LYNN — Four former Lynn English High School students, interested in serving local artists and businesses, opened a multimedia production studio in Salem Sunday.
Isaiah Reyes, 19, of Peabody; Derrick Patrick, 20, of Lynn; Jayden Patrick, 18, of Lynn; and Daniel Gonzalez, 19, of Methuen met in their freshman year in 2018, while attending English. They quickly found a mutual love for creating, playing around with recording music and photography, and founded a creative group called “Repentful.”
Sunday, they celebrated opening together the Repentful Creative production studio at 53 Mason St. in Salem. The studio offers brands, businesses and artists help with web and graphic design, photography, video, audio recording and mixing, and social media management.
“Our goal is really to work with local businesses and work with local artists and take what they do to the next level through our services,” said Reyes. “It doesn’t matter if you are a restaurant, if you are a clothing brand. If you offer any type of service and you are local, we are looking to work with you and give you an online presence.”
Reyes started his creative career as a photographer and videographer for the Lynn English basketball team, following them on their journey to a state championship in 2019. He and Gonzalez bonded over their love for photography.
Derrick Patrick specializes in video production and advanced editing. He draws inspiration from Lyrical Lemonade, a multimedia company, and its founder Cole Bennett.
“I am really passionate about music videography,” said Patrick. “We are all inspired directors.”
His brother Jayden, whose love for music was influenced by their disk-jockeying father, R&B and Atlanta rap, concentrates on music engineering and recording as well as web and graphic design.
Despite some people saying that the four friends would not be able to succeed with their new business at their young age, the Repentful Creative team rented a run-down property in Salem and renovated the place themselves in three months. They all work second jobs for now but they are hoping to get to a point soon when they are only doing creative work through their studio.
“We want nothing more than to make what we love into our lives and our main source of income,” Reyes said.
They also would like to bring other creators and artists in the area together and build a platform that allows people to be able to express themselves and to create a career off of what they love to do. As they are all pretty young, Reyes said, they are open to mentoring younger individuals as well.
“Come through,” said Jayden Patrick. “We show love to everybody. We love our local talent and our local creators, and our local businesses.”
Alena Kuzub can be reached at [email protected].
