Schooled in Rock
Written by Karl Hennen
42 years ago, Alice Cooper celebrated a refusal to return to education at the school year’s end on his rousing, hard rock anthem “School’s Out”. The godfather of shock rock may have felt no reason to step into a classroom again, but what about UH Hilo students dreaming of the stage alongside their academic journey? Is such a thing as musical stardom in tandem with out-of-the-box learning feasible?
Senior Michael Jerry thinks so. The Performing Arts major’s punk opus “Life Lessons” not only debuted to a warm reception on campus last semester— it affirmed for Jerry applied learning experiences at UH Hilo can rock.
Michael Jerry, Rory Silva-Sampaio, and David Gentry perform a song from Jerry’s “Life Lessons”.
Jerry came to the University of Hawaii at Hilo after his then-girlfriend suggested an island campus to continue their higher education. A Long Island native, Jerry had originally attended Molloy College, a private institution in Rockville Centre. After three terms and considering Santa Monica College, Jerry chose the quieter UH Hilo.
“I was tired of the hustle and bustle of city life,” he says. “I guess I wanted to get out of that because personally I was never the rushed kind of person. I’ve always been more laid back so it (Hilo) felt like it worked.”
For Jerry, Hilo was far-removed from restless environments like California, New York, and Oahu. The campus imparted a sense of calm to better focus on his musical endeavors. It also gave him a chance to work with Jackie Pualani Johnson, the former Performing Arts Department chair currently on sabbatical leave.
Performing Arts majors at UH Hilo, whether their concentration is Dance, Drama Performance, or Music, are required to complete a project their senior year. In the fall of 2013, Jerry, penning numbers within his assignment’s parameters, had debated whether to recite them via electric rock instruments, band and orchestral support, or an understated, acoustic rendition.
The last idea would have seen Jerry performing as if around a campfire setting, supplemented by occasional narrations introducing each song. Pitching the project to Johnson, Jerry was surprised at her suggestion to develop the acoustic performances into a full-fledged play.
“I was kind of surprised because I didn’t see it like that,” he says. “But then I rethought it and played with the idea in my head because it was kind of already a small, storytelling play. I wasn’t sure I could do it at first— then I started to do it and thought ‘Okay.’”
Inspired by his long-held passion for contemporary punk groups such as Blink-182, Jerry decided he would fashion his concert-play within that genre. He added bass and drums, raising the project’s intended volume well over eleven. Jerry also enlisted fellow UH Hilo students in his department to add further dynamics to his songs. Among several helpful hands, he cites Rory Silva-Sampaio’s musical theory, chord patterns, and stage work as particularly constructive in rounding out his vision. Silva-Sampaio’s bass-playing and technical collaborations with Jerry, incidentally, counted toward his own Performing Arts senior project.
“I was friends with [Silva-Sampaio] already,” Jerry says of their partnership. “Music-wise we had jammed before some of these songs. It was kind of like a little refresher for him, which was cool. It was fine working with him since I already knew him”.
The act of transforming an intimate, acoustic set into a bustling stage production pushed Jerry out of his comfort zone. It was an exciting challenge for his UH Hilo band-mates too—local musicians more likely to spin Bob Marley than The Clash, Sex Pistols, or Ramones. Playing with students across different musical backgrounds forced the band to become a team, putting aside preferences in style and growing within repertoire to expand what they understood of form.
“Life Lessons”, an autobiographical narrative set to punk music covering life, love, and loss – and, in Jerry’s words, “getting past the past” – opened to positive feedback from a larger-than-expected audience, consisting of students and Performing Arts faculty alike, on March 18, 2014. It also provided Jerry with experiences less raucous classroom lectures alone could not cover.
According to Jerry, his work improved his ability to teach others in a concrete way. A multi-instrumentalist playing music since the 3rd grade, he acknowledges his senior project at UH Hilo for directly involving him with instructing opportunities yielding tangible results. With “Life Lessons”, Jerry became responsible for taking punk rhythms, tempos, chord changes, chord progressions, and key signatures further than concepts to a band less acquainted with the genre.
He also learned field-specific dialogue writing and improved real-life virtues like patience. The skill-set Jerry has acquired from his senior project will touch his professional aspirations, which include music lessons and programs at the elementary school level.
Performing Arts majors at UH Hilo should appreciate how senior projects will allow them similar, hands-on learning opportunities. However, Jerry believes applied learning experiences hinge on the individual’s efforts to work hard autonomously and with others: “It is”, in his words, entirely “what you make of it.”
With chances to rock out and employ applied learning of their own design, crowds of students at the University of Hawaii at Hilo are sure to go wild— with many encores to follow.
Michael Jerry is a senior and Performing Arts major at UH Hilo. Jackie Pualani Johnson, the Performing Arts Department’s former chair, is on sabbatical leave. For more information about senior projects and productions at UH Hilo, please contact Johnson at jpjohnso@hawaii.edu.
