ST. PAUL – Their passion for music pulses through their veins. It’s a passion culminating in the desire to create and explore art.
For a week in July, a group of youths participated in Camp Rock, hosted by the St. Paul and District Arts Foundation. Musicians created the band “Awesome,” and ended the week-long camp in a final musical performance on July 12.
The performance ended with applause.
The band was composed of Peyton Tobias Small, Rhiana Champagne, Rayden Hunter-Bernard, Darian Steinhauer, Aaron Swan Jr., and Cameron Dion. The young musicians were instructed by Levon Vokins, an Edmonton-based musician and audio engineer.
Seeing the progress of the kids, Vokins expressed his pride. “I’m really impressed,” he began, adding, “To pull off a concert with only five days of practicing and rehearsing... that’s a lot.”
Putting that into perspective, Vokins says that with his own band, the group spends months practicing before they play in front of an audience. But for the group of kids to do it with just a few days of practice and learning is impressive.
During their performance, the “Awesome” band played various rock songs, like Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. Vokins says the band did not know how to play many of the songs, although they may have been familiar with some.
“They learned mostly from the ground up,” says Vokins.
Dion was one of the vocalists, with the other being Champagne. He said the band also created an original song. It may only be a 30-second song, but the band is still proud of the result.
For Dion, being able to learn and play music with other people was among the biggest experiences he is grateful for.
“I’ve usually been just playing by myself,” he says.
Hunter-Bernard was among the guitarists. He shared the same sentiment as Dion, saying, the most fun he had during the camp was “jamming with my band.”
Hunter-Bernard also says he never played the guitar until the camp - he knew how to play the ukulele, but not the guitar. He was grateful for the experience of learning how to play.
