Rock Camp Shreds; Celebrity Bites

What is your favorite thing about [Day Jams] Rock Camp?

Simon: Rehearsal Live!

What is that?

Simon: It's where we get to play music with our band and.... Mom, don't do that!

What?

Simon: That typing thing! Don't put down my ums, okay? Don't put down "okay," or "so."

Okay. Just tell me what Rehearsal Live is, and I will write it down.

Simon: It's where you plan your song, and play it, and see what sounds good, until you get the song. Then you go to Rehearsal Unplugged, which is where you write the lyrics and talk about what's good and bad, like what you want to keep and what you don't want to keep.

Josie: I have a couple favorite things. I really like the way that it's like normal school, because you switch from class to class with different teachers, but it's all rock-music related. Like you go to art class and you learn how to design a logo, and you go to instrument class and learn to play your instrument. And then you have other things where you write your song and learn to play your song, and it's really cool. And I also like how during lunch -- it's like an hour long, and people go in the classrooms and jam with people who aren't even in their band.

Have you done that?

Josie: A few times. Somebody was playing the guitar, and I started playing something that sounded okayish on the bass with them, and then someone else started playing the drums. You don't really play a particular song, just play something that sounds good together.

Simo, did you do that?

Simon: I did it once. It was cool. I played with my band.

What's your song about?

Simon: [Suddenly very quiet, with a very small smile] Flying.

What about you, Josie?

Josie: My song is kind of creepy. There's all this weird stuff where she sees this person in all these different places. She sees him in the desert, and I don't know why she's in the desert. And she sees him on this ship. And then she sees him by this river and she figures out that he's the person she was singing about during the chorus. Like she was singing "You're gone, I miss you!" and then she figures out that the person she keeps seeing was the "you" in the chorus.

Can you tell me then names of your bands, or is that secret?

Josie: Mine's "Heaven's Devils."

Hah! Did you tell them that you're already an Evil Angel?

Josie: Yeah. I'm not really that Goth, though. I'm not oppressed and sullen. I'm happee! (With two ees.)

Simon: My band name is Off Wing. And our logo is a flying amp with a guitar.

Josie: My favorite class is art class. That's where we made our t-shirts and our logo. Our logo is a V with angel wings and devil horns and a halo and a tail. The reason it's a V is because both the word "heaven" and the word "devil" have a V, so we write it with one big V. And we get to design our record jacket. We're each going to get a CD that has all the songs that were made at Camp, but we each get to have our own album cover on it.

Simon: We're also making drum heads.

Like with the logo for the big bass drum?

Simon: Yeah. And backstage passes.

Who's going to get a backstage pass?

Josie: I don't know. We get them, I think. They had this band come and play for us, and we got to ask them questions after they played. People asked them all kinds of stuff like, "What do you do during your rehearsals?" and "How do you write your songs?" and "What inspires you?" and then when they ran out of questions like that, they started asking stuff like, "What's your favorite animal?" and "How are babies made?" It was really funny.

What did they say about how babies are made?

Josie: They said "When a mom and dad love each other very much. Next question!"

Here are some pictures from the Friday afternoon concert: Simon played his two chords with aplomb!


And Josie sang harmony beautifully -- while playing the bass at the same time.


Note: The morning after this concert, Simon announced that he did not want to be a famous rock star after all. When pressed, he explained that he didn't want everything he ever did to be in all the newspapers. Fair enough, kiddo! It's bad enough having your mom follow you around typing all your ums, eh?