When Patrick Morehead was sick as a child, his grandfather, Dennis Morehead, showed up at his bedroom door with chicken noodle soup. No warning, just love.

“Bopa”, a nickname his grandfather had chosen to be called, was a twist on “grandpa” that just stuck. The unscheduled visits and shared moments with warm meals echo in memory.

At a black Kawai grand piano in El Camino College’s Music Building, Morehead, with slightly short brown hair tucked behind his ears and wearing a forest green coat focused on the pages in front of him as he begins to play his self-composed quartet, “For Bopa.”

Morehead, 22, is an applied music major at El Camino with a focus on composition. Over four semesters, six of his original works have been performed live by himself and fellow music majors in the college’s Haag Recital Hall.

These performances were made with the help of the Center for the Arts at ECC and Jonathan Minei, an assistant professor of music and advisor for ECC’s Music Club, who initially helped Morehead get his foot in the door.

Since then, Morehead has taken the lead on organizing concerts himself, often receiving help from Josias Canul-Marchand, 22, a fellow applied music major and the club’s historian.

Morehead is treasurer for the club.

At home in Torrance, Morehead composes behind a closed door using his Arturia Keylab 88 keyboard. Construction noise from down the street flows into the open window, but at night, the world around him slows down.

This is where his writing process begins; where he thinks about the character of the music – the emotional identity he wishes to convey to the listener.

“I think about the character of the beast,” he said. “I want the beginning to feel quiet and peaceful. I want the middle to be more harsh and the end conclusive.”

Growing up in Redondo Beach, his cousin Bailey Morehead introduced Patrick to the raw energy of punk band Black Flag. At the time, Patrick was still figuring out his taste. With the help of his cousin, he was pushed to listen closely and build his own opinions.

“From that advice, I started seeking out music myself,” Morehead said. “That’s how I came about the music I like today. I kind of just discovered it on my own.”

Eventually, the two started a band together.

“Mrs. Nezbit” was an instrumental hardcore punk band with Bailey on the drums and Patrick on electric guitar. Morehead taught himself to play by listening to and studying songs he liked and learning from musicians around him.

Though the band lasted about a year, ending after his cousin moved away to Los Angeles which made it difficult for the two to rehearse together.

This was Morehead’s first experience of rehearsing and playing with someone alongside him and left a lasting impression.

In high school, Morehead attended Fusion Academy in Hermosa Beach, a private school where he graduated early, after just three years.

“It helped me discover that it wasn’t really my dream to have a career in professional guitar,” Morehead said.

Morehead’s shift in focus became clear when he heard Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” at 15 years old. In his bedroom in Redondo Beach, listening through his headphones, he heard the dissonant chords and jarring rhythms for the first time.

After hearing the title mentioned in musician interviews and conversations, he decided to listen to the work himself.

As the tambourines shimmered and the flutes and clarinets echoed, he realized he had found a rhythm of his own and opened a chapter to the world of composition.

“Just feeling the melodies, it pierced my soul,” Morehead said. “It felt like music was tailored for me.”

At 18, believing it would help him become a better composer, he began to teach himself piano.

“People who are drawn into any sort of artistic field want to create something,” Veronika Krausas, a professor of practice at the USC Thornton School of Music, said. “And as a composer, you not only want to perform music–you want to be able to create it.”

He dove straight into it by challenging himself to learn the opening page of “The Rite of Spring” on his own, wanting to understand how music is constructed from the point of view of both the composer and the performer.

“As a composer, you can see how it’s created, but as a performer, you can actually feel it,” Morehead said.

After taking a ceramics class for fun in 2022, Morehead began his music journey at ECC in 2023, enrolling in the applied music program with a focus on composition.

Though he had been composing music on his own, it was at ECC where he found both structure and support to help build confidence in his piano skills with guidance from professors like William Doyle, who teaches music history, and expanded his exposure to different types of music.

ECC opened possibilities he hadn’t considered before – like transferring to a university, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music with a focus on compositions and gaining a clearer sense of his compositional style.

Morehead’s music draws inspiration predominantly from modern European classical traditions. He is influenced by German composers Helmut Lachenmann and Karlheinz Stockhausen, French composer Gerard Pesson and American guitarist Frank Zappa, as well as the surreal storytelling of author Franz Kafka.

Later, his discovery of these influences led him to the work of Canadian composer Samuel Andreyev.

Inspired by his work, Morehead emailed Andreyev, asking about an assistant position. He was offered a mentorship instead.

Andreyev, who is based in France, has been mentoring Morehead through a once-a-week scheduled lesson through Zoom for the past three years.

“He was very shy at first and had difficulty articulating what he was after,” Andreyev said. “But it was obvious that he had lots of ideas; he was sincere and passionate about his music, and very gifted.”

Over those three years, their lessons have grown into deep conversations about musical structure and artistic purpose.

“My main impression of his music is that it’s very colorful, rhythmically interesting and has some sort of touchy elements that make it engaging for an audience,” Andreyev said.

Growing up, none of Morehead’s immediate family were experienced in music, but music was still present. His grandmother played piano and his aunts, uncles and cousins all appreciated music.

Morehead is the second youngest out of five brothers. During the pandemic, he and one of his brothers, Gavin Morehead, started “Skizms,” which started as an experimental project building electronic pop and often dabbling in black metal, where the often do collaborations with other musicians.

Later, “Skizms” developed into a band, releasing an album, a single and an EP in 2020– the band is continuing to rehearse and play today, hoping to record and or perform at local venues.

Morehead does not currently have a job.

His main focus is on his musical studies and compositions from his home in Torrance where he lives with his parents.

He will premiere a new original piece, which was composed as a dedication of thanks to his cousin Bailey, at the Haag Recital Hall, Monday, June 16, at 7 p.m.

“I describe my music as expressive and rhythmically coloristically focused,” Morehead said. “I think that rhythm comes back from my influence of Stravinsky and Zappa.”

With ECC professors and Andreyev guiding him, Morehead continues to be pushed to think beyond how music works, asking himself why it works – and what it means to him personally, always referring back to the lesson he learned from his cousin.

“It feels like a deep exploration into who you are as a person… this is what I like and that’s usually a shock,” Morehead said.

As Morehead continues to grow both as a composer and as a student, his goals and ambition do as well. He hopes to become a successful composer, creating music on his terms and releasing albums of his original compositions.

“It’s a compulsion to create,” Krausas said. Then, pausing, she begins to quote Andy Warhol: “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

His road ahead isn’t entirely mapped out, but for Morehead, uncertainty is just another part of the process. Just as he learned to explore an unpredictable rhythm within his music, he is also learning to trust the unfolding of his future with intention and precision, just like his music.

One composition at a time.