Boise Rock School rolls into Boise's cultural scene

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STORY BY DANA OLAND

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KATHERINE JONES

When the indie punk-rock trioHollywood Hotel hits the stage atthis year’s Treefort Music Fest, it will mark a turning point forBoise Rock School — founded eightyears ago with a mission to inspirekids to learn music by playing theirfavorite songs.

Some young musicians who did astint at Rock School were in local

The group — whichis starting to transitionto a nonprofit —is reaching out to kids across the Valley

BoiseRockSchoolrolls intoBoise’sculturalscene

ABOVE: About 60 kidseach day pile into BoiseRock School to pick up

instruments and play themusic they love. What

began as loosely organ-ized camps has evolved

into one of the city’sstrongest cultural institu-

tions. Above, from left, areNaomi Yager, Caelen

Lampe and Adam Elmenni.

RIGHT: Indie punk-rocktrio Hollywood Hotel.

0221-Treasure-16-22-Arts_Treasure 2/17/15 10:44 AM Page 16

bands that have played atTreefort, and the Rock Schoolproduces a music stage during thefest, but this is different.

Hotel — Tanner Abney, 15;Gannon Matthews, 13; and DrakeSemanic, 14 — is the first 100-percent Rock School product toget into Treefort independently.

The three boys met as little kidsduring Rock School summercamps in 2009. Tanner couldn’tsee over this cymbals, and Gan-non and Drake were swallowed upby their instruments.

Taught and nurtured over thepast seven years by Rock Schoolfounders Jared Goodpaster andRyan Peck and others, they’vegrown up playing on Rock Schoolstages at Downtown block partiesand festivals. They now are work-ing on their second album.

“It’s cool to look back to see howfar we’ve come,” says Tanner. “Idon’t think I would be doing this ifwe hadn’t gone to Rock School.We would never have met.”

FEBRUARY 2015 17

continued

Holly-woodHotelstartedplayingtogetheras youngkids,directly atleft, andcontinueto rocktoday, farleft. PHOTO PROVIDED BY COREY MATTHEWS

0221-Treasure-16-22-Arts_Treasure 2/16/15 4:53 PM Page 17

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Hollywood Hotel and Boise Rock School are now coming of age as the school works to extend its presencein the Treasure Valley music scene.

It might seem a hard argument to make that a programthat teaches kids to rock like AC/DC or croon like SamSmith can help change the culture of a city, but that iswhat’s happening,

“In another five to 10 years, we’ll see the real impactBoise Rock School will have,” says musician and Treefortco-founder and director Eric Gilbert, who selected Holly-wood Hotel for this year’s lineup.

“I think we’ll see more kids from Idaho out there,”Gilbert says. “They may be integrated into different musicscenes, but they’ll trace their musical roots back to Boise.”

In fact, after Hollywood Hotel was a done deal, Treefortannounced that Rock School singer and songwriterAnnika Klein, 16, also will be in the lineup backed byPeck, Andrew Stensaas and BRS students.

ROCK SCHOOL IS IN SESSIONAt 4 p.m. on any given weekday, a stream of kids rush

through the doors at Boise Rock School, located just outside the Downtown core. This is the class no one wantsto be late for.

The former auto repair shop that houses BRS received amakeover in 2012 that transformed it into a musicalmecca. Its concrete walls and sliding glassgarage doors ring with the cacophony thatseeps from a row of classrooms. Classic andalternative rock, pop and indie folk all mix inthe common area, accented by high pitchedlittle-girl squeals and riotous laughter.

In one room, the members of the recentlyformed Wooden iPods play a mix of indie toclassic rock, with help from guitarist JeffCochran.

Cochran, like most Rock School teachers,plays music locally. Here, he makes sugges-tions, helps clean up chords and focuses stu-dents on the structure of the song. This one is“Sail” by Awolnation.

“We should play a Beatles song next,” saysthe iPod’s keyboardist Ewan Williams, an 11-year-old Trailwind Elementary student whoalso plays guitar, bass and violin, the latter inhis school’s orchestra.

The WoodeniPods: MichaelWilson, 12; IanWilliams, 12, onguitar andvocals; andEwan Williams,11, on piano,practice weeklyat Boise RockSchool withdrummer ColinPfister, 11 (notpictured).

Charley Beebe,9, keeps thebeat during herBoise RockSchool class.Kids get tolearn on the latest equip-ment, includingelectronicdrums.

Ryan Peckcoaches 11-year-oldVaughn Myerson bass atBoise RockSchool. Peckco-founded theschool to givekids likeVaughn and hisbandmates away to exploreand enjoymusic.


