2019 Waipahu High School alum Marc Mercado has released his debut album titled “Forcefield.”

After Mercado teased his album in mid-April of 2019 on social media and on the local news show “Living 808,” students were anticipating what he had to deliver.

On July 20, 2019, Mercado released “Forcefield” on music streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

After the album’s release, Mercado received positive feedback from students and other streamers, saying the release was “amazing” and “catchy,” especially considering his young age.

Shekinah Glory Hernando, Mercado’s classmate who was also featured on the album, said, “I knew this album was going to be amazing, and it is because of how catchy the songs are. I am very proud of Marc and how dedicated he was for this album to turn out the way it did.”

Mercado has always had an ear for music. He has been writing songs, or in his words, “jingles,” ever since he was in third grade. However, Mercado always wanted to produce songs.

“The jingles were just for me to sing about stuff. I’ve been wanting to write and produce my own song for a long time now and I fulfilled that goal last year in the summer of 2018 with my song, ‘Forcefield.’”

Mercado’s classmates encouraged him to release his music to a wider audience.

“After people had heard it, they would always ask me, ‘Marc, is it on Spotify?’ Because they only heard the song through my music video on YouTube. They would ask, ‘Where can I buy and stream this song? Is it on Apple Music?’ You know, I could just put out only ‘Forcefield,’ but if I feel like putting something out there, it has to be something more. I wanted to tell people a story, the story behind my song, ‘Forcefield.’”

Mercado explains the meaning behind “Forcefield,” saying, “I’ve developed this forcefield around my body as a way to protect me from certain harm from other people, but it has its cons. I may be protecting myself from people, but I’m actually hurting myself and I’m hurting the people around me. It broke a lot of relationships, scared people away, and destroyed my life.”

According to Mercado, the album was not intended to reach mainstream charts. He simply wanted to share the challenges he has faced through his music.

Mercado plans to do future collaborations with Hernando and plans to keep producing music.

“Forcefield” is available on  YouTube, Spotify, Google Play Music, Apple Music, and other streaming sites such as Deezer and Play Later.