Rock On: Young Musicians Walk in Lennon's Footsteps

It is safe to say that after being a professional athlete or President of the United States, what most teens dream about becoming once they are older is a rock star.

Well, for just one day, that dream became a reality for six lucky members of the ’s Conservatory Rock Band program from Bronxville, Yonkers and Scarsdale, all thanks one very special kind of bus and the vision of a music and rock & roll legend.

That is because on Wednesday morning, in addition to the usual flow of cars bringing students and teachers to the college, the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus also pulled up to campus, inviting Concordia’s six young rockers to take part in an all-day music recording and video session.

The “Lennon Bus,” as its on-board producers and engineers like to call it, is a non-profit state-of-the-art multi-million dollar education tour bus which is on the road 10 months a year all across the country, giving students of all ages and music levels – elementary through college, special needs through Juilliard applicants – the opportunity to write songs and make music videos for free. Once music videos are completed, they are posted on the John Lennon Education Tour Bus official website, as well as on the company’s Facebook and YouTube pages. All in one day’s work.

“In an eight hour day, we will take a group of up to eight students, we will write an original song from scratch, record it, and then make a whole music video for that song,” said Producer and Sound Engineer on the Lennon Bus Ryan L’Esperance. “All in eight hours.”

According to L’Esperance, the Lennon Bus was started a little over 14 years ago, initially as a promotional tool for the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, which is dedicated to providing opportunities for both professional and amateur songwriters around the world. Eventually, the bus’ executive directory pitched the idea of turning it into an touring educational music studio to Yoko Ono – who was married to John Lennon and coincidentally attended in nearby Yonkers – which Ono immediately supported, wanting to put “John’s name and likeness behind it, and spread peace and love.” Next year, for the bus’ 15-year anniversary, the project is going global, and a European bus will be added to the fleet.

In the States, however, and in a time of dwindling budgets and vanishing programs, the mission of the bus and its staff is as clear as ever.

“We’re all out here just trying to give back and give these kids an opportunity that they otherwise wouldn’t have,” said L’Esperance. “There’s budgets being slashed like crazy, and so many programs being cut, we want to reach out and help fill the gap. We’re very happy to be here and work with some extremely kids on the bus today.”

On Wednesday, six members of the Concordia Conservatory’s Rock Band program – Christopher Landy (vocals), Michael Anagnostakis (guitar), Noah Klibonoff (drums), Kevin Flanagan (guitar), Nick Politi (bass and vocals) and Josh Bothwell (bass) – all aged between 13 and 16 years old, were the latest bunch of young musicians to get the all day rock star treatment afforded by the Lennon bus and its crew, something none of them are likely to forget about any time soon.

“This is really my first recording opportunity, so it took some getting used to, doing things over and over again,” said Politi of Scarsdale, 13. “I think it’s going to be a really good experience to work off of when I do more of these in the future.”

This was exactly the idea Executive Director at the Concordia Conservatory of Music & Art Kathleen Suss had in mind when she first went about “booking” the Lennon Bus, which she said materialized in large part thanks to board member at the College Ellen Politi.

“It’s an unbelievable opportunity, especially for a program that is rock band based and trying to grow,” Suss said. “It not only allows them to work on the performances they have already on campus but also the opportunity to work in an international level recording studio right here. It’s quite tremendous.”

The Lennon Bus, which does occasionally get hired as a traveling professional studio, houses the very same equipment used by some of the biggest names in the music industry. Last year, the bus went on tour with the Black Eye Peas, who wrote a number of songs from their new album on it.

As of early afternoon Wednesday, the group’s song-in-progress was titled “New World,” and was characterized by band members as “alternative punk rock” or “alternative classic rock,” and having a kind of “dark humor feel to it." When asked what movie the song would be most analogous to, answers ranged from “a comedic version of Psycho” to “Saw.”

“They are very energetic,” said Hans Tanner, another one of producers and engineers on the Lennon Bus. “It’s been amazing. The song is going to be pretty hard rock. It’s going to make you feel like you kind of popped up and want to go crazy.”

Of course, and in true rock band fashion, minor disagreements between band members surfaced over particular aspects of the song, although nothing big enough to derail the final masterpiece.

“The song is going pretty well,” said Politi. “We’ve had some arguments about it between us, but then again who doesn’t have arguments. In the end it’s definitely going to come out as a great product, and it’s already taken a lot of hard work. I’m really excited to be working on it and to see the finished product.”