Photo by Chi Zhang.

Rock Academy is a school holiday program that helps develop the skills of teen musicians. Forming bands, they are given guidance by some of Australia’s leading professional musicians, though not a class-based program; they spend all their time rocking at one of Australia’s premier studios: Bakehouse Studios in Richmond. This year, Rock Academy bands are preparing cover songs and co-writing original songs to be performed in front of family and friends at a final performance at MPavilion 2018. They definitely get loud!

During the week-long program, Rock Academy students participate in a songwriting workshop and instrument workshops with specialist mentors. Mentors that have participated are among the cream of the crop of Australia’s musicians and include Phil Ceberano, Ash Davies, Nikki Nicholls (John Farnham, Kylie Minogue), Karina Utomo (High Tension), Kav Temperley (Eskimo Joe), Justin Burford (End Of Fashion, Coco Blu), Finbar O’Hanlon (Jump Inc), Jimi Hocking (The Angels, Screaming Jets), Nick Barker, Ecca Vandal, Glenn Reither (Icehouse), Kate Ceberano and Monique Brumby, Cam MacKenzie (Mark Seymour & The Undertow), Ladyhood and Laura Davidson (AC/DShe, Bjorn Again), Dallas Frasca, Andy Sylvio (Pete Murray) and Aimee Francis.