Writes three-part novel series and welds his own desk
By Emilee Mae Struss
It all began to click for Wood River High School senior Curtis Larsen around 2012 after tracing the sounds from his favorite electronic dance music song, “Flight,” by Tristam & Braken, back to its Canadian record label, Monstercat.
Through this, Larsen discovered a potential career path in audio engineering.
“When you go to a concert,” Larsen explained, “everybody that’s singing has a mic and that mic needs to be set up with wiring, mechanics and software to make it sound right—that’s what audio engineers do.”
Audio engineers tweak the productions according to how they want the listener to feel. Larsen makes his own electronic music using Logic Pro X, a digital audio workstation produced by Macintosh.
Larsen’s creativity does not stop there. With help from Destry Duncan and Diamond D Welding in Bellevue, Larsen used his personal project graduation requirement to design and weld his own metal desk. The 600-pound desk is actually easy to move as it was designed to be easily taken apart with removable screws and locknuts. The top is fitted with half-inch-thick polycarbonate glass.
Larsen has other passions, including mountain biking and singing with an all-male choral group that came along by happenstance.
“I was never confident in my own singing,” Larsen said. “But I was at work at the movie theatre in Hailey one time and my friend and I were randomly singing Christmas songs and he asked me why I was not in the B-Tones.”
Larsen tried it out this year and said, “It has been great so far!”
Larsen also plans to continue mountain biking, as he has competed with the WRHS mountain biking team since its inception. His favorite trails to ride are Centerline on the Croy Creek Trail System west of Hailey and Panther Gulch out Deer Creek. Larsen mentioned during this interview that he placed 10th out of 77 competitors in the JV category at state this past year, which took place at Bogus Basin Resort in Boise.
In school, Larsen is enrolled in A.P. Physics, College Algebra, College English, Financial Planning and A.P. Government & Politics. He has also devoted a lot of his time to writing a three-part novel series called the “Untitled Series.”
The first three books, “Untold,” “Unheard” and “Unkept,” follow a fictitious storyline where the characters find a way to use stem cell research to alternate DNA. Catastrophic things start to happen and the storyline follows the characters as they try to turn back the hands of time and undo what they started. Larsen hopes to publish the series one day.
Larsen’s inspiration as a writer stems from Greek mythology and published authors, including Erin Hunter and Christopher Paolini. His parents, Troy and Linda Larsen, also inspire him to continue his passions.
“My parents really encourage me, both as a child and as an adult,” Larsen said. “They encourage me in everything I do, [including] biking, music, and writing…”
After graduation, Larsen will continue to hone his skills toward being a music producer by attending either Boise State University or Dixie State University in St. George, Utah.