FEBRUARY 2015 19

The group agrees and the kids put theirfavorite Lennon-McCartney song forward.

This is one of the aspects that makesBoise Rock School different: The studentsdrive the curriculum. Teachers coach andnurture, rather than push and prod, and letthe kids go as far as they want.

“I like that you get to pick your ownsongs and that you get to play with kidsyour own age and make friends,” says IanWilliams, 12, Ewan’s cousin and bandmate.

Goodpaster and Peck came up with theformula for this adult-guided and kid-inspired approach in 2007.

“We ask the kids. ‘What inspires you?What are you listening to?’ Then we givethem the skills to play that,” Peck says.

No one learns the exact same music inthe exact same order. There is no book tofollow.

SUMMER DAY CAMP STARTThey held the first camp at Koelsch Ele-

mentary with a handful of borrowed kids. “We called up our friends with little kids

and said, ‘We want to try this curriculumwe just wrote,’ ” Peck says. “ ‘Can we exper-iment on your kids?’ ”

A year later they formalized Rock Schoolin 2008 and had about 40 regular students.They had outgrown another space, a base-

continued

Lucas Williams, 9, works with instructor Aaron Connolly at Boise Rock School.The goal is not for every kid to be a rock star, but for each of them to knowthat music can always be part of their lives.

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ment room at Boise Contemporary Theaterand then hopscotched their way acrosstown from the Foothills School to BroncoElite.

Today, Boise Rock School lives in its ownbuilding at 14th and Idaho streets Down-town. Its programs and vision havebloomed into a multimedia, three-prongedcommunity program that is changing thelives of thousands of kids in The TreasureValley and beyond. Now, with more than20 musicians who teach the more than 300kids who fill the Rock School each weekand the hundreds more in the school andcommunity programs they produce, RockSchool is set to roll.

Peck and Goodpaster created a nonprofitarm called Rock on Wheels in 2012 that istaking off, and they recently added JunoArts, another arm that is for digital arts,such as sound recording, video-game devel-opment, graphic design and filmmaking.

Peck and Goodpaster’s vision is growingbigger every day as the organizationbecomes a greater cultural influence, catch-ing the notice of Mayor Dave Bieter in2013 when he gave Boise Rock School theMayor’s Award for Arts Education.

“That was an amazing moment,” Pecksays. “I fell in love with Boise again thatday we accepted the award. It’s rare that welook up and see what we’re doing from anoutside perspective, like the city’s. It was anepiphany: I think if you’re humble andyou’re gracious, Boise, as a community,wants you to succeed.”

ROOTS OF ROCK SCHOOLIt’s a good thing that Good-

paster and Peck didn’t learn toplay guitar as kids. If they had,Boise Rock School would notexist.

“Both of us started playingmusic seriously after high school,and that was a huge driving pointfor this,” Goodpaster says. “Whatif we’d played in bands since wewere 8 years old? How would ourlives be different?”

That question hung over theirlives when Peck and Goodpastermet in Stanley in the late 1990s.They were both in college —Peck doing graduate work atIdaho State University, Good-paster was an undergrad at Uni-versity of Idaho — and theyworked summer jobs as guides forThe River Company and playedin The Halos of Mojo.

“We were the band in Stanleyand we were terrible,” remembersPeck, laughing.

Peck had started music lessonsas a kid growing up in Denver. Hisfamily moved to Twin Falls when

Peck was in high school and he got discour-aged.

“I always had it in my head that I had noability,” Peck says. “But I picked up the gui-tar again and Dave Matthews was around,and I was like, I can do this.”

Peck took music lessons while he earnedhis master’s in biology. Today, he also playsbass and piano in the rock fusion duoEdmond Dantes with Stensaas. Peckteaches biology as an adjunct professor atBSU, produces the Music From Stanleyconcert series and co-runs Rock School.

Goodpaster didn’t play music as a kid,but it became a serious hobby while heearned his undergraduate degree in history.Then guitar became an obsession in thethree years he lived in the Czech Republicteaching English as a second language. Hespent a year teaching in New York before

he returned to Idaho to pursue his master’sin education at Northwest Nazarene Uni-versity.

When he and Peck started Rock School,Goodpaster was teaching in the BoiseSchool District. Now he teaches music andco-runs Rock School full time.

The path to Boise Rock School startedwith an exploration of their personal frus-trations and limitations, Peck says.

