Send the kids to Seattle’s punk rock summer camp

By Rachel Belle

Seattle School of Rock summer campers learn to play music, as well as the history of punk rock from The Clash to Sum 41. (97.3 FM/Rachel Belle)

If you don’t want to hear GreenDay pounding from your basement this summer, send your kids to Seattle’s School of Rock.

This summer they’re doing specialized programs where kids can spend a whole week playing the music of Pink Floyd or Weezer.

This week is the history of punk rock.

“If there’s one kind of music that I think represents me the best, it would be punk,” says School of Rock student Jack Miller.

Campers range from between 15-year-old Jack to 9-year-old Isabelle Jancar, who all play together in the same bands.

“I used to have an interest in pop, then I realized they were all auto-tuned and edited and they wouldn’t sound as good on stage. So I figured, why not listen to something real, like punk?” says Isabelle.

Isabelle is a keyboard player and a singer.

“I do Judy is a punk,” says Isabelle, giving a demonstration.

“We don’t separate kids by skill level, or age, or instrument. So yeah, a lot of times you’ll see a 9-year-old and an 18-year-old in the same ensemble. I think that’s really important because we could never teach them what they learn in those situations,” says camp director Jacob James, who played keyboard and sang for The Lashes.

The camp itself looks like somebody’s mother’s basement, with posters of bands plastered all over the walls and long-haired kids draped over couches listening to their friends’ bands play.

“It’s just cool to come see people playing the kind of music I like because it took forever to start my own band and it’s like, wow, if only I’d had this when I was trying to start my own band,” says Jack.

Jack and his friend, Cole, are in a band called “The Hebophrenics.”

“It means a disorganized form of schizophrenia starting at puberty,” says Cole.

Besides playing music, the campers are also learning about the history of punk.

“We started with The Sonics and then go through some standards like Green Day and The Clash and Sex Pistols, up to more modern stuff. Like, they picked a Sum 41 song today,” says camp director Jacob James.

And they pick up confidence along the way.

“Every parent that walks into our door says that they wish that this existed when they were a kid. And I do, too, because I’ve seen students come very, very timid and then basically work through all that and become more of who they are when they didn’t even know it. Having the confidence to kind of work through all their inhibitions with their peers and then, ultimately, performing on stage where they get huge support obviously of their parents and then random strangers that are totally blown away at their abilities.”

Listen to Rachel Belle’s “Send the kids to punk rock summer camp.”