Latest / LOYAL TO THE CRAFT / We're bringing School of Rock students VANS Warped Tour!

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We're bringing School of Rock students VANS Warped Tour! · LOYAL TO THE CRAFT

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: All right, we've got Stacy Ryan, president of School of Rock here with us.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Stacy.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks so much for joining.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Excited to chat.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me about the mission of School of Rock and what the importance is to have a community and more than a music school for these young rock stars.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it means so much.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said, it's it's more than a music school.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And um, having been with this organization since a hundred schools, and we just hit our 450th school today in our 19th country with 80,000 students across the world.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's so much more than just music education.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's giving the kids a place to belong, to be their authentic selves, to create connections and friendships and feel a sense of belonging and to do it in the coolest way possible.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it's just, you know, school of rock is incredibly special to so many people.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many stories of it changing lives, of it saving lives.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been honored to see that firsthand.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: When we threw the idea to you guys about getting involved in the Vans Warp Tour last year, 2025, when they came back for their anniversary, you know, after 30 years of the Vans Warp Tour, that was for me something so special because I found community and I found belonging at that music festival 20 some odd years ago when I was a young teenager.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so to have the opportunity for Loyal to the Craft to come in with this real DIY stage and keynote QA workshop kind of area and have the musicians that are playing the main stage come and interact with the students, but also have a little stage where the students can come and perform and show off all of the things that they've worked so hard at building their craft.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, playing music is a big part of that, but learning how to interact with the crowd and interact with each other and transition on and off the stage so the other band can come in and perform and have the parents see their kids perform and have that confidence in that in that spotlight.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: You guys were ready to go and just ready to support and ready to be a part of it.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: What's it been like for you all watching that happen and now being our in our second year of making this happen for the School of Rock community around the country?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, just incredible.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're so incredibly grateful to Loyal to the Craft and the opportunity that our kids get to participate in this just epic, iconic event that happens.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And for the students who got to go and perform and be a part of it, they are still a year later talking about it and just the life-changing impact that it had and the energy and the people and the artists coming to engage with them and the whole experience.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is what our kids work towards to be able to take epic stages and get on them and perform with confidence and with pride and with their friends that they created in that band through months of rehearsals together in preparation for much smaller shows.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then when these big shows and these opportunities come up, they just they kick into gear and they know how to do it and they know how to support each other, and they know most importantly, how to do it as good humans to perform with humility, to help each other problem solve, to you know, be humble in a moment where maybe it's like, hey guys, I gotta cut five minutes from your set list, and understanding that that is the way the business goes.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, okay, no problem, like we'll figure it out, and huddling together and problem solving, deciding which song to cut.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I'm I'm always so proud and humbled by our students when I watch them because one, they're way cooler than I ever was at their age, um, but their level of maturity on how to handle those situations.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I always tell people, like, yes, they're kids, but they will be professionals.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And seeing them deliver on that promise and just have this life memory unlock moment was just speechless.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love it.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that and that's so important to talk about too, right?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Where like there's so much more to the music industry than just the performance side of it.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: And when I was younger, as I mentioned, I kind of found my tribe and found where I wanted to be in the van's warp tour and watching Kevin Lyman run the warp tour and making sure the staff had water and making sure that everybody that was, you know, a fan of the music and watching the bands was taken care of.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: I would just watch him do circles around the parking lot all day, every day, every single summer.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that always inspired me to go, okay, there's so much more to this than just the performance.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: There's the backstage and the back of house and all these things.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't always go perfect.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're literally, you're loading in at 6 a.m.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: and you're literally in a parking lot out in the sun or the rain all day long in the School of Rock community, parents and teachers included, and franchise owners who are a part of this, you know, collective that we're that we're working on together here, getting them into the warp tour.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're meeting at a destination that isn't predetermined because we don't know where we're gonna meet.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: We're walking through security together, 60 of us, with all the other, you know, 85,000 fans.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: And it really is a special thing to watch these, these, I say kids, but these these young adults that are so inspired and excited to go perform and be a part of this, have that respect and that level of understanding of like, okay, this is a big deal.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not gonna, I'm, I'm gonna enjoy this and I'm gonna make sure that I take a mental picture, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna treat this with the respect that it kind of deserves and also encourage each other and give the high fives and lift each other up so that when those epic moments, like Derek from Sum 41 walking by, literally with one song left and the day's almost over and they're sunburned and they're exhausted, they're gonna be able to rile it up and get the energy to perform and make that happen.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And it's been so incredible for us to witness and be a part of.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, loyal to the craft, you have been an absolute incredible partner for School of Rock for many years.