“It was a long process in my brain. I wasthinking back to when I was a kid,” he says.“I did things that didn’t lead anywhere, likesports, which I really wasn’t interested in.And I thought, man, ‘How different wouldmy life be if in junior high and high schoolif I had been passionate about music?’ Italked about it with Jared.”

They came up with the Rock Schoolmodel — no auditions required, no experi-ence necessary. Kids choose the music theywant to play — rock, country, jazz, what-ever — and the instructor adapts.

Goodpaster focused on curriculum writ-ing for his master’s so he was able to whipup the method’s structure, and he continuesto write worksheets that the kids use toprogress and build their skills.

Even the littlest kids don’t learn on songslike “Farmer in the Dell”; they start withsomething like AC/DC’s “Back in Black” oranother rock classic. They work througharrangements that gently nudge kids toimprove their skills.

Goodpaster’s worksheets cover all occa-sions, from basic chord progressions tomixolydian mode of the major scale.

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Boise Rock School Sign up for classes at Boise RockSchool, 1404 W. Idaho St., orbook Rock on Wheels atwww.BoiseRockSchool.com or bycalling 572-5055.

Check out BRS’s Treefort stagefrom noon to 4 p.m. March 28and noon to 2 p.m. March 29.

Play like your kids at the newmonthly Adult Night, startingMarch 12. You’ll get coaching anda chance to perform. $10;includes a Crooked Fence beer.

Kennedy Lamer, 9, takes a break and plays around with a drum kit at Boise Rock School.


“You can tailor a song. You can teach themost beginner kid in the world to play any-thing,” Peck says. “Then if they were superadvanced, we can mess with it a little bit.”

NO PROFIT TO NONPROFITWhen Peck and Goodpaster started Rock

School, they both had full-time jobs —Peck was a guest lecturer in Boise State’sbiology department; Goodpaster was teach-ing at East Junior High. So, they never feltpressured to make a profit.

“Not that you could ever get rich teach-ing music to kids. It was a personal thing forboth of us,” Peck says. “It was more like thisfun thing to do. We didn’t intend it tomake money or to have to do invoicing orwhatever. We weren’t really thinking for-ward.”

That tripped them up as Rock Schoolbecame more successful and still wasn’t pay-ing for itself.

“Our first priority was all-access, so wejust ate it for the first four years,” he says.

Then they got smart about the businessside of things, learned an accounting pro-gram and started turning things around. Butthe lesson they took away was that theschool operated like a nonprofit, so why notmake it one? During 2012 and early 2013,they pulled together a board of directors andgot their 501(c)(3) designation. Althoughthey still have the Rock School as an S-corp, the nonprofit side is taking over.

“We’re shifting from everyone’s welcometo come to us — and that’s still the mission— but now we’re going out and findingthose kids,” Peck says.

Rock School has grown steadily since2008. Without even trying to, it hasbecome the big fish in the Idaho’s kid-rockscene.

The national chain School of Rockopened a franchise in Eagle in 2010. Itmade a small noise for a couple of years,and then quietly faded away while BoiseRock School grew.

Since Rock School became a nonprofit,businesses have stepped up to help supportthe school’s mission. Lululemon in Meri-dian raised funds last year with its annual“Flame,” a night of yoga, dance and medita-tion at the Eighth & Main Building. It willdo the same on Feb. 28. Recently, 10 BarrelBrewing made Rock School a beneficiaryfor an event, and in 2014 Whole Foodsdonated funds from its bag credit program.And Crooked Fence Brewing Co., createdRock on Wheels, a red ale, donating a per-centage of its sales to Rock School.

Peck and Goodpaster have collaboratedwith other nonprofits by creating programswith The Cabin, Idaho Shakespeare Festi-val and TrICA (a local dance and arts pro-gram for children).

Its nonprofit arm, Rock on Wheels, goesto private and public schools, plus juvenile

corrections, Interfaith Sanctuary (a Boisehomeless shelter) and Hays House, a shelterfor at-risk kids. One of the regular stops isin Horseshoe Bend for the school district’s21st Century Community Learning Center,a federally funded after-school program.Rock School is in effect the district’s musicprogram for kids in fifth grade and above.

“We throw around the word ‘cool’ a lot,but this really is,” says Kim Hall, the pro-gram’s director. “Rock on Wheels fills avoid. They’re on instruments, learningnotes. Their heads are bopping, and they’resmiling ear to ear. This is an opportunity forthese kids to shine that they might not getin other areas of their lives.”

This is Rock on Wheel’s second year inHorseshoe Bend. When the district lost itsfunding to bring Rock School in for thisschool year, Peck and Goodpaster appliedfor and received an Idaho Commission onthe Arts grant to continue the connection.

