Bands, students rock for a cause

Imagine yourself as a teenager this morning, dragging yourself from the comfort of your bed to meet the chill of Alaska’s autumn and making your way to school for another day of sitting in classes, taking notes and listening to lectures. Now imagine that day at school being interrupted by a rock band.

Local band Stadium and Hollywood-based Elvis Monroe have spent this week touring Southcentral, stopping at South, Bartlett and Service high schools in Anchorage, and Colony and Wasilla High in the Valley, carrying a message to their adolescent audience.

“This isn’t about saying ‘don’t do drugs, don’t drink alcohol,’ this is about getting to the goal of doing what you want to do by making good choices,” Elvis Monroe fill-in bassist Todd Burman told the kids at Colony high school.

The bands are a part of this year’s You Choose Substance Abuse Prevention Project. Spearheaded by David Velasquez, founder- and self-described “the responsible guy,” the project is youth-focused, working to influence teens to make positive decisions and abstain from drugs and alcohol in an effort to stay passionate about their goals.

“It’s plain and simple,” Velasquez said. “Drugs and alcohol are ravaging this community and we need to figure out a way to reach our young people. … The project is meant to present our youth with the choice to choose their life and what they want to succeed at in life.”

You Choose looks past the gory photos of liver failure, drunk driving accidents or throat cancer and instead illustrates the facts about substance abuse and how a person is affected by it by bringing in someone kids will listen to: rock stars.

“We’re using a peer celebrity. We already know these kids are listening. We might as well say something positive and important before we smash their faces with some good old rock ’n’ roll,” Velasquez said. “Music has a strong influence in the lives of Alaska youth making it the perfect platform to deliver this important message.”

You Choose is a young program still in the process of establishing its nonprofit status having been around for just two years, but has accomplished a lot in the team’s eyes; getting schools to accept having bands in the gyms and getting kids out of their shells are things everybody working on the You Choose team has mentioned are their favorite moments, as well as the excitement for the popularity they’re gaining with bands. Another local band, Static Cycle, has been involved in the past, going to schools to share a real picture of substance abuse. This year, bands Stadium and Elvis Monroe are featured and couldn’t be more excited to use their celebrity to help kids out.

“We thought the impact of our message would be something we wouldn’t see while we were here — that we’d leave and the change would happen later, but we were wrong. We can see the change we make,” stated Ryan MacMillan, drummer for Elvis Monroe. “It’s instant how these reactions are happening.”

Stadium started with Velasquez and his brother, Ben, picking up their guitar and trumpet, respectively, to begin playing music together again after the latter moved back home from Hawaii. Liking what they’d created, the brothers invited friends John Payne and Andy “Chewy” Benton over to try out some other instruments, and added them to the band to complete the sound. Their sound is described as acoustic-rock with a beach feel.

Elvis Monroe is based from Hollywood where they came together from their other music projects one at a time to find their sound of Americana pop rock driven by an acoustic guitar. Guitarist Ben Carey was friends with vocalist Bryan Hopkins for years, and when their schedules matched up would play together acoustically, writing songs and performing them around the club scene sporadically. They asked Ryan MacMillan, drums, to join and completed the lineup with regular bassist Matt Nelson. The band’s label contract prohibits the members from mentioning what bands they come from, but they’ve got very successful careers behind them.

Both bands have spent the last week on little sleep, moving between Anchorage and the Valley to put on the event, which takes four hours to set up in each gym and one hour to go through. After students are in the gym, Stadium immediately takes the stage, opening with a bright, beachy number to quickly get kids moving and interested. When finished performing and a short documentary describing the tragic story of the Velasquez’s drug- and alcohol-addicted uncle’s murder-suicide, the band welcomes recovered addicts from an Anchorage recovery center to share how young they were when they got into drugs, what they’ve lost to their addictions and how they’re doing now. Elvis Monroe closes the show before all bands come back to the stage to discuss their messages on positive choices and avoiding drugs and alcohol, then inviting the audience to meet them after the show.

“I think it’s the coolest thing, being able to see reactions. They start shy, uncomfortable and by the end they’re dancing, singing and saying how happy they are to have us here,” Bryan Hopkins said.

Though enjoying their time on the school assembly route, the band will admit it’s a real change of scene from the typical club shows in Hollywood.

“The best part is that when we’re done, there’s no drunk people slobbering on you, asking you what happened last night or getting embarrassed. Just excited kids,” MacMillan joked after a sound check at Colony High on Wednesday night.

To see the bands in live action, see the project at work and take part in their feel-good vibe, they’ll play a final sold-out show of the tour at the AT&T Sports Center at 9 p.m., Saturday. That money and donations will be accepted at the event to go toward supporting sponsor United Way of Mat-Su’s Night Courts, which offer kids a place to spend time and be social off the streets. United Way also has 2,000 free tickets; just “like” You Choose on Facebook and you’ll find details on how to get them there. Elvis Monroe guarantees parents, kids and families will have a good time, mentioning that an Anchorage assembly on Tuesday even had a state senator rocking out.

Dylan Gette-King is a senior in high school. To learn more about the YouChoose project, and Stadium and Elvis Monroe, visit youchooseproject.org., stadiumak.com, and “like” Elvis Monroe on Facebook.