Da People, a three-piece band of School of Rock students, took the stage at our March Open Mic.

The band consists of Performance Program students Emily and Alice and lessons-only student Clark. They performed three songs: Coldplay's "Yellow," Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit," and Guns 'N Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine." The coolest thing was that they rotated instruments each song! Part of School of Rock's ethos is to gain experience on multiple instruments in order to form well-rounded musicians. 

General Manager and multi-instrument instructor Cam asked Da People some questions on their experience as a band, how School of Rock impacted them, and where they see their band going in the future. 

1) How did Da People come together as a band, and what inspired you to start playing music together?

"We were all just students at the School of Rock and happened to meet each other while in the same show, and eventually we decided to make a band. What we really wanted to do at that point (and even now) was to just see what would happen if we tried to do it ourselves. We all love being in the Performance Program and playing a song from scratch, and we wanted to try to be a band ourselves and play whatever songs we want and sign up for gigs at different places - we were just experimenting, and the experiment worked! We were also inspired by our favorite bands and musicians, and also by other bands that School of Rock students had formed. We wanted to try it out."

2) What has been your most memorable experience or performance so far?

"Well, we haven't had a whole lot of performances so far with our complete group (our bassist joined later than the rest of us, etc.), but we think our most recent performance, the Open Mic at the School of Rock, was the best so far. We performed all the songs we wanted to perform and it went just as expected. It was great!"

3) How has School of Rock impacted or influenced the band as a whole?

"For us, School of Rock was what got it all started. It was a place to jump off of. If it wasn't for SoR, we'd never have made a band in the first place. It was where we learned (and still do!) how things worked and how it was done. Even now we are still learning a lot from SoR. We were also inspired and influenced by all the music and experience from SoR, not to mention all the different bands, shows, and rehearsals that taught us a lot. Thank you, School of Rock!"

4) What are your goals as a band, and how do you see your music evolving in the future?

"Our nearest goals right now are probably to a) play more songs (but also get through all the songs during rehearsal!), and b) to maybe get another band member so we can play more complex songs. A larger goal is to eventually play original music, but we haven't really thought of that yet, because it's such a big achievement to successfully write and play your own songs, but it's definitely something we want to do as a band. We also want to play more gigs, and we also want to play more different types of music."

There you have it! "da people" are ready to rock!