A rock band with an eclectic repertoire, they play everything from Duran Duran to Warren Zevon.Īnother adult group, Controlled Chaos, is made up of a pharmaceutical company director, a few WVU hospital employees, and a federal prison health services employee. One of the house bands, Noodles and the Soup, is made up of two WVU law professors, an educational science professor, and a financial advisor. “A kid doesn’t have to worry about getting dressed up in something they don’t want to wear and playing something they don’t want to play.” Runnin’ down a dream “It’s really cool working toward something they love,” says Stealey’s dad, Bryan. Now the band is looking to add more original material to its setlists, record a full-length album, and start growing its audience. Russell even connected the girls with a new drummer outside the program when their old drummer dropped out. Their debut EP, Miles Away from Home, was recorded at PopShop’s recording studio. The music school has helped the band in other ways, too. She’d been writing songs since fourth grade, but now she had a way to give them life.īefore I Sleep started getting gigs through PopShop-not just the regular end-of-term performances, but also at promotional concerts for the school. As the band’s chemistry became evident, Stealey started bringing original material to rehearsal. She moved to her current ensemble after a year, leaving the pop charts behind for a pop-punk sound influenced by bands like Green Day and Blink 182.
At PopShop, she found herself in a band with two other girls, working up Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran covers. She joined the school at age 11 after spending a year in her bedroom with a guitar and a chord chart. “I have no idea where I’d be musically without PopShop,” says Annalies Stealey, who sings, plays guitar, and writes songs for Before I Sleep. One student group, Before I Sleep, recently released an EP featuring three original songs.
Russell has watched the bands evolve artistically, growing from cover songs to original material. Parents are buying their kids PA systems. A few have even started gigging around town. Many bands stay together term after term, so some have built their repertoires into full-fledged setlists. And playing as part of an ensemble- even during lessons-provided a kind of instant gratification that one-on-one lessons do not.Īt the end of each term, PopShop hosts a concert at 123 Pleasant Street, giving even the youngest guitar gods a chance to play in an honest-to-goodness rock club.
There was no hiding behind louder, more talented players, as one might in a larger band or orchestra. The ensembles also were small enough that everyone had to do their part. They learned to both stand in the spotlight and step back to support their bandmates. Learning songs as part of a band had several benefits. Each band met for one hour a week so Russell could teach them Top 40 hits and classic rock songs- everyone, all at once. He separated the kids into two bands and assigned each member a different instrument: keyboards, guitars, bass, drums. Russell opened his music school, PopShop, in 2010 with 11 students. But after a few years, he decided to take a different approach to teaching music. That became his full-time gig after the band broke up. Later, while Russell was drumming for the Morgantown-based pop-rock band The Arguments, he found himself back in the classroom teaching private drum lessons.