All I want for Christmas is a license to shred
Credit to Author: Nick Eagland| Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2019 23:39:20 +0000
This winter, DJ Temple hopes B.C. head bangers consider taking up shredding when they’re not too busy sledding.
January is a busy time for music schools, packed with new students and the shiny instruments they found under the Christmas tree. For those into the heavy metal genre, there’s no better place to learn how to play them than at his Temple Music Academy in Abbotsford, Temple says.
“It is the best gift to give someone,” he said.
Temple, 36, founded the metal-centric school in 2017 after his roster of 30 guitar students outgrew his living room. He snagged an affordable lease and set the academy apart from others by focusing on the fastest and heaviest genre of music. Within a month, 45 students were learning to shred on guitar, bass and drums.
“I never expected it to explode in its first 30 days like it did,” Temple said. “It was so ridiculous.”
Temple’s timing was good. Earlier this year, TuneCore, an independent digital distribution, publishing and licensing service, reported that heavy metal was the fastest growing genre in the world in 2018, getting streamed and downloaded 154 per cent more than in 2017, according to Kerrang! magazine.
In 2015, Spotify reported that metal was a dominating genre for the streaming service, holding a spot in the top 10 (and typically top five) most listened to genres in every country included in a study. Metal listeners were also the most loyal streamers by a large margin, according to Vice.
Now, more than 90 students at Temple Music Academy are studying guitar, bass and drums but also “clean” singing, metal screaming, violin and piano. Some lessons are taught by video conference, including those by “extreme vocal” instructor Julian Kersey of The Faceless.
Temple Music Academy owner DJ Temple jams with student Kesler Algra, 9, at the Abbotsford music school. The school specializes in teaching students heavy metal.
“We have plans to expand even more,” said Temple. “We’re not stopping any time soon. This freight train is rolling.”
Temple said his metal passion was forged more than two decades ago when he first heard music by Pantera. He met the band’s guitarist — the late and great “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott — at a concert in 2004, and the next day followed Abbott’s advice to form his band, Without Mercy.
Temple got his guitar chops up and in 2006 started teaching at local music shops.
“Everyone should learn heavy metal because it’s one of the most honest forms of music left,” Temple said. “It’s so raw, it’s so organic, it’s so legit. It requires this high level of musicianship to execute properly.”
Lately, students have been itching to learn “djent” on their 7-string guitars, master double-kick drumming and explore the complex polyrhythms of Messhugah, Tool and Animals as Leaders.
“It’s very odd when a nine-year-old asks you to teach them Tool,” Temple said with a chuckle.
“I guess SpongeBob (SquarePants, the cartoon) had some weird Pantera song in it, so a lot of kids have asked me about Pantera. I don’t understand how those two go together but sure, man, twist my rubber arm — and then the teenagers are getting into the Jeff Loomis sweeping and stuff like that.”
But Temple Music Academy isn’t pure metal. Just this past week, Temple taught some country, reggae, jazz and a show tune, he said.
“Everything, man,” he said.
Dana Algra’s sons Kesler, 9, and Lee, 11, have been students at Temple Music Academy since April. Both boys said they hope to forms bands someday.
“It’s been amazing having them in that school,” Algra said. “The amount they’ve learned and how engaged they are is unlike anything I’ve seen. We’ve tried three different schools and this is the only one that’s really kind of checked all of the boxes of what I’d hope a music school would be.”
Lee, a guitarist, has been learning riffs by Alice In Chains, Tool and Megadeth. Kesler, a drummer fond of “hitting stuff” and “loud noises,” said he’s been learning beats by Twenty One Pilots and Rage Against The Machine.
Both are big fans of the school and how their teachers encourage them to rock out freely.
“All my other drum teachers, they would choose a song, and I wouldn’t get to choose anything that we do,” Kesler added. “I got so bored in class.”
“It’s not as boring as other music places,” Lee said. “I don’t want to be rude about it — not trying to be rude to other places — but it’s not as boring.”