March 12, 2020, I wrapped up all my guitar and bass lessons for the day at the Pasadena School of Rock at around 6:15 pm. “Just enough time,” I thought. On my way out I said, “See ya later” to my fellow instructors, I didn’t realize just how much later it would end up being. I walked out the back door, got in my car and b-lined it to Brick by Brick in San Diego to see my former bosses and friends in Static-X. It was a 2-hour drive down the California coastline, and worth every mile. This was right around the time the whole world was on the fence about completely shutting down. I did feel a little “on edge” about going to a crowded place while the world was being threatened so severely, but I knew in my head that this was going to be the last possible time to go out for a while if this virus was going to be as bad as they were projecting, and I needed my fix.
Let me first go back, if I may, to June 22 of 2019, the last night of a six week US tour playing bass for Nita Strauss. While playing a show together in Houston, Texas, I got offered a last-minute opportunity to take a job as a driver for Static-X. Now I was just out on the road for a month and a half, circumnavigating the country, having the time of my life, doing what I love, and now I got offered to hop on a tour with several bands that I've looked up to for decades. I took the job even though it meant missing two very important memorial shows in NJ for a fallen brother in punk rock, J-Sin Trioxin, forcing my other band Darrow Chemical Company to scramble for a replacement last minute. This was a big opportunity, I had to say YES. That's what they always tell you right.
I was offered the job just before soundcheck and had to let them know by the time it was over. I honestly didn’t know what to do. I sat on the bus for a few minutes and asked everyone on my team what they thought. It was Nita who finally sealed my decision. She looked me straight in the eye and said, “I think this is a major opportunity for your career and you should take it!” So on a whim decision, I made in less than 2 hours, I played the show of my life and completed my second tour with the Nita Strauss band. I packed my bags, canceled my flight “home” to NJ and got off the Hurricane bus and climbed aboard the Static-X/Dope bus to sleep for the night and I’d take over driving the merch truck the next day. I'm not gonna lie, I went from a very close family-like setting to a much bigger tour with 31 strangers across 5 busses. My dream job seemed to have some nightmarish uncertainties. To be clear I was only hired to drive the merch truck venue to venue, then go to the hotel and sleep, but being the overachiever that I am, I made sure to be there for every single load in, merch count, soundcheck, load out, etc. This was my opportunity to learn the Ins and Outs of a much bigger production than I was used to. Between the giant LED screens showcasing the ghost of Wayne night after night, the lighting fixtures setting us up for all the highs and low moods, making fully digital rigs punch you in the face or even just the use of teleprompters and in-ear systems way above my pay grade, I had lots to learn. I moved more bins and boxes of shirts in the blistering heat than I ever imagined possible, day in and day out, just to help out. Every single person on that tour was a workhorse, and I wanted to prove to myself that this life is where I belonged. I pestered the crew to help out anywhere I could asking questions along the way. I learned not only about the stage, but also who the crew and band we’re themselves, even their family. For instance, I had the pleasurable opportunity to tell both of Wayne Static’s parents “Thank you” with tears in my eyes as they watched 1200 people sing his every word. I got to shoot the shit and hear stories about my idols like Peter Steele, Dimebag, Kirk Hammett and others alike, but most importantly, I came off that tour with 31 friends, a million memories, and future career opportunities.
I went through a whole lot in my personal life on that tour, and many of those road dogs were right there for me. Just before bus call on July 22 about 2 in the morning in Illinois, I was prepping for a 15-hour drive to Denver, Colorado. I went to the front lounge just to re-up gas and toll money with the Tour Manager. Xero (static x singer) just happened to be there with the rest of the band, a rare post-show occurrence as mostly everyone hits the sack come bus call, and he asked me how I was holding up. To be clear, I didn’t know him at all before this tour. I told him I was holding it together, but struggling. He was so kind and real with me. At the end of our talk, he looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Keep your eyes on the windshield!” I knew exactly what he meant. I had to focus on the path I set for myself and continue with all the conviction I always do, no matter the pain, no matter the obstacle. I hopped off the bus and into my merch mobile. I set my playlist to his suggested album “Jackie Brown Soundtrack” (because my favorite bands, Type O Negative and NIN were too deep for where my mind needed to be right now) and drove straight on through the night. That lead me to jam the rest of the Tarantino collection and for over 5 hours, I was as cool John Travolta staring at what looked like the opening of the movie “Lost Highway.” I knew exactly where I was going and what to do. The road was mine for the taking. That is why I made sure to see them one last time before the lockdown took place.
This moment, these people, and our interactions, they changed me forever. The relationships we build within our community just like these everlasting memories, are in jeopardy. These are scary times and everywhere you turn there are different guidelines and regulations. My hard work did pay off by the way. I was hired by the legendary band Prong as a guitar tech for a tour alongside the “Godfathers of Hardcore“ Agnostic Front, a whole other lifetime of memories I got to live across the US and Canada, directly because I moved those damn shirts and sweat my ass off doing it. That Static-X tour also lead to me living out in Los Angeles, instead of New Jersey, mainly because it ended here and that’s where life had me. On my own, Looking forward. Now while rebuilding myself on the west-coast in the fall of 2019, I returned to my roots of inspiring the youth at the most wonderful institution on the planet, The School of Rock in Pasadena. Why you may ask? Well, that’s because “School of Rock is a growing, passionate community dedicated to enriching lives through performance-based music.” I became a part of 5 schools in the greater Los Angeles area, the largest franchise in the country as far as attendance went, but like many other times in my life, it was the family feeling that had me hooked.
