Why Rock at Neshaminy

The Rock Bands of Neshaminy High School sit down with our podcast hosts to chat about what rock music does for their lives and what it means to be in a band. Why rock? Discover the many different ways to answer this question. 

Transcript

Brianna 0:02
Welcome to the Giving Youth A Voice Podcast, where we share information to youth by youth. Stick around to hear what we've chosen to share with you in this episode. Check out more information and resources about the Neshaminy Coalition for Youth at our website, nc4youth. org. That's nc4youth. org. There you can find our program and resources, and become a member for the betterment of our community. Also, check out our Facebook page to see our latest news and events. Give us a like. 

Adriana 0:30
Hi, I'm Adriana, I'm with Giving Youth A Voice Podcast, and we are here with rock band members from the Neshaminy high school rock band to discuss our topic of why rock. 

Nick 0:40
Hi, I'm Nick, and I'm here with Giving Youth A Voice Podcast to talk with some of the members on why rock. 

Adriana 0:47
Hi, guys. 

All 0:48
Hey. Hi. 

Adriana 0:50
Hi, we're really excited to be here today. Aiden, right? 

Aiden 0:52
Yeah. 

Adriana 0:53
What brought you to music? 

Aiden 0:54
I wanted to start playing drums when I was in like seventh grade, but my parents didn't want to deal with that. So they just bought a little toy guitar, and I started watching like a bunch of videos about bass, and that made me want to start playing bass and get into music. And I've been playing for like five years now. 

Adriana 1:10
That's cool. What's your position in the band? 

Aiden 1:12
I'm the bass player, and sometimes I do vocals. 

Adriana 1:14
That's cool. Is there a specific genre that your band goes for? 

Aiden 1:17
Like heavy or kind of music, like heavy rock, metal stuff like that. 

Adriana 1:21
Okay. What did it feel like trying out for the rock band? 

Aiden 1:24
It felt pretty easy. I mean, the songs weren't that hard. 

Adriana 1:29
All right. 

Nick 1:30
What's your name? 

Megan 1:30
I'm Megan. 

Nick 1:31
What's something hard that you would consider being in a band? 

Megan 1:34
It could be communication sometimes, and like I guess relating to each other, because you're kind of put into a band. It could be with random people, It could be the relating aspect of everyone in your band, and like communication and stuff like that. 

Nick 1:49
Do you think it's better that way, or would you rather be with people that you know? 

Megan 1:54
Personally, I think that it would be cool being with people that you know, but I guess in an environment like this, like it is better if you worked with people that either had similar music tastes to you, or it was in a similar skill set as you, so it would just be more fair to everyone. Personally, I don't mind. 

Nick 2:12
What is it like performing on front a big crowd of people? 

Megan 2:15
It's definitely nerve-racking, especially the first couple times you do it, but after doing it consecutively, it does get a lot better, and you start really enjoying it, you start looking forward to like being on stage, performing for people, seeing how you're affecting the other people, and like the people watching you, how they're enjoying, like what you're doing, and the show that you worked to put on for them. 

Nick 2:37
Yeah, that's like a really nerve-racking thing to do

Adriana 2:41
Kira, do you wanna go next? Sure. Well artists influence most of your work that you do in the rock band. 

Kira 2:45
Ooh, okay. I feel like my band, I feel like everyone's music taste is a little different. I really like Jeff Buckley and his music and I think that kind of vibe is similar to what we do. I think we do a lot of probably what people would call the dad rock kind of stuff. We do Journey and that kind of stuff. 

Adriana 3:03
Yeah, that's really cool. What kind of thoughts did you have when you were first going into, when you were first starting? 

Kira 3:08
I was really excited because wanted to be in a band like my dad was in bands. I was pretty excited and I knew people who were like doing it already so I was just excited to like start learning and working together and then performing. 

Adriana 3:20
Nice! Auditioning for a rock band, was it different about then auditioning for like it's like choir or musical? What's different about it? 

Kira 3:26
You don't audition alone like it's not just you watching you. gave us three songs and we all learned them and then we actually got auditioned with other people. We auditioned like as a band so like someone auditioned on the guitar for one song, but we were all like together doing it, so that was really cool. 

Adriana 3:41
That sounds cool. 

Nick 3:42
What brought you to music? 

