Rock camps, like hockey schools and dance workshops and the like, are what summers are made of for aspiring musicians.
Some are led by touring musicians who set up temporary shop and pass through a series of towns. Some are held by permanent resident musicians. There are annual ones and one-time-only sessions. Some are a combination.
Jack Black may not be at the head of the class, but there are some schools of rock in the Prince George area this summer. One of them is double-barreled in its meaning: rock music and rock climbing, at the same time.
Prince George rising-star punk pop duo The Statistics is leading this 100 per cent P.G. workshop. Brothers Darby and Erin Yule along with popular local multi-instrumentalist Curtis Abriel as their teaching accompanist will show young musicians how to better climb the scales and also scale the walls at OVERhang Climbing Centre. The facility is in limited use in August, so they have their run of the whole complex.
"They will be using many of our different rooms for different instruments, different activities, even recording the kids," said OVERhang proprietor Lauren Phillips, who was, in part, responsible for this unusual marriage of activities.
"It'll be a brain and body switch each day. The music and the climbing provide the kids with a well-rounded experience," she said. "The boys approached me just inquiring about a place to host a regular music camp. They were familiar with our place because they climb here, and they knew August was our quiet time. It took me a second as they were explaining it, but then it hit me. Wait a minute...rock camp...rock camp?"
"It's a unique idea," said Erin. "The vast majority of people have never experienced these two activities together, and most haven't experienced even one of them, so we are providing a real opportunity, and it is nothing but fun."
Rock Camp at OVERhang is for youth aged nine to 16, but no music or climbing experience of any kind is required nor do you have to bring an instrument or any equipment if you don't have it.
The Statistics are also keen to take the lessons deeper on the music side. In amongst the rock 'n' roll and climbing the walls, they will also shine lights into the practical corners of music, like photo shoots, radio knowledge, touring realities, songwriting, improvisation, etc. "A lot of little bits of information your music lessons never teach you," said Erin.
Darby added that, as the climber in the band, he has become aware of many similarities between the act of making or deeply appreciating music and the act of rock climbing.
"I didn't expect this, but when I started coming to OVERhang to get into climbing, I started noticing a lot of people here from the musical side of my life," he said. "Once you get past the physical side, climbing is really just a big puzzle. There are certain things you have to do to accomplish your route, and music is like that in a way, too."
They called on Abriel because of his personal history as a teacher of music and also as one of those rare subspecies that makes a total living from music in Prince George.
"I've never even gone rock climbing before," said Abriel, staring up at the engineered cliffs and dangling ropes of the main climbing gym. "This is so great for me, too. It's an opportunity to do something really fun and involve music as well."
To sign up for the camp, go to the OVERhang website, click the Climbing Gym option, then the Youth Climbing Programs button, or call 250-563-2547. The camp runs Aug. 24-28 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for $300 per child.
The Statistics have plenty of precedence to guide their band camp aspirations. Rachelle Van Zanten has occasionally operated her Rocker Grrl camp for female youth. There are music schools in the area that have summer programs. And they are buddy bands with one of Canada's revered new rock trios Speed Control. The Yule boys once arrived home to find Speed Control had pitched a tent on their front lawn, then sat there waiting for them, one day as they passed through P.G.
"We kind of stole our idea from them, or the initial part, anyway," said Darby.
Speed Control runs the nationally popular Rawk Camp they take all over the country from their home base in Whitehorse.
Speed Control will be in Prince George again on Aug. 15 for a concert appearance at Nancy O's, but no Rawk Camp. Why not?
"We focus our Rawk Camp program on smaller communities, because the larger centres have more opportunities for music lessons, the big music stores often have summer schools, so we get out there to places that don't get that kind of thing," said Graeme Peters, frontman for the group (fans might remember him from the Peters Drury Trio that set the Canadian jazz scene on fire a few years ago). The other members of Speed Control are (brother) Jody Peters and Ian March.
They were finalists recently for CBC Radio's contest for Best New Group in the land, they were the writers and performers of the rock opera The Busker & The Barista, they were called to national duty as performers for the Pan American Para-Games this month, and they are fully endorsed by the Yamaha musical instrument company. (Yamaha provides them with a constant supply of common instruments so even those without one can attend Rawk Camp.)
This summer they have already held Rawk Camp in Quesnel, then the Kootenays, over to rural Ontario, now back to this region for back-to-back sessions in Grassy Plains and neighbouring Burns Lake from Aug. 17-22.
"Grassy Plains is by far the smallest place we've done the Rawk Camp, but last year we did it and it was wildly successful," said Graeme. "A handful of them hadn't ever played a song before and by the end we got all of them to play three songs. Two of them were AC/DC, so there's that."
Like The Statistics camp, Speed Control puts a major emphasis on physical health and mental health all being linked into musical enjoyment. All three of the Yukoners have been involved in formal academia - the two Peters boys are certified and experienced elementary school teachers - so getting multi-sensory and multidisciplinary concepts across to kids is a prized skill of theirs.
"We also pride ourselves on being the buffest band in the business," Graeme said. "We all work out every single day. It helps us with our sanity on the road and with the body health when you're eating road food. And when you're physically fit you put on a way better show, and we show that, I think.
"You sing better, you move around more, you put more energy into what you're doing."
Even skipping Prince George as teachers but playing a full-tilt concert at Nancy O's has its cross-promotional benefits, though.
"Rawk Camp gets us back in the mode of connecting with kids, corrupting their minds, making the rock stars of tomorrow, but it also creates an army of little diehard fans for us," Graeme said.
"We played every high school in Kelowna about four years ago, and now every one of them is able to come watch us play in clubs and it's a little weird but they buy us beers and we talk together about how they were in Grade 10, and it's a lot of fun."
Their band camp has predominantly young people who attend, but they place little restriction on age or on proficiency on an instrument.
"You have to be over eight years old, but other than that, no, no experience necessary," said Graeme. "We had a 79-year-old man show up once, and he rocked.
"He wanted to impress his new wife.
"We taught him Smoke On The Water and it was awesome. His wife was so proud."
To see them rawk, drop in on Nancy O's on Aug. 15 for their headline concert.
To learn how to rawk the Speed Control way, join one of their regional camps by emailing
