as an official band, but rather a few friends who liked to have jam sessions in their garage. Over time, Rocha, Allen, Kinsey, and Brown became the four main members of a band that was in the works of being created.

 “We decided to become a band during COVID in 2020. Ace was supposed to be our manager, but the manager became our lead singer,” Kinsey said. “We needed a drummer, so Ace invited Mac to our jam sessions, and it all worked out.”

Track Five became the band’s official name around October of 2021. While having only four members, Track Five’s name suggests otherwise.

“For a straight year we had been brainstorming band names. We went through Ion, False Utopia, and other cool names,” Brown said. “One day when we were all hanging out in Mac’s car, we turned on the radio, where it showed the track of each song of an album that’s playing. On the fifth song, track five came up, and that’s when John Michael said ‘That’s our name, right there.’ When people ask why our name is called Track Five when there’s only four of us, we tell them that the fifth member are the fans.”

Some bands have a leader, but for Track Five, there is no official leader. Instead, each member equally contributes to the band, whether it is producing music, coming up with new melodies, or brainstorming lyrics.

“At the end of the day, we all do the same thing. Ace helps with lyrics and guitar, Caiden with riffs; everyone has their parts and everyone has their suggestions,” Rocha said. “We all have our own, creative output, especially in the studio. We all have something to say and ways to contribute. That’s what makes Track Five, the four of us putting our minds together to create and play music.”

Track Five’s debut single, Hold You, currently has over 25K streams on Spotify. Released in July of 2022, Hold You tells the story of a man torn between his love for music and his partner. The song contains an upbeat, pop-punk melody, composed with impressive instrumentals. 

“For Hold You, we worked with Roost Recording Studio and producer Jimmy George,” Allen said. “Jimmy has more of a calm, blues kind of feel. Our other producer, Frenchie Smith, who we’re working with right now at The Bubble Studio, has more of an emo kind of vibe. We produced Never Be As Happy with him, which is why it has more of a rock feeling.”

Track Five’s most recently released single, Never Be As Happy, was released on January 1, 2023. Unlike Hold You’s pop-punk feeling, Never Be As Happy contains more of a rock-like melody and lyrics. 

 “So whenever we made Never Be As Happy, we brought it up to Frenchie. We had the macaroni and the Popsicle sticks, and we were missing the glue. Frenchie gave us the glue to put those pieces together and make a macaroni Eiffel Tower or a bridge,” Rocha said. “I wouldn’t say our original song was changed but it was definitely structured a lot differently than what we thought, and we were pretty iffy on it. But we listened to it and we really liked it. We trust him now, with his musical capabilities.”

Hold You and Never Be As Happy are Track Five’s only singles out as of now, but the band has a current project that is to come in the future. 

“We’re planning to get back into the studio next month for our new album and to release new songs,” Kinsey said. “We think, guaranteed, even if we don’t end up finishing the album, we’re going to drop it at the end of the school year.”

From starting off as a couple of friends who liked to experiment with instruments, to releasing singles on music streaming services, Track Five has gone a long way to refining their art. There is no doubt that even after high school, Track Five will climb the ladder to stardom as a band. 

“You wouldn’t think that when you first start a band and you can barely play a Green Day song together, that you will make a song with more than 10K streams,” Rocha said. “It’s cool seeing how far this band has gone, it’s just great.”