Lethbridge girls got a crash course in the music business last week during the third annual Lethbridge Girls Rock Camp at the Gate.
This year 20 girls aged 8-14 formed five different bands, named their bands, designed a logo and a T shirt, wrote an original song and performed it all in the span of a week.
“It’s for girls aged 8-17, but we only have girls up to 14 this year,” said Lethbridge Girl’s Rock Camp director Silvana Campus, adding that is average for a year, though they would like to expand the camp.
“ We go through the whole process,” she said, adding they began the week Monday morning by introducing the girls to a lot of different music. After that they divided into bands according to similar musical interests, then learning different musical instruments.
“Some of them have a lot of musical background, others don’t have any,” she said, adding while some of them have taken lessons in different instruments, they usually learn a new one for the camp.
“We have some girls who have been to the camp every year, others have never been,” she continued.
They form their bands and start writing their songs immediately on Monday after a songwriting workshop.
The rest of the week features a variety of workshops on various aspects of the business , and, of course, lots of rehearsal with their new bands. A new workshop this year is on sound design and setting up a PA system. They were silkscreening T shirts on Thursday and getting ready for the stage presence workshop on Friday. The last workshop of the camp was Friday afternoon on stage presence, preparing them for their show on Saturday night.
“ We’re doing the things that worked the last time and adding some new things,” Campus said.
“We had a lot of different genres, country, dub step, heavy metal, indie rock, jazz, classical and hardcore, Campus said.
“These girls are impressive. They get excited. Whatever challenge we give them, they step up to it. If we tell them to write a song, they say okay,” she said.
Volunteers including Lethbridge musicians and YWCA members have also stepped up to teach the workshops and offer the girls guidance.
“A lot of the volunteers are doing double duty though,” Campus said, adding they can always use more volunteers for next year’s camp.
“A lot of the girls have been to the camps before. Some of them have been part of choirs with 20 to 30 others. But here they're on stage with three or four other people. They’re in the limelight and they just go for it,” Campus enthused.
“ So we’re hoping they will help the other girls and take leadership roles and become volunteers later. That’s the goal hopefully,” she said.
One of the bands formed during the week — the Tumbling Pebbles — include several camp veterans, some of whom have been involved with all three camps.
Keyboardist Klara Debow, vocalist Camille Arnold, keyboardist Indira Brouwer, bassist Wynter Baker and drummer Jessica Wiebe have become fast friends.
The first four knew each other from previous year’s camps and quickly welcomed Wiebe.
“We play high energy pop music,” enthused Wynter Baker.
“We wrote a song called ‘People,’ It’s about everything,” Wiebe summarized.
Karla Debow has been to all three Lethbridge Girls Rock Camps.
“ It’s a lot of fun,” she said adding the band they formed for the camp, probably won’t continued after the camp ends.
“ I don’t have this instrument at home,” she said of her keyboard.
“We joined together because we like the same music,” Indira Brouwer said.
The Lethbridge Girls Rock Camps take place every July.
