Q & A with Peter Walters

Q: What made you decide to start Rock & Roll camp?

A: Well, let's see, my friends and I were in High School and we did shows. We thought we the local music scene. I thought this is fun, cool. We were on a road trip and the idea came up, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a camp for little kids with shows?" We thought it was a good idea, then I got approached by the Educational Director, Elizabeth S. she asked if I was interested in an after school class. Art Rocks Teens, I did the first set of classes, which I think was, 9 weeks long. It was like 2 hours after school on Wednesdays, my day off. That was fun, I met people like Jackie Penny, Evan, and Addison. I did sets of classes for 9 weeks, then I think 6 weeks, then 8 weeks. I realized it was hard to accomplish a lot, because of the short amount of time we had each week. It wasn't enough to do anything huge. Elizabeth said,
"What if we turned it in to a week long camp?"

I'm like, "Yeah!"

So I got my friends help, it was the first year of camp, 2005. My friend Ben came and helped. Also a band came to town, a co-ed band who had just played. I asked them and I didn't know them very well. I knew they'd be a good band. So what i did was, basically I just got the first phone number I could of someone from the band, this happened to be Wilson. So I called him and asked "Hey, wanna come teach at Rock and Roll camp for a week? I can help pay for such-and-such amount of expenses."

He said "Yeah! Totally."

The first year was awesome, and since then Point Juncture has come every year.

Q: Do you remember the first c.d. or record you ever bought? What was it?
A: I can't remember the cassette, a lot of times I bought them from yard sales. The first c.d. I bought was from Payless, or K-Mart, It was the soundtrack for Batman Forever.

I knew a couple bands on it, like, Sunny day Real Estate The Offspring and The Flaming Lips. Haha, I loved Batman.

Q: How do you like working with kids?
A: I hate it, ha ha no, it's exhausting, but it's fun. There are so many campers and less than half the amount of counselors. Ideally, if I had all the money in the world, each camper would have a counselor. It's great though, it forces us to get quality work done. I feel like the campers have become more respectful, appreciative, and easy going, easier to work with. You guys are a breeze.

Q: Who were your musical influences when you were a teen?

A: When I was a teen. . . Rage Against Machine. I loved them. The first I ever really wanted to latch onto and make a part of my identity was Nirvana. The band "Built to Spill" changed my life. It's really heavy, I was into that kind of stuff. It's all very clangy, awesome, pop, indie-rock.

Their lyrics are all poetically adolescent. Hurt and pain, but sang in a more positive like, and child like way. It changed my life. I got into the Beatles, for what they were worth. Not what the television told me.

Q: Were you ever into any boy bands, if so who?

A: Um. . . . NO, but I just remember Will Smith and The Backstreet Boys were always on MTV.

I was into Rage Against Machine Then, but when I was in middle school I liked Soundgarden. There's actually a really funny, embarrassing story about that. I didn't have any of their records. My friends had them. I had their names confused for the longest time, I had been calling them Savage Garden, which is a totally different band. I didn't realize I was talking about Soundgarden the whole time. That was embarrassing when I had that epiphany.

Q: How long did it take you to find that out?

A: I think i was in the eighth grade, and one of my friends gave me a Soundgarden c.d. I looked at it and realized I had been mixing them up the entire time. I'd always tell people, "I really like Savage Garden" they would just look at me and be like "Okay...?"

I didn't know they were a totally different band.

Q: What made you want to start a band, and why did you pick those members, or did they pick you?
A: They more picked me, well, not really. We're more or less a backup band for the band James Dean Kindle.

J.D. came back to town, I offered to play a snare or a tom tom for him. Originally we thought we were going to be a house party band, to be like country/folk music to play at parties. We just started bringing in friends. First it was Bryan, and Cody (he left) and now were to the point where were not really backing for J.D. as we are a creative two-halves of a brain, working together. J.D. writes the songs, and we try to help him "actualize" what he is thinking.

Q: What's your craziest experience during Rock and Roll camp?

A: Last year I got stung by a bee when I had to go down to Zimmermans. I ran in, bought whatever it was i was getting, ran back out. When I sat down I was like "WHOOOOAA!"

There was a bee on my seat, it stung my lower back, it hurt so bad. I nearly hit a car.

Every year has its fair share of craziness, every day. One time, last year, I was giving a newspaper reporter a tour of the building. I was telling him "There's bands in here, there's bands in here, there's bands literally everywhere."

Just as I said that the elevator door opened and there sat two guitarists and some kid on a snare.

I looked at him and i was like,"See!"

Q: What makes you keep coming back to Rock and Roll camp every year, and how long to you plan to keep it going?

A: I ask myself that every year. Right before camp starts I'm like, "This is the last year, this is it." Right after camp is over I'm like "Yeah.. I don't know, I don't know yet, I'll have to think about it".

Then a few weeks later I say "Yeah, I better start thinking about next year now.""

I'd be interested in the future to find someone to take the reigns. I always try to bring in more points of view then just my own. I would like to find a group of people smarted than me. Eventually execution and ideas will be passed down to another group of people. I'd like to come back every year the rest of my life though. Right now, I'm feeling pretty good about it.