One factor I deemed to be an integral part of successfully navigating myself on the west-coast was getting my in-person clientele from the east-coast to sign up for lessons via Skype. Who would have known that i was ahead of the curve? I had taught online for a few years now on and off and had a pretty good system in place, but all my hardware and guitars were in NJ. I took various trips back and forth stuffing my suitcases, gig bags, and backpacks with all the gear I could fit and mailed what I could. This now normal “concept of online teaching” was hard at first for some clients to have faith in at first for various personal reasons, but they soon came to see that even though it may be different, it was still very effective and allows for even better scheduling options. I had to work with various hardware options to make the best possible product for the student at first, but it's still great just phone to phone. Another important part was pushing the sales of digital products as all my merch still resides in NJ to this day. So between these mediums, I was seeing a steady growth in my business as well as my job. Like so many others I truly saw 2020 as “My Year.”
So now as we entered the “Voluntary Stay at Home Order” in mid-March, School of Rock Corporate rolled out a complete rewrite of its business plan and best practices to 100% remote teaching in under 1 week, effectively minimizing (not eliminating) our loss of students. We did suffer loss of enrollment as many students and their parents have been impacted in countless ways, but with a series of briefings and online meetings every few days, we maximized the amount fun and education available to our students in a time of need. It was so severely impressive to see the organization roll out. They chose Zoom as the platform for us to teach on, something I've never used before. This came with 1,000,000 more tricks to learn and navigate. One of our largest hurdles at first glance was group engagement including our 4-7-year-olds in our “Little Wing and Rookies” programs, but we have such a supportive and great community of teachers. We’ve all worked so hard together sitting in on each other's classes, giving pointers, collaborating on lesson plans, assembling slide shows for each other's Masterclasses, as well as acting as each other's IT diagnosticians. We as a whole became closer and stronger. We had to, and we all knew it without ever having to say it outright. Sometimes you just get a great team, and that team has a run for the championship. Well, I thought I was well versed in teaching online, but I had no idea of the tools available to educators on REAL teaching platforms. This is the future no matter how we move forward, or so I have come to believe in lieu of the times. The accompaniment of technology to the plague era is something we should all be fortunate for and learn from.
I have been studying “disruptive companies” for the last few years to build my own business and brand “Dean”. Even brainstorming about concert-goer's phones while waiting for the band to take the stage, or for a “digital VIP” type access. School of Rock showed me how to take a punch, think outside the box and conquer. To be clear I was already teaching online but was completely unaware as to just how efficient it could be. The brick and mortar industry is at risk. Companies that have online options are the future. Now that’s not to say that companies don’t need a building or physical products anymore, but it seems like it's going to take us a long time to recover back to where we were before this all started, especially considering the “live music scene.” 2020 has already been a year of several biblical plagues and I don’t see the world getting any more forgiving as time goes on. It seems that the best way to survive is to create value for your fellow man on digital platforms where ever you can, even for free if needed to grow brand awareness.
Fast forward to today, I kept on with my plan and after rebuilding myself over the last 8 months, and made a plan for my 12-year-old son to spend Spring Break with dad in Cali, but like everything else, we had to postpone the trip. We canceled it immediately at the word of a “voluntary quarantine” coming from governing officials in mid-march. I couldn’t risk sending him out here, or myself to the highly devastated New York Metropolitan area. As much as I just want to see his face in person and squeeze him and never let go, his mom and I just couldn’t. Touring taught me that the world was a lot smaller than I thought, but not now. That 3,000 miles separating me from my Son, my Shepard, my Best Friend, brings upon a depression that’s hard to keep back at times. So just like when on tour, we talk, we text, and we Zoom. It's great because I can help him with his homework better than ever before.
The purpose of sharing these snapshots from my life is to express the importance of CONNECTION and COMMUNITY right now. Those virtues can grow no matter the environment. My School of Rock family stuck together. I haven’t seen a single employee in person since the day I stormed out the door for the love of Rock, but we hold regular meetings, we have a group text (that I labeled “The Greatest Team on the Planet”), and we just started a “happy hour” zoom meeting where we just hang with teachers from other schools as if we were out having dinner or at each others gigs. We share stories of the road, our new songs, our youtube videos, etc. I can’t wait to get back into the school with my melodic misfit family, but for now we will rise together from this cloud looming overhead because we are stronger together. The future is here. The future is digital. I do have to wonder just how many stories like these are going to be missed out on and what the final aftermath will look like. I myself currently have 3 tours, including Europe and South America, of which I’ve never been, that hang in the balance of this viral tsunami that has landed across all shores. I can look at this as a set back, or I can take this punch to the gut and lean into it with a haymaker. I chose to be inclusive, not divisive. I choose education and discipline to guide me through the times of uncertainty as they are normally presented, including my near future and beyond. My main takeaways from this “quarantine” are both negative and positive at times, but there is just too much negativity out there in the world. I'm going to focus on the positive. I'm going to continue studying my online mentors such as Gary Vaynerchuck, Seth Godin, Charline Li, and bring my findings and studies to my students so we all know how to keep growing at this time. If I’m not mistaken, both Shakespeare and Newton constructed their greatest accomplishments while in quarantine during the plague, so imma give it a shot. I'm going to continue building my online presence as DeanMusicOfficial on all platforms. I’m going to make videos for Youtube, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. I use www.DeanMusicOfficial.com as my hub for all things relating to my plans. Lessons, Consultations and Digital Products such as my solo album “Life Lessons” can be found at www.DeanMusicOfficial.bigcartel.com.
Please also visit https://locations.schoolofrock.com/pasadena to schedule a free trial lesson for any of our group sessions. I am going to make sure to exercise every day, eat right, play guitar every day, write every day, talk to my son every day and STAY CONNECTED until I see you on my next tour or maybe even in the classroom.
In the words of Xero “Keep your eyes on the windshield!”
Dean
www.instagram.com/deanmusicofficial
Singer-Songwriter, Guitarist, Bassist
Instructor/Founder at www.BecomeARockstarNOW.com