‘Screaming and Growling Takes a Toll on my Voice’

Currently active in at least five different bands in the Southern California punk scene, Riley Ponce would be hard pressed to place any one project above the others – to him, they’re all important.

“I’m kinda in multiple projects right now. One is in the SoCal skramz scene and the other is SoCal grindcore. It’s totally different worlds,” the easygoing 21-year-old explains before rattling off several names: “Polio, Pacemaker, Badgegrabber…”

But Riley has long been a musical multitasker ever since enrolling at the School of Rock in Oceanside, California, just north of San Diego, almost a decade ago. Now a SoR graduate, he looks back at his time there as the beginning of a path leading him to his current abundance of bands.

“Drums and vocals were my two things at the School for seven seasons or so,” he says. “But I eventually added guitar, too. That’s my main instrument now, and I also sing in three of my bands.”

Of course, unlike traditional music instruction, School of Rock’s performance-based approach gets students onstage fast. Alongside individual vocal and instrument lessons, students form bands to craft themed concerts each fall and spring. And playing as a group means there’s even more incentive to improve quickly as those shows – held in local music venues – become something important to work towards.

I’ve seen this effect firsthand with my own son, Isaac, who recently started taking drum lessons at School of Rock. At first, he wanted to stick with just individual instruction. But soon after he joined a Rock 101 group lesson and was given two songs to perform at his first ever concert in January, there was no looking back.

“I was a little nervous at first, but then it was a lot of fun!” he said immediately after his debut show at The Get Down, a club in Portland, Oregon.

That buildup to a season show and the positive feedback it provides has been crucial to his individual progress, according to his teacher Ragon Linde.

“It makes a huge impact,” explains Ragon, who plays in several bands when not teaching vocals, guitar, bass, and drums. “We take a song-centric approach that really lets students make a connection to the music.”

He emphasizes that students gain valuable real-world experience from those group sessions: “We encourage them to develop a skillset they can take wherever they go: working towards a goal, collaborating with others.”

Isaac’s exposure to other kids playing other instruments is also clearly rubbing off – he recently set up an old keyboard at home and started checking out YouTube videos – so he may soon follow Riley’s multi-instrumentalist path at School of Rock.

After joining the School of Rock House Band, where the most advanced students play, Riley even signed up for two seasonal shows at the same time: “It was freaking me out a bit. But it was more of a fun stress.”

His dad Mario, who works as a market development specialist at Shure, admits to being awed after seeing everything else Riley was doing. “He also subbed for kids that didn’t show up,” Mario says. “He would just run out and listen to the song and come back in and play it.”

Though Riley occasionally took on a lot at times, he now feels he can handle anything that might come his way while performing in multiple bands across several genres. He also believes his vocal training over the year has prepared him well, though sometimes the most extreme aspects of his music can still be a challenge. 

“I’m most comfortable with regular singing,” he explains. “My grindcore band Polio is straight up screaming and growling. That takes a bit more of a toll on my voice.”

His music does, however, impose some unusual demands when it comes to vocal microphones: “My absolute favorite right now the SM57, because I can fit the whole thing in my mouth.”

Fortunately, his father works where there’s a fresh supply of snackable gear.