“It’s important to those kids for the pro-gram to be able to go to them,” Peck says. “Imean those kids are right there, so youthink it would be no big deal, but they liter-ally might as well be in Timbuktu.”

Going nonprofit and developing theseprograms also changed how they teach,Goodpaster says.

“We have 20 kids in a class (in the Rockon Wheels programs), so you can’t bring 20guitars or sit around and watch five kidsplay at a time,” Goodpaster says. “So, we’vehad to customize programs that work. Now,we’re not always teaching rock. We teachmusic.”

The Rock on Wheels teachers bringmelodicas, a keyboard you blow into, anduse other approaches to music that are lessabout electric guitars and drums. Theyteach music theory and how to read noteswith the melodicas, and use hand drumsand clapping to teach rhythm.

WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS?One of the best gigs Peck and Good-

paster did was when they backed BarrettCoyle, now 12, at her kindergarten talentshow. Then 6, Barrett blew her schoolaway.

“They were awesome and the kidsthought it was pretty cool,” Barrett says.

“It was super cute,” remembers Barrett’smom, Stephanie.

When Goodpaster first put a guitar inBarrett’s hands, she wasn’t sure what to dobut she figured it out quickly. She had beensinging since age 3 and played piano a bit.

“Music is my forte,” she says. “I loveRock School. It enhances my musical abil-ity. It’s helped me be more comfortable onstage and to be more confident in my life.”

She now plays in a newly formed folk-rock duo with her Rock School friendCymmetry Rice. Barrett wants to be amarine biologist but would like to have acouple of albums under her belt before shedives underwater completely, she says.

“I already wrote and recorded one song atBoise Rock School,” she says. “It soundedso cool.”

Hollywood Hotel’s Gannon Matthews,now a seventh-grader at Eagle MiddleSchool, got a guitar for his 6th birthday.

“I thought it was kind of cool,” he says. “I

FEBRUARY 2015 21

Boise Rock School co-founder Jared Goodpaster helps his class at the Montes-sori Academy in Eagle learn a song using melodicas.

continued

At IdahoStatesman.com/TreasureWatch some of the Boise Rock School kids inaction in a video by Dana Oland.


INjust three years, Treefort has estab-lished itself as one of the TreasureValley’s signature events. One of its

keys is encouraging the greater creative com-munity to come on board and produce theirown “fort.”

“We try to represent the scene in Boise asa whole,” says Treefort director Eric Gilbert.“So, it reflects things that are happeningorganically already.”

There are now many other “fort” options inaddition to the music, including Storyfort, pro-duced by The Cabin; Comedyfort, produced bythe Downtown comedy venue Liquid; andSkatefort, which again will take over RhodesPark with music and skating events.

The festival has also been a boon toBoise’s local music scene. This year, alongwith Boise Rock protégées Hollywood Hotel,you’ll find that about 40 percent of the bandsare local, Gilbert says.

“This is becoming a training ground forlocal bands,” he says.

Bands must apply through the sameprocess as the touring acts. They must have aprofessional package, including a bio, set listand photos. That is preparing them to com-pete outside of Boise. And it’s working,Gilbert says.

“Last year I saw that the local bands aregetting it,” he says. “They’re preparing a spe-cial set, they’re using lighting differently andtrying to present their stuff at a higher level.”

That fact, along with Gilbert’s Duck ClubPresents that produces music throughout theyear, is taking the local music scene to a newlevel. And that was the original missionGilbert and his co-founders Lori Shandro-Outen and Drew Lorona set out on when theycreated Treefort.

TICKETS AND INFORMATIONA five-day all-access pass is $139 general

until March 1, $159 after; $119 for 20 andyounger for access to all-ages venues andother forts until March 1, and $139 after; TheZip Line ($299) gets you all-access plus front-of-the-line privileges; The Secret Handshakepass ($999) gets you all of the above plus lim-ited, escorted access backstage. It alsoincludes a 2015 Duck Club season pass.There are a limited number of Handshakepasses available.

Info: TreefortMusicFest.com/tickets.Bonus: Treefort pass holders also get admis-sion to the other forts listed below by show-ing their wristbands.

Other forts:

COMEDYFORT will expand on last year’scomedy showcases with an official fort eventat Liquid, 405 N. 8th St., on March 25-29. Itwill feature local and headlining comics eachnight. It’s free for pass holders, $10-$12 pershow for the public if space is available.

