It all started when Aparicio was in his senior year of high school. A lot of his friends played music, which led to him learning to play the drums. When his father bought him his first drum set, he learned his father also played the drums.

Aparicio said his father was excited about him wanting to pursue music.

"He was thrilled that I was into music and supported it 100 percent," Aparicio said.

The Southeast Missouri State University senior has since moved on to bigger and better things. Aparicio is now a drummer in the alternative rock band, Lori's Puppets.

Lori's Puppets got started when Aparicio was best friends with Payton Schoenbeck, a former guitarist in the band. While Aparicio was a senior in high school, Schoenbeck was enrolled at Rend Lake College.

It was there that Schoenbeck met Dane Eubanks, the current lead singer of Lori's Puppets. One day in Schoenbeck's music class, his teacher asked who in the class played an instrument. Schoenbeck and Eubanks ended up being the only ones to raise their hand in the class.

When Eubanks saw Schoenbeck was also a musician, he decided to pass him a note saying, "Let's jam." Soon after that, Aparicio said the three began writing songs and practicing every day after school.

Recently, Lori's Puppets has been creating a name for themselves. The band travelled to Los Angeles from Oct. 21 through 28 to meet with Nathan Cook and Robert Davis, producers and former bandmates of alternative rock band Revis, to write and record songs for their upcoming album.

Cook and Davis made a deal with Lori's Puppets that if the producers provided the band with a good rate for production time then they would help them with four songs.

"They called us to say, 'Hey, we want to give you a good rate and we know it's expensive to get out here, but if you pay this much we'll do four songs for you," Aparicio said.

Aparicio and the band saw the trip as an important opportunity since Cook and Davis have a lot of connections within the music industry. However, Aparicio said once the band arrived in LA they went straight to work.

"We went Saturday, Sunday we did drums all day and then guitars the rest of the week with vocals," Aparicio said. "There was really no sightseeing for us, it was basically indoors and just recording, getting songs done."

The process of recording the songs involved the band sitting to rewrite and record for each song, according to Aparicio. Aparicio also said the producers were quite impressed with what the band had to offer.

"I don't think they knew what to expect, but once they started hearing it and started mixing it and stuff they were impressed enough to say like 'Hey, we're going to send this to some people when we get done with it finally,'" Aparicio said.

Since the trip, the band continues to hold weekly rehearsals, which are typically held at their manager Curtis Meadows' house in Woodlawn, Illinois.

"It has the guitars, the amps, the drums, we just walk in and we can practice," Aparicio said. "We typically start with running through our normal set that we play live, so we'll just play that all the way through. They're going to change now so we usually do that and then start writing or start learning some covers."

With new material, the band's sound is beginning to change. During the trip, Aparicio said the producers said the band would need to revisit LA because of their new sound.

"Our next few practices we actually need to rewrite all these songs that we play to fit the sound now, because we're just kind of going in a different direction with the sound of our music," Aparicio said. "We've only changed four songs; now we have to change the other, I believe, 10 songs that we have."

Before the band's sound had more of a '90s rock feel. The band had melodies that appeared to be modern, but the execution of the songs made them outdated. Aparicio said the band's sound had been more toward alternative rock, whereas now it's moving toward a more modern rock sound infused with pop.

As of now, the band is waiting on their producers to send back their four songs and they are seeking artwork for the CD. The band hopes to sell physical CDs before branching off to iTunes, because the goal is to recoup some of the money from their trip to LA.

While the trip to LA was not a cheap one, Aparicio said he and the band did receive a lot of support in preparation for the trip.

"All of our parents chipped in and we started a GoFundMe," Aparicio said.

The time put into taking the trip to LA to work on music is what Aparicio said he hopes fans take from the music.

"I think for us to spend all that money and we go out there, rewrite these songs, and we're doing it more for us if anything. Just hopefully people will appreciate it, especially our close friends and our small fanbase," Aparicio said.

The name of the new album is still being determined, according to Aparicio. However, it may end up being self-titled.

To learn more about Lori's Puppets and stay updated about their upcoming album, visit http://www.lorispuppets.com/ and the band's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/lorispuppets/.

Lori's Puppets current 11-song album "Conundrum" is available on iTunes for $9.99.