Blake 3:43
I've been doing it since third grade on my cello for orchestra. I had a lot of musical influence for my brother, and my dad, guitar and saxophone. I don't know, I just thought it'd be fun, interesting way to just use my time. 

Nick 3:55
What's the biggest challenge you've encountered so far? 

Blake 3:58
Probably staying consistent, practicing, showing up. Even like the basic things can be rough to just drill it over and over, it just gets boring sometimes. 

Nick 4:06
You said your brother influenced you, how did he influenced you to start? 

Blake 4:09
Well, he didn't sound very good. At the start, he was really loud, so I kind of had to listen to it, and I did think it was just neat. Like a new way to just make noise. So I thought like, why not give it a shot, try something like that, and I thought it'd be fun. 

Nick 4:22
Did you ever want to join a band? 

Blake 4:25
Oh yeah, 100%. My dad played all sorts of rock and basic stuff like that. He played like music videos and all the stuff, and I just watched it, just kind of, maybe like a trance, as it would his say it? It was just something fun to stare at, and I thought why not try it. You know, now that's an opportunity for me. 

Nick 4:42
What artists do you think influence you? 

Blake 4:44
Personally, I don't know. I don't have like a specific set, maybe. I listened to a lot more jazz type of stuff, so maybe not rock, but I don't know. Probably just whatever my dad put on in the radio. So usually just basic rock, some like jazz. 

Nick 4:58
When was your first big performance? 

Blake 5:01
Man, I played taps for eighth grade, and it was really scary because I wasn't good, and it was really bad. But it was just a lot, because the pressure wasn't on like a group of people. So it was definitely a really big shift. 

Nick 5:16
Rock is the power of the collective. You're not playing for yourself but you're reaching out to the band member next to you and to those listening. How does it feel when it all comes together? 

Aiden 5:25
How does it feel when it all comes together? 

Nick 5:27
Yeah. 

Aiden 5:28
It feels great. It feels like we've been working, it feels like we accomplished what we've been working for. 

Nick 5:33
How do you know when you're in sync? 

Aiden 5:35
I can hear, I'm in sync with the drums. Like I listen, I listen for drums to tell if I'm in sync or not. 

Amanda 5:41
I think there's another way that you can know if you're in sync, like if you don't know then you're not. Like it's kind of just like more of a feeling than just listening sometimes

Tyler 5:49
My name's Tyler. 

Adriana 5:50
Nice to meet Tyler. There was like different decades of rock in the 50s, there was Elvis. 60s the Beatles. 80s and 90s you had Queen and Nirvana. How do you feel like you are contributing to the future of rock? What do you think the sound will be? 

Tyler 6:02
What we're doing is kind of actually taking a little bit of all of that and fusing it together into something like a mix of all of it. 

Adriana 6:10
Do you feel like the high school is your favorite place to make music? 

Tyler 6:12
Actually, I think so. Yeah, there's a lot of people a lot of different things. It's like a melting pot. 

Amanda 6:17
I kind of think it goes back to what group you get put into. I believe the stuff happens for a reason. Even if I don't know somebody, this person that was put in my group is gonna have an effect on my life. That's just the way that I think about it with my community and like my band. I didn't really know a lot of people this year going to rock band, even though I did it last year. A lot of people graduated. But I just feel like everything happens for a reason and I've been having fun. It's just it's a nice community to be in. 

Adriana 6:41
Your name is Amanda, right? What are some successes that your band has had? 

Amanda 6:45
You can't promise that you're gonna get along with everybody, but to like have a connection is really special. So I think we're still working on it, but I think it's more of being in a band not with band members, but being in a band with like your friends. So that's like one success and also another one is playing live and just having fun together. It's not just, I don't know, getting out there and just performing for people. It's just having fun with everybody in your band too. 

Alex 7:08
I'm Alex. 

Adriana 7:09
What advice would you give for others who want to be in a band or like want to start music? 

Alex 7:13
Yeah, I think the big thing is just get out there and do it. You know, hang in the back, not take the initiative, the step forward and put your foot in the doors. I think that's a really big thing. Talk to people, make connections. That's, you know, it's what it's all about. 

Adriana 7:26
What bed are you part of? 

Alex 7:27
I'm a part of The Strands. 

Adriana 7:28
I'm just curious. Is there like a story behind the name or is just like something you just chose? 