THE TREEFORT FILM FEST will showcaseemerging filmmakers and independent filmsMarch 25-29. You’ll find screening, filmmakerforums and workshops at The Flicks, 646 Ful-ton St., and in a tented venue at The ModernHotel, 1304 W. Grove St. A five-day Film Fest-only pass is $20.

STORYFORT will feature readings and per-formances from regional, local and nationalfiction writers, poets and storytellers. Thisyear, nationally known author Laura van denBerg and Fast Company editor-at-large JeffChu will headline the event. It’s free toTreefort wristband holders and the public ifspace is available.

HACKFORT will be March 26-28 at TheOwyhee, 1109 W. Main St. It is an extensionof Boise State University’s Bronco Appathon,an app development competition held onMarch 6-8 at BSU. You’ll hear presentationsof the winning apps, discussions on technol-ogy, innovation and creativity. A Hackfort-only pass is $20.

YOGAFORT will happen March 27-29 atthe Rose Room, 718 W. Idaho St. Dance andyoga classes will be taught by certifiedinstructors from studios around the West,including nationally known instructor Miche-line Berry, and some will be accompanied bylive music. A Yogafort-only pass is $50.

SKATEFORT, produced by Boise Parks andRecreation and the city’s skate community,will feature skateboard and music events atRhodes Skate Park, under the I-184 overpasson 16th Street, throughout the festival.

KIDFORT will present a Roadshow that willperform an ’80s revue with Boise new waveband Popsicle at various Treefort venues,along with other performances and kid activi-ties March 27-28.

TREEFORT PERFORMANCE ART will runthroughout the festival. James Sharp of RedLight Variety Show is spearheading the effortto liven up the streets with performanceartists, from jugglers to stilt walkers.

ALEFORT BREW FEST will feature morethan a dozen local and regional breweries.Look for it near the main stage. It’s for 21 andolder, and you gotta pay for beer.

TRUCKFORT: OK, not really — but you willfind a fleet of Boise’s food trucks and cartsthroughout Downtown during the festival.

TreefortIN 2013, IT RECEIVED THE MAYOR’S AWARD

FOR EMERGING ART ORGANIZATIONS

HAS EMERGED

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wanted to be like Jack White.” The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation

Army” was the first song he rememberslearning.

Peck and Goodpaster arranged perform-ances for the kid rockers, from the Boise’sGot Talent competition at the former Don-nie Mac’s in the Linen District to the RockSchool stage during the last Treefort. Get-ting that stage time was key, Gannon says.

“I think it’s made a big difference,” hesays. “It boosted my confidence and now wejust get up there and play. It even helpswhen I have to get up in front of the class-room and answer a question.”

Maura Romano, 16, started playing guitarat Boise Rock School at age 11 when shewas a student at Anser Charter School.

“They did a workshop at school with uscalled Garage Band. Jared handed me a gui-tar, which I never thought of playing, and Iloved it,” she says.

Maura started taking private lessons fromPeck and has played with several bands dur-ing the past few years. Today, guitar is herstrongest instrument. She also sings and playskeyboards in a Boise Rock School band.

“At first I was afraid to get out of mycomfort zone and just wanted to stay withchords,” Maura says. “But then I startedwriting my own stuff with solos. I sat downone day and just played scales for hours.That’s when I got the courage to start play-ing harder stuff.”

For Barrett’s mom, Stephanie, the journeyhas been life-changing for her daughter andtheir family, she says. And it’s been fun to bepart of the Rock School phenomenon. “I’vewatched them grow and the cool waythey’ve integrated themselves into the com-munity,” Coyle says. “They’re a good team.I’m super inspired by those guys. They’re oneof the bright spots in this community.”

But Rock School’s biggest success — andits legacy — may be that it empowers kidsto find their own way in whatever paththey choose by using their creativity andwhat they learned from their love of music.

Kids can do it while they play sports, likeHollywood Hotel’s Matthews, who is on hisschool’s basketball team; or even if theywant to become not a musician but a neu-rologist, like Wooden iPod bassist MichaelWilson, 12. Both say they want to keepmusic part of their lives.

“Our biggest goal is to get collaborationand creativity into places that might nothave it — be it Horseshoe Bend or HaysHouse, wherever,” Peck says. “And for usthat means music and all the stuff thatcomes with it, the healing power and justthe fun of it. Then we want to take thenext generation to the next level, for themto become more passionate and talentedand creative. It’s more fun to be aroundpeople who get excited about stuff.

“We want kids to be stoked about life.”


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Boise Rock School rolls into Boise's cultural scene