Her heart racing and beads of sweat rolling down her face, she stood on stage in awe at the sight and sound of her fans singing back to her the lyrics of her song, “Shadows.” It was the final night of the battle of the bands, and it was this night that solidified Gloria Lepko’s dream to write music people could relate to, feel, and sing.

Now a soul pop singer-songwriter in Syracuse, New York, Lepko has reignited the flame of creating music only six years after her Guatemalan alternative rock band, 2 Miles From Shore, broke up when the lead guitarist quit and publicly announced the band was no more.

Lepko’s earliest memories of music are of her mother — a music major and her biggest supporter, singing and playing classical music throughout her childhood.

“My heart and my soul for music came from my mom, but as a teenager, I got into the church worship band.” She said. “They believed in me and pushed me to sing and perform.”

            Throughout her adolescence, Lepko attended the nondenominational Christian church Cathedral of His Glory in Greensboro, North Carolina, which had built a church in Antigua, Guatemala during its mission to build churches throughout Central America. It was during a youth trip to help build that church that Gloria, at 17 years old, met the 2 Miles From Shore drummer, and after two years convinced her to join the band as the lead singer and pianist in 2012. Together the band toured Guatemala for two years, but despite its success, the band broke up when the lead guitarist unexpectedly quit, leaving the remaining band members with no choice, but to pick up the pieces and move on.

“It was the dream that I could almost taste and it was just ripped away in an instant. I wasn’t ready for it to be over and he gave me no choice.”

With the band gone, Lepko had no way of making money and decided to sell her piano and return home to the United States, bringing along the former band’s drummer, Adrian, whom she’d married once in the U.S. However, seeking the adventure and adrenaline they felt while performing, they both enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. For the first time, Lepko put her musical aspirations on hold to focus on her military career.

But the hiatus wouldn’t last long.

“I don’t think there was a moment where I decided now is the time for people to hear me, but it wasn’t until just this year that I realized, you know, now is as good a time as ever. Why wait any longer when now I have the skills and the tools that I need?”

Despite her inability to book live performances due to the COVID-19 pandemic state restrictions in New York, where Lepko attends the Military Visual Journalism Program at Syracuse University, she continues to pursue her dream of sharing music with others by writing and composing music as Bonnie Kay; a stage name dedicated to her late grandmother, Grandma Kay.

“She was not a singer at all but she was known for singing at the top of her lungs a song called ‘My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,’” she said. “She is my Bonnie, my Bonnie Kay,”

During her time away from schoolwork, Lepko has recorded two original singles with Syracuse University Records, a student-run label.

Lepko’s soul-pop songs expresses the feelings she says are difficult to draw out: fear, doubt, loneliness, and feeling stuck, which are reflected in the lyrics of songs like, “Hold On” and “Ghost.” Though her lyrics describe intimate feelings, the rhythmic riffs uplift.

Lepko now believes her dream isn’t so far from reach, which has driven her to push herself further and believe in herself knowing she’s held success in the palm of her hands before. Regardless of whether she makes it big or not, Lepko defines success by the quality of work she shares with the world. “I can’t really do without my music. So, it’s not about the satisfaction; it’s just about being heard, and I’m never letting anything get in the way.”