‘Start a Band’ takes on new meaning at Girls Rock camp

ALSO: Week one Chapel Hill Campers will perform at 6 p.m. today at Woods Charter School, 160 Woodland Grove Lane, Chapel Hill.

Week two campers from Durham and Chapel Hill will perform at Cat’s Cradle, 300 E. Main St. in Carrboro, at 7 p.m. July 24. ($5 suggested donation)

By Cliff Bellamy
cbellamy@heraldsun.com; 419-6744

DURHAM — Look beyond what’s on the surface is the message of “Paper Girl,” the song that the band The 5th Element wrote this week. Members of the band Victorious want you to know about their “really big dream” in their song “Rock Star.”

Both bands were formed this week and wrote their songs during this week’s installment of the annual Girls Rock N.C. camp. The 5th Element is Jaela Self, 8, on drums; Iris Vitiello, 10, on bass; Tali Kuhns, 9, on electric guitar; Bella Gillen, 9, on keyboard; and Tilson Gitter, 10, on vocals. The members of Victorious are Violet Rumble, 10, on bass; Makena Overcasthawks, 10, on drums; Victoria Manson, 8, on keyboard; Jana Drooz, 9, on guitar, and Taylor Andorfer, 8, on vocals.

Their songs were still works in progress earlier this week. Today, an audience will get to hear the finished songs of these and other bands at The Pinhook in Durham.

Girls Rock N.C. is a nonprofit organization that seeks to encourage girls “to be confident, creative members of their communities,” according to the organization’s Web site. It accomplishes that goal through annual music camps that encourage cooperation, not just through songwriting but also through seminars on body confidence and other topics and through activities like do-it-yourself clothes-making. This week’s camp is for girls ages 7-10. Next week’s camps in Durham and Chapel Hill will be for girls ages 11-16.

Members of The 5th Element brainstormed the lyrics to “Paper Girl,” which reflects in many ways the goals behind Girls Rock N.C.: “People only judge the outside / Never take time to see / The brain, the heart, the soul / The beauty inside me.” The song’s chorus continues with the theme: “I’m not just a paper girl / I have a personality / So different and unique / No just 2-D.”

In their composition “Rock Star,” the members of Victorious exude pure confidence: “I wanna be a rock star / I wanna be seen on the TV … I see everyone in the crowd / Cheering me on tonight.”

Other bands who were working out songs this week at the camp, held at Infuzion in Durham, were The Flaming Moonshiners (Sydney Marks, 8, guitar; Maggie Gaddis, 7, bass; Annie Joseph, 8, vocals; Sophie Feierman, 9, vocals; Hannah Blankenship, 8, drums), whose song was appropriately titled “The Moon.”

Playing instruments is really a means to an end. Members of The Flaming Moonshiners mentioned lessons they learned from getting together to form a band — “working together,” “teamwork,” and “making a lot of new friends” were phrases they fired off. From a workshop on body confidence, drummer Blankenship said she learned that “you can dress how you want. … You don’t have to be afraid of what people think.”

The musical skill levels vary among campers. Gitter of 5th Element takes voice lessons, and said her training helps her match pitches with other instruments. Gillen takes piano lessons, and one could see evidence of those lessons in the chord progression — complete with sharps and flats added for tone color — that she wrote for “Paper Girl” in her notebook.

For campers who already know one instrument the camp “fosters the opportunity to try another instrument,” said Amanda La France, who coached 5th Element. La France has volunteered for Girls Rock since 2006 and has been a band manager for Girls Rock for two years. Girls who have not played an instrument “get to figure out which one they feel drawn to,” she said.

The camps have inspired her as well, La France said. “I get invigorated and inspired by the creativity and just sheer energy that these girls have,” she said. By trade a visual artist, La France said the camps inspired her to be adventurous and begin taking lessons on drum kit, an activity she would not have pursued otherwise.

As she was putting away her instrument during a break in the rehearsal, Rumble, the bass player for Victorious, offered still another take on Girls Rock camp: “It’s really fun,” she said.