Alex 7:33
Yeah, so yeah, last year was the birth of the Rock Band program, and me and Amanda actually were part of a band called Nine Lives. Come to this year, we have some members that are still the same, some that have graduated and went to college. I like to think of it as The Strands of Nine Lives. You know, there's a couple of people that stay stagnant in the band. 

Adriana 7:52
I think that's really cool. What's your position in the band? 

Alex 7:55
I'm a lead guitarist. 

Adriana 7:57
That's cool. 

Alex 7:57
Thanks. I think it's pretty cool too. 

Nick 8:01
What's like the hardest part of learning a new instrument? 

Alex 8:04
So I think when starting a new instrument, I think consistency and the willingness to want to learn. And there's, ya know, so many taxes to do when you're first starting on your instrument, like practice regimen, you know, 30 minutes this day, 30 minutes that day, and just to build that up. And I think learning music that you want to learn is so imperative because if I think back to when I took piano lessons, they hand you a classical book and like, "Hey, here's how you do your scales, this fingerings." It can be not fun, but implementing songs you like and learning that is, I think, a big part of it. 

Nick 8:39
How did you feel like after you learned a song that you liked? 

Alex 8:42
Yeah, it's a great feeling, you know, especially if it's a more difficult piece, which, I find that a lot when I'm studying jazz. So taking all the hours you put into learning something and seeing it all come together is just such a unmatched feeling. 

Adriana 8:55
So how did you get the song selection out when you guys were first choosing your songs? 

Alex 8:59
We made a Google Doc and we would vote, we would each get to put one song and we would write it on the Google Doc and if we wanted to play that we would vote for it by like putting a tally mark in the Google Doc. 

Adriana 9:10
What were some of your favorite memories when being in rock band? 

Aiden 9:13
Probably like the first show and playing Steel Stacks, getting to play the talent show last year and this year. That was all great. 

Adriana 9:21
I was there, you guys sounded great. 

Aiden 9:22
Thank you. 

Adriana 9:23
So why did you choose rock over other types of music? There is pop, there is country. Why did you choose rock? 

Aiden 9:29
I don't know. A bunch of other music genres just were boring to me I guess. I like intense music. Besides rock band, I'm in a lot of other heavy metal bands. 

Kira 9:38
I picked rock over other genres. I'd say it's the most diverse. There's so many sub genres in under rock and I think that just allows for so much more creativity when you're like picking your songs and when you're performing. 

Nick 9:52
So there's like different genres of rock, electronic music, hip-hop, rhythms, indie and other versions. What would you say is one of the easiest or like hardest or best?

Amanda 10:02
I'd  say the best for me. Well I love rock and like I'll always hold like a special place in my heart whenever, but pop and Taylor Swift don't get me started. So that's just me. I love rock, but you give me a chance to speak about Taylor Swift I will. I'll just say that. That's what I think is the best. 

Aiden 10:16
I can give you some of my favorite sub genres. I like death metal, I like grind core, gore grind, hardcore, grunge, thrash metal. It's a lot of different sub genres of that. 

Nick 10:27
If someone was trying to listen to rock, what would you recommend for them? 

Aiden 10:31
I would recommend they start with maybe Metallica. A nice band like that or like Black Sabbath. And then I would introduce them the more heavier bands that I listen to. 

Nick 10:40
Anyone can answer this. What do you think the next couple years of this rock would look like? 

Tyler 10:45
I think it's gonna keep getting better. I think it's gonna keep learning from our mistakes. It's gonna keep going up, more people. 

Amanda 10:52
it wants it to be more student ran in future years. 

Megan 10:56
I think that we're gonna have a lot of opportunities in the future because the program is growing. It feels a lot bigger. I just think that we're gonna have a lot opportunities in the future and I think that our community is gonna grow. I think more people are gonna be interested in it. Yeah, I think that Rock Band has a good future

Blake 11:12
I'm Blake, I'm from Dynamically Challenged. So our whole band just really just consists of just a bunch of people who've known each other for like, what? Ages? And I think I've known my friends like Jack, Kale and Nate since first grade. But then there's also more of a mix of newer people, I met Dylan, Kenny, two other people, what? My freshman year? Didn't even know him before. We usually play a lot of songs that either we make together on our own, or just songs we each find interesting. So we'll send a song in our group chat and we'll be like, 'Hey, what about this?' And then we all listen to it, 'think about it?' and we could just give it a shot. Good amount of times it doesn't work. But we will find songs we do like and eventually we'll build on something that we're proud of. That's pretty much what we do. 

