by A. South

Created on: March 15, 2009

A high school sophomore living in Orlando, Florida, Robert Pierre plays basketball, just joined the lacrosse team and is overloaded with honors chemistry homework. He's got intense eyes and a charming smile that make girls swoon, but behind his boyish good looks, there's much more to Robert than school and sports. For starters, he's in the midst of the release of his second CD. As if that wasn't enough, the CD has already helped raise over $800,000 for charity. All that, and he still manages to make the honor roll.

Edgy and piercing, Robert's new CD Identity, released April 28, has a unique rock sound that remains upbeat. Most noticeable, though, is the honesty in Robert's voice. The message of his music is more than meandering thoughts or wonderings. Instead, Robert's lyrics convey a much deeper message.

"I really wanted this CD to speak to the issues of kids my age, so I began by listing as many things as I could think of that my friends and I are going through," Robert explains. "Some were good thingsbut what I really wanted to focus on were a lot of the tough things kids my age were dealing with, everything from academic stress to peer pressure to alcohol and drugs to purity. The list went on and on, and when I finished and looked at it, I realized that almost everything I wrote dealt with identity. Where is your identity? What is it that you think makes you important? What are you willing to do to become important to someone else? It seemed like kids were only listening to what the world had to say to them and it was right then that I realized my generation was having a serious identity crisis."

From there, the CD Identity began to take shape. The album urges young listeners to live lives of purpose and find their identity in something greater than the latest trends or what they see in the media.

Robert says, "I want kids to know that they don't have to believe what the world is screaming at them, that they need to be cool or thin or athletic or smart to be important or loved. I want them to know that they don't need to act a certain way for their friends, give in to their boyfriend's requests, or look like the magazine covers to feel good or have worth."

From the lyrics of his CD, Robert passionately sings about what he has come to know about identity.

"I really wanted every song to focus in one way or another on our identity, Jesus Christ, and how that changes our life," Robert says. "I want to tell [listeners] that because of what Christ has already done

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