The four youth gather around Matt Layzell as he dishes out rock advice.
"If you want to be in a band, you got to do it because you love it," the lead singer of The Matinee says, only a few hours before Saturday's Live at Squamish gets underway.
The three boys, all wearing '90s-style glasses and old-school flat-brimmed baseball caps, nod in agreement. You also need tattoos, Layzell joked, pointing out his sleeve of ink.
Earlier Saturday, Martin Wells, 10, Luke Parry, 12, Jeremy Pope, 9, and Josephine Iacovone, 13, were striking up their own beats at Brennan Park Recreation Centre. They are a part of a Live at Squamish and the District of Squamish joint venture - the School of Rock.
For one day, the youth learned and recorded a song - this group hit the high notes of Sweet Child of Mine - and then headed to the music festival for a backstage tour. It's an initiative that Kristen Robinson, who is part of the brand.LIVE team that organized Live at Squamish, would like to see grow.
"We are trying to engage Squamish," she says, in between introducing the youth to various backstage staff. "This is their festival. We are going to be here for a long time."
Robinson, whose father was a radio announcer, grew up with music. It's a relationship that can help shape one's life and a passion she hopes to share with others.
"Whether you are a musician or not, music makes you smarter," she says, regarding the exposure to different ideas and a flood of creativity.
Robinson stands behind her words. She's been involved with MusiCounts, a music education charity that helps keep music alive in schools across the country.
The district hopes to build on the youth rock program next year, the program's instructor Hilary Wight says.
"It has gone really well," she notes.
The ultimate goal would be to extend the course over a week, with the youth performing at Live at Squamish, Wight says.