Amanda 11:53
I'm Amanda 

Alex 11:54
And I'm Alex. 

Amanda 11:55
And we're part of The Strands. We get a lot of our inspiration from pop rock, I would say. Paramore, other bands like that. 

Alex 12:03
We find a lot of our inspiration from that genre and music, but I think what makes our band special is I think we're very blessed to have a really great group of musicians. The musicality across everyone is just phenomenal and at the end of the day, you know, it's like a time saver. Talking about the form of a song, or, hey, let's start from the verse in this and that it makes us special and I think, it makes me want to work with the musicians and it makes me feel connected with them. 

Amanda 12:29
And I just think that like, we're all friends. I keep saying this, but I mean, it's just so important, just to get along. It's, it's really nice. 

Aiden 12:36
I'm Aiden. 

Tyler 12:36
I'm Tyler. 

Aiden 12:37
We're from the band Descension. We all met last year, and before that I didn't really have many friends, but now I can say that these guys are like my best friends. It's really fun to get to play music with them, especially the music that we love, because we're very influenced by metal, grunge, heavier genres like that. It's just great to work with them, and listen to music with them, jam with them. It's really great. 

Tyler 13:01
Since, I don't know middle school? Ever since I got into rock and stuff, I've been waiting to meet a bunch of people start a band with, so this was kind of like a life saver. 

Aiden 13:11
Rock band actually inspired me to start and join a couple of bands outside the school. So one of them is actually with some of the members of my rock band, they're called Broodwitch. It's pretty cool. And I have another grind core band called Mangled Limb, we just put out an album a couple weeks ago called Criminal Instinct. It's a really great album, in my opinion. 

Megan 13:30
I'm Meg. 

Kira 13:31
I'm Kira. 

Megan 13:32
And our band, we're a very diverse group of people that have known each other for a while. People that are like very new to each other. And I think we're all pretty good friends. 

Kira 13:42
Yeah, I think like half of our band-- think like half of it is people that have known each other. Half of it is like new people. But we definitely all like, we're used to each other. We know each other with friends. 

Megan 13:50
We're also a new band. 

Kira 13:52
Yeah. Like most of the bands are pretty much the same as last year. But I think- 

Megan 13:55
-we're very new. We're blossoming. 

Kira 13:59
I feel like we kind of do a little bit of everything. 

Megan 14:01
Yeah, we like sprinkling a lot of different kinds of songs. How we decide it, we send out songs that we want to do. And then we experiment with them a little bit. And we kind of just like choose the ones that we like to do. We usually do older rock. Just like more popular like order rock songs. Ones that are fun upbeat songs. And the history behind our name is so random. 

Kira 14:24
It's very random. 

Adriana 14:25
Wait, what's the name of your band? 

Megan 14:26
Oh, Hidden Dreams. 

Kira 14:27
Like we were just like blurting stuff out. And nothing was like working. We were doing is while we're cleaning up. 

Megan 14:32
Because we were trying to figure out a name at this point. And our drummer blurted out, Hidden Dreams. 

Kira 14:38
And we were just like, okay? 

Megan 14:41
There wasn't really any thought behind it. But that's a little fun fact about us. We're very new. We're very excited to see what this program has to offer to us. And we're excited to see the opportunities that we could get in the future. 

Adriana 14:55
What impacted it have in your lives? Whether it was music lives, or like personal lives? 

Amanda 14:59
Well, this has already really helped me, because before this, I was very quiet, I was very apologetic. Every time I would even say a word, but now, since being on a stage in front of people, now I'm just like, I don't care. I'm here to have fun, I'm here to be myself. So, really, it's helped me already, and I know it's gonna help me in the future. 

Alex 15:19
I think that this goes for a lot of the members in rock band but for me it's totally like life altering being on a stage and performing like it's kind of an unmatched feeling and i think that feeling will carry with me throughout my life and kind of hold as a standing ground for confidence and where I want to go in my life. 

Kira 15:36
I just think it's a great opportunity. I was always used to doing choir and musicals and stuff, just singing for a purpose or there's a goal. But I feel like this is just have fun and make friends and actually be yourself. 

Megan 15:47
Adding on to the being yourself. This program is a really good place where you can just express yourself however you want and just be yourself without any judgment. Just that kind of carries on in your life. You'll just feel comfortable in yourself and comfortable with who you wanna be and being in this program. It makes me very comfortable with how I am, without any filters or anything. I just, I'm myself and it's very nice. 

