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Wearing green earplugs in a rehearsal room at The Groove Shack, instructor John Bridges broke down a musical riff from “Bulls on Parade” for the Tone Deaf Pedestrians, an enthusiastic rock band of energetic kids ages 11 to 16.
"It sounds like there should be an extra note, but it’s weird: Dah-dah-duh-dah. B-A-E-F-sharp," Bridges sang, imitating Rage Against the Machine's musical phrase.
Despite their adolescent ages, the Tone Deaf Pedestrians are becoming veterans of the Space Coast music scene — drawing stares at venues they're typically too young to enter. They won the Battle of The Groove Shack Bands showcase in March at Social Distance in South Patrick Shores, besting 10 fellow student bands.
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They also scored a pair of high-profile springtime gigs — the WFIT Sonic Waves Music Festival and a Space Coast Young Professionals happy hour — at Intracoastal Brewing Co. in Eau Gallie.
Tone Deaf Pedestrians were founded in fall 2020, and Bridges labeled their rapid evolution “incredible.” They rehearse and take lessons at The Groove Shack, a Satellite Beach musical school that is training roughly 300 kids inside a State Road A1A converted medical office building.
“They started having practices at their moms’ house. So it went from being once a week for one hour a week. Now they’re meeting two or three times a week," said Bridges, an adult who sings and plays guitar with Brevard County bands Zeddemore, Tank Top, Smashing Pixies and the Bradley Rodriguez Band.
"They’ll come in, and I’d be like, ‘Oh, we’ll have to relearn this whole song.’ It’s like, ‘Nope, they’ve already got it,' " Bridges said.
Brock Wollard, who founded and owns The Groove Shack, played drums as a youth in the Stone Middle School jazz band. A former history teacher at Heritage High, he launched the melodious business in September 2017 inside a 10-by-20-foot storage unit off Tomahawk Drive in Indian Harbour Beach.
"So our original Groove Shack was literally an actual shack. It was a 200-square-foot, one-room unit," Wollard recalled.
Today, the Groove Shack's Satellite Beach home measures 5,000 square feet with an array of lesson and rehearsal rooms.
“We come from very humble beginnings. There's no major funding whatsoever. I literally just scaled this myself, all my own money, everything," Wollard said.
"We started small. We built this up. And we're teaching kids literally how to play in bands. And now, these bands are taking over the county and you can see them out and around," he said.
"We're creating the next wave of bands that will be featured in Brevard Live and the Space Coast Music Festival. You can catch our kids all around town now, which is really, really cool,” he said.
In recent years, Groove Shack has hosted Melbourne multi-act concerts including “Grunge Shack: Celebrating the Music of the ‘90s” at the former Open Mike’s Coffee Lounge, “Groovestock ‘21” at Iron Oak Post, and “Time Warp: A Musical Journey Through the Decades” at Monkey Bar.
The burgeoning Space Coast Music Festival added an entire Groove Shack stage in November, providing a prominent platform for young musicians before thousands of people in downtown Eau Gallie.
The Groove Shack stage featured jazz bands from Kennedy Middle School and a trio of Brevard County high schools: Viera, Melbourne and Eau Gallie.
And Groove Shack-groomed bands hit the stage: Tomorrow’s Reign, The Groove Kids, Critical Condition, Tone Deaf Pedestrians and headliner Nilah Lois.
“They were very popular. They actually drew a large crowd. And it really set an amazing tone for the festival,” said co-organizer Steven Spencer, who sings in the punk-metal band Sixty Foot Giant.
“This is the next generation. Where you start? You start in your garage band. And the great thing about The Groove Shack is, they're providing that garage-band opportunity for these kids,” Spencer said.
Members of Tone Deaf Pedestrians are drummer Harper Millband, a West Shore Jr./Sr. High eighth grader; guitarist Jake Hodges, a Delaura Elementary eighth grader; keyboardist Ryder Criddle, an Indialantic Elementary sixth grader; and bassist Gavin Chapman, a Viera High junior. He is the grandson of the late UFO guitarist Paul Chapman, who taught lessons at Guitar Haven and Florida Discount Music in Melbourne.
Another band on the rise: The Groove Kids. They followed June gigs at the Cocoa Village Concours car show and AMVETS Post 893 in Rockledge with a July 1 show at Rubix Cafe in Melbourne, opening for Deserted Will and Sandman Sleeps.
Then there's singer/songwriter Nilah Lois, who headlined the Groove Shack stage at the Space Coast Music Festival. During a recent session at the school, she coached vocals for Eve Looby, 14, a West Shore Jr./Sr. High sophomore who practiced singing “Thank You For the Venom” by My Chemical Romance and “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey.
"(Nilah) started with us when she was 12 years old. And we produced her first EP by the time she was 13. She's 15 now, and now she actually works here," Wollard said.
"So not only does Nilah take lessons here, but she's also teaching here. And that's kind of the new model I want to move forward — kids who grew up at The Groove Shack eventually start teaching at The Groove Shack, even before they move away to go to college," he said.
Lois performed during this week's Vibe Tribe Thursday music-art session at Pineapples in Eau Gallie. She'll take the stage July 15 at Iron Oak Post in Melbourne.
"My goals would just be to tour the world, playing everywhere," Lois said, holding a Les Paul and sitting on a piano bench inside a practice room at The Groove Shack.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1
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