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the magic of it.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: When we find partners like you who see our students for more than just kids playing instruments, for see them for who they truly are, who they're becoming, who they're working towards, and what they represent, and helping us really unlock their full potential.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: These are skills, these are moments that our students carry with them for the rest of their lives.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're learning opportunities, they're growth opportunities.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just so proud to be able to partner with you and loyal to the craft and be able to bring this experience, you know, for our students for hopefully many years to come.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate it.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: We appreciate it so much, and definitely many years of great endeavors and opportunities to come.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: My favorite, one of my favorite moments last year was in Orlando, Florida.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: There was a young rocker with a really bright blue mohawk, and you could tell he had just dyed it.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I asked him and his parents, I was like, hey, like, is this the normal hairdo, or did you do it for warp tour?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, who's your favorite band here?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And literally, you know, School of Rock teaches incredible music.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of, you know, the the oldies music and the the staples that you need to know and you need to learn.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: But what this opportunity at the Vans Warp Tour does, and it hit me so hard last year, is the the kid's parents said he had never heard of any of these bands.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: So not only did he learn how to perform and play most of the songs which were catered to the Vans Warp Tour crowd to get the energy going and have the people passing by stop and watch them perform.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: But he not only learned and did all that, but he found some of his new favorite music.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: He was like, man, I went down the rabbit hole, Sum 41, The Offspring, all of these bands, all-time low, all these bands that are playing Warp Tour, I now love.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we're almost, we're exposing them to all this new music.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so the best thing to keep them on this track of playing is to keep them inspired.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: And for them to go down that rabbit hole and have parents and a supportive community like School of Rock that allows them to do that.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: That just blew me away because I didn't have that as a kid.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: I had to really hunt and find the music that I wanted to.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: And for them to be exposed to this and have it be embedded at such a level that it is because of School of Rock and the Vans Warp Tour, for me, that was the biggest win of the summer for sure.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting, you know, we we recently did a social impact study and, you know, through a third party and discovered when we say more than a music school, we say it with data.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: We know that 80.6% of parents report their child is happier since joining school of rock.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we know that, you know, 96% of parents reports report increased levels of confidence since their child joining school of rock.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: One thing we didn't realize is parents reported in the 90s percent of um improved relationships with their child because their child is learning this music that is nostalgic to the parent and their childhood and memory unlocks for them.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And like you said, they don't know about these bands.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then at School of Rock, we teach it to them.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we teach them about the band and we teach them the music, and then they unlock these new favorite bands that they had never heard of before that maybe wouldn't have heard of.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden they're getting in the car with their parent and saying, you know, can can you put some 41 on?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want to listen to that album.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the parents like, What?
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, like you know who they are?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, tell me about how do you know?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, oh, you know, school of rock.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're learning about it.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really special to see how the parents feel and the memory unlocks that they have and the feeling unlocks.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: We all know music just gives you that feeling that they have watching their child perform this music that just has all these, you know, foundational memories for them too.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's it's really great.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: My my other favorite is that talking, watching the parents and talking to them after seeing their kid perform and having them be taken aback, going, like, I knew my child was good at music and I knew that they had what it takes, but to see their confidence level go from here to here just by playing on this stage, whether there was 50 people or sometimes there was literally a thousand people crowding the tent because the band was just crushing it so much.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: And the parent just seeing their kid in a different light and also understanding okay, this world of the van's warp tour and the in the behind the scenes of the music industry, there's actually a sustainable career path that my kid can be on.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: And thanks to School of Rock and Loyal to the Craft and the Warp Tour team for letting us come and be a part of this, I'm seeing it firsthand, which is so incredible because it's not something that you typically, you know, get to see firsthand.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so the unlock of the parent-student or the parent-child relationship uh is is so special.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I've seen it every time we've done an event with School of Rock, and it is one of my favorite things to witness.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it never gets old.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're 11 years in, it never gets old.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: So awesome.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Stacy, thank you so much for taking the time to come and tell us more about School of Rock and talk about this.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: We cannot wait to kick off 2026 Vans Warp Tour and bring School of Rock back in to perform.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: We know they're gonna crush it and we know they're gonna bring the energy, and uh it's gonna be another great year.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, another great year.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're ready.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: They are ready.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Stacey.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Hope you have a great rest of your day.