October 27, 2011

A Grade 8 student in London, Ontario did her homework. The story could have ended there if the USB stick she was using to transport her assignment - an environmental PSA video featuring a song inspired by Jordin Sparks, with lyrics she wrote herself - had not fallen out of her backpack.

Luckily for Kylie John, the flash drive was found by a London-based recording engineer named Darryl Lahteenmaa, who was out walking his dog. He picked up the USB stick, took it home, and, along with his neighbor, singer Sarah Giardino, discovered Kylie's assignment.

Lahteenmaa and Giardino, inspired by Kylie's PSA song, decided to collaborate on a "recycling" of the music. They added studio magic and some backing vocals, which turned the homespun recording into a nice piece of pop. They then placed the polished version of the track back onto the USB key that started it all, managed to get in touch with Kylie over Facebook, and returned her property. But the best part? They didn't tell her about the studio session they performed on her work - it was a surprise.

Here's a video of Lahteenmaa's and Giardino's process:

With over 5000 views in just three days, Lahteenmaa's and Giardino's YouTube upload of the fun they had with Kylie's song became more viral than the usual piece of homework.

But more importantly, how did 12-year-old Kylie feel when she heard her school assignment, remixed? We asked her mom, Kim John:

"Kylie was like, 'I love it. I'm gonna hand in this version!'", Kim told us. "I said, 'I bet you are!'"

"Kylie was always creative from a young age. Drama, music, always singing, making up lyrics."

Kim also pointed out that her daughter, whose musical interests include piano and trumpet, put together the assignment on her netbook without parental help (although Kylie's dad, Kevin, did lend a light hand by transferring the video file onto the USB key so Kylie could take her homework to school).

"When she came home that night and said she lost her flash drive, we said, 'that's our Kylie'... But we were concerned, we have tons of flash drives at the house, and you wonder who's gonna end up with it, what's on it." Those concerns abated when Giardino, a mother herself, got in touch with the Johns to return the absent USB stick.

Kim stressed how she and Kevin are aware of how quickly everything is moving since the video started attracting attention, and how important it is to them that Kylie stay grounded. There have been radio requests to speak with Kylie all day today, and she'll be on CBC Radio's Ontario Morning with Wei Chen tomorrow around 8:15am EDT.

"It'll be interesting to see where this goes," Kim said. "I always say everything happens for a reason, and I think this is going to create a path for Kylie in her future."