Creation Interview

CGG: You have such a mature sound for your age. It’s very classic rock, and I heard you mention Led Zeppelin and Queen. Who are some of your other inspirations, and where did your affinity for classic rock come from?

Sam: I’m pretty sure the entire band can agree that we all love the Grateful Dead.

CGG: Does that come from your parents?

Everyone: Yeah, my dad. My dad.

Josh: Also just playing guitar you need a sense of musical background, and the music I hear today is not our favorite music.

CGG: So the Grateful Dead, who else?

Everyone: David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Phish.

Raechel: Just individually, a big inspiration to me is Janice Joplin.

CGG: So your band is all about spreading peace and diversity. How do you plan on doing that?

Raechel: Well music is something that all kids our age can relate to. And it’s hard to reach a kid our age along with all the other things that are going on socially and in school. So if you can reach them with something that they can relate to through your music, then that’s something that’s really great. So we started out playing a lot of things that matter with social music, and a lot of yourself goes out with that. But now not all of our songs are necessarily about our mission, but we speak about these things and if someone’s listening to us than that is always something we have to say.

CGG: Regarding the school you built in Africa, did you go to Africa yourselves and help build it? Or how did you pick the ten people who went?

Raechel: We weren’t allowed because of the age limit. But we chose ten inter-city kids because someone that had already done this came in to talk to us and told us that it had completely turned his life around and that it was extremely successful. So why send us—we’re privileged compared to these kids—so why send us, because it’s a great experience and other kids could get more from the experience.

CGG: So why did you guys choose Africa? Where did the inspiration to build a school in Africa come from?

Josh: As far as the general thing went, Rachael talked to people who were a part of the We Are Family Foundation about it. And I think especially at the age we were at, we weren’t as educated as we are now. Africa was known as that place that’s struggling the most. And I think that at the time it just seemed like if we’re going to do this, we should target the most obvious.

Tory: I think the biggest thing is we had teamed up with the We Are Family Foundation, and that was huge that we could build a school that was with them.

Raechel: Everything about them—they decided to spread their mission through a video that they made for little kids who watched Sesame Street about peace. Their whole mission just really inspired us so we wanted to work with them.

CGG: So how do you guys maintain correspondence with the school? Do you get updates from them?

Tory: Well we’ve been working with them and their organization 3 Dot Dash, which is Morse code for peace. It had to do with Matty’s dream of having everyone in the world being able to access necessities to life like food, water, shelter. And they picket out 30 global team leaders that are doing things to better their community around the world. They had a peace summit and we played for them, and showed them our message, and we got to direct them, and we also donated to their funds.

CGG: In terms of your music, who writes your songs?

Josh: Well what usually happens is Tory will bring in a basic skeleton structure or a riff or something, and then pretty much as a band we all add our own.

Tory: We all build on it, it’s a collaborative effort.

Rachael: Everyone writes their part.

CGG: And you guys have been together since you were 12?

Josh: Well it was us three—Josh, Sam, and Raechel.

Raechel: And there were three other kids back then who are no longer with us.

Tory: I joined the band about a year and a half ago, and Derek’s our newest member. He joined about 3 months ago.

CGG: Do you guys all go to school together?

Josh: When we started it in fifth or sixth grade we all did go to school together at Columbia Prep. But Raechel goes to LaGuardia and Derek and Tory go in Long Island.

Tory: I think that it kinda shows the efforts that we make to people. We don’t all go to school in the same place and Derek and I take the train in. We get home late at night from the city, and it just shows our dedication.

Derek: It takes about two or three hours three times a week.

CGG: So how did Derek and Tory find out about the band?

Sam: Tory won the contest on YouTube.

CGG: So how can other people your age use music to really promote their causes and get their messages out there like you did?

Raechel: You have to try and actually reach people. You can’t just play and expect people to come. You have to play it and tell your friends to come. You have to tell people what your mission is and what you hope to accomplish. And people find it really inspiring when you tell them how they can help in other ways. People don’t realize that you don’t have to do something as big as starting a band and raising money for a school in Africa. You can find a charity that you care about and raise enough money to do something about that.

Derek: And also I think the main thing is that if you really want to help you can’t just say it, you have to mean it. You have to do what it takes.

CGG: What do you see yourselves doing next after helping out with Matty’s park?

Sam: Hopefully we’re going to tour.

Tory: Hopefully we can do a couple more local shows first and try and get our friends into it.

Josh: And new things always come up. We’re always ready and open for new goals and new ideas.

Raechel: We’ve played with other charities other than the We Are Family Organization in the past, so anyway we can help is always a good thing.

CGG: So where do you see yourselves in 5 years then?

Sam: Touring around the world.

Raechel: We want to be able to tour and make our music heard not just because everyone wants to do that, but because if people can actually hear our music and hear what we’re trying to do, they may be inspired and they’ll say, “Oh, if they can do it I can do it.” So we really just want to get our music heard.

Sam: I think that also the whole concept of music is that you can think of hundreds of things, emotions, concepts, ideas, to incorporate into your music. And I think one thing is understanding that and seeing not just what it sounds like but what it’s saying. And I think that if people understand and really hear what we’re playing that a lot of people can really start doing stuff for it, and helping out.

CGG: What’s one message you can give young people who want to be actively involved in their community? What’s one thing you can tell them to inspire them?

Josh: Do something! Do anything!