Nick 16:12
How do you see rock in your future and how do you think it will affect your life and mental being in general? 

Aiden 16:17
It will and really already has affected my life in a great way. I've met a lot of great people through this program. Some of my best friends. I feel like that'll carry into my future

Nick 16:26
What's one thing you can take away from rock that you could apply for life in general. 

Aiden 16:31
Maybe communication skills are communicating with your band, get you better with talking to people introducing yourself, stuff like that.

Blake 16:37
I'd  say definitely a lot more confidence. That's probably the biggest thing I've gotten from rock band. It's being able to just go up there and play and not worry about anything. It's just a lot more of a comfortable environment to do things and express yourself in. So I think it's nice. 

Megan 16:50
One thing I think that Rockman will, like, help. One serious thing is definitely commitment. I feel like being in the program, you're making a commitment. You'll have, like, better commitment in the future. To stick with things. 

Amanda 17:02
To kinda, like, elaborate on that, I know exactly what you mean. And it's kind of just not letting anybody down, so you're, kind of, harder on yourself. Not in a bad way, I think it's really good. And it's helped me with being more committed to things. 

Adriana 17:13
Is it like all the songs do you perform? Or are they like all from different artists or do you also write some of your own? 

Aiden 17:19
Some of the songs we do we do from a variety of artists but we are working on one original song right now. 

Adriana 17:25
That sounds cool I can't wait to listen to it. 

Aiden 17:26
It'll be great. 

Blake 17:27
Yeah we've done around the same thing we performed from a spectrum of just different random artists and genres but we have made what... three songs? original songs? We've only performed two, but we're still going with it. 

Nick 17:38
So how can we hear your music or us so listen to? 

Blake 17:42
Well at the moment I think we're working on publishing two of our songs I don't really know what platform it is. Probably just to start like Soundcloud or something basic like that to start with but maybe something I don't know more maybe Spotify after, something like that. 

Amanda 17:57
If you also want to find our bands, you can on Instagram, if you follow NHS Rock, you can go to the following and look our bands up. If you would want to hear any music, we'd be able to link it. Get

Megan 18:06
And if you follow NHS Rock, you can also get updates on any performances that we have, that you could come to if you're interested in coming to any performances for specific bands. And also our big concert in May, Rock Fest. 

Adriana 18:19
Is there any last words or advice you would give to anyone who wants be a part of the band or wants to try out next year, maybe? 

Amanda 18:25
I think just being confident in yourself, even if you're not the best at music before this, I knew nothing about, I don't know anything about music theory, I don't know anything about all that, I have no idea. Took class, didn't do great, that's totally fine, I'm still in a band, I love it. You don't need to be a prodigy to be in a band. 

Blake 18:41
Probably just believe in yourself, I know everyone says that for anything, but just believe that you can at least try. There's a really good chance that it might not work out, but why worry about that without going for it? 

Megan 18:52
I was gonna say, if you wanna be in the rock band program, just go for it, don't let anything bring you down, just try, go for it, like see how you like it, you'll know the environment, you'll know how everyone is and how the program works and just always go for it, but just never doubt yourself, 

Adriana 19:09
Thank you guys so much for being here today. 

Amanda 19:15
I want to thank you guys for, like, not interviewing us, but letting us be on the podcast. 

Adriana 19:19
Of course! 

Amanda 19:20
Really exciting. Thank you. 

Adriana 19:22
I think I found it really interesting that everyone had, like, a different experience when they were first starting compared to, like, now and stuff and how different it is and how close you can really get and all the  different people you can meet, you thought you would never meet. 

Nick 19:35
Yeah, I agree, I think just in general some people they didn't know what they wanna do so they joined Rock Band and they were able to find the people to connect with and to start making music and find new friends and new people that they can relate to and start their own band. 

Brianna 19:51
That's it for this episode. Thank you for listening to Giving Youth a Voice. Any questions about this podcast or a coalition can be emailed to podcast@nc4youth. org. That's podcast@nc 4 youth. org. Make sure to follow us on your favorite podcasting app and sign up to our email list on nc4youth. org so you don't miss our next episode. This project is made possible by funding from the Drug Free Communities Grant. I'm Brianna wishing you a happy and healthy future. See you next episode.