Chloe Isis, 15, has been in this space before. You know that catchy tune "When I'm Gone" (The Cup Song) that is all over the radio? It was a 1930s folk song she and her friend Clio Berta first sang together using paper cups to simulate the percussion. That was before the film Pitch Perfect got wind of the song and made it radio-popular. Revisit our Penobscot Bay Pilot article on them and watch them perform the original song here.

Chloe's back, this time with her friend, Jamie Oshima, 16. What puts these two in the Rad Kids series is more than just about their music; it's that they’re driven to do something good with it.

On April 11 and 12, Jamie and Chloe are putting on their first live performance together. They also arranged for part of the proceeds to help other teens in the Midcoast.

"Since we've been playing for a couple of years and that's what we mostly do when we hang out, we thought it would be cool to share it and do a public performance," said Jamie.

Musically, they both have multiple talents. Both are singer-songwriters and have collaborated on original songs together. Chloe plays piano and stand up bass. Jamie also plays piano as well as guitar, drums, and bass. But that’s not all.

Chloe adds: "The list goes on forever."

“I also play ukelele, Irish flute, banjo and mandolin," he says. Prompted to explain how he knows so many instruments, Jamie is quiet about his accomplishments. His parents play most of these instruments as well and from the age of four, he was self-taught. He’s never taken a lesson.

We’re all sitting in the cafeteria of CHRHS, after school and getting to know them, I ask them to do something that is probably embarassing. I ask Chloe to describe Jamie’s personality for me.

"Well, I could go with very obvious stuff, like people think he's very talented; very kind,” she said. “But he's also pretty stubborn and we do a lot of anti-arguing."

I ask her to explain that word.

"That’s when I think he should take the solo in the song, but he doesn't want to. He wants me to. So, we sort of bicker about that."

Now Jamie has to describe Chloe: "She can be quite outgoing and friendly. And.... oh God," he trails off, squirming over this little exercise. “She's stubborn, too, just in the way she wants the other person to do something [musically] that she can do just fine."

The interesting thing to their upcoming show is that they consciously built a deeper level into the show by arranging for a portion of the ticket sales to benefit Making Change, a weekly group meeting for teens to share challenging life experiences, issues and influences and to move towards positive change individually and together. The program is headed up by Nate Larlee, an instructor at Zenith Alternative Education in Camden. See our